not to proceed in matters concerning his own particular without his being first consulted de Attornato languidi recipiendo to admit an Attorney for one that is sick Writs of Aâ—â—aint against Jurors falsly swearing in their Verdicts Writs de Aâ—sisa continuanda to continue the prâ—â—â—â—dings upon an Assise Audita querela to relieve one that is oppressed by some Judgment Statute or Recognisance Writs de Certioraâ—i de tenâ—re Indictamenti to be certified of the Tenor of an Indictment de Vtlagaria of an Utlary de tenore pedis Finis of the Tenor of the Foot of a Fine mittendo tenorem Assise in Evâ—â—entiam to send the Tenor of a Writ of Assise into the Chancery to be from thence transmitted by a Copy for Evidence into the Court of Exchequer Writs quod Justitiarii procedant ad captionem Assise impowring the Justices of Assise to procede in the taking of an Assise and his Commissions frequently granted in some special cases as Dedimus potestatem impowring the Judges or others to take the acknowledgements of Fines with many other kinds of Commissions a posse Comitatus ad vim Laicam amovendam to remove a force where a Parson or Minister is to be inducted into a Church or Benefice Commissions granted ob lites dirimendas to compose contentious suites of Law where the poverty of one of the parties is not able to endure them and the granting of a priviledge by some of our antient Kings to the Bishop and Citizens of new Sarum or Salisbury that the Iudges of Assize or Itinerants should in their circuits hold the Pleas of the Crown at that Town or City which King Edward the first did by his Writ or Mandates allow or cause to be observed and many more which might be here instanced which with the Laws and practice thereof and the reasonable customes of England do every where and abundantly evidence that the King doth not intrust his Courts of Justice or the Judges thereof with all his Regal power and all that with which he is himself invested in his politique capacity or hath so totally conveyed it unto them as to make them thereby the only dispensers of his justice but that the appeal or dernier ressort from all his Courts of Iustice is and resides in the King being the ultimate supreme Magistrate as from the inferiour Courts of Iustice in the Counties or Cities to the Superiour Courts of Iustice at Westminster-hall from the Court of Common-Pleas by Writ of Error to the Court called the Kings-Bench from that Court to the Parliament And as to some matters of Law fit to be tryed by action at Law from the Chancery unto the Kings-Bench or Courts of Common-Pleas or Exchequer reserving the equity when what was done there shall be returned and certified and even from the Parliament it self when Petitions there nepending could not in regard of their important affairs be dispatched to the high Court of Chancery and that appeals are made to the King in his high Court of Chancery from the Admiralty Court when as the process and proceedings are in the Name and under the Seal of the Lord Admiral and from the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury for proving of Wills and granting of Administration when the Process and proceedings are not in the Kings name but in the name and under the Seal of that Arch-bishop So as the Gentlemen of the long Robe who in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr argued against the Kings Prerogative for the just liberties of the people of England in the case of the Habeas Corpora's when they affirmed the meaning of the Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Edward the first where there was an Exception of such not to be Baylable as were committed by the command of the King or of his Justices to be that the Kings command was to be understood of his commands by his Writs or Courts of justice might have remembred that in former times his Authority by word of mouth or in things done in his presence in matters just and legal not contradicting the established rules customes and courses of his Courts of Justice and the power and authority wherewith our Kings have intrusted them was accompted to be as valid if not more than any thing done in his Courts of Justice witness that notable record and pleading aforesaid betwixt the Prior and Bishop of Durham in the 34 th year of the Reign of that by his own and his Fathers troubles largely experienced King Edward the first which was not long after the making of that Statute concerning such as were to be bayled or not to be bayled where it was said and not denyed to be Law quod Ordinatio meaning an award or something acknowledged in the presence of the King in praesentia Regis facta per ipsum Regem affirmata majorem vini habere debet quam finis in Curia sua coram justitiariis suis levatus that any Ordinance or acknowledgment made in the Kings presence and by him affirmed was to be more credited and to have a greater force then a Fine levied before his Justices in his Courts of Justice which may be a good Foundation and Warrant for several agreements and Covenants made betwixt private persons and ratified by the King under his Great Seal of England by inspeximus and confirmations by his allowance and being witness thereunto as that of Rorger Mortimer Lord of Wigmore with Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford for the Honor and Earldome of Oxfâ—rd and the great Estate and Revenueâ—belonging thereunto forfeited by the said Earl in taking part with the Barons against King Henry the third and many others which might be instanced and are plentifully to be found in many Agreements and Covenants made betwixt Abbots and Priors and their Covents and divers of the English Nobility and great men mentioned in Master Dugdales first and second Tomes or Parts of his Monasticon Anglicanum For it was resolved in Easter Term in the fourth year of the raign of Queen Elizabeth by the then Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas the Lord Chief Baron and Whiddon Browne and Corbet Justices Carus the Queens Serjeant and Gerrard her Attorney General upon a question put unto them by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England that in case of Piracy or other the like crimes the Queen might in the intervals or vacancy of a Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England by a necessity of doing Justice without a Commission granted unto others to do it punish such offenders although the Statute made in the 28th year of the raign of King Henry the 8th Ca. 15th doth direct Piracy to be tryed by Commission And it was allowed to be Law in a Case put by King James that where an Affray or Assault was made by any in the Kings presence the King
or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England being by special privilege Visitor of all the Kings Chappels For the Kings Chappel and the Prelate of the Honourable Order of the Garter Dean and Sub-dean of the Chappel and all other Officers of that religious and excellently ordered Oratory being as a part of the Kings most Honorable Household when the extravagant and superaboundant power of the English Clergy by the Papal influency which had almost overspread and covered the Kingdome assisted many times by the Popes Italian or English Legates a latere such as were Ottobon and some Arch-bishops of Canterbury was in its Zenith or at the highest and sate as Jupiter the false God of the Heathens with his Triâ—â—lce or Thunder-bolts were not nor are at this day although the Doctrine and Rights therein are of no small importance to the Religion and Exercises thereof in the Kingdome subjected to the Visitation of any Bishops or Arch-bishops but of the King who as Sir Edward Coke also acknowledgeth is their only Ordinary And were heretofore so exempt from either the Popes or any Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction as King Johâ— did in the first year of his Raigne grant to Walter Biâ—starr for his service done Serjeantiam in Capella sua scilicet illâ—m quam Martinus de Capella tenuit tempere Henrici Regis patris sui praeterea medietatem Caparum Episcopalium Habendum tenendum de se Heredibus suis cum omnibus ad predictam Serjeantiam pertin the Serjeanty in his Chappel which Martin de Capella held in the time of his Father King Henry And also the Moiety of the Bishops Capes or Copes used therein to have and to hold together with the said Serjeanty of him and his Heirs And when all the Bishops of England which have been Chancellors or Keepers of the great Seal Chief Justices of England or Treasurer as some of them have been might understand that their more immediate service of the King brought them an accession of honour and were then in a threefold capacity First as the Servants and Ministers of the King Secondly as Bishops and Barons the duty whereof King Henry the 3 d. did so well understand as in the 48 th year of his Raigne travelling by Herefordshire into Wales and finding the Bishop of Hereford absent and many of that Clergy not resident he sent his Writ unto him commanding him to take more care of his Clergies residence and threatned otherwise to seize and take into his hands his Temporalties Et omnia quae ad Baroniam ipsius Ecclesiae pertinent and all other things which to the Barony of his Church or Bishoprick belonged And Thirdly as great Officers of Trust and State under him the later being so esteemed to be the worthiest as the Act of Parliament made in the 31 th year of the Raign of King Henry the 8 th how Lords in the Parliament should be placed did especially ordain that if a Bishop hapned to be the Kings Cheif Secretary he should sit and be placed above all other Bishops not having any the great Offices of State and Trust under the King in the said Act of Parliament mentioned and if the chief Secretary of the King were above the degree of a Baron he should sit and be placed above all other Barons being then and there present The Puisney Bishop attending in that high and honourable Court being by antient usage of that Court to pray every morning before the rest of that assembly during the Session of Parliament before they do proceed to any Consultations or business the other Bishops and the Arch-bishop of York who once contended with the Arch-bishop of Canterbury for the primacy taking it to be an honour to Officiate before the King or to be near him so as Edward Arch-bishop of York and Cuthbert Tunstall Bishop of Duresme being sent by King Henry the eight to signifie unto Queen Catherine the sentence of his divorce and they shortly after giving an accompt of her answer did in a joint Letter subscribe themselves Your Highnesses Obedient Subjects Servants and Chaplains and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury for the time being was by the Statutes or Orders of King Henry the eighth made at Eltham in the 17 th year of his Raigne ordered to be always or very often at Court and all the other Bishops aswell as the Arch-bishop believing themselves to be by sundry Obligations bound unto it are not seldome employed by our Kings in their several Diocesses and Jurisdictions as the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Ely and their Successors in their County Palatines and with the Arch-bishops and other Bishops are by the Kings appointment and Election to preach in his Chappel at Court in times of Solemn Festivals and Lent and in the Lord Chamberlaines Letter or Summons thereunto are required to be ready at the several times appointed to perform their service therein one of that antient and necessery order or Hirarchy being the Kings Almoner another the Deâ—n of his Chappel to govern and see good orders obsâ—rved therein the later whereof hath his lodgings in the Kings Courts or Pallace and untill the unhappy remitting of the Royal Pourveyance had his Beâ—che at Court or diet the Bishop of â—â—â—chester and his Successors to be Prelates of the 〈◊〉 another Clark of his Closset as the Bishop 〈◊〉 Oxford lately was to attend upon the King in the place where he sits in his Chappel or Oratory the presence of the Prince and an opportunity aâ—â—rare ejus purpuram to be often in their sight not by any Idolatreus worship but as the civil Law and usage of the Antients have interpreted it by an extraordinary reverence done to him by kneeling and touching the Hem or lower part of his purple or outward Garment and immediately after kissing his hand which was accounted saith Cuiâ—â—ius to be no small favour which the people and all the great men of the Eastern and Western Empires under their Emperors deemed to be a happiness as well as an honour as do the German Bishops Electors in their larger and more Princely Jurisdictions the Arch-bishop of Mente being Chanceller to the Empire for Germany and to have a priviledge to assist at the Coronation of the Emperors by puting the Crown upon his head the Arch-bishop of Cologne for Italy and the Arch-bishop of Tryers for France or rather for the Kingdome of Arles or Burgundy as well as to be Electors of the Emperors and their Successors So as our Laws which if a Bishop be riding upon his way will not enforce him to tarry and examine the ability of a Clark presented unto him though it may require hast and prevent a lapse or other inconvenience but his convenient leisure ought to be attended will allow an Earlâ— in respect of his dignity and the necessity of his attendance upon the King and the Weal Publick to make a Deputy Steward and gives our Nobility
is their dignity service and attendance upon the King and Weal publick more then any supposition of their great Estates sufficient to be distreined which hath founded and continued those just and warrantable liberties and priviledges unto them tam tacito omnium consensu usuque longaevo derived and come down unto us aswell from antiquity the law of Nations and the civil and Imperial laws which were no strangers unto us above 400 years after the comeing of our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus into the flesh or when Papinian the great civil Lawyer sate upon the Tribunal at York seven years together whilst the Emperor Severus kept his Court and was there Resident wherein are only to be found the Original g of many honorable rational and laudable customes of honour and Majesty used not only in England but all the Christian Kingdomes and Provinces of Europe quam Regni Angliae Institutis latisque quae in Juris necessitatemque vigorem jam diu transiit as our common and Municipal laws and Reasonable customes of England necessarily to be observed for if it could be otherwise or grounded only upon their sufficiencies of Estate whereby to be distreined every Rich Man or good Freeholder which differ as much from our Nobility as the Hombre's Rico's rich men without priviledges do in Spain from the Rico's Hombre's dignified and rich men might challenge as great a freedom from arrests especially when our laws do allow an action upon the case against a Sheriff or other which shall make a false Retorne that a Freeholder hath nothing to be distreined when he hath estate sufficient whereby to be summoned or distreined but it neither is nor can be so in the case of our Nobility and Baronage who are in times of Parliament to be protected by their Dignities and the high concernments of Parliamentary affairs from any molâ—station or disturbance by any Writs or Processe either in their Persons or Estates and are by some condiscention and custome in favour to such as may have cause of action against them in the vacancy of Parliaments and when their priviledge of Parliament ceaseth become liable to the Kings Writs or Processe yet not by any Processe of arrest or imprisoning of their persons but by Writs of Summons Pone per vades salvos taking some Pledge or Cattle that they shall appear and Distringes to distrein them by their Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels untill they do appear and answer to the action that which is retorned or levied thereupon being not retorned into the Exchequer or forfeit to the King if they do appear in any reasonable time unto which priviledge of Process the Bishops of England and Wales holding by Barony may justly claim or deserve to be admitted when as the Metropolitans having an Estate for life in their Bishopricks and Baronies ought not to have a Nihil habet retorned against in their several Provinces nor the Suffragan Bishops in their Diocesses nor have their dignities subjected to the violence of Arrests or sordid usage of prisons hindering the execution of their sacred Offices in the Government and daily occasions of the Church of God neither are any of the Baronage or Bishops of England to be distreined in their Journeys per equitaturam by their Horses or Equipage for any Debt or upon any other personal action whilst they have any other Goods or Chattels whereby to be distreined So as if any of the Temporal Baronage of England holding their Earldomes or Baronies in Fee or Fee Tail or for Life should by the prodigality of themselves or their Ancestors or by misfortunes troubles or vicissitudes of times as too many have been since their honors have not been as if rightly understood they ought to be accounted feudall and the Lands thereunto belonging as the lands of the Bishops and spiritual Barons unalienable be reduced to a weak or small Estate in lands or should have none as John afterwards King of England a younger son of King Henry the Second was who untill his father had conferred some honors and lands upon him was called Jean sans terre John without land yet they having a Freehold in their honors and dignities and the Dukes Marquesses Earles and Viscounts of England having at their Creations some support of honor by way of Pension or Annuity yearly paid unto them by the King and his Heirs and Successors annexed thereunto and not to be severed from it The antient Earles having the third peny or part of the Fines and Amercements due to the King out of the Counties of which they were Earles afterwards about the Raigne of King John reduced to 20 Maâ—kes per annum as all the later Earles and Viscounts now have and the Dukes and Marquesses a greater yearly annuity or Creation mony as 40 Marks or 40 l. per an And all the Nobility and Baronage of England having besides a Freehold in their honors and dignities and their houses nobly furnished some of them having above 20 thousand pounds per an lands of Inheritance many above 10 others 7 6 5 4. or 3 thousand pounds per annum lands of Inheritance in Taile or for Life and none unless it be one or two whose misfortunes have brought their Estates for Life or Inheritance something under one thousand pound per annum There can be neither ground or reason for any Sheriff upon any the aforesaid Writs awarded or made against any of them to retorne Quod nihil habet per quod summoniri possiit that he had nothing whereby to be summoned attached or distreined and if that could as it cannot rationally be truly or legally done yet the Judges sworn unto the observance of the laws and to do Justice unto all sorts of people cannot in any of their Courts award or cause Writs or Process of Capias against them to arrest or imprison their bodies upon any action of debt or other personal actions not criminal which makes an impossibility for any of them in civil actions to be outlawed And if they had neither Creation mony nor Lands Goods or Chattels which is neither rationally or probably to be either imagined or beleived yet they are not to be denied those honorable priviledge so antiently and by the laws of nations belonging to their high calling and dignities when as the antient Charters or Creations of Earls those later of some of our Dukes Marquesses Viscounts and Barons having words and clauses amounting to as much do grant them as in that antient one by King Henry the second to Earle Aâ—berick or Albercius de tere of the Earldome of Oxenfordscyre their honors ita libere quiete honorifice sicut aliquis comitum Angliae liberius quetius honorificieutius habet as freely and honorably as any Earl of England held his Earldome as that grant of the same King to William d'Abbiney of the Earldome of Arundell cum omnibus libertatibus liberis consuetudinibus predicto honori pertinentibus
Henry the Eight cap. 13. It was upon Complaint made in Parliament that it was usual in the County Palatine of Chester that upon the suggestion of any Person that was Indebted to any other Person or Persons coming to the Exchequer within the said County Palatine to pay the Kings Rents and Monies and there taking a Corporal Oath that he or they shall pay his or their Creditors at such time as he or they should be able thereunto the Officers of the said Exchequer have used without Warrant to grant out of the said Exchequer a Writ in Nature of a Protection whereby the Creditors were greatly delaid and in manner defrauded to their great Impoverishment It was Enacted that the said Writ of Course without the Warrant of the King His Heirs or Successors containing any such Protection be no more granted any Vsage or Priviledge to the Contrary notwithstanding which gives an Allowance to any that in such a Case shall be granted by the King Warrant By the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws intended to be made by King Edward the sixth by His Commission directed unto thirty two Commissioners as well Lay-men and Doctors of the Civil Law as Bishops and Divines Issued by Direction of an Act of Parliament made in the third year of His Raign Divine Offices may be celebrated in familiis Nobilium quibusque non licet occupatione publica distractis in Communibus Ecclesis versari in the Houses or Families of the Nobility who by Reason of the Kings and Publick Affairs could not so conveniently come unto their Parish Churches And it was not wont to be denied either to be Law or Reason in England that such as Rid post upon the Kings business might if his Horse were tired or for the greater speed in the Kings Affairs Exchange or take any mans Horse whom he met upon the way And therefore when the Houses of Kings and Princes as to their bare Walls and Rooms abstractly considered are so greatly to be honoured respected and distinguished in their Rights and Priviledges from those of the Nobility and Common People and every thing done within that Precinct or Virge being in the Placita Aulae Records or Rolls of the Marshal of the King in the Raigns of King Edward the first and King Edward the third In Trespass and other Actions depending betwixt the Kings Servants or such as might sue there alleaged to be in Presentia Regis in the Kings Presence And the affairs or business of the King whether domestick or Publick being of so great a Concernment to the People and so much to be preferred before any others or that of the Private the Servants certainly who do attend their Soveraign therein may challenge some more then ordinary Priveledges and Respects then others of His Subjects which are not His Servants in Ordinary SECT III. That the Kings Servants in Ordinary are not to be denied a more then Ordinary Priviledge or Respect nor are to be compelled to appear by Arrest or otherwise in any Courts of Justice out of the Kings House without Leave or License of the Lord Chamberlain or other the Officers of the Kings Houshold to whom it appertaineth first had and obtained WHich Prudent Antiquity and more respectfull Ages could never tell how to deny for if we will look into the Records of time which by shewing us the Errors and Successes of former ages and experiments and teaching us how to Judge of the New by the Old are and will be found to be the best Instructors if we believe as we ought the Divine Inspiration and Counsel of the Prophet Jeremy and do but observe the old ways and paths of a better world there will be enough found to justifie it For the book of God will evidence the great Honour and preferments given in the morning of the world unto Joseph that great Pattern of Fidelity and preferment for it by Pharaoh King of Egypt when he set him over his house made him Steward thereof took his Ring off his hand and put upon his Arrayed him in vestures of fine Linnen put a Gold Chaâ—â— about his neck made him to Ride in the second Chariot with a cry before him Bow the Knee And by the Custom of the Nation or Children of Israel from whom the Egyptians are believed to have borrowed some of theirs where the Beams of the Divine Wisdom enlightened their Laws and Customs the Servants of the King or Prince were carefully chosen and merited a more then Ordinary regard which the well meaning Vriah well understood and had no mean opinion of when he ranked David's Servants amongst the no small concernments of that Nation in refusing to go down unto his own house and refresh himself because the Ark of God and Israel and Judah did abide in Tents his Lord Joab the Kings Lieutenant General and the Servants of the King were encamped in open field And we find David so careful of the honor of his Servants or Embassadors as he made the misusage of them by the King and Children of Ammon to be a cause of his War against them and their destruction and was so unwilling till necessity enforced it that his own Subjects should know of the scorns and reproach cast upon them by cutting their Vests or Garments so short as their naked Buttocks might be seen and the shaving off only the half of their beards as he gave them Order to tarry at Jericho until their Beards were grown out When the King of Syria sent his Letters of recommendation by Naaman the Captain of his host and a great man with his Master to recover him of his Leprosie the King despairing to get it effected and not believing that the Prophet Elisha could do it and fearing least the King of Syria might take the not recovering of his Servant as a disrespect unto himself rent his clothes and said unto his Council or those which were neer unto him Consider I pray you and see how he the King of Syria seeketh a quarrel against me All which with the Excellent Order of David's Servants the Magnificence of Solomon's house which was in building thirteen years by some thousands of workmen with his Servants various Offices and Honourable Imployments therein did not a little contribute to their respect The Princes or heads of the Tribes attending upon the King and the Honourable women upon the Queen mentioned in the 45 th Psalm of David And the Honourable opinion which Solomon the wisest of men had of the Service of a King when he said which is Registered amongst his wise sayings or Proverbs That a man diligent in his business should stand before Princes he shall not stand before mean men The Princes that were in the House of Jehoiakim king of Judah recorded in the 36 th Chapter of of the Prophet Jeremiah and of Zedekiah King of Judah in the 38 th and 41 th Chapter of that Prophet and Benaiah one of
servitio suo continuo et quo casu respondebit vel indefensus remanebit et pro convicto habebitur quia per servitium Regis essoniari poterit alibi ubique in infinitum for that he is of the Kings Houshold and continually in his service and in that case must answer or not defending himself will be convicted when as he might otherwise in any other Court or Place have Essoined or excused himself as often as he pleased et servitium Regis nulli debet esse damnosum nec injuriosum being the very words of Bracton beforementioned and the Kings Service ought not to be a wrong or damage unto any And is notwithstanding of opinion that a defendant may be by his Essoin excused ex causâ necessariâ et utili aut causâ reipublicae for a necessary cause or occasion and where the good of the Commonwealth is concerned as surely it must be understood not to be in the safety well being and daily attendance upon the Person of the King as much or very neer the instance or case by him there put Si eat cum Rege in exercitu if he go in the Army with the King as all King Davids Servants did when he marched against his rebellious Son Absolom and as most or very many of the Servants of Kings and Princes do use to be ad patriae defensionem cùm ad hoc teneatur vel per praeceptum Regis when he goeth with the King to War for the defence of his Countrey being obleiged thereunto by the Tenure of his Lands or the Kings Commandement And having said that Pleas of Debt do belong unto the Court of Common Pleas concludes Sunt tamen causae speciales quae alibi terminantur ex permissione Principis per querelam coram senescallo Aulae ut in Scaccario cum causa fuerit Regi necessaria videlicet ne Ministri sui de Scaccario ab obsequio suo continuo quicquam impediantur There are notwithstanding some Causes which by the leave or good pleasure of the Prince are by Plaint to be determined before the Steward of the Houshold as also in the Exchequer when it shall concern the King that his Officers or Servants be not in their Business hindred So as then and for some time after it was not likely that any Inroads should be made upon that just and rational Priviledge of the Kings Servants For howsoever that even in those more frugal and thrifty days some of the Kings Menial and Houshold Servants might not then be so beforehand as it is now termed or so far from being indebted but that some Moneys or Debts might be demanded of them or there might be some occasion of Complaints or Actions to be brought against them Yet there appears not any probability or foundation for it that the Liberties and Priviledges of the Kings Servants were for many years after the twenty eighth year of the Reign of King Edward the First which limited all Actions before the Steward and Marshal of the Kings House to such Contracts and Actions only as were or should be made betwixt one of the Kings Servants with any other of his Servants disturbed or unsecured or that the Kings Servants were for many years after molested or troubled with the severe and disgraceful way of Imprisonments now used when the Chancellors and the Justices of the Kings Bench were by an Act of Parliament in the same year enjoyned to attend the King and his Court and to be there à latere tanquam famulantes always neer him and as Domestiques saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman so that as the words of that Statute are the King might have at all times neer unto him some that be learned in the Laws which be able duely to order all such matters as shall come unto the Court at all times when need shall require Which the Chancellor and in all lâ—kelihood the Chief Justice did not neglect for saith Sir Henry Spelman Such Causes as nulli constitutorum Tribunalium rite competerent ad Palatium seu oraculum Regni were not limited to the determination or judgment of other Tribunals came to the Kings Palace as to the Oracle of the Kingdom and yet then the King was not without his more than one Attorneys or Procurators who were men learned in the Law And King Edward the third was so unwilling that his Servants should be drawn before other Tribunals as by a Statute made in the fifth year of his Reign where it was ordained That in Inquests to be taken in the Kings House before the Steward and Marshal that they should be taken by men of the County thereabouts to avoid it may be partiality and not by men of the Kings House there is an Exception of Contracts Covenants and Trespasses made by men of the Kings House of the one part and the other and that in the same House And the Chancellors of England were in former times so or for the most part Resident in the Kings Court and accounted as a part of his Family as until the making of the Act of Parliament in the 36 year of the Reign of King Edward the Third which did restrain the Pourveyance to the Kings and Queens Houses only and did forbid it to be made for other Lords and Ladies of the Realm the King did use to send his Writs to the Sheriffs of the Counties where they had occasion to make any Pourveyance for the Chancellor his Officers and Clerks some whereof as their Clerici de primâ formâ now called the Masters of Cbancery were ad Robas had and yet have an yearly allowance for their Robes or Liveries commanding them to be assistant to their Pourveyors the Chancery Clerks being in the 18th year of that Kings Reign so accompted to be a part of his Servants and Family as a Complaint or Petition being exhibited in Parliament by all the Clerks of the Chancery That whereas the Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England ought to have cognisance of all Pleas and Trespasses done unto or by any of the Clerks of the Chancery Thomas de Kislingbury Draper of London had forged the best word they would then bestow upon a Writ or Action not commenced as it ought to be by Original Writ issuing out of the Chancery a Bill of Trespass against Gilbert de Chishull one of the Clerks of the Chancery whereby to take away from the King and his Chancellor the Cognisance of the said Action which belonged unto them contre Common Ley de la Terre against the Common Law of the Land did by a Serjeant of the Mace in London arrest and imprison him in the House of John de Aylesham one of the Sheriffs of London and although the King sent a Supersedeas commanding the Plaintiff to surcease his prosecution there and that he prosecute the said Gilbert de Chyshull in Chancery if he have any cause of Action against him the Sheriffs of London
ended in the Cardinals turning to Mr. Welch and saying Well there is no more to do I trow you are one of the Kings Privy Chamber your Name is Mr. Welch I am contented to yield unto you but not unto the Earl without I see his Commission for you are a sufficient Commissioner in this behalf being one of the Kings Privy Chamber And in the 21 year of the Reign of that King such a care was taken to keep not only the Chaplains of the King Queen Prince and Princess or any of the Kings or Queens Children or Sisters but of the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Chamberlain Steward Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings Houshold from any prejudice whilst they attended in their Honourable Housholds and exempt them from the Penalty of Ten Pounds a Month whilst they should not be resident at their Benefices as they did by an especial Exception provide for their Indempnity therein And in the same year and Parliament the Chancellor Treasurer of England and the Lord President of the Kings Council are said to be attendant upon the Kings most Honourable Person And in the 24 year of his Reign some of his Servants having been impannelled and retorned upon Juries he signified his dislike of the same unto the Justices of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas in these words Trusty and Right-well-beloved We greet you well Whereas we understand that all manner of your Officers and Clerks of both our Benches be in such wise priviledged by an ancient Custom that they be always excepted out of all manner of Impannels We considering that the Hedd Officers and Clerks of our Houshold by reason of the daily Business in our Service have been semblably excepted in time passed unto now of late that some of them have been retorned in Impannels otherwise then heretofore hath been accustomed We will and command you That in case any Hedd Officer or Clerk of our Houshold shall hereafter fortune to be put in any Impannel either by the Sheriff of our Còunty of Kent or by any Sheriff of any County within this our Realm for to be retorned before you without our special Commandment in that behalf ye upon knowledge thereof cause him or them so impannelled to be discharged out of the said Impannel and other sufficient Persons to be admitted in their place and that you fail not this to do from time to time as often as the case shall require as ye tender our pleasure Yeoven under our Signet at our Manor of Richmont the fourth day of October in the twenty fourth year of our Reign To our Trusty and Well-beloved the Chief Justices of both our Benches and to all other their fellows Justices of the same In the Act of Parliament made in the twenty fifth year of his Reign against excess of Apparel there was a Proviso That all Officers and Servants waiting and attending upon the King Queen or Princess daily yearly or quarterly in their Housholds or being in their Checque Roll may by the Licence of the King use or wear Apparel on their Bodies Horses Mules c. according to such Licence And not only King Henry the Eighth but his three Estates the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament in the 31 year of his Reign did so much attribute to the Kings Servants in Ordinary and the Honour of their Imployments as to grant by Act of Parliament That the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lord President of the Kings Council Lord Privy Seal the Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Admiral of England Grand Master or Steward of the Kings most Honourable Houshold and Chamberlain should in Parliament Star-Chamber and all other Assemblies which was in no Kings Reign before allowed sit and be pláced above all Dukes except such as should happen to be the Kings Sons Brothers Vncles Nephews or Brothers or Sisters Sons That the Lord Privy Seal should sit atd be placed above the Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Lord Admiral of England Grand Master or Lord Steward and the Kings Chamberlain and that the Kings Chief Secretary if he be of the Degree of a Baron should in Parliament and all other Assemblies sit and be placed before and above all other Barons and if he be a Bishop above all other Bishops not having any of the Offices above-mentioned Precedency amongst the English Nobility being heretofore so highly valued and esteemed as it was not seldom very much insisted upon And so as in the Reign of King Henry the sixth it was earnestly claimed and controverted betwixt John Duke of Norfolk and Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and in divers other Kings Reigns greatly contended for and stickled betwixt some of the Great Nobility The Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the Chamberlain of the Kings House and the Steward thereof as appeareth by their Subscriptions as Witnesses unto sundry Charters of our former and ancient Kings not having been before allowed so great a Precedency as that Act of Parliament gave them or as that high Place Trust and Office of Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England according to the Custom and Usage of former Ages in all or the most of the neighbour Kingdoms and Monarchies have justly merited who in the times of the ancient Emperors of Rome were as Gutherius noteth stiled the Quaestores Palatii and had in Vlpian's time who flourished in the Reign of Alexander Severus the Emperor antiquissimam originem an honourable and long-before original and so necessary in the then Administration of Justice as the Emperor Justinian that great Legislator and Compiler of Laws ordained That Divinae Jussiones Subscriptionem haberent gloriosissimi Quaestoris nec emissae aliter a Judicibus reciperentur quà m si subnotatae fuerint à Quaestore Palatii That the Imperial Mandates should be subscribed by the Chancellor who was sometimes stiled Justitiae Custos vox Legum Concilii Regalis particeps the Keeper or Repository of Justice the voice or mouth of the Laws and one of the Privy Council and those Mandates being sent not much unlike the Original Writs issuing out of our High Court of Chancery w th were then also called Breves were not to be received by the Judges unless they were signed by the Quaestor Palatii or Chancellor but subscribed their Names as Witnesses to Charters after Bishops Abbots and Barons as amongst many other instances may be given in that of Robert Parning Chancellor and of Randolf de Stafford Steward of the Houshold in the seventeenth year of the Reign of King Edward the third By a Statute made in the thirty second of the Reign of King Henry the eighth the Parliament did not think it unreasonable that there should be a Great Master of the Kings House and have all the Authority that the Lord Steward had By a Statute made in the thirty third year
Familiae Regiae cum inter se tum vel adversus alios controversiae in Consilio Procerum Populi disceptantur the controversies of suits which is to be understood where the Judicium or Tribunal in Aula Caesarea in the Emperors Court cannot compose them of the Emperors family brought eithâ—r by or against them are to be heard or decided in the Diets of other publike meetings of the States of the Empire At Florence Siena and Pisa in Italy no man may arrest or commence a suit against a Courtier Souldier or Estranger without a special Licence from an Officer of the great Dukes Court thereunto appointed In the very large Dominions of the Ottoman Empire such as receive any wages or pay coming from the Exchequer or have any Office depending on the Crown are commonly free from the least Injury to be offered unto them when such as offend therein are sure to be severely punished Those sons of Winter rudeness the Russians or Moscovites can in their small commerce with Latine or other learning and the better manners of their neighbour and other Nations so well understand the Privileges or respect of Kings and Princes Embassadors who are therein but as their especial Servants or Messengers as when in the Earl of Carliles Embassy from our Soveraign King Charles the second thither to the Tzar or Emperor of Moscovy in the year 1664. a Gentleman of Plescoe having seized or distreyned two Horses belonging to the Embassadors Train which he had found in the night to have broken into his Pastures the Governor or Plescoe was no sooner enformed thereof but he apprehended the Gentleman and sent him bound to the Embassador to beg his life which upon his acknowledgement of the indiscretion of the fact was easily pardoned by the Embassador the King of Sweden not denying those respects which are due ro Embassadors when in an Embassy into Sweden in the same year he did at the Embassadors request release out of prison one of the Embassadors servants that had in a Duel slain a German Colonel of the Embassadors retinue The People of Holland and their confederate Provinces who do so fondly dream of their freedoms do not think their so hardly gained liberties lost or retrenched when for the military part of their Illustrious Princes of Orange or Stadtholders Domestiques or any of those they call the States general servants being the greatest part of their Menials they cannot Arrest and prosecute any of them at Law before leave petitioned for and obtained and as for any other of their servants not imployed in the War or any of those many several sorts of Officers and Offices appurtaining thereunto there are enough of that Nation can tell that their Greffiers or Process makers can although they are to make out their Mandates and Process ordinarily and in common forms without a special order of the Judge or Recht Heer so easily find the way to a Biass or partiality as to deny it in the case of any of their Superiors Domestiques until they have a special order for it which after a tedious attendance is not to be gained until the matter or debt complained of be referred and put to certain vreede mackers Peace-makers or Arbitrators who can toss the Case in a Blanket and make the Plaintiff a Labyrinth of delays which at long treading shall only bring him to a Mandate and a tyring chargeable and tedious prosecution at their Law against such a pâ—otected seemingly unprotected servant Nor is it rationally to be believed that the servants attending upon the person or in the Court of the Emperor of China whose Dominions are as Samedo saith as big as Spain France Italy Germany the Belgicque Provinces and Great Brittain where the Mandarines his great Officers of State Lord Lieutenants or Governors of Provinces are by the common people so highly reverenced as they are as they pass almost ador'd in all places the people passing in the Streets alighting off their horses or coming out of their Chairs or Sedans when they meet them do not enjoy as great a Privilege as the Servants in ordinary of our English Kings do claim to be free from Arrests or suits in Law before leave or licence first obtained of some of the superiour Officers of his Court or Houshold wherein there are nine Tribunals called Kicu Kim particularly appointed for matters of controversies which concern the Servants In those largely extended Empires of Japan Persia Industan and all the African and Asiatique Kingdoms and Dominions where the power and will of the Princes are their Laws the fear and obedience of their Subjects are so very great and their reverence so extraordinary as they do honour and esteem them as Demi-Gods and have so great a respect of their Chancellors Privy Councellors great Officers of State and servants implyed by them no man can so much mis-use his reason or understanding as to harbor any thought or imagination that the servants of those Emperors or Princes are at any time without leave or license arrested or prosecuted at Law And well might our Kings and Princes and all other Soveraign Kings and Princes understand the mis-usage and disgrace of their servants to be Crimen immunitae Majestatis no small crime or lessning of Majesty and an abuse and disparagement to themselves when the Romans with whom their neighbours the Sabines scorned to Ally or marry in regard of their then ignoble race and originals could in the height and grandeur of their all-conquering Republique after so many liberties obtained by taking them from others creat and constitute Majestatem populi Romani a Majesty so called of their faction breeding inconstant and popular government and accuse Rabirius Posthumus of Crimen laesae Majestatis high Treason for that being a Citizen of Rome he had contra morem majorum the usage and custom of the Romans made himself a Servant or Lacquey to Ptolomy King of Aegypt at Alexandria whereby to procure some money to be paid which was there owing unto him Neither are those that stand before our Kings and Princes or attend upon their persons or near concernments of their Royal Houshold as Servants in ordinary to be ranked amongst the multitude or put under an ordinary Character when reason of State reputation of Princes and the usage and custom of Nations have always allowed distinctions and respects proper and peculiar unto them For so much difference was alwayes betwixt the servants of the Kings of England who by the irradiation of Majesty and Regal Resplendency are not without some participation or illustration of it as they were always allowed a precedency before the greatest part of their Subjects not of the Nobility and Clergy for the Grooms of the Kings Bed-chamber doe take place of any Knight whether he be the Kings servant or not and a Knight being the Kings Servant is to take place of any Knight which is not the Kings servant in ordinary the
no Vagabonds Masterless men Boyes or Idle persons be suffered to harbour in her Court Wherfore the Servants attending therein should not now be so much in the ill opinion causeless contempt of the Mechanick and vulgar part of the people for those which are ex meliore luto better born and more civilly educated cannot certainly so lose their way to a gratefull acknowledgement of their Princes daily protection and needed favours as to villifie or slight his Servants by imitating the sordid examples of a less understanding part of the people or want their due respects if it shall be rightly considered that our Ancestors and a long succession of former ages were not so niggard or sparing of their well-deserved respects When our Kings and Princes and the wiser part of their people supposed to be in Parliament did attribute so much unto them and so very much trust and confide in them as they did from time to time put no small power into their hands and leave no small concernments of themselves and the Kingdom to their prudence fidelity and discretion When the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England who administreth the Oathes usually taken by the Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer of England Lords of the Kings most Honourable Privy Councel Chancellor of the Exchequer Master of the Rolls Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster Justices of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas Barons of the Exchequer Kings Attorney and Sollicitor General Serjeants at Law Masters of Requests and Chancery upon and before their admission into their several Places and Offices nominates and appoints the Custos Rotulorum and Justices of the Peace in every County of England Wales some few Franchises and Liberties excepted and by his largely extended Jurisdiction committed unto his trust doth by the Writs remedial of his Soveraign guide and superintend the Cisterns and Streams of our Laws those living waters which do chear and refresh our Vallies and make them to be as a watered Garden And with the two Lord Chief Justices Master of the Rolls the other Reverend Judges and the Masters of Chancery appointed to distribute the Kings Justice according to the laws and reasonable customs of the Kingdome have their Robes and Salaries allowed and are as Justice Croke acknowledged in his argument against the Ship-money as the Kings Councel at Law the chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas being as is mentioned in a Manuscrip of Henry Earl of Arundel copyed out of a book of George Earl of Shrowsbury Lord Steward of the houshold unto King Henry the seventh and King Henry the eighth communicated unto me by my worthy friend Mr. Ralph Jackson one of his Majesties Servants in ordinary a great Member of the Kings house for whose favour counsel and assistance in the Law to be shewed to the houshold matters and servants he taketh an yearly Fee by the Bâ—tler of England of two Tuns of Wine at two Terms of the year which is allowed in the Court of houshold When the Justices of Peace in every City and County are or should be the under Wheels in that excellently curiously framed Watch of the English Government as the late blessed Martyr King Charles the first when he so sadly forwarned the pulling of it in pieces by a mistaken Parliament and the Rebellious consequences of it not unfitly called it are at their quarter Sessions under his pay and allowance when the Assize of the bread to be sold in England was in the fourth year of the Reign of King John being thirteen years before his granting of Magna Charta ordained by the King by his Edict or Proclamation to be strictly observed under the pain of standing upon the Pillory and the rates set and an Assise approved by the Baker of Jeoffry Fitz-Peter chief Justice of England the nas one of the Kings more especial Servants as to matters of justice resident and attendant in the Kings House or Palace and by the Baker of R. of Thurnam that Constitution and Assise being not at all contradicted by his Magna Charta or that of his Sons King Henry the 3 d. Which Assise of bread contained in a writing of the Marshalsea of the Kings house being by the consent of the whole Realm exemplified by the Letters Patents of King Henry the 3 d. in the 51 th year of his Raign was confirmed and said to be proved by the Kings Baker By an Act of Parliament made in the 9 th year of the Reign of that King if the King be out of the Realm the chief Justices one of which if not both were then residing and attending in the Kings Court were once in the year through every County with the Knights of the Shires to take Assises of Novel Disseisin and Mortdancester in which if there be any difficulty it was to be referred unto his Justices of the Bench there to be ended By an Act of Parliament made in the 6th year of the Reign of K. Edward the first Wine sold against the Assise was to be by the Mayor and Bayliffs of London presented before the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer who then resided in the Court or Palace of the King The Statute of Westminster the 2. made in the 13th year of the said Kings Reign mentioneth That the Kings Marshal is to appoint the Marshal of the Kings Bench and Exchequer the Criers and Virgers of that and the Court of Common Pleas which at this day is done by and under the Authority of the Earl Marshal of England who by his Certificate made by his Roll of a personal service in a Voyage Royal performed by those that held Lands or Offices in Capite and by Knight Service he discharged an Assessement of Esonage by Parliament superintendeth the cognisance and bearing of Armes of the Nobility and Gentry and the duty of the Heralds and Officers attending thereupon And with the Lord Great Chamberlain before the unhappy change of the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into Free and Common Socage introduce and bring unto the King such as were to do Homage unto him for their Baronies or Lands By an Act of Parliament made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third and by the Kings Authority the Sheriffs of every County in England and Wales who are for the most part under the King the only Executioners of Justice in the Kingdom are three out of six for every County presented by the Judges of every Circuit the morrow after the Feast of All-Souls in every year to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer Lord Steward the later of which at the beginning and opening of Parliaments is by his Office to administer the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy to every Member of the House of Commons in Parliament the Master of the Horse Lord
Bench and Common Pleas for the time being or other two Justices in their absence may upon Bill or Information put to the said Chancellor for the King or any other have authority to call before them by Writ or Privy Seal the said misdoers By an Act of Parliament made in the 12th year of his Reign Perjury committed by unlawfull maintenance embracing or corruption of Officers in the Chancery or before the Kings Councel shall be punished by the discretion of the Lord Chancellor Treasurer both the Chief Justices and the Clerk of the Rolls and if the Complainant prove not or pursue not his Bill he shall yield to the party wronged his costs and damages By an Act of Parliament made in the 19th year of his Reign Ordinances made by Fellowships of Crafts are to be approved by the Chancellor Treasurer of England Chief Justice of either Benches or three of them or both the Justices of Assise in their Circuits where such Ordinances shall be made By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper may appoint two three or four persons to receive Toll or Custome and to imploy the same upon the repair of the Bridge of Stanes in the County of Middlesex and to yield accompt thereof By an Exception in an Act of Parliament made in the 14th and 15th year of his Reign touching Aliens and their taking of Apprentices any Lord of the Parliament may take and retain Estrangers Joyners and Glasiers in their service In the Act of Parliament made in the 21th year of his Reign prohibiting Plurality of Benefices and the taking of Farms under great penalties there are Exceptions for the Kings Chaplains not sworn of his Councel and of the Queen Prince or Princess and the Kings Children Brothers Sisters Vnkles or Aunts the eight Chaplains of every Archbishop six of every Duke five of every Marquess and Earl four of every Viscount and other Bishop the Chancellor and every Baron of England three of every Dutchess Marquioness Countess and Baroness being Widdows And that the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings House the Kings Secretary Dean of his Chappel the Kings Almoner and Master of the Rolls may have every one of them two Chaplains the Chief Justice of the Kings Bench one Chaplain the Warden of the Cinqueports for the time being the Brethren and Sons of all Temporal Lords may keep as many Benefices with Cure as the Chaplains of a Duke or Archbishop and the Brethren and Sons of every Knight may keep two Parsonages or Benefices with Cure of Souls And that the Widdows of every Duke Marquess Earl or Baron which shall take to Husband any man under the degree of a Baron may take such number of Chaplains as they might when they were Widdows and every such Chaplain have the priviledge aforesaid By an Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament a Commission was granted to Cutbert Bishop of London Sir Richard Brooke Knight Chief Baron of the Exchequer John More one of the Justices of the Kings Bench c. to assign how many Servants every Stranger shall keep within St. Martins le Grand London By an Act of Parliament made in the 23th year of his Reign Commissioners of Sewers to survey Streams Gutters Letts and Annoyances are to be named by the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer and two Chief Justices or any three of them and their Decree to bind the Kings and all mens Lands By an Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament the prices of the Tun Butt Pipe and Hogshead of French Wines Sack Malmsey shall be assessed by the Kings Great Officers By an Act of Parliament made in the 25th year of his Reign Butter Cheese Capons Hens Chickens and other Victuals necessary for mens sustenance are upon complaint of enhancing to be assessed by the Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings most Honourable Privy Councel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlain and all other Lords of the Kings Councel the Treasurer and the Comptroller of the Kings most Honourable House the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains Vnder-Treasurer and the Barons of the Kings Exchequer or seven of them at the least whereof the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy Seal to be one By another Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament the prices of Books upon complaint made unto the King are to be reformed by the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer or any of the Chief Justices of the one Bench or the other by a Jury or otherwise By another Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament every Judge of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas the Chancellor and Chief Baron of the Exchequer the Kings Attorney and Sollicitor for the time being may have one Chaplain who may be absent from his Benefice and not resident By an Act of Parliament made in the 28th year of the Reign the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings most Honourable Councel Lord Privy Seal and the two Chief Justices of either Bench or any four or three of them are impowered by their discretions to set the prices of all Wines by the Butt Tun Pipe Hogshead Puncheon Tearce Barrel or Rundlet the pint of French Wine being then set at 1 d. per pinte By an Act of Parliament made in the 33th year of his Reign the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster Courts of Augmentations and First-Fruits Master of the Wards and Liveries Treasurer of the Kings Chamber and Treasurer of the Court of Augmentation and Groom of the Stool may each of them retain one Chaplain who may be absent from their Benefices provided they be twice a year at their Benefices with Cure of Souls by the space of eight dayes at a time By an Act of Parliament made in the 34th and 35th year of his Reign the Lords authorized by the Statute of 28 H. 8. cap. 14. to set the prices of Wines in gross may mitigate and enhance the prices of Wines to be sold by retail By an Act of Parliament made in the 37th year of his Reign for the settlement of Tithes betwixt the Parsons Vicars and Curates of London and the Inhabitants thereof the Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Councel Lord Privy Seal Lord Great Chamberlain of England with some of the Judges were chosen Arbitrators to make a final conclusion betwixt them which shall be binding by their Order under any six of their hands By an Act of Parliament made in the same year the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Privy Seal and the two Chief Justices or
and of great antiquity and authority in our Laws and very well deserving the respect is paid unto it being but a Collection of Writs out of the publick Records made and granted under the Kings Great Seal warranted either by the Common-Law or grounded upon some Acts of Parliament Protections have been granted under the Great Seal of England with a Supersedeas of all Actions and Suits against them in the mean time unto some that were sent into Forraign Parts or but into the Marches of Scotland or Wales or in Comitativa retinue of some Lord or Person of Honor employed thither in the Kings Service or unto such probably as were none of the Kings Servants in Ordinary or Domestick but as more fit persons were only sent as appeareth by the Writs upon some special and not like to be long lasting occasions with an exception only of certain Actions and Cases as in Writs of Dower for which Sir Edward Coke giveth us the Reason because the Demandant may have nothing else to live upon in Quare Impedits Quaere non Admisits or Assizes of Darrein Presentment for the danger of a lapse for not presenting within six months in Assizes of Novel Disseisin to restore the Demandant to his Freehold wrongfully entred upon and not seldom gave their Protections quia moraturus unto some Workmen Engineers or others imployed in the Fortification of some Castles or Fortress sometimes but as far as the Marches of Wales with a command that if they were incarcerati or imprisoned they should be forthwith released and at other times upon his Protections granted quia profecturus revoked his Protections because the party desiring to be protected did not go as he pretended upon the Kings message or business or having finished the Kings business imployed himself upon his own and upon better information that he did continue his imployment in his service revive it again sometimes sent his Writ to the Justices not to allow his Protection because the party protected did not go about the business upon which he was imployed and at other times sent his Writ to the Sheriffs of London to certifie him whether the party protected for a year did go in obsequium suum versus partes transmarinas in Comitativa c. upon the Kings business in the company and attendance of A. B. possibly some Envoy which makes it probable that the party protected was rather some Stranger than any of the Kings Servants and more likely to be in the cognisance of the Sheriffs of London than of the King or any of the Officers of his honourable Houshold as may appear by the subsequent words of the Writ which were an in Civitate nostra London moretur propriis negotiis suis intendendo whether he remain in the City and followeth his own business And not only granted such Protections but as was in those times held also to be necessary and convenient added a clause de non moleâ—tando of not troubling the party whilst he was thus imployed in his service homines terras c. his Lands Servants c. except or in regard of any of the aforesaid Pleas which were usually mentioned in the said Writ of Protection And if it were directed to the Sheriffs of London a clause by a rule of the Register was to be inserted dum tamen idem so as the protected person probably imployed in the victualing of a Town or Fort do satisfie his Creditors for Victuals bought of them And where the Protections appeared to be granted after the commencement of the Action did sometimes revoke them but if it were for any that went in a Voyage that the King himself did or other Voyages Royal or on the Kings Messages for the business of the Realm it was to be allowed and not revoked and the Kings Protections in that or any other nature had the favour and allowance of divers Acts of Parliament either in the case of such as were not their Servants or otherwise and had such respect given unto them by the Law and the Reverend Judges in Bractons time as he saith Cum breve Domini Regis non in se contineat veritatem in hoc sibi caveat Cancellarius if the matter be not true the Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England is to answer for it and quando quis Essoniaverit de malo veniendi quia in servitio Domini Regis admitti debet Essonium allocari dies dari dum tamen warrantum ad manum habet cum de voluntate Domini Regis non sit disputandum And King Edward the third did in the 33th year of his Reign by an Act of Parliament de Protectionibus concerning the repealing of Protections unduly granted by his Writ directed to all his true and faithfull Subjects now printed amongst the Statutes and Acts of Parliament and allowed the force and effect of an Act of Parliament as many other of the Kings Mandates Precepts or Writs antiently were declare that for as much as many did purchase his Protections falsly affirming that they were out of the Realm or within the four Seas in his service did provide That if their Adversaries would except or averre that they were within the four Seas and out of the Kings service in a place certain so that they might have well come and if it be proved against the Defâ—ndant it should be a default and if such Protection be on the Plaintiffs behalf he should lose his Writ and be amerced unto the King which can signifie no less then that a Protection granted where the party is really and truly in the Kings service should not be disallowed or refused which the Commons of England were used so little to disgust as that in the 47th year of the Reign of that King they did in Parliament only Petition that any having a Protection for serving in the Wars and do thereof fail by one month to the deceipt of the Kings people such Protection to be void To which the King only answered Let the party grieved come into the Chancery and he shall have remedy The Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Richard the second ordained that no Protection with a clause of Volumus our will and pleasure is that he be not disturbed with any Pleas or Process except Pleas of Dower Quare Impedit Assise of Novel Disseisin last Presentation and Attaint and Pleas or Actions brought before the Justices Itinerant shall be allowed where the Action is for Victuals taken or bought upon the Voyage or Service whereof the Protection maketh mention nor also in Pleas of Trespass or of other Contract made before the date of the said Protection The Statute of the 13th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King which was made for that many people as well such as be not able to be retained in War for in those dayes divers of the Nobility and Gentry and
then next following and King Edward the 4th by vertue of his Kingly Prerogative as the Writ and the Record declared granted his Protection unto John Namby Gentleman Executor of William White alias Namby for himself and his Servants and their Lands and Estates to endure for three years very many of the Subjects of England in those dayes and the Reigns of our former Kings travelling on Pilgrimage for devotion or penance to Jerusalem or St. James of Compostella or which were Cruzadoed or voluntarily went unto the Holy Land so called for recovery of it in such numbers as about the year of our Lord 1204. being in the latter end of the Reign of King John sixty thousand English took the Cross for the Holy Land whose Protections saith Fleta were not in those dayes disallowed in the Courts of Justice because it was then understood to be in causa Dei the cause of God or for some which were sent on the Kings messages or affairs to Rome Normandy or Gascoigny in France or other parts beyond the Seas or in those many our English Warlike Expeditions and Armies sent to Jerusalem France Spain and Scotland or the Borders thereof in the Reigns of many or most of our Kings and Princes from William the Conquerors entring into England and the subduing of it untill the Reign of King James and into Wales or the Borders thereof untill the Reign of King Edward the third when the Nobility and principal part of the Gentry were even in those times more likely then the Commonalty or vulgar to be in debt and wanted not upon occasions the credit and good will of the Common people to trust them and freedom from Actions at Law and troubles in the mean time and the many thousands of our Tenants in Capite who by the Tenure of their Lands as well as by the bond and obligation of their Loyalty to their Kings and Princes were to attend them in the service of War not only upon their Summons and Commands in their Foreign Expeditions but at home in their defence against Rebellions and sudden Insurrections and had in the mean time no doubt Protections and freedom from Suits and Arrests whose Court Barons and Leets more then now orderly kept permitted not their Tenants disobedience unto them or their Jurisdictions or an enhance of the price of their Commodities and their Lands so entayled as they could not if they would either borrow or owe much money When the Nobility and Gentry like the Stars in our Hemisphere kept their courses and great Hospitalities addicted themselves to actions of greatness goodness charity and munificence and their numerous Tenants depending upon them returned them submissive and humble obedience a reverential awe and gratitude and held much of their Lands upon trust of performance of their Services and many Husbandry works instead of Rents and in that were more endebted to their Landlords and entrusted by them then their Landlords were unto them who did not as now they do with their Wives and Daughters resort to London to learn vice and vanities and run into Debt more than they should do nor make themselves at costly rates so great and oâ—ten purchasers of Transmarine Wares and Commodities which the small Income of the Customs in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when our Clothing and Exportation far exceeded our Importation will witness when the profit of her Customs in both was at first let to Farm but at 13000 l. per annum and afterwards at no more then 50000 l. per annum when there was not so great and consuming expences in Coaches Wine and other Foreign Toyes and Trifles when by reason of 600 Monasteries and Religious Houses and the great Retinues and number of Servants kept by them and the Nobility Bishops and Gentry and depending upon them the younger Children of the Nation were so largely provided for as there were not so many Trades or Apprentices in London as there have been of latter times so many Taverns Cooks or Trades of pride and luxury to entice the Nobility and Gentry into debts and expences when the rates and prices of their Wares and Commodities honester made and of Victuals and Houshold provisions were limited and bounded by our then better than now executed Laws and Trade was not let loose to all manner of fraud and unlawfull gains and the Companies or Corporations of Trades were not so many Combinations to adulterate and abuse the Trade of the Kingdom as now they do when there was not so frequent trusting by Trades-men as now of late only to encrease their gain double and raise their prices and make a more then ordinary usury upon the kindness they pretend to do their Customers by trusting of them when Trade and the furnishing of vice and excess had not made the Gentry so endebted to the City who are not in their Countreys or Neighbourhood so much under the lash of their complaints or prosecution when the Church-men by reason that some contracts were upon distrust of performance sworn and bound up by Oath would ratione sâ—andali sometimes take occasion to draw into their Courts the cognisance of Debts and Excommunicate them untill they were about the Reign of King Edward the first prohibited by the King and his Courts of Justice And Usury was as well before as long after accounted such a mortal sin as Christian Burial and the power of making last Wills and Testaments was denyed unto them the personal Estates of the Usurers confiscated the dying in debt reckoned a sin punishable in the next World all or some of which might give us the reason why there was in former times but very little complaint against Protections for most of that little which appears of the use or pleading of Protections in our Law-books or Records through so many past ages were in Pleas or Actions concerning Lands or Replevins c. but few in personal Actions or Actions of Debt and those which do in every Kings Reign appear in our Records to have been granted in respect of the many occasions and importunities which might otherwise have induced the granting of them to have been but a few in respect of many more which might have been granted if the prudence and care of our Kings had not restrained or limited their own power and authority therein for that there were then either few or out-lying over-grown or long-forborn Debts or the reason of the parties protected being imployed in the Kings Service which was and ever is to be accounted the interest of every man and a concernment of the Publique was enough to pacifie them and the care and reverence of the King and his business taught the people to obey rather then dispute that necessary part of his Prerogative which deserves our imitation when conform to the Laws of Nations Queen Elizabeth by the advice of as wise and carefull a Councel as any Prince of the World was ever blessed with did in
laid by a Foreign Prince some English Merchants Estate had been destroyed or had their Ships or Goods taken at Sea by the Subjects of another Prince and only desired a Protection from the many times Unchristian-like fury of their Creditors untill by Letters of Reprisal or otherwise they might enable themselves to make them a just satisfaction and did but in the mean time like the innocent Doves fly to the shelter of the Rock of their Soveraign from the cruelty of the pursuing Hawk or when any imployed in the service of the King or for the good of the Nation although he be at the present neither protected or priviledged was by feigned or malicious Actions sought to be hindred or endamaged upon some reason or necessity and in all or either of those kinds have also been sparingly granted by King James and King Charles the Martyr unto some few particular men as to Philip Burlamachi and Pompeio Calandrini Natives and Merchants of Italy denizen'd and resident in England who had imployed in their services not only at home but in the parts beyond the Seas in the important affairs of ayding the Kings Allyes all the Estate and Credit which they had or could procure some if not many of which sort of Protections have not been nor are unusual in our Neighbour Countreys and in Brabant adversus Creditorum multi juges vexationes assultus to protect a Debtor against the cruelties assaults and vexations of some unmercifull Creditors quoties vel inclementia maris vel infortunio graviori demersi ad certum tempus solvere non possunt when by some great misfortunes by Sea or at Land they are not at the present able to pay whereof Hubert de Loyens in his Treatise Curia Brabantiae munere Cancellarii ejusdem of the Court of Brabant and the Office of the Chancellor of that Province gives the reason quoniam Reipublica interest subditos non depauperari sicut nec Principem cujus cum illis annexa causa est because it concerns the Weal-publick not to suffer the people nor likewise the Prince whose good or ill is annexed to theirs to be impoverished by which the poor Debtor obtains some respite and time either to pay or pacifie their enraged Creditors a custom and usage conveyed to them by Antiquity and deduced from the wisdom of the Grecians and Romans in their well ordered Governments and Commonwealths But those who might rest well satisfied with the wisdom as well as practice of our Laws are so unwilling to be undeceived and to quit their stubborn ignorance and affected errors as they will like some Garrison willing to maintain a Fort and hold out as long as they can when they can no longer defend it seek and hope to march out with better advantages in relinquishing or parting with it then they could by keeping of it and therefore will be willing to allow unto Strangers or those which the King imployeth upon Foreign or Extraordinary occasions and are not his Menial or Domestick Servants the Priviledges aforesaid so as they may exclude those that are immediately attending upon his service or the greater concernments of his person CHAP. IX That the Kings granting Protections under the Great Seal of England to such as are his Servants in ordinary for their Persons Lands and Estate when especially imployed by him into the parts beyond the Seas or in England or any other of his Dominions out of his Palace or Virge thereof or unto such as are not his Domesticks or Servants in ordinary or extraordinary when they are sent or imployed upon some of his negotiations business or affairs neither is or can be any evidence or good argument that such only and not the Kings Servants in ordinary who had no Protections under the Great Seal of England are to be protected or priviledged whilst they are busied in his Palace or about his Person WHich the men of Israel could so highly value as they disswaded King David from going in person with the Army against Absalom saying thou shalt not go forth for if we flee away they will not care for us neither if half of us dye will they care for us but now thou art worth ten thousand of us or as they shortly after said in their loyal contest with the men of Judah we have ten parts meaning the ten Tribes in the King which just esteem caused Davids three mighty men or Worthies think they had cause enough to adventure their lives to break through the Host of the Philistines and draw water out of the Well of Bethelem to bring it to David to satisfie but his thirst or longing to asswage it For if reason may be the guide or hold the Ballance and the cause be any thing of kin to the effect the more worthy and the greater is to be more respected than the less and the more necessary than that which is not so much necessary the heart and nobler parts more than the inferior and the person health and welfare of the King more than any Foreign Message or Imployment or any private mans concerns in any particular affair and that which is to be every day and night and continually more to be taken care of than that which is but accidental or temporary or upon seldom occasions for the salus populi cannot be suprema Lex nor the good and safety of the people be maintained or provided for if the King who is the Law-giver and by his Ministers and subordinate Magistrates the Laws executer and the Laws and peoples protector and defender be not so attended as he which is the Hâ—ad and better part of the Body Politick may be kept and preserved in safety and if Lex be summa ratio the quintessence or chief of reason and semper intendit rationem alwayes intends that which is reason we may not think it to be a paradox or any stranger to reason that the Persons and Estates of the Master of the Robes the Gentlemen and Grooms of his Majesties Bed-Chamber Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber Esquires of the Body Physicians in ordinary Gentlemen Vshers Gentlemen Pensioners Yeoman of the Robes Gentlemen and Yeomen of his Guards and those many other sorts of Servants and Attendants which are as the learned Causabon terms them servi ad manum or de interioribus Aulicis necessary Servants unto his person and often and daily attendants upon him or are otherwise necessary and becoming the Majesty of a King as the Great Officers of State Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer Lord Chamberlains the Lords of his most Honourable Privy Councel Secretaries of Estate Masters of Request c. being as Pasquier a learned French Advocate saith a la suitte le Roy joignantes a la personne de Prince attending the person of the King and should neither be absent or receive any impediment in their service should be as much
or more protected and secured from the trouble of Law-Suits or disgracefull Arrests whilst they are busied about the King or in his ordinary service then those which are not his Servants in ordinary but as Envoyes Messengers or otherwise shall be imployed upon seldom or emergent affairs When Nehemiah's Commission to rebuild Jerusalem and the Royal Protection of King Artaxerxes by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal whilst he was busied therein cannot conclude that in those Eastern Countries where Artaxerxes had such an Imperium despoticum a large and absolute authority and a people so reverential and obedient that Nehemiah did not before his Journey or after his return enjoy the priviledge and freedom of one of the Kings Cup-bearers and a daily and constant attendant upon his person for it would be as illogical and unconcludent as to argue or believe that a Kings Servant known to be one of his Servants in ordinary without a Pass or Protection is not to enjoy as much priviledge as when he hath a Pass or Protection which can signifie no more then that he is a Servant or imployed as a Servant upon the Kings affairs especially when the only ground and reason of his Protection and upon which it is built or founded was the Kings service and it is not so much because it concerns the Weal-publick which the words in the Kings Protection do not bear or intimate but only in relation to the King and his service and that the protected party is imployed or sent per praeceptum Regis or in obsequio Regis by the Kings command or upon his business for otherwise the subordinate business of the Offices of a Sheriff or a Clerk to a Justice of Peace being something appurtenant to the common good might which they never yet did claim or demand a cessation from Law-Suits or a respite as the Protections for men imployed in the Kings Service have done there being as great a distance betwixt the reason and cause of the priviledge of the Kings Servants in ordinary and their attendance upon his person and affairs relating thereunto and that which is not immediately but remote as betwixt immediate and mediate proximate and remote nor can it be either truth or reason that if the Abbot of Burton upon Trent in the County of Stafford had been imployed by the King beyond the Seas and being as he was none of the Kings Houshold Servants such a Protection granted unto him whilst he was in the Kings service could have bereaved him of the priviledge which King Edward the 4th did grant unto him his Covent and Tenants which were many to be free ab omni vexatione Vicecomitis Staffordiae sive eorum Satellitum in perpetuum from all vexation and trouble of the Sheriff of the County of Stafford or his Bayliffs or Catchpoles or that if the Abbot of Tavestoke in the County of Devon had been sent as many Abbots in those times used to be upon any of the Kings affairs into Foreign parts and obtained the Kings Protection under the Great Seal of England that he and his Servants or Tenants should not be molested or troubled during his absence such an exemption for that small part of time ought to have abridged him of that priviledge which King Henry the second granted to his Predecessors Abbots of Tavestoke and his Successors that he or any of his Monks should not be impleaded or sued at Law nisi coram Domino Rege nisi Dominus Rex nominatim praeceperit but before the King himself unless the King should otherwise especially command or appoint it or should not at his return have enjoyed the priviledge of a Baron if he had held his Land by Barony to have been only summoned and liable to the Process at Law usually granted against Barons or that if the Prior of Spalding in the County of Lincoln had been commanded to go into Scotland or Wales upon any of the Kings necessary occasions and had been allowed a Protection under the Great Seal of England to respite any Actions or Suits at Law in the mean time to be commenced or brought against himself his Servants or Tenants that could after that business ended have debarred him of the priviledge of a Baron or of one holding his Land per Baroniam by Barony to have been only summoned and distrained according to the Process of the Law usually granted against Barons or of that priviledge which K. Richard the first and K. John granted unto the Abbot of Spalding and his Successors that none should implead them their Servants or Tenants de aliquo Tenemento suo for any of their Lands or Tenements nisi coram Rege vel coram Capitali Justiciario suo vel per speciale mandatum Domini Regis unless it should be before the King or his Chief Justice who then resided in the Kings Court or by the Kings special mandate and amounted to no less then the priviledge as aforesaid claimed by the Kings Servants in ordinary not to be arrested without license or leave first given by the King or those Officers of his Houshold to whom it belongeth Nor can it be any thing but a paradox and a very great enemy to reason that obsequium praeceptum Regis the Kings affairs and command imploying Strangers and none of his Houshold Servants as questionless the Abbot of Miravall was not who as appears by the Register of Writs had a Protection granted unto him whilst he was imployed in the Kings service in the parts beyond the Seas should be allowed for a ground and foundation of a Protection and available in the case of one that was not at all busied in a continual attendance upon his Person or Houshold affairs and be denyed his Servants in ordinary who were a latere alwayes imployed about him or his more necessary constant or durable affairs and that it should be a causa causati cause of the effect or thing caused in the protection of a Stranger imployed for some few dayes or weeks in the Kings affairs and not for those which were more near unto him and daily conversant in his immediate and Domestick affairs in whose care and fidelity his Sacred Person and the light and welfare of our Israel is entrusted and that those that were not his Servants should be in a better condition when they are imployed by him and his menial and ordinary Servants in a worse and the same cause not operate at all in the case of his Servants in ordinary who have more need of it and be so vigorous and effective for those that are Strangers and have less need of it as to their persons who being beyond the Seas were out of the reach of any arrest or imprisonment and as to their Lands and other Estates might if they had not had the Kings Protection under the Great Seal of England have defended any Actions by their Attorneys or have been Essoined or reversed any Utlary quia
Tradesmen or Servants extraordinary And therefore the King having fewer Servants or Officers in ordinary than the Kings of France his Neighbours used to have who besides their numerous Guard have four Kings at Armes eight Masters of Request deux Maistres d'Hostel two Masters of the Houshold thirteen Pages of Honour and two hundred Gentlemen Pensioners c. and a far lesser number than many of his Royal Progenitors should not now be thought to have too many because he hath some extraordinary And although it is not hard or difficult to believe but that heretofore the Common people of England were sometimes troubled at the unruliness and misdoings of the Purveyors which were afterwards well prevented in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth by a Composition made with the several Counties what proportions of Provisions the City of London and every County should by equal charge and collection pay and deliver towards the support and maintenance of the Provision for the Kings Houshold yet notwithstanding they did in their duty and reverence unto the King and respect unto his Servants not think it reasonable or comely to arrest or trouble his Purveyors or Servants by any Arrest or Actions without asking his leave or licence But where they had any grievance by his Officers and Servants and the Laws in force would have given them their Actions and remedies were so unwilling to make use of those ordinary helps which the Laws were at all times ready to afford them as they would rather trouble the Commons in Parliament to petition in their behalf for a redress therein who could not but understand that where an Act of Parliament gives remedies either against the Kings Servants Barons Bishops or others it is to be more aut cursu solito in such wayes and manner if no other in particular be prescribed as the Laws and reasonable Customs of England will allow and not otherwise A prospect whereof and of our Kings of Englands care to protect their Servants in their Liberties and Priviledges as well as to do Justice unto the rest of their Subjects complaining of them in Parliament needs not be far to seek to those that will but retrospect and enquire into the ages past CHAP. XII That the Subjects of England had heretofore such a regard of the King and his Servants as not to bring or commence their Actions where the Law allowed them against such of his Servants which had grieved or injured them without a remedy first petitioned for in Parliament WHen in the 13th year of the Reign of King Edward the third the Commons petitioning the King in Parliament which they needed not to have done when the Law would have given them remedy without the trouble of petitioning the King in Parliament and they might by the Statute made in the 28th year of King Edward the first have pursued them as Felons That all Purveyors as well with Commission as without might be arrested if they make not present pay All that was answered unto it as if there were altogether an unwillingness to expose them to Arrests and with which the Commons seemed to be satisfied was That the Commissioners of Sir William Healingford and all other Commissioners for Purveyance for the King be utterly void In the 20th year of that Kings Reign the Commons in Parliament petitioning That payment be made for the last taking of Victuals The Kings answer was That order should be taken therein In the same year the Commons in Parliament petitioning the King That Purveyors not taking the Constables with them according to the Statutes of Westminster might be taken as Thieves and that the Judges of Assise or Justices of the Peace might enquire of the same The King only answered That the Statutes made should be observed In the 21th year of the said Kings Reign the Commons in Parliament not thinking it fitting that the Purveyors who did them wrong should be instantly laid hold of or troubled with Suits or Actions or the King and Queens Horses impounded which would be a less affront to Majesty than the arresting of his Servants did only petition That whereas the King and Queens Horses being carried from place to place in some Counties had Purveyance of Hay and Oats c. made for them That the said Horses might abide in some certain place of the Country and provision made for them there in convenient times of the year by agreement with the Owners of those Goods and that inquiry might be made of the ill behaviour of those Takers before that time and that by Commissions the Plaintiff or party grieved in that kind as well of wrongs heretofore done or hereafter to be done might have redress therein To which the King answered That he was well pleased that the Ordinances already made should be kept and Purveyance made for his best profit and ease of his people And in the same year the Commons having complained That whereas the King and his Councell had assented that Men and Horses of the Kings Houshold should not be Harbinged but by Bill of the Marshal of the House delivered to the Constable who should cause them to have good sustenance for themselves and their Horses as should be meet and before their departures should pay the parties of whom the Victuals were taken and if they did not their Horses should be arrested and that contrary thereunto they departed without payment when it seems they used so much civility to the Horses as not to arrest them did only pray that in every Bill mention be made of the number of Horses that no more but one Garson be allowed and that payment according to the Statute might be made from day to day Whereunto the King answered That that Article should be kept in all points according to the form of the Statute In the 28th year of the Reign of that King by an Act of Parliament not printed when it was enacted That no Purveyor arrested for any misdemeanor should have any Privy Seal to cause such as arrested him to come before the Councell to answer to the King when it seems the King and his Councell were unwilling to put the Kings Servants under the command of every mans pretended Action but the party grieved might have his remedy by the Common Law the utmost extent of that Statute did not include any other of the Kings Servants then his Purveyors And did so little disrelish Protections and the just grounds and reason thereof as in the 45th year of the Reign of King Edward the third the Commons in Parliament petitioned the King That such as remained upon the Sea-Coasts by the Kings commandment might have protection with the Clausa volumus which the King supposing to be too general or at that time unnecessary answered That the same would be to the apparent loss of the Commons In the 46th year of the Reign of that King the Commons petitioning the King in Parliament That whereas it was
of King Henry the sixth the Commons in Parliament were so unwilling that their own concernments should hinder any of the Kings affairs as they did petition him That John Lord Talbot purposing to serve the King in his Warrs in France a Protection with the Clausa volumus might be granted unto him for a year and that by Parliament it might be ordained that it it be without the exception of Novel disseisin and to be put under the Great Seal of England with other Immunities whilst he be so in the Kings service which the King granted Provided that the said John Lord Talbot and Margaret his Wife Edward Earl of Dorset and others named should not enter upon any Lands whereof James Lord Barkly and Sir William Barkley his son were seised the first day of that Parliament or bring any Action concerning the same And so little desired the heretofore too powerfull Clergie of England to extend their power where they legally and inoffensively might do it CHAP. XIII That the Clergy of England in the height of their Pride and Superlative Priviledges Encouragements and Protection by the Papal over-grown Authority did in many cases lay aside their Thunderbolts and power of Excommunications appeals to the Pope and obtaining his Interdictions of Kingdomes Churches and Parishes and take the milder modest and more reverential way of petitioning our Kings in Parliaments rather than turn the rigors of their Canon or Ecclesiastical Laws or of the Laws of England against any of the Kings Officers or Servants AS they did in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third although by the Statute made in the 28th year of the Reign of King Edward the first making some Actions and Injuries which they then complained of to be Felony they might without their petitioning in Parliament have had ample and easie remedies petition the King in Parliament against some grievances and oppressions done by some of the Kings Servants to people of holy Church by his Purveyors and Servants amongst which were the abuses done by his Purveyors in taking the Corn Hay Beasts Carriage and other goods of the Arch-bishops Bishops Parsons and Vicars without the agreement and good will of the Owners and did thereupon obtain the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England which in the Parliament Roll is called a Statute and is as an Act of Parliament printed among the Acts of Parliament did declare That he took them and their possessions into the especial Protection of him and his Heirs and Successors and that they should not be any more so charged nor to receive into their houses Guests nor Sojourners of Scotland nor of other Countreys nor the Horses nor Dogs Faulcons nor other Hawks of the Kings or others against their will saving to the King the services due of right from them which owe to the King the same services to sustain and receive Dogs Horses or Hawks In a Parliamant in the first year of the Reign of King Richard the second although divers Laws in force had provided them remedies of course which needed no petitioning they did petition the King That they were upon every temporal suggestion arrestâ—d into the Marshalsea and paid for their discharge 6 s. 8 d. where a Layman payeth only 4 s. unto which the King did answer Let the party grieved complain to the Steward of the household and they shall have remedy And did in that but follow the patterns of Loyalty Prudence and self preservation cut out and left unto all true hearted Englishmen by their worthy and pious Ancestors and Predecessors who when the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which obliged all the Nobility and many thousands of the best part of the Gentry to follow their Prince to his Warrs abroad or defend him and his honour at home did in their duty to him and the care of their own estates and concernments with their numerous well-wishing and dutifull Tenants attending them follow him into the Warrs and Voyages Royal and remained there by the space of forty dayes at their own charges and afterwards as long as they lasted at the the Kings which must needs be a great obstruction to many mens Action or the recovery of their Debts or Rights and much better understand that universal Axiom and Rule of the Laws of Nature Necessity and Nations then the late ill advised Lord Mayor and some Citizens of London did who in the late dreadfull fire in the year of our Lord 1666. did to save the pulling down of a few houses to prevent the fury of a most dire and dismal fire and not a seventh part of their goods did see but too late the necessity of pulling down some houses and when they might have endeavoured it would allow it to be warrantable by the Lord Mayors order but not the Kings and in that fond dispute and his Timidity most imprudently suffer and give way to the burning down of many thousand houses and converting into ashes almost all that once great and flourishing City that privata cedere debent publicis every mans private affairs were to be laid aside and give place to the publick being the best way of self preservation And did not as they would do now rush upon Arrest or Imprison either the Kings Servants or such as were imployed by him or unto whom he had granted his Writs of Protection without asking leave of him but with a modesty and reverence becoming Subjects plicate him for a Revocation or if they did not or could not purchase it that way did sometimes become Petitioners in Parliament for some regulations in Protections granted upon some special and temporary imployments to such as were not his Servants in ordinary not for a total abolition or to take away that part of the Kings Prerogative in order to the Government and their own well being the answers whereunto shewed as much care in the King and his Councel as might be to give them content and satisfaction and at the same time not to depart from or lessen the Rights of the Crown more than was meerly necessary or in grace or savour for that particular time occasion or grievance to be granted or remitted unto them And no less carefull were the Judges in former ages in their delegated Courts and proceedings in Justice to pay their respects to the service of the King and likewise to his Servants or any other imployed therein CHAP. XIV That the Judges in former times did in their Courts and proceedings of Law and Justice manifest their unwillingness to give or permit any obstruction to the service of the King and Weal Publique WHen Bracton declares the Laws and Usage of the Kingdome to be in the Reign of King Henry the third and King Edward the first that Warrantizatur Essonium multipliciter quandoque per breve Domini Regis ubi non est necessitas jurare cum Dominus Rex hoc testatur per literas suas quod
holden at the good will and pleasure of our Kings and Princes And Time in his long Travels hath not yet so let fall and left behind him those reverential duties and personal services of our Dukes Earls and Baronage as to invite a disuse or discontinuance of them when they have of late time not only when Summoned perform'd several Ministerial Offices as at the Coronation of our Kings but at other great Solemnities and Festivals as at the Feast of Saint George Where in the year 1627. being the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr the Lord Percy afterwards Earl of Northumberland carryed the Sword before the King the Lord Cavendish and Wentworth bearing up his Trayn the great Basin was holden by the Earls of Suffolk Devonshire Manchester and Lindsey the Earl of Devonshire the same day serving as Cupbearer the Earl of Cleveland as Carver the Lord Savage as Sewer none of the Knights of the Garter that day officiating In the year of our Lord 1638. the Earls of Kent Hartford Essex Northampton Clare Carlisle Warwick Dover St. Albans and the Viscount Rochford were summoned by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings houshold to attend at the instalment of the Prince Knight of the Garter and in the year 1640. amongst other young Noblemen appointed to attend the King at his going to the Parliament the Duke of Buckingham Earl of Oxford and Lord Buckhurst did bear up his Trayn The Earls of Leicester had the Office of Steward of England distinguished from and not so antient as the Steward of the Houshold who injoyed but an incertain estate of during pleasure annexed to the Earldom of Leicester and accounted as parcel of it William Marshal Earl of Pembroke to be Earl Marshal of England Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex to be Constable of England and to hold some principal part of their Lands and Estates by Inheritance in Fee or in Tayl by the Tenure of those very honourable Offices and Services as the Manor of Haresfield in the County of Gloucester per servitium essendi Constabular Angliae by the Service of being Constable of England and the Offices of Earl Marshal and Constable were distinct and antiently exercised in the Kings Court as Marescalcia Curiae Constabularia Curiae were afterwards as the Learned Sir Henry Spelman conceived by some extent and enlargement gained of their Jurisdictions or rather by the Tenure of some of their Lands separately stiled Constable and Earl Marshals of England leaving the Office or Title of Sub-Marshal or Knight-Marshal to exercise some part of the Office of the Earl-Marshals Jurisdictions as more appropriate to the Kings House or Courts of Justice some antient Charters of our Kings of England before the Reign of King Henyy the second and some in his Reign after his grant of the Constableship of England was made by him to Miles of Gloucester informing us by the Subscriptions of Witnesses that there was a Constable during the Kings pleasure and sometimes two besides the Constable of England who claimed and enjoyed that Office by Inheritance The Custody of the Castle of Dover and the keeping of the Cinque-Ports were granted by King Henry the sixth to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham and the Heirs Males of his body The Earls of Oxford for several Ages and the now Earl of Lindsey descending from them as Heir General now being Stewards Keepers or Wardens of the Forest of Essex and Keepers of King Edward the Confessors antient Palace of Havering at the Bower in the said County to him and his Heirs claimed and enjoyed from a Daughter and Heir of the Lord Badlesmere and he from a Daughter and Coheir of Thomas de Clare And some of our Nobility believed it to be no abasement of their high birth and qualities to be imployed in some other Offices or Imployments near the person or but sometimes residence of the King as to be Constable of his Castle or Palace of Windsor as the late Duke of Buckingham was in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr and Prince Rupert that now is or Keeper of the Kings house or Palace of VVoodstock and Lieutenent of VVoodstock Park as the late Earl of Lindsey was for the term of each of their natural lives And some illustrious and worthy Families as that of the Marshals Earls of Pembroke Butler now Duke of Ormond the Chamberlains antiently descended from the Earl of Tancarvil in Normandy who was hereditary Chamberlain of Normandy to our King Henry the first and our Barons Dispencers have made their Sirnames and those of their after Generations the grateful Remembrancers of their very honourable Offices and Places under their Soveraign it being accounted to be no small part of happiness to have lands given them to hold by grand Serjeanty some honourable Office or attendance upon our Kings at their Coronation as to carry one of the Swords before him or to present him with a Glove for his right hand or to support his right hand whilst he held the Virge Royal claymed by the Lord Furnivall or to carry the great Spurrs of Gold before him claymed by John Hastings the Son and Heir of John Hastings Earl of Pembroke or to be the Kings Cupbearer claymed by Sir John de Argentine Chivaler And some meaner yet worthy Families have been well content to have Lands given unto them and their Heirs to hold by the Tenures of doing some personal Service to the Kings and Queens of England at their Coronations the Service of the King or Prince being in those more virtuous times so welcome to all men and such a path leading to preferment as it grew into a Proverb amongst us not yet forgotten No Fishing to the Sea no Service to the King And was and is so much a Custome of Nations as in the German Empire long before the Aurea Bulla the Golden Bull or Charter of Charles the 4th Emperour was made in the year 1356. being about the middle of the Reign of our King Edward the third and not a new Institution as many have mistaken it as is evident by the preamble and other parts of that Golden Bull which was only made to preserve an Unity amongst the seven Electors and better methodize their business and Elections The Princes Electors were by the Tenure of their Lands and Dominions to perform several services to the Emperor and his Successors As the Prince Elector or Count Palatine of the Rhine was to do the service of Arch Sewer of the Empire at the Coronation of the Emperour or other great Assemblies the Duke of Saxony Stall Master or Master of ths Horse the Marquess of Brandenburgh Chamberlain the King of Bohemia Cup-bearer and in Polonia at this day Sebradousky the now Palatine of Cracow claimeth and enjoyeth by Inheritance the Office or Place of Sword-bearer to the Crown or King of Poland And so highly and rightly valued were those Imployments and Offices as they that did but
a Caesare constituti qui sine provocatione cognoscebant the Judges appointed by the Emperour to hear and determine without appeal matters concerning their Lands and Territories in the House of Peers in Parliament being the highest Court of the Kingdome of England none were there admitted or did administer Justice nisi qui proximi essent a Rege ipsique arctioris fidei homagii vinculo conjuncti but such as were near unto the King held of him in Capite and were therefore called Capitanei Regni as Sir Henry Spelman saith Captains of the Kingdome and Peers being obliged and bound unto him by Homage and Fealty that highest and most honourable Court of the Kingdome wherein the Judicative Power of Parliament under the King their Head and Chief resides for the lower house or Representative of the Commons are but as a Court of grand Enquest to exhibit the grievances of the Nation and the People who did choose them to represent them as their Procurators give their consent to the raising of moneys for publick occasions and benefit and the making of good Laws intended to be obeyed by them being constituted by the King their Head and Soveraign the Prince or Heir apparent Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Arch-bishops Bishops and some of the greater Abbots and Pryors holding their Lands and Possessions of the King in Capite until they were dissolved the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the great Seal of England Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Admiral Lord Chamberlain of England and of the Houshold Grand Master or Steward of the Kings house and the Kings Chief Secretary though no Barons assisted by the Learned and Reverend Judges of the Law and Courts of Justice at Westminster Hall who have no vote Masters of Chancery Clark of the Crown and Clark of that more Eminent part of the Parliament sitting in their several and distinct places according to their qualities and degrees upon benches or woolsacks covered with red cloth before the Kings Throne or Chair of Estate attended by the Kings Senior Gentleman Usher of the Presence Chamber called the black Rod to whom for or by reason of his attendance upon that honourable Assembly is and hath been antiently allowed annexed for his better support the little Park of Windsor with an house or lodge thereunto belonging of a good yearly value Serjeants at Arms Clarks of that higher house of Parliament as the members reverencing taking care for their Head and Soveraign the Only under God Protector of themselves and all their worldly concernments laws and liberties in which high and honourable Assembly the Archbishops and Bishops do enjoy the priviledge and honour of being present by reason of their Baronies which howsoever given in Frank Almoigne and as Elemosinary are holden in capite debent interesse judiciis curiae regis cum Baronibus are not to be absent saith the constitution or Act of Parliament made at Clarendon by K. Henry the second and that honourable Tenure being Servitium Militare a tye of duty and service to them as well as to the other Baronage any neglect therein was so penal unto them as the Lords in Parliament saith William Fitz Stephen cited by the learned Selden did in the Reign of King Henry the Second notwithstanding that Arch-bishops plea and defence wherefore he did not come to that great Councel or Parliament when he was commanded condemn the Ruffling and domineering Arch-bishop Tho. Becket in a great sum of money the forfeiture of all his moveable goods and to be at the Kings mercy guilty of high Treason for not coming to that high Court when he was cited and the reason given of that judgement for that ex reverentia Regiae Majestatis ex astrictione ligii homagii quod Domino Regi fecerat ex fidelitate observantia terreni honoris quemei Juraverat for that in the reverence and respect which he ought to have shewed to the Majesty of the King and by his homage made unto him and his Oath of Fealty sworn to observe and defend his Honour he ought to have come but did not and a Fine was afterwards likewise obout the Reign of King Edward the second imposed upon the Lord Bello-monte or Beaumont for not attending when he was summoned ad Consulendum Regi to give the King his Advice or Councel And certainly those great and many singular privileges and immunities given by our Kings the Fountains and Establishers of honours and the Offices and Imployments about their Sacred Persons appurtenant unto that noble and very Antient Degree and Titles of Episcopacy may easily invite the order of Bishops not to think it to be a disparagement to their Hierarchy when the dignity Royal of our Kings do as the Roman Emperours since the time of Constantine the Great necessarily require by turns or sometimes in every year the attendance of the Bishops in their Courts or Palaces and they are to be a la Suite du Roy pour honorer sa Majeste to be near the King for the honour of his Majesty when the King is the Guardian and Head of the Church and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury his Apocrisiarius which was an antient Office and Title of the Bishops afterwards appropriate to the Arch-bishop or Metropolitan who was in Palatio pro Ecclesiasticis negotiis excubare to oversee and take care of the Affairs of the Church in the Kings Court or Palace Capellanus Regis dictus omnibus praefuit negotiis ministris ecclesiae was stiled the Kings Chaplain presided and was under the King superintendent as to Ecclesiastical Affairs over all the business and Ministers of the Church and Chappel and in those things quae ad divinum Cultum in principiâ— aula pertinent precipua semper fuit cura atque sollicitudo Archiepiscopi which appertained to Gods worship in the Kings Palace the chief care and business thereof in the duties of Religion and holy Rites belongeth unto him and is in that particular but as the Kings special Chaplain not as Mathew Parker a learned and worthy Archbishop of that See in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Papal inflations were out of fashion would make the reason of those privileges to be because the Kings and Queens of Enggland were ejus speciales atque domesticos Parochianos his more especial Parishioners and the whole Kingdome howsoever divided into distinct Diocesses was but as one Parish though he could not be ignorant that the Arch-bishop of York and his Suffragan Bishops in one and the same Kingdome were none of his Parish nor was as Doctor Peter Heylin a right learned and dutiful Son of the Church of England by antient privilege of the See of Canterbury supposeth him to be Ordinary of the Court of his Majesties houshold being reckoned to be his Parishioners or of his Peculiar wheresoever the same shall be the Chancellor
same time consider the damage which our Kings have suffered by their Grants to divers Abbeys as amongst others unto the Abbey of St. Edmonds-Bury in Suffolk which in a Plea betwixt that Abbot and the Bishop of Ely and his Steward in the sixth Year of the Reign of King Richard the First appeared by the Charters of King Edward the Confessor William the Conqueror and King Henry the First to be in general words all the Liberties which any King of England might grant the very large Priviledges of Common of Pasture and Estovers the later of which hath spoiled much of the Timber of the Kingdom in many vast Forrests and Chases their many deafforrestations and that of three Hundreds at once in the County of Essex at the Request and Petition of an Earl of Oxford their taking their Customs and Duties upon Merchandize Exported or Imported at small and priviledged Rates and manner of payment of Tonnage and Poundage and by the granting away of so many Franchises Exemptions Priviledges view of Frank Pleg and Liberties which the Commons in Parliament in the one and twentieth Year of the Reign of King Edward the Third thought to be so over-largely granted as they complained That almost all the Land was Enfranchised and Petitioned That no Franchise-Royal Land Fee or Advowson which belong or are annexed to the Crown be given or severed from it And so very many more Immunities Franchises and Priviledges which since have been indulged and granted to very many of the People which like the dew of the heavenly Manna which so plentifully covered the Camp of the Children of Israel and lay round about them have blessed many of the English Nation and their after Generations as the dew of Hermon and that which descended upon the Mountains of Zion And so many were those exemptions customs prescriptions and immunities Quae longi temporis usu recepta quaeque ratio vel necessitas suaserit introducenda rata stabilita fuerinâ— quasi tanto tempore principis consensu Judâ—cioque probata Which by a long accustomed use introduced by reason or necessity as the Learned Baldus saith concerning those which by the Civil Law and the Law of Nations have as approved by the consent and Judgment of the Prince been ratified and permitted as they would if faithfully and diligently collected as my worthy Friend Mr. Tho. Blount hath done very many of them in his Learned and laborious Nomo Lexicon not onely put Posterity in mind how very many and almost innumerable they are and how much they ought to be thankful for them but that their Forefathers did without any the least doubt or scruple believe that the Kings and Princes which granted them had power enough to do it And ought not to have their ways or passages stopped or blocked up by those Opinions of Sir Edward Coke and the rest of the Judges in contradiction of the late Learned Doctor Bancroft Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the case of Prohibitions argued and debated before King James and his Privy Council and Council Learned in the Law in Michaelmas Term in the fifth Year of his Reign that Rex non Judicat in Camera sed in Curia the King is to decide and determine the Causes and Controversies of his Subjects in his assigned and Commissionated Courts of Justice but not out of them or in his Palace Court or Chamber nor take any Cause out of his Courts and give Judgment upon it and that no King after the Conquâ—st ever assumed to himself to give Judgment in any Cause whatsoever which concerned the administration of Justice within the Realm and that the King cannot delay Justice or Arrest any Man neither Arrest any Man for suspicion of Treason or Felony as other of His Lieges may Wherein the Men of new Notions who in the Itch and Hope of Gain or the good will and applause of a Factious Party can like the after hated Ephori of Sparta upon all occasions oppose the Kings legal Rights and Prerogatives and thinking to satisfie others as well as themselves in making ill-warranted matters of Fact the Directors or Comptrollers of the Law may suspend their adoration of those Errors in that so called twelfth Report of Sir Edward Coke which being published since his Death have not that candor or fair dealing of Plowden's Commentaries or the Reports of the Lord Dyer or many other of his own Reports but concealing the Arguments and Reasons urged by the Opponents doth onely give us a Summary of his own and the other Judges Opinions which we hope may vanish into a mistake and meet with no better entertainment from those Reverend Judges and Sages of the Law if they were now in the Land of the Living to revise and examine those Opinions so Dogmatically delivered then a Retractation or Wish that they had never seen the Light or walked in the view of the Vulgar and advise those who would gladly make them the Patroni of so many ill Consequences as either have or may follow upon such Doctrines to build upon better Foundations and not to adhere so much unto them or any others though they should be willing to seem to be as wise therein as Socrates or Plato but rather subscribe to the Truth CHAP. XX. That the power and care of Justice and ihe distribution thereof is and hath been so essential and radical to Monarchy and the Constitution of this Kingdom as our Kings of England have as well before as since the Conquest taken into their Cognizance divers Causes which their established Courts either could not remedy or wanted power to determine have remoued them from other Courts to their own Tribunals and propria authoritate caused Offenders for Treason or Felony to be Arrested and may upon just and legal occasions respite or delay Justice WHen the King is Author omnis Jurisdictionis the Author of all Jurisdiction which is the specifica forma virtus essentialis Regis qua se nequit abdicare quamdiu Rex est neque vis illa summae ditionis potestatis Regiae dignitate citra pernitiâ—m ejus interitum separari distrahique potest Speciâ—ick form and essence of Kingly Majesty which the King cannot alienate or depart from as long as he is King nor may that Jurisdiction or supream Power be severed from the Regal Dignity without the ruine or destruction of the King as Mr. Adam Blackwood a Scotchman hath very well declared in his Book against Buchanan his Learned more than Loyal Countrey-man concerning the Magistracy Lords of Sessions and Judges in Scotland That all Judges and Magistrates Ne in Civilibus quidem causis nullam nisi munere beneficioque Regis sententiae dicendae nullam Juris judiciorum potestatem habent derived even in Civil Causes all their power and authority from the Kings Authority and without it had no power to give a Sentence or Judgment quicquid enim Magistratuum est quicquid judicium
I could perceive trodden by any but Your Lordships most Humble Servant Fabian Philipps THE TABLE OR Contents of the Chapters THat there is a greater Honour due unto the Palace and House of the King Then unto any of the houses of his Subjects Chap. I. 4 That the Business and Affairs of the King about which any of his Servants or Subjects are imployed are more considerable and to be regarded then the Business and Affairs of any of the People Chap. II. 29 That the Kings Servants in ordinary are not to be denied a more than ordinary Priviledge or respect nor are to be compelled to appear by Arrest or otherwise in any Courts of Justice out of the Kings House without leave or Licence of the Lord Chamberlain or other the Officers of the Kings Houshold to whom it appertaineth first had and obteyned Chap. III. 38 That the Priviledges and Protections of the Kings Servants in ordinary by reason of his Service is and ought to be extended unto the Priviledged Parties Estate both real and Personal as well as unto their Persons Chap. IV. 244 That the Kings Servants whilst they are in his Service ought not to be Utlawed or Prosecuted in Order thereunto without leave or Licence first obteyned of the King or the great Officers of his most Honourable Houshold under whose several Jurisdictions they do Officiate Chap. V. 250 That the Kings established and delegated Courts of Justice to Administer Justice to his People are not to be any Bar or hindrance to his Servants in ordinary in their aforesaid Antient Just and Legal Rights and Priviledges Chap. VI. 289 That the King or the great Officers of his Houshold may punish those who do infringe his Servants Priviledges and that any of the Kings Servants in ordinary being Arrested without leave are not so in the Custody of the Law as they ought not to be released untill they do appear or give Bayl to appear and Answer the Action Chap. VII 310 That the aforesaid Priviledge of the Kings Servants in ordinary hath been legally imparted to such as were not the Kings Servants in ordinary but were imployed upon some Temporary and Casual Affairs abroad and out of the Kings House Chap. VIII 318 That the Kings granting Protections under the Great Seal of England to such as are his Servants in ordinary for their Persons Lands and Estates when especially imployed by him into the parts beyond the Seas or in England or any other of his Dominions out of his Palace or Virge thereof or unto such as are not his Domesticks or Servants in ordinary or extraordinary when they are sent or imployed upon some of his Negotiations Business or Affairs neither is or can be any Evidence or good Argument that such only and not the Kings Servants in ordinary who have no Protections under the Great Seal of England are to be Protected or Priviledged whilst they are busied in his Palace or about his Person Chap. IX 343 That our Kings some of which had more than his nâ—w Majesty hath have or had no greater number of Servants in Ordinary than is or hath been necessary for their Occasions Safety well being State Honour Magnificence and Majesty And that their Servants waiting in their Turns or Courses are not without leave or Licence as aforesaid to be Arrested in the Intervals of their waiting or Attendance Cap. X. 355 That the King being not to be limited to a number of his Servants in Ordinary is not in so great a variety of Affairs and contingencies wherein the publick may be concerned to be restrained to any certain number of such as he shall admit to be his Servants extraordinary Chap. XI 365 That the Subjects of England had heretofore such a regard of the King and his Servants as not to bring or commence their Actions where the Law allowed them against such of his Servants which had grieved or Injured them with ut a remedie first Petitioned for in Parliament Chap. XII 375 That the Clergy of England in the height of their Priviledges Encouragement and Protection by the Papall overgrown Authority did in many cases lay aside their Thunderbolts and Power of Excommunications appeals to the Pope and obtaining his Interdictions of Kingdoms Churches and Parishes and take the milder modest and more reverential way of Petitioning our Kings in Parliaments rather than turn the rigors of their Canon or Ecclesiastical Laws or of the Laws of England against any of the Kings Officers or Servants Chap. XIII 389 That the Judges in former times did in their Courts and Proceedings of Law and Justice manifest their unwillingness to give or permit any obstruction to the Service of the King and Weal Publick Chap. XIV 392 That the Dukes Marquesses Count Palatines Earls Viscounts and Barons of England and the Bishops as Barons have and do enjoy their Priviledges and freedom from Arrests or Imprisonment of their Bodies in Civil and Personal Actions As Servants extraordinary and attendants upon the Person State and Majesty of the King in Order to his Government Weal Publick and safety of him and his People And not only as Peers abstracted from other of the Kings Ministers or Servants in Ordinary Chap. XV. 413 That many the like Priviledges and Praeheminences are and have been antiently by the Civil and Caesarean Laws and the Municipal Laws and Customs of many other Nations granted and allowed to the Nobility thereof Chap. XVI 445 That the Immunities and Priviledges granted and permitted by our Kings of England unto many of their People and Subjects who were not their Servants in Ordinary do amount unto as much and in some more than what our Kings Servants in Ordinary did or do now desire to enjoy Chap. XVII 466 That many of the People of England by the Grace and Favour of our Kings and Princes or along permission usâ—ge or prescription do enjoy and make use of very many Immunities Exemptions and Priviledges which have not had so great a Cause or Foundation as those which are now claimed by the Kings Servanes Chap. XVIII 489 That those many other Immunities and Priviledges have neither been abolished or so much as murmured at by those that have yeilded an Assent and Obedience thereunto although they have at some times and upon some Occasions received some Loss Damage or Inconveniences thereby Chap. XIX 494 That the Power and care of Justice and the distribution thereof is and hath been so Essential and Radical to Monarchy and the constitution of this Kingdom as our Kings of England have as well before as since the Conquest taken into their Cognisance divers Causes which their established Courts of Justice either could not remedie or wanted Power to determine have removed them from other Courts to their own Tribunals and propria authoritate caused Offenders for Treason or Felony to be Arrested and may upon Just and Legal Occasions respite or delay Justice Chap. XX. 503 That a care of the Honour and Reverence due unto the
contrary to the Common Law of the Land and in despite of the King refused to obey it The Parliament acknowledging the aforesaid Rights and Customs of the said Clerks of the Chancery and the contempt of the King did ordain Que breif soit mandez a Maior de Londres de attacher les divz Viscontes autres quont este parties maintenours de la guerele dont ceste bille fait mention per le Corps destre devant le Roy en sa dite Chancellerie a certein jour a respondre aussibien du contempt fait a nostre Seigneur le Roy ses mandements prejudice de son Chanceller come al dit Clerk des damages trespas faites a lui That a Writ should be awarded and directed to the Mayor of London to arrest by their Bodies the said Sheriffs of London and others which were parties and maintainers of the said evil action to answer before the King in his Chancery at a certain day as well for the contempt done to the King and his Commands and prejudice of his Chancellor as also to the said Clerk for his damages and wrong sustained And that King by a Statute made in the 36 year of his Reign forbidding under severe penalties any Pourveyance to be made but for the King and Queen and their Houses and to take any such Pourveyance without ready Money there is a pain or penalty to be imposed as Sir Edward Coke upon view of the Record thereof hath observed upon the Steward Treasurer and Controller and other Officers of the Kings Houshold for not executing that Statute which need not to have been if the cognisance of the Offences therein mentioned had not by that Act been thought fit to have been left unto them And was so far from being perswaded to release the constant Attendance of the Justices of the Kings Bench as when the Commons in Parliament in the 38th year of his Reign Petitioned him That the Kings Bench might remain in some certain Place and not be removed he answered in the negative That he would not do so And where the Court Marshal was so anciently constituted for the Placita Aulae sive Regis Palatii for Pleas Actions and Controversies concerning the Servants of the Royal Family when any should happen to arise amongst them and retained in the Kings House and Attendance and the Court of Common Pleas was designed and delegated to do Justice unto all the Common People in Real and Civil Actions in certo loco a certain place assigned in the Kings House or Palace for then and long after until our Kings of England made Whitehall their Palace or Residence it is probable that the Bars Benches and Tribunals of the Courts of Chancery Kings Bench Common Pleas Exchequer and other Courts since inhabiting that great and magnificent Hall of Westminster were movable and not so fixt as they now are and allowed not to travel with the King and his Court or to follow it and the Court of Exchequer to take care of the Royal Revenue in its Income Receipts and Disbursments It cannot without some affront or violence done to Reason be imagined that our Kings who would have that Court of the Marshal to be neerer their Persons than any other of their Courts of Justice always attending and resident for the concernment properly of their Houshold and Servants and because they should not be inforced from their daily Service to pursue their Rights or seek for Justice before other Tribunals should ever intend or be willing that their Servants and necessary Attendants should as Defendants and at the suit of Strangers and such as are not the Kings Servants be haled to Prison diverted from their Service or obstructed in it when as Justice in the old more dutiful and respectful way might as cheap and with lesser trouble be had against them at the Fountain or Spring of Justice by the King himself the Alpha or beginning of it and Omega the Dernier Resort or last Appeal where his ordinary Courts of Justice fail and cannot do ir And where some of our late Kings and Queens of England not to be wanting unto the Cries and Complaints of their People for want of Justice did afterwards appoint and allow another Court in the Reigns of King Henry the seventh Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth called and known by the name of Curia Supplicatioâ—um Libellorum the Court of Petitions and Requests where those that were honoured with the Title and Offices of Judges and as Commissioners and Masters of Requests for those particular Causes and Cases were Bishops or Barons Lords Stewards of his Houshold and other Great Officers thereof Deans of the Chappel and Doctors of Law and Divinity were stiled or called Concilium Regis that Stile or Title and Masters of Requests as Synonyma's then signifying one and the same thing And a Mastership of Requests was so highly esteemed in the seventh year of the Reign of Q. Elizabeth as there was besides Walter Haddon Doctor of the Laws and Thomas Seckford Esq a Common Lawyer the Bishop of Rochester a Master of Requests and in the 22. year of her Reign Sir William Gerrard Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland was during the time of his being in England made a Master of Requests Extra-ordinary and by the Queens Letter of Recommendation to the other Masters of Requests ordeined to sit amongst them and their Decrees were sometimes signed by the King himself with his Sign Manual and in the tenth year of King Henry the eighth divers Bills were exhibited unto Thomas Wolsey Archbishop of York Chancellor of England and Cardinal and Legate a Latere to granr Process for the Defendents appearance to answer before his Grace and others of the Kings most Honourable Council in Whitehall but at other times before and since were constrained to appear before that Council by Writ or Process of Privy Seal or a Messenger of the Kings that Court as it may be observed by the Registers and Records thereof coming to be called the Court of Requests only about the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the sixth And such care was taken by King Henry the seventh to hear and redress the Grievances and Laments of his People as in the ninth year of his Reign he assigned and enjoyned them certain months and times diligently to attend unto that business the greatest Earls and Barons having in those times been made Defendants to several Bills and Petitions many of the Learned Serjeants of the Law there pleading for their Clients and Sir Humphrey Brown Kt. one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas in the sixth year of the Reign of King Edward the sixth being made a Defendant in this Court where the Plaintiff after 12 years delays in Chancery and an Appeal from that Court unto this obtained a Decree against him and yet no Pleas and Demurrers are found to be put in
as the Court of Chancery did in the 8th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth by her Writ supersede stay 2 Writs of Exigent in the Court of Common-Pleas at the Suit of two several persons against Robert Webb one of the Cursitors of the Court of Chancery by reason of his Office Attendance in that Court which Writ of Priviledge and Supersedeas was allowed by the Judges of that Court and an entry made upon the Roll where the Plea of his Priviledge was entred in these words Ideo consideratum est quod praedictus Robertus libertatibus privilegis praedictis gaudeat Ac separalia brevia praedicta ei conceduntur therefore it is ordered that the said Robert VVebbe shall enjoy his Liberties and Priviledges and that several Writs as a foresaid be granted unto him probably Writs of Supersedeas to the Sheriffs of London unto whom the Writs of Exigent had been before sent and directed or as the Court of Chancery hath done in the ninth year of the Reign of King James in the Case of Valentine Saunders Esquire one of the Six Clarkes of that Court require by the Kings Writs the Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas to surcease the prosecution of the said Valentine Saunders to the Utlary or might aswell defend their Regal Rights in the case of their Servants in Ordinary by a Writ de Rege inconsulto commanding as in some other cases of their concernments not to proceed against them until their pleasure be further signified or assert and command the Liberties Priviledges of their Servants by Writs de libertate allocanda aswell as for Liberties to be allowed unto Citizens or Burgers which contrary to their Liberties were impleaded But too many of the Kings Servants Creditors for all are not so uncivil who would be glad to find a way or some colour or pretence of Law rudely to treat the Rights of the King and his Servants would willingly underprop that their humour and design with an objection that our Kings have conveyed their Justice unto their established Courts of Justice at Westminster and are not to contradict alter or suspend any thing which they do in his name therein And that if any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary be arrested without leave the King or the great Officers of his Houshold may not punish those that do offend therein and that being so Arrested they are so in the Custody of the Law as they ought not to be released until they do appear or give Bayl to appear and answer the Action CAP. VI. That the Kings established and delegated Courts of Justice to administer Justice to his People are not to be any bar or hinderance to his Servants in Ordinary in their aforesaid antient just and legal Priviledges and Rights or that the Messengers of his Majesties Chamber may not be sent to summon or detein in custody the Offenders therein or that any of his servants being arrested without licence are so in the custody of the Law as they cannot before apparance or bayl to the Action be delivered WHich will not at all advantage their hopes or purposes if they shall besides what hath been already proved aswell as alledged give Admittance unto a more weighed consideration that delegatio ad causas non intelligitur ad futuras a Commission or Authority entrusted for some special or determinate matters is not to be understood to extend unto all that in the administration of Justice may afterwards happen that in the Court of Exchequer the Barons are and should be the special Ministers and Supervisors of the Kings Revenue subject to his Legal Mandates and disposing power that the Court of Common-Pleas being a Court erected and continued by our Kings for the dispatch of Justice and ease of their Subjects and People in Common-Pleas or Actions wherein the King his Crown and Dignity are not immediately concerned do only hold Pleas and have Jurisdiction and Cognisance ratione Mandati by reason of the Kings Original Writs Command or Commission issuing almost in every Action from himself out of his High Court of Chancery that the Justices of the Kings-Bench are ad placita coram Rege tenenda assignati assigned as coadjutors to the King to hear determine Pleas supposed by Law to be heard before himself in that Court and by the ancient stile title of their Records said to be de consilio Regis of the Kings Councel that in the High Court of Chancery the King by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England as his Substitute or Deputy as some of our Judges in the 9th year of the Reign of King James have believed them to be in that supereminent and superintendant Court of and over all his other Courts of Justice commands his Sheriffs who are sworn to execute his Writs and not to prejudice his Rights to execute their Writs directed unto them in his Name and under his Seal doth provide and give remedies in all emergencies of Law and Justice where the Supreme and Legal Authority is implored or prayed in ayd or assistance And that where a Delegated Power or Jurisdiction is granted by the King as not only the Lawes of many other Nations but our Bracton and Fleta men not meanly learned in the antient Laws and Customes of England as well as in the civil Laws have adjudged he doth not exuere sede potestate so grant away that Jurisdiction as to exclude himself from all power and not be able upon just and legal Occasions to resume it or intermeddle in some part thereof when a Lord of a Mannor though he hath by a Patent or Commission granted to his Steward for life the power or jurisdictions of keeping his Courts assessing of Fines and the like matters appurtenant thereunto is not debarr'd when a just occasion shal either necessitate or invite him thereunto from his personal assessing of Fines or other Acts belonging unto the Court or that power authority which he should have over his Tenants that where the Liberty of a Court Baron appurtenant to the Grant of a Mannor with the jurisdiction of Sake or Soke holding of Pleas and punishment of Offenders is granted by the King or allowed to any man and his heirs by Custome or Prescription the King is not debarred upon any grievance or complaint of any Tenant of the Manor to command Justice to be done unto him by his Writs of Right Close or Patent and where a Leet being a more large or greater Jurisdiction hath been granted to a man and his heirs to seize and grant it to another for not rightly observing the order of Law therein as for not erecting a Pillory making of a Clerk of the Market and the like or altogether disusing of it and where liberties of retorna Brevum executing returning Writs in a certain Precinct or Liberty have been granted to a man his Heirs common practice and
untill it was by that prudent Prince restrained and limited to the Authority and Jurisdiction which it now enjoys was much more large and extensive than now it is and that of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings House whose power and priviledge over that part of the Kings Servants which are under his Authority being exempt from that of the Lord Steward having been not by any Act of Parliament prohibited may not be thought to exceed the power and auâ—hority inherent in their Offices and places when they shall punish or commit to prison any who shall attempt to violate or infringe the honour and priviledges of the Kings House or Servants derived unto them from his Supreme Authority who having Ordinariam Jurisdictionem in regno suo pares non habet neque superiores an Ordinary and Supreme Jurisdiction and hath neither Peer nor Superior may as well protect his Servants in his affairs and business in his House or about his Person and punish any that shall hinder them therein as the Judges in his Courts of Justice who neither have or can claim any other power or authority than what he delegates or entrusteth them withall do upon all occasions in the Case of their Officers Clerks or menial Servants They therefore who shall so much suffer their reason and understanding to wander and be mislead as to deny the Kings most Honourable Privy Councell or any other Court within their Cognisance Power and Authority tueri Jurisdictionem such a coercive power as may support their Jurisdiction may think but never find they have any ground or cause for it and if they please to tarry for a conviction untill the never failing unhappy consequences shall bring them too late to acknowledge that which in viridi observantia by late abundant sad experiments is more then a little visible in the disorders of the present Church Government occasioned by the reverend Governors want of power who having their hands as it were tyed behind them are made to be as good old Ely admonishing and reproving to no purpose and how little the directive or commanding Power of Laws will signifie where the coercive shall be absent may bitterly repent it And will meet with as little reason to second or assist their opinion that a priviledged person imprisoned contrary to his priviledge is so in the custody of the Law as not to be able to claim or make use of his priviledge to release or discharge him when the frequent use of discharging men out of prison by Habeas Corpus Supersedeas or Writs of Priviledge and their Bayles or Sureties given for their appearances discharged And in matters of Parliament Priviledge can teach and prove the contrary for in the Case of Trewynniard a Burgess of Parliament in the Court of Kings-Bench in Easter and Trinity Term in the 38th year of the Raign of K. Henry the 8th the said Trewynniard was discharged by his Priviledge although he was arrested upon an Utlary after Judgement and the Judges of the Court of Kings Bench did adjudge and declare That every Priviledge is by prescription and every praescription which soundeth for the Common-weal is good although it be a prejudice to any private person And that such a priviledge hath been alwayes granted by the King to his Commoners at the request of their Speaker the first day of the sitting of Parliament And it is common reason that forasmuch as the King and all the Realm hath an interest in the Body of every of its Members it seemeth that the private commodity of any particular man ought not to be regarded for it is a maxime That magis dignum trahit ad se minus dignum the more worthy is to be preferred before the lesse and concluded That the Parliament is the most High Court and hath more Priviledges then any Court of the Realm and that in such a Case every Burgess is to be priviledged where the Action is but at the Suit of a Subject and that by such a temporary discharge the Execution is not discharged but remaineth When as men protected that were not the Kings Houshold Servants had their Protections allowed aâ—ter the commencement of the Action sometimes after Issue joyned at other times of the nisi prius or Triall at other times after the Verdict given and sometimes at the dayes in Banck and where any Defendant neither protected or priviledged was imprisoned he was not so believed to be in the Custody of the Law but that the Judges or any one Judge of the Court out of which the Process or Writ issued might not as well out of the Term as in the Term grant in their Subordinate Jurisdiction a Supersedeas quia improvià e or erronice emanavit because there was some Error or mistaking in the awarding or granting of the Writ by which he was taken And those Authentique Books of the Register of Writs old and new Book of Entries and the presidents therein contained will sufficiently testifie that arrests of priviledged persons and the goods or persons of priviledged persons have been and ought to be discharged from Attachments Arrests and Imprisonments and that which they would call the Custody of the Law by Habeas Corpus Supersedeas or Writs of priviledge and their Bayles or Sureties given for their Appearances discharged But however the pride and disrespectfull and disobedient humors of too many of our Nation be now so much in fashion as to quarrell with every thing of Authority and the Regalities of their Soveraign the dayes of old and Ages past will evidence that the before mentioned Priviledges of the Kings Servants in Ordinary were for ought appears to the contrary believed to be so legall and reasonable CHAP. VIII That the aforesaid Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary hath been legally imparted to such as were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary but imployed upon some temporary and casuall affairs abroad and out of the Kings House AS it was desired and thought fit and necessary to be communicated to such as were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary or his Domesticks but only imployed as extraordinaries upon some of his special affairs or occasions which were but Temporary and to that end it was requisite that some signification or notice should be given that they were so imployed and that they should not be arrested imprisoned or disturbed in it but be protected from it the like being also done when any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary where imployed out of the Kings House or Pallace by their Writs of Protection under the great Seal of England for otherwise probably it would not have been known that they were his Servants either ordinary or extraordinary or what was their business And therefore in the Register of Writs a Book in the Statute of Westminster the second made in the 13th year of the Reign of K. Edward the first in the year of our Lord 1285 called the Register of the Chancery
Anno 1630. Herbert Croft Batchelor of Divinity now Bishop of Hereford and did not refuse divers of the Sons of the Nobility who sought to partake of the honour of access unto his Majesty and the more select rooms of State in his Court which in that of the Kings of Spain is not thought fit to be communicated but to some of their especial Attendants to be sworn Gentlemen Extraordinary of his Privy-Chamber as in the year 1631. the Lord Matravers eldest Son to Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey and Sir William Howard Knight of the Bath now Viscount Stafford his Brother and in the year 1638. the Earl of Kildare the first Earl of Ireland who could not be blamed for their inclinations or tendency to the center of Honour when as long before the Conquest or fatal period of our Saxon Ancestors King Alfred had many of the Sons of the Nobility educated and brought up in his Court and that noble and well becoming custom received and met with in many ages after so great an encouragement as the young Lords or Nobility had a constant Table or dyet in the Court untill in the Reign of King Edward the 6th the perswasions of a needless and unhappy parsimony did put an end to that part of the Royal munificence which King Henry the 3d. in some hundred years before would not in his greatest wants of daily necessaries occasioned by some of his unruly Barons when he took such relief as some Abbeys would afford him quit that part of the honour of his Court or Houshold nor did our late King of blessed memory deny the like honour of his Privy-Chamber to divers Gentlemen of note or great esteem in their Countries as Sir Arthur Capel Knight aâ—terwards Lord Capel that heroick and loyal Martyr for his King and the Fifth Commandment of his Heavenly King charged upon all Mankind in the Decalogue Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Son of Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings-Bench or Sir Thomas Roe Knight a learned and well experienced Embassador to the Mogor or Mogull that great Prince in the East-Indies and to several States and Kingdoms in Christendom Sir Fulk Hunkes Knight and Sir Ferdinando Knightley Knight two well experienced Commanders in the English Regiments in the Netherlands or United Provinces Sir Edward Dearing Knight one of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament in the year 1641. and unto Sir William Waller Knight who afterwards bitterly repented the vain-glory of being a Conqueror of some of his Soveraigns Forces endeavouring to defend him and their Laws and Liberties in the late Rebellion and to some others who could afterwards stain their formerly more loyal Families in that horrid Rebellion and imploy their time and Estates against their King which had â—o much honoured them or to admit into his service as a Servant Extraordinary Edmond Cooper a Drummer John Houghton a Chirurgeon or some excellent Picture-drawer as the famous Sir Anthony van Dike or some Foreign curious Engineer Gunsmith or other excelling Artificers who without some such encouragements would not have benefited our Nation with their skill and residence and was in that Prince of blessed memory and will be in our gracious Soveraign no less allowable than iâ— was in King David to take into his Family as an Extraordinary when his affection and gratitude prompted him unto it Chimham the son of the good old Barzillai when many of the Yeomanry of England have besides their Servants in ordinary some that are as extraordinary and work a great part of the year with them And the Nobility and Gentry of England sincâ— their restraint of giving Liveries by several Acts of Parliament to prevent the too freequent use of that in making of parties and factions in one of which viz. that of the first and second year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th cap. 21. it is provided as hath been mentioned That the King may give his Honourable Livery to his menial Knights and Esquires and also to his Knights and Esquires of his retinue who are not to use it in their Counties but in the Kings presence and the Prince and the Nobility coming unto the Court and returning from thence were specially excepted are not at this day debarred the moderate use of Liveries or some as extraordinary Servants to be imployed upon several occasions to retain unto them as the Lord Mayor of London is not without the attendance of Livery-men of the Companies or Fraternities of Trade or such as he shall select out of them in some grand Solemnities as the meeting or welcoming of the King to his City or Chamber of London at his return from a Progress or from Scotland to conduct into the City a Russian or Persian Embassador and it hath been ever accounted to be a Royal or honourable way of Espargne to have some to be extraordinary Servants without the charge of Bouche of Court or annual salaries to be alwayes in readiness at grand festivals or occasions and those Citizens of London and men of the Mysteries of gain and Trade who have aggrandized their Credits and Estates by the Sun-shine and warmth of the residence of the King and his Courts of Justice can when a little before they could busie themselves in needless murmurs and complaints against the Priviledges of the Kings Servants in ordinary and extraordinary think themselves to be no mean men in their Parishes and Companies if they can procure the favour to be admitted the Kings Servants extraordinary as he shall have occasion to be cozened in such Manufactures or Wares as their Trades afford in so much as it is become the preferment and ambition of one of every Trade great or little some few only excepted in the City of London to be entituled to be the Kings Servant as the Kings Grocer Brewer Apothecary Mercer Draper Silk-man Taylor Printer Stationer Bookseller Girdler a Trade now altogether disused Shoomaker Spurrier c. and are well contented to enjoy all the Priviledges appertaining to the Kings Servants as not to bear Offices in their Parishes or Custard-cram'd Companies and not to be arrested without licence And their Wives swelling into a tympany of Pride will be apt enough to think their former place and reputation too far beneath them and not let their Husbands purse have any rest or quiet untill they can be fine enough to go to the Court and see the Lords and Ladies their Husbands fellow Servants And they which cannot attain to that honour to be such a Servant of the Kings extraordinary for they cannot be truly said to be any thing more than the Kings Servants extraordinary when as he as to many of them hath no daily or but a seldom and occasional use of them and where he hath most it is not constantly or often do think it to be worth the utmost of their endeavours to obtain the honour and priviledge of being the Queens
many great and high priviledges as not to be examined in an action of debt upon account but their Attorneys are permitted to be examined upon Oath for them not to be amerced or taxed but by their Peers secundum modum delicti according to the nature of their offence Et hoc per Barones de Scaccario vel coram ipso Rege and in such cases before only the Barons of the Exchequer or before the King himself if a Parkership be granted to an Earl without words to make a deputy he may do it by his Servants if a Duke Earle or any other of the Baronage do chase or hunt in any of the Kings Parkes the law for conveniency and in respect of his dignity will permit him so many attendants as shall be requisite to the dignity of his estate are not to be summoned to a Court Leet or Shire Reeves Turn or take their Oathes of Allegiance as all other Males above the age of 12 are to do neither they nor their Wives are where they cast an Esseine to make Oath as those which are under the degree of Barons ought to do of the truth of the cause alledged for their Essoine but are only to find pledges and if upon that Essoine allowed a default be made at the day appointed amertiandi sunt Plegii the pledges but not the Earles or Barons are to be amerced are exempted by the Seatute of the 5 th of Eliz. cap. 1. from taking the Oath of Supremacy for that the Queen as that Statute saith was well assured of the Faith of the Temporal Lords shall have the benefit of their Clergy in all cases but Murder and Poysoning are not to be put to the Rack or tortured nor to suffer death even in cases of Treason by the shamefull death of Hanging Drawing and affixing their Heads and Quarters in some publick places or as at Naples they execute common persons for such most execrable offences by beheading them and putting their Heads upon the Market-place and hanging afterwards the naked Corps in some pubblick place by one of their Toes but are by the favour and warrant of the King only beheaded and their bodies with their heads laid by permitted to be decently buried Shall not be tryed by any Ecclesiastical Courts but per Pares by their Peers for Non-conformity to Common-Prayer shall have Chaplains according to their several degrees and limitations of number who may hold two Benefices with cure When the Sheriff of a County is commanded to raise the posse comitatus the power of a County he is not to command the personal service of the Baronage or Nobility a Baron or a Noble man is not to pray that a Coroner may receive his accusation or to prove and approve his accusation or appeal in every point or to be disabled for want thereof When the King by Writ of Summons to Parliament Scire Facias or his Letters missive shall send for any of the Arch-bishops Bishops Earls or Barons to appear before him or give their attendance they may in their going or returning kill a Deer or two in any of his Forrests Chases and Parkes and carry them away a Capias ad satisfaciend lieth not against a Peer or Baron of England a Baron shall not be impannelled of a common Jury although it be for the service of the Country no Attachment for a contempt in not appearing or answering in Chancery lyeth against them their Lands parcel of their Earldoms Baronies or Honors being not to be contributary to the wages of Knights of the Shire or County wherein those Lands do lie are in cases of Felony or Treason to be tryed only by their Peers and their Wives are by a Statute made in the 20 th year of King Henry the 6 th to enjoy the like priviledge upon the Surety of the Peace prayed against a Baron he is not to be arrested by warrant from a Justice and upon a Supplicavit out of the Chancery shall give no surety but promise only upon his Honor A Defendant shall not have a day of Grace given him against a Lord of Parliament because he is supposed to attend the affairs of the publick a Baron shall not answer upon Oath to a Bill in Chancery or Equity but upon protestation of Honor nor in a verdict upon a Tryal by Peers for saith Crompton the Law makes so much account of the word of a Peer of the Realm when he speaks upon his honor though it be in Case or upon Tryal for life as it shall be believed a Baron shall not have a writ of Subpaena directed unto him but a Letter under the Hand and Seal of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England is not to be arrested or outlawed for Debt or any other personal action not criminal there being two Reasons saith our Law why the person of a Lord should not be arrested or outlawed for Debt or Trespass the one in respect of his dignity and the other in respect that the law presumes that they have sufficient lands and tenements by which they may be distreined in the Long Writ called the Prerogative Writ issuing out of the Exchequer to distreine the lands and goods of the Kings debtors or in default thereof to attach their bodies there is an express exception of Magnatum dominorum dominarum of the Nobility and their Ladies and the Office of Count or Earl was of great trust and confidence for two purposes the first ad consulendum Regi tempore pacis to councel assist and advise the King for the Weale publick in time of peace and the second ad defendendum Regem patriam tempore belli to defend their King and Country in time of War and by their power prowess and valour guard the Realm both which are the proper business of the Barons and the other Nobility as well as the Earls and in action of Debt Detinue or Trespass or in any other action reall or personal brought or commenced for or against any of the Nobility two Knights shall be impannelled on the Jury with other men of worth and by a late necessary and honorable care of the late Lord Chancellor and Master of the Rolls no Original Writ against any of the Nobility in a subsequent Term is permitted to be antedated or to take benefit of a precedent as is now commonly used against such as are not of the Peerage or Nobility Mr. Selden giving us the Rule that tenere de Rege in Capite per Baroniam to hold of the King in Capite and to have lands holden by Barony and to be a Baron are one and the same thing and Synonymies and not a few of our antient Writers and Memorialls have understood the word Baronia to signifie an Earldom or the lands appertaining thereunto which may make it to be more then conjectural that it
the Coasts of Guinee in Africa a Country not at all acquainted with learning or the more civilized Customes of Africa Europe or Asia those that they take for their Nobility have a liberty which the vulgar have not to trade in every place as they please sell and buy slaves have their Drums and Trumpets play as they think good before them and those who are advanced for any Noble Atcheivement have always the principal charges in the Army Nor should our Nobility or the Kings servants be debarred of any of their just rights or privileges when as per reductionem ad principia by a view and reflection upon the Original and causes of all those many priviledges and immunities granted or permitted by our Kings of England unto others of his Subjects and people it will appear that his own servants in Ordinary should not be grudged that which by so many grounds of law and right reason and the antient and reasonable Customes of England may be believed to belong unto them CHAP. XVII That the Immunities and Priviledges granted and permitted by our Kings of England unto many of their People and Subjects who were not their Servants in Ordinary do amount unto asmuch and in some more then what our Kings Servants in Ornary did or do now desire to enjoy FOr ab hac solis luoe from those or the like rays and beams of Majesty and emanations of right reason and necessity of the Kings affairs which notwithstanding the late groundless mad and fond rebellious principle of seperating the Kings person from his Authority and a pretended supremacy in the Parliament or at the least a co-ordination should not be disturbed came and was derived that grand priviledg of the Nobility and Baronage of England many of whom are not his Domesticks not to be molested in time of Parliament or forty days before the beginning of it in their coming unto it upon the Kings Summons and as many days after the end of a Parliament in their retorn to their Habitations though there is no direct way or Journey from their habitations to any place in England where the Parliament is to be kept or holden which can require so much expence of time as twenty days in travelling unto it or twenty days in retorning home by any Process Writs or Summons out of any the ordinary or extraordinary Courts of Justice law or equity the Baronage of England enjoying those priviledges in the 18 th year of the Raign of King Edward the first which were then not newly granted or permitted but were antient and justly and legally to be insisted upon as the punishment of the Prior of the holy Trinity in London not meanly fortified with his own priviledges and the power and protection of the Church and that also of Bogo de Clare who was imprisoned and fined two thousand Marks to the King at that time a very great sum of mony pro transgressione sibi facta for the trespass committed against the King for citing Edmond Earl of Cornwal in Westminster Hall in the time of Parliament to appear before the Arch-bishop of Canterbury whose spiritual Court and Power was then very predominant as hath been before mentioned and it appeareth in the Records of that Kings Raign that he refused to give leave to the Master of the Temple to distrein the Bishop of St. Davids in Parliament time for the Rent of an house held of him in London and answered quod non videtur honestum quod Rex concedat tempore Parliamenti sed alio tempore distringat that it would not be just or fitting for the King to grant such a Licence in time of Parliament but at another time he might distrein and by a very antient right are to be exempted from arrest and the Ordinary Course of Process when there were no Parliaments The Writ of Summons directed to the Sheriffs for the Election of two Knights the wisest and most discreet of every Shire and County of England the County Palatine of Chester then only excepted and for two Burgesses to be sent unto Parliament out of the Cities and certain Boroughs of England the King in the Parliament being without suspition of any unwarrantable conjecture to be rationally believed to have been first framed and sent out in K. Henry the thirds name in the 49 th year of his Raigne by the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester after the Battle of Lewis in Sussex wherein he and his Son Prince Edward afterwards King Edward the first were taken Prisoners by them and other the Rebellious Barons who had taken armes against him as my learned and worthy friend Mr. William Dugdale Norroy King at Armes by comparing the date of those Writs the one bearing date the 14 th day of December at Worcester in the 49 th year of the Raign of that King and the other at Woodstock the 24 th of December in the same year to meet at London on the Octaves of St. Hiâ—lary then next ensuing with the day or time of that Battle and that Kings imprisonment hath after it had for so many Ages past escaped the Industry Inquiries Observations and Pens of all other our English Writers Annalists Chronicles Antiquaries very judiciously and ingeniously observed which Summons of the Commons to Parliament doth not saith Mr. William Prynn appear to have been put in Execution untill about the 23th year of the Raign of King Edward the first whence by Regal Indulgencies and no Innate or Inherent right of their own but ab hoc fonte from the same spring and fountain of the attendance and affairs of the King proceeded the priviledges of Parliament for the Members of the house of Commons in Parliament to be free from actions at Law or Pleas in time of Parliament as Early as the raign of King Edward the second when he sent his Writ or Proclamation to the Justices of Assize in all the Counties of England to supersede all actions against the Barons and others summoned to Parliament In the 11 th year of the raign of King Richard the second upon a riot and trespass committed upon the Lands Goods Servants and Tenants of Sir John Derwintwater chosen to be a Member of Parliament for the County of Cumberland a Commission was granted by that King under the great Seal of England to Henry de Percy Earl of Northumberland to inquire by a Jury of the County of Westmerland concerning the same and to cause to be arrested and taken all that should be found guilty thereof and to appear before the King and his Councell wheresoever he should be 15 days after the Michaelmass then next ensuing In the fifth year of the Raign of King Henry the fourth the Commons in Parliament alledging that whereas according to to the Custome of the Realm the Lords Knights Citizens and Burgesses coming to Parliament at his Command and there staying and in retorning to their Countrys ought With their men and
of our Kings and Princes CHAP XVIII That many of the People of England by the grace and favour of our Kings and Princes or a long permission usage or prescription do enjoy and make use of very many immunities exemptions and priviledges which have not had so great a cause or foundation as those which are now claimed by the Kings Servants ANd do and may more inconvenience such part of the People which have them not than the little trouble of asking leave or licence to sue or prosecute at Law any of the Kings Servants as the freedom of Copy-hold Estates not long ago three parts in four of all the Lands in England but now by the making and enfranchising of too many Freeholders reduced to less than a fourth part from extents or the incumbrances of Judgments Statutes or Recognizances Not to permit upon any one Creditors Judgment any more than the Moiety of Free-hold Lands to be extended that old part of our English mercy to Men impoverished or indebted which to this day and many hundred years before hath been constantly observed nor to seize or take in Execution unless for want of other Goods and Chattels the Beasts and Cattel of their Ploughs and Carts derived unto us from the law of Nature or Nations or the providence and compassion of Nebuzar-adan the chief Marshal or Captain of the Army of Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon who when he had taken and destroyed Jerusalem and carried away captive to Babylon many of the people of Judah and Jerusalem left certain of the poor of the Land for Vinedressers and for Husbandmen and from the reason equity and moderation of the Civil Law Or when the Laws or reasonable Customs of England will not permit a Horse to be destrained when a Man or Woman is riding upon him an Ax in a Mans hand cutting of Wood the Materials in a Weavers Shop Garments or Cloth in a Taylors Shop Stock of Corn or Meal in a Mill or Market or Books of a Schollar the many and great Franchises Liberties Exemptions and Priviledges some whereof have been already mentioned of about six hundred Abbies and Priories the many Liberties and Franchises in every County and Shire of England and Wales which if no more than five in every County one with another would make a total of more than two hundred and fifty and if ten amount to the number of five hundred besides those of above six hundred Cities and Corporations which are not without great Priviledges Immunities Exemptions and Liberties which do occasion more trouble and loss of time by sueing out of Writs of Non omsttas propter aliquam libertatem to give power to the Sheriffs to Arrest within those Liberties than the attendance upon a a Lord Chamberlain or other great Officer of the Kings Houshold to obtain leave to Arrest any of the Kings Servants would bring upon them those many thousand Mannors to which are granted Court-Leets and Court-Barons with their many other Liberties and Franchises little Judicatories Sace and Soke authority and a Coercive power over their Tenants Free and Copy-hold and Free Warren granted to many of those Lords of Mannors whose Hunting and Hawking brings many times no small prejudice to their Neighbors or Tenants the Franchises Liberties and priviledges of the City of London given or permitted by our Kings that no Citizen shall be compelled to Plead or be Sued or Prosecuted at Law out of the Walls of their City and their Prohibitions by Acts of Common Council which do prohibit Freemen upon great Penalties which have been severely inflicted to Sue one another out of the City when they may have their recovery in their own Courts and every Freeman bound thereunto by Oath at their admission to their Freedom their priviledge of Lestage to be Toll-free of all which they buy or sell in any Market or Fair of the Kingdom are not to be constrained to go to War out of the City or farther than from whence they may return at Night that none but such as are free of the City shall Work or Trade within it or the large extended Liberties within the circumference thereof That of the City of Norwich to have the like Liberties as London the Liberties of the City of Canterbury City of Winchester and Towns of Southampton and Derby not to be impleaded out of their Cities or Corporations That of the Hospitallers and Knight-Templers and many others saith Bracton not to be impleadid but before the King or his Chief Justice That of the University of Oxford That no Schollar Servant or Officer to any Colledge or Hall in the Vniversity or to the said Vniversity belonging shall be Arrested within the City or the Verge or Circumference thereof extending from the said University and Town of Oxford Ab orientali parte ejusdem Villae usque ad Hospitalem sancti Bartholomei juxta Oxon ab occidentali parte ejusdem Villae usque ad Villam de Botelye a parte Boreali ejusdem Villae usque ad pontem vocat Godstow Bridge ab australi parte ejusdem Ville usque ad quendam Boscâ—m vocat Bagley sic in circuitu per Loca praedicta quemlibet locum eorundem in perpetuum From the East part of the said Town unto the Hospital of St. Bartholomew near Oxford and from the West part of the said Town to the Village of Botely and from the North part of the said Town of Oxford to Godstow Bridge and from the South part of the said Town of Oxford to a certain Wood called Bagley and in the circumference of the said City and University extending unto all the Places aforesaid and every of the said Places for ever but by Process or Mandate of the Chancellor of the University of Oxford or if prosecuted or impleaded in the High Court of Chancery or in the Court of Kings-Bench where the Party prosecuting hath been a Sub-Marshal of the said Court and a Commissary of the Chancellor of that University hath been Indicted forbeating of him or in any of the other Courts of Justice at Westminster or any other Court of the Kingdom do by their Certificate under their half Seal as it is called that the Defendant is a Schollar or belonging to the Vniversity or some Hall or Colledge therein demand and obtain Cognizance of the Action which with other of that famous Universities Priviledges were in the thirteenth Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth confirmed by Act of Parliament that of the University of Cambridge being not without those or the like franchises priviledges and immunities against which or many more of the like nature which might be here recited there ought not to be any murmure or repining as there never was or but seldom or very little by alledging any prejudice loss or inconveniences which some have sustained thereby or may happen to particular Men by any of those or the like Franchises Immunities or Priviledges which
convenire Commanded the whole County without any delay to assemble together as well French as English and more especially such of the English as were skilful in the ancient Laws and Customs of England ubi Goisfredus Bishop of Constance in loco Regis saith the Leiger Book of Rochester vel vice Regis saith Eadmerus fuit Justiciam illam tenuit â—at Judge for or in the place or stead of the King as his Commissioner Hujus placiti multis testibus multisque rationibus determinatum finem postquam Rex audivit laudavit laudans cum consensu omnium principum suorum which could not be the Commons in Parliament as it is now formed or the then Commune Concilium the Parliament consisting of his Nobility Bishops and Peers who could not all of them be stiled Princes but were rather such of his greater sort of Nobility as were then attending upon him in his Court assembled and met together by his Command in that great and more than ordinary County-Court confirmavit ut deinceps incorruptus persevâ—raret â—irmiter praecepit the end of which Trial made by many Witnesses and Reasons being certified to the King he greatly approved it and by the consent of all his Princâ—s confirmed and strictly commanded it to be inviolably observed In the Reign of William Rufus his Son the Delegated Justice of the King in his Courts was so little believed not to be the Kings or the Judgments thereby or therein given not owned or understood to be given by the King as it was the Opinion as well as Complaint of Anselme Arch-bishop of Canterbury how justly or unjustly the Men of that Age when the Church-men were unruly and did not seldom forget themselves and their Benefactors did best know quod cuncta Regalis Curia pendebant ad nutum Regis nilque in ipsis nisi solum velle illius considerari That all matters in the Kings Court depended upon his Will and his onely Will was the Director thereof and whether the particular Interest of that stout and pious Prelate had therein misled his Judgment or no they must be too much unacquainted with our Laws reasonable Customs Annals Memorials Records and Accompts of Time and Transactions bigane and past as well as those of other Nations and the right origination or signification of the word Curia or Court and the no infrequent usage or acceptation thereof if they do not acknowledge that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nuncupatur potestas Dominium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui potestate fretus est judiciumque exercet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi habitacula Domini That Curia signifieth Power and Dominion and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that exerciseth that Power in giving Judgment therein and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Habitation or Place of Residence of the Lord or Superior dicebatur autem Curia saith the judicious Sr. Henry Spelman primo de Regia seu palatio Principis inde de familia Judiciis in ea habitis ritu veterrimo it being at the first or more especially called Curia or the Court and took its Denomination by a most antient Usage or Custom from the Kings House or Palace and afterwards from their Houshold or Family and the Place where Kings did administer Justice And so untill Courts for the distribution of Justice were allow'd for the ease of Princes and better accommodation of their People out of their Houses or Palaces it will not be easie or possible to espy any essential difference as to the Place of doing Justice betwixt Curia Regis and Camera Regis the Court or Chamber of the King for after that some of our Courts of Justice in England by the indulgence of their Soveraigns ceased either to be ambulatory or resident in their Palaces those that have not bid a defiance to that universally allowed and entertained Maxim by all or most part of Mankind Qui facit per alium facit per se He that doth by another is truly and rightly said to have done it himself and are not resolved to encounter or be adversaries to all the right Reason which they can meet with or to pick up such weak and incogent Arguments as may make a shadow rather than substance of Truth or right Reason ought to confess that there is no real difference between the Kings doing of Justice in his own Person and cauâ—ing it to be done by others or betwixt the hearing of Causes or doing of Justice in the Hall or his Privy Chamber or any other Room of his House or Palace and that before and from the Conquest untill after the thirty eighth Year of the Reign of King Edward the Third whilst the Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench attended our Kings as well in their Courts as Progress to assist him in matters of Law and the Decision of Pleas of the Crown and such matters of Law as were not appropriate to the Decision of the Court of Common Pleas as it was then and hath been since constituted which did not leave the Kings Court or Palace untill King Henry the Third commanded it in the twentieth Year of his Reign to abide at Westminster Our Kings of England have in their own Persons heard some or many Causes and given divers Judgments in Aula in their Court or Palace in some Causes wherein they had the assistance of the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench and when they did not do it personally by reason of their frequent Divertisements Addresses of Ambassadors from Foreign Princes or in respect of the many great Affairs and Cares of State and Government which could not afford them the time or leisure to do it did cause it to be done by their Authority and by their constituted Justices who Vicaria Potestate by as it were a Deputation Lieutenancy or Assignation to those onely purposes represented them and were impowered to do it the Courts of Justice in William the Conquerors time being called Justicia Regis the Justice of the King and the Judges or Justices in the Reign of King Henry the Second Justiciae Regis in the abstract the Kings Judges or Justices For the Kings Justice or Superiority was never yet by any Law or Reason absolutely or altogether conâ—ined to his delegated Courts or authorized Judges or Justices or to any certain or determinate Place as that froward and powerful enough Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury could not but acknowledge when in a Parliament or Great Council holden in the Kings Court at Winchester by the Command of King William the Second or William Rufus in the Contest betwixt him and that King concerning that Archbishops resolution oâ— going to Rome and the Kings refusing to give him Licence divers of the Lords and Bishops passed in and out betwixt them and at last the Archbishop himself went in unto him to expostulate and debate the Matter with him And in the making of the Constitutions of Clarendon in
peace in the said University as much as in him is And give Councell and help to the Chancellor ond Schollars of the same University to punish the disturbers and breakers of the peace there after the priviledges and Statutes of the University at all times when it shall be needful and put his help with all his Strength to defend the priviledges liberties and Customs of the said University and give the like oath unto his Undersheriffes and other his ministers when he shall come to the Town and Castle of Oxford in the presence of any who shall be deputed by the said University unto the which things the King will that his said Ministers shall be arcted and compelled The like Oath being to be taken by the Sheriffs of Cambridge and Huntington for the conversation of the rights and priviledges of the University of Cambridge Do the Jnns of Court or houses of law which for some Ages or Centuries past were appropriate and set apart for the Study of the Common lawes of England and other necessary parts of learning and endowments proper and fit to bear the sons of our Nobility and Gentry company within their houses and precincts claim and enjoy as they ought to do according to the law of Nations and the priviledges of all the Universities and places of Study in the Christian world A just and legal priviledge of a freedom from any Arrest or disturbance by the officers of any Subordinate Magistrate in matters not Capital or more then ordinary criminal And the Inner and Middle-Temples and Lincolns-Jnn being besides entituled to the like Exemption priviledge by a particular Immunity and Exemption granted anciently by some of our Kings of England long before they were Societies of law to the Owners and Proprietors of the Mannor of the New Temple then so called the old one being before scituate in or near Holborn and as well as the new one sometimes part of the possessions of the Knights Templers now containing the Inner and most part of the Middle-Temple and likewise the outer Temple without Temple-Bar extending it self as far as to part of Essex house garden and into New-street now called Chancery-Lane and Ficket or Fickelscroft now Lincolns-Inn fields upon part whereof Lincolns-Inn was built To be held sub eadem forma in the same manner as the honor or Earldom of Leicester and the Lands thereunto belonging were antiently holden with an Exemption or priviledge that no Justices Escheators Bayliffs or other Ministers or Officers of the King should enter or intermeddle therein of which the Successors and Owners and those as honourable as useful Collegiate nurseries of law and learning although they do not as our Universities and those which are in the parts beyond the Seas claim a conusance in causes and controversies at law wherein their Schollars Students and officers are concerned have been so careful to preserve those their Antient and necessary priviledges as they have upon any the least violation or attempt to bereave them thereof sallied out like so many young Lions and appeared to be the stout Propugnators and defenders thereof rescued such as have been Arrested within their Liberties whether any or none of the Society beaten and pumped the Catchpoles Serjeants at Mace or Bailiffs ignominiously shaved their heads and beards Anointed them with the costly Oyl or Syrrup of their houses of Offices or Jakes and at the Temple for a farewell thrown them into the Thames Do all men that have Liberties and Priviledges appertaining to their Estates or Persons or any Offices or Places which they hold Summon the best of their Cares and Industry to maintain them and shall it be a crime or disgrace to the Kings Servants either to be entituled unto or endeavor to Assert them Shall it be deemed just Legal and Rational that the City of London should be so carefull of their Customs and Liberties granted not only by King Henâ—y the first but confirmed by divers Kings and Queens of England and many of their Acts of Parliament as no longer ago than in the year of our Lord 1669. to Claim in their Act or common Councel that no Citizen is to be compelled to plead without the Walls of their City and their Freemen are bound by Oath as well as by many Acts of Common Councel of that City not to Sue one another out of the City where they may have remedie in their own Courts and to maintain the Franchises and Liberties thereof and that the Warrant of leuetur quaerela for the removing of any Action or Plaint depending in any of the Sheriffs Courts of that City into the Mayors Court brought by a Serjeant at Mace and Ministers of the Mayors Court shall not be refused or shall it be taken or beleeved to be inconvenient for that City or their Freemen to be drawn or enforced to Plead or be Prosecuted out of their own Courts And shall it not be as reasonable for the King in the case of his own Houshold and Domestick Servants to protect them from being disturbed in his Service by any Arrests without his Licence Doth every Sheriff of England and Wales at his admission into his Office swear that as far as hâ— can or may he shall truly keep the Kings Rights and all that belongeth unto the Crown and shall not assent to decrease lessen diminish or conceal any of the Kings Rights or his Franchises and whensoever he shall have knowledge that the Kings Rights or the Rights of his Crown be withdrawn be it in Land Rent Franchises or Suits or any other thing he shall do his power to make them to be restored to the King again and if he may not do it shall certifie the King or some of his Councel thereof and can any Sheriff of England and Wales without the acknowledgment of a gross ignorance with any safety of their Oaths or Consciences knowingly Arrest or cause to be Arrested any of the Kings Servants against the Will of his or their Sovereign Doth a Custom or civility so far prevail with the Sheriffs of London and their Clarks as when any Action is entred against any Alderman of the City or the Sword-bearer or other Officer of the Lord Mayor they will not Arrest an Alderman man or take away the Lord Mayors Sword-Bearer from before him untill they have given them a civil and private notice thereof whereby to prevent the disgrace or give them time to provide against it or procure a Truce or quiet And shall the Servants of their Masters Master if they were not more justly than they entituled to their Antient and Legal Priviledges not be so much respected which his late Majesty thought to be as undecent as Inconvenient when upon some disrespects shewed by some of that City in their endeavors to inforce upon some of his Servants the Office of Constable or Church-warden he demanding of the Lord Mayor of London whom he had caused to Attend him upon that Complaint and
Immediately send word to the Lord Mayor thereof and the cause why he is so punished from which the Lord Mayor may not release him but by the Chamberlains assent And shall it not be lawfull for the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings most Honourable Houshold by and under the Kings Supreme Authority to Imprison or punish any who in Contempt of Soveraignty and Majesty shall without licence first procured Arrest any of his Servants For certainly it is and should be the Interest of the people of England not to deny so great a principle of Nature and so clear a part of the Reason of all Mankind or to give unto Caesar that which so justly belongeth unto him by the Laws of God Nature Nations Laws of England Custom and prescription Right of Superiority Oaths of Allegiance and supremacy Et quod ubique quod semper ad omnibus and which every where always and of all men except by our late rude and levelling part of the people have neither been repined at or maligned And it will not be for the Interest of the people of England to oppose their Prejudices Fancies Humours and Opiniastretés to the Rights of the King and his Servants but it is and will be the Interest of the King to preserve the Rights of Majesty Superiority and just means of Government and to punish the violaters and Contemners thereof and the Interest of all his good people to wish and desire it FINIS a Gutherius de Offic. domus August lib. 1. ca. 1 b Deut 4.32 c Job 8. v. 8 9. d Jer. 6. v. 16. e Craigius de repub Lacedaemon lib. 2. ca. 2. f Livius lib. 9.349 350. g Petit. Parl. 46 E. 3. a Esther c. 4. ver 11. b Esther c. 4 ver 2. c Xiphilinus in Nerone Grâ—gor Tholosan in Syntagmate Juris 378. d Cujacius Comment ad lib. 11. Cod. Justin tit 77. e Goldastus Constit. Imperialibus Tâ—m 3. 4 8â— â—ect 166 tit de Cura Palâ—tu 15. f L. L. Alamannorum in Lindenbrogio tit 29. g L. L. Bai variorum in Lindenbrogio tit 11. h L. L. Longobard in Lindenbrogio lib. 1. tit 2. de Scâ—ndalis i Charta Câ—nfiâ—mâ—tiâ—nis Regis Witlafâ—â— Monâ—sterii de Croyland Dugdale Monasâ—icon Anglicanum â—65 166. Spelman Concilia Decretâ—â—leges Ecclesiastic 337. k L. L. Aluredi cap. 31. l Annales Wintoniensis Ecclesiae M.S. in Biblotheca Cottoniana sub Effigie Domitiani in A. 13. Et vide Asser Menevensis m L.L. Edmondi cap. 75 76. n Leges Ecclesiast Hoell Dha in Spelmanni Decret Constitut. Ecclesi 409. o Leges Ecclesiast Hoelâ— Dha Regis Walliae in Spelmanni Decret leg Ecclesiastic 408 412. p L.L. Caâ—uti cap. 56. q Charta Henrici primi Monasterio de Hide Dugdales Monasticon Anglicanum 211 212. r L.L. Henrici primi per Cl. Seldenum in Lucem emiss cap. 16. Fleta lib. 2. cap. 2. Cokes 10. relat en le case de'l Marchalsea s Placit Parliamenti 18. E 1. n. 4. Ryleyes plâ—c Parl. 6.7 Pryns Aurum Reginae 28. t Cokes 3. part Institut tit misprision 141. Placita coram Dâ—mino Rege in Parl. apud Westm ' in praesentia Regis Anno 21. E. 1. u Pascha 8 E. 2. coram Rege rot 28. Norff. w Cokes 3 par Institut 141. x Selden mare clausum cap. 22 26. y Fleta lib. 2. cap. 3. z Mich. 12 E. 3. Coram Rege Rot. 101 Cant. a 27 Assis. pl. 49. b 33 H. 8. ca. 12. c Rotul parl 21 Jac. Cokes 3 part institut 148. d Concil Meldense ca. 26. Spelman Glossar in voce Epis. copium e Cokes 3 parte institut tit misprision f Purchas Pligrimage 2 part voyage of Francis Alvareza Portugal 1053. Ibid. 1071 1083. Ibid. 1107. g Voyage Francis Pyzard de la val 2 part Purchas Pilgrimage 1648 1663 1664. h Mr. John Davis relation of his voyage to the East Indies 1 par of Purchas Pilgrimage 132. i Paulus Venetus in 3 pâ—rt of Purchas Pilgrimage 66. k 3 parl Purchas Pilgrimage 88. l Relation of Galeota Perera in 3 part of Purchas Pilgrimage 2â—5 m Ricius Trigantius in 3 part of Purchase Pilgrimage 392 353. n 3 part Purchas Pilgrimage 1139. o Genes 13. v. 7 8. p Exod. 20. q Gadd us in Comment ad l. 19 5. nu 2. 4. ad Sect 4. de verborum significatione L. Aedi les 25. r Sect. 2.3.6 Institut de Injur Besoldus in Dissert Juri Politic. 48. s L.L. Inae cap. 18. L. L. Aethelstani 60 u L.L. Alemanorum in Lindenbrogio Tit. 29. w L.L. Longobard in Lindenbrogio lib. 2. Tit. 4. x Lindenbrogius lib. 4. inter Capiâ—l Caroli y Cujacius Comment ad lib. 12. Cod. Justiniani 1635 Marculfi formulae z L L. Wisigoth in Lindenbrogio lib. 2. Tit. 4. a Vide Register of Writs Tit. Protect b 9 H. 3. c. 11 c Register of Writs 19. Tit. Warrantia diâ—i d Coke 4. Instit. 53. Lib. 5. D. de offic ad sess Spartianus in Hadrian Gutherius de offic Domus August lib. 1 cap. 17. e Coke 3. Rep. Sir William Herberts Case f Register of Writs 281. g 25 E. 3. cap. 19. Rot. Par. 8 H. 6. m. 10. h 34 35. C. H. 8. c. 13. i Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum Impâ—ess 1571. k Placita Aulae 33. E. 1. 20. E. 3. d Jer. 6 v. 16 e Gen. 41. v. 40 41 4â— f 2 Sam. 11. vers 11. 2 Sam. 10. vers 2 4 5. 2 Reg. cap. 5. v. 13.6 7. g Prov. 22. vers 29. h Jer. 38. cap. 41. i Besoldus in opere Politico cap. 3. k Nehem. 7. vers 57. l Esâ—her c. 1. v. 1. c 6 v. 6 7 8 9. c. 7. v. 15. m Esther c. 1. v. 14. Ezrâ— c. 7. vers 15. n Matt. 11 vers 8. o Edict Theodosii l. 4. Cod. p Vlpian 1. leg Julia 7. ad leg Jul. de vi pub l. 46. Pâ—tit 6. q Pancirollus in Notitia utriusque Imper. r Pancirollus in Notitia utriusq Imper. cap. 51. s Ibid. ca. 66. t Ibid. ca. 89. u Dion l. 60. w Pancirol in Notitia utriusque Imperii c. 90 x Cujacius Comment ad l. 10. Cod. Justiniani 1425. y Pancirol in Notitia utriusque Imperii cap. 7 5â— z Cujâ—cius Comment ad l. 10. Cod. Justin. 1425. a Cujacius Comment expositio ad Novel tit 63 c Cujacius ad l 12. Cod. Justin. tit 5. d Lib. 1. C. Praeb Tyr. l. 3. inf de Castrens e Cujacius in Comment ad l. 12. Cod. Justin. 155â— f Cujacius Comment ad l. 10. Cod. Justin. 1545. h Cujacâ—us in Comment ad lib. 12. Cod. Justin. tit 5. i L. fin c. â—bi Senat. vel Clariss Matheas de Judiciis disput 4 num 36. Vizzanius de mandatis Principum cap. 5.162 163. k Cujacius Comment ad lib. 12. God Justin. Tom. 3. tit 16. l Constitutiones
637. ca 5. §. 7. ro liberat 2. Regis Johanis in 3. l Selden tit honor 651 652. 2 part ca. 5. Sect. 10. m Pat. 5. E. 6 in 4. Selden tit honor 664. 2 part ea 5 Sect 10 n Rot. Part hincu 29. H 6. o Lord Herberts History of King Henry the eighth 418. p Rushworths Historical Collections 237. a Sigonius de repub Hebraeorum ca. 5. 6. Menochius de repub Hebraeorum lib. 1. ca. 6. Sect. 8. Jos. 29.51 2 Sam. 23.23 1. Reg. 8.1.3 2 Reg. c. 2. 2 Reg. 1.5.9.11 1 Paralip ca. b 1 Reg. 4.2 c 2 Reg. 7. v. 2. 17. d Mat. 19.28 e Sigonius de repub Atheniensium lib. 1. ca. 2. 4. l. 2. c. 5. f Coke 1. part Institutes vel comment sup Littleton tit Knight service Sect. 107. 108 g Valentius Fostevus in Hist. Juris Civilis Rom. lib. 3. ca. 12.480 h Nolden de Sâ—atu nobilium civili ca. 15 Sect. 5. 7. Cuiacius comâ—ment ad lib. 12. Cod Justiniani tit 1. d. l. 2. Cod. nemo privatus i Nolden de Statu nobilium Civili Synopsis Bract. ca. 1â— Sect. 2.3.5 k Gratian tom 2 discept for ca. 284. Cassaenaeus in Catalog gloriae mundi Fr. Marci deors Delph 806. n 11. tom 1. l Bonfin lib. 7 Chronic. Hungar. 4 Schrader cons. 3. n 197. vol. 1. m Nolden de Statu Nobilium Civili ca. 13.297 n Nolden Synoptis tractat de Statu nobilium civili ca. 13. Sect. 6. idem 304. Sect 11. ca. 15. Sect. 2. p Nolden de Statu nobilium Civili ca 5. Sect. 1. o Cuiacius comment ad lib. 12. Cod. justinian tit 1. q Alberis Ruland de Commissor part 1. l. 5. ca. 6 n. 15. Menoch cons. 902. n. 30. Nolden de statu Nobil civili ca. 5.79 r Cujacius ad l. 12. Cod. Justiniani tit 18. Petrus Granetius de stylo regie Gallorum Juridict olim Salucianis prescripto 321. Sect. 365. 366. s Petrus Granetius de stilo rigio Gallorum 359. §. 440. 441. t Ibid. 338. sect 437. u 3 part Purchas Pilgrimage 185 187. w 3 part Purchas Pilgrimage 1019.1663 x Le Sieur Villault Voyage to Guinee in Annis 1666 1667.251 252. y Elâ—ings antient present manner of holding Parliaments England z Dugdales Origines Juridicial .13 18. a Vid. Prynns Register of Parliament Writs b Vide Prynns Register of Parliament Writs c Rot. claus 8 E. 2 m 22. 33. in dorso d Prynns Animadversions upon Cokes 4 part of the Institutes and additional Appendix 332. e Rot. Parl. 5 H. 4. m. 7. f Aurea Bulla in Archiv Electoris Palatini edit per Marquardum Freherum ca. 1. 12. g Loveâ— recueil d' Aucums notable arrests en le Parlement de Paris ca. 31. h 5 H. 4 rot Parl m 78. i Elâ—ings antient and modern holding of Parliaments 150 k Trin. 7. H. 4. coram Rege rot 69. l 8. H. 6. rot parl m. 57. m 8 H. 6. ca. 1. n Rot. parl 23 24. H. 6. m. 40. o Rot. parl 28. H. 6. m. 56. p Rot. parl 14. 15. E. 4. m. 54. q Rot. parl 17. E. 4. m. 35. r Elsings antient and present manner of holding of Parliaments in England 199 200. 201. s Journal of the House of Commons in Parliament 27. Eliz. t Pryns Animadversions upon Cokes 4 th part Institutes u Rushworths Historical Collections 52 w Pasch. 10. E. 3. Lincoln Rot. 59. x North. assize 3. E 3 Rot. 7. y 25 E. 3. ca. 2. z Pasch. 10. E. 3. coram Rege Trin. 19. E. 3. Hill 20. E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 160. a Forma brevis de privileg officiar ' et clericorum Scaccarii domini Regis nunc usitat ' sub magno Sigillo Scaccaria vide librum ingrum dicti Scaccarii b In l fin cum suis de re milit l. b. 12. C. tit 36. Gregorius Tholosanus lib. 17. ca. 13.1 2. c Juvenal Satir. 16. Cinque Ports d Coke 4. part of the Institutes ca. 42. e Hill 18. E. 1. Antient Demesne f Cokes 4 th part Institutes ca. 58. g LL Guliel Conquestor h Cokes 4 th part Institutes ca. 45. i Selden 2. part tit honor ca. 5. §. 37. k Jer. ca. 5â— v. 15. 16. l Renatus Choppinus de privilegiis Rusticorum lib 1. ca. 7. m Coke sur Littleton Sect. 281. n Charta H. 1 Bracton l. 5. de Exceptionibus ca. 14. vide more at large the Liberties of London Rot. Pat. 1 E 3. Trin 3 E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 113. o Bracton lib. 5. de Exceptionibus ca. 14. Pasch. 18 E. 2. coram Rege Rot. 88. Trin. 2 H. 4. coram Rege Rot. 13. Sr. Isaac Wakes Rex â—latonicus q 13 Eliz. r Rot Parl. 5 R. 2. M. 51 58 59. 8 R. â— M. 11. s Coke Comment upon Littleton lib. 3. cap. 12. Sect. 281. t L. Suus quoque puto F. de haer instit L. si maâ—or de legit u 2 E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 220. v 2. E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 120. w Crokes 1. part Reports Hilar. 9. Car. primi x Customs and Usages of the City of London y Stamfords Pleas of the Crown lib. 2. cap. 41. z Cokes 1. Part Instit. cap. 15.633 Register of Writs 100 b. 147 b. a Gervasius Tilburien M S. in recept Senecar Selden 2. Part Titles of Honor cap. 5. Sir William Herberts Case Cokes third Reports b Dugdales 1 2 Tom. Monasticon Anglie c 27 E. 3. cap. 188. 16. d Hil 1 E. 1. coram Rege e 6 Jac. in Com. Banco f Dugdales 1 2 Tom. Monasticon Anglie in 2 Tom. Sect. 12. g Ro. Parl. 21 E. 3. m 17. 36. h Exodus ca. 16. v. 13 14. i Baldus ad l. Human. de legibus D. D. k Blount's Nomo Lexicon l Coke's 12 Reports Mich. 5 Jacobi m A. Blackvodaeus in Dialogo adversus Geo. Buchanan 281 283. n Ibid. 286 287. o Ibid. 282. o Ibid. 28â— p Genes 7. v. 13. q Exod. 18. v. 14 15 21 22. Num. c. 36. r 1 2 li. Reg. Paralipom Ezra ca. 9. 10. Nehem. cap. 5. 13. v. 25. s LL. Canuti ca. 16. t LL. Gulielmi Conquest ca. 5â— Seldem Spicâ—lleg ad Eadmeri Hist. u Eadmeri Hist. lib. 9. Seldeni ad Eadmerum notae Spicilegium 198 199 w Eadmeri Hist. lib. 2.37 x Spelman Glossar in vocibus Curia Curtis y Claus. 20 H. 3. in dorso m. 14. z LL. Guliâ—lm Conquestoris apud Seldenum in Spicileg ad Eadmerum Sect. 20. a Glanvile de legibus Angliae a Eadmer Hist. lib. 2 38 39 40. b Selden 2 Part Titles of Honor cap. 5. sect 20. c Selden 2 part Titles of Honor cap. 5. sect 20. Hoveden de Anno 1204. d Stowe's Survey of London in 4 to 35. tit Prescription e Ibidem 145.
unto the Court and submit himself unto the Law which he did and was put to his fine gave sureties to pay it Which proofs and arguments touching the subordination of the Judges or their Courts of Justice are not nor ever were intended for the reverend Judges and Sages of the Law or the Students Professors and Practisers thereof whose learning and Judgments neither scrupled or needed it but unto those vulgar and mechanick busie headed and unquiet part of the People qui nesciunt se ignorare will not own any ignorance when they are most ignorant but will be sure to dislike every thing which they do not understand because they take their measures by the shortlines of their vulgar take and incomprehensive capacities which makes them to be so restless and unsatisfied in their mistakings and so lincked and wedded unto them I had not been so large in clearing that particular which unto some may seem more then requisite but that it may justly be feared that those opinions or impressions if not disâ—odged and fully convinced may as those long agoe condemned Heresies and Errors in the Church did in our late distractions and distempers rise up again under the pretence of new notions and gain a kind of Succession too like a perpetuity And therefore every man may without any the Incumbrances of doubts or controversies be assured CHAP. VII That the King or the great Officers of his Houshold may punish those that doe infringe his servants priviledges and that any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary being arrested without leave are not so in the custody of the Law as they ought not to be released untill they do appear or give Bayl to Appear and Answer the Action WHen it must or should be acknowledged that notwithstanding that by the Statutes made in the 37th and 38th years of the Reign of King Edward the third untrue Suggestions made to the King and his Councell were prohibited and to be punished and that by a Statute made in the 42 d. year of the Reign of that King no man was to be brought to answer any accusation to the King without praesentment before Justices or matter of Record yet matters extraordinary or suggestions which had truth or evidence to accompany them were not by any of those Acts of Parliament forbidden and howsoever that by a Statute or Act of Parliament made in the 17 th year of the Reign of King Charls the Martyr the Kings Privy Councel were restrained from intermedling in matters concerning Freeholds and the Properties of the Subject which comprehends many of the matters which may concern any man brought before them or accused yet there is no restraint of Arrests or sending for Delinquents by the Kings Messengers or prohibition against the right use of them or the high and super eminent authority of the King and the Lords of his Honourable Privy Councel in cases to prevent Duells and make abortive dangers and inconvenient to the publique punish Riots unlawfull Assemblies and misdemeanors beyond the reach and Authority of Justices of the Peace many other emergencies who may certainly as legally make use of Messengers or Serjeants at Arms to compell disobedient and refractory persons to appear before them as the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England by or under the Kings authority doth now and hath long agoe used to do in cases of contempt of the Processe of that Court after an Attachment with Proclamation and Commission of Rebellion or as the Lord Privy Seal did usually in the Court of Requests after the like Processe could not apprehend or take the person contemning his authority or not appearing before him for unto what purpose shall that honourable and venerable Assembly who Sir Edward Coke saith are Profitable instruments of the State and do bear part of the Soveraignâ— cares and imploy their time and endeavors in the Execution of the Duty of their Oathes and Places and that great trust incumbent upon them if they may not enjoy a coercive Power which the Judices paedanei petty Judicatures and even the Pye-Powder Courts of the Kingdome do enjoy or should make it their business to baffle their own authority and only send for People to come unto them when they please or when they are come before them do what they please but should within their Conusance and Jurisdiction according to a Maxime and Rule of the Civil Law well allowed and entertained by our Common-Law Cum aliquid conceditur id quoque concedi videtur sine quo id efficere non potest when any Jurisdiction or authority is granted that also which should support and attend it seemeth to be granted with it have as great a power of coercion to attend their authority as the Parliament the greater and more extraordinary Councel under the King and Head thereof is allowed and all other Councels in all the Kingdomes and Republiques of Christendome and are not therefore to be denied a just and competent Power to attend them in the administration of the affairs or business of the King intrusted unto them or to be debarred their inspection into all the affairs of the Kingdom concerning the good welfare of the King his People upon casualties accidents and cases extraordinary reformations of abuses by the Kings Edicts or Proclamations and in the deficiency of Laws in matters or things not foreseen or provided for by Laws which cannot be either so prophetick or comprehensive as to supply or give a Remedy to all things but must leave many things to ragione di Stato reason of State and the cares of our Pater Patriae Father of his Countrey and Kingdome to provide against necessities otherwise irresistable which can neither at all times tarry for the calling of a Parliament or the suffrages of it or be communicated unto the vulgar especially in unquiet or cloudy times when our Peace the blessing of our Nation cannot either enjoy her self or impart her comforts to the People without the more then ordinary vigilance of the King and his Privy Councell where the King himself is very often present especially in the absence of that as ancient as the Raign of King Edward the third then and many ages after well regulated Court of Star-Chamber many of whose Judges were the Kings Privy Councell the King himself being there rarely or seldome present and of that necessary Court of the High Commission preventing and watching over such abuses or misdemeanors as might either scandalize or disturbe the peace and good order of holy Church and such as served at the Altar And certainly that formerly great power and authority which resided in the Steward or Major-domo of the Kings Houshold who as Fleta hath recorded it enjoyed in the Reign of King Edward the first such an extraordinary power as he did vicem gerere exercise as it were the Office of Deputy to the Lord Chief Justice of England whose Office and place