Page:The Public Records and The Constitution.djvu/24

 Writs) which were the foundation of actions in the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, as well as the King's Letters Patent, and Letters or Writs Close. In the reign of King John, enrolments were made in this office of those Letters and of Royal Charters, and somewhat later of treaties with various Powers, which have come down to the present day.

In the Chancery, too, were heard and determined certain matters not sent to the other Courts for trial in the ordinary way. These were not, in the earliest times, decided by the Chancellor alone but with the assistance of some members of the Council, usually including the Justices of the King's Bench and the Common Bench. Out of this procedure was gradually developed the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery as a Court of Equity, and the growth may be traced by a careful study of the records which have been handed down to us.

As soon as the Great King's Court in one sense of the term—that of the Common Council of the Realm—began to take the name of Parliament, an office of that Parliament, for the custody of its records, was the Chancery; and in this way Parliament Rolls and Statute Rolls have come into the Public Record Office.

The word Parliament had not at first the precise meaning which is now attached to it. It was often used to express an assembly in which the Commons had no part, and was often synonymous with the House of Lords. For a great number of purposes, the King sat 'in his Council in his Parliament', as the phrase ran from the time of Edward I to that of Edward III. The meaning was that he sat with the Chancellor, Treasurer, Justices of the two Benches, Barons of the Exchequer, and other experts, in the House of Lords. This really was the Great King's Court, or Common Council of the Realm preparing itself for a vital change; for,