A Brief Register Calendar Part 1, Introduction
A Brief Register, Kalendar, and Survey of the severall kinds of all Parliamentary Writs; with usefull Observations on them.
THat all Great Councils of State, Parliaments, Synods, Convocations held in England, under the British, Saxon, Danish, Norman, English Kings successively reigning therein, were summoned by their Royal Writs, precepts, and held by their Authority alone, is a Truth irrefragable, which I haveaAntiquity triumphing over Novelty, p. 8. to 109. The 2, & 3. Part of a Seasonable, Historical & Legal Vindication, &c. my Plea for the Lords, and House of Peers. A Breviate of the antient Great Councils and Parliaments of England. elswhere abundantly evidenced by Histories and Records, though all the Writs whereby they were summoned till the reign of King Iohn, be no where extant, being consumed by the all-devouring jawes of time. The Writs of Summons to Parliaments and Great Councils of State, being the Corner-stones whereon they are founded, and best discovering the causes, ends for which they were summoned; instead of that Folio Register of them at large which I once intended to have published, I shall present you only with a Brief Register and Kalendar of some of the antientest and rarest of them, full of excellent variety and delight; and such Observations on and from them, as may best instruct the Readers, rectify the mistakes of some pretended Antiquartes who have written of our English Parliaments, writs of summons to them, and supply their defects, especially concerning the several forms and various kinds of Parliamentary writs, which they have rather touched than handled, being all very maimed and incompleat in this particular.
To avoid Confusion, I shall Marshall these Writs into several Squadrons, according to the quality of the persons to whom they were directed, and that in a Chronological Series, digesting them into distinct Sections, beginning with those issued out to our Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors and Spiritual Lords or Barons of the Realm.