by their canons, the bishops could not assist. But
it can never be conceived that the inferior clergy had any share in this
high judicature. And, upon looking attentively at the words above
printed in italics, it will be evident that the spiritual lords holding
by barony are the only persons designated; whatever may have been meant
by the singular phrase, as applied to them, clerus utriusque provinciae.
Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 348.

[344] Atterbury. p. 346.

[345] 21 R. II. c. 12 Burnet's Hist. of Reformation (vol. ii. p. 47) led
me to this act, which I had overlooked.

[346] Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 582. Atterbury, p. 61.

[347] The ensuing sketch of the jurisdiction exercised by the king's
council has been chiefly derived from Sir Matthew Hale's Treatise of the
Jurisdiction of the Lords' House in Parliament, published by Mr.
Hargrave.

[348] The words "privy council" are said not to be used till after the
reign of Henry VI.; the former style was "ordinary" or "continual
council." But a distinction had always been made, according to the
nature of the business: the great officers of state, or, as we might now
say, the ministers, had no occasion for the presence of judges or any
lawyers in the secret councils of the crown. They become, therefore, a
council of government, though always members of the _consilium
ordinarium_; and, in the former capacity, began to keep formal records
of their proceedings. The acts of this council though, as I have just
said, it bore as yet no distinguishing name, are extant from the year
1386, and for seventy years afterwards are known through the valuable
publication of Sir Harris Nicolas.

[349] Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 84.

[350] Ibid. p. 266.

[351] 25 E. III. stat. 5, c. 4. Probably this fifth statute of the 25th
of Edward III. is the most extensively beneficial act in the whole body
of our laws. It established certainty in treasons, regulated purveyance,
prohibited arbitrary imprisonment and the determination of pleas of
freehold before the council, took away the compulsory finding of
men-at-arms and other troops, confirmed the reasonable aid of the king's
tenants fixed by 3 E. I., and provided that the king's protection should
not hinder civil process or execution.

[352] 28 E. III. c. 3.

[353] 42 E. III. c. 3, and Rot. Parl. vol. ii. p. 295. It is not
surprising that the king's council should have persisted in these
transgressions of their lawful authority, when we find