Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/42

 times and places and formes shall be appointed for its regliment, and that the vastnesse of its owne bulke may not breed confusion, by vertue of election and representation: a few shall act for many, the wise shall consent for the simple, the vertue of all shall redound to some, and the prudence of some shall redound to all.

To Parker, the kingdom was not the creator of the Parliament; rather the Parliament was the kingdom itself.

The doctrine that there was or could be any difference of interest or opinion between Parliament and the people it represented was almost blasphemy to Parker. “ that great Priviledges [sic],” he said, “of all Priviledges, that unmoveable Basis of all honour and power, whereby the House of Commons claimes the entire rite of all the Gentry and Commonalty of England, has beene attempted to bee shaken & disturbed” from the fact that “the people upon causelesse defamation and unproved accusations have been so prone to withdraw themselves from their representations and yet there can be nothing under heaven, next to renouncing God, which can be more perfidious, and more pernitious in the people then this.”

Parker’s doctrine, ably as it was stated, did not fit the actual conditions of 1642. He was aware that he was ascribing supreme and arbitrary power to the Parliament. His excuse for the ascription