His Crown and His Regalty in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him His Crown and His Regalty in all points to live and to die These and several other Statutes too tedious 〈◊〉 to be inserted have been provided in former ages when the Pope's power was at the highest and provided even by Popish Kings and Popish Parliaments to secure themselves and the Nation from all Papal encroachments Neither have our Judges been less severe against the Popes unwarrantable pretensions who in pursuance of the Common-Law of the Land tho' no Statute had been made to that purpose judg'd it a very hainous Crime in any Subject of England to obey or put them in execution In the Reign of King Edward I when a Subject brought a Bull of Excommunication from Rome against another Subject of this Realm and publish'd it to the Lord Treasurer of England this was by the Common-Law of the Land adjudg'd Treason against the King his Crown and Dignity 30 lib. Ass. pla 19. Brook tit Praemunire pl◠10. An Excommunication by the Archbishop albeit it be disallow'd by the Pope or his Legate is to be allow'd neither ought the Judges give any allowance of any such Sentence of the Pope or his Legate 16 E. 3. tit Excom 4. An Excommunication under the Popes Bull is of no force to disable any man in England And the Judges said That he that pleadeth such Bulls tho they concern the Excommunication of a Subject were in a hard Case if the King would extend his Justice against him 30 E. 3. lib. Ass. pl. 19. The King presented to a Benefice and his Presentee was disturb'd by one that had obtain'd Bulls from Rome for which offence he was confin'd to perpetual Imprisonment 21 Ed. 3. f. 40. One Morris being elected Abbot of Waltham sent to Rome for a Bull of confirmation But it was resolved by all the Judges that this Bull was against the Laws of England and that the Abbot for obtaining the same was fallen into the King's mercy whereupon all his Possessions were seiz'd into the King's hands 46 Ed. 3. tit Praemunire 6. In the Reign of Ed. 4. the Pope granted to the Prior of St. Johns to have Sanctuary within his Priory But it was resolved by the Judges that the Pope had no power to grant Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore by judgment of the Law the same was disallowed 1 H. 7. f 20. In the same King's Reign a Legate from the Pope came to Callis to have come into England But the King and his Councel would not suffer him to come within the Kingdom until he had taken an Oath that he should attempt nothing against the King or his Crown 1 H. 7. f. 10. And in the Reign of H. 7. the Pope had excommunicated all such persons whatsoever as had bought Allom of the Florentines But it was resolved by all the Judges of England that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to be put in execution within the Realm of England 1 H. 7. f. 10. These and many other such Cases you may see in the first part of Coke's 5 th Reports Now if not only the Judges but the Representative-wisdom of the Nation even King Lords and Commons in the thickest mist of Popish ignorance were so resolute against the Bishop of Rome and so careful to preserve their own Rights and Liberties inviolable who can be so silly as to believe that a Popish Prince in this Kingdom and at this time of the day when Popery it self is much refin'd and the whole Nation irreconcilably bent against it will ever submit to any Papal Usurpation much less make himself or his People Slaves to the Court of Rome Alas says one but our sweet Abbey-Lands are in danger to be lost and reassum'd by the Popish Clergy what course then shall we take to secure them Believe me if the Law will not do it I know no other way but a project I hear shortly to be set on foot for Insuring all the Church-Lands in the Kingdom these 40 years to come The parties concern'd will propose very reasonable terms and will undertake the squinting Trimmer who maliciously whispers about he wou'd take seven years purchase for his Church-Lands in case of a Popish Successor shall have fourteen well secur'd whenever the Duke succeeds But why our Abbey-Lands more in danger than any other part of our Estates since we have the same security for the one as for the other and both as firmly secur'd as the Law can make them or the wit of man devise 'T is well known that the Popish Clergy in Queen Maries time the better to forward the peoples reconciliation with the Church of Rome by their Petition to the Queen consented that all the Church-Lands dispos'd of to Lay-men shou'd be settl'd on the Possessors and their Heirs for ever without any danger of revocation And this was approv'd of by the Pope's Legate a latere Cardinal Pool willing and ordaining as he says that the present possessors of Ecclesiastical Goods as well movable as immovable shall not at this time nor in time to come be disquieted nor molested in the possession of the said Goods either by the disposal or order of any General or Provincial Councils or by the Decretal Epistles of the Bishop of Rome or by any other Ecclesiastical Censure whatsoever And besides this to crown the work beyond all exception and bind it with a triple Cord which is not easily broken all is confirm'd in full Parliament by the Queen by the Cardinal and Clergy and by the Lords and Commons by whom 't is enacted That all and every Article Clause Sentence and Proviso contained or specified in any Act or Acts of Parliament concerning or touching the assurance or conveyance of any the said Monasteries Priories Nunneries Commandries Deanries Prebends Colledges Chantries Hospitals Houses of Fryers Rectories Vicarages Churches Chappels Archbishopricks Bishopricks and other Religious and Ecclesiastical houses and places or any of them or in any ways concerning any Manors Lands Tenements Profits Commodities Hereditaments or other the things before specified to the said K. H. 8. or K. Ed. 6. or either of them or any other person or persons or Body-politick or Corporate and every of them and all and every Writing Deed and Instrument concerning the assurance of any the same shall stand remain and be in as good force effect and strength and shall be pleaded and taken advantage of to all intents constructions and purposes as the same should might or could have been by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm in case this present Act had never been had or made 1. 2 Phil. Mar. c. 8 § 39. And 't is further enacted That whosoever shall by any Process obtained out of any Ecclesiastical Court within this Realm or without or by pretence of any spiritual Jurisdiction or otherwise contrary to the Laws of this Realm inquiet or molest
Popish Plotters and Whiggish Associators 'T is true some of the best People in England have had for the King's sake and in some measure for his own Merits sufficient kindness for his Grace and still wish him more Grace and consideration than to continue obstinately disobedient contrary to common Prudence and to all the ties and obligations of Nature of Duty and of Gratitude But as for Mr. Hunt's best People of England tho' pretended his only Friends they have been upon all occasions his real Enemies made a Property and a Tool of him to set him up like another Perkin Warbeck in opposition to the Royal Line and if that succeeded to kick him down again as they did Richard Cromwell to make room for Themselves and their darling Commonwealth But to return from this digression and examine what is left yet unanswer'd of this idle Pamphlet I find our Chief-Baron wouâ—d-be has stumbl'd at last on those two famous Statutes of Edward III to prove that Parliaments must be held once every year which saith he is confirm'd by an Act of this King call'd the Trienial Act p. 21. But by his Lordships good leave these Statutes if well consider'd will be found to have been made rather to oblige the Commons who then grumbl'd no less at the frequent calling than the Factious do now at the long intermission of Parliaments to send their Representatives to the King 's Great Councel than to bind the King to summon them when there was no occasion for their meeting and therefore to make the case more plain the conditional Clause If need be which may aptly refer to the whole period is expresly provided in the said Statutes For to affirm it was absolutely enacted that a Parliament shou'd be held once every year whether there was any or no need of their meeting when the choosing of Members was so troublesom and their expences eundo morando ad propria redeundo so chargeable to the people besides the great Taxes they usually granted is altogether unreasonable As for the Triennial Act of this King it makes more against than for his Lordships design since it requires but to have a Parliament once in three years and not sooner without some extraordinary occasion which I doubt not but His Majesty according to His late most Gracious Declaration will see punctually observ'd as He has been pleas'd to do in the whole course of His Reign And the Statute of Provisors 25 Ed 3. is no less impertinent to his purpose for tho' it be the Right of the Crown of England and that the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs and damages which happen to His Realm the King ought and is bound by Oath with the accord of His People in Parliament to make remedy and Law in removing the mischiefs and damages which thereof ensue Yet if His People in Parliament prove peevish and obstinate and will not accept of His Majesty's gracious Condescensions nor of the expedients by Him propos'd who then is to be blam'd the King or His People How many Proposals and Overtures of accomodation have been made by His Majesty to His last Parliament at Westminster and how undutifully they were rejected by some Leading-Members in the House of Commons How often did he offer to consent to any reasonable expedient they cou'd find out for securing the establish'd Religion in case of a Popish Successor But all was slighted as if nothing but the Subversion of the Monarchy was able to secure some Gentlemen in their Religion that were shrewdly suspected to have none to lose This discourse I know will not relish with our Irish Chief-Baron who seems already very angry that a Cabal as he calls the Loyal Addressers of the Nation shou'd take upon themselves to arraign the Proceedings of our latest Parliaments p. 8. And yet his unmannerly Worship because he thinks 't is a Priviledge peculiar to the Godly to speak evil of Dignities scruples not to rail at the best Parliament that ever met in his time which really was what he scoffingly calls it a Parliament of famous Loyalty tho' in their latter days when by the Death of several good Members too many of the old Leaven had crept in that vigor was much abated which they always express'd in their former resolutions and for which this Factious Lawyer presumes to say that obliquely they gave the Papists many assistances p. 14. and in plain terms calls them the corrupt Villains of the late Long-Parliament Considerations consider'd p. 19. But to clear this point without insisting upon retortions and recriminations I say to arraign the Proceedings of the Parliament in its true and legal sense that is of King Lords and Commons is a very great and a very hainous Crime not to be conniv'd at or endur'd in any Subject whatsoever because it tends to the vilifying and consequently to the subverting the Government for as Seneca well observ'd Nihil valet Regum potestas nisi prius valeat authorit as If Princes lose their Authority the awe and reverence due to them from the People they have lost their Power and Command and are in effect more than half Depos'd But to arraign the Proceedings of the Parliament when this Name is abusively appropriated to the House of Commons to whom this lawless Scribler attributes a high and uncontroulable Power p. 9. as if the King and Lords were only Cyphers the Crime is not near so unpardonable as some people wou'd have us believe I am sure Mr. Justice Hutton in his Argument against Ship-money which so pleas'd even that Rebellious Conventicle of Forty-One who swallow'd up the King's Prerogative and the Peoples Liberties in their Parliament-Priviledges that they gave express Orders to get it printed thought it no such Crime to say I know not whether the last meeting in Parliament either by ill choice of the Members of the House or by the great encrease of the number or by the ambitious humour of some Members of that House who aim'd more at their own ends and designs than the good of the Commonwealth things were so carry'd not as was us'd in ancient times but so disastrously that it hath wrought such a distast of this course of Parliaments as we and all that love the Commonwealth have just cause to be sorry for it p. 33. Nevertheless I must confess that even in this sense 't is not becoming every private Pen to censure or condemn them upon every slight occasion and the motives must be very extraordinary when such practices are allowable Yet when we consider that matters have been so carry'd on for some years past that of necessity we must eâ—ther mislike our Princes Wisdom and Councils for Proroguing and Dissolving so many Parliaments or conclude as undoubtedly we must that the unseasonable heat of the Leading-Members in the House of Commons necessitated His Majesty to take such unwelcom resolutions And withal when we find not only the King but the
and accorded for the good governance of the Commons that no man be put to answer without Presentment before Justices or matter of Record or by due Process and Writ Original according to the Old Law of the Land and if any thing be done to the contrary it shall be void in Law and holden for error What are we the better I say to have these and several other Statutes to the same purpose if they are not of force to secure us on all sides from the slavish yoke of Arbitrary Power If a breach be once made in these great Bulwarks of our Liberties and that even by those Sentinels appointed to guard us from all Illegal Incroachments where is our Security What will it avail the flock that they are safe from Wolves if they are in danger to be devour'd by the very Dogs that shou'd defend them Or to what purpose shou'd people struggle to avoid Scylla if at the same time they suffer themselves to be swallow'd up in Charybdis 'T is an old saying Infeliciter aegrotat cui plus mali venit a medico â—uam a morbo and we have found this too true by a dear-bought experience God preserve us from receiving any further confirmations of it from those State-Empyricks that labour to make us exchange the reality for the name and the substance for the shadow or Liberty 'T is plain by the foregoing Statutes that no man ought to be taken or Imprison'd without being brought to Answer by due course of Law and that none can be brought thus to answer without Presenâ—ment before Justices or matter of Record or by due Process and Writ Original according to the old Law of the Land What pretence then have the House of Commons who can bring none to Answer in this manner to any right or legal power to take or Imprison any Criminal whatsoever 'T is true the Common and generally all men in Authority are inclin'd to enlarge their own Jurisdiction and stretch it as far as possible but sure a bare Vote of that House in favour of themselves or a late practice never heard of in former Ages shall not be of force enough in any Court of Justice to elude the solemn Acts of King and Parliament Besides these Statutes too plain to admit of any comment even by the Common Law of this Realm no Subject can Imprison another but our Ancient Courts of Record and such as have the Kings express Commission for so doing I say Courts of Record because as appears by divers adjudg'd Cases in our Law Reports no other Court can Fine or Imprison the Subject Courts saith Coke which are not of Record cannot impose a Fine or commit any to Prison lib. 8. f. 38. And again Nulla Curia quae Recordum non habet potest imponere finem neque aliquem mandare carceri quia ista tantummodo spectant ad Curias de Recordo Now our best Lawyers will tell us that the House of Commons is no Court of Record nay properly speaking is no Court at all 1. Because there is no Court but what is establish d by the Kings Patent by Act of Parliament or by the Common-Law i.e. the constant immemorial custom of former Ages Plowdens Comment fol. 319. and Coke 1 Instit. f. 260. But the House of Commons cannot pretend to have any Patent or Act of Parliament to be a Court and yet the Common-Law makes nothing for their purpose For they were never own'd as such nor ever had as much as a Journal-Book much less Records till Ed. 6's time And moreover it was never heard before Sir Edward Cokes fancy there were two distinct Courts in the same Parliament since therefore the House of Lords is undoubtedly the Supream Court of all England they are properly the High Court of Parliament and consequently the House of Commons is no Court in Law Secondly There is no Court without a power of Tryal but the House of Commons have no power to try any Crime or Offence for they cannot nor ever pretended to examine upon Oath And therefore since there can be no legal tryal without Witnesses nor are Witnesses of any force in Law unless examin'd upon Oath the House of Commons not claiming the power to administer Oaths cannot bring any matter to a Tryal and consequently can be no Court. I must confess Sir Edward Coke who in his latter days thinking himself disoblig'd was no friend to the Monarchy and therefore took a great deal of pains to extol the Power of the Commons in opposition to the Kings Prerogative and the Jurisdiction of the Lords is or at least pretends to be of another opinion In the 4th part of his Institutes he tells us That the House of Commons is to many purposes a distinct Court p 28. which he very Learnedly proves by this rare Demonstration That upon signification of the Kings pleasure to the Speaker they do and may Prorogue or Adjourn themselves and are not Prorogu'd or Adjourned by the House of Lords ib. Whereas to say nothing of Commissioners for examining Witnesses or regulating any publick business of Arbitrators Referees and the like every Committee of Lords and Commons tho never so few in number must upon this account be a distinct Court because they may thus Adjourn and Prorogue themselves without their respective Houses But he goes on and to prove the House of Commons is not only a Court but a Court of Judicature and Record he says p. 23. That the Clerks Book of the House of Commons is a Record and so declared by Act of Parliament 6 H. 8. c. 16. Whereas that House as I have already hinted had no such Book as a Journal much less any Authentick Record before the first year of Edward the sixth all their material Proceedings till then being drawn in Minutes by a Clerk appointed to attend them for that purpose and by him entr'd of Record in the House of Lords And therefore the words of the Statute are That the Speakers License for Members going into the Country be entred of Record in the Book of the Clerk of the Parliament appointed for the Commons House Which undoubtedly must be meant not of the Commons tho order'd now and then to wait upon them but of the Lords Clerk who alone is stil'd Clerk of the Parliament I omit that altho the Act had expresly call'd the Commons Book a Record yet this cou'd no more make it so than the words of the Common-Law Recordari facias loquelam in Curia Comitatus vel Baronis tui Recordum illud habere coram Justiciariâ—s nostris c. us'd in the Writt for removing a Plaint out of the Court-Baron or County-Court to the Common-Pleas can prove the County-Court and Court-Baron to be Courts of Record which yet Coke himself denyes in several places of his Institutes See 1 Inst. f. 117. and 260. and Rolls in his Abridg. f. 527. This is not all the Lords and Commons must be made all Fellows
whilst these Brothers lived and held together they were as a strong Fortress one to the other the Admirals Courage supporting the Protectors Authority and the Protectors Authority maintaining the Admirals Stoutness but the Admiral once gone the Protectors Authority as wanting support began to totter and fell at last to utter ruine Besides there was at this time amongst the Nobility a kind of Faction Protestants who favour'd the Protector for his own sake and other of the Papal inclination who favour'd him for his Brothers sake But his Brother being gone both sides forsook him even his own side as thinking they could expect little assistance from him who gave no more assistance to his own Brother Bakers Chronicle p. 307. What a noise they make about these terrible Bugbears Popery and Slavery as if both were inseparable and actually breaking in upon the Nation or rather come as far as the Lobby of the House of Commons For my part tho I have no reason to be fond of either the one being no less contrary to my Nature than the other to my Principles yet I cannot be startl'd at every shadow nor believe that the Duke having already spent the Prime of his days let him succeed never so soon will be able to introduce amongst us any new much less the Popish Religion Neither can I be perswaded contrary to common sense and the experience of so many Ages but that the Papists are as fond of their Liberty and Property and consequently as great enemies to Slavery as any Protestant whatsoever For to them we owe the unparallel'd Common-Law of this Realm Magna Charta and all those wholesom Statutes grounded thereupon to them we are oblig'd for the incomparable Frame of our well-temper'd Monarchy which affords very much to the Industry and Happiness of the Subject yet preserves enough for the Majesty and Prerogative of any King that will own his People as Subjects and not as Slaves or Villains Who then but a Fool or a Mad-man wou'd think Slavery the unavoidable consequence of that Religion the Professors whereof even in the time of their blindest zeal and greatest darkness for since then they are much refin'd made such impregnable Bulwarks against it and provided such wholesome Laws to defend themselves from all the encroachments of Arbitrary Power Insomuch that the high and mighty Pope himself who often endeavour'd to enslave this Kingdom and make it Tributary to his avarice found to his great grief that tho some ignorant Bigots wou'd contribute to fill his Coffers yet the generality of the Nation were so tender of their own and their Princes Rights that they always oppos'd him with true English Courage as appears not only by hundreds of adjudg'd Cases reported in our Law-Books but by divers Records and Acts of Parliament For 25 Ed. 3. Stat. of Provisors 't is enacted That such persons as obtain Provisions or collation of Benefices from Rome and thereupon disturb the Presentees of the King or of other Patrons of Holy Church or of their Advowees The said Provisors their Procurators Executors and Notaries shall be attached by their body and brought in to Answer And if they be convict they shall abide in Prison without being let to Mainprise or Bail or otherwise delivered till they have made Fine and Ransom to the King at his Will and gree to the Party that shall feel himself grieved And nevertheless before they be delivered they shall make full renunciation and find Surety that they shall not attempt such things in time to come nor sue any Process by them nor by other against any man in the Court of Rome nor in any part elsewhere for any such Imprisonments or Renunciations nor any other thing depending of them And in the same year it was Enacted that he that purchas'd a Provision in Rome for an Abbey shou'd be out of the Kings Protection and any man might do with him as with the Kings Enemy 25 Ed. 3. c. 22. 2â— Ed. 3. c. 1. upon the grievous Complaints of the Lords and Commons in Parliament It was ordain'd that all People of the Kings Lâ—geance of what condition that they be which shall draw any out of the Realm in Plea whereof the cognizance pertaineth to the Kings Court or of things whereof Judgements be given in the Kings Court or which do Sue in any other Court to defeat or impeach the Judgements given in the Kings Court if they appear not within two months after warning given shall be put out of the Kings Protection and their Lands Goods and Chattles forfeit to the King and their Bodies wheresoever they may be found shall be taken and Imprisoned and Ransomed at the Kings will 13 R. c. 2. 'T is Enacted That if any do accept of a Benefice of Holy Church contrary to this Statute and that duly prov'd he shall within six Weeks next after such acceptation be exiled and banished out of the Realm for ever and his Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattles shall be forfeit to the King And if any Receive any such person banished coming from beyond the Sea or being within the Realm after the said six Weeks knowing thereof he shall be also exiled and banished and incurr such forfeiture as afore is said And their Procurators Notaries Executors and Summoners shall have the pain and forfeiture aforesaid And c. 3 It is ordained and established That if any man bring or send within the Realm or the King's power any Summons Sentence or Excommunication against any person of what condition that he be for the cause of making motion assent or execution of the said Statute of Provisors he shall be taken arrested and put in Prison and forfeit all his Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels for ever and incur the pain of life and of member And if a Prelate make execution of such Summons Sentences or Excommunications that his Temporalties be taken and abide in the Kings hands till due redress and correction thereof be made And if any person of less Estate than a Prelate of what condition that he be make such execution he shall be taken arrested and put in Prison and have Imprisonment and make fine and ransom by the discretion of the Kings Councel 16 R. 2. 't is declar'd That the Crown of England which hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalty of the same Crown ought not to be submitted to the Pope nor the Laws and Statutes of the Realm by him defeated and avoided at his will in perpetual destruction of the Sovereignty of the King our Lord His Crown His Regalty and of all His Realm And moreover the Commons affirmed That the things attempted by the Pope be clearly against the King's Crown and His Regality used and approved of in the time of all his Progenitors Wherefore they and all the Leige-Commons of the same Realm will stand by the King and