Chap. IX. The HISTORY of the PURITANS. foz . bled, he was declared undoubted king of thefe realms ; to which may T. Charles I. be added, the ftatute of Eliz. cap. 3. where the lords fpiritual and 1645. temporal, and commons, are faid to reprefent the three eftates of this t J realm. It was replied to this, that the bifhops did not fit in the houle as a third fiate, nor as bifhops, but only in right of their baronies annexed to their bifhopricks, 5 Will. I. All the bifhops have baronies except the bifbop of Man, who is as much a bifhop, to all intents and purpofes of jurifdidion and ordination, as the others, but has no place in parliament, betaute he does not hold per integrambaroniam. It mud be admitted, that in ancient times the lords Ipiritual are fometimes mentioned as a third /late of the realm, but it could not be intended by this, that the clergy, much lets the bifhops, were an effential part of the legiflature ; for if fo, it would then follow, that no ad of parliament could be valid without their confent ; whereas divers ads are now in force, from which the whole bench of bifhops have diffented, as the all ofconformity; r Edw. Nailon, VI. and the al! offupremacy, r Eliz. If the major part of thebarons 532, &ç. agree, and the houfc of commons concur, any bill may pats into an alt with the confent of the king, though all the bifhops diffent,. becaufe . their votes are over-ruled by the major part of the peers. In the parlia- Fuller's ap ment of Northampton tinder Henry II. when the bifhops challenged their peat. peerage, they Paid, Non fedemus hic ep/copi fed barones, We fit not here as bifhops, but as barons ; We are barons, andyou are barons here, there- fore we are peers. Nor did king Charles himfelf apprehend the bifhops to be one of the three dates, for in his declaration of Tune 16. 1642. he calls himfelf one, and the lords .fpiritual and temporal, and commons, the other two. In ancient time the prelates were fometimes excluded the parliament, as in 25 king Edw. I. when they would not agree to grant an aid to his majefty in the parliament at Carle; and before that time feveral ads had pafled againft the oppreflions of the clergy., in which the entry in the records frauds thus, the king having confulted with the earls, barons, and other the nobles; or by the affent of the earls, barons, and other lay people ; which (hews the bifhops did not confent, for if they had they would have been fird named, the order of the nobility in all ancient records being prelates, earls, and barons. When the convoca. Rufhhw;._ tion had cited Dr. Stanaifh before them, for (peaking words again! their P. 396 power and privilege, in the 7th of. Henry VIII. it was determined by all the judges of the land, in prefence of the king, that his' majefty , might hold his parliament without calling the bifhops at all. It appear there- fore from hence, that the bifhops never were accounted a thirdfiate of the realm, ilifuch a fenfe.as to make them an effential branch of the legit. laturm;.
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