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A56196
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Reasons assigned by William Prynne, &c.
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Prynne, William, 1600-1669.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing P4049; ESTC R5258
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44,280
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58
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forbear till I saw what their Officers would do who in stead of punishing any of them permitted them to play the like Rex almost in other places where they quartered since marching but three or four miles a day and extorting what moneys they could from the Country by their violence and disorders Now for me or any other to give moneys to maintain such deboist Bedlams and Beasts as these who boasted of their villanies and that they had done me at least twenty pounds spoil in Beer and Provisions drinking out five barrels of good strong Beer and wasting as much meat as would have served an hundred civill persons to be Masters of our Houses Goods Servants Lives and all we have to ride over our heads like our Lords and Conquerours and take Free quarter on us amounting to at least a full yeares contribution without any allowance for it and that since the last Orders against Free-quarter and warrants for paying in this Tax to prevent it for the future issued is so far against my reason Judgement and conscience that I would rather give all away to suppress discard them or cast it into the fire then maintain such graceless wretches with it to dishonour God enslave consume ruine the Country and Kingdome who every where complain of the like insolences and of taking free quarter since the 9 of June as above two hundred of Colonel Coxe his men did in Bath the last Lords day who drew up in a body about the Majors House and threatned to seise and carry him away prisoner for denying to give them free quarter contrary to the New Act for abolishing it Lastly this pretended Act implies that those who refuse to pay this contribution without distress or imprisonment shall be stil oppressed with freequarter And what an height of oppression and injustice this will prove not only to distrain imprison those who cannot in conscience Law or prudence submit to this illegall Tax but likewise to undoe them by exposing them to free-quarter which themselves condemne as the heighst pest and oppression let all sober men consider and what reason I and others have to oppose such a dangerous destructive president in its first appearing to the world Ninethly The principal end of imposing this Tax to maintain the Army and forces now raised is not the defence and fafety of our ancient and first Christian Kingdom of England its Parliaments Laws Liberties and Religion as at first but to disinherit the King of the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland to which he hath an undoubted right by common and Statute Law as the Parliament of 1 Jacobi ch. 1. resolves and to levy war against him to deprive him of it To subvert the ancient Monarchical Government of this Realm under which our Ancesters have always lived and flourished to set up a New republick the oppressions and greivances whereof we have already felt by increasing our Taxes setting up arbitrary Courts and Proceedings to the taking away of the lives of the late King Peers and other Subjects against the Fundamental Laws of the Land creating new monstrous Treasons never heard off in the world before and the like but cannot yet enjoy or discern the least ease or advantage by it To overthrow the ancient constitution of the Parliaments of England consisting of King Lords and Commons and the Rights and Priviledges thereof To alter the fundamental Laws Seales Courts of Justice of the Realm and introduce an arbitrary Government at least if not Tyrannical contrary to our Lawes Oathes Covenant Protestation a publick Remonstrances and Engagements to the Kingdom and forraign States not to change the Government or attempt any of the premises All which being no less then High Treason by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as Sir Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes ch. 1. and Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law upon passing the bill of Attainder of the Earl of Strafford both printed by the Commons special order have proved at large by many presidents Reasons Records and so adjudged by the last Parliament in the cases of Strafford and Canterbury who were condemned and executed as Traytors by judgement of Parliament and some of these now sitting but for some of those Treasons upon obscurer Evidences of guilt then are now visible in others I cannot without incurring the Crime and Guilt of these general High Treasons and the eternal if not temporal punishments incident thereunto if I should voluntarily contribute so much as one peny or farthing towards such Treasonable and disloyal ends as these against my Conscience Law Loyalty duty and all my Oathes and obligations to the contrary Tenthly The payment of this Tax for the premised purposes will in my poor judgment and conscience be offensive to God and all good men scandalous to the Protestant Religion dishonourable to our English Nation and disadvantagious and destructive to our whole Kingdom hindering the speedy settlement of our Peace the re-establishment of our Laws and Government establishing of our Taxes disbanding of our Forces revivall of our decayed Trade by the renewing and perpetuating our bloudy uncivill Warrs engaging Scotland Ireland and all forreign Princes and Kingdoms in a just War against us to avenge the death of our late beheaded King the dis-inheriting of his posterity and restore his lawfull Heirs and Successors to their just undoubted Rights from which they are now forcibly secluded who will undoubtedly molest us with continuall Warrs what-ever some may fondly conceit to the contrary till they be setled in the Throne in peace upon just and honorable terms and invested in their just possessions And therefore I can neither in conscience piety nor prudence ensnare my self in the guilt of all these dangerous consequences by any submission to this illegall Tax Upon all these weighty Reasons and serious grounds of Conscience Law Prudence which I humbly submit to the Consciences and Judgments of all conscientious and Judicious persons whom they do or shall concern I am resolved by the assistance and strength of that Omnipotent God who hath miraculously supported me under and carried me through all my former sufferings for the Peoples publick Liberties with exceeding joy comfort and the ruine of my greatest enemies and Opposers to oppugne this unlawfull Contrbution and the payment of it to the uttermost in all just and lawfull wayes I may And if any will forcibly levie it by distresse or otherwise without Law or Right as Theeves and Robbers take mens goods and Purses let them doe it at their own utmost perill And I trust God and men will in due season doe me justice and award me recompence for all the injuries in this kinde and any sufferings for my Countries Liberties How-ever fall back fall edge I would ten thousand times rather lose life and all I have to keep a good conscience and preserve my native Liberty then part with one farthing or gain the whole world with the losse of either of them and
REASONS Assigned by WILLIAM PRYNNE c. BEing on the 7 of this instant June 1649 informed by the Assessors of the Parish of Swainswicke that I was assessed at 2 l. 5 s. for three months Contribution by vertue of a pretended Act of the Commons assembled in Parliament bearing date the 7 of April last assessing the Kingdom at ninty thousand-pounds monthly beginning from the 25 of March last and continuing for six months next ensuing towards the maintenance of the forces to be continued in England and Ireland and the paying of such as are thought fit to be disbanded that so Free-quarter may be taken off whereof 3075 l. 17 s. 1 d. ob is monthly imposed on the County and 2 l. 5 s. 3 d. on the small poor Parish where I live and being since on the 15 of June required to pay in 2 l. 5 s. for my proportion I returned the Collector this Answer That I could neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence in the least measure submit to the voluntary payment of this illegall Tax and unreasonable Contribution after all my unrepaired losses and sufferings for the publick Liberty amounting to six times more then Ship-money the times considered or any other illegall Tax of the late beheaded King so much declaimed against in our three last Parliaments by some of those who imposed this And that I would rather submit to the painfullest death and severest punishment the Imposers or Exactors of it could inflict upon me by their arbitrary power for legall they had none then voluntarily pay or not oppose it in my place and calling to the uttermost upon the same if not better reasons as I oppugned a Ship-money Knighthood and other unlawfull impositions of the late King and his Councel heretofore And that they and all the world might bear witnesse I did it not from meer obstinacy or fullennesse but out of solid reall grounds of Conscience Law Prudence and publick affection to the weal and Liberty of my native Country now in danger of being enslaved under a new vassalage more grievous then the worst it ever yet sustained under the late or any other of our worst Kings I promised to draw up the Reasons of this my refusal in writing and to publish them so soon as possible to the Kingdom for my own Vindication and the better information and satisfaction of all such as are any wayes concerned in the imposing collecting levying or paying of this strange kinde of Contribution In pursuance whereof I immediately penned these ensuing Reasons which I humbly submit to the impartiall Censure of all conscientious and judicious Englishmen desiring either their ingenuous Refutation if erronious or candid Approbation if substantiall and irrefragable as my conscience and judgment perswade me they are and that they will appear so to all impartiall Persons after full examination First By the fundamental Laws and known Statutes of this Realme No Tax Tallage Ayd Imposition Contribution Loan or Assessment whatsoever may or ought to be imposed or levied on the free men and people of this Realm of England but by the WILL and COMMON ASSENT of the EARLS BARONS Knights Burgesses Commons and WHOLE REALM in a free and full PARLIAMENT by ACT OF PARLIAMENT All Taxes c. not so imposed levyed though for the common defence and profit of the Realm being unjust oppressive inconsistent with the liberty and propertie of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm as is undeniably evident by the expresse Statutes of Magna Charta cap. 29.30 25. E. 1. c. 5 6. 34. E. 1. De Tallagio non concedendo c. 1. 21. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 16. 25. E. 3. c. 8. 36. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 26. 45. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 42. 11. H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 10. 1. R. 3. c. 2. The Petition of Right and Resolutions of both Houses against Loans 3. Caroli The Votes and Acts against Ship-money Knighthood Tonnage and Poundage and the Star-chamber this last Parliament 17. 18 Caroli And fully agreed and demonstrated by Mr. William Hackwell in his Argument against Impositions Judge Hutton and Judge Crook in their Arguments and Mr. St. John in his Argument and Speech against Ship-money with other Arguments and Discourses of that subject Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Instit. published by Order of the Commons House pag. 59.60 c. 527.528.529.532.533 c. with sundry other Records and Law-books cited by these great Rabbies of the Law and Patriots of the Peoples Liberties But the present Tax of Ninety Thousand pounds a Month now exacted of me was not thus imposed Therefore it ought not to be demanded of nor levied on me and I ought in conscience Law and prudence to withstand it as unjust oppressive inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm To make good the Assumption which is onely questionable First This Tax was not imposed in but out of any Parliament the late Parliament being actually dissolved above two months before this pretended Act of these Tax-imposers taking away the King by a violent death as is expresly resolved by the Parliament of 1 H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 1. by the Parliament of 4. H. 4. and 1. H. 5. Rot. Parliam n. 26. Cook 4 Institutes p. 46. and 4. E. 4.44 b. For the King being both the Head beginning end and foundation of the Parliament as Modus tenendi Parliamentum and Sir Edward Cooks 4. Instit. p. 3. resolve which was summoned and constituted only by his Writ now b actually abated by his death and the Parliament as is evident by the clauses of the severall Writs of Summons to c the Lords and for the election of Knights and Burgesses and levying of their wages being onely PARLIAMENTUM NOSTRUM the Kings Parliament that is dead not his Heirs and Successors and the Lords and Commons being all summoned and authorized by it to come to HIS PARLIAMENT there to be present and conferre with HIM NOBISCUM not his Heirs and Successors of the weighty and urgent affairs that concerned NOS HIM and HIS KINGDOME of England and the Knights and Burgesses receiving their wages for Nuper ad NOS ad PARLIAMENTVM NOSTRVM veniendo c. quod sommoneri FECIMVS ad tractandum ibidem super diversis arduis Negotiis NOS Statum REGNI NOSTRI tangentibus as the tenor of the d Writs for their wages determines The King being dead and his Writ and Authority by which they were summoned with the ends for which they were called to confer with HIM about HIS and HIS KINGDOMS affairs c. being thereby absolutely determined without any hopes of revivall the Parliament it self must thereupon absolutely be determined likewise especially to those who have disinherited HIS HEIRS and SUCCESSORS and voted down our Monarchy it self and these with all other Members of Parliament cease to be any longer Members of it being made such onely by the King 's abated Writ