first turned their possessions into Baronies and thereby made them Barons of the Kingdom by tenure That all Bishops Abbots Priors and the like that held in chief of the King had their possessions as Baronies and were accordingly to do services and to sit in judgment with the rest of the Barons in all cases but cases of Blood from which they are prohibited by the Canon-Law This Honor of Baronady is of three kinds by Tenure by Creation and by Writ Barons by Tenure are the Barons Spirituall as I said before which are reputed Peers of the Realm and were ever first in nomination and take place on the Prince's right hand in Parliament and have been capable of temporall 〈◊〉 and some of them are accounted Count Palatines in their Jurisdictions And by tenure Temporall which are such as hold their Honor Castle or Mannor as the head of their Barony per Baroniam which is Grand Serjanty By which tenure they ought to be summoned to Parliament See Bracton lib. 5. fol. 351. 357. But he is no Lord of the Parliament untill he be called by Writ to the Parliament These Barons by renure in the time of the Conqueror and after were very numerous and 〈◊〉 his time as I conceive distinguished into Majores Minores and summoned accordingly to Parliament the Majores by immediate Writ from the King the others by generall Writ from the high Sheriff at the King's command But these had also another distinction which was the first were called onely Barons by tenure then and the last Tenants in chief which were after quite excluded the Parliament as Mr. Cambden says in the reign of Henry the third by a Law made that none of the Barons should assemble in Parliament but such as were summoned by speciall Writ from the King And that King Edward the first summoned always those of antient Families that were most wise but omitted their sons after their death if they were not answerable to their parents in understanding But Mr. 〈◊〉 opinion is that not long after the Grand Charter of King John the Law for excluding all Tenants in chief was made From whence came that other dignity of Barons by Writ the King summoning whom he pleased though he were but a private Gentleman or Knight as many Seculars Priors Abbots and Deacons also all which have been fince omitted that held nothing of the King in chief or Grand Tenure This title of Baron by Writ is by some esteemed onely temporary pro termino Parliamenti but that cannot be for the ceremony of his admittance signifies more than a titular or temporary Honor which is this He is first brought by the Garter-King at Arms in his Soveraign Coat to the Lord Chancellor between two of the youngest Barons who bear the Robe of a Baron there he shews his Prescript which the Chancellor reads then congratulates him as a Baron and invests him with those Robes and sends him to take his place Then the Writ is delivered to the Clerk of the Parliament and he by the Garter shewed to the Barons and placed in the House and from thence is this title allowed him as hereditary Since these two sorts of Barons in the time of Richard the second hath another been established which is Barons by Patent and indeed more usuall in our latter times than those by Writ He first created John de Beauchamp Steward of the houshold Baron of Kiderminster to him and his heirs males of his body And this comming afterwards to be the onely way of creation they had commonly creation-mony granted them as Sir Ralph Botiller who had one hundred marks granted him annuity out of the County of Lincoln Some of those Minores have yet remained to our memories as the Barons of the Cinque Ports Barons of the Exchequer c. and some others which are called Barons yet have not the honor such are those that were created by Count Palatines as the Baron of Kinderton and some few others As concerning the descent of this Honor and the extension of it it many times descends to heirs female as when there is no speciall entail on the heirs male yet then no husband of that heir female shall enjoy the style and honor in right of his wife unlesse he have issue by her as it was decreed by Henry the eighth in the case of Mr. Wimbry for the style of the Lord Talboyes Neither shall any honor of Barony by Tenure be conveyed with the 〈◊〉 of any place from whence the title is derived without licence immediate from the King but all such as shall without is absolutely forfeited and stopt and returns again into that great Fount ain of Honor the Crown Now though this dignity be not allowed the Princely distinction of a Coronet yet is he as a Lord of the Parliament reckoned among the Peers of the Realm and priviledged amongst them in all these things as first in all trialls of criminall causes he is not tried by a Jury but a Bench of Peers If for Treason he be indicted and shall stand mute he shall be convicted but not prest but if it be for Felony his standing silent shall not convict him Upon any tryall of Peers the Lords that are to give Verdict are not like a Jury put upon their Oaths but upon their Honor. A Peer of the Realm is not to be Empannelled in any Jury but what concerns the King 's Enquiry Neither are they to be arrested by any Warrant of Justice of Peace either for the peace or good behaviour Neither is he to be put upon his Oath upon any appearance he shall make in Court but his Honor to be esteemed as binding And whereas all Burgesses of the Commons House are sworn to Supremacy the Barons of the Upper-House of Parliament are not with many other priviledges But it is to be noted that by these are onely meant to Lords of the Parliament not to the sons of Dukes Marquesses or Earls during the life of their fathers Nor to any Baron of another Kingdom in this though under the same allegiance who are not triable out of their own Kingdome unlesse they enjoy some honor in this The form of creating a Baron is in this manner The King sitting in state in the Presence-Chamber First the Hetalds by two and two and their Garter Principall King alone proceed bearing in his hand the Patent of creation next to him a Baron bearing the Robes and then the Person to be created followeth betwixt two other Barons Being entred the Chamber of Presence they make their obeysance to the King three times Garter then delivereth the Patent to the Lord Chamberlain of the houshold and he to the King and the King to one of his Principall Secretaries of State who readeth it and at the word Investimus the King putteth on him the Baron's robe so soon as the Patent is read it is to be delivered to the
summoning of the Commons was in the 49. year of Henry the third The style of the Statutes running after this manner The King hath Ordained and Established these Acts underwritten c. First The King willeth and commandeth that c. Signifying the power of enacting to force and penalty was derived from the Volumus of the King not the Vote of the Lords and Commons their consent only making it of more vigour against themselves If it were an Act of Indulgence or relief to the Common-wealth it run thus Our Lord the King of his speciall Grace and for the affection that he bears unto his Prelates Earls and Barons and others of his Realm hath granted that c. And sometimes Our Soveraign Lord the King hath granted and commanded at the Instance of the Nobles of this Realm c. No mention at all being made of the consent of the Lords and Commons Then afterwards thus they run Our Lord the King by the Counsel of his Prelats Earls Barons other great men Nobles of his Kingdom in his Parliament hath Ordained 〈◊〉 c. An. 33. Edward the first 1307. and so along in other Statutes the Commons not at all mentioned in the enacting any Statute but as thus in the beginning of Edward the third At the request of the Commons of this Realm by their Petition made before him and his Councel in the Parliament by the assent of the Prelates Earls and Barons c. Untill the 23. of this Kings reign in a Statute of Labourers I find the Commons not mentioned and then the power of Ordination given to the Statute still by the King as thus It is ordered by our Lord the King by the assent of the Prelates Farls Barons and other great men and all the Commons of the Realm summoned to this Parliament c. And in one Act of the same King the style runs thus The King of his own will without motion of the Great men or Commons hath granted and Ordained in ease of his people c. And then to signifie the Constitution of the Commons in Parliament See the 37. of Edward the third where the Statute runs thus The King at his Parliament c. at the request of the Commons and by the assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls and Barons and other Great men there assembled hath Ordained c. and at the prayer of the Commons c. In which style most of the Statutes run untill Henry the eight And for provision of the choyce of the Commons in a Statute of the 23. of Hen. 6. is set down the form of Writ by which they are summoned where it is also enacted That the Knights of the Shires for Parliament hereafter to be chosen shall be naturall Knights or otherwise such naturall Esquires or Gentlemen of the same County as shall be 〈◊〉 to be Knights And every Knight that is elected ought to be a resident of the place for which he is elected and every man that is an Elector ought to have forty shillings of free-hold within the said County and for the security of it the Sheriffe hath power to put them to an Oath upon the Evangelist and the Election ought to be betwixt the hours of eight and nine in the Forenoon and so of Burgesses The form of the Writ is this Rex Vic' c. Salutem Quia nostri 〈◊〉 pro quibusdam arduis ur gentibus negotiis nos statum defensionem regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernent ' quoddam Parliamentum nostrum Westm. 12. die Novemb. proxim ' futur ' teneri Ordinavimus ibidem 〈◊〉 Magnatibus Proceribus domus regni nostri colloquium habere tractare Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod facta Proclamatione in proximo tuo post receptionem hujus literis nostris tenend ' die loco predicto duos milites gladiis cinctis magis idoneos discret ' Com' praedict ' c. electionem illam in distincte apertè sigillo tuo sub sigillis eorum qui electioni illi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bis in Cancellaria nostra locum certisices 〈◊〉 And still before they came up to the House they signed Indentures to be true and faithfull to their King and Country and the service thereof upon a penalty even to the last long Parliament of eternall infamy And in the third of Queen Elizabeth it was enacted in full Parliament for the safety of the Queen's Majesty her Heirs and Successors and the dignity of the Imperiall Crown of England for the avoiding both of such hurts perills dishonor and inconveniencies as have before time befallen that not only all persons should take the Oath of Supremacy upon divers penalties in that Act specified But also every Knight Citizen and Burgesse of the Parliament should take the said Oath before he entred into the said House or had any voyce there else he should be deemed no Knight Citizen or Burgesse for that Parliament nor have any voyce but shall be to all intents constructions and purposes as if he had never been Returned nor Elected for that Parliament and shall suffer all pains and penalties as if he had presumed to sit in the same without Election Return or Authority And by King James the Oath of Allegiance was added Yet notwithstanding all this limitation upon the Commonalty Parliaments in England were ever esteemed since Magna Charta the greatest liberty of the Subject none else indeed being dreamt of And as it is as great a flower of the Crown to summon Parliaments as foedera bellum indicere to make War and Leagues which is so absolute that it is resolved by all the Judges of the Land that the King may before he is Crowned if by descent the Crown be his right summon a Parliament or within age as was seen in King Henry the sixth who summoned divers Parliaments in his 1 2 3 4 5 6. years of his reign yet was not Crowned till the eighth He being then essentially King without any Ceremony or Act ex post facto and Coronation but a Royall Ornament So the priviledges of Parliament and of the Common-wealth by Parliament are as great for though we thus see the great Prerogative of a King yet many things there are which a King in his own Kingdome cannot do without a Parliament by the Laws by which he hath bound himself as the making any man hereditable or the altering the Common Law or Customs of the Realm though by his absolute authority he may commit any man to Prison during his pleasure Therefore every Parliament-man during the time of the Parliament is priviledged from all disturbance of arrest for debt or the like and the servants of any Parliament man as much as the Kings are And to this Parliament for the further security of the good of the Common-wealth were ever admitted certain Judges of the Land though
Serving-men who had their Lands with this condition that they should serve their Lords on Horseback and so by cuting off a piece of the name as our delight is to speak short this name of Knight remained with us But whence it came that our Country-men should in penning the Laws and all Writings since the Norman Conquest 's time term those Knights in Latin Milites that is Souldiers was transferred unto those that conversing near about the Princes person bare any of the great Offices in the Prince's Court or Train But with us I conceive those were first so called who held any Lands or Inheritances in Fee by this Tenure To serve in the War for those Lands were tearmed Knights Fees and those that elsewhere they named Feuditary that is Tenants in Fee were hete called Milites that is Knights as for example Milites Regis Milites Archiepiscopi Cantuar. Milites Comitis Rogerii Comitis Hugonis c. for that they received those Lands or Mannors of them with this condition to serve them in the Wars and to yield them fealty and homage whereas others who served for pay were simply called Solidarii from whence the word Soldier and Servientes This Title comming to be a reward or degree of Honor is thought to be in imitation of the Equestris Order in Rome to which men were onely advanced for extraordinary virtue and notable merit who onely were admitted to beautifie the Caparizons of their Horses their Armor with Gold from whence they were called Equites aurati In which time all sorts of men were distinguished in their degrees by some garb or habit as some by their clothes some by cutting their hair c. The Roman Knights also were allowed to wear a Chain of Gold and therefore called Torquati from Manlius Torquatus who wore the first obtained by him in a victory in France which is by us yet imitated in the collar of S S. by which it is easily collected that the true institution of it was a reward of Honor and Valour not Sloath and Riches And therefore all men thus ennobled ought either to be deserving by action before or by endeavour and good service after and to be else esteemed unlawfull possessors of that Honor at what rate soever purchased The first account of Ceremonies that we have at the creating a Knight is in the example of King Alfred Knighting his grandson Athelstan and after the continuance of them it seems grew more precise and customary by Feasts giving of Robes Arms Spurs and sometimes Horse and Arms untill our later times produced the new yet usuall Ceremony of a stroak over the shoulder with a Sword with these words Sois Chivaler au nom de Dieu by the King or some by his Commission though the Spur hath lately been observed also Another manner of Creation there hath been also among the Saxons before the Conquest which was by sacred Ceremonies shew'd by one Ingulphus that lived in the time of the Conquest by a solemn Confession a Vigil in the Church receiving of the Sacrament after an offering of the Sword on the Altar and redemption of it then the Bishop Abbot or Priest putting it on him made him a Knight with many prayers called Benedictiones Ensis To this Order or degree of Honor an Infant may be admitted though he be a Ward and then till a late Act of Parliament ordained otherwise his Wardship was free both of person and estate but now their lands are not And there were feudall Laws for and at the making the eldest son of a Lord a Knight as there was also for the marrying of the eldest daughter as in the Charter of King John which was mony raised on the Tenant But any man in the order of Priesthood is debarred the Honor of Knighthood of the Sword Cùm eorum militia sit 〈◊〉 mundum carnem diabolum So Sir John Fern. Though I find that antiently they have been allowed it but not without first laying aside their Spirituall Cures and applying themselves to a Secular life So Matthew Paris Dei natalis Johannem de Gatesden Clericum multis ditatum 〈◊〉 sed omnibus ante expectatum resignatis quia sic oportuit Baltheo cinxit militari And then the persons that gave this Honor were sometimes subjects without any superior authority granted to them as well as Soveraignes though long since it hath been an appropriated priviledge of the Crown Landfrank Archbishop of Canterbury made William the second a Knight in his Fathers life-time But the name of Bacheler added to it seems not to have been till the 33 of 〈◊〉 the third Sir John Fern also tells of Ensignes that anciently were marks of Knighthood as a Ring on the thumb a Chain of Gold and gilt Spurrs All which tokens of his Honor he was as carefully to preserve as a Captain his Banner which according to the rules of Arms then if he once lost basely in the field he was 〈◊〉 of flying any more again till he had regained the same or another from the Enemy To which end it was carefully to be provided that such men as were endowed with this Honor should have these Accomplishments He ought to be faithfull and religious just in his engagements valiant in his enterprises obedient to his Superiors expert in Military affairs watchfull and temperate charitable to the poor free from debauchery not a boaster with his tongue ready to help and defend Ladies especially Widows and Orphans and he ought to be ever in a readinesse with Horse and Arms and to attend the command of his Soveraign in all Wars both Civill and Forrain the neglect where of is a crime as great as to fight against him and merits at the least a shamefull degrading And formerly when the King hath been to make a Knight he sate gloriously in his State arrayed in cloth of Gold of the most precious and costly bodkin-work and crowned with his Crown of Gold and to every Knight he allowed or gave a hundred shillings for his Harnessements c. And Knights in this manner dubbed made this esteem thereof that in it consisted the guerdon of their Virtue and Valour the praise of their House and Family the memoriall of their Stock and Linage and lastly the glory of their Name There are many priviledges belonging to that Dignity and Mr. Selden speaks of a Law that a man was to be punished with the losse of a hand that should strike a Knight yet he sayes he remembers no example of the practise of it which I think is the greater honor to the Dignity as being a shame that any such Law should be the guard of a man so honored with Arms and appropriated to the Sword Against a Knight in the War runneth no prescription The Office of a Coroner in former times being honorable none were capable of it but a Knight By antient Custom none were admitted to the House of
mouths and in the same place many after But as such notorious evils are ever the Ushers of God's infinite judgements it was not far off here for the two Knights imployed in the accusation were one hanged and the other slain in a short time after How the Revenues prospered in the hands of the new possessors I know not or the possessors in the enjoyment of them but I believe like those of Church lands in this Nation And the account of stories and traditions I have seen and heard in particular of it makes me with confidence say Very unfortunately Many of their Territories and Castles in some places were given to an order of Knighthood called the Joannites Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem and particularly in England who were after Knights of Rhodes and lastly of Malta being conferred by Act of Parliament how taken from them I cannot say and in Vienna by order of a great Councel Of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem Rhodes and Malta SOme have been of opinion that this Order was originally from the time of the Holy War an 1099. When by the conduct of one called Peter the Hermit Robert Duke of Normandy Son to William the Conqueror Godfrey Duke of Lorrain and some other Noble persons Jerusalem was 〈◊〉 from the Saracens being called Knights of St. John Baptist and of Jerusalem But it is more certainly related that certain 〈◊〉 Christians going to visit the Holy Sepulchre obtained leave of the Caliph of Egypt to build a little Cottage to live in by it paying a due tribute for their liberty as for their own residence and for the entertaining such as should adventure to joyne with them in their devout life which Monsieur Favin relates to be Neopolitans After this their number so encreased that they built another to entertain women more large and stately and enlarged their Oratory and another for men in the nature of a Colledge or Hospital where they established a Rector or Master and from the great charity among them their religious life and good deeds to Pilgrims they were called brethren Hospitallers of St. John Baptist of Jerusalem And upon the Conquest of the Ciry they had great Franchises granted them and large revenues with liberty to mannage armes and were instituted to be Knights of St. John An. 1164. And for their distinction they wore a black garment with a white ankerd Crosse with eight points but in War they wore a red Coat of Arms with the same white Crosse See the example of the Crosses at the end of this discourse After their successe in the Holy War grew very famous and that they had done very great exploits almost over all Palestine in the year 1308 they wonne the City of Rhodes from the Turks And as valiantly maintained it against them afterwards who four times 〈◊〉 it in vain and the fifth time also was O taman himself repulsed with the losse of 40000 Mahometans But being constantly oppressed and not encouraged with any reliefe from the Christians of other parts after three moneths siege they lost it and ever since have remained in Malta Into this Order no man was admitted but he was first to approve himself a Gentleman before the Rector The Son of a Moore was not to be admitted nor of a Jew or Mahometan though the Son of a Prince and a Christian himselfe and they were sworn to fight for the Christian faith to do Justice defend the oppressed relieve the poor persecute the Mahometans live vertuously and protect Widows and Orphans Of Knights Teutonicks THis order of the Teutonici was founded by an Almain who remaining in Jerusalem after the taking of it gave great and liberal entertainment to all Christians that came to him and in a short time had drawn such a resort that from thence arose a Fraternity that bound themselves under certain Articles and elected a great Master or Governor every man of that association apparelling himself in white with a black crosse pattee voyded with a crosse patonce Which Fraternity afterwards grew a very great Order and purchased a noble fame But Jerufalem being taken by the Turks again they removed and pitcht their settlement in Ptolemaida and that being also taken by the Saracens they retired to Germany and engaging a War against the Prusians they got great victories and having the Emperours Grant for enjoying what by the sword they wonne with expence of some blood they purchased great revenues in Prusia and built many illustrious 〈◊〉 with Churches and some Cathedrals establishing Bishops to them whom they enjoyned to wear the habit of the Order this was about the year 1220. Frederick the second being then Emperor The chief Church appropriate to this Order is Marcenburg The Knights besides their large possessions are Lords of Livonia and they have a Governour which they still call the Great Master Knights of St. Sepulcher THis was antiently an honorable Knighthood but it is since extinguisht and nothing but the memory of it remaining and that inclusively in those of Malta The Ensign of the Order is yet extant amongst them as a relique of antiquity which is a double Crosse 〈◊〉 as it were two conjoyned Gules as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Segar relates But Favin speakes 〈◊〉 as that their Crosse was a Crosse 〈◊〉 in each Canton of the same a small Crosse plain being the same as the armes of the Kings of Jerusalem and from this originall that Godfrey of Bullein gave great goods to 〈◊〉 especially in his last Will and Testament by which also he ordained that himself and the successors Kings of Jerusalem should be buryed in their Cathedrall Church which was joyning to the Sepulchre that their Patriarch should have the Prerogative of crowning them And Baldwin his immediate successor establisht them an Order of Knighthood being before put regular Chanons appointing the Patriarch of Jerusalem their Great Master Thus Favin relates Knights of St. Mary THese were a religious Order erected by certain Gentlemen of 〈◊〉 and Madona for which they obtained a licence of Pope Urban but with mony only calling themselves Knights of St. Mary but were commonly called Cavaleri de Madona and indeed properly enough for whereas they professed to fight against Infidels they lived allwayes at home in peace plenty and ease for which they gained the heroick character of Fratres gaudenti or good-fellow Brethren Their habit was very rich and on it they wore a Crosse like that of St. John of Jerusalem Knights of St. Lazaro THe Knights of St. Lazaro challenge a great antiquity so high as St. Basil They had great possessions and honorable reputation but like the Knights Templars were suddenly eclipsed and had as absolutely been smothered in the Funeral croud of obscured honor had not Pope Pius Quartus a little revived them This Order does own obedience to a great Master also and are engaged to the observance of many Articles especially they are to be of lawful birth and Gentlemen