Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/176

130 allows the caſe; I ſay, theſe vaſſals, if they had been ſo minded, inſtead of being contented with a charter at Running-Mead, might ſoon have been quite off of K., by reſigning their homage to him. This K. the ſecond’s vaſſals did in manner and form by the mouth of, a judge, in theſe words : “I , in the name of all men of the land of England, and of the whole parliament procurator, reſign to thee, , the homage formerly made to thee, and henceforward I defy thee, and prive thee of all royal power and dignity, and ſhall never hereafter be tendant on thee as King.” This was the ſtanding law long before the time of K. ’s barons; for the parliament in the 10th of  II. ſent the King a ſolemn meſſage, that by an antient ſtatute, they had power to depoſe a King