Clerical as-
sembly in
parliament.
Continuance
of the ‘ praβ-
ɪnunientes ’
clause.
Clergyin
parliament.
462 Constitutional History. [chap.
chief justice of the Common Pleas, Sir William Thirning, who
declared that Richard II had forfeited his right to the crown.
Thirning also opened the parliament of 1401 instead of the
chancellor1.
432. The position of the clerical proctors summoned under
the praemunientes clause has been sometimes regarded as analo-
gous to that of the summoned judges and councillors2. For
this supposition there does not seem to be any warrant. They
were originally summoned to complete the representation of the
spiritual estate, with an especial view to the taxation of spiritual
property3; and in that summons they had standing-ground
from which they might have secured a permanent position in
the legislature. By adhering to their ecclesiastical organisation
in the convocations they lost their opportunity, and, almost as
soon as it was offered them, forfeited their chance of becoming
an active part of parliament. Although, therefore, the kings
continued to summon them to all parliaments, that the pretext
of their absence might not be allowed to vitiate the authority
of parliamentary acts, they, after a short struggle, acquiesced
in the maintenance of convocation as the taxing assembly of the
church. Hence, on the occasions on which the clerical proctors
are known to have attended, their action is insignificant, and
those occasions are very few. We are not told where room was
found for their sessions ; it would most probably be in some
chamber of the abbey, and, if we may argue from the history
of Haxey’s case, in 1397, in close propinquity to the house of
commons. In the year 1547 the lower house of convocation
1 See above, pp. 29, 442.
2 Coke, 4tl1 Inst. p. 4.
s In the proxy given by the clerical estate in parliament to Sir Thomas
Percy in 1397, they describe themselves thus : ‘Nos Thomas Cantuariensis
et Kobertus Eboracensis archiepiscopi ас praelati et clerus Utriusque
provinciae Cantuariensis et Eboracensis, jure ecclesiarum nostraruɪu et
teɪnporalium earundem Iiabentes jus interessendi in singulis parliamentis
domini nostri regis et regni Angliae pro tempore celebrandis, necnon
tractandi et expediendi in eisdem, quantum ad singula in instanti parlia-
mento pro statu et honore domini nostri regis, necnon regaliae suae, ac
quiete, pace et tranquillitate regni judicialiter justificanda, venerabili viro
domino Thomae de Percy militi nostram plenarɪe Committimus potestatem
ita ut singula per ipsum facta in praemissis perpetuis temporibus
habeantur;’ Kot. Pari. iii. 348, 349.
XX.] Clerical Proctors. 463
petitioned the archbishop that, ‘ according to the custom of this
realm and the tenour of the king’s writ,’ ' the clergy of the
lower house of convocation may be adjoined and associate with
the lower house of parliament.’ We have here, possibly, a trace
of a long-forgotten usage ɪ.
433. The questions affecting the personal composition of the Numbersof
house of commons, though more interesting in themselves, de- th⅛e
mand a less detailed description. They chiefly concern thepermanent,
number and distribution of the borough members. The knights
of the shire continue unaltered in number to the close of the
middle ages ; thirty-seven counties return two knights apiece ;
Cheshire and Durham retain their palatine isolation, and Mon-
mouth has not yet become an English shire. Monmouth ac- Lateraddi-
quired the right of sending two knights in 1536 ; Cheshire in tl°ns"
1543; and Durham in 1673 2. The act which gave two
members to Monmouthshire gave one to each of the Welsh
counties. The number of knights in the medieval parliaments
was seventy-four. The northern counties seem to have envied
the immunities of Durham and Cheshire. Tn 1312, 1314, and Attempts to
n evade the
1327, Northumberland, and in 1295 Westmoreland, alleged the duty of
danger of the Scottish borders as a reason for neglecting to send
knights ; they could not afford to pay the wages, and the
knights themselves were employed elsewhere3.
The number of city and borough members fluctuated, but Variation in
showed a decided tendency tσ diminish from the reign of Ed- of borough
ward I to that of HenryVI. The minimum was reached in the members,
reign of Edward III ; and the act of 1382 prevented any furtlɪer
decrease, and all irregularity of attendance. The largest number
of parliamentary boroughs is found in the reign of Edward I.
1 Burnet, Reform, ii. 47, app. p. 117 : see above, vol. ii. p. 514.
2 Stat. 27 Hen. VI, co. 26 and 34; 35 Hen. VIII, co. 13, 26; Stat. 25
Charles II, c. 9.
3 In 1295 the sheriff of Westmoreland writes that his knights cannot
possibly attend, as they are bound under penalty of forfeiture to appear
before the bishop of Durham and the earl Warenne at Emmotbridge two
days before that fixed for the parliament ; Parl. Writs, i. 44. In 1312 the
sheriffof Northumberland says that the state of the border is such that
the men of the county do not care to send knights or burgesses to the
parliament; Prynne, Reg. iii. J65 ; and in 1327 that they are so im-
poverished by the Scots that they cannot pay the wages.