the Saxon Chronicle says, That he commanded by letters all bishops, abbots, and thanes to meet him at Gloucester _ad procerum conventum_. Lastly, some affirm these assemblies to have been an imitation of the three estates in Normandy. I am very sensible how much time and pains have been employed by several learned men to search out the original of Parliaments in England, wherein I doubt they have little satisfied others or themselves. I know likewise that to engage in the same enquiry, would neither suit my abilities nor my subject. It may be sufficient for my purpose, if I be able to give some little light into this matter, for the curiosity of those who are less informed. [Footnote 20: Brompton. [D.S.]] [Footnote 21: Polydore Virgil. [D.S.]] The institution of a state or commonwealth out of a mixture of the three forms of government received in the schools, however it be derided as a solecism and absurdity by some late writers on politics, hath been very ancient in the world, and is celebrated by the gravest authors of antiquity. For although the supreme power cannot properly be said to be divided, yet it may be so placed in three several hands, as each to be a check upon the other; or formed into a balance, which is held by him that has the executive power, with the nobility and people in counterpoise in each scale. Thus the kingdom of Media is represented by Xenophon before the reign of Cyrus; so Polybius tells us, the best government is a mixture of the three forms, _regno, optimatium, et populi imperio_: the same was that of Sparta in its primitive institution by Lycurgus, made up of _reges, seniores, et populus_; the like may be asserted of Rome, Carthage, and other states: and the Germans of old fell upon the same model, from whence the Goths their neighbours, with the rest of those northern people, did perhaps borrow it. But an assembly of the three estates is not properly of Gothic institution: for these fierce people, when upon the decline of the Roman Empire they first invaded Europe, and settled so many kingdoms in Italy, Spain, and other parts, were all Heathens; and when a body of them had fixed themselves in a tract of land left desolate by the flight or destruction of the natives, their military government by time and peace became civil; the general was king, his great officers were his nobles and ministers of state, and the common soldiers the body of the people; but these were freemen, and had smaller portions of land assigned them. The remaining natives were all slaves; the nobles were a standing council; and upon affairs of great importance, the freemen were likewise called by their representatives to give their advice. By which it appears, that the Gothic frame of government consisted at first but of two states or assemblies, under the administration of a single person. But after the conversion of these princes and their people to the Christian faith, the Church became endowed with great possessions, as