so Essential to government as they spared no cost in their Epulis or Caresses of the people and was for many Ages past congeniall and connatural to the English Nation who are abundantly taken with it and justly accompted to be such an handmaid to Piety as Geffery Earl of Essex and Eustace his Wife did in the Reign of King Henry the second grant to the Nunnery of Clarkenwell totam decimam totius victus procurationis provisions saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman illorum domus suae familiae suae the Tithe or Tenths of all the victuals and provisions of their house and family And Maud of Mandevill Countesse of Essex and Hertford in the beginning of the Reign of King H. 3. confirming the said Grant doth it in more express words viz. ubicunque fuerimus de panibus potibus carnibus etiam de piscibus wheresoever they should be of bread drink flâ—sh and fish And was such an effect of the magnificence grandeur of the minds of the English Nobility as Roger Earl of Warwick in the 23. year of the Reign of King Henry the first did grant unto Richard the Son of Jvo his Cook afterwards taking the Sirname of Woodlow from their residence at Woodlow in the County of Warwick besides the Mannor of Woodlow with divers Lands and Priviledges thereunto belonging and a Yard land in Cotes in the County aforesaid given by the said Earle to him and his heirs the Office of Master Cook in his Kitchin to him and his Heirs which his Father theretofore held with all Fees of his Kitchen belonging to the Master Cook both in Liveries and Horses as the Esquires of his Houshold then had of which Alan the Son of that Richard being also in the said Office in the house of William Earl of Warwick Son of the said Earl Roger who it seems could produce no Charter in writing thereof obtained a grant and confirmation of the said William Earl of Warwick of the said Mannor Lands and Office for which the said Alan gave unto the Earl ten shillings in money twelve Geâ—se and a Fikin of Wine And a late experience if antiquity had been altogether silent of the benefits which do come by it hath sufficiently declared unto us the no dull operation or impulse of it in that since the happy Restoration of King Charles the second and the Kingly Goveâ—nment a Gentleman high born and of a great â—xtraction retiring into a Country where some part of his Estate doth lye about one hundred miles from London did by an Housekeeping and Hospitality becoming him and his great Ancestors so winne the hearts and love of the people though they were of a different Judgement and profession of Religion which usually begeâ—s more animosities and ill will then it should do as he became their darling whilst he was with them and their sorrow and cause of tolling their Bells backwards as a signe of some disaster when he had occasion for a little while to leave them And a Gentleman or Faber fortunâ— suae one that but lately had made his fortunes in as remote a Country from London and of some new fangled opinions in Religion distastfull enough to many in his Neighbourhood did only by a charity of giving unto some numbers of poor people of the place wherein he lived Beef and Pottage at his door twice or thrice every week in the year so gain the love of the people as they that would not otherwise have shewed him any love or favour did not deny him either of them When as too many can lay aside and neglect the care of obliging and gaining the hearts and affections of their Neighbours and Tenants and making any shift to furnish and provide the excess and sinfull superfluities both of the belly and the back will not let the belly want it nor the back be without it And those that have no mind or will to pay or make the King any recompence for his Pourveyance or Compositions can without any grudging see the Pourveyance of the City of London that Queen that sitteth like the afterwards unhappy City of Tire upon many waters covereth all our Island and her Citizens by seeking to buy as cheap as they can and to adulterate as much as they can and sell as dear as they doe all their wares commodities can make a costly enhance of all manner of houshold provisions and extending their desires and attempts for that purpose to the remotest parts of the Kingdome do by ingrossings combinations and other unlawfull Artifices of Trade bring the fatness of the Flock and the delicacies of Sea and Land to feed and furnish out the Luxuries of her own Inhabitants and such as have a will to be infected with it and make the whole Island to be too little to maintain her vice and avarice insomuch as Salmons which at Monmouth being above 100 miles distant from London were wont to be sold there for ten groats a piece are now before hand bespoke and bought up by some Londoners or their Agents for ten shillings a piece and the Towns-men that did before eâ—joy a priviledge that all the Salmons brought to that Market should be first brought to the Kings Bord and no Forreigner suffered to buy any untill the Town were first served can now see themselves bereaved of their Prae-emption as well as the King is whose Progenitors did at the first bestow it upon them In Lincolnshire above 70 or 80 miles from London do so ingross and precontract for all wild fowl Ducks and Mallards as the Gentry of that Country where they are bred and should have some cheapness plenty of them are resolving to be Petitioners to the Justices of Peace at the next Quarter-Sessions that the Heglers and men of London may not be suffered to raise the pâ—ices of their Wild-fowl nor carry them out of the Countâ—y untill it be first served And as if all were not enough to enrich themselves and undo others can upon any accident or occasion or but a supposiâ—â—on of things which may happen make and dresse up their pretences and supposed causes of pâ—ices to be raâ—sed and eâ—hanced to the great oppression and burden of all that are to buy of them and but upon a late likelihood of Warres betwixt us and the Netherland united Belgick Provinces whilst we are Masters of the Seas and not under any probability of having our Seas disquieted or Trade interrupted have so greatly before hand raised the rates and prices of Sea-coal Sprats Salt and the most part of transmarine Commodities as they that shall believe that those and many more of their exactions which they will put and enforce upon the people by reason of a probability of that Warre will without any just cause or reason for it in a short time amount unto more then six hundred thousand pounds may well be understood neither to prejudice the truth or their judgements in it
the pattern of private Housekeepers and the narrow and unbeseeming Customes of their smaller Estates and Families That the wast of honor and the more then ordinary Fragments left in the Kings House as the remainders of the Dyet provided for him and his servants for the food and sustenance of the Poor and such as will be glad of it are but the requisites and appurtenances to the Majesty and Honor of a King that Sir Richard Weston afterwards Earle of Portland and Lord High Treasurer of England Sir John Woâ—stenholme Knight Sir William Pâ—tâ— and others commissioned by King James to make a Reiglement and Espaâ—gne in his house-keeping being men of known and great experience in the management of their own Estates could not then find any such things as have been since laid to the charge of the Kings Officers and Servants in his House that the pretensions not long after of better husbandry in the Kings House by some niggardly contrivances and serving some of the Tables with half a Goose instead of a whole came to no more at the last then the obtaining of the pretenders self ends and an Annuity of 500l per annum for thâ— lives of the pretender his wife and the longer liver of them that the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Housholds yearly Fee of 100 l. the Treasurer of the Housholds yearly Fee of 123l 14s and the Cofferers yearly Fee of 100l measured and proportioned to the antient and former cheapness and means of livelihood would have even then been very deficient for the support of such persons of Honor and Quality if they had not had at the same time some seldome falling expectations of other favours and rewards from a Princely Master and a present liberal allowance for their Tables which although it doth now stand the King by the enhance of his rates and prices in a great deal more then it did formerly yet unto those that received those allowances for their Tables and Dyet it is no more then formerly for if an estimate were taken how much it would cost the King to make and encrease the Salaries and wages of his Servants and Officers of all ranks and sorts which in all the several Offices and Places and Dependencies about the persons of the King and Queen are above one thousand all or most of whom did when the Tables and Diets were allowed intercommune one with another and were with many also of their Servants fed with the Kings Victuals and Houshold Provisions to be according unto the rates of wages Salaries and as much as they are now taken and given in private Families and all were to be paid in money and nothing in dyet the Kings Treasury Purse or Estate would soon be brought to understand that such increased Allowances or other Allowances Pensions Wages and Salaries which must according to the rise and enhance of all manner of things conducing to the support and livelihood of such Servants be now necessarily paid and given over and above the antient Fees and Salaries would arise and amount unto more then all the charge of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them whether it were thirty and five thousand pounds a year or fifty thousand pounds per annum which was laid and charged upon the Counties or more then the King is unjustly supposed to be deceived or cheated by his servants or those which do direct the affairs of his Houshold when it cannot escape every private mans Judgement and experience in house-keeping that he that doth give his servants forty shillings per annum Salary and as much more to be added unto it in certain Fees and Profits well known and calculated to amount unto no more then another forty shillings per annum doth give his servant but four pounds per annum in the totall and is not at all cozened therein and that it would otherwise be no Honour to the King but a diminution of Majesty and a temptation or necessity enforced upon his servants to deceive him if the Serjeant of the Ewrie and the Serjeant of the Bakehouse to mention but a few of many should have but their antient and bare Salaries of 11 l. 8 s. 1 d. per annum and want their antiently allowed Avails and Perquisites That such short and now far too little Wages and Salaries to be given to the Kings Servants in their several honourable and worshipfull Stations would be unworthy for them to receive and dishonorable for the King to give And that the no inconsiderable summe of money which was yearly and usually saved by the venditions of the over-plus of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them and imployed in the buying of Linnen and Utensils for the service of the House the now yearly allowances for Diet to eight principall great Officers and to seaven of the next principall Officers and what his Majesty payeth yearly to others for Board-wages and what is enhanced and laid upon him by unreasonable rates and prices now that his Officers are constrained to buy with ready money and to pay a barbarous Interest and Brocage to provide it compared with what he now spends in his private allowances for his own and the Queens Diet and some other few yet allowed Tables will make a most certain and lamentable demonstration that the King and his Honor were gainers by the Pourveyance os Compositions for them and very great loosers by the taking of them away And that he did meet with a very ill Bargain by the Exchange of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them for a supposed recompence of Fifty thousand pounds per annum intended him out of the Moiety of the Excise of Ale Beer Perry c. But if the abuses committed by the Servants and Officers of the King within the house were so great or any thing at all as is pretended for as to the Pourveyors and those that act without dores the Law hath sufficiently provided they may certainly be rectified and brought under a reformation without the abolishing or totall taking away of the right use of them or that which cannot be spared or by any means be abandoned but may be dealt with as we do by our Wines Victuals or Apparel which as necessaries of life are in their right use to be kept and reteyned notwithstanding any misusage of them Or if the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were so much diverted from the use intended by them yet that will not be any reason for the quitting of them without a due exchange or recompence for that if they were all of them as is meerly fained or fanciâ—d mispent or misimployed yet those that do mispend them and they that have the benefit of them not that I would be an Advocate to justifie the selling of the Kings meat or houshold provisions unto any in the Neighbourhood or any accursed cheatings of the King which I wish might be punished as Felony are neither Enemies or Strangers to the Nation but the Kings Subjects and
Servants and the Children Friends and Kinred of many of those which do contribute towards the Pourveyance or Compositions for them and that which is so misimployed serves instead of some other largesses allowances or connivencies which are usually in Kings Houses and whether well spent or mispent being Oblations and Offerings of duty made by the People to their Sovereign are not to be denyed or retrenched no more then the misbehaviour of the Sons of Ely with which the Almighty was so much offended would have been any just cause of the Children of Israels forbearing to bring their Offerings It being no Paradox but certain enough that those seeming but not reall grievances to the People by the Kings Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them have no other source or originall then the rise and enhance of the Markets and all Victualls and Provisions by which all the selling and richer part of the People are ten to one more gainers by the Kings Pourveyance or Compositions for them then they can be loosers and are better able to bear it and the poorer sort of the people were less grieved when it was not taken away then they are now by the Excise of Ale Beer c. which comes in the place or pretended recompence of it that the Gentry and Landlords of the Lands in the Nation who by heating of those Lands that were cold drayning and drying of those that were wet and moist watering of such as were dry and sandy and planting of Wood and Fruit have brought their lands to a greater increase and fertility not yet come to its Acme or just height then the former ages and a thousand years knowledge or practise of our Forefathers the Inhabitants of this Nation could before this last Age or Century wherein we are now ever reach or attain unto and the Landlords of Houses Innes Taverns Shops or Stalls in London who have now by the increase of Tradesmen rather then Trade raised their rents ten or twenty to one more then what they were One hundred years agoe might in some measure or moderation have taken their advantages of the improvements of their Lands Rents Houses and Shops without such an overstretching their Rents as the Tenants where they have no Leases but at will or from year to year in some Counties of England should be enforced as many have lately been to throw up and forsake their Bargains And that all or any of that over-high racking the Rents of Lands and Houses or a supposed plenty of money which in the time of the greatest enhance and rack of rents rates and prices which ever England did see or endure is now so scarcely to be found as the universality of the people do heavily complain of the want of it and the product or consequence of that evil in a like enhance of rates and prices by the Freeholders and Copyholders who pay no rents as Farmers do and by the Tenants of the King Queen Prince or Bishops some of the hospitable and well minded Nobility and Gentry the Tenants of the Church and Colledge Lands and of Lands belonging to Cities Corporations Companies and Hospitals who have cheap and comfortable Estates and Bargains and yet do all they can to imitate them although they have no cause to do it which would be much higher If all the Copihold Estates in England and Wales were at as great a rack of rent as the Lands of the most of Farmers If all the Privileges and Rights of Common Estovers and Turbary Modus decimandi and Exemption from the payment of Tythes and Tolls were abrogated And if the King should keep the same rule and measure of high rating and racking of his Revenues certain or casuall as many Landlords do Or make our East-India Merchants pay for their licence or priviledge of trading to the East-Indies all others being excluded for one and twenty years a share or proportion amounting in the whole very near a Million sterling money as the Dutch have made their East-India Company to do could not be the only proper or efficient causes of that long-strided and swift progresse and increase of the rates and prices not only of victuals and all houshold provisions but of all manner of commodities apparel and necessaries either for use or ornament So as we shall not conclude without premisses or be thought to want a ground or foundation of an irrefragable truth that Lucifer the great Merchant and furnisher of our sins and excess and of the great and intollerable pride of all the degrees and ranks of men women children and servants in the Nation as far beyond the former ages as a Giant is to a Pigmee or Pauls Steeple in London when it was highest to the Pissing Conduit as they call it in Cheapside and the avarice of the people to maintain it together with the necessities attending their pride and vanities have been no small part of the cause of it for otherwise it would have been some difficulty to find or give a reason why we should not in England a Kingdome untill our late times of confusion of the greatest peace and plenty in Christendome be able to afford victuals and all manner of provisions for the belly and back as cheap as in France where notwithstanding the heavy oppressions and burdens of the Paysants who do fare hard and are ill clad and by reason of the frugality of most of the Gentry a Partridge may be bought for â—our pence and a Gentleman and his horse at night be very well entertaind for four shillings or as in Spain where a Bando is yearly made by the Corrigidores of every City and Place which the Civil Law doth allow and direct and our Laws of England do as to victuals also intend setting yearly the rates and prices not only of all victuals and houshold provisions for the belly and of fruit and Apples but of all Commodities as Linnen and Woollen Cloth Silk Knives Haâ—s c. where notwithstanding their continuall Warres and multitudes of heavy Taxes to mainteyn them there is a cheapness of victuals and such an absence of deceit as a child or the most ignorant way as to measure weight and prices buy and not be deceived Or as is in the same manner done at Rome Naples Florence Milan and most of the Principalities of Italy not so freed from publick Burdens as our more happy England is at this present which neither would nor could be there ever submitted unto and obeyed as it is if the pride and necessities or avarice of the Landlords and the pride of the Tenants which the Pragmatico's forbidding the pride and excess of apparel do in Spain very much eradicate were not less then ours and their frugalities more and such restrictions and reglements thereby made to be the more tolerable and contenting And those that do like it more then they should and shall be content to imploy their times in the pursuit of vanities and means to
the Reign of King Henry the 3. bring an Assise or Action against him for it for as for our Industrious Speed setting forth in his History of England that Rhese ap Gruffith Prince of Wales coming out of Wales as far as Oxford to treat of a Peace with King Richard the First did take it in so high a scorn and indignation that the King came not in person to meet him as he returned home into his own Country without saluting the King though Earl John the Kings only Brother had with much honour conducted him from the Marches of Wales thither and that by that means the hopes of the expected peace vanished and came unto nothing hath observed that the meanest from whom love or service is expected will again expect regard And therefore the care of our Kings was not a little imployed in that way of imparting of their favours and increasing and cherishing the love and good will of their people when King Henry the Seventh whose troubles and tosses of fortune before he came unto the Crown had together with his learning and princely education made him a great Master in Policy and good Government and one of the wisest Kings that ever swaied the English Scepter did in his prudent Orders concerning his Court and Houshold and the State and Magnificence which he desired to be observed therein communicated unto me by my worthy and learned Friend William Dugdale Esquire Norroy King at Armes out of an ancient Manuscript sometimes in the custody of Charles de Somerset Knight Lord Herbert and Gower Chamberlain unto that King amongst many other Orders for the honour of the King and his House ordain that If any straunger shall come from any Noble-man or other the Gentilmen Huysshers ought to sette him in suche place convenient within the Kyngs Chamber as is mete for hym by the discrecion of the Chamberlain and Huyssher and to comaunde service for hym after his degree and the sayd Huyssher ought to speke to the Kings Almoigner Kerver and Sewer to reward hym from the Kings Board this is to say if the said Straunger happen to come whan the Kyng is at dynner Item The Gentilman Huyssher if there come any honourable personnes to the Kyng at any other tyme they ought to call with thaym the sayd personnes to the Seller Pantry and Buttry and there to commaund forth such brede mete and drynke as by his discretion shall be thought metely for thaym and this in no wise not to be with sayd in noon of thies Offices aforesayd It is to the Kings honor Item that no Gentilman Huyssher bee so hardy to take any commaundement upon him but that it may be with the Kings honor by hys discretion in these matiers to myspende the Kings vitail but where as it ought to be and if he doo he is nat worthy to occupy that rowme but for to abide the punishment of my Lord Chamberlain Item A Gentilman Huyssher ought to commaund Yeomen Huysshers and Yeomen to fetche bred ale and wine at afternoon for Lords and other Gentilmen being in the Kings Chamber whan the caas soâ— shall requyre Which and the like Magnificences of Hospitality in the Houses and Courts of our Kings and Princes supported by the Pourveyances without which the elder Kings of England before the Conquest could not have been able to susteyn the charge of their great and yearly solemn Festivals at Christmas Easter and Pentecost when ex more obsequii vinculo antiquissimo as that great and learned Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman hath observed by duty and antient custome the Lords and Barons of England did never fail to come to the Kings Palace where the Magna Concilia wittena gemotes conventus sapientum now called Parliaments were at those times to be holden and kept cum ad Curiam personam ejus exornandum tum ad consulendum de negotiis regni statuendumque prout fuerat necessarium providere de rebus illis Rex solebat corona redimitus profastu Regio se in omnibus exhibere for the honor of the King and his Court who then with his Crown upon his head and other Princely habiliments did use to shew himself unto the people and advise what was necessary to be done for the good of the Kingdom And was such an attendant upon the Grandeur and Honour of their Monarchy as it began with it and continued here amongst us till the Councill of some foolish and factious Shrubs had by a fire kindled in our then unhappy Kingdome overturned our Cedars of Libanon and made an accursed and wicked Bramble their Protector and was so necessary to the Government and Authority of our Kings and the encrease and preservation of the love and obedience of the people as we find it neither repined nor murmured at in the Reign of King Alfred who being of an almost unimitable piety and prudence and to whom this Nation ows a gratefull memory for his division of the Kingdom into Shires and Hundreds and for many a Politique Constitution did now almost 800 years ago keep a most Princely and magnificent House and a numerous company of Servants gave enterteynment of diet and lodging to many of the sons of his Nobility who were therein trayned up to all manner of Courtly and honourable exercises had three Cohorts or Bands of Life-guards every Cohort according to the ancient computation consisting if they were Horse of 132 and of Foot of a great many more the first Company attending in or about his Court or House night and day for a moneth and returning aftewards home to their own occasions tarried there by the space of two moneths the second Cohort doing likewise as the first and the third as the second by their turns and courses and had a good allowance of money and victualls in the House or Court of the King who had his ministros nobiles qui in curio Regio vicissim commorabantur in pluribus ministrantes ministeriis noble and great Officers in his Court which attended in their courses and took so much care also for them as in his last Will and Testament he gave cuilibet Armigerorum suorum to every one of his Esquires 100 marks Or that King Hardi Canutus caused his Tables to be spread four times every day and plentiously furnished with Cates and commanded that his Courtiers Servants and Guests should rather have superfluities then want any thing That William Rufus when he had built Westminster Hall 270 foot in length and 74 in breadth thought it not large enough for a Dyning Room King Richard the Second kept a most Royall Christmas where was every day spent 26 or 28 Oxen 300 Sheep with Fowl beyond number and to his Houshold came every day to meat ten thousand people as appeared by the Messes told out from the Kitchin unto three hundred Servitors and was able about two years before when the Times began to be
lay down or pay their money for it And how ungrateful it will be if they were not Subjects or obliged by the Laws of God Nature and Nations to an obedience reverence retributions and oblations to their Prince to receive a daily and an hourly protection and as many benefits and blessings as their almost alwayes craving necessities and importunities can get or obtain or his munificent and ready heart and hand impart and bestow upon them And yet be so barren in their retorns or thankfulness as when there is not a Family or Kinred in England but hath at one time or other been raised or enriched by the King or his Royall Progenitors or tasted of their favours or mercies and that those who did eat and partake of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and were maintained by them were for the most part their Sons and Daughters or some of their Kinred or Generations to deny him that which was such an antient and unquestionable Right as all the Judges of England did no longer agoe then the third year of the Reign of King James declare it to be a Prerogative of the King at the Common Law and was no less in the Times of our Saxon and British Monarchs and so much in use in the Kingdom of Ireland as it doth yet retain the custome of Pourveyance ad alendum Proregis Familiam for the maintenance of the Lord Lieutenants House and Family as an antiquitus institutum an antient Constitution Jus quoddam Majestatis a part of the Right belonging unto the Sovereign Prince and his Preheminence or Kingly Prerogative And in their Act of Parliament lately made for the Settlement of that tossed and turmoild Kingdom consented that the Lord Chief-Justice of his Majesties Court of King-Bench the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Master of the Rolls or any other of his Majesties Officers of that Kingdom for the time being shall and may have and receive such Port-Corn of the Rectories Impropriations or appropriate Tithes forfeited unto or vested in his Majesty his Heirs and Successors which have been formerly paid or reserved The furnishing of Carriages and Ships for publick uses are in Scotland justly numbred amongst those Regalities which are annexed to the Crown and was by the consent of the Estates there so called allowed to conserve the dignity of that Kingdome the Borrough Mealis where quilibet Burgensis debet domino Regi pro Burgagio quinque denarios annuatìm dicuntur incorporari annexique Fisco Patrimonio Regis every Burgess is to pay five pence per annum for his Mealis which Sir Henry Spelman interprets to be a Farme appropriated to buy Provisions in Regiae mensae apparatum for the Kings Table or Houshold and are said to be incorporate and annexed to the Patrimony of the King and his Exchequer And the right of Pourveyance so little there esteemed to be a grievance as in a Parliament of their King James the 4 th holden in the year 1489. The Lords Spirituall and Temporall and other his Lieges did declare that it was the Kings property for the honourable sustentation of his house according to his Estait and Honour quhilk may not be failized without great derogation of his noble Estait and that his true Lieges suld above all singular and particular profit desire to preserve the noble Estait of his Excellence like as it was in the time of his maist noble Progenitors of gud mynd And is conform unto that rule of reason which other Nations doe measure their Actions by for in France as Renatus Choppinus a learned French Advocat saith it is Dominicum jus primitus sceptris addictum in necessarios Regiae mensae Aulaeque sumptus honorificum ad suum Imperii inclitae decus Majestatis conservandum a part of the Demeasnes belonging and annexed to the Royall Scepter and appropriate to the necessary uses and provisions of the Kings Court and Houshold for the honor and conservation of the Rights of Majesty Our long agoe old and worthy Ancestors the stout hearted Germans did as Tacitus sua sponte ex more viritìm conferre principibus armenta vel fruges quae pro honore accepta necessitatibus subvenirent man by man of their own accord customarily bring or send unto their Princes Herds of Cattle and some of the fruits of the earth as Presents and Oblations which being taken for an Honour due unto them did much conduce unto the defraying of their charges or necessityes the people of Italy and the Princes and Nobility thereof did acknowledge them to be inter Regalia amongst the Regalities of the Emperour and the Law of the Empire formerly of Rome now of Germany doth strongly assert the Praestationes Angariarum Plaustrorum Navium c. Pourveyance of Cart-taking and impresting of Ships Regi competere ratione excellentâ—ae ejus dignitatis quae Regalia dicuntur to belong unto the King by reason of the excellency of his dignity Et multa adjumentaei necessaria ut dominium intus externè tueri valeat and that many ayds and helps are necessary for a Prince to defend his Dominions at home as well as abroad And is as much a Custome of Nations as covering of the head washing the hands wearing of shoes and retiring to rest or sleep in the night so usual as the Barbarians some of whom have not so much good nature as to diswade them from selling their Children like Calves or Cattle at a Market or the savage part of the Heathen who have not attained to so much of reason as to perswade them the use of clothes and apparrel are glad their Kings and Princes will accept of And the Inhabitants of that large Empire of Japan who in many of their Nationall Customes and Actions do delight to be contrary to the people of Europe and most other Nations as to have their Teeth black when others doe desire to have them white doe mount their horses on the right side and not uncover their heads in saluting each other but only unty some part of their Shoes and Sandals and sit down when others do come to salute them are notwithstanding unwilling to come behind other Nations in the Duty of Pourveyance and Honour of their Prince Practised allowed by many approved examples in the sacred Volumes where Melchizedeck King of Salem the Priest of the most high God brought forth bread and wine to Abraham and his houshold Servants in their little Army upon their return from the rescue of the righteous Lot which was saith the great Grotius a Custome then in use amongst the neighbour Nations that of Jesse the Father of David who being commanded by Saul his King when he was not in the Army but enjoyed the blessings of peace to send David his Son unto him laded an Asse with bread and a bottle of wine and a Kid and sent
them by David unto Saul and not long after sending him into the Army to visit his Brethren commanded him to take an Ephah and ten loaves and carry them into the Camp unto his Brethren and ten Cheeses unto the Captains of their Thousand The worst of women the Witch of Endor made hast to kill her fat Calfe took flower and kneaded it baked unleavened bread and caused Saul and his Servants to eat The Moabites who were Davids Subjects after he was King sent him gifts pro pace ac tutela as gratifications for their peace and protection and continued and paid it unto the Kings of Israel untill after the Reign of Ahab King of Israel Shobi Machir and Barzillai in the midst of his afflictions by the Rebellion of his Son Absolom sent victualls and provisions to him and his Army the dutifull and honest-hearted Araunah would rather give him his Oxen to sacrifice then take mony for them the Sunamitish woman would in honour and respect unto Elisha the Prophet not only constrain him to eat bread but advised her Husband to make a little Chamber in the Wall and set for him there a Bed a Table and a Stool and a Candlestick to the end that when he passed that way he might turn in thither The Moabites having after the destruction of the Kingdome of Israel discontinued their Pourveyance were in the judgements denounced against them for their pride exhorted by the Prophet Isaiah to an obedience and to send the Lamb viz. that Pourveyance to the Ruler of the Land which was Ezechiah King of Juda the lawfull Heir of King David And the Children of Israel and Juda after a return from a long and a sorrowfull captivity could not when they bare burdens and wrought with one hand and held a weapon with the other in their building and repair of Jerusalem forget the custome of Pourveyance for the good Nehemiah their righteous Captain and Governour Which might induce the people of England to cover their faces with shame and blush through that thin-leafed Mask of a Recompence by the Excise supposed to be given in Exchange thereof when they can at the same time whilest they denyed it to the King believe that the Pensions and Payments in Universities Colleges Innes of Court Chancery for the honor of their Societies and defraying of charges ordinary or extraordinary The assistance or supports which the Lord Mayor of London the Companies or Guilds of Trades therein the Magistrates of every City Burrough or Corporation and Church-wardens of every Parish do by permission of him and his Laws exact and enforce for the credit or worship of their Societies and their maintenance and affairs one under another and one of another to be as legall as they are necessary And the dignified Clergie as Arch-Bishops Bishops Arch-Deacons Deans Prebends and Canons many of whom do enjoy Commendams and Prebends and yearly receive Pensions some of which were for superstitious uses Synodals Procurations money for Proxies Cathedratica Quarta's Episcopales Corredies or Entertainment-money Penticostalia Waxscot or Cyrick sceat which in some places was recompenced by the yearly Tribute of Hens or some other houshold provisions and in many places do receive the long since abolished Romescot or Peter-pence and many other Emoluments and the inferiour part of the Clergy their Mortuaries yearly Oblations and many other Profits and Free-will Offerings towards their Hospitalityes and Housekeeping And many of the Laity can think it reasonable by privileges of some Religious-houses whereof their Lands before they were granted unto them by the Kings Royall Progenitors were parcell to pay in many places no Tythes at all and in as many or more do claim and receive the benefit of a Modus decimandi or paying a small rate or proportion for them and in their own Leases and Grants not only in former ages but lately find it to be most for their benefit to reserve as a convenience for their housekeeping as their Ancestors or Predecessors formerly did their duties of work in Harvest or payment of Muttons and Poultry c. And can retain their Rights of Patronage and Advowsons take and receive Herriots which were gratuitae donationes domino suo datas ratione dominii reverentiae the gifts or remunerations of Tenants to their Lords in the reverence or respect which they do bear unto them after the rate of 4 or 5 l a Cow many times the only remaining substance of a sorrowfull Widow and Fatherless Children when the price of an Oxe was in the Reign of King Edward the First and many years after but 5 s. or an eighth or tenth part of it Reliefs and Chiefage which Cowell understands to be pecuniae annuò datae potentiori tutelae patrociniique gratiae and the Tolls in Fairs and Markets by his Grants or by Prescription or allowance which do in yearly profit twice or thrice over exceed the charge of the Counties or Cities of the Kingdome towards the Pourveyance or Provision of the King and his Houshold and the Owners of above three thousand and eight hundred Impropriations which originally were designed for hospitality can require and receive Pensions Synodals Procurations Proxie-money and Waxscot money And very many of the Laity yearly demand and receive Romescot Peter pence or Chimney-money of their Tenants in some Manors amounting unto a considerable value which notwithstanding that by the Statute of 25 H. 8. ca. 21. it be forbidden under severe penalties to be paid any more to the Popes use have since either by ignorance of their Tenants or a custome of paying it to the Lords of such Manors or their Stewards or Bayliffs been collected or gathered to the use of the Lords of those Manors be very industrious in the enforcing the payment of Street-gavel which in the Reign of King Edward the First was claimed by the Lord of the Manour of Cholmton in the County of Sussex for every Tenants going out of the Manor or returning unto it and in many or some of their Manors do receive Quit-rents of their Tenants for Bordland or provisions of victuals for their houses Drofland for driving their Cattle to Fairs and Markets Berland carrying provision of victuals upon the removall of the Lord of the Manor or his Steward Potura drinklan or Scot Ale a Contribution of Tenants towards a Potation drink or an Ale provided to entertain the Lord or his Steward those charges being now defrayed by the Lords of the Manors Cart-silver Ward-penies and Hoke-Tuesday mony for a liberty probably of giving their Tenants or Bond-men leave to celebrate that day wherein the English did every where slay the Domineering Gavel-Corn Gavel-Malt Rent-honey Oate-Gavel or Rent Oates Woodlede for carrying home the Lords wood Hidage or an Arbitrary Tax imposed upon every Hide of their Tenants Lands afterwards turned into an yearly payment Gavel-Foder for Litter Hay and Provender for
when he came down out of the Mount from his conference with him to be abated or lessened but shewed his care of it in the severe punishment of the gain-saying of Corah Dathan Abiram and their saying that Moses took too much upon him and is and ever hath been so essentiall very necessary to the preservation of Authority and Government and the Subjects and People under it as Saul when he had incurred the displeasure of God and his Prophet Samuel desired him not to dishonour him before the People And David when he heard how shamefully his Embassadours had been abused by the King of Ammon ordered them to stay at Jericho untill their beards were grown out The Romans who being at the first but Bubulci and Opiliones a rude Company oâ— Shepheards Herdsmen and were looked upon as such a base and rude Rabble as the Sabines their Neighbours scorned to marry or be allyed with them did afterwards in their growing greatness which like a torrent arising from a small assembly of waters did afterwards overrun and subdue the greatest part of the habitable World hold their Consuls in such veneration as they had as Cicero saith magnum nomen magnam speciem magnam majestatem as well as magnâ—m potestatem as great an outward respect and veneration as they had authority and were so jealous and watchfull over it as their Consul Fabius would rather lay aside the honour due unto his Father from a Sonne of which that Nation were extraordinary obseâ—vers then abate any thing of it and commanded his aged Father Fabius the renowned rescuer and preserver of Rome in a publique Assembly to alight from his Horse and do him the honour due unto his present Magistracy which the good old man though many of the people did at the present dislike it did so approve of as he alighted from his horse and embracing his Son said Euge fili sapis qui intelligis quibus imperes quam magnum magistratum susceperis my good Son you have done wisely in understanding over whom you command and how great a Magistracy you have taken upon you And our Offa King of the Mercians in An. Dom. 760 an Ancestor of our Sovereign took such a care of the Honour and Rights due unto Majesty and to preserve it to his Posterity as he ordained that even in times of Peace himself and his Successors in the Crown should as they passed through any City have Trumpets sounded before them to shew that the Person of the King saith the Leiger Book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honour in all which did either see or hear him Neither will it be any honour for Christians to be out-done by the Heathen in that or other their respects and observances to their Kings when the Romans did not seldome at their publique charge erect costly Statues and Memorialls of their gâ—atitude to their Emperours make chargeable Sacrifices ad aras in aedibus honoris virtutis in their Temples of Honour and Virtue could yearly throw money into the deep Lake or Gulfe of Curtius in Rome where they were like never to meet with it again pro voto salute Imperatoris as Offerings for the health and happiness of their Emperouâ—s and all the City and Senate Calendis Januarii velut publico suo parenti Imperatori strenas largiebant did give New years-gifts to the Emperour as their publick Parent bring them into the Capitol though he was absent and make their Pensitationes or Composition for Pourveyance for their Emperours to be a Canon unalâ—erable Or by the Magnesians and Smirnaeans who upon a misfortune in Warre hapned to Seleucus King of Syria could make a League with each other and cause it to be engraven in Marble pillars which to our dayes hath escaped the Iron Teeth of time majestatem Seleuci tueri conservare to preserve and defend the Honor and Majesty of Seleucus which was not their Sovereign or Prince but their Friend and Ally Nor any thing to perswade us that our Forefathers were not well advised when in their care to preserve the honor of their King and Country they were troubled and angry in the Reign of King H. 3. that at a publick Feast in Westminster-Hall the Popes Legate was placed at the Kings Table in the place where the King should have sate or when the Baronage or Commonalty of England did in a Parliament holden at Lincoln in the Reign of King Edward the First by their Letters to their then domineering demy-God the Pope who was averse unto it stoutly assert their Kings superiority over the Kingdome of Scotland and refuse that he should send any Commissioners to Rome to debate the matter before the Pope in Judgement which would tend to the disherison of the Crown of England the Kingly Dignity and prejudice of the Liberties Customes and Laws of their Forefathers to the observation and defence of which they were ex debito prestiti juramenti astricti bound by Oath and would not permit tam insolita praejudicialia such unusuall and prejudiciall things to be done against the King or by him if he should consent unto it Or when the Pope intending to cite King Edward the Third to his Court at Rome in Anno 40 of his Reign to do homage to the See of Rome for England and Ireland and to pay him the Tribute granted by King John the whole Estates in Parliament did by common consent declare unto the King that if the Pope should attempt any thing against him by process or other matter the King with all his Subjects should with all their force resist him And in Anno 42 of King Ed. 3. advised him to refuse an offer of peace made unto him by David le Bruse King of Scotland though the Warâ—es and frequent incursions of that Nation were alwayes sufficiently troublesome chargeable so that he might enjoy to him in Fee the whole Realm of Scotland without any subjection and declared that they could not assent unto any such Peace to the disherison of the King and his Crown and the great danger of themselves Or that William Walworth he gallant Mayor of London whose fame for it will live as long as that City shall be extant was to be blamed when he could not endure the insolency of the Rebel Wat Tyler in suffering a Knight whom the King had sent to him to stand bare before him but made his Dagger in the midst of his Rout and Army teach his proud heart better manners Or Richard Earl of Arundelâ—nd â—nd Surrey did more then was necessary when as he perceiving before hand the after accomplished wicked designe and ambition of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and titular King of Leon and Castile did before the downfall of that unhappy Prince King Richard the Second complain in Parliament that he did sometimes go arme in arme with the King and make
and necessity that they dined with Duke Humphrey upon a Traditional mistake that the Monument of Humphrey Duke of Glocester was in the middle Isle of St. Pauls Church in London when it appears by the Armes engraven therein to be a Beuchamp Earl of Warwick And that the King of England Scotland France and Ireland should be necessitated to make a small Room in White hall a place to eat his meat in and be contented with ten dishes of meat for the first and second Courses for him and his Royall Consort at Dinner when most of the Nobility have as much or more and the richest part of the Gentry and most of the rich Merchants and Tradesmen of London do not think such a proportion in their ordinary way of Diet to be more then sufficient And might remember that the Royall Pourveyance is and hath been as well due to a Prince in his Palace as in the Field or his Tents and more deserved by a Prince in the time of Peace and protecting us in the blessings enjoyed by it then it is or can be in the time of Warre when every man is willing enough to offer it to a marching Army that doth but hope and endeavour to defend them And that God was so displeased with the refusers of it as he resolved that an Ammonite or Moabite should never enter into his holy and blessed Congregation because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water in the way when they came forth out of Egypt That it was reckoned as a crime upon the People of Israel that they shewed not kindness to the house of Zerubbaal namely Gideon according to all the goodness which he shewed unto Israel That it was not only Solomons stately Throne of Ivory over-laid with the best Gold adorned with the Images of golden Lions that supported it nor the Forty thousand stalles of horses for his Chariots and twelve thousand Horsemen and the Tributes and Presents sent from many of the Nations round about him but his Royall Pourveyance and Provision for his Houshold the meat of his Table sitting of his Servants the manner of their sitting at meat and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel which among many other necessary Circumstances of State and Emanations of Power and Majesty joyned with the other parts of his Regall Magnificence raised the wonder in the Queen of Sheba and took away her spirits from her That to overburden our Head or heap necessities upon him may bring us within the blame and censure of the Judicious Bodin a man not meanly learned in Politiques who decrying all unbecoming Parsimonies in a King or his Family delivers his opinion that sine Majestatis ipsius contemptu fieri non potest ea res enim peregrinos ad principem aspernandum subditos ad deficiendum excitare consuevit that to lessen the number of a Kings Servants or Attendants cannot be done without a contempt or diminution of Majesty it self which may cause Strangers to despise him and his own Subjects to rebell against him That our Ancestors the Germans did well understand what a benefit the Common people had by the Princes Honour and Reputation when they were so zealous of it and ipsa plerunque fama belli profligant many times found it to be a cause of lessening or preventing Warres And St. Hicrom was not mistaken when he concluded that ubi honor non est ibi contemptus ubi contemptus ibi frequens injuria ubi indignatio ibi quies nulla where there is not honour there is contempt and where there is contempt there are Injuries and where anger and wrath are there is no manner of quiet That it must needs be a Prognostick of a most certain ruine to the Nation to be so addicted to our pride and vanities as to take all we can from the head to bestow it upon the more ignoble and inferiour Members Or to be so infatuated and so farre fallen out with reason as to believe that they can enjoy either health or safety when the Head hath that taken from it which should procure it That our Ancestors who were so great Observers of their duties in the payment of their Tithes as to take more then an ordinary care to give and bequeath at their deaths a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Symbolum Animae as a Mortuary or Compensation pro substractiâ—ne decimâ—rum personâ—lium nec non oblationum for Tithes and Offerings the Pourveyance for those which served at the Altaâ— negligently or against their wills forgotten to such a value as their dextrarium ferro coopertum best horse carrying the Armes not Escutcheons of its Lords and Master or if the party deceasing were noâ— of so great an estate gave meliorem bovem his best Oxe and with such a solemnity as those or the like Mortuaries were led or driven before the Corps when it was carried to be interred or if not given in specie were sure to be redeemed with money of which Thomas de Bello Campo Earl of Warwick in anno 43 of the Reign of King Edward the Third was so mindfull as he did by his last Will and Testament give to every Church within his multitude of Manours his best Beast which should then be found in satisfaction of his Tithes forgotten to be paid would ever have made it their business to withdraw or hinder their Oblations and Duty of Pourveyance to God Almighties Vicegerent the Keeper of both Tables and the Protector of them or rejoyce in the Bargain which hath been made for the Kings acquittal of it or by plowing over the roots or by the filthy smoke and vapours of some particular private ugly Interests have rejoyced in blasting and destroying that Royall Oak of Hospitality which like the mighty Tree in Nebuchadnezars Vision reached unto Heaven and the sight thereof to the ends of all the Earth had fair leaves and much fruit yielding meat for many under which the Beasts of the field dwelt and upon whose branches the Fâ—wls of heaven had their habitation to the end they might make their own fiâ—es and waâ—me themselves by the withered and dead boughs and branches thereof Or that the People of England who were wont so much to reverence and love their Kings and to remember benefits and favours received from them as to give Lands and other Hereditaments in peâ—petuity to pray for the health of their Kings as amongst many others which may be instanced Ivo Tallebois post decessum Gulielmi Anglorum Regis donavit Deo sancto Nâ—cholao pro animabus ipsius Regis ac Regine Matildae uxoris ejus ad augmentum victus Monachorum sanctae Mariae de Spalding decimam Thelonei Salinarum de Spalding gave tâ—e Tenth of his Tolls and Salt-piâ—s to pray for the souls of William the Conqueror and Queen Matilda his Wife Mauserus Biset Sewer to King Henry the First gave likewise in