appear before Him and His Council and determin'd a Controversy between them touching Lands contain'd in the Covenants of her Joynture Rot. Claus de an 41. Ed. 3. Henry the Fifth in a Suit before Him and His Council for the Titles of the Mannors of Seere and S. Laurence in the Isle of Thenet in Kent took order for Sequestring the Profits till the Right were tryed as well for avoiding the breach of the Peace as for prevention of waste and spoil Rot. Patin Anno 6. Hen. 5. Henry the Sixth commanded the Justices of the Bench to stay the Arraignment of one Verney of London till they had other commandment from Him and His Council because Verney being indebted to the King and others practised to be Indicted of Felony wherein he might have his Clergy and make his Purgation of intent to defraud his Creditors 34. Hen. 6 Rot. 37. in Banco Regis Edward the Fourth and His Council in the Star-Chamber heard the Cause of the Master and Poor Brethren of S. Leonards in York complaining that Sir Huge Hastings and others withdrew from them a great part of their Living which consisted chiefly upon the having of a Thrave of Corn of every Plough-Land within the Counties of York Westmerland Cumberland and Lancashire Rot. Paten de Anno 8 Ed. 4. Part 3. Memb. 14. Henry the Seventh and His Council in the Star-Chamber decreed That Margery and Florence Becket should sue no further in their Cause against Alice Radley Widow for Lands in Wolwich and Plumstead in Kent for as much as the Matter had been heard first before the Council of King Edw. 4. after that before the President of the Requests of that King Hen. 7. and then lastly before the Council of the said King 1 Hen. 7. What is hitherto affirmed of the Dependency and Subjection of the Common Law to the Soveraign Prince the same may be said as well of all Statute Laws for the King is the sole immediate Author Corrector and Moderator of them also so that neither of these two kinds of Laws are or can be any Diminution of that Natural Power which Kings have over their People by right of Father-hood but rather are an Argument to strengthen the truth of it for Evidence whereof we may in some points consider the nature of Parliaments because in them only all Statutes are made 12. Though the Name of Parliament as Mr. Cambden saith be of no great Antiquity but brought in out of France yet our Ancestors the English Saxons had a Meeting which they called The Assembly of the Wise termed in Latine Conventum Magnatum or Praesentia Regis Procerumque Prelaterumque collectorum The Meeting of the Nobility or the Presence of the King Prelates and Peers Assembled or in General Magnum Concilium or Commune Concilium and many of our Kings in elder times made use of such great Assemblies for to consult of important Affairs of State all which Meetings in a General Sense may be termed Parliaments Great are the Advantages which both the King and People may receive by a well-ordered Parliament there is nothing more expresseth the Majesty and Supream Power of a King than such an Assembly wherein all his People acknowledg him for Soveraign Lord and make all their Addresses to him by humble Petition and Supplication and by their Consent and Approbation do strengthen all the Laws which the King at their Request and by their Advice and Ministry shall ordain Thus they facilitate the Government of the King by making the Laws unquestionable either to the Subordinate Magistrates or refractory Multitude The benefit which accrews to the Subject by Parliaments is That by their Prayers and Petitions Kings are drawn many times to redress their just Grievances and are overcome by their Importunity to grant many things which otherwise they would not yield unto for the Voice of a Multitude is easilier heard Many Vexations of the People are without the knowledg of the King who in Parliament seeth and heareth his People himself whereas at other times he commonly useth the Eyes and Ears of other Men. Against the Antiquity of Parliaments we need not dispute since the more ancient they be the more they make for the Honour of Monarchy yet there be certain Circumstances touching the Forms of Parliaments which are fit to be considered First We are to remember that until about the time of the Conquest there could be no Parliaments assembled of the General States of the whole Kingdom of England because till those days we cannot learn it was entirely united into one Kingdom but it was either divided into several Kingdoms or governed by several Laws When Julius Caesar landed he found 4 Kings in Kent and the British Names of Dammonii Durotriges Belgae Attrebatii Trinobantes Iceni Silures and the rest are plentiful Testimonies of the several Kingdoms of Britains when the Romans left us The Saxons divided us into 7 Kingdoms when these Saxons were united all into a Monarchy they had always the Danes their Companions or their Masters in the Empire till Edward the Confessors Days since whose time the Kingdom of England hath continued United as now it doth But for a thousand Years before we cannot find it was entirely settled during the time of any one King's Reign As under the Mercian Law The West Saxons were confined to the Saxon Laws Essex Norfolk Suffolk and some other Places were vexed with Danish Laws The Northumbrians also had their Laws apart And until Edward the Confessor's Reign who was next but one before the Conqueror the Laws of the Kingdom were so several and uncertain that he was forced to cull a few of the most indifferent and best of them which were from him called St. Edward's Laws Yet some say that Edgar made those Laws and that the Confessor did but restore and mend them Alfred also gathered out of Mulmutius Laws such as he translated into the Saxon Tongue Thus during the time of the Saxons the Laws were so variable that there is little or no likelihood to find any constant Form of Parliaments of the whole Kingdom 13 A second Point considerable is Whether in such Parliaments as was in the Saxon's times the Nobility and Clergy only were of those Assemblies or whether the Commons were also called Some are of Opinion that though none of the Saxon Laws do mention the Commons yet it may be gathered by the word Wisemen the Commons are intended to be of those Assemblies and they bring as they conceive probable arguments to prove it from the Antiquity of some Burroughs that do yet send Burgesses and from the Proscription of those in Ancient Demesne not to send Burgesses to Parliament If it be true that the West-Saxons had a Custom to assemble Burgesses out of some of their Towns yet it may be doubted whether other Kingdoms had the same usage but sure it is that during the Heptarchy the People could not Elect any Knights of the Shire because England was
OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE Original and Various Forms OF GOVERNMENT As Described Viz. 1 st Upon Aristotles Politiques 2 d. Mr. Hobbs's Laviathan 3 d. Mr. Milton against Salmatius 4 th Hugo Grotius de Jure Bello 5 th Mr. Hunton's Treatise of Monarchy or the Nature of a limited or mixed Monarchy By the Learned Sir R. Filmer Barronet To which is added the Power of Kings With directions for Obedience to Government in Dangerous and Doubtful Times LONDON Printed for R. R. C. and are to be Sold by Thomas Axe at the Blew-Ball in Ducâ—-Lane 1696. Augustissimi CAROLI Secundi Dei Gratia ANGLIAE SCOTIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX Bona agere mala pati Regium est Page 1. The Author's PREFACE THere is a general Belief that the Parliament of England was at first an Imitation of the Assembly of the Three Estates in France therefore in order to prepare the Vnderstanding in the Recerche we have in hand it is proper to give a brief Accompt of the mode of France in those Assemblies Scotland and Ireland being also under the Dominion of the King of England a Touch of the manner of their Parliaments shall be by way of Preface 1. In France the Kings Writ goeth to the Bailiffs Seneschals or Stewards of Liberties who issue out Warrants to all such as have Fees and Lands within their Liberties and to all Towns requiring all such as have any Complaints to meet in the Principal City there to choose two or three Delegates in the name of that Province to be present at the General Assembly At the day appointed they meet at the Principal City of the Bailiwick The King 's Writ is read and every man called by name and sworn to choose honest men for the good of the King and Commonwealth to be present at the General Assembly as Delegates faithfully to deliver their Grievances and Demands of the Province Then they choose their Delegates and swear them Next they consult what is necessary to be complained of or what is to be desired of the King and of these things they make a Catalogue or Index And because every man should freely propound his Complaint or Demands there is a Chest placed in the Town-Hall into which every man may cast his Writing After the Catalogue is made and Signed it is delivered to the Delegates to carry to the General Assembly All the Bailiwicks are divided into twelve Classes To avoid confusion and to the end there may not be too great Delay in the Assembly by the Gathering of all the Votes every Classis compiles a Catalogue or Book of the Grievances and Demands of all the Bailiwicks within that Classis then these Classes at the Assembly compose one Book of the Grievances and Demands of the whole Kingdom This being the order of the Proceedings of the third Estate the like order is observed by the Clergy and Nobility When the three Books for the three Estates are perfected then they present them to the King by their Presidents First the President for the Clergy begins his Oration on his knees and the King commanding he stands up bare-headed and proceeds And so the next President for the Nobility doth the like But the President for the Commons begins and ends his Oration on his knees Whilst the President for the Clergy speaks the rest of that Order rise up and stand bare till they are bid by the King to sit down and be covered and so the like for the Nobility But whilst the President of the Commons speaks the rest are neither bidden to sit or be covered Thus the Grievances and Demands being delivered and left to the King and His Council the General Assembly of the three Estates endeth Atque ita totus actus concluditur Thus it appears the General Assembly was but an orderly way of presenting the Publick Grievances and Demands of the whole Kingdom to the consideration of the King Not much unlike the antient Vsage of this Kingdom for a long time when all Laws were nothing else but the King's Answers to the Petitions presented to Him in Parliament as is apparent by very many Statutes Parliament-Rolls and the Confession of Sir Edw. Coke 2. In Scotland about twenty days before the Parliament begins Proclamation is made throughout the Kingdom to deliver in to the King's Clerk or Master of the Rolls all Bills to be exhibited that Sessions before a certain day then are they brought to the King and perused by Him and only such as he allows are put into the Chancellour's hand to be propounded in Parliament and none others And if any man in Parliament speak of another matter than is allowed by the King the Chancellor tells him there is no such Bill allowed by the King When they have passed them for Laws they are presented to the King who with his Scepter put into His hand by the Chancellor ratifies them and if there be any thing the King dislikes they raze it out before 3. In Ireland the Parliament as appears by a Statute made in the Tenth year of Hen. 7. c. 4. is to be after this manner No Parliament is to be holden but at such Season as the King's Lieutenant and Council there do first certifie the King under the Great Seal of that Land the Causes and Considerations and all such Acts as they think fit should pass in the said Parliament And such Causes and Considerations and Acts affirmed by the King and his Council to be good and expedient for that Land And His Licence thereupon as well in affirmation of the said Causes and Acts as to summon the Parliament under His Great Seal of England had and obtained That done a Parliament to be had and holden after the Form and Effect afore-rehearsed and if any Parliament be holden in that Land contrary to the Form and Provision aforesaid it is deemed void and of none Effect in Law It is provided that all such Bills as shall be offered to the Parliament there shall be first transmitted hither under the Great Seal of that Kingdom and having received Allowance and Approbation here shall be put under the Great Seal of this Kingdom and so returned thither to be preferred to the Parliament By a Statute of 3 and 4 of Philip and Mary for the expounding of Poynings Act it is ordered for the King 's Passing of the said Acts in such Form and Tenor as they should be sent into England or else for the Change of them or any part of them After this shorter Narrative of the Vsage of Parliaments in our Neighbour and Fellow Kingdoms it is time the inquisitio magna of our own be offered to the Verdict or Judgment of a moderate and intelligent Reader Rob. Filmer A COLLECTION Of the several TRACTS Written by Sir ROBERT FILMER Knight I. The Free-holders Grand Inquest touching our Soveraign Lord the King and his Parliament To which are added Observations upon Forms of Government Together with Directions for Obedience
to Governors in Dangerous and Doubtful Times II. Reflections concerning the Original of Government upon 1. Aristotle's Politiques 2. Mr. Hobs's Leviathan 3. Mr. Milton against Salmasius 4. H. Grotius De Jure Belli 5. Mr. Hunton's Treatise of Monarchy or the Anarchy of a limited or mixed Monarchy III. A Succinct Examination of the Fundamentals of Monarchy both in this and other Kingdoms as well about the Right of Power in Kings as of the Original and Natural Liberty of the People A Question never yet Disputed though most necessary in these Times IV. The Power of Kings And in Particular of the King of England V. An Advertisement to the Jury-Men of England touching Witches Together with a Difference between an English and Hebrew Witch VI. PATRIARCHA Or the Natural Power of KINGS The Argument A Presentment of divers Statutes Records and other Precedents explaining the Writs of Summons to Parliament shewing I. That the Commons by their Writ are only to Perform and Consent to the Ordinances of Parliament II. That the Lords or Common Councel by their Writ are only to Treat and give Counsel in Parliament III. That the King himself only Ordains and makes Laws and is Supreme Judge in Parliament With the Suffrages of Hen. de Bracton Jo. Britton Tho. Egerton Edw. Coke Walter Raleigh Rob. Cotton Hen. Spelman Jo. Glanvil Will. Lambard Rich. Crompton William Cambden and Jo. Selden THE Free-holders GRAND INQUEST Touching Our Sovereign Lord the King and His Parliament EVery Free-holder that hath a Voice in the Election of Knights Citizens or Burgesses for the Parliament ought to know with what Power he trusts those whom he chooseth because such Trust is the Foundation of the Power of the House of Commons A Writ from the King to the Sheriff of the County is that which gives Authority and Commission for the Free-holders to make their Election at the next County-Court-day after the Receipt of the Writ and in the Writ there is also expressed the Duty and Power of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses that are there elected The means to know what Trust or Authority the Countrey or Free-holders confer or bestow by their Election is in this as in other like Cases to have an eye to the words of the Commission or Writ it self thereby it may be seen whether that which the House of Commons doth act be within the Limit of their Commission greater or other Trust than is comprised in the Body of the Writ the Free-holders do not or cannot give if they obey the Writ the Writ being Latine and not extant in English few Free-holders understand it and fewer observe it I have rendred it in Latine and English Rex Vicecomiti salut ' c. QVia de Advisamento Assensu Concilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus Negotiis Nos statum defensionem regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernen ' quoddam Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem nostram West duodecimo die Novembris prox ' futur ' teneri ordinavimus ibid ' cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti regni nostri colloquium habere tract ' Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod facta proclam ' in prox ' comitat ' tuo post receptionem hujus brevis nostri tenend ' die loco praedict ' duos milit ' gladiis cinct ' magis idoneos discretos comit ' praedicti de qualib ' civitate com' illius duos Cives de quolibet Burgo duos Burgenses de discretior ' magis sufficientibus libere indifferenter per illos qui proclam ' hujusmodi interfuerint juxta formam statutorum inde edit ' provis ' eligi nomina corundum milit ' civium Burgensium sic electorum in quibusdam indentur ' inter te illos qui hujusmodi election ' interfuerint inde conficiend ' sive hujusmodi electi praesentes fuerint vel absentes inseri cósque ad dict' diem locum venire fac ' Ita quod iidem milites plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se communitate comit ' praedicti ac dict' Cives Burgenses pro se communitat ' Civitatum Burgorum praedictorum divisim ab ipsishabeant ad faciendum consentiendum his quae tunc ibid ' de communi Consilio dicti reg nostri favente Deo contigerint ordinari super negotiis ante dictis Ita quod pro defectu potestatis hujusmodi seu propter improvidam electionem milit ' Civium aut Burgensium praedictorum dicta negotia infecta non remaneant quovismodo Nolumus autem quod tu nec aliquis alius vic' dicti reg nostri aliqualiter sit electus Et electionem illam in pleno comitatu factam distincte aperte sub sigillo tuo sigillis eorum qui electioni illi interfuerint nobis in cancellar ' nostram ad dict' diem locum certifices indilate remittens nobis alteram partem indenturarum praedictarum praesentibus consut ' una cum hoc breve Teste meipso apud Westmon ' The King to the Sheriff of Greeting WHereas by the Advice and Consent of our Councel for certain difficult and urgent Businesses concerning Us the State and Defence of our Kingdom of England and the English Church We have ordained a certain Parliament of ours to be held at Our City of _____ the _____ day of _____ next ensuing and there to have Conference and to treat with the Prelates Great men and Peers of our said Kingdom We command and straitly enjoyn you that making Proclamation at the next County-Court after the Receipt of this our Writ to be holden the day and place aforesaid You cause two Knights girt with Swords the most fit and discreet of the County aforesaid and of every City of that County two Citizens of every Borough two Burgesses of the discreeter and most sufficient to be freely and indifferently chosen by them who shall be present at such Proclamation according to the Tenor of the Statutes in that case made and provided and the Names of the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses so chosen to be inserted in certain Indentures to be then made between you and those that shall be present at such Election whether the Parties so elected be present or absent and shall make them to come at the said day and place so that the said Knights for themselves and for the County aforesaid and the said Citizens and Burgesses for themselves and the Commonalty of the aforesaid Cities and Boroughs may have severally from them full and sufficient Power to Perform and to Consent to those things which then by the Favour of God shall there happen to be ordained by the Common Councel of our said Kingdom concerning the Businesses aforesaid So that the Business may not by any means remain undone for want of such Power or by reason of the improvident Election of the aforesaid Knights Citizens and Burgesses But We will not in any
and the Bishop of Rochester were restored to the Possession of Detling and other Lands which Odo had withholden There is mention of a Parliament held under the same King William the Conquerour wherein all the Bishops of the Land Earls and Barons made an Ordinance touching the Exemption of the Abby of Bury from the Bishops of Norwich In the tenth year of the Conquerour Episcopi Comites Barones regni regià potestate ad universalem Synodum pro causis audiendis tractandis convocati saith the Book of Westminster In the 2 year of William 2. there was a Parliament de cunctis regni Principibus another w ch had quosque regni Proceres All the Peers of the Kingdom In the seventh year was a Parliament at Rockingham-Castle in Northamptonshire Episcopis Abbatibus cunctisque regni Principibus una coeuntibus A year or two after the same King de statu regni acturus c. called thither by the Command of his Writ the Bishops Abbots and all the Peers of the Kingdom At the Coronation of Hen. 1. All the People of the Kingdom of England were called and Laws were then made but it was Per Commune Concilium Baronum meorum by the Common Councel of my Barons In his 3 d. year the Peers of the Kingdom were called without any mention of the Commons and another a while after consensu Comitum Baronum by the consent of Earls and Barons Florentius Wigorniensis saith these are Statutes which Anselme and all the other Bishops in the Presence of King Henry by the assent of his Barons ordained and in his tenth year of Earls and Peers and in his 23. of Earls and Barons In the year following the same King held a Parliament or great Councel with His Barons Spiritual and Temporal King Hen. 2. in his tenth year had a great Councel or Parliament at Clarendon which was an Assembly of Prelates and Peers 22 Hen. 2. saith Hovenden was a great Councel at Nottingham and by the Common Councel of the Arch-bishops Bishops Earls and Barons the Kingdom was divided into six parts And again Hovenden saith that the same King at Windsor apud Windeshores Communi Concilio of Bishops Earls and Barons divided England into four Parts And in his 21 Year a Parliament at Windsor of Bishops Earls and Barons And another of like Persons at Northampton King Richard 1. had a Parliament at Nottingham in his fifth year of Bishops Earls and Barons This Parliament lasted but four days yet much was done in it the first day the King disseiseth Gerard de Canvil of the Sherifwick of Lincoln and Hugh Bardolph of the Castle and Sherifwick of York The second day he required Judgment against his Brother John who was afterwards King and Hugh de Novant Bishop of Coventry The third day was granted to the King of every Plow-land in England 2 s. He required also the third part of the Service of every Knights Fee for his Attendance into Normandy and all the Wool that year of the Monks Cisteaux which for that it was grievous and unsupportable they sine for Money The last day was for Hearing of Grievances and so the Parliament brake up And the same year held another at Northampton of the Nobles of the Realm King John in his fifth year He and his Great men met Rex Magnates convenerunt and the Roll of that year hath Commune Concilium Baronum Meorum the Common Councel of my Barons at Winchester In the sixth year of King Henry 3. the Nobles granted to the King of every Knights Fee two Marks in Silver In the seventh year he had a Parliament at London an Assembly of Barons In his thirteenth year an Assembly of the Lords at Westminster In his fifteenth year of Nobles both Spiritual and Temporal M. Par. saith that 20 H. 3. Congregati sunt Magnates ad colloquium de negotiis regni tractaturi the Great men were called to confer and treat of the Business of the Kingdom And at Merton Our Lord the King granted by the Consent of his Great men That hereafter Vsury should not run against a Ward from the Death of his Ancestor 21 Hen. 3. The King sent his Royal Writs commanding all belonging to His Kingdom that is to say Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots and Priors installed Earls and Barons that they should all meet at London to treat of the King's Business touching the whole Kingdom and at the day prefixed the whole multitude of the Nobles of the Kingdom met at London saith Matt. Westminster In his 21 year At the Request and by the Councel of the Lords the Charters were confirmed 22 Hen. 3. At Winchester the King sent his Royal Writs to Arch-bishops Bishops Priors Earls and Barons to treat of Business concerning the whole Kingdom 32 Hen. 3. The King commanded all the Nobility of the whole Kingdom to be called to treat of the State of His Kingdom Matt. Westm ' 49 Hen. 3. The King had a Treaty at Oxford with the Peers of the Kingdom Matt. Westminster At a Parliament at Marlborough 55. Hen. 3. Statutes were made by the Assent of Earls and Barons Here the Place of Bracton Chief Justice in this Kings time is worth the observing and the rather for that it is much insisted on of late to make for Parliaments being above the King The words in Bracton are The King hath a Superiour God also the Law by which he is made King also his Court viz. the Earls and Barons The Court that was said in those days to be above the King was a Court of Earls and Barons not a word of the Commons or the representative Body of the Kingdom being any part of the Superiour Court Now for the true Sense of Bractons words how the Law and the Court of Earls and Barons are the Kings Superiours they must of Necessity be understood to be Superiours so far only as to advise and direct the King out of his own Grace and Good Will only which appears plainly by the Words of Bracton himself where speaking of the King he resolves thus Nec potest ei necessitatem aliquis imponere quod injuriam suam corrigat emendat cum superiorem non habeat nisi Deum satis ei erat ad poenam quod Dominum expectat ultorem Nor can any man put a necessity upon him to correct and amend his Injury unless he will himself since he hath no Superiour but God it will be sufficient Punishment for him to expect the Lord an Avenger Here the same man who speaking according to some mens Opinion saith the Law and Court of Earls and Barons are superiour to the King in this place tells us himself the King hath no Superiour but God the Difference is easily reconciled according to the Distinction of the School-men the King is free from the Coactive Power of Laws or Counsellors but may be subject to their Directive Power according to his own Will
Religion we find presently after the Building of the City by Romulus the next King Numa most devoutly established a Religion and began his Kingdom with the Service of the Gods he forbad the Romans to make any Images of God which Law lasted and was observed 170 Years there being in all that time no Image or Picture of God in any Temple or Chappel of Rome also he erected the Pontifical Colledge and was himself the first Bishop or Pontifex These Bishops were to render no Account either to the Senate or Commonalty They determined all Questions concerning Religion as well between Priests as between private men They punished inferiour Priests if they either added or detracted from the established Rites or Ceremonies or brought in any new thing into Religion The chief Bishop Pontifex Maximus taught every man how to honour and serve the Gods This Care had Monarchy of Religion But after the Expulsion of Kings we do not find during the Power of the People any one Law made for the Benefit or Exercise of Religion there be two Tribunitian Laws concerning Religion but they are meerly for the Benefit of the Power of the People and not of Religion L. Papirius a Tribune made a Law called Lex Papiria that it should not belawful for any to consecrate either Houses Grounds Altars or any other things without the Determination of the People Domitius Aenobarbus another Tribune Enacted a Law called Domitia Lex that the Pontifical Colledge should not as they were wont admit whom they would into the Order of Priesthood but it should be in the Power of the People and because it was contrary to their Religion that Church-Dignities should be bestowed by the Common People hence for very Shame he ordained that the lesser part of the People namely seventeen Tribes should elect whom they thought fit and afterwards the Party elected should have his Confirmation or Admission from the Colledge Thus by a Committee of Seven Tribes taken out of Thirtyfive the Ancient Form of Religion was altered and reduced to the Power of the lesser part of the People This was the great Care of the People to bring Ordination and Consecration to the Laity The Religion in Venice and the Low-Countries is sufficiently known much need not be said of them they admirably agree under a seeming contrariety it is commonly said that one of them hath all Religions and the other no Religion the Atheist of Venice may shake hands with the Sectary of Amsterdam This is the Liberty that a Popular Estate can brag of every man may be of any Religion or no Religion if he please their main Devotion is exercised only in opposing and suppressing Monarchy They both agree to exclude the Clergy from medling in Government whereas in all Monarchies both before the Law of Moses and under it and ever since all Barbarians Graecians Romans Infidels Turks and Indians have with one Consent given such Respect and Reverence to their Priests as to trust them with their Laws and in this our Nation the first Priests we read of before Christianity were the Druides who as Caesar saith decided and determined Controversies in Murder in Case of Inheritance of Bounds of Lands as they in their Discretion judged meet they grant Rewards and Punishments It is a Wonder to see what high Respect even the great Turk giveth to his Mufti or Chief Bishop so necessary is Religion to strengthen and direct Laws To consider of the Point of Peace It is well known that no People ever enjoyed it without Monarchy Aristotle saith the Lacedemonians preserved themselves by Warring and after they had gotten to themselves the Empire then were they presently undone for that they could not live at Rest nor do any better Exercise than the Exercise of War lib. 2. c. 7. After Rome had expelled Kings it was in perpetual War till the time of the Emperours once only was the Temple of Janus shut after the end of the first Punick War but not so long as for one year but for some Months It is true as Orosius saith that for almost 700 years that is from Tullus Hostilius to Augustus Caesar only for one Summer the Bowels of Rome did not sweat Blood On the Behalf of the Romans it may be said that though the Bowels of Rome did always sweat Blood yet they did obtain most glorious Victories abroad But it may be truly answered if all the Roman Conquests had no other Foundation but Injustice this alone foils all the Glory of her warlike Actions The most glorious War that ever Rome had was with Carthage the Beginning of which War Sir Walter Raleigh proves to have been most unjustly undertaken by the Romans in confederating with the Mamertines and Aiding of Rebels under the Title of protecting their Confederates whereas Kings many times may have just Cause of War for recovering and preserving their Rights to such Dominions as fall to them by Inheritance or Marriage a Popular Estate that can neither marry nor be Heir to another can have no such Title to a War in a Foreign Kingdom and to speak the Truth if it be rightly considered the whole time of the Popularity of Rome the Romans were no other than the only prosperous and glorious Thieves and Robbers of the World If we look more narrowly into the Roman Government it will appear that in that very Age wherein Rome was most victorious and seemed to be most popular she owed most of her Glory to an apparent kind of Monarchy For it was the Kingly Power of the Consuls who as Livy saith had the same Royal Jurisdiction or absolute Power that the Kings had not any whit diminished or abated and held all the same Regal Ensigns of supreme Dignity which helpt Rome to all her Conquests whiles the Tribunes of the People were strugling at home with the Senate about Election of Magistrates enacting of Laws and calling to Account or such other popular Affairs the Kingly Consuls gained all the Victories abroad Thus Rome at one and the same time was broken and distracted into two Shews of Government the Popular which served only to raise Seditions and Discords within the Walls whilst the Regal atchieved the Conquests of Foreign Nations and Kingdoms Rome was so sensible of the Benefit and Necessity of Monarchy that in her most desperate Condition and Danger when all other Hopes failed her she had still resort to the Creation of a Dictator who for the time was an Absolute King and from whom no Appeal to the People was granted which is the royallest Evidence for Monarchy in the World for they who were drawn to swear they would suffer no King of Rome found no security but in Perjury and breaking their Oath by admitting the Kingly Power in spight of their Teeth under a new name of a Dictator or Consul a just Reward for their wanton expelling their King for no other Crime they could pretend but Pride which is most tolerable in a King of all
belong to one Kingdom and what to another it follows that the original freedom of mankind being supposed every man is at liberty to be of what Kingdom he please and so every petty company hath a Right to make a Kingdom by it self and not only every City but every Village and every Family nay and every particular man a liberty to chuse himself to be his own King if he please and he were a madman that being by nature free would chuse any man but himself to be his own Governour Thus to avoid the having but of one King of the whole world we shall run into a liberty of having as many Kings as there be men in the world which upon the matter is to have no King at all but to leave all men to their natural liberty which is the mischief the Pleaders for natural liberty do pretend they would most avoid But if neither the whole people of the world nor the whole people of any part of the world be meant but only the major part or some other part of a part of the world yet still the objection will be the stronger For besides that nature hath made no partition of the world or of the people into distinct Kingdoms and that without an universal consent at one and the same instant no partition can be made yet if it were lawful for particular parts of the world by consent to chuse their Kings nevertheless their elections would bind none to subjection but only such as consented for the major part never binds but where men at first either agree to be so bound or where a higher power so commands Now there being no higher power than nature but God himself where neither nature nor God appoints the major part to bind there consent is not binding to any but only to themselves who consent Yet for the present to gratifie them so far as to admit that either by nature or by a general consent of all mankind the world at first was divided into particular Kingdoms and the major part of the people of each Kingdom assembled allowed to chuse their King yet it cannot truly be said that ever the whole people or the major part or indeed any considerable part of the whole people of any Nation ever assembled to any such purpose For except by some secret miraculous instinct they should all meet at one time and place what one man or company of men less than the whole people hath power to appoint either time or place of elections where all be alike free by nature and without a lawful summons it is most unjust to bind those that be absent The whole People cannot summon it self one man is sick another is lame a third is aged and a fourth is under age of discretion all these at some time or other or at some place or other might be able to meet if they might chuse their own time and place as men naturally free should In Assemblies that are by humane politique constitution the superior power that ordains such assemblies can regulate and confine them both for time place persons and other circumstances but where there is an equality by nature there can be no superior power there every Infant at the hour it is born in hath a like interest with the greatest and wisest man in the World Mankind is like the sea ever ebbing or flowing every minute one is born another dies those that are the People this minute are not the People the next minute in every instant and point of time there is a variation no one time can be indifferent for all mankind to assemble it cannot but be mischievous always at the least to all Infants and others under age of discretion not to speak of Women especially Virgins who by birth have as much natural freedom as any other and therefore ought not to lose their liberty without their own consent But in part to salve this it will be said that Infants and Children may be concluded by the votes of their Parents This remedy may cure some part of the mischief but it destroys the whole cause and at last stumbles upon the true original of Government For if it be allowed that the acts of Parents bind the Children then farewel the Doctrine of the natural freedom of mankind where Subjection of Children to Parents is natural there can be no natural freedom If any reply that not all Children shall be bound by their Parents consent but only those that are under age It must be considered that in nature there is no nonage if a man be not born free she doth not assign him any other time when he shall attain his freedom or if she did then Children attaining that age should be discharged of their Parents contract So that in conclusion if it be imagined that the People were ever but once free from Subjection by nature it will prove a meer impossibility ever lawfully to introduce any kind of government whatsoever without apparent wrong to a multitude of People It is further observable that ordinarily Children and Servants are far a greater number than Parents and Masters and for the major part of these to be able to vote and appoint what Government or Governours their Fathers and Masters shall be subject unto is most unnatural and in effect to give the Children the government over their Parents To all this it may be opposed What need dispute how a People can chuse a King since there be multitude of examples that Kings have been and are now adays chosen by their People The answer is 1. The question is not of the fact but of the right whether it have been done by a natural or by an usurped right 2. Many Kings are and have been chosen by some small part of a people but by the whole or major part of a Kingdom not any at all Most have been elected by the Nobility Great men and Princes of the blood as in Poland Denmark and in Sweden not by any collective or representative body of any Nation sometimes a factious or seditious City or a mutinous Army hath set up a King but none of all those could ever prove they had Right or just title either by Nature or any otherwise for such elections We may resolve upon these two propositions 1. That the people have no power or right of themselves to chuse Kings 2. If they had any such right it is not possible for them any way lawfully to exercise it You will say There must necessarily be a right in some body to elect in case a King die without an Heir I answer No King can die without an Heir as long as there is any one man living in the world It may be the Heir may be unknown to the people but that is no fault in nature but the negligence or ignorance of those whom it concerns But if a King could die without an Heir yet the Kingly power in that case shall not escheat to
a primity of share in the supreme Power is in one but by his own confession he may better call it a mixed Aristocracy or mixed Democracy than a mixed Monarchy since he tells us The Houses of Parliament sure have two parts of the greatest legislative Authority and if the King have but a third part sure their shares are equal The first step our Author makes is this The Soveraign power must be originally in all three next he finds that if there be an equality of shares in three Estates there can be no ground to denominate a Monarch and then his mixed Monarch might be thought but an empty Title Therefore in the third place he resolves us That to salve all a power must be sought out wherewith the Monarch must be invested which is not so great as to destroy the mixture nor so titular as to destroy the Monarchy and therefore he conceives it may be in these particulars First A Monarch in a mixed Monarchy may be said to be a Monarch as he conceives if he be the head and fountain of the power which governs and executes the established Laws that is a man may be a Monarch though he do but give power to others to govern and execute the established Laws thus he brings his Monarch one step or peg lower still than he was before at first he made us believe his Monarch should have the supreme Power which is the legislative then he falls from that and tells us A limited Monarch must govern according to Law only thus he is brought from the legislative to the gubernative or executive Power only nor doth he stay here but is taken a hole lower for now he must not govern but he must constitute Officers to govern by Laws if chusing Officers to govern be governing then our Author will allow his Monarch to be a Governour not else and therefore he that divided Supreme power into Legislative and Gubernative doth now divide it into Legislative and power of constituting Officers for governing by Laws and this he saith is left to the Monarch Indeed you have left him a fair portion of Power but are we sure he may enjoy this It seems our Author is not confident in this neither and some others do deny it him our Author speaking of the Government of this Kingdom saith The choice of the Officers is intrusted to the judgment of the Monarch for ought I know he is not resolute in the point but for ought he knows and for ought I know his Monarch is but titular an empty Title certain of no Power at all The power of chusing Officers only is the basest of all powers Aristotle as I remember saith The common people are fit for nothing but to chuse Officers and to take Accompts and indeed in all popular Governments the multitude perform this work and this work in a King puts him below all his Subjects and makes him the only Subject in a Kingdom or the only man that cannot Govern there is not the poorest man of the multitude but is capable of some Office or other and by that means may some time or other perhaps govern according to the Laws only the King can be no Officer but to chuse Officers his Subjects may all govern but he may not Next I cannot see how in true sense our Author can say his Monarch is the head and fountain of Power since his Doctrine is That in a limited Monarchy the publick Society by original Constitution confer on one man power is not then the publick Society the head and fountain of Power and not the King Again when he tells us of his Monarch That both the other States as well conjunctim as divisim be his sworn Subjects and owe obedience to his commands he doth but flout his poor Monarch for why are they called his Subjects and his Commons He without any complement is their Subject for they as Officers may govern and command according to Law but he may not for he must judge by his Judges in Courts of Justice only that is he may not judge or govern at all 2. As for the second particular The sole or chief power in capacitating persons for the supreme Power And 3. As to this third particular The power of Convocating such persons they are both so far from making a Monarch that they are the only way to make him none by chusing and calling others to share in the supreme Power 4. Lastly concerning his Authority being the last and greatest in the establishing every Act it makes him no Monarch except he be sole that hath that Authority neither his primity of share in the supreme Power nor his Authority being last no nor his having the greatest Authority doth make him a Monarch unless he have that Authority alone Besides how can he shew that in his mixed Monarchy the Monarchs power is the greatest The greatest share that our Author allows him in the Legislative power is a Negative voice and the like is allowed to the Nobility and Commons And truly a Negative voice is but a base term to express a Legislative power a Negative voice is but a privative power or indeed no power at all to do any thing only a power to hinder an Act from being done Wherefore I conclude not any of his four nor all of them put into one person make the State Monarchical This mixed Monarchy just like the limited ends in confusion and destruction of all Government you shall hear the Authors confession That one inconvenience must necessarily be in all mixed Governments which I shewed to be in limited Governments there can be no constituted legal Authoritative Judge of the Fundamental Controversies arising between the three Estates If such do rise it is the fatal disease of those Governments for which no salve can be applied It is a case beyond the possible provision of such a Government of this question there is no legal Judge The accusing side must make it evident to every mans Conscience The Appeal must be to the Community as if there were no Government and as by evidence Consciences are convinced they are bound to give their assistance The wit of man cannot say more for Anarchy Thus have I picked out the flowers out of his Doctrine about limited Monarchy and presented them with some brief Annotations it were a tedious work to collect all the learned contradictions and ambiguous expressions that occur in every page of his Platonick Monarchy the Book hath so much of fancy that it is a better piece of Poetry than Policy Because many may think that the main Doctrine of limited and mixed Monarchy may in it self be most authentical and grounded upon strong and evident reason although our Author perhaps have failed in some of his expressions and be liable to exceptions Therefore I will be bold to inquire whether Aristotle could find either reason or example of a limited or mixed Monarchy and the rather because
I find our Author altogether insists upon a rational way of justifying his opinion No man I think will deny but that Aristotle was sufficiently curious in searching out the several forms of Commonwealths and Kingdoms yet I do not find that he ever so much as dreamed of either a limited or mixed Monarchy Several other sorts of Monarchies he reckons up in the Third Book of his Politicks he spends three whole Chapters together upon the several kinds of Monarchy First in his fourteenth Chapter he mentions four kinds of Monarchy The Laconick or Lacedemonian The Barbarick The Aesymnetical The Heroick The Laconick or Lacedemonian King saith he had only Supreme Power when he was out of the bounds of the Lacedemonian Territories then he had absolute Power his Kingdom was like to a perpetual Lord General of an Army The Barbarick King saith Aristotle had a Power very near to Tyranny yet they were lawful and Paternal because the Barbarians are of a more servile nature than the Grecians and the Asiaticks than the Europeans they do willingly without repining live under a Masterly Government yet their Government is stable and safe because they are Paternal and lawful Kingdoms and their Guards are Royal and not Tyrannical for Kings are guarded by their own Subjects and Tyrants are guarded by Strangers The Aesymnetical King saith Aristotle in old time in Greece was an Elective Tyrant and differed only from the Barbarian Kings in that he was Elective and not Paternal these sorts of Kings because they were Tyrannical were Masterly but because they were over such as voluntarily Elected them they were Regal The Heroick were those saith Aristotle which flourished in the Heroical times to whom the People did willingly obey and they were Paternal and lawful because these Kings did deserve well of the multitude either by teaching them Arts or by Warring for them or by gathering them together when they were dispersed or by dividing Lands amongst them these Kings had supreme Power in War in Sacrifices in Judicature These four sorts of Monarchy hath Aristotle thus distinguished and after sums them up together and concludes his Chapter as if he had forgot himself and reckons up a fifth kind of Monarchy which is saith he When one alone hath Supreme power of all the rest for as there is a domestical Kingdom of one House so the Kingdom of a City or of one or many Nations is a Family These are all the sorts of Monarchy that Aristotle hath found out and he hath strained hard to make them so many first for his Lacedemonian King himself confesseth that he was but a kind of Military Commander in War and so in effect no more a King than all Generals of Armies And yet this No-king of his was not limited by any Law nor mixed with any Companions of his Government when he was in the Wars out of the Confines of Lacedaemon he was as Aristotle stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of full and absolute Command no Law no Companion to govern his Army but his own will Next for Aristotle's Aesymnetical King it appears he was out of date in Aristotle's time for he saith he was amongst the ancient Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle might well have spared the naming him if he had not wanted other sorts for the honour of his own Nation for he that but now told us the Barbarians were of a more servile nature than the Grecians comes here and tells us That these old Greek Kings were Elective Tyrants The Barbarians did but suffer Tyrants in shew but the old Grecians chose Tyrants indeed which then must we think were the greater slaves the Greeks or the Barbarians Now if these sorts of Kings were Tyrants we cannot suppose they were limited either by Law or joyned with Companions Indeed Aristotle saith some of these Tyrants were limited to certain times and actions for they had not all their Power for term of life nor could meddle but in certain businesses yet during the time they were Tyrants and in the actions whereto they were limited they had absolute Power to do what they list according to their own will or else they could not have been said to be Tyrants As for Aristotle's Heroick King he gives the like note upon him that he did upon the Aesymnet that he was in old time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Heroick times The thing that made these Heroical Kingdoms differ from other sorts of Kingdoms was only the means by which the first Kings obtained their Kingdoms and not the manner of Government for in that they were as absolute as other Kings were without either limitation by Law or mixture of Companions Lastly as for Aristotle's Barbarick sort of Kings since he reckoned all the World Barbarians except the Grecians his Barbarick King must extend to all other sorts of Kings in the World besides those of Greece and so may go under Aristotle's fifth sort of Kings which in general comprehends all other sorts and is no special form of Monarchy Thus upon a true account it is evident that the five several sorts of Kings mentioned by Aristotle are at the most but different and accidental means of the first obtaining or holding of Monarchies and not real or essential differences of the manner of Government which was always absolute without either limitation or mixture I may be thought perhaps to mistake or wrong Aristotle in questioning his diversities of Kings but it seems Aristotle himself was partly of the same mind for in the very next Chapter when he had better considered of the point he confessed That to speak the truth there were almost but two sorts of Monarchies worth the considering that is his first or Laconick sort and his fifth or last sort where one alone hath supreme Power over all the rest thus he hath brought his five sorts to two Now for the first of these two his Lacedemonian King he hath confessed before that he was no more than a Generalissimo of an Army and so upon the matter no King at all and then there remains only his last sort of Kings where one alone hath the supreme Power And this in substance is the final resolution of Aristotle himself for in his sixteenth Chapter where he delivers his last thoughts touching the kinds of Monarchy he first dischargeth his Laconick King from being any sort of Monarchy and then gives us two exact rules about Monarchy and both these are point blank against limited and mixed Monarchy therefore I shall propose them to be considered of as concluding all Monarchy to be absolute and arbitrary 1. The one Rule is That he that is said to be a King according to Law is no sort of Government or Kingdom at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The second Rule is That a true King is he that ruled all according to his own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This latter frees a Monarch from the mixture of partners or sharers in
will and this they are forced to do to avoid discord for by reason of their great power they are subject to great dissentions not only among themselves but between them and the order of Knights which are the Earthly Messengers yea the Provinces are at discord one with another and as for Religion the diversity of Sects in Poland breed perpetual jars and hatred among the People there being as many Sects as in Amsterdam it self or any popular government can desire The danger of sedition is the cause that though the Crown depends on the election of the Nobility yet they have never rejected the Kings successour or transferred the Realm to any other family but once when deposing Ladislaus for his idleness whom yet afterward they restored they elected Wenceslaus King of Bohemia But if the Nobility do agree to hold their King to his conditions which is not to conclude any thing but by the advice of his Council of Nobles nor to choose any Wife without their leaves then it must be said to be a Commonweal not a Royalty and the King but only the mouth of the Kingdom or as Queen Christina complained that Her Husband was but the shadow of a Soveraign Next if it be considered how the Nobility of Poland came to this great power it was not by any original contract or popular convention for it is said they have neither Law Rule nor Form written or unwritten for the election of their King they may thank the Bishops and Clergy for by their holy admonitions and advice good and Religious Princes to shew their piety were first brought to give much of their Rights and Priviledges to their Subjects devout Kings were meerly cheated of some of their Royalties What power soever general Assemblies of the Estates claim or exercise over and above the bare naked act of Counselling they were first beholding to the Popish Clergy for it it is they first brought Parliaments into request and power I cannot find in any Kingdom but only where Popery hath been that Parliaments have been of reputation and in the greatest times of Superstition they are first mentioned As for the Kingdom of Denmark I read that the Senators who are all chosen out of the Nobility and seldom exceed the number of 28 with the chief of the Realm do chuse their King They have always in a manner set the Kings eldest Son upon the Royal Throne The Nobility of Denmark withstood the Coronation of Frederick 1559 till he sware not to put any Noble-man to death until he were judged of the Senate and that all Noble-men should have power of Life and Death over their Subjects without appeal and the King to give no Office without consent of the Council There is a Chancellour of the Realm before whom they do appeal from all the Provinces and Islands and from him to the King himself I hear of nothing in this Kingdom that tends to Popularity no Assembly of the Commons no elections or representation of them Sweden is governed by a King heretofore elective but now made hereditary in Gustavus time it is divided into Provinces an appeal lieth from the Vicount of every territory to a Soveraign Judge called a Lamen from the Lamens to the Kings Council and from this Council to the King himself Now let the Observator bethink himself whether all or any of these three Countries have found out any art at all whereby the People or community may assume its own Power if neither of these Kingdoms have most Countries have not nay none have The People or Community in these three Realms are as absolute Vassals as any in the World the regulating power if any be is in the Nobility Nor is it such in the Nobility as it makes shew for The Election of Kings is rather a Formality than any real power for they dare hardly chuse any but the Heir or one of the blood Royal if they should chuse one among the Nobility it would prove very factious if a stranger odious neither safe For the Government though the Kings be sworn to raign according to the Laws and are not to do any thing without the consent of their Council in publick affairs yet in regard they have power both to advance and reward whom they please the Nobility and Senators do comply with their Kings And Boterus concludes of the Kings of Poland who seem to be most moderated that such as is their valour dexterity and wisdom such is their Power Authority and Government Also Bodin saith that these three Kingdoms are States changeable and uncertain as the Nobility is stronger than the Prince or the Prince than the Nobility and the People are so far from liberty that he saith Divers particular Lords exact not only Customs but Tributes also which are confirmed and grow stronger both by long prescription of time and use of Judgments THE END THE POWER OF KINGS And in Particular OF THE KING OF ENGLAND THE POWER OF KINGS And in Particular Of the KING of ENGLAND TO Majestie or Soveraignty belongeth an Absolute Power not subject to any Law It behoveth him that is a Soveraign not to be in any sort Subject to the Command of Another whose Office is to give Laws unto his Subjects to Abrogate Laws unprofitable and in their stead to Establish other which he cannot do that is himself Subject to Laws or to Others which have Command over him And this is that which the Law saith that The Prince is acquitted from the Power of the Laws The Laws Ordinances Letters-Patents Priviledges and Grants of Princes have no force but during their Life if they be not ratified by the express Consent or at least by Sufferance of the Prince following who had knowledge thereof If the Soveraign Prince be exempted from the Laws of his Predecessors much less shall he be bound unto the Laws he maketh Himself for a man may well receive a Law from Another man but impossible it is in Nature for to give a Law unto Himself no more than it is to Command a man's self in a matter depending of his Own Will There can be no Obligation which taketh State from the meer Will of him that promiseth the same which is a necessary Reason to prove evidently that a King cannot bind his Own Hands albeit that he would We see also in the end of all Laws these words Because it hath so Pleased us to give us to understand that the Laws of a Sovereign Prince although they be grounded upon Reason yet depend upon nothing but his meer and frank good Will But as for the Laws of God all Princes and People are unto them subject neither is it in their power to impugne them if they will not be guilty of High Treason against God under the greatness of whom all Monarchs of the world ought to bow their Heads in all fear and reverence A Question may be Whether a Prince be subject to the Laws of his Countrey that he hath
Most of the Civilest Nations of the Earth labour to fetch their Original from some One of the Sons or Nephews of Noah which were scatterd abroad after the Confusion of Babel In this Dispersion we must certainly find the Establishment of Regal Power throughout the Kingdoms of the World It is a common Opinion that at the Confusion of Tongues there were 72 distinct Nations erected all which were not Confused Multitudes without Heads or Governors and at Liberty to chose what Governors or Government they pleased but they were distinct Families which had Fathers for Rulers over them whereby it appears that even in the Confusion God was careful to preserve the Fatherly Authority by distributing the diversity of Languages according to the diversity of Families for so plainly it appears by the Text First after the Enumeration of the Sons of Japhet the Conclusion is By these were the Isles of the Gentiles divided in their Lands every one after his Tongue after their Families in their Nations so it is said These are the Sons of Ham after their Families after their Tongues in their Countreys and in their Nations The like we read These are the Sons of Shem after their Families after their Tongues in their Lands after their Nations These are the Families of the Sons of Noah after their Generations in their Nations and by these were these Nations divided in the Earth after the Flood In this Division of the World some are of Opinion that Noah used Lots for the distribution of it others affirm he sayled about the Mediterranean Sea in Ten years and as he went about appointed to each Son his part and so made the Division of the then known World into Asia Africa and Europe according to the number of his Sons the Limits of which Three Parts are all found in that Midland Sea 6 But howsoever the manner of this Division be uncertain yet it is most certain the Division it self was by Families from Noah and his Children over which the Parents were Heads and Princes Amongst these was Nimrod who no doubt as Sir Walter Raleigh affirms was by good Right Lord or King over his Family yet against Right did he enlarge his Empire by seizing violently on the Rights of other Lords of Families And in this sense he may be said to be the Author and first Founder of Monarchy And all those that do attribute unto him the Original Regal Power do hold he got it by Tyrany or Usurpation and not by any due Election of the People or Multitude or by any Faction with them As this Patriarchal Power continued in Abraham Isaac and Jacob even until the Egyptian Bondage so we find it amongst the Sons of Ismael and Esau It is said These are the Sons of Ismael and these are their Names by their Castles and Towns Twelve Princes of their Tribes and Families And these are the Names of the Dukes that came of Esau according to their Families and their Places by their Nations 7 Some perhaps may think that these Princes and Dukes of Families were but some petty Lords under some greater Kings because the number of them are so many that their particular Territories could be but small and not worthy the Title of Kingdoms but they must consider that at first Kings had no such large Dominions as they have now adays we find in the time of Abraham which was about 300 years after the Flood that in a little corner of Asia 9 Kings at once met in Battail most of which were but Kings of Cities apiece with the adjacent Territories as of Sodom Gomorrha Shinar c. In the same Chapter is mention of Melchisedeck King of Salem which was but the City of Jerusalem And in the Catalogue of the Kings of Edom the Names of each King's City is recorded as the only Mark to distinguish their Dominions In the Land of Canaan which was but a small circuit Joshua destroyed thirty one Kings and about the same time Adonibeseck had 70 Kings whose hands and toes he had cut off and made them feed under his Table A few years after this 32 Kings came to Benhadad King of Syria and about 70 Kings of Greece went to the Wars of Troy Caesar found more Kings in France than there be now Princes there and at his sailing over into this Island he found four Kings in our County of Kent These heaps of Kings in each Nation are an Argument their Territories were but small and strongly confirms our Assertion that Erection of Kingdoms came at first only by Distinction of Families By manifest Footsteps we may trace this Paternal Government unto the Israelites coming into Egypt where the Exercise of Supream Partriarchal Jurisdiction was intermitted because they were in subjection to a stronger Prince After the Return of these Israelites out of Bondage God out of a special Care of them chose Moses and Joshua successively to govern as Princes in the place and stead of the Supream Fathers and after them likewise for a time he raised up Judges to defend his People in time of Peril But when God gave the Israelites Kings he reestablished the Antient and Prime Right of Lineal Succession to Paternal Government And whensoever he made choice of any special Person to be King he intended that the Issue also should have benefit thereof as being comprehended sufficiently in the Person of the Father although the Father only was named in the Graunt 8. It may seem absurd to maintain that Kings now are the Fathers of their People since Experience shews the contrary It is true all Kings be not the Natural Parents of their Subjects yet they all either are or are to be reputed the next Heirs to those first Progenitors who were at first the Natural Parents of the whole People and in their Right succeed to the Exercise of Supreme Jurisdiction and such Heirs are not only Lords of their own Children but also of their Brethren and all others that were subject to their Fathers And therefore we find that God told Cain of his Brother Abel His Desires shall be subject unto thee and thou shalt rule over him Accordingly when Jacob bought his Brother's Birth-right Isaac blessed him thus Be Lord over thy Brethren and let the Sons of thy Mother bow before thee As long as the first Fathers of Families lived the name of Patriarchs did aptly belong unto them but after a few Descents when the true Fatherhood it self was extinct and only the Right of the Father descends to the true Heir then the Title of Prince or King was more significant to express the Power of him who succeeds only to the Right of that Fatherhood which his Ancestors did Naturally enjoy by this means it comes to pass that many a Child by succeeding a King hath the Right of a Father over many a Gray-headed Multitude and hath the Title of Pater Patriae 9. It may be demanded what becomes of the Right of Fatherhood in Case
case you or any other Sheriff of our said Kingdom shall be elected And at the Day and Place aforesaid the said Election made in the full County-Court you shall certifie without Delay to Us in our Chancery under your Seal and the Seals of them which shall be present at that Election sending back unto Us the other part of the Indenture aforesaid affiled to these Presents together with this Writ Witness our Self at Westmin By this Writ we do not find that the Commons are called to be any part of the Common Councel of the Kingdom or of the Supream Court of Judicature or to have any part of the Legislative Power or to Consult de arduis regni negotiis of the Difficult Businesses of the Kingdom The Writ only says the King would have Conference and Treat with the Prelates Great men and Peers but not a Word of Treating or Conference with the Commons The House of Commons which doth not minister an Oath nor fine nor imprison any but their own Members and that but of late in some Cases cannot properly be said to be a Court at all much less to be a part of the Supream Court or highest Judicature of the Kingdom The constant Custom even to this day for the Members of the House of Commons to stand bare with their Hats in their Hands in the Presence of the Lords while the Lords sit covered at all Conferences is a visible Argument that the Lords and Commons are not fellow-Commissioners or fellow-Counsellors of the Kingdom The Duty of Knights Citizens and Burgesses mentioned in the Writ is only ad Faciendum Consentiendum to Perform and to Consent to such things as should be ordained by the Common Councel of the Kingdom there is not so much mentioned in the Writ as a Power in the Commons to dissent When a man is bound to appear in a Court of Justice the words are ad Faciendum Recipiendum quod ei per curiam injungetur which shews that this Word Faciendum is used as a Term in Law to signifie to give Obedience For this we meet with a Precedent even as ancient as the Parliament-Writ it self and it is concerning Proceedings in Parliament 33 Ed. 1. Dominus Rex mandavit vicecom ' quod c. summon ' Nicolaum de Segrave ex parte Domini Regis firmiter ei injungeret quod esset coram Domino Rege in proximo Parl. c. ad audiendum voluntatem ipsius Domini Regis c. Et ad faciendum recipiendum ulterius quod curia Domini Regis consideraret in Praemissis Our Lord the King commands the Sheriff to summon Nicholas Segrave to appear before our Lord the King in the next Parliament to hear the Will of the Lord our King himself and to perform and receive what the Kings Court shall further consider of the Premises Sir Edw. Coke to prove the Clergy hath no Voice in Parliament saith that by the Words of their Writ their Consent was only to such things as were ordained by the Common Councel of the Realm If this Argument of his be good it will deny also Voices to the Commons in Parliament for in their Writ are the self-same Words viz. to consent to such things as were ordained by the Common Councel of the Kingdom Sir Edw. Coke concludes that the Procuratores Cleri have many times appeared in Parliament as Spiritual Assistants to Consider Consult and to Consent but never had Voice there how they could Consult and Consent without Voices he doth not shew Though the Clergy as he saith oft appeared in Parliament yet was it only ad consentiendum as I take it and not ad faciendum for the Word Faciendum is omitted in their Writ the cause as I conceive is the Clergy though they were to assent yet by reason of Clerical Exemptions they were not required to Perform all the Ordinances or Acts of Parliament But some may think though the Writ doth not express a Calling of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses to be part of the Common Councel of the Kingdom yet it supposeth it a thing granted and not to be questioned but that they are a part of the Common Councel Indeed if their Writ had not mentioned the Calling of Prelates Great men and Peers to Councel there might have been a little better colour for such a Supposition but the truth is such a Supposition doth make the Writ it self vain and idle for it is a senseless thing to bid men assent to that which they have already ordained since Ordaining is an Assenting and more than an Assenting For clearing the meaning and sense of the Writ and Satisfaction of such as think it impossible but that the Commons of England have always been a part of the Common Councel of the Kingdom I shall insist upon these Points 1. That anciently the Barons of England were the Common Councel of the Kingdom 2. That untill the time of Hen. 1. the Commons were not called to Parliament 3. Though the Commons were called by Hen. 1. yet they were not constantly called nor yet regularly elected by Writ until Hen. 3. time For the first point Mr. Cambden in his Britannia doth teach us that in the time of the English Saxons and in the ensuing Age a Parliament was called Commune Concilium which was saith he Praesentia Regis Praelatorum Procerumque collectorum the Presence of the King Prelates and Peers assembled No mention of the Commons the Prelates and Peers were all Barons The Author of the Chronicle of the Church of Lichfield cited by M. Selden saith Postquam Rex Edvardus c. Concilio Baronum Angliae c. After King Edward was King by the Councel of the Barons of England he revived a Law which had lain asleep three score seven years and this Law was called the Law of St. Edward the King In the same Chronicle it is said that Will. the Conquerour anno regni sui quarto apud Londin ' had Concilium Baronum suorum a Councel of his Barons And of this Parliament it is that his Son Hen. 1. speaks saving I restore you the Laws of King Edward the Confessor with those amendments wherewith my Father amended them by the Councel of his Barons In the fifth year as Mr. Selden thinks of the Conquerour was a Parliament or Principum conventus an Assembly of Earls and Barons at Pinenden Heath in Kent in the Cause between Lanfranke the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Odo Earl of Kent The King gave Commission to Godfrid then Bishop of Constance in Normandy to represent His own Person for Hearing the Controversie as saith M. Lambard and caused Egelrick the Bishop of Chichester an aged man singularly commended for Skill in the Laws and Customes of the Realm to be brought thither in a Wagon for his Assistance in Councel Commanded Haymo the Sheriff of Kent to summon the whole County to give in Evidence three whole days spent in Debate in the End Lanfrank
themselves that alters the Form of Government that is whether one man or more than one make the Laws Since the growth of this new Doctrine Of the Limitation and Mixture of Monarchy it is most apparent that Monarchy hath been crucified as it were between two Thieves the Pope and the People for what Principles the Papists make use of for the Power of the Pope above Kings the very same by blotting out the word Pope and putting in the word People the Plebists take up to use against their Soveraigns If we would truly know what Popery is we shall find by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm that the main and indeed the only Point of Popery is the alienating and withdrawing of Subjects from their Obedience to their Prince to raise Sedition and Rebellion If Popery and Popularity agree in this point the Kings of Christendom that have shaken off the Power of the Pope have made no great bargain of it if in place of one Lord abroad they get many Lords at home within their own Kingdoms I cannot but reverence that Form of Government which was allowed and made use of for God's own People and for all other Nations It were impiety to think that God who was careful to appoint Judicial Laws for his chosen People would not furnish them with the best Form of Government or to imagine that the Rules given in divers places in the Gospel by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles for Obedience to Kings should now like Almanacks out of date be of no use to us because it is pretended We have a Form of Government now not once thought of in those days It is a shame and scandal for us Christians to seek the Original of Government from the Inventions or Fictions of Poets Orators Philosophers and Heathen Historians who all lived thousands of years after the Creation and were in a manner ignorant of it and to neglect the Scriptures which have with more Authority most particularly given us the true Grounds and Principles of Government These Considerations caused me to scruple this Modern piece of Politicks touching Limited and Mixed Monarchy and finding no other that presented us with the nature and means of Limitation and Mixture but an Anonymous Author I have drawn a few brief Observations upon the most considerable part of his Treatise in which I desire to receive satisfaction from the Author himself if it may be according to his promise in his Preface or if not from him from any other for him THE ANARCHY Of a Limited or Mixed MONARCHY THere is scarce the meanest man of the multitude but can now in these days tell us That the Government of the Kingdom of England is a LIMITED and MIXED Monarchy And it is no marvel since all the Disputes and Arguments of these distracted Times both from the Pulpit and Press do tend and end in this Conclusion The Author of the Treatise of Monarchy hath copiously handled the nature and manner of Limited and Mixed Monarchy and is the first and only man that I know hath undertaken the task of describing it others only mention it as taking it for granted Doctor Ferne gives the Author of this Treatise of Monarchy this testimony That the Mixture of Government is more accurately delivered and urged by this Treatise than by the Author of the Fuller Answer And in another place Doctor Ferne saith He allows his distinction of Monarchy into Limited and Mixed I have with some diligence looked over this Treatise but cannot approve of these distinctions which he propounds I submit the reasons of my dislike to others judgments I am somewhat confident that his Doctrine of Limited and Mixed Monarchy is an opinion but of yesterday and of no antiquity a meâ—â— innovation in Policy not so old as New England though calculated properly for that Meridian For in his first part of the Treatise which concerns Monarchy in general there is not one proof text or example in Scripture that he hath produced to justifie his conceit of Limited and Mixed Monarchy Neither doth he afford us so much as one passage or reason out of Aristole whose Books of Politicks and whose natural reasons are of greatest authority and credit with all rational men next to the sacred Scripture Nay I hope I may affirm and be able to prove that Aristotle doth confute both limited and mixed Monarchy howsoever Doctor Ferne think these new opinions to be raised upon Aristotles Principles As for other Politicians or Historians either divine or humane ancient or modern our Author brings not one to confirm his opinions nor doth he nor can he shew that ever any Nation or People were governed by a limited or mixed Monarchy Machiavel is the first in Christendom that I can find that writ of a Mixed Government but not one syllable of a Mixed Monarchy he in his discourses or disputations upon the Decades of Livy falls so enamored with the Roman Commonwealth that he thought he could never sufficiently grace that popular Government unless he said there was something of Monarchy in it yet he was never so impudent as to say it was a mixed Monarchy And what Machiavel hath said for Rome the like hath Contarene for Venice But Bodin hath laid open the errours of both these as also of Polybius and some few others that held the like opinions As for the Kingdom of England if it hath found out a Form of Government as the Treatise layeth it down of such perfection as never any people could it is both a glory to the Nation and also to this Author who hath first decipher'd it I now make my approach to the Book it self The Title is A Treatise of Monarchy The first part of it is Of Monarchy in general Where first I charge the Author that he hath not given us any definition or description of Monarchy in general for by the rules of method he should have first defined and then divided for if there be several sorts of Monarchy then in something they must agree which makes them to be Monarchies and in something they must disagree and differ which makes them to be several sorts of Monarchies In the first place he should have shewed us in what they all agreed which must have been a definition of Monarchy in general which is the foundation of the Treatise and except that be agreed upon we shall argue upon we know not what I press not this main omission of our Author out of any humour of wrangling but because I am confident that had he pitched upon any definition of Monarchy in general his own definition would have confuted his whole Treatise Besides I find him pleased to give us a handsom definition of Absolute Monarchy from whence I may infer that he knew no other definition that would have fitted all his other sorts of Monarchy it concerned him to have produced it lest it might be thought there could be no Monarchy but Absolute What our
were before Laws The Kings of Judah and Israel not tied to Laws 2 Of Samuel's Description of a King 3 The Power ascribed to Kings in the New Testament 4 Whether Laws were invented to bridle Tyrants 5 The Benefit of Laws 6 Kings keep the Laws though not bound by the Laws 7 Of the Oaths of Kings 8 Of the Benefit of the Kings Prerogative over Laws 9 The King the Author the Interpreter and Corrector of the Common Laws 10 The King Judge in all Causes both before the Conquest and since 11 the King and his Council anciently determined Causes in the Star-Chamber 12 Of Parliaments 13 When the People were first called to Parliaments 14 The Liberty of Parliaments not from Nature but from the grace of Princes 15 The King alone makes Laws in Parliament 16 He Governs Both Houses by himself 17 Or by his Council 18 Or by his Judges CHAP I. That the first Kings were Fathers of Families 1 THE Tenent of the Natural Liberty of Mankind New Plausible and Dangerous 2 The Question stated out of Bellarmine Some Contradictions of his noted 3 Bellarmine's Argument answered out of Bellarmine himself 4 The Royal Authority of the Patriarchs before the Flood 5 The dispersion of Nations over the World after the Confusion of Babel was by entire Families over which the Fathers were Kings 6 and from them all Kings descended 7 All Kings are either Fathers of their People 8 Or Heirs of such Fathers or Vsurpers of the Right of such Fathers 9 Of the Escheating of Kingdoms 10 Of Regal and Paternal Power and their agreement SInce the time that School-Divinity began to flourish there hath been a common Opinion maintained as well by Divines as by divers other learned Men which affirms Mankind is naturally endowed and born with Freedom from all Subjection and at liberty to chose what Form of Government it please And that the Power which any one Man hath over others was at first bestowed according to the discretion of the Multitude This Tenent was first hatched in the Schools and hath been fostered by all succeeding Papists for good Divinity The Divines also of the Reformed Churches have entertained it and the Common People every where tenderly embrace it as being most plausible to Flesh and blood for that it prodigally destributes a Portion of Liberty to the meanest of the Multitude who magnifie Liberty as if the height of Humane Felicity were only to be found in it never remembring That the desire of Liberty was the first Cause of the Fall of Adam But howsoever this Vulgar Opinion hath of late obtained a great Reputation yet it is not to be found in the Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Primitive Church It contradicts the Doctrine and History of the Holy Scriptures the constant Practice of all Ancient Monarchies and the very Principles of the Law of Nature It is hard to say whether it be more erroneous in Divinity or dangerous in Policy Yet upon the ground of this Doctrine both Jesuites and some other zealous favourers of the Geneva Discipline have built a perillous Conclusion which is That the People or Multitude have Power to punish or deprive the Prince if he transgress the Laws of the Kingdom witness Parsons and Buchanan the first under the name of Dolman in the Third Chapter of his First Book labours to prove that Kings have been lawfully chastised by their Commonwealths The latter in his Book De jure Regni apud Scotos maintains A Liberty of the People to depose their Prince Cardinal Bellarmine and Calvin both look asquint this way This desperate Assertion whereby Kings are made subject to the Censures and Deprivations of their Subjects follows as the Authors of it conceive as a necessary Consequence of that former Position of the supposed Natural Equality and Freedom of Mankind and Liberty to choose what form of Government it please And though Sir John Heywood Adam Blackwood John Barclay and some others have Learnedly Confuted both Buchanan and Parsons and bravely vindicated the Right of Kings in most Points yet all of them when they come to the Argument drawn from the Natural Liberty and Equality of Mankind do with one consent admit it for a Truth unquestionable not so much as once denying or opposing it whereas if they did but Confute this first erroneous Principle the whole Fabrick of this vast Engine of Popular Sedition would drop down of it self The Rebellious Consequence which follows this prime Article of the Natural Freedom of Mankind may be my Sufficient Warrant for a modest Examination of the original Truth of it much hath been said and by many for the Affirmative Equity requires that an Ear be reserved a little for the Negative In this DISCOURSE I shall give my self these Cautions First I have nothing to do to meddle with Mysteries of State such Arcana Imperii or Cabinet Counsels the Vulgar may not pry into An implicite Faith is given to the meanest Artificer in his own Craft how much more is it then due to a Prince in the profound Secrets of Government the Causes and Ends of the greatest politique Actions and Motions of State dazle the Eyes and exceed the Capacities of all men save only those that are hourly versed in the managing Publique Affairs yet since the Rule for each men to know in what to obey his Prince cannot be learnt without a relative Knowledge of those Points wherein a Sovereign may Command it is necessary when the Commands and Pleasures of Superiors come abroad and call for an Obedience that every man himself know how to regulate his Actions or his sufferings for according to the Quality of the Thing commanded an Active or Passive Obedience is to be yielded and this is not to limit the Princes Power but the extent of the Subjects Obedience by giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar's c. Secondly I am not to question or quarrel at the Rights or Liberties of this or any other Nation my task is chiefly to enquire from whom these first came not to dispute what or how many these are but whether they were derived from the Laws of Natural Liberty or from the Grace and bounty of Princes My desire and Hope is that the people of England may and do enjoy as ample Priviledges as any Nation under Heaven the greatest Liberty in the World if it be duly considered is for a people to live under a Monarch It is the Magna Charta of this Kingdom all other shews or pretexts of Liberty are but several degrees of Slavery and a Liberty only to destroy Liberty If such as Maintain the Natural Liberty of Mankind take Offence at the Liberty I take to Examine it they must take heed that they do not deny by Retail that Liberty which they affirm by Whole-sale For if the Thesis be true the Hypothesis will follow that all men may Examine their own Charters Deeds or Evidences by which they claim and hold the Inheritance
the Crown does escheat for want of an Heir Whether doth it not then Divolve to the People The Answer is It is but the Negligence or Ignorance of the People to lose the Knowledge of the true Heir For an Heir there always is If Adam himself were still living and now ready to die it is certain that there is One Man and but One in the World who is next Heir although the Knowledge who should be that One Man be quite lost 2. This Ignorance of the People being admitted it doth not by any means follow that for want of Heirs the Supreme Power is devolved to the Multitude and that they have Power to Rule and Chose what Rulers they please No the Kingly Power escheats in such cases to the Princes and independent Heads of Families for every Kingdom is resolved into those parts whereof at first it was made By the Uniting of great Families or petty Kingdoms we find the greater Monarchies were at the first erected and into such again as into their first Matter many times they return again And because the dependencie of ancient Families is oft obscure or worn out of Knowledge therefore the wisdom of All or Most Princes have thought fit to adopt many times those for Heads of Families and Princes of Provinces whose Merits Abilities or Fortunes have enobled them or made them fit and capable of such Regal Favours All such prime Heads and Fathers have power to consent in the uniting or conferring of their Fatherly Right of Sovereign Authority on whom they please And he that is so Elected claims not his Power as a Donative from the People but as being substituted properly by God from whom he receives his Royal Charter of an Vniversal Father though testified by the Ministry of the Heads of the People If it please God for the Correction of the Prince or punishment of the People to suffer Princes to be removed and others to be placed in their rooms either by the Factions of the Nobility or Rebellion of the People in all such cases the Judgment of God who hath Power to give and to take away Kingdoms is most just Yet the Ministry of Men who Execute Gods Judgments without Commission is sinful and damnable God doth but use and turn mens Vnrighteous Acts to the performance of his Righteous Decrees 10 In all Kingdoms or Common-wealths in the World whether the Prince be the Supream Father of the People or but the true Heir of such a Father or whether he come to the Crown by Usurpation or by Election of the Nobles or of the People or by any other way whatsoever or whether some Few or a Multitude Govern the Commonwealth Yet still the Authority that is in any one or in many or in all these is the only Right and natural Authority of a Supream Father There is and always shall be continued to the end of the World a Natural Right of a Supreme Father over every Multitude although by the secret Will of God many at first do most unjustly obtain the Exercise of it To confirm this Natural Right of Regal Power we find in the Decalogue That the Law which enjoyns Obedience to Kings is delivered in the terms of Honour thy Father as if all power were originally in the Father If Obedience to Parents be immediately due by a Natural Law and Subjection to Princes but by the Mediation of an Humane Ordinance what reason is there that the Laws of Nature should give place to the Laws of Men as we see the power of the Father over his Child gives place and is subordinate to the power of the Magistrate If we compare the Natural Rights of a Father with those of a King we find them all one without any difference at all but only in the Latitude or Extent of them as the Father over one Family so the King as Father over many Families extends his care to preserve feed cloth instruct and defend the whole Commonwealth His War his Peace his Courts of Justice and all his Acts of Sovereignty tend only to preserve and distribute to every subordinate and inferiour Father and to their Children their Rights and Privileges so that all the Duties of a King are summed up in an Universal Fatherly Care of his People CHAP. II. It is unnatural for the People to Govern or Chose Governours 1. ARistotle examined about the Freedom of the People and justified 2. Suarez disputing against the Regality of Adam 3. Families diversly defined by Aristotle Bodin and others 4. Suarez contradicting Bellarmine 5. Of Election of Kings 6. By the Major part of the People 7. By Proxy and by silent Acceptation 8. No Example in Scripture of the Peoples chosing their King Mr. Hooker's Judgment therein 9. God governed always by Monarchy 10. Bellarmine and Aristotle's Judgment of Monarchy 11. Imperfections of the Roman Democratie 12. Rome began her Empire under Kings and perfected under Emperours In danger the People of Rome always fled to Monarchy 13. Whether Democraties were invented to bridle Tyrants or rather that they came in by Stealth 14. Democraties vilified by their own Historians 15. Popular Government more bloody than Tyranny 16. Of a mixed Government of the King and People 17. The People may not judge or correct their King 18. No Tyrants in England since the Conquest 1. BY conferring these Proofs and Reasons drawn from the Authority of the Scripture it appears little less than a Paradox which Bellarmine and others affirm of the Freedom of the Multitude to chose what Rulers they please Had the Patriarchs their Power given them by their own Children Bellarmine does not say it but the Contrary If then the Fatherhood enjoyed this Authority for so many Ages by the Law of Nature when was it lost or when forfeited or how is it devolved to the Liberty of the Multitude Because the Scripture is not favourable to the Liberty of the People therefore many fly to Natural Reason and to the Authority of Aristotle I must crave Liberty to examine or explain the Opinion of this great Philosopher but briefly I find this Sentence in the Third of his Politiques Cap. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seems to some not to be natural for one man to be Lord of all the Citizens since a City consists of Equals D. Lambine in his Latine Interpretation of this Text hath omitted the Translation of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this means he maketh that to be the Opinion of Aristotle which Aristotle alleadgeth to be the Opinion but of some This Negligence or Wilful Escape of Lambine in not translating a word so Material hath been an occasion to deceive many who looking no farther than this Latine Translation have concluded and made the World now of late believe that Aristotle here maintains a Natural Equality of Men and not only our English Translator of Aristotle's Politiques is in this place misled by following Lambine but even the Learned Monsieur Duvall in