which is termed in the Rolls their ancient and accustomed
place ; very often however they met in the Refectory, which
was specially assigned for their use by Henry V in 1414 and
x416¹. The Chapterhouse was, until the reign of Edward VI,
their withdrawing-room or place of separate deliberation.
Their communications with the king or lords were held in
the Painted Chamber, in the White Chamber, or in the Little
Hall of the palace. Edward I, in 1297, is found gathering
the knights in his own private chamber to obtain a separate
vote of money²; the Black Prince, in 1372³, assembled the
borough members in his chamber, when he wanted a vote of
tunnage and poundage; and Henry VI, in 1450, after the
impeachment of Suffolk, collected the lords ‘ in his innest
chamber with a Gravill window over a cloister within his palace
of Westminster⁴.’ But these are exceptional cases, and it is
believed that, as a rule, the ordinary place for the session of
the lords was the Chamber of Parliament or White Chamber,
lying immediately south of the Painted Chamber ; and that the
Chapterhouse or Refectory was the recognised chamber of the
commons.

426. At how early a date the two houses separated and
began to deliberate apart is a question of considerable anti-
quarian interest, and was once debated with some acrimony ’.
The point looked at in the fuller light of published records
becomes one of very small importance. If the proper in-
corporation of the three estates in parliament be allowed’, as
it now is, to date from the year 1295, the possible practice
of earlier years becomes unimportant by way of precedent.
That the baronage, whether assembled in parliament or not,
could hold sessions apart from the clergy or the commons, is
a fact as clear as that the clergy could and did meet apart

322 : also in 1377 ; p∙ 363, iɪɪ- 3∙ ɪ¹¹ ɪ395 they were told to assemble in the
Chapterhouse or Refectcryto elect a speaker; p. 329; and they met in
the Refectory in 1397 ; ib. 338.

¹ Rot. ParL iv. 34, 94.                                 ² Vol. ii. p. 14τ.

³ ‘En one chambre pres la Blanche Chambre;’ Rot. Parl. ii. 3τ0.

⁴ Rot. Parl. v. 182.

⁵ See Prynne, Register, i. 233 ; Coke, 4 Inst. p. 4.

from the baronage. On the analogy of the clerical assemblies,
it might seem a natural conclusion that the commons, from the
year 1295, could meet and deliberate alone. But on the other
hand the barons had their own assembly as a great council, and
the clergy theirs in synod and convocation ; the representatives
of the commons had no such collective organisation ; they never
met but as an estate of parliament. The first place in which
the parliament records distinctly notice a separate session is in
the rolls of 1332¹, when the prelates, the lords temporal, and
the knights of the shire are described as deliberating apart.

The deliberations may have taken place in one chamber, in ProbAiiity
Westminster Hall possibly, but it is more probable that each division'¹
body retired io a room of its own. The fact that money was tSarl/in”
voted by the different estates in different proportions might Stheco™-
suggest even a wider distribution ; possibly the prelates and ^mons,
clergy, the lords temporal, the knights of the shire, and the
borough members, may have sat in four companies and in four
chambers. In 1341 the ‘grantz’ and the commons seem to
have definitely assorted themselves in two chambers²; and in
1352 the chapterhouse is regarded as the chamber of the
commons’. The practice, then, of scarcely forty years is all
that is touched by the question before us ; and in the absence
of any authoritative evidence from documents, together with
the proved worthlessness of the modus tenendi parlianιentum,
on which alone the doctrine of the ancient union of the two

¹ The notices which have been given above (vol. ii. p. 393) may be
recapitulated here: in September 1331 the prelates, earls, barons, and
other grantz ‘ Conseilerent pur Ie nɪielz, unieɪnent et chescun par lui
Severalment ; ’ Rot. Parl. ii. 60. In March 1332 the prelates and proctors
of the clergy debated by themselves, the earls, barons, and other grantz
by themselves ; ib. p. 64. In September 1332 the prelates by themselves,
the earls, barons, and other grantz by themselves, and the knights of the
shires by themselves; ib. p. 66: so also in December 1332; p. 67. In
January 1333 a separate section of the lords, probably as the council, sat
apart ; the rest of the lords, and the proctors by themselves ; the knights,
citizens, and burgesses by themselves ; ib. p. 69. In 1339, and ever after,
the division into the two houses seems clear enough.

² ‘ Ad il chargez et priez en chargeante manere les ditz grantz et autres
de la commune, qu’ils se treissent ensemble, et s’avisent entre eux ; c’est
assaver les grantz de par eux, et les chivalers des counteez, citeyns et bur-
geys de par eux;’ Rot. Pari. ii. 127.

³ See above, p. 443, note 3.

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