of the lords summoned may have been called over at the same
time. Such was the case in 1316 when they were dilatory in
arriving, but the regular adoption of the practice may have
been somewhat later. The statute of 1382’ ordered an amerce-
ment to be laid on all who failed to obey the summons, but
both before and after the passing of this act it frequently
happened that lords and commons alike showed themselves
unpunctual. In 1377, for instance, a few lords met in tlɪe
White Chamber and waited until the late hour of noon for
their brethren ; it happened that many had not come to town,
and some sheriffs had not sent in their returns ; the king, who
was kept waiting likewise, postponed the ceremony to the next
day². This sometimes was done day by day for a week³.
When however there was a sufficiently large muster, the names
were called and the cause of summons⁴ declared in a solemn
speech by the chancellor, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
lord chief justice, or by some other great officer of sta'te, at the
command of the king⁵. The speech, of which many specimens
lords, and to report to the king the names of those who had sent none or
only insufficient excuses, ‘ ita quod ipse inde posset percipere quod de-
beret ; ’ Rot. Parl. ɪ. 350. The names of the lords were called over in
1344 for the king to learn who had come and who not; ib. ii. 147. For
the proceedings in 1379, ^see Rot. Parl. iii. 55 ; in 1380 the knights of the
shire, citizens, and burgesses were called byname ; ib. pp. 71, 88 : in 1384
it had become an established practice : ‘ nominatim invocatis prout moris
est ; ’ ib. 184.

* 5 Rich. II. st. 2. c. 4; Statutes, ii. 25; Rot. Parl. iii. 124. No oaths
were taken until I Eliz. ; Prynne, Reg. i. 406.        ² Rot. Parl. iii. ι.

³ See instances in 1340; and almost every year of Richard II; Rot.
Parl. ii. 107, 112, &c.

⁴ The first occasion on which the commons are expressly said to be
present at the ‘ exposition’ of the cause of summons is in 1339 ; Rot. Parl.
ii. x03 ; cf. i. 350. In January 1340 the cause is specially declared to the
commons; Rot. Parl. ii. 107. In March 1340 the cause is declared first
to the lords specially, and then to the lords and commons generally ; ib. p.
112. In July 1340 they are again mentioned as present. In April 1341
the cause is declared to the lords and council, but the commons seem to
have been there ; ib. p. 127.

⁵ In 1275 the chief justice Roger Seton stated the cause of summons ;
Cont. Gerv. ii. 281. In 1316 WilliamInge did it. From 1347 to 1363
the chief justice makes the opening speech ; the chief justice of the
Common Pleas in 1401 ; the archbishop of Canterbury in 1344, 1368,
¹377> ⁱ399> and 1422 ; the chancellor in 1343, 1363 (in English) and
generally after 1368; the bishop of Winchesttr in I-[∣o; the bishop of
Lincoln in 1453 and 1467, the bishop of Rochester in 1472, and the keeper
of the Privy Seal in 1431, supplied the place of the absent chancellor.

have been given in the foregoing pages, usually began with Opening
a text of Scripture or some thesis chosen by the orator himself, sermon?'
and partook more or less of the nature of a sermon ; the appli-
cation of the doctrine came at the close, and generally contained
a statement of the royal difficulties, a demand for supplies, and
a promise of redress for grievances personal or national ; im- Appoint-
mediately after this promise the king appointed receivers and triers,
triers of petitions and the two houses separated. Now and
then a second speech was made to the conjoint assembly a day
or two later by the chancellor or some officer of the household ;
and even a third exposition of the cause of summons was oc-
casionally vouchsafed¹ ; but more frequently they separated on
the first day ; the commons being ordered to withdraw to their Withdrawal
.      ,       „                  _η ,                 ,                               of tħθ com-

regular place ot meeting and choose a speaker, and both estates ɪnons.
being warned that they must get early to work. The morning
hours were very precious; in 1373 the commons were directed
to meet at the hour of prime; in 1376 and 1378 at eight;
in 1397 and 1401 the chancellor fixed ten in the morning for
the meeting in the Painted Chamber; in 1406 the commons
were ordered to meet at eight, the lords an hour later ; in
1413 the commons had to meet at seven and to present their
speaker at eight². The apartment to which the CommonsTheirpiaee
usually withdrew was the Chapterhouse of Westminster Abbey¹ ; tion.

The longest recorded sermon is that of bishop Houghton in 1377; Rot.
Parl. ii. 361 : but Michael de la Pole made quite as long an address in
1383; ib. iii. 149, 150. See Elsynge, Ancient Method of holding Par-
liament, pp. 131 sq. _f

¹ In 1378, at the Parliament of Gloucester, the chancellor on two
different days addressed the whole parliament, and the speaker of the
commons had to repeat the main points of the speech to them ; Rot. Parl.
iii. 35. In 1381 the chancellor made the first statement; a day or two
after, the treasurer repeated it, and a few days later lord Ie Scrope, the
newly appointed chancellor, made a third exposition ; Rot. Parl. iii. 98-100.

² Rot. Part. ii. 316, 321 ; iii. 33, 338 ; iv. 9, 34, 495.

³ The first time that the commons were directed to withdraw to the
Chapterhouse seems to be in 1352, when they were told to elect a com-
mittee to confer with the lords, and the rest to retire to the Chapterhouse
and wait for their companions ; they did not comply with the first direction,
and so the second was superfluous ; Rot. Parl. ii. 237 ; vol. ii. p. 444.
The next time the Chapterhouse is mentioned is in 1376, when the
commons, who had met generally in the meanwhile in the Painted
Chamber (above, p. 440), were ordered to withdraw ‘a lour aunciene
place en la maison du chapitre de Γabbe de Westmostier ; ’ Rot. Parl. ii. p.

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