argument to say that the commons during the reign of the
Teutons were elected into Parliament because they are so now, and no man
can show when this custom began, I see not which way it should be an ill
one to say that the commons during the reign of the Teutons constituted
also a distinct house because they do so now, unless any man can show
that they did ever sit in the same house with the lords. Wherefore
to conclude this part, I conceive for these, and other reasons to be
mentioned hereafter, that the Parliament of the Teutons consisted of the
King, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons of the nation,
notwithstanding the style of divers acts of Parliament, which runs,
as that of Magna Charta, in the King's name only, seeing the same was
nevertheless enacted by the King, peers, and commons of the land, as is
testified in those words by a subsequent act.

The monarchy of the Teutons had stood in this posture about 220 years;
when Turbo, Duke of Neustria, making his claim to the crown of one of
their kings that died childless, followed it with successful arms, and,
being possessed of the kingdom, used it as conquered, distributing the
earldoms, thane-lands, bishoprics, and prelacies of the whole realm
among his Neustrians. From this time the earl came to be called comes,
consul, and dux, though consul and dux grew afterward out of use; the
King's thanes came to be called barons, and their lands baronies;
the middle thane holding still of a mesne lord, retained the name of
vavasor.

The earl or comes continued to have the third part of the pleas of the
county paid to him by the sheriff or vice--comes, now a distinct officer
in every county depending upon the King; saving that such earls as had
their counties to their own use were now counts-palatine, and had under
the King regal jurisdiction; insomuch that they constituted their own
sheriffs, granted pardons, and issued writs in their own names; nor did
the King's writ of ordinary justice run in their dominions till a late
statute, whereby much of this privilege was taken away.

For barons they came from henceforth to be in different times of three
kinds: barons by their estates and tenures, barons by writ, and barons
created by letters-patent. From Turbo the first to Adoxus the seventh
king from the Conquest, barons had their denomination from their
possessions and tenures. And these were either spiritual or temporal;
for not only the thanelands, but the