ferendi reliquit._ _de LL._ 3. 9.]

LET us now consider these constituent parts of the sovereign power, or
parliament, each in a separate view. The king's majesty will be the
subject of the next, and many subsequent chapters, to which we must at
present refer.

THE next in order are the spiritual lords. These consist of two
arch-bishops, and twenty four bishops; and, at the dissolution of
monasteries by Henry VIII, consisted likewise of twenty six mitred
abbots, and two priors[q]: a very considerable body, and in those
times equal in number to the temporal nobility[r]. 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[s]: and, in right of
succession to those baronies, the bishops obtained their seat in the
house of lords[t]. But though these lords spiritual are in the eye of
the law a distinct estate from the lords temporal, and are so
distinguished in all 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. For if a bill should pass their house, there is no doubt
of it's being effectual, though every lord spiritual should vote
against it; of which Selden[u], and sir Edward Coke[w], 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 every one of those temporal lords gave his vote to reject the
bill; though this sir Edward Coke seems to doubt of[x].

[Footnote q: Seld. tit. hon. 2. 5. 27.]

[Footnote r: Co. Litt. 97.]

[Footnote s: Gilb. Hist. Exch. 55. Spelm. W.I. 291.]

[Footnote t: Glanv. 7. 1. Co. Litt. 97. Seld. tit. hon. 2. 5. 19.]

[Footnote u: Baronage. p. 1. c. 6.]

[Footnote w: 2 Inst. 585, 6, 7.]

[Footnote x: 4 Inst. 25.]

THE lords temporal consist of all the peers of the realm (the bishops
not being in strictness held to be such, but merely lords of
parliament[y]) by whatever title of nobility distinguished; dukes,
marquisses, earls, viscounts, or barons; of which dignities we shall
speak more hereafter. S