by them, but what had
been proposed in this matter was without their concurrence (that is, as
I conceive, had been rejected by them), and pray that this statute be
annulled; for it was never their intent to bind themselves or their
descendants to the bishops more than their ancestors had been bound in
times past. The king returned an answer, agreeing to this petition.
Nevertheless the pretended statute was untouched, and remains still
among our laws;[199] unrepealed, except by desuetude, and by inference
from the acts of much later times.

This commendable reluctance of the commons to let the clergy forge
chains for them produced, as there is much appearance, a similar
violation of their legislative rights in the next reign. The statute
against heresy in the second of Henry IV. is not grounded upon any
petition of the commons, but only upon one of the clergy. It is said to
be enacted by consent of the lords, but no notice is taken of the lower
house in the parliament roll, though the statute reciting the petition
asserts the commons to have joined in it.[200] The petition and the
statute are both in Latin, which is unusual in the laws of this time. In
a subsequent petition of the commons this act is styled "the statute
made in the second year of your majesty's reign at the request of the
prelates and clergy of your kingdom;" which affords a presumption that
it had no regular assent of parliament.[201] And the spirit of the
commons during this whole reign being remarkably hostile to the church,
it would have been hardly possible to obtain their consent to so penal a
law against heresy. Several of their petitions seem designed indirectly
to weaken its efficacy.[202]

These infringements of their most essential right were resisted by the
commons in various ways, according to the measure of their power. In the
fifth of Richard II. they request the lords to let them see a certain
ordinance before it is engrossed.[203] At another time they procured
some of their own members, as well as peers, to be present at engrossing
the roll. At length they spoke out unequivocally in a memorable
petition, which, besides its intrinsic importance, is deserving of
notice as the earliest instance in which the house of commons adopted
the English language. I shall present its venerable orthography without
change.

"Oure soverain lord, youre humble and trewe lieges that ben come for the
comune of youre lond bysechyn onto youre rizt riztwesne