The quotations I have produced on the question, Which are _the Three Estates of the Realm_? appear {540} to CANON. EBOR. "quite to support his own positions." I must therefore again ask leave to defend the view which I advanced in Vol. iv., p. 115., and will endeavour, whether it be a right or wrong one, to express my arguments in support of it so definitely and distinctly as not again to leave room for any misapprehension of them. To adopt CANON. EBOR.'s threefold division:-- 1. _The Three Estates of the Realm are the Nobility, the Clergy in Convocation, and the Commons._ In this order they are ranked in the collect I quoted, and in which they are described as "assembled in parliament;" i. e. _en plein parlement_. The following extract plainly bears out my view: "And that this doctrine (viz. that the Clergy are an _extrinsic part_ of Parliament, or an _Estate of the Realm_) was still good, and the language much the same, as low as the Restoration of Charles II., the _Office_ then anew set out for the 5th of November shews, where mention is made of 'the Nobility, Clergy, and Commons of this realm, then assembled in Parliament:' for to say that by 'the Clergy of this realm,' my Lords the Bishops only are intended, were so absurd a gloss, that even Dr. Wake's pen would, I believe, be ashamed of it. And if they were then rightly said to be 'assembled in Parliament,' they may as rightly be said to be so assembled still: and if 'assembled in Parliament,' why not 'a member of Parliament?' to those intents and purposes, I mean, for which they are assembled in it."--Atterbury's _Rights, Powers, and Privileges of Convocation_, 2nd edit., p. 305. The same order is observed in Sir Edward Coke's speech on Garnet's trial:-- "For the persons offended, they were these:--the King ... the Queen ... the noble Prince; ... then the whole royal issue. The Council, _the Nobility_, _the Clergy_; nay, our whole religion itself," &c. And if CANON. EBOR. wishes for a more decisive authority on the matter, he will find it in _An Act for granting Royal Aid unto the King's Majesty_, passed in 1664. 2. _The Convocations of the Clergy_ ARE _a part of the Parliament._ This fact, and its importance, has been generally overlooked or disregarded by writers on Convocation. They have almost uniformly, while endeavouring to substantiate its synodical authority and purely ecclesiastical influence, omitted to point out its position as a part of our parliamentary constitution: the result has been a degree of vagueness and uncertainty on the subject.