thor of the Annals of Burton.[323] They preceded, therefore, by a few
years the house of commons; but the introduction of each was founded
upon the same principle. The king required the clergy's money, but
dared not take it without their consent.[324] In the double parliament,
if so we may call it, summoned in the eleventh of Edward I. to meet at
Northampton and York, and divided according to the two ecclesiastical
provinces, the proctors of chapters for each province, but not those of
the diocesan clergy, were summoned through a royal writ addressed to the
archbishops. Upon account of the absence of any deputies from the lower
clergy these assemblies refused to grant a subsidy. The proctors of both
descriptions appear to have been summoned by the praemunientes clause in
the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 28th, and 35th years of the same king; but in some
other parliaments of his reign the praemunientes clause is omitted.[325]
The same irregularity continued under his successor; and the constant
usage of inserting this clause in the bishop's writ is dated from the
twenty-eighth of Edward III.[326]

It is highly probable that Edward I., whose legislative mind was engaged
in modelling the constitution on a comprehensive scheme, designed to
render the clergy an effective branch of parliament, however their
continual resistance may have defeated the accomplishment of this
intention.[327] We find an entry upon the roll of his parliament at
Carlisle, containing a list of all the proctors deputed to it by the
several dioceses of the kingdom. This may be reckoned a clear proof of
their parliamentary attendance during his reign under the praemunientes
clause; since the province of Canterbury could not have been present in
convocation at a city beyond its limits.[328] And indeed, if we were to
found our judgment merely on the language used in these writs, it would
be hard to resist a very strange paradox, that the clergy were not only
one of the three estates of the realm, but as essential a member of the
legislature by their representatives as the commons.[329] They are
summoned in the earliest year extant (23 E. I.) ad tractandum,
ordinandum et faciendum nobiscum, et cum caeteris praelatis, proceribus,
ac aliis incolis regni nostri; in that of the next year, ad ordinandum
de quantitate et modo subsidii; in that of the twenty-eighth, ad
faciendum et consentiendum his, quae tunc de communi consilio ordinari
contigerit. In later times it ran so