NATIONAL LIFE 37

very nature of his calling. The monasteries and
other Church institutions had many possessions and
rights. The Church, which was established in the
realm before Parliament, was a very great owner of
land. The authorities of cities, with their trade-
guilds, received the right of trading, or holding
markets, and of levying tolls or municipal taxes.
They received also the right of making their own

KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE.

From a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript.

local laws or bye-laws. These authorities, whether
individuals or corporate bodies, to whom rights and
liberties were granted, had their own officers and
laws controlling their liberties. Besides the King's
peace, there were, therefore, the jurisdictions of
these various rights granted from the supreme royal
authority.

From York there went to the national Parliament
the lord Archbishop of York, the lord Abbot of
St. Mary's Abbey, those nobles who resided in the
city and were Lords Temporal, and the two repre-
sentatives of the commonalty of the city. The body
pf Lords Spiritual was of great importance in the