And for this I will go no further than to the third branch of the uſual and accuſtomed coronation-oath, taken by the former Kings of England, and taken twice by Richard II[1].
“Do you grant that the juſt laws and cuſtoms, which are of the Folks chuſing, ſhall be kept, and do you promiſe that they ſhall be protected, and, to the honour of God, receive affirmance by you, to the utmoſt of your power? The King ſhall anſwer, I grant and promiſe.”
Now I would fain know how a Folkmote can be otherwiſe expreſſed in Latin than by the word Vulgus, which is a collective word: or how the Vulgus or Folk could chuſe laws any otherwiſe than in a Folkmote?
I will not enter into the ſtiff diſpute which exerciſed K. Charles I. and his parliaments for a long time, whether the word was præter tenſe, or future, and whether the word was beſt rendered in the French tranſlations, the laws which the
- ↑ I Hen. IV. membr. 20 inter Decem Scriptores, p. 2746. in theſe words, ſpoken to the King by way of queſtion. Concedis juſtas leges & conſuetudines eſſe tenendas; & promittis per te eſſe protegendas & ad honerem Dei corroborandas quas Vulgus elegerit ſecundum vires tuas? Reſpondebit, Concede & promitto.
