Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/143

Rh threatened him for ſome incompliance of his to turn him out of his biſhoprick: “Sir,” ſays he, “when you take away my mitre, I ſhall put on a headpiece.”

therefore, the annals of, are a valuable piece of antiquity, becauſe they have ſupplied the defect, and have given us both a Latin and French copy of thoſe proviſions. It would be too large, as well as beſide my purpoſe, to ſet them down. In ſhort, whereas by Magna Charta in King ’s time there were twenty five barons (whereof the lord mayor of London was one) appointed to be conſervators of the contents of that charter, with all power to diſtreſs the King, in caſe of grievances, upon notice given, were they not redreſſed within forty days; on the other hand, in this proviſion of Oxford, which ſeems to be the eaſier, as much as prevention of grievances is better than the cure of them, there were twenty four of the greateſt men in England, ordained, twelve by the King himſelf, and twelve by the parliament, to be a vtanding council, without whoſe advice nothing was to be done. Theſe were to have parliaments three times a year, where the barons might come, but the commons were excuſed to ſave charges. No wiſe man will ſay that this was