edition. But
they would not answer for others. Where all were to share in the work,
all ought to share in the counsel. Those whom the duke had gathered
together were not the whole baronage of Normandy. There were other
wise and brave men in the duchy, whose arms were as strong, and whose
counsel would be as sage, as those of the chosen party to whom he
spoke. Let the duke call a larger meeting of all the barons of his
duchy, and lay his designs before them.

The duke hearkened to this advice, and he at once sent forth a summons
for the gathering of a larger Assembly. This is the only time when we
come across any details of the proceedings of a Norman Parliament. And
we at once see how widely the political condition of Normandy differed
from that of England. We see how much further England had advanced, or
more truly, how much further Normandy had gone back, in the path of
political freedom. The Norman Assembly which assembled to discuss the
war against England was a widely different body from the Great Cemor
which had voted for the restoration of Godwine. Godwine had made his
speech before the King and all the people of the land. That people had
met under the canopy of heaven, beneath the walls of the greatest city
of the realm. But in William's Assembly we hear of none but barons.
The old Teutonic constitution had wholly died away from the memories
of the descendants of the men who followed Rolf and Harold Blaatand.
The immemorial democracy had passed away, and the later constitution
of the mediaeval States had not yet arisen. There was no Third Estate,
because the personal right of every freeman to attend had altogether
vanished, while the idea of the representation of particular
privileged towns had not yet been heard of. And if the Third Order was
wanting, the First Order was at least less prominent than it was in
other lands. The wealth of the Church had been already pointed out as
an important element in the duke's ways and means, and both the wealth
and the personal prowess of the Norman clergy were, when the day came,
freely placed at William's disposal. The peculiar tradition of Norman
Assemblies, which shut out the clergy from all share in the national
deliberations, seems now to have been relaxed. It is implied rather
than asserted that the bishops of Normandy were present in the
Assembly which now met; but it is clear that the main stress of the
debates fell on the lay barons, and that the spirit of the Asse