Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/39

 Pageants, and ſomewhat that keeps up the Shew.

But after theſe Early Times, we have ſomewhat in King Edward the Confeſſor’s Laws, which all ſucceeding Kings have been Sworn to, which I will try what to make of. It is an Yearly Folkmote upon the Kalends of May. I do not know readily what that Yearly Folkmote is, becauſe thoſe Laws of Edward the Confeſſor ſay that King Arthur Invented it; Quod Arthurus Rex inclytus Britonum invenit Then I am ſure the Original Name of it was not Folkmote. Then we will mind the Name no more, but come to the Thing.

Sir Henry Spelman in the Learnedeſt Gloſſary that ever was Writ, I will not except Mr. Somner’s, ſays thus under the word Gemotum. “Wittenagemot idem apud Angloſaxones quod apud nos hodie Parliamentum, parumq.; a Folcmoto differebat, niſi quod Hoc Annuum eſſet & e certis plerumq; Cauſis, illud ex Arduis Contingentibus & Legum condendarum gratiâ, ad arbitrium Principis indictum.” A Wittenagemot was the ſame thing amongſt the Engliſh Saxons, as now at this Day a Parliament is amongſt us; and a Wittenagemote differed little from a Folkmote, only that this laſt was Annual, and chiefly ſat about the ſtanding Affairs of the Nation: The other was called, at the King’s