Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	common_a	law_n	matter_n	1,471	5	5.3398	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66820	The high court of justice. Or Cromwells new slaughter-house in England With the authoritie that constituted and ordained it, arraigned, convicted, and condemned; for usurpation, treason, tyrannie, theft, and murder. Being the III. part of the Historie of independencie: written by the same author.; High court of justice	Walker, Clement, 1595-1651.; Andrews, Eusebius, d. 1650.	1651 (1651)	Wing W324D; ESTC R203985	41,776	78

3. To repell an Injury done to your self or to your Ally in league with you The ultimate end of these wicked Endeavours is To establish and cement with the bloud of their Adversaries the Kingdom of the Brambles or Saints already founded in bloud By cutting off all such by their said New Acts of Treason and High Court of Justice as will not bow their Necks to their Iron yoake Which appears more cleerely in an Additionall Act giving farther power to the said High Court dated 27. Aug. 1650. To hear and determine all Misprisions or concealments of Treasons mentioned or contained in any of the said Articles or Acts of Parliaments And to inflict such punishments and award such execution as by the Lawes and Statutes have bin or may be inflicted This Lawe if I miscall it not considering how they have multiplied Treasons by their said 3 New Statutes 14. May 17. July 1649. and 26 March 1650. Whereby bare words without Act are made High Treason Contrarie to those well approved Statutes 25. Ed. III. chap. 2. 1. Hen. IV. chap. 10. 1. Edw. VI chap. 12. I. Mariae chap. 1. Cooke 3. Instit. saith That words may make an Heretique not a Traitor Chap. High Treason And the Scripture denounceth a wo to him That maketh a man an Offender for a word is one of the cruelst and most generally dangerous and entrapping that ever was made For hereby all Relations Husband and Wife Parents and Children Brothers and Sisters Masters and Servants are all injoyned to be informers against and Accusors of one another which is to take upon them the Devils Office and be Accusatores Fratrum for light and vain words spoken onely in Passion or ignorantly or else they fall into the Jawes of this alldevouring Court from whence no more then from Hell there is no Redemption for Misprision of Treason the Penaltie whereof is losse of Libertie and Lands for life and of Goods for ever Who can imagine lesse heerby but that our Statistes intend to raise a yearly revenue by this Court by Forfeitures and Confiscations and to erect an Office of Master of the States Forfeitures like Empsons and Dudleis in Hen. VII time aforesaid And so continue this Court to weede out the Auntient Inhabitants Cananites and Amalechites The said Additional Act 27. Aug. 1650. concludes That the said High Court shall not examine Try or proceed against any Person other then such as shall be first by name appointed by the Parliament or Counsel of State It should seem the Parliament and Counsel of State supply the want of a Grand Enquest and their Appointment is in stead of a Bill of Enditement found and presented As assuredly as The High Inquisition was erected in Spain by Firdinando and Isabella to extirpate the Mahometan Moors And the said Councel of Bloud in the Lowe Countries by the Duke D'Alva to weed out the Lutherans Calvinistes and Anabaptistes So is this High Court set up in England to root out the Royallistes Presbyterians and Levellors and generally all that will not wholly concurre with our Independents in Practise and Opinions As will manifestly appear when their work is don in Scotland which will soon be effected the more zealous Scots being now as ready to sell their Kingdom as they weare formerly to sell their King I Conclude therefore upon the Reasons aforesaid That because the Commissioners or Judges are not sworn to do Justice according to the Lawes And are Parties pre-in-gaged as well as their Masters and Pay-Masters that named them ignorant men and of vild and base professions uncapable of places of Judicature Necessitous Persons and some of them Scandalous and the High Court it self hath neither Law President nor any just Authority for Constituting thereof or the Judges therein And all proceedings before them are directly Contrary to Magna Charta the Statut. 25. Edw. III. chap. 2. The Petition of Right and all other known and Established Laws and the continual Practise of our Nation and in many Points Contrary to the Law of God and the Dictates of Right Reason That these Commissioners are Incompetent Judges Their Court an Extrajudicial Conventicle tending to disinherite disfranchise and enslave all the Free-men of the Nation and all Proceedings before them are void and Coram non Judice See Col Andrews 3. Answers The said High Court of Justice to be a meer bloudy Theater of Murder and Oppression It being against Common Reason and all Laws Divine and Humane That any man should be Judge in his own Cause Neminem posse in sua Causa Judicem esse Is the Rule in Law But this Parliament and Counsell of State know they can not establish and confirm their usurped Tyrannie The Kingdom of the Saints ea●e up the People with Taxes and share Publike Lands Offices and Mony amongst themselves enslave the Nation to their Lawles wills and Pleasures but by cutting off the most able and active men of all opposite Parties by som such expedient as this Arbitrary Lawlesse High Court is The old Legall way by Juries being found by John Lilbourns Triall to be neither sure enough nor speedy enough to do their work A Butcher-Rowe of Judges being easier packed then a Jury who may be challenged So that it fareth with the People of England as with a Traviler fallen into the hands of Theeves First they take away his Purse And then to secure themselves they take away his life So they Robbe him by Providence And then Murder him by Necessity And to bring in their Third Insisting Principle they may alleage They did all this upon Honest Intentions to enrich the Saints and robb the Egiptians With these 3. Principles they Justify all their Villanies Which is an Invention so meerely their own That the Devil must acknowledge They have propagated his Kingdome of Sinne and Death more by their Impudent Justifications then by their Turbulent Actions An Additional Postscript SInce the Conclusion of the Premises hath happened the Trial of that worthy Knight Sr. John Stowell of the County of Sommerset Who having bin often before this Court hath so well defended himself and wiped off all Objections and made such good use of the Articles of the Rendition of Excester that in the Opinion of all men and in despite of their ensnaring Acts for New Treasons he can not be adjudged guilty of any Treason Old or New which was the Summe and Complement of the Charge against him Wherefore the Court put off his Trial for a longer time to hunt for New Crimes and witnesses against him At last came into the Court as a witnes John Ashe notwithstanding he is a Party many waies engaged against him 1. Ashe is a Parliament man in which capacity Sr. John Stowell bore Armes for the King against him 2ly Ashe as a Parliament man is one of the constitutors of this Murderous Court and the Judges thereof and therefore their Creatures who expect rewards from them beare a more awfull respect to his

Charge or Accusation and gave five Months time to the Respondents to make their defence And had he given lesse then five Months time To Instruct Counsell Pen their Answers produce and summon witnesses inquire into the lives conversation of their Accusors his feet had been swift to shed blood Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est But our Inquisitors take whole years to themselves to hunt for Matter of Accusation and hire and engage witnesses against men kept in ignorance and want with close imprisonment and allow not them so many dayes to make their Defence All manner of Accusors and witnesses though apparently suborned and forsworn in the same cause and proofes without exceptions offered to the Court that they are of infamous life and conversation are in this Court the Object of whose desires are blood and Confiscations not Iustice lawfull witnesses such witnesses were the said Bernard and Pits Monsters of man See Sir John Gels case stated Printed about August 1650. To Cite any antient known Laws or Statutes or any other then their own new coined Acts passed by this 8. Part of a House of Commons since they became elect Members chosen by Thomas Pride is to incur the High Indignation of the Court expressed abundantly in their words looks But to put them in minde of the Parliaments many Declarations to maintain the ancient known Laws Liberties and Properties of the people is to scandall the present Government and incur the Censure of that unknown mysterious Crime which knaves call Malignancy The witnesses and Judges being thus irrefragable the first may swear what they will the second may judge what they will since they are left at large and have all things in scrinio pectoris and Book Law must give place to Bench Law The Jurisdiction and Authority of this New unparalelled Court is such a Mistery of iniquity so unscrutable and unquestionable that if a prisoner scruple in the least either it or any of the uncouth proceedings of it it is a Mortall sin to him and he is presently interrupted and affronted both with disdainfull words and looks And told We are satisfied with our Authority that are your Judges so are Thieves upon the High way satisfied with their Authority that rob and murther us by Gods Providence and permission It is upon Gods Authority and the Kingdoms yet what they do is against the will of God revealed in his Scriptures and against the known established Laws Statutes and continual Practise of the Kingdome Which Authority commands you in the name of the People of England to answer them Yet at lest 9. parts of 10. of the people so much abhorre these and other their Practises that every mans mouth speakes against them with bitter curses and reproaches to restrain which they have minted Acts of New Treasons to make men Offenders nay Traitors even for bare words and erected this bloudy illegall Theater The High Court so called for its High Injustice as a Spanish Inquisition over them every mans hand would be about their ears did they not keep an Army of Janisaries to suppresse them Their Authority they do avow to the whole World that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied therewith You see here a Whip and a Bell provided to keep the whole Kingdom in aw the declared Supreme power of their Soveraign Lord the people must resign their known Laws to their Trustees their Representatives in parliament and take new Laws from their Arbitrary Votes or wo be to their Necks and Shouldiers I must interrupt you what you do is not agreeable to the Proceedings of any Court of Justice You are about to enter into Argument and dispute concerning the Authority of this Court before whom you appeare as a prisonner you may not dispute the Authority of this Court nor will any Court give way to it you are to submit to it It is not safe to confute a lye told with Authority Yet if a man be Endicted of Treason or Felony in the Court of Common Pleas a man may Demurre to and dispute the Jurisdiction of that Court because it is not in Criminall Causes Competens Forum nor the Judges Compentent Judges every man and every cause must be tried Suo Foro non Alieno 80 if a Peer be Arraigned in the Kings Bench And for this upstart unpresidented High Court it is no Court of Judicature at all as being erected without lawful Authority Consisting of Incompetent Judges no Records belonging to it and tending to disinherit and disfranchise all the People of England and to murder them You may not dispute the Jurisdiction of the Supreme and Highest Authority of England from which there is no Appeal The Votes of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament is the Reason of the Kingdome Oh Brutish irrational Kingdome Where 40. or 50. Anabaptisticall Members the Dregs and Lees of the House of Commons after all the best and sincerest 7. parts of 8. had been racked and purged out at the Bunghole by Cromwell the Brewer and Pride his Drayman shall be called the Reason and Law of the Land This confirms the truth of what King Charls the I. Objected to the Parliament whereof I have formerly spoken That they disposed of the Subjects Lives and Fortunes by their own Votes against the known Laws of the Land But that there should be no Appeal to their declared Soveraign Lord the people from their subordinate Trustees in Parliament is wonderfull Considering that in all Governments The last Appeal is ever to the Highest and most Absolute power But it may be they will be the Peoples Trustees in spight of their Teeth and by the power of the Sword and so free themselves from rendring any account of their Stewardship You may not Demurre to the Jurisdiction of the Court If you do they let you know that they over rule your Demerrer and affirm their own Jurisdiction Reason is not to be he heard against the Highest Jurisdiction the Commons of England make a direct positive Answer either by denying or confessing and put in immediately an issuable Plea Guilty or Not Guilty of the Charge or we will record your Default and contumacy and by an implicite confession take you guilty pro confesso immediately give judgment against you This as I told you before is it that blanches the Deer into the Toile But God deliver us from that Jurisdiction that is too high to hear Reason and that over rules Demurrers before they be heard I have told you as much of the proceedings of this Court as the Novelty Obscurity uncertainty and confusion thereof will give me leave Let me now by way of overplus give you the great dangers and slavery that will be fall all sorts of People if they tamely and cowardly suffer themselves to be deprived of their auticent legal Tryals by Endictment and Juries of the Neighbour hood then which the whole world cannot boast of a more equall

proceeed against Freemen according to Law by a Jury of their Peeres and not otherwise 2. Authorised to proceed to Triall Condemnation and Execution But not restrained to the manner limitative As to Triall by the Opinion of the Court as Triers Nor exclusive As to Triall per pares But is left in the Manner as in the Judgement it self To the Opinion of the major part of 12. and if they shall think fit to try by a Jury it will be no offence against the Act there being no prohibition to the contrary And though this Respondent insisteth upon his said Right consisting with the Courts said power and the more to induce the Court to grant him his said Right He humbly representeth the wrong done to himself and in him to the Freemanzy of England in the following particulars against their just Rights depending upon such Trialls to be allowed or denied 1. Challenges to his Triers peremptory or with cause of Challenge 2. Seeing hearing and Counter-questioning the witnesses for clearing of the Evidence in matter of Fact and Circumstance 3. The being convicted or acquitted by a Full and fully consented verdict To all which benefits as his undoubted Right and the Right of all the Freemen of England the Respondent maketh claim by these Reasons Laws and Presidents following 1. The benefit of Challenges by the learning of Stanford in his Pleas of the Crown Title Challenge fol. 150. To Challenge 35. without Reason shewed and with Reason shewen without Number Adjudged 32. Hen. VI in Poinings case abriged by Fitzherb Tit. Challenge fol. 26. allowed in Hillary 1. Iac. S● Walter Rawley and Brooks 2. To the hearing and questioning the value and weight of the witnesses The Laws are plain in Stanfords pleas of the Crown fol. 163. 164. Stat. 1. and 2. of Phil. and Mary Chap. 10 11. 1 Ed. VI chap. 12. Cookes 3. Institut pag. 12. upon the words in the St. 25. Ed. III. chap. 2. Provablement atteint Because the punishment was heavy the proof must be punctuall and not upon presumptions or Inferences or streins of wit nor upon Arguments simili or Minori ad Majus c. But upon good and clear proofs made good also by the Stat. 1. Ed. c. 6. 19. Ed. c. 1. 3. A verdict by Jury passeth from all or not at all In this way of proceeding by the Court immediatly it passeth by way of concurrence or voting the great fault found with the Star-Chamber and all Commissionary Courts proceeding without presentment or or Enditement 4. A Verdict passeth from a Jury before discharged upon their Affairs of busines or supplies of Nature to prevent corruption by mony or power In this way of Triall a man may be heard to day and a Sentence given at leasure when the power and will of those by whom the Freeman is prosecuted be first known And from such a proceeding this Respondent can hope little equality he being to his knowledge forejudged already by them And therefore if at all this Honourable Court think fit to proceed to a Triall of this Respondent he claims the Benefit of Triall per pares by Evidence viva voce And rests on the Opinion of the Court saving as formerly Liberty of farther Answer if over ruled And prayes that this his Answer and Salvos may be accepted and Registred Eusebius Andrews Vnumquodque conservatur eodem modo quo fit In novum regnum vi armisque partum redigere atque aliis Novis legibus domanere ac guginare Beberum Meteran in anno 1567. Roidan in anno 1566. Iohn Fraunces Petit. Thuanus Petitioning against Innovations in Government and for the knowne Laws made Treason the like the Parliament Practiseth against such as Petitioned for Peace by accommodation And against our High Court of Justice Arbitrary Imprisonments and Taxes We have forfeited our laws by Conquest or else our Grandees would not passe the two Acts for Treason 14 May 17 Iuly 1649. Nor erect the High Court of Iustice and abolish out ancient Laws and Government See Pol. 3. Oct. 1650. and the Case of the Kingdom stated Compare this with the two Acts for New Treasons 14. May 17. July 1549. and the Act 26. March 1650. and Sr. Jo. Gells case stated Our High Court of Iust. exceedes all this See Sr. J. Gells case stated Printed Aug. 1650. In their Tax Rolls they usually set in the Margent to every name private notes of distinction An M. an N or P. The letter M. stands for Malignant he that is so branded is highly taxed and his complaints for redresse slighted N. stands for a Neuter he is more indifferently rated and upon cause shewn may chan●e to be relieved The letter P. signifies a perfect Parliamentarian He is so favourably taxed as he bears an inconsiderable part of the burden and that they may the better consume with Taxes and want all such as do not concurre with them in the height of their villanies The pretended Harliament are now debating to raise the Monethly Tax to 240000. lib or to deprive every man of the third part of his Estate both Reall and Personall for maintenance of their immortall warres and short lived Common-wealth Besides Excise Customes Tonnage and Poundage Freequarter finding Arms and Horses and the sale of Corporation Lands now in agitation Whilest our Grandees enrich all the Banks of Christendome with vast summer raised by publick theft and Rapines See Stat. Recognition 1. Iac. The Oaths of Allegegeance Obededience and Supremacy and all our Law Books This Stat. 25. Ed. III. e. 2. S. Johns against Strafford calls the security of the people And the Stat. 1. Hen 4. chap. 10. Ed. VI Chap. 12. 1. Mariae J. ratify and highly commend They have converted our ancient Monarchy into a Free-State and tell us they are the strate They tell us they have bestowed Liberty upon the People but they and their petty faction onely are the People All the rest of the English Nation are annihilated and reduced to nothing that these fellows may become all things Meere ciphers serving onely to make them of more account And this grosse fallacy must not be disputed against least their New Acts of Parliament call it Treason 1. A Collusive Accommodation 2. An intened Massacre 3. The Engagement 4. The High Court of Iustice See Stat. 5. Ed. VI chap. 11. Cookes 3. Inst. pag. 26. Witnes about 3000. Scottish Prisoners of Warre starved to death at Durham where they eat one another for hunger These were taken at the battle of Dunbar An. 1650. 3. Sept. and many hundred Prisoners have been murdered in Goales with hunger cold nastinesse and contagion after they have been robbed of their Estates and no Crime laid to their Charge This is now become a dayly practise See the Triall of K. Charls I. in the History of Independency 2. Part. p. 19 c. See the Additionel Post script at the Latter end of this Book See Col. Andrews 3 Answers VVhere there is but one witnes It shall be tried by combat before the Earle Martial Cook ibidem 10. Dec. 1650. a New Act passed for establishing an High Court of Justice in Norfolk Suffolk Huntington Cambridge Lincoln and the Isle of Ely c. And so by degrees this gangrene shall enlarge it self all the Kingdom over * They forget the 2. Declarations 9. Febr. 17. March 1648.