which reaches as far as the Time of Lewis the Younger, being the 37th King, speak not one Word of these Peers in any Place of their Histories; so that till I am better inform’d, I must concur in Opinion with Gervase of Tilbury, who (as Gaguinus says in the Book which he wrote to the Emperor Otho the IVth, de otiis imperialibus) affirms.  That this Institution is first owing to King Arthur of Britain, who ruled some time in Part of France.

For I suppose the Original of that Institution to be this; that as in the Feudal Law such are called, Pares curie beneficiari, i. e. equal Tenants by Homage of the Court, or Clientes [Greek:  omotimoi], Clients of like holding, or Convassilli, Fellow Vassals, who hold their Fiefs and Benefices from one and the same Lord and Patron; and upon that Account are bound to him in Fealty and Obedience:  just so King Arthur having acquired a new Principality, selected twelve great Men, to whom he distributed the several Parts and Satrapies of his Kingdom, whole Assistance and Advice he made use of in the Administration of the Government.  For I cannot approve of their Judgment, who write, that they were called Peers, because they were Pares Regi, the King’s Equals; since their Parity his no Relation to the Regal Dignity, but only to that Authority and Dignity they had agreed should be common among them.  Their Names were these, the Dukes of Burgundy, Normandy, and Aquitain; the Counts of Flanders, Tholouse, and Champagne; the Archbishops of Rheims, Laon, and Langres; the Bishops of Beauvais, Noyon, and Chalons.  And as the Pares Curtis, or Curie, in the Feudal Law, can neither be created, but by the Consent of the Fraternity; nor abdicated, but by Tryal before their Colleagues; nor impeach’d before any other Court of Judicature; so these Peers were not bound by any judgment or Sentence, but that of the Parliament, that is, of this imaginary Council; nor could be elected into the Society, or ejected out of it, but by their Fellows in Collegio.

Now altho’ this Magistracy might owe its Original to a foreign Prince; yet when he was driven out, the succeeding Kings finding it accommodated to their own Ends and Conveniences, (’tis most probable) continued and made use of it.  The first mention I find made of these Peers, was at the Inauguration of Philip the Fair, by whom also (as many affirm) the Six Ecclestastical Peers were first created.