the right of recording in parliament, unless a new power has been assigned or given them in parliament through the king or the peers of parliament: as when they are assigned, with other members of parliament, to hear and dispose of different petitions and complaints put forth in parliament. And those two clerks are directly subject to the king and to his parliament in common, unless it happens that one or two justices are assigned to them to examine and correct their enrollments. And when peers of parliament have been assigned to hear and examine, apart by themselves, any petitions: then, when they shall have become united and concordant in rendering judgment concerning such petitions, they shall both explain the proceedings that have taken place concerning them, and shall render their judgments in full parliament;—chiefly so that those two clerks may enroll all pleas and all judgments in the principal roll of parliament, and may surrender those same rolls to the treasurer of the king before parliament shall be dismissed; so that those rolls shall, by all means, be in the treasury before the breaking up of parliament; excepting however a transcript therefrom, or a counter-roll, belonging to those same clerks if they wish to have it. Those two clerks, unless they have another office under the king, and hold fiefs from him so that they can live respectably therefrom, shall receive from the king daily one mark, in equal portions, for their expenses. Unless they are at the table of the lord king; in which case they shall receive, besides their meals, a half a mark in equal portions daily, throughout the whole of parliament.
Concerning the Five Clerics.
Likewise the king shall assign five skilled and approved clerks; of whom the first shall minister to, and serve, the bishops; the second, the representatives of the clergy; the third, the counts and barons; the fourth, the knights of the shires; the fifth, the citizens and burgesses. And each of them, unless he be with the king and receive from him such a fee, or such wages, that he can honestly live from them, shall receive from the king daily two shillings. Unless they are at the table of the lord king; in which
