Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/316

270 for his ardua contingentia, or contingencies of ſtate: but the difference lay only in this, that the Folkmote of the kalends of May was a parliament de more, and of courſe, who aſſembled themſelves, ſub initio kalendarum Maii, ſays, and were bound to do ſo, ''in capite kal. Maii'', ſay the laws of the confeſſor, cap. xxxv. de greve; (and out of that chapter has Sir extracted his true account of a general Folkmote, which was anniverſary:) whereas, a Wittenagemote or extraordinary parliament or Folkmote was ſummoned at the King’s pleaſure, and was ever at his call both for time and place. Other difference I can find none. For as for the conſtituent parts of a Folkmote, if the princes of the realm, as well biſhops as magiſtrates, and the freemen, cannot denominate a Wittenagemote, I know not where the King will find his wits, or wiſe-men. I have ſpoken to that point already. I have likewiſe ſpoken to the point of the Folkmotes making laws. We find, indeed, the Saxon Kings in the preface to their laws which were made in extraordinary parliaments, decreeing with their wites, ſome at Greatanlage, and at Midwinter, afterwards at Eaxceſter, as King, ſome at Lundenbrig, at the holy Eaſterly tide, as King ; others at Wodeſtock in Mercialand, and others