All theſe hold, or are ſuppoſed to hold, certain antient baronies under the king: for William the conqueror thought proper to change the ſpiritual tenure, of frankalmoign or free alms, under which the biſhops held their lands during the Saxon government, into the feodal or Norman tenure by barony; which ſubjected their eſtates to all civil charges and aſſeſſments, from which they were before exempt[1]: and, in right of ſucceſſion to thoſe baronies, which were unalienable from their reſpective dignities, the biſhops and abbots obtained their ſeats in the houſe of lords[2]. But though theſe lords ſpiritual are in the eye of the law a diſtinct eſtate from the lords temporal, and are ſo diſtinguiſhed in moſt of our acts of parliament, yet in practice they are uſually blended together under the one name of the lords; they intermix in their votes; and the majority of ſuch intermixture binds both eſtates. And, from this want of a ſeparate aſſembly and ſeparate negative of the prelates, ſome writers have argued[3] very cogently, that the lords ſpiritual and temporal are now in reality only one eſtate[4]: which is unqueſtionably true in every effectual ſenſe, though the antient diſtinction between them ſtill nominally continues. For if a bill ſhould paſs their houſe, there is no doubt of it’s validity, though every lord ſpiritual ſhould vote againſt it; of which Selden[5], and ſir Edward Coke[6], give many inſtances: as, on the other hand, I preſume it would be equally good, if the lords temporal preſent were inferior to the biſhops in number, and everyone of thoſe temporal lords gave his vote to reject the bill; though this ſir Edward Coke ſeems to doubt of[7].
- ↑ Gilb. Hiſt. Exch. 55. Spelm. W. I. 291.
- ↑ Glanv. 7. 1. Co. Litt. 97. Seld. tit. hon. 2. 5. 19.
- ↑ Whitelocke on Parliam. c. 72. Warburt. Alliance. b. 3. c. 3.
- ↑ Dyer. 60.
- ↑ Baronage, p. 1. c. 6. The act of uniformity, 1 Eliz. c. 2. was paſſed with the diſſent of all the biſhops; (Gibſ. codex. 268.) and therefore the ſtile of lords ſpiritual is omitted throughout the whole.
- ↑ 2 Inſt. 585, 6, 7. See Keilw. 184; where it is holden by the judges, 7 Hen. VIII, that the king may hold a parliament without any ſpiritual lords. This was alſo exemplified in fact in the two firſt parliaments of Charles II; wherein no biſhops were ſummoned, till after the repeal of the ſtat. 16 Car. I. c. 27. by ſtat. 13 Car. II. ſt. 1. c. 2.
- ↑ 4 Inſt. 25.
