Law such are called, _Pares curie beneficiari_, i. e. _equal
Tenants by Homage of the Court_, or _Clientes [Greek: omotimoi],
Clients of like holding_, or _Convassilli, Fellow Vassals_, who
hold their _Fiefs_ and _Benefices_ from one and the same _Lord_ and
_Patron_; and upon that Account are bound to him in _Fealty_ and
Obedience: just so King _Arthur_ having acquired a new Principality,
selected _twelve great Men_, to whom he distributed the several Parts
and _Satrapies_ of his Kingdom, whole Assistance and Advice he made use
of in the Administration of the Government. For I cannot approve of
their Judgment, who write, that they were called _Peers_, because they
were _Pares Regi_, the _King's Equals_; since their Parity his no
Relation to the _Regal Dignity_, but only to that Authority and Dignity
they had agreed should be common among them. Their Names were these, the
_Dukes of Burgundy, Normandy_, and _Aquitain_; the _Counts_ of
_Flanders, Tholouse_, and _Champagne_; the _Archbishops_ of _Rheims,
Laon_, and _Langres_; the _Bishops_ of _Beauvais, Noyon_, and _Chalons_.
And as the _Pares Curtis_, or _Curie_, in the _Feudal_ Law, can neither
be created, but by the Consent of the Fraternity; nor _abdicated_, but
by Tryal before their Colleagues; nor _impeach'd_ before any other Court
of Judicature; so these _Peers_ were not bound by any judgment or
Sentence, but that of the _Parliament_, that is, of this imaginary
Council; nor could be _elected_ into the _Society_, or _ejected_ out of
it, but by their _Fellows in Collegio_.

Now altho' this Magistracy might owe its Original to a foreign Prince;
yet when he was driven out, the succeeding Kings finding it accommodated
to their own Ends and Conveniences, ('tis most probable) continued and
made use of it. The first mention I find made of these _Peers_, was at
the Inauguration of _Philip the Fair_, by whom also (as many affirm) the
Six _Ecclestastical Peers_ were first created.

But _Budaeus_, an extraordinary Learned Man, calls these _Peers_ by the
Name of _Patritians_; and is of Opinion that they were instituted by one
of our Kings, who was at the same Time _Emperor_ of _Germany_; because,
_Justinian_ says, those _Patres_ were chosen by the _Emperor_, _quasi
Reipub. patronos tutoresque_, as it were _Patrons_ and _Tutors_ of the
Commonwealth. I do not reject this Opinion of that Learned Person; such
a Thing being very agreeable to the Dignity of these _Peers_. For in the
T