King be in the worst condition of all men sit quasi exul qui est omnium praesul Baldus He is tyed by the Laws of nations and nature to observe just contracts which as the Doctors say he cannot make void and revoke de plenitudine potestatis suae The Lawyers affirm that vectigalia alia emolumenta ex jurisdictione provenientia alienari possunt in parte praescribi possunt firma manente jurisdictionis suae suprema exercitatione apud se et successores suos Baldus ita ut sit sine diminutione authoritatis supremae derogatione directi dominii Principis * No Act of Parliament can bind the King from any prerogative which is sole and inseparable to his Person And although some of these Regalities seem to be reserved yet are they grantable and subject to prescription as creare Tabelliones monetas cudere exactiones vectigalium aliquorum and some others quae cùm sint inter minora Regalia corporis summique Imperii Patrimonii Regii integritatem non imminuunt In his praescriptio valeat contra fiscum * Peregrinus de jure fisci alii Chopin de doman Reg. Codex Fab. Sex tinus de Regalibus Tributa alia publica functio seu collatio nullam temporis praescriptionem admittunt Cod. l. 6. de Praescript 30. vel 40. annorum Et generaliter res Fisci non usucapi l. 2 Cod. communia de usucapi Institut de usucap l. 18. F. de usucap temen sunt aliqui casus ubi praescriptio locum tenet contra Fiscum per leges constitutiones Imperiales l. 4. l. 6. de Praescript 30. 40. annorum Cod. l. ult C. de Fundis Rei privatae l ult C. de Fundis Patrimon caus 16. quast 3. c. 16. de Tributis aliisque prensitationibus publicis nullo temporis spacio praedia redduntur immunia non sic de alio jure publico principali seu Fiscali Feudali Cujac consultatio 54. Census tributa domnium Principis res sunt inalienabiles imperscriptibiles quarum vindicatio nulla temporis praescriptione submoveatur His ancient and just tributes and customes and his right of imposing moderate gabells and taxes are not alienable neither within the reach of prescription as likewise the domaines of the Crown called the Royal Dowry for when these are taken away he doth lose his peculiar and proper livelihood and the ordinary means to support his estate and the Common-wealth receiveth much detriment when the King hath not wherewith to live of his own but the people must be continually burthened with exorbitant and illegal Taxes and courses used for raising of money the most usual causes of discord between the King and the People often producing Insurrections and Rebellion and sometimes made use of by factious and discontented persons to justifie or colour their designs against their Soveraign The Emperour Vitellius unto some men released his Tributes Tacitus to others he granted over-large immunities without care of posterity he mangled and maimed his Empire The Common sort accepted these favours the fools bought them with money which wise men accounted void as being such as could neither be given nor taken with the safety of the State CHAP. IX Of the Act of Parliament wherein the King was to pass away his power in the Militia And that other Act which was made for the continuation of the Parliament until both Houses should agree for the dissolving thereof Of fraud or force used towards the King or any other men for the obtaining of any Charters Patens or Grants BUt we cannot finde any grants of Vitellius or of other Roman Emperours or Princes subject to more just exception either in respect of the matter and things granted or the means used for the obtaining of them or the end and purpose for which they were obtained then that act of Parliament whereby the King was to pass away his power of the Militia and raising of moneys upon the People for maintenance of forces by land and sea at the will of the Parliament the ready way to out himself of all power of War and Peace of arming or disarming his own Subjects or any others upon what cause soever contrary to the rights and safety of Monarchies and to the Laws and Statutes of England as hath been before declared But this was as the Psalmist saith to strengthen themselves in their wickedness and to worke their iniquity by a Law The King might as well have granted them jurisdiction over any City or County of his Kingdome independent as unto himselfe and exempt from his authority and the Laws of the Realm and without appeal to his supream Court and he might as well have passed away his peculiar right of pardoning offences and despensing with penal Statutes The Doctors of the Civil and Canon Law say that a King in what grant soever cannot abdicare à se superioritatem suam jus illud supremum Baldus Alexand Angelus alii quod semper praesumitur reservatum nec concedere censetur totum hoc privativè quoad se successores suos ita ut non possit alteri jurisdictionem dare aut potestatem quin ei remanet major jurisdictio potestas quam fuerat translata neque tamen quocunque modo Regalium concessio fiat Sixtinus de Regalib lib. 1. cap. 5. ipsius Imperatoris aut alterius Regis superior potestas ea concessione comprehensa censetur sed potius major quam est concessa illis reservata retenta sit neque potest à supremo Principe licet velit ita concessio fieri ut superior potestas in alium transferatur The fairest and the most specious pretences and the strongest and most legal tyes and formalities make that which is evil in it selfe the most pernicious and abominable damnabilis est malitia quam titulus bonitatis accusat Salvianus this Statute therefore being such and so qualified and so destuctive to that power wherewith Kings are intrusted by God and invested by the fundamental Laws of their Kingdomes and serving most properly to raise and continue discord between the King and his Subjects cannot but appear to all men to be as absurd as pernicious And like this was that other act and of the same leaven and mould with that act of the MILITIA which was made for the continuation of the Parliament until both Houses should agree for the dissolving of it But they did not stay for that agreement for the Parliament was dissolved against their will by the irruption of the soldiers And yet before that they did dissolve it themselves although besides their intention when they deserted the King and his authority and acted contrary to their writ of summons and to the rights of both King and People But more apparently when they suppressed the House of Peers and ran away most part of them together with their speaker unto the protection of the Army and so became the
tua res agitur licet aedes demoliri vicini ne ad nos incendium veniat The Romans would not suffer an increase of power by iniquity L. 49. F. ad leg Aquil. l. 3. F. de Incendio l. 7. F. quod vi aut clam Salust Cicero Majestatis erat Populi Romani non pati cujusquam regnum per scelus crescere It was none of the least branches of the Romans glory who were the mirrour of magnanimity that their Common-wealth might truely be reputed Patrocinium orbis terrae potiùs quam Imperium Regum Nationum portus perfugium But yet the Romans were seldome losers by protecting and ayding others for by that occasion they got much of their dominions Salust Cicero Populum Romanum sociis defendendis terrarum omnium potitum fuisse God gave them as some say universal dominion for their excellent vertues and laws others say it was given them to scourge the tyranny and vices which did raign amongst other nations and to end the discord and contentions amongst them From the discord of Citizens Strangers take their opportunity against them Livius The Carthaginians first passed into Cicily to take part with one side in a Civil war but they endeavoured to make a prey of both For sometimes neighbour Princes have as in the fable plaid the part of the Kite between the Mouse and the Frog and ended their strife by gaining that and more then that for which they did contend as the Turk did in Hungarie when they called for his assistance And thus other Princes have dealt with the Italians at war amongst themselves until strangers got all or spoiled all they left behind them Other Princes when their Neighbours have been in Civil war have endeavoured to break the course thereof and joyned with one side lest when both were weakned the whole should fall into the hand of some potent neighbour or enemy of theirs The Roman General Quintius offered his assistance to the States of Greece Livius lib. 34. to destroy Nabis the Usurper of Sparta lest the contagion thereof should spread farther and take hold of the other Common-wealths and Cities of Greece CHAP. XVII Of the King and of his power in Parliament THese pretended Patrons of Popular liberty or rather of licentiousness and confusion can find no way so meet in their conceit for maintaining their Plots as parity in Ecclesiastical Government which being once established in the Church by the example thereof King James book to his Son the Politick and civil State should be drawn to the like And therefore they will have an actual power to be joyntly in the People with their Soveraign in making of Lawes which they call their Legislative power in Parliament so as they would leave unto the King little or no power with his negative voice and would weaken all his rights in Parliament but especially his right of dissolving Parliaments They would make him inferiour to the Roman Tribunes of the people Livius Plutarch for any one of them by his negative voice could cross that which his Colleagues proposed to the People and any two of them could stop all proceedings and dissolve all the solemn assemblies of the people called by the authority of the other Tribunes But say what they can they cannot find his Legislative power to be any other thing then the Regal power and a principal part and branch thereof although in many cases it be very justly restrained in the use and exercise thereof to the Kings sitting in his Parliament his Supream Court and Councel with all the estates of the Kingdome but this is not in respect of any power or original and habitual right inherent in the people The Commons are called by their Writ ad faciendum consentiendum his quae de Communi consilio Regni nostri ordinari contigerit as were the people by the ancient Canons of the Church called to the election of their Pastors and Prelates Distinct. 63. c. 1. c. 12. c. 8. c. 36. non quod debent imeresse ut eligentes sed ut consentientes nullus invitis pepulis non petentibus ordinetur ne Lpiscopum non optatum aut contemnant aut odiant Is eligatur qui à Clericis electus à Plebe expetitus fuerit nec alitèr ascribitur Matthias Apostolorum Collegio Acts 1.15 6.2 Cpyrianus nec aliter septem Diaconi creantur quà m Populo vidente approbante Haec exempla ostendunt sacerdotis ordinationem non nisi sub Populi assistentis conscientia fieri oportere And thus by the same reason and equity it is that Lawes which bind the estates and lives of men and are for the common good of all and singular Persons should be made in the great Council and supream Court of the Kingdome by the advice and assent of all the Estates of the Kingdome By which course the just rights and liberties of the people are preserved and taxes and levies of money on the people imposed onely by Parliamentary authority as they ought to be For thus the People are induced and ingaged to a willing observation of those lawes and submission unto those impositions for the making and raising whereof they have given their consent It was said long since by a wise man that in ancient time and to the honour of England Commines it was best governed of any Kingdome the People least oppressed the Kings living upon their own revenues subsidies granted but onely for war with France or Scotland and the war undertaken by the advice of Parliament by which means the King was the stronger and better served and he addeth also that Princes cannot levy on their Subjects without their consent If we look upon our most ancient Statutes or rather Charters of our Kings and the form and stile of them we shall find no Character of any legislative power in any but in the King neither so much as the Peoples concurrence or consent in any Parliamentary way It appeareth in our ancient Histories Mat. Paris Hoveden alii that during the Raign of diverse Kings after the Norman Conquest the Kings when they called their great Councel or Parliament the summons went only to the Prelates Earls and Barons and in some of those Histories there is mention of calling the Commonalty and diverse sage and wise men In Kings Johns time the first summons upon record appeareth to the Prelates and Peers S. Rob. Cotons collections and something may be gathered although darkly of the admittance of the Commons Before that time every man by his tenure held himselfe to his great Lords will in whose assent his dependent Tenents was included These were long after the Conquest taxed and assessed by the consent of their Lords of whom they held who enjoyed great Regalities in their Signiorîes and were to their vassalls totidem Tyranni saith Mat. Paris These great Lords did so curb and restrain
heart and one soul and sold their goods Acts 4. and laid the moneys at the Apostles feet those who held the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace and needed not the tye and coercive Power of Lawes Talem primum Christianorum conventum suisse D. Hierony mus quales monachi esse imitentur et cupiant esse ut nihil cujusquam proprium sit nullus inter eos dives nullus pauper nec confundebant Christiani dominia bona egentibus in commune conferebant ut perinde ac domini eis uterentur fruerentur But now how ill would it be if all kind of standing provision for the Church and for the Ministery were taken away and their estate made dependent again upon the voluntary devotion of men and subject to the mutability of times and changes in Common-wealths as likewise if the people should now have that power as at first in choosing their Pastors and ministers The people in the primitive times if they had a great power and part in the election of their Pastors they well deserved it in respect of their great Piety and moderation It were very inconvenient they should now use the same course in their elections seeing the people are over numerous and humorous diversly and contrarily affected and disaffected as are likewise the Ministers and Clergy Such power doth not appear to be given to the people by Gods word as they who flatter them do pretend In the Council of Laodicea those popular elections were forbidden which prohibition Origen saith was in his time in respect they were carried with tumultuous clamors favours and rewards Instit lib. 4. c. 3. num 13. Calvin writing of the choosing of Ministers and of those who ought to have the choice he doth not grant it to the people but saith hujus rei certa regula peti non potest And in the Church of Geneva there is not any or very small sign of any Popular Election We find in the Primitive times the Peoples concurrence by some suffrage or approbation per signum sermonem aut silentium liberum and this is as much as is now allowed them by the best Divines of the Presbytery Cap. ult de elecâ—iâ— Duarenus Alii D. Cyprian epist 4. lib. 1. Ita ut omnes audiantur qui ordinationis impediendae causa objicere quidpiam voluerunt as in the ancient Canons But there are varieties of judgements in divers Canons concerning the election of Pastors as whether it must be in the presence of many standers by or at the request of the people or with their testimony or with their consent or by their election and voices And then it is a question whether the greater number present shall by their voices conclude all the absent who are interessed although they are the greater number * Vt sit in Electione Clericorum consensus Cleri Plebis Honoratorum Testimonium Imperatcribus vero Principibus electiones Romanerum Pontiâ—icum atque aliorum Episcoporum referendes esse usus constitutio tradidi â— pro schismaticorum atque hareticorum dissentionibus quibus nonnunquam Ecclesia Dei concussa periclitabatur Distinctio 63. cap. 26 27. Ita erat per vetustiores Canones This popular concurrence in these elections is almost universally abolished some character thereof may remain in some Churches and it is swallowed up in the right of Patronage of Churches for when Princes and Lords of Mannors erected and endowed Churches and thereby much disburthened the People by being thus beneficial unto their Churches and Pastors those Lords for their bounty were called and constituted Patrons of those Churches and had the right of Presentation of Clerks to them and their heirs in those Churches Qui Ecclesiam aedificat Novel 57. 123. cap. 18. aut de suo praebet Clericis annonas jus habet instituendi substituendi Clericos dummodo eos prius commendaverit Episcopo qui eos admittere debeâ—t si Dei ministerio digni sint as it is in the Imperial Law And so by the Canon Law Hoc jus nominandi sen praesentandi Clericum competit â—i C filiis 17. quest 7. Duaâ— ren de benefic minist Ec. cle lib. 5. c. 4. qui fundavit vel collapsam Ecclesiam restituit vel dotavit vel reditum certum largitus fuerit This right of Patronage and presentation to Benefices the Common Law and Statutes of England do grant and the lawes and customes of other Kingdomes as well as the Civil and Canon-lawes So as the Clergy men are not constrained to live any longer upon a part of those common contributions and dividents of monies raised in the infancy of the Church of gifts proceeding from the pious zeal of ancient and venerable Christianity but upon their Tythes and Glebe-lands assigned unto them and the Parishes also being set out and divided and several Pastors placed in Churches under the Bishops of several Diocesses And yet diverse men through a wilde fancy or to slatter the people as they would have the power of electing the Pastors to be in the people so would they have their maintenance left unto their will or to the mutable and arbitrary orders and decrees of Judges and Magistrates which would be a ready way to bring the Clergy into poverty and contempt as being then reputed but as Alms-men of the People or as Tenants at will Others would have their maintenance set out and assigned in money and not in Tithes Some quarrel with Tithes out of covetousness some through ignorance not considering that Tithes have been out of much prudence and equity anciently and universally dedicated to the necessary service of God and his Church or rather still continued since the Leviticall Priesthood was abolished and they will ever appear upon due consideration had of all times and things to be the most necessary natural and equal and in all respects the best maintenance for the Clergy and subject to least exceptions and inconveniences And let them also consider who so little regard Tithes and think they were due only by the Ceremoniall Law of the Jewes and not by Evangelicall Precept whether being since againe restored and dedicated universally under the Gospel by positive lawes and customes of nations to the necessary service of God and sustinance of the Clergy which is required of us by the expresse Evangelical law they are not now become again a sacred tribute and Gods right Ananias keeping back a part of the money consecrated to the service of God and his Church Acts 5. Institut de rerum divisione L. 1. Cod. de Sepulch violat Res quam devoverit quis Jehovae sancâ—a sanctorum est Jehovae Lev. 27.28 Covaruvias Duarenius alii L. 14. Cod. de Sacr. Eccles sub poena Sacrilegii Novel 7. c. 10. Heb 7. we find how he was punished for his sacriledge Quod divini juris est nullius est in bonis Res religioni destinatas jam religionis effectas
set upon offences then as punishments for the reformation of manners Such Magistrates administring Justice in such manner are obeyed non tanquam Rectores morum sed tanquam dominatores rerum August de Civit Dei lib. 2. c. 20. L. 1. Cod. de secund nup. Tit. Cod. de Caduc tol eosque non sinceritèr honorant sed nequitèr servilitèr timent The Roman Law herein giveth a good direction ne in iis quae ad correctionem morum spectant inducta sunt fisci rationem habere videamur Lex Julia de caducis ultimum locum dat fisco nam quod communiter omnibus prodest hoc privatae nostrae utilitati praeferendum esse Plinie in his Panegyrick saith unto Trajan the Emperour very elegantly Praecipua tua gloria est quod saepius vincitur fiscus cujus causa nunquam mala est nisi sub bono Principe sed nunquam Principibus defuerunt qui fronte gravi tristi supercilio militatibus fisci contumaciter adessent For this cause of religion and planting the Gospel the best Divines do not allow the Spaniards plea for shedding the blood of the Indians Inferre bella ac Populos sibi non molestos cupiditate conterrere ac subdere August de Civit Dei lib. 4. cop 6. quid aliud est quam grande latrocinium They should not so much have used the sword against the refractory Indians but rather the rod the spur and the bridle of good discipline and example to bring them to Christ for they had no dominion over them neither any offence formerly given by them dominion and propriety is not founded in and by religion but by a just natural or civil right acquired Dominia quae sunt juris gentium non tollit sides Christiana Infidelity doth not forfeit inheritance and propriety and thus the Schoolmen say Aquinas distinctio fidelium infidelium in se considerata non tollit dominium praelationem infidelium super sideles And this did the antient Christians acknowledge by their great loyalty towards their Soveraign Princes heathen Emperours and cruel persecutors But our men indued with their new lights have found that the ungodly have no right to the Creatures but are usurpers and have made a forfeiture of their propriety of which they the Saints may take the benefir and be the sole Judges The antient Christians were forbidden by the Imperial Law L. 6. Cod. de Paganis as also by the Laws of other Christian nations under a great penalty to meddle with the goods of Jews or Pagans living peaceably For the goods of the Jews although enemies to the Christian religion cannot for the cause of religion come by escheat unto Christian Princes under whom they live for delinquency they have often forfeited their goods and been expelled and sometimes all of them for the faults of a few and and thus have they been dealt withall Regia manu bono potius exemplo quà m concesso jure or rather out of reason of State which will not want specious pretences It cannot pass with a clear admittance amongst all the Doctors of the Roman Church that the Pope hath power over Infidel Princes to raise Armies against them although they do hinder the preaching and propagation of the Gospel universally authorized by these words Ite praedicate Evangelium omni creaturae seeing he hath not for ought can be made appear temporal authority annexed to his spiritual either directly or indirectly in ordine ad spiritualia to depose Christian Princes or to raise war against them for the advancement of Christs Kingdome but as for those who are not Christians the Apostle saith What have we to do with those who are without Botero It is truly said that peace a messenger whereof an Angel hath been chosen to be is scarce ever established by the Sword and the Gospel the blessed peace cannot be published by the sound of the Cannon neither the sacred Word be conveyed unto us by the impious hands of Soldiers neither tranquillity be brought to the persons and consciences of men by that which bringeth ruine unto Nations The Jewes were guilty of the greatest incredulity Rom. 11. ingratitude and crime and yet the Gentiles were admonished by Saint Paul not to shew any cruelty towards them or insult over them but to seek to provoke them to an holy jealousie and so to gain them unto Christ When Nathan reproved David he said hereby thou givest an occasion to the adversaries to blaspheme the name of God The primitive Christians rather chose to indure the most cruel persecutions then to disturb the peace of the Roman Empire and break the band of their Allegiance unto the heathen Emperours and this Saint Paul taught them who wrote his Epistle unto Christians living under Nero Rom. 13. and yet he telleth them that the Powers are of God and he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the ordinance of God and shall receive damnation D. Augnst de Civit it Dei lib. 22. cap. 2. Civitas Dei quamvis haberet tam magnorum agmina Populorum tamen adversus impios Persecutores suos pro temporali salute sua non pugnavit in iis non erat pro salute pugnare sed salutem pro servatore mundi contemnere Quamvis nimius copiosus noster Populus Cyprianus Grot. de jure belli lib. 1. c. 4. n. 7. non iamen adversus violentiam se ulciscitur sed patitur But when this is pressed against our new Patrons of Rebellion they contradict Saint Austin and the Fathers with a lye and say those antient Christians suffered through their want of power to make resistance whereby they do as much as in them lyeth deprive them of all the glory of Martyrdome and do injury unto their most blessed cause and the glory of God in his Saints sufferings And yet as nature doth draw us to yield to the unresistable power of a severe Conquerour vox est quodamodo naturae ut subjugari mallent hostibus victoribus Augustin quam bellicâ omnifariâ vastatione deleri so doth the law of nature give warrant for our resistance cum moderatione inculpatae tutelae as doth the law of God give us permission for our slight in time of persecution when we do not thereby desert our vocation nor betray nor prejudice a just cause CHAP. IV. Of the changes in Religion in England And by Luther And the toleration of divers Religions THe Professors of the Protestant Religion were at first and have been since taxed as seditious and despisers of Government and advancers of Popular licentiousness and that their Reformation in Religion proceeded from faction or turned into faction and tumults notwithstanding all their publick Confessions of their Faith and declarations of their Doctrine set forth in detestation thereof wherein they did fully profess their obedience unto the Civil Magistrate Ecclesiastical history But it hath been very antient and usual to lay that general
a long time the King that there was great danger they would have raised an Aristocracy or several petty Principalities so lofty was their carriage towards their King which in time would have strangled the Monarchy and all under the pretence of the publick good which drew on that long and destructive war called the Barons war and made it the more plausible and popular After these combustions ended and the King the Lords and people were reduced to reason and moderation which often was wanting on both sides then the Statutes made in the time of King Edward the First and Edward the second had these words Statutes made by the King in Parliament at the request and petition of the Commenalty with the assent of the Prelates and Pears And so in the Fifth year of Edward the Third at the instance and special request of the Commons with the assent of the Prelates and Peers we have ordained and established and so in the succeeding raign of Richard the Second and in the first of Henry the Fourth Thus did the force and efficacy of our Lawes proceed from the Kings Legislative power acting by and with the concurrence of the three Estates in Parliament contributing their assistance according to their respective duties and the trust reposed on them This concurrence doth serve excellently for the direction regulation and in some respect for the qualification not for the diminution but for the support of the Kings power and rights The absoluteness and generality of this Regal power being also in many cases often restrained in the administration of Justice in the inferiour Courts of Justice by the Common Law of England and by the Lawes and customes of other Kingdomes And therefore the assistance and concurrence of all the Estates in Parliament cannot amount unto the raising of any coequality or competition of power the influence of the Soveraign power is that which giveth life to the making and to the execution of all Lawes both Houses of Parliament acting according to their duties and not exceeding their bounds the rights and prerogative of the King is neither restrained nor obscured but guided strengthned and carried with greater vigour and Majesty for his and the Peoples most good and security If our Kings had any co-partners in the Legislative power or were less in Parliament then when they were out our Judges have been much out and deceived him and others in affirming oftentimes to the Kings that in no time they were so high in their Royal estate as when they sate in Parliament The Canon-Lawyers say the Pope is greater when he sitteth in a General Council in respect of the amplitude of knowledge and the spirit of discerning After the Romans had transferred all their Supream power to their Emperours yet did the Senate afterwards make divers Lawes called Senatus consulta which were often concomitant or subsequent to the Imperial Edicts yet this was never held to be a conferring or communicating of any part of the Legislative Imperial power no otherwise the Kings of France do grant to the Parliament of Paris when their arrests concurr with the Kings Edicts which are there usually ratified Cujacius Pet. Faber Semest lib. 1. cap. vult Optimi Principes non dabant ullam constitutionem sine authoritate sententia Juris-consultorum Edicta Principum Romanorum sic Regum Galliae plerumque subsequebantur Senatus Consulta Quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem leges condere soli Imperatori concessum est legis interpretatio solo digna Imperio est Imperator solus conditor Interpres Legum est Institut Jura nat gens Lust Cod. de legibus Tit. F. de origine Juris Lib. Feud constitut Lethaeri Fred. Imperator licet Augustus Caesar constituit viros prudentes ad jus interpretandum ut major juris authoritas haberetur The Emperours since have made their Lawes hortatu consilio Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Ducum Marchionum Comitum Palatinorum caeterorumque Nobilium Judicum yet this was never holden to be a communicating of their legislative power Long time in the French Monarchy Lawes and Edicts were made by the King per suum magnum Concilium as in England and so were causes Civil Criminal and Fiscal determined and judged by our Kings or his Council or by his delegated poer to others before the Courts were established at Westminster as appeareth by our Histories and Records The three Estates in France and Spain did never in the former times when they were most in use and power challenge any part of the legislative power neither did their Historians and Lawyers ever grant it to be in them for ought appeareth Bodin doth acknowledge that in England the excellent institution and use of Parliaments hath longest continued De. Repub. and saith that legum rogatio probatio non arguit Imperii majestatem licet autoritatis speciem Ordines Angliae autoritatis quaendam habeant jura Majestatis summum Imperium est in Principe And so a learned Hollander Grov de Jure belli lib. 1. C. 3. no slatterer of Monarchy saith they are greatly deceived qui existimant cùm Reges acta quaedam sua nolunt rata esse nisi à Senatu vel alio caetu aliquo probentur L. 8. F. de Constitutionib L 1. Cod. de legib partitionem fieri potestatis The supream Senate is as the Emperour in the Golden Bull calleth the Princes Electors partem corporissui columnas latera solidacque Imperii Bases jus dandi suffragii in Comitiis Imperii Germanici non trahit secum majestatis communicationem cum majest as indivisibilis sit nec Electoribus Principibus aut Statibus Imperii communicari poterit Tamen nihil majestati detrahitur si in partem solicitudinis Imperatoris invocentur exemplo veterum Imperatorum Romanorum qui et si habuerint summam potestatem ut quodcunque Imperator Edicto statuit legis habebat vigorem nihil tamen magni ponderis sine consilio consensu Senatus expediebant * Arumns ad aur bul non obstat quod dicitur in L. 1. F. de constitutionibus Quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem quia sequitur in fine legis non quiequid de voluntate presumptum est sed qùod concillo magistratum suerum Rege auâ—â—ritatem praestante habita super hoc deliberatione tractatu recle fuerit definitum Bracton Fleta L. 8. Cod de Legibus Bartolus ali L. 1. F. de legibus Moreover long before the Empire was established in Germanie when the Roman Emperours granted unto diverse Princes and States of the Empire that without them and that form by him prescribed lawes should not be made or held effectual nisi supradictà formà observatà ita ut universorum consensus nostrae serenitatis autoritate firmetur c. It was never holden by the interpreters of the lawes that the Emperours did or could by his grants