INVESTIGATIO Jurium Antiquorum ET RATIONALIUM REGNI SIVE Monarchiae Angliae In Magnis suis Conciliis SEU PARLIAMENTIS ET Regiminis cum iisdem in suis Principiis optimi OR A Vindication of the Government of the Kingdom of England under our Kings and Monarchs appointed by God from the Opinion and Claim of those that without any Warrant or Ground of Law or Right Reason the Laws of God and Man Nature and Nations the Records Annals and Histories of the Kingdom would have it to be originally derived from the People or the King to be Co-ordinate with his Houses of Peers and Commons in Parliament Per Fabianum Philipps J. C. Socium Medii Templi London Jerom. c. 6. v. 16. State super vias Antiquas inquirite veritatem The FIRST TOME LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Charles Broome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1686. VIRTUTE ET FIDE Robert Harley of Bramton Castle in the County of Hereford Esqr. To the Sacred Majesty of James the Second King of great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Dread Soveraign WHen the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy the greatest Tyes and Obligations that can be imposed upon the Generations of Mankind have so little prevailed as that the giddy and mad-headed Multitude prone to all wickedness and evil Examples have under an Hypocritical pretence of Holiness and Reformation of that which was good and needed it not introduced an abundance of unclean Spirits and brought forth that which was altogether like their Tutors and Masters of Impiety and with great impudence pertinacity secret and subtil contrivances after His late Majesties happy Restauration continued their Machinations and Rebellious Principles until his Death who notwithstanding his great Clemency and many Plots discovered by Gods mercy by the continual vigilancy of his Guards with all the care that could be taken was for a long time hardly preserved from Assassination which Villanies and Dangers consorted so well with their Ambitions and Envies Rapines Plunderings Sequestrations Decimations and pillaging of three Kingdoms especially of England besides the sad accompt to be made of the Massacre in Ireland destruction of many Thousands in England with their Families and Estates in the defence of your Majesties blessed Father the Martyr with that horrid ever to be abhorred Addition of his Murther and the long continued Miseries Calamities and Troubles put upon their Late Soveraign your Royal Brother your Majesty and the rest of the Royal â—rogeny as they or too many of them or their Seditious and Rebellious Party may not improbably an thought only to watch or enforce an opportunity of playing the same or a worse game of Rebellion over again and if they can to a more impious advantage bed plant a soveraignty inherent in the people whom they intend to govern as arbitrarily and wickedly as they had done before which a lamentable many years Experience hath taught the people to believe it to be abundantly Tyrannical and Slavish enough to those that were made so unhappy as to endure and Experiment it which to prevent is and should be certainly the duty of every good Subject and I over of his King and Countrey In order wherunto having made my Observations and Remarks from the Commencement of the grandest Rebellion that ever troubled and harassed England in the years 1640 1641. until his present year of the Lord 1685 now the 83 year and an half of my yet Deo gratias vividae senectutis many years before for the most part written and as well digested as many disturbances and worldly troubles would permit which could notwithstanding never alienate or withdraw my mind from those my first Enquiries or Observations And my careful and I hope industrious and impartial Recherches into the Original and true power of Parliaments will shew how the Incroachments of a miselected House of Commons therein have since the Raigns of Qu. Elizabeth and K. James made it their principal and only business by Petions Ingrateful Lurches and Artifices and catching Advantages of our Kings Princes necessarily enforced want of Money for the defence of themselves and their People to undermine and bring into an Anarchy or Insulting Poliarchy this your heretofore more flourishing Monarchy strongly built and founded upon the Feudal Laws derived unto your Majesty by and from your Royal Ancestors and Predecessors from the Brittish German Saxon Danish and Normans Feudal Laws and Customs the best Establishers and Supports of a truly not counterfeit Monarchick Regal Government and doubt not but that my Labours and Travel therein with what other Light and Confirmations may be justly added by such as will well Weigh and Consider it may truly Manifest and Prove the same and without the suspicion of an over-credulity well believe that the Reverend Judges and Sages of the Law whom our Kings have Commanded and Ordained to be greatly reverenced administring Justice under you to your people many of whom and the professors of the Law pleading before them were only Educated and practised as Lawyers in the time of the late misguided Parliament might have been easily mis-led by the Minores Gentium the Lawyers and Officers pleading or practising in the Courts of Justice by rejecting the Councel of the Prophet Jeremiah Stare super vias Antiquas inquirere Veritatem which his lamentations after their destruction might have taught them after sooner to have believed and not to have the original of your Majesties Government to be as Inscrutable as that of the River Nile or to forget their Common Parent or Original as in many things to make or render our Laws to have no Resemblance thereof but to be quite contrary thereunto or as some Children in the Stories or Tales of easily believing old Women changed in their Cradles all which should put every good Subject in mind neither to be ignorant of your Rights or negligent in the maintenance of them it being of no small concernment to your People to preserve yours with as much care as their own being comprehended therein and when he shall hear the Ship wherein his King is strugling with the rage and fury of the Winds and Seas and every minute like to be destroyed and swallowed up ought to make hast tenui sua Cymba and do all he can to relieve and preserve him of what Judgment and Disposition soever he be though not at all under those great obligations of the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and of the bonds of gratitude must exuere humanitatem that will not endeavour to rescue him and in these my feeble but true hearted endeavours found those that instead of saving the Ship were only careful to Sacrifice to their own designs and divert and steer her from the right Port of Monarchy whilst they laboured all they could to save her by bringing her only into the Curses rather than Blessings of an Anarchy or knavish self-enriching Poliarchy and
wanting and necessary to be done for the prefervation thereof Authorizing us to examine the present State and Condition of the said Records and peruse as well the Orders for regulating of the Orders of the Keepers of the said office of Records as the Orders made by Sir Algernon May Keeper of the said Records the first day of December then last past and to consider what additions and allowances they shall judge fit to be made either in the said Orders or Queries or what otherwise occurs to them fit to be offered for the better ordering methodizing preservation and safe keeping of the said Records and that they make report thereof unto us with all convenient speed and their opinion what is necessary to be done in order to the attaining the ends asoresaid in obedience whereunto Sir William Dugdale and I have not only made a Certificate and report unto their Lordships what we had done under our hands but afterwards at the aforesaid Office of the Records have given a meeting to some that were appointed by their Lordships and after that in the absence and sickness of the said Sir William Dugdale by the Command of the said Earl of Anglesey I did attend his Lordship and the Lord Chancellor and divers of the said Lords of his late Majesties Privy-Councel to the said Office of Records in the Tower of London those Scrinia Sacra Publicae Tabulae which our Great Selden faith is a Religio to preserve and the Commons in Parliament in the 42 year of the Raign of King Edward the 3d petitioned to have a free access unto because they contain the peoples evidence and might also have said their Kings and Princes Rights and Power to protect them and therefore to have them well looked unto and preserved must needs be an universal concernment both unto our Kings and their People and though here in England in the time of our long and factious Parliament Rebellions and Miseries when I first began to search into the Original of our before happy Government and continuance of our Laws Peace and Plenty and the excellent frame and constitution of our Government founded upon no other than the Feudal Laws which unto any that will take the pains to peruse and examine them will make it easily appear that our Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman Laws and those of all our succeeding Kings and Princes and the Process Proceedings Maxims Rules and Methods in and through all the parts thereof have until our late unfortunate Factious and Seditious times and Parliament Rebellion the tricks of Attorneys unskilful Clerks and subordinate and corrupt Officers since those times of unhappiness only excepted had no other source or fountain and that the Civil and Caesarean Laws being long ago accompted to be the universal reason of the World are and have been in their Patroni and Clientes near allied to our Feudal Laws whereof the learned Craguis wrote his Book de Feudis in the year 1655. applicable to his own Countrey of Scotland where they yet remain notwithstanding our unthrifty exchange of the Nerves and Ligaments of our Kings Crown and Dignity for an Excise upon Ale Beer and Syder would not permit me to stand still and let my King and Country be destroyed by suffering our Feudal Laws the basis and foundation of our Government to be drencht or washt in the River Lethe or lake of Oblivion or the wild Boars and Foxes to destroy and lay wast and cause our once flourishing Kingdom under the Guard and protection of those Laws to be more transformed and abused than many of the sacred Laws of God given to his once beloved people of the Jews have been by their Masorites when they had a better excuse and Apology to make by their captivity of seventy years in Babylon until they had forgotten the language in which their Laws were written than our Gentlemen of Innovation or Reformation as it hath been Nicknamed or miscalled of Good into Bad or Better into Worse for their own only advantage here upon earth happen what will when they shall be able to attain unto or provide for themselves And in these my Labours and impartial observations with no little danger and sorrow to see my King and Countrey so ill used have been as tender as the res Acta or matters related or inquired into would permit without praeprejudice or hurt unto the truth or my Loyalty unto my Soveraign with all due Reverence unto the Judges many or the most of whom when the fire of that Rebellion which had lain kindling and smoaking in its Embrio's in the years 1637 1638 1639 and 1640. began every where almost discernably to flame and be very apparent and visible were either then in prima Lanugine or had but scarcely saluted the Ostia or Limina Legum stept over the Treshold or Door of it as the vulgar term it and intend as I have never failed to do not only to do but write and speak of them with all Reverence becoming me and all others according to the Reason and Rule which the great and prudent Prince King Edward the first ordained when he declared in these words Et quia sunt honor Reverentia quae ministris ipsius Regis ratione officii sui fiant ipsi Regi attribuuntur sic dedecus ministris suis eidem domino Regi infertur and in my Relations concerning that high and very honourable very useful and profitable for the weal publick Houses of Parliament no man should think or speak dishonourably so long as they permit Parliaments to be what Parliaments according to their right use and Institution were nor ought to be no more than Colloquium or Commune Concilium as may be further evidenced by that great Princes severe punishment of that great Baron William de Breause for contumelious words spoken to a Judge And King Edward the 3d had such a care of his Justices and their authority as he punished severely the Bayliffs of Ipswich by the loss of their places caused their Staves of Office to be broken in the Court of Kings Bench and their Liberties to be seised and forfeited because they had suffered an unruly multitude to feast and revel with certain malefactors who had been there condemned by the Justices of Assise and after their departure made a kind of mockgame or interlude to be Acted upon the Tribunal where the Judges had sitten and in mockery fined and amerced the Justices and their Clerks And for that I would willingly be as much as I could Instrumental to recal a factious seditious and Rebellious party out of their Errours that they may neither persist therein themselves or by erecting Schools of rebellion magnify and think themselves to be no small persons in the propagation thereof and in those my travails not having the help as the learned Dr. Brady hath had of the publick Libraries of the University and Collegiate Libraries of the University of Cambridge but
publishing in print in our own and some Forreign Nations a never to be believed or proved justification of the Murder of their most Pious Prince sub forma sigura judicii and no English men but the Learned and Loyal Dr George Bate and my self with our names subscribed and another without publickly vindicated his worth and innocency and not a Lawyer or man of the militia togata could find either a conscience or care calamum eâ—igere to defend the honour of their King and Countrey when they were bound by their Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy not to have omitted it when as Advocati they should as Linwood hath told them in the case of an ordinary Client tanquam Athletae in Campo justitio pugnare not stand still hearall our Neighbour Christians speak of such a villainous Murder with horror and detestation and the learned Zeiglerus a Forreigner besides Salmasius who had never taken our Oath of Allegeance and Supremacy have publickly declared against it And do hope that our learned Lawyers of England who were not before our now almost fifty years Parliamentary Rebellion willing to be outdone or believed to be less learned in omni scibili or matter of learning in the Laws of their own or other Nations witness our Great Selden and many others will not suffer our Laws which want nothing to illustrate their very antient original to be so lost and eclipsed as there will be nothing of our Fundamental Laws left to furnish their practice in the Temples and Courts of Justice than such fragments as the Attorneys Seminaries shall be pleased to furnish them withal when they have squeezed the profit into their own advantages of all manner of Champerties and Ambodextryes by clipping our venerable just and antient Laws into such parcels as may seem most for their wicked and reasonless advantages and should be more than praemunired and not to be reckoned much less peccant than the Clippers of Caesars Coin or Image or false Forreign Coin introduced into the Kingdom in their daring to attempt to vitiate or violate their Kings Laws and suffer Milton that understood no more of our Laws of England than that which he had purposely Metamorphosed to delude a silly part of the People or Rabsheka it defieâ— the Host of Israel and John Goodwin a factious Minister with his Flambeau or Torch in the Pulpit to intice all that could be so mad as to believe them that King Charles the Martyr was justly accused condemned and beheaded at the suit of a few infatuated Rebels and so many men of the long Robe not have Loyalty care or Conscience enough to hasten to the brook to find some stones to sling at and convince those or any of their Goliahs or hear a Judge deservedly displaced by his late Majesty King Charles the 2d declare in the Court of Kings Bench tell not us of old Records and Antiquities but of the Law or Practice in or since 1641. And a Bencher of an Inns of Court perswades himself that he had hit the mark when he had said that Antiquities were no more to be valued than old Iron picked up out of the Channel in London Streets and sold for a penny in the pound And Mr. Milton that would have all men have a liberty to be divorced from their Wives as much as himself was from true Learning and Reason having done all and more than he could to blast and disparage that most excellent Pious Prince King Charles the Martyr and make his ever to be accursed Murder to be according to the Laws of England could not forbear persecuting his Manes whilst he magnified the Populum Anglicanum when all men had abhorred it and Bedingfield and Chresheld had voluntarily laid down their Commissions and forsook their Offices and places of Judges and the greatest Rebellion did ride in its triumphant Chair shall the Gentlemen of the long Robe who might be very able to do and should be well acquainted with all manner of Learning be so little concerned in it as to leave two Doctors of Physick to do what they could themselves for there were a Lion in the way whilst Mr. Milton cryed out as Tully in another case O fortunate nate me Consulo Roma And it would be a pity that so many Learned People in England of several conditions should not rightly understand the Constitutions and Government thereof but be so much mistaken as to believe they are honest and Loyal enough if they can but get what they can from their King and sacrifice it to their humours when the fear of God and right understanding of our Laws may teach us that our Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy do signifie much more than the ordinary Oaths of the smaller sort of the common people who have as little wit as Estate and a great deal less of Religion and that our Laws from Age to Age have resided in our Kings who have always been accompted to be tanquam Lex viva Could there be so great a thirst after learning and honour and esteem for it gained could the Queen of Sheba travel so far to hear the Wisdom of Solomon and Pythagoras to hear Plato Philip of Macedon give his Gods thanks that he had found out such a Tutor as Aristotle for his Son Alexander have men of learning and richer Souls than ordinary been invited and gladly welcomed into other Cities and Countries as our King Alfred did Asser Menevensis Edward the First Accursius and our King James the First the generally learned Causabon Peter du Moulin and Gerardus Vossius and believed it to be a great part of their honour and glory to be the Incouragers of learning and vertue Tacitus saith that amongst the Romans the Sons of Nobility did dare operam Studiis liberalibus The Emperor Valence appointed for the publick Library at Constantinople seven Antiquaries to look after the Books four for the Greek and three for the Latine who were to have a publick allowance and must we that may stand upon our Fore-fathers Shoulders and may with great ease do rather greater than lesser matters not be ashamed to be Children of yesterday when they that have arrived but unto a small parcel of learning must in spight of their Teeth acknowledge that experience is commonly upon earth one of the most trustiest guides and neglected the Mistress of Fools when posterior dies should never fail to be discipulus prioris and it can portend no less than a sad fatality and ruin to a Nation to have learning put under no better a Character than that of a Fop or a grave thinking Coxcomb when a Knave though a Fool is believed to be a Man of Parts and Ingenuity and an honest man a simple fellow or an Ass fit only to be bang'd or rid upon and whilst we mourn and lament with the Prophet Jeremiah the forecasted ruin of our Jerusalem and with our long ago Gildas the Excidium Britanniae should cease to
the Parliament Cities and Burrough-Towns the only Iudges under the King who are fit and unfit to be Members in the House of Commons in Parliament and that the Freeholders and Burgesses more than by a just and impartial Assent and Information who were the fittest were not to be the Electors p. 371. § 20. Of the small numbers of Knights of the Shires and Burgesses which were Elected and came in the Raign of King Edward the first upon his aforesaid Writs of Election and how their numbers now amounting unto very many more were after encreased by the corruption of Sheriffs and the Ambition of such as desired to be Elected p. 382. § 21. Who made themselves Electors for the chusing of Knights of the Shires to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament after the 21st year of the Raign of King Edward the first contrary to the Tenor of his aforesaid Writs of Summo 〈…〉 made in the 22 year of his Raign for the Election of Knights of the Shire and Burgesses to come to the Parliaments and great Councils of several of our Kings and Princes afterwards p. 387. § 22. Of the Actions and other Requisites by the Law to be done by those that are or shall be Elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses to attend our King in their great Councils or Parliaments praecedent and praeparatory to their admission therein p. 388. § 23. That the Members of the House of Commons being Elected and come to the Parliament as aforesaid did not by vertue of those Writs of Election sit together with the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in one and the same Room or Place and that if any such thing were as it never was or is likely to be proved it cannot conclude or infer that they were or are co-ordinate or had or have an equal power in their Suffrages and Decisions p. 393. § 24. What the Clause in the Writs for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come unto the Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum do properly signifie and were intended by the said Writs of 〈◊〉 to be Members of the House of Cowmons in Parliament p. 398. § 25. Of the many variations and alterations of our Kings Writs of Summons to their great Councels or Parliaments excluding some and taking in others to be assistant in that high and Honourable Court with its Resummons Revisions drawing of Acts of Parliament or Statutes dy the Judges or the Kings learned Councel in the Laws and other Requisites therein necessarily used by the sole and individual authority of our Kings and Princes p. 411. § 26. What is meant by the word Representing or if all or how many of the people of England and Wales are or have been in the Elections of a part of the Commons to come to Parliament Represented p 548. § 27. That no Impeachment by all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament or of the House of Peers in Parliament hath or ever had any authority to invalidate hinder or take away the power force or effect of any the pardons of our Kings or Princes by their Letters Patents or otherwise for High Treason or Felony Breach of the Peace or any other crime or supposed Delinquency whatsoever p. 573. § 28. Of the protection and priviledge granted unto the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament by our Soveraign Kings and â—rinces during their Attendance and Employments in their great Councils of Parliament according to the Tenor and purport of their Commissions p. 607. § 29. Neither they claim or ever were invested by any Charter or Grant of any of our Kings or Princes or otherwise of any such Priviledge or Liberty nor was or is in England any Law or Usage or Custom that a Parliament sitting cannot be Prorogued or Dissolved as long as any Petition therein exhibited remaineth unanswered or not determined p. 633. § 30. That in those Affairs peculiar only to so great and venerable an Assembly which should not be trivial or proper to lower and lesser Iurisdictions assigned for the determining of lesser matters for the publick ease and benefit our Kings and Princes have a greater burden and care upon them as Gods Vicegerents besides that of Parliaments to manage and take care of the Kingdom for the benefit and good of themselves and their people p. 637. § 31. That our Great Councils or Parliaments except anciently at the three great Festivals viz. Christmas Easter and Pentecost being ex more summoned and called upon extraordinary emergent occasions could not either at those grand and chargeable Festivals or upon necessities of State or Publick Weal and preservation ex natura rei continue long but necessarily required Prorogations Adjournments Dissolutions or endings p. 641. § 32. That Parliaments or Great Councels de quibusdam arduis concerning the defence of the Kingdom and Church of Enggland neither were or can be fixed to be once in every year or oftner they being always understood and believed to be by the Laws and Ancient and reasonable Customs of England ad libitum Regis who by our Laws Right Reason and all our Records and Annals is and should be the only Watchman of our Israel and the only Iudge of the necessity times and occasion of Summoning Parliaments p. 650. § 33. That all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament are not properly or by their original constitution intended or otherwise entituled or properly truly justly lawfully seized or to be stiled or termed Estates neither are to be so understood or believed to be and being to be no otherwise than subject to a Temporary Election and by the Authority of their Kings Writs paid their Wages and Charges by those that sent and elected them can have no Iust or Legal Right thereunto p. 656 § 34. A Series or accompt of the many Seditions Rebellions and Discords that have successively happened since the beginning of the Raign of King Henry 2. to our succeeding Kings and Princes until this present Age wherein we now live by mistaken and never to be warranted principles p. 717. A Vindication of the Antient and Present Establish'd Government of the Kingdom of ENGLAND under our Kings and Monarchs appointed by GOD from the Opinion and Claim of those that without any Warrant or ground of Law or Right Reason the Laws of God and Man Nature and Nations and the Records thereof would have it to be Originally deriv'd from the People Co-ordinate with the Houses of Peers and Commons in Parliament or by their Election SECT I. That our KINGS of ENGLAND in their voluntary Summoning to their Great Councels and PARLIAMENTS some of the more Wise Noble and better part of their Subjects to give their Advice and Consent in Matters touching the Publick Good and Extraordinary Concernment did not thereby Create Or by any Assent Express or Tacite give unto Them an Authority Co-ordination Equality or Share in the Legislative
proceres optimates Londoniis convenerunt ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni Of King Edgar who about the year 959. favente Dei gratia not of the People stiling himself totius Angliae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imperator frequenti lenatu proposuit leges populo servandas Of K. Ethelred about the year 980. made sapientum consilio Or in the Senatur consultum Agreement or League made between him and the monticuli Walliae or men of the mountainous parts of Wales Angliae sapientibus Walliae consiliariis Of or by the Laws of King Canutus constituted about the year 1018. ex sapientum consilio Of King Edward the Confessor who reigning about the year 1042. and stiling himself Monarcha Vicarius summi Regis collected out of the Mulmucian Mercian Saxon and Danish Laws and other reasonable Customs used until his time ordained Laws concilio Baronum Angliae Leges 68 annis sopitas excitavit excitatas reparvit reparatas decoravit deboratas confirmavit confirmatae verò vocantur Leges Regis Edwardi non quod ipse primo ad invenisse eas sed cum praetermissae fuissent oblivioni penitus deditae à diebus avi sui Edgari qui 17 annis regnavit ipse Edwardus quia justa erant honesta à profunda abysso extraxit eas revocavit ut suas observandas contradidit And were afterwards by William the Conquerour upon the tears and intercession of the English consilio habito praecatu Baronum per universos Angliae consulatus nobiles sapientes suâ lege eruditos upon the Oaths of twelve men in every County granted and confirmed unto them Of the Laws which he made Universo populo Angliae post subactam terram a time when new Laws are usually made or given and giving much of that Conquered Land Commilitonibus suis being for a great part the same Laws which King Edward the Confessor had before caused to be observed Amongst which Laws said to have been the Laws of William the Conquerour there remains one in these words viz. Statuimus sirmiter praecipimus ut omnes liberi homines totius Regni nostri sint fratres conjurati ad Monarchiam nostram ad Regnum nostrum pro viribus suis facultatibus contra inimicos pro posse suo defendendum virilitèr servandum pacem dignitatem Coronae nostrae integrè observandam ad judicium rectum justitiam constantèr omnibus modis pro posse suo sine dolo sine dilatione faciendam Or in or by his Laws and Charters made and granted tam Francigenis quam Anglis communi Consilio Archiepiscoporum Abbatum omnium principum Regni sui for and concerning the separation and dividing the Ecclesiastical Laws and Jurisdictions from the Temporal and Common Or in or by the codex Legum compiled by King Henry I. ex legibus Salicis Ripuariis Danicis aliarum gentium antiquis Or in or by his Charter granted unto the Baronage and People of England so much approved as when Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury had produc'd it unto some of them that were quarrelling with King John for infringing some parts of their Liberties they did swear That they would live and die in the defence and maintenance thereof Or in a Councel holden Anno Domini 1095. in the 8th year of the Reign of King William Rufus at Pedred coram Rege Archiepiscopo Dorobernensi atque Primatibus totius Regni judicantibus ubi terminata fuit controversia inter Thomam Archiepiscopum Eboracensem Ulstanum Episcopum Wigornensem Or the Charter of King Stephen who granted omnibus Baronibus hominibus suis de Anglia omnes libertates bonas leges quas Henricus Rex Angliae avunculus suus eis dedit concessit omnes bonas Leges bonas consuetudines eis concessit quas habuerunt tempore Regis Edwardi Or in the agreement made afterwards between him and Maud the Empress and her Son touching the succession of the Crown of England Or in any of those which King Henry II. granted restored and confirmed Deo sanctae Ecclesiae omnibus Comitibus Baronibus omnibus hominibus suis omnes consuetudines quas Rex Henricus avus suus eis dedit concessit adjecta sanctione ut libere quiete plenario tenerentur Or in the Letter or Epistle which he wrote unto Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury which probably if it were extant would not contradict the Rules and Laws of his Government Or in the great Councel of Clarendon holden by the same King where a recognition of many of the ancient Laws and Customs of the Nation concurrentibus Episcopis Proceribus congregato clero populo tunc praecepit Rex universis Comitibus Baronibus Regni Or when he held a great Councel at Northampton coram Epilcopis Comitibus Baronibus terrae Assisaw fecit eam teneri praecepit scilicet quod Regnum suum divisit in sex partes perquarum singulas tres Justicias constituit Or that of King Richard I. holden at London congregatis Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus Regni sui Or by King John's permitting the Speech or Oration which Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury made unto him at his Coronation after the Death of King Richard I. at London in praesentia Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum Baronum aliorum omnium qui ejus Coronationi interesse debuerant ubi stans in medio omnium dixit audite universi noverit discretio vestra quod nullus praeviâ ratione alii succedere habet Regnum nisi ab universitate regni unanimitur invocata spiritus electus secundum morum suorum eminentiam prae-electus ad exemplum similitudinem Saul primi Regis in uncti quem praeposuit Dominus Populo suo non Regis filium nec de Regali stirpe procreatum similiter post eum David Jessae filium hunc quia strenuum aptum dignitati Regiae illum quae sanctum humilem ut sic qui evectus in Regno supereminet strenuitate omnibus praesit in potestate regimine verum si quis ex stirpe Regis defuncti aliis praepolleret pronius promptius in electionem ejus est consentiendum haec idcirco diximus pro inclyto Conite qui praesens est fratre illustrissimi Regis nostri Richardi jam defuncti qui haerede caruit ab eo egrediente qui providus strenuus manifeste Nobilis quem nos invocatâ spiritus sancti gratiâ rationi tam meritorum quam sanguinis Regii ananimiter elegimus universi Whereupon saith Daniel agreeing therein with Matthew Paris the Archbishop being after by some of his Friends questioned for so doing confessed that he fore-saw whatsoever blood and mischief it should cost his Title by Succession in the life of his Nephew Arthur
the number of their Confederates à Civibus accepta securitate they sent their Lettess to all the Earls Barons and Knights which yet adhered to the King exhorting and threatning them as they loved Themselves their Lives and Estates they should forsake a perjured King and joyn with them to obtain their Liberties otherwise they would take them for publick Enemies turn their Arms against them destroy their Castles burn their Houses and spoil their Lands and Estates The greatest part whereof upon those threatnings did so think it to be their safer way to forsake Him and their Loyalty as they joyned with them The King finding himself fere derelictum ab omnibus and but seven Knights ex omni multitudine Regia abiding by him timuit valdè lest the Barons in castra sua impetum facientes illa sine difficultate sibi subjugarent especially when they should find nothing to hinder them sent William Marescal Earl of Pembroke and others to treat with them being then at London for a Peace with an offer to grant the Laws and Liberties demanded and thereupon statuerunt Regi diem ad colloquium in pratum inter Stains Windleshores 15o. die Junii where Rex Magnates being met and treating concerning the Liberties and a lasting Peace there being with the King besides Pandulphus and Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury his double-dealing Friends and some few others in all but Twenty-five tandem cum in varia sorte tractassent the King vires suas Baronum viribus impares intelligens sine difficultate Leges Libertates coneessit Charta sua confirmavit data per manum suam in prato quod vocatur Running-Mead inter Stains Windleshores decimo quinto die Junii anno Regni sui decimo septimo Which as Matthew Paris a Monk of St. Albans living not only at the same time but being Historiographer unto King Henry III. his Son privy to many of his affairs and wrote in the 57th year of his Reign hath faithfully related those passages and proceedings was as to the preamble thereof the exact and full tenor thereof being with it truly mentioned in his Book in these words Intuitu Dei pro salute animae meae Antecessorum omnium Haeredum suorum ad honorem Dei exaltationem sanctae Ecclesiae emendationem Regni sui per concilium Stephani Archiepiscopi Cantuarensis who prepared them and had incited the Pope and Barons against him aliorum Episcoporum ibi nominat Pandulphi Domini Papae Subdiaconi familiaris Willielmi Marescali Comitis Pembrochiae Willielmi Comitis Sarisberiensis Willielmi Comitis Warrenniae c. aliorum fidelium mera spontanea voluntate pro Me Haeredibus meis Deo liberis hominibus Angliae habendas tenendas eis Haeredibus suis de Me Haeredibus meis which our Laws no other tenure being specified will interpret to be in capite And more at length as Matthew Paris hath recorded it with a salvis Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus Templariis Hospitalariis Comitibus Baronibus Militibus omnibus aliis tà m Ecclesiasticis personis quà m Secularibus Libertatibus Liberis consuetudinibus quas prius habuerant which gave them a better security in their former Liberties than they could claim by the forced and indirect gaining of the latter and concluding in the perclose with his Testibus c. hath these words subjoyned Libertates vero de Foresta liberae consuetudines quas cum libertatibus praescriptis in una schedula pro sua capacitate continere nequiverimus in Charta subscripta continentur saith Matthew Paris In which not in the modern Language and stile of our Acts of Parliament but as Charters in the dictates of Regal Authority as that of William the Conquerour to the Citizens of London and that of dividing the Temporal and Spiritual Jurisdictions and those of King Henry I. King Stephen and Henry II. and all the Charters of Liberties and Priviledges granted by our Kings before and since to Cities Boroughs Corporations and Lords of Manors as the Charter of King Edward I. to the Citizens of London in the 6th year of his Reign and of King Edward III. in the 14th year of his Reign to all the people of England to be governed by the English Laws in case he should obtain his Right to the Kingdom of France and all our preceding Laws have used to be He granted away many of the ancient Rights of the Crown made and ordained new Laws as that amongst others of Communia placita nan sequantur Curiam nostram sed teneantur in certo loco and that of recovering the King's Debts c. Enlarged some abrogated others and gave unto the people greater Liberties and Immunities then the Laws of King Edward the Confessor and the Charter of King Henry I. put altogether had allowed them the Original whereof or the Magna Charta of King Henry III. remaining in the Library of the Archbishops of Canterbury at Lambeth at the time of the Imprisonment of that martyred great Anti-Papist William Laud Archbishop of that See and the ransacking of it preceding his Murder in the Reign of that Blessed Martyr King CHARLES I. by Hugh Peters Mr. Pryn and some others thereunto appointed by their Rebellious Masters the then miscalled Parliament was never after found and by it self in a distinct paragraph did follow as it were a Bond or Security given by King John in these words Cùm autem pro Deo ademendationem Regni nostri ad melius sapiendam discordiam inter nos Barones haec omnia concessimus volentes in integra firma stabilitate gauderi facimus concedimus securieatem subscriptam viz. That the Barons should elect Twenty-five Barons of the Realm who should be Conservators thereof pro totis viribur suis observare tenere facere observari pacem libertates quas eis concessimus and correct the King's defaults in Government Of which number Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford was one with a power that if the King or his Chief-Justiciar should trangress in any Articles of the Laws it should be lawful for any Four of them after Forty days notice given to Him or his Chief-Justiciar and no amendment to complain to the rest and joyning with Them and the People to distrain and compel him with a salvâ Personâ Regis only Reginae liberorum suorum Et isti 25o. Barones juraverunt in animabus suis Rege hoc disponente quod omni instantia his obsequerentur Regem cogerent si fortè rescipisci vellet tenere sequentes and the Earls of Gloucester Arundel and Warren with Thirty-four other Barons and great men juraverunt to obey the commands of the Twenty-five Barons and all that would might swear to assist them and the people cùm communia totius terrae might gravare eum cum eis and to that end those Conservators should have
being crowded into King John's Charter were never either granted or confirmed by King Henry III. Edward I. or any of our succeeding Kings nor as Sir Henry Spelman repeating the same omissions saith is therein that of paying the Debts of the Deceased probably of those that died leaving their Heirs in Ward to the Jews and others although Matthew Paris so much mistakes as to affirm that those Charters of King John and his Son Henry III. were in nullo dissimiles Which well-interpreted could signifie no more than that King John in his great necessities and troubles pressing upon his Tenants in capite the great Lords and others by taxing them proportionably according to their Knights Fees they endeavoured by those Charters all that they could to restrain him from any such Assesments which should go further then a reasonable aid unless in the cases there excepted and aim'd at no more then that a Common-Councel which was not then called a Parliament should be summon'd not annually of all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Earls and greater Barons and all the Tenants in capite being those that were most concerned therein nor as our Parliaments now but only as to their aids and services as Tenants in capite were upon forty days notice to appear at the same time and place given in general by the King's Sheriffs and Bailiffs sic factâ submonitione negotium procedat ad diem assignatam secundum consilium eorum qui prae sentes fuerint quamvis non omnes submoniti venerint and could not be intended of our now House of Commons in Parliament many years after first of all and never before introduced or constituted that praefiction of Forty days probably first creating that opinion which can never arrive unto any more then that every summons of such a Councel or Meeting was to be upon so many days notice or warning which Mr. Pryn upon an exact observation of succeeding Parliaments hath found to be otherwise much of the boisterousness haughty and long after unquiet minds of some of those unruly Barons being to be attributed to the over-strained promises and obligations of William the Conquerour before he was so to his Normans and other Nations that adventured with him upon an agreement and Ordinance made in Normandy before his putting to Sea which the King of France had in the mean time upon charges and great allowances made unto him undertaken to guard and long after by the command of King Edward III. then warring in France in the 20th year of his Reign was by Sir Barth Burghersh and others sent from thence in the presence of the Keeper or Guardian of England and the whole Estate declared in Parliament as a matter of new discovery and designs of the French happened in the traverse and success of those wars which probably might make the Posterity of some of them although the Ancestors of most of them had been abundantly recompenced by large shares of the Conquest Gifts and Honours granted by the Conquerour to a more than competent satiety extended to the then lower Ranks of his Servants Souldiers or Followers as that to de Ferrariis the Head afterwards and chief of a greater Estate and Family in England than they had in Normandy and might be the occasion of that over-lofty answer of John de Warrennis Earl of Surrey in his answer to some of the Justices in Eyre in the Reign of King Edward I. when demanded by what warrant he did hold some of his Lands and Liberties he drawing out a rusty Sword which he did either wear or had brought with him for that purpose said By that which he helped William the Conquerour to subdue England so greatly to mistake themselves as to think which the Lineage of the famous Strongbow Earl of Pembroke and some eminent Families of Wales in the after-Conquest of Ireland never adventured to do that the Ancestors of them and others that left their lesser Estates in Nòrmandy to gain a greater in England to be added thereunto had not come as Subjects to their Duke and Leige-Lord but Fellow-sharers and Partners with him which they durst not ever after claim in his life-time or the life of any of his Successors before in the greatest advantages they had of them or the many Storms and Tempests of State which befel them but might be well content as the words of the Ordinance it self do express That they and their Progenies should acknowledge a Sovereignty unto the Conquerour their Duke and King and yield an Obedience unto him and his far-fam'd Posterity as their first and continued Benefactors And those their Liberties and Priviledges freely granted by those Charters and not otherwise to be claimed were so welcome and greatly to be esteemed by the then Subjects of England as they returned him their gratitude and thankfulness for them in a contribution of the fifteenth part of all their Moveables with an Attestation and Testimony of the Wiser more Noble and Powerful part of the Kingdom viz. the Archbishop of Canterbury Eleven other Bishops Nineteen Abbots Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justice Ten Earls John Constable of Chester and Twenty-one Barons men of Might and great Estates amongst which there were of the contending and opposite Party Robert Fitz Walter who had been General of the Army raised and fighting against his Father the Earls of Warren Hereford Derby Warwick Chester and Albemarl the Barons of Vipont and Lisle William de Brewere and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford who afterwards fought against that King and helped to take him Prisoner That those Charters were given and granted unto them and other his Subjects the Free-men of his Kingdom of his own free will and accord And as to that of being not condemned without Answer or Tryal which in the infancy of the World was by the Creator of all Mankind recommended to its imitation as the most excellent Rule and Pattern of Justice in the Tryal and Sentence of Adam and Eve in Paradise are not to be found enacted or granted in King Edward the Confessor's Laws or the Charters or Laws of King Henry I. the people of England having no or little reason much to value or relie upon the aforesaid Charters of King John gained indirectly by force about two years after his as aforesaid constrained Resignation of his Kingdom of England and Dominion of Ireland to hold of the Pope and Church of Rome by an yearly Tribute being not much above Thirty years before and not then gone out of memory SECT V. Of the continued unhappy Iealousies Troubles and Discords betwixt the discontented and ambitious Barons and King Henry III. after the granting of his Magna Charta and Charta de Forestâ ALmost two years after which the King in a Parliament at Oxford declaring himself to be of full age and free to dispose of the affairs of the Kingdom cancelled and annulled the Charter of the Forests as granted in his
8. by Act of Parliament to dispose of 2 parts of his lands reserving a 3 part to the Heir and Administrations de bonis Intestati were anciently as Mr Selden saith granted by our Kings or Lords of Manors Derivatively from them 13. E. 1. Quia Emptores terr the statute 1. E. 1. compelling men of 20 l. per Annum to take the honour of the Knighthood 17. E. 2. de homagio faciendo cum multis aliis And those together with the before-mentioned Feudall Laws have been so fundamentall to our Laws and Customs of England and which hath been called our Common Law as it hath been rightly said to be velut ossa Carnibus and so Incorporate in the body thereof as it runneth like the life-blood through the veins arteries and every part thereof circulating to the heart the primo vivens ultimo moriens of our heretofore for many ages past in our very ancient body-politick and Monarchick attested and every where plainly and visibly to be met with seen and understood not only in and by our Glanvill Bracton Britton and Fleta together with our Annalls Historians and Records the latter of which as unto matter of fact do never lye or speak false but is and hath been written said and practised by in and amongst the most of Europaean Nations of Germany France and Spain if we reade and consider well the books of their learned Lawyers when too many of our now effassinated nation will not take the pains to look into former ages or if at all beyond our Inexpiated late Rebellious Age beginning at the year 1641. but scorn at Solomons large Just and Well-deserved Commendations of Wisdom and esteem the Prophet Jeremy inspired by God to be no other in his Councel or Advice State Supervias antiquas inquire veritatem then a fopp or a grave thinking Coxcomb and to be told to his face as the Prophet Jeremy was say what thou wilt we will not hear thee And it may be to our sorrow be made an Addition to our heretofore seven wonders of England that our Littleton and Sir Edward Coke his adoring Commentator should draw the water and have so little or no acquaintance with the Fountain from whence it Came and all our Year-books and Law-Reports should allow of so many of our Feudall Laws and not cite or quote or tell us from whence their Originall came in Insomuch as Littleton as Sir Edward Coke relateth speaketh of the Kings Prerogative but in 2 places in all his book viz. § 125. 128. and in both places saith it is by the Law of England And Sr Edward Coke that gave in some of his books that good and wholesome advice petere fontes non Sectari Rivules should not as he fondly did have built Altars Sacrificed his otherwise to be well esteemed abilities to the reasonless and notoriously false and vain figments of his so much adored modus tenendi Parliamentum and the mirrour of Justice and it can be no less then a marvail that so learned a Councell at Law and State as that great and Excellent Queen Elizabeth was so blest with should permit her to afflict and torment her mind in the taking away the life of her Cousin Mary Queen of Scotland for Treason who had fled unto her for protection against the persecution of her Rebellious Subjects who had driven her out of her own Kingdom and was by some Ill-affected English made use of in some of their plots and Conspiracies which were then made or Contrived by the advantage of her being here against their Sovereign and her Royall Government upon a designed Marriage betwixt her and the Duke of Norfolk and to endure the menaces and threatnings of some forreign Kings and Princes her Allies to avenge her death as a Common Concernment which his now Majestie and his blessed Father the Royall Martyr for his people could not in all their many distresses find any amongst their great Allies and kindred that would do any thing more then to make their own unjust advantages by an Early Complying with their Adversaries when the Justice of that her unwilling action in the Silence of our best and most learned Annalists and Historians who brobably might in that and other matters of our Laws think our Feudall Laws to be as unnecessary to be proclaimed in England as that there is a God when every one should believe it might have easily proved demonstrated the sentence condemnation of that unfortunate Queen being a Feudatory of our Queen Elizabeth and holding her Kingdom of Scotland of her by ancient Tenure in Capite homage and fealty of and under her Crown of England to have been agreeable unto those Laws although very unhappy unto the necessity of the one in the causing and the other in her Suffering under it and that so many of the Kings Council in the Law that should be more than the Carved Lyons about Solomons Throne if they would but read the learned Bâ—oks that have been written by some Learned Gentlemen and Divines in the defence of the Kings Just Rights from the Bars of our Courts of Justice to the Bench and from the Bench to the Bar should take so little notice of those our fundamentall Laws as only to entitle the Kings ancient Monarchick Rights to no better a Foundation and Originall then that which the miserable seduced and infatuated Common people shall be pleased to call Prerogative as if it were some new word or term of Usurpation or Tyranny to be maligned bawled and bayted at by the silly rabble or as if the name of Prerogative made every thing unjust that the King or his Ministers have either done or shall do and some of the Causes for reason amongst many of the effascinations which like the Egyptian darkness hath almost Covered all our Land of Egypt is a word too good for it may be the mischeivous quarrell betwixt our Common Lawyers and Civill or Caesarean Lawyers not reading or understanding so much as they should do the venerable mother of that which they would call the Common Laws when at the same time they can be content to make use of their Excellent Rules and Maximes in many of their Pleas Arguments Books and Reports as so many faithfull Guides and Directions And for further satisfaction unto and as far as a demonstration from what original the most of our fundamental and Principal Laws tanquam a fonte purissimo the purest fountain of Right Reason have proceeded been fixt and continued amongst us the particulars of the Feudal Laws following not before mentioned will if rightly considered abundantly Illustrate and Declare when the Feudists or Fendal Lawyers may assure us that the Feudal Laws being as a Jus gentium of all the Northern Nation of Europe from or out of which England Scotland and Ireland with their adjacent Isles and Territories are not or ever yet were to be excluded In the company whereof attended also as the
Fidus Achates the Trinoda necessitas or expedtitiones castrorum pontium reparationes From which the Bishops and Clergy by themselves or others were not to be excused raysing of Forces at the Countries Charges which the preservation of their Lands that were given them for that service besides the obligations of their Oaths and gratitude strictly oblige them unto making provisions for the War for the Victuals and the Wages of Military Men as well at Home as in Forreign Expeditions for the defence of the Kingdom and State together with the Arrogationes Auctoritatem dare l. 2. F. de adopt Sect. c. 1. or give licence to adopt as our King Stephen did King Henry the II. Which together with our Licences Pardon of Alienation and Fines paid for the neglect thereof Courts-Leet and Baron Ancient demesne Free and Copyholders and Fines certain or uncertain at the Will of the Lord Prescription of Ancient Custome and Usage not mala in se villani Bordarii manucaption Satis datio or Baile Fribergh Tithings Sheriffs Turnes or County-Courts Hundred-Courts and our Communia Concilia or Parliaments upon Urgent and Special occasions concerning the defence of the Kingdom and Church of England and the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to be had therein Wardships Marriage Advowsons Patronage of Churches License of Widdows of Tenants in Capite to Marry Seizures Ouster les maines Liveries or Investitures Primer seizen forfeiture of portion upon marriage tendered and refused respite of homage Priority in Suing for Debts Ann. Diem Vastum Power to amend wave or charge his Demurrer to Imploy Coroners Escheators and Feodaries Issues aut diem clausit extremum stay other Mens Actions with a Rege Inconsulto Kings Silver or Money to be paid pro Licentia Concordandi Writs of per que Servitia cessavit per Biennium de Coronatore eligendo de advocatione and the Assessments of Escuage quare impedit de viridario eligendo in Parliament Writs of Couge de Eslire Evesque Writs of Recordare or Accedas ad Cariam Writs of Prohibition distringas de Excommunicato Capiendo our Juries or Tryals in matters of Controversies per pares our Writs de Odio Atia ne injuste vexes Writs of Novell Disseisiu or of Entry and Redisseisin or Triall by Battell or Judicium Dei fire deal or Ordial Writts de Nativo habendo Certiorari de Proprietate probanda cum multis aliis mentioned in that authentique book of our Laws called the Register of Writs and even almost the whole frame and Context of our Laws do besides the Laws and Statutes made by our Kings and Princes and the reasonable Customes and Usages of the People indulged or allowed by them plainly bear and declare the Idea Effigies and lively Portraict of the Feudall Laws Planted and established as they ought to be in this our heretofore more happy Islands distinguishing Estates in Lands granted inter feudum nobile plebeium From the former of which our Nobility and Bishops have derived their Privileges of Freedom from Common Process of Arrest and even the widdows of the Nobility together with the precedency of the Sons and Daughters of them And our Kings have enjoyed the privilege of protecting the persons of their servants from personall arrests which they may certainly as Justly and lawfully do as the members of the house of Commons and their Servants And that of the House of Peers in Parliament do and have none in the Times of Parliament and it should not be unobserved or unknown by or unto our later Lawyers of England that the ancient and usuall forms of our Declarations and Pleadings at Law have been and are that the Plaintiffs or Defendents were or are Seized in dominico suo ut de feodo Simplici aut Talliato and that our Laws have or had ab antiquissimis Seculis or ages a great mixture of the Feudal Laws which the people esteemed to be a part of their happiness untill this our last mad age of Rebellion Faction and Sedition had taught our English Copy-holders to esteem their Tenures to be a Norman Slavery wherein the Charity and good-will of their Landlords have continued to their generations yet notwithstanding have by length of time converted their kindnesses into a villanous Custome of Ingratitude And as the Civill Law had before done inter patrones et Clientes the patritii or Nobility esteemed it to be a Disparagement to intermarry with the vulgar who could not for a long time and without much Strugling be admitted into the Magistracy as Livy and other good Roman Historians have assured us but were as a Seperate part of the people glad to be content with their Tribuni plebis to Intercede with the Senate to make good and wholsome Laws or abate the rigour or Severity of any of them so far were they from ambition or any designs of Intermedling above their Incapacitated Spheres or Incroaching upon the Kinâ—â—y Government as if Simon Montford and his Fellow-Rebells had by force put upon King Henry the 3d. in the 49th year of his Reign taught them the way unto it not as he did by force but by degrees and sly Insinnuations working upon the Indulgence or necessities of their princes but might have tarryed long enough and beyond the longest period of time before our Feudal Laws would have given them so much as a leave or licence to attempt it However if that will not do those Novillists or hatchers of new unwarrantable doctrines will to work again limbeck their Fancies to vent the only Vapours of such imaginations or what can be Extracted as some Elixir Proprietatis Elixir Vitae or Salutis to be purchased at their own others costly enough rates and prices so as they may be instrumentall and subservient to their Wicked and Seditious Designs of Subverting the Monarchy and Deluding the People And their men of more Faction then Wifdom Law Right Reason or Evidence SECT XVI That the General Councels or Courts mentioned before the Rebellious meeting of some of the English Baronage the constraint put upon King John at Running Mede or before the 49. of H. 3. were not the Magna Consilia or Generale consilium Colloquium or Communia Consilia now called Parliaments wherein some of the Commons as Tenants in capito were admitted but only truly and properly Curiae Militum a Court Summoning those that hold of the King in Capite to acknowledge record and perform their services do their homage and pay their reliefs c. and the writ of Summons mentioned in the close Rolis of the 15th year of the Reign of K. John was not then for the summoning of a great Councell or Parliament but for other purposes viz. Military Aids and Offices WHich withall their Strains Conjectures or Alchimy of abused Wit will never be able to make the Writ which Mr Selden found in the close Role of the 15th year of the Reign of King John to be
lands and Estates where our Laws do give unto them the benefit accrewing And the honourable Peers and Judges in that Court subordinate unto the King may as to matters therein determinable be the better content therewith for that not being Sworn nor punishable as Judges in other Courts are and in what they do advise therein they neither are or can be punishable in a judicio colloquiale wherein as Paulus Screrbic hath said in his Statua Poloniae Judex in colloquiis aut Regis praesentia judicans argui de male judicato non potest And the word KUPIA as Sir Henry Spelman saith with the Greeks and Romans signifying potestas dominium and the Lord or owner of it qui potestate fretus est judiciumque exercet and the place habitaculum domini the residence or Court of the Lord or Superior ubi sana rei narratio placitum forenses vocant dicebatur autem Curia primo de Regia palatio principis inde de familia judiciis in ea habitis ritu veterrimo or the place where Kings did administer Justice surely Kings were not therein to be co-ordinate or any less then Superior And the very Learned Sir John Spelman the Son of that Excellent Learned Father writing the Life of King Alured or Alfred hath together with the unquestionable historical part and truth of the relation given us the observation that Et Comitum potestatem ad huc minuebat nam neque iis integra restabat negotiorum bellicorum tractatio Horum enim magna pars Heretochiis sive Ducibus inferioribus a plebe in Comitiis suis Electis Committebatur Hi enim recensionibus meditationibis armorumque lustrationibus praefuerunt milites in Centuriis suis coeuntes ad locum toti exercitui destinatum deducebant in bellis demum Ducum inferiorum officiis fungebantur Prout e legibus boni Edwardi aliisque locis facile colligitur Haec institutio cum a populo non Comitibus Ductores hi eligebantur non parum e Comitum potentia abstulit Comitibus ergo quorum potentia Regibus semper maxime formidabilis relinquebatur ordinaria potestas in Comitiis Comitativis praefidendi in bellis sui Comitatus militibus imperandi in Curia sive Comitatu Regis conciliis publicis suo rumque negotiis attendendi mandata Regia subditis suis communicandi quod mira celcritate post novam hanc imperii institutionem factum est Et quidem si Aelfredi nostri vestigiis posteriores Regis institissent neque tot Seditiones ortae neque tantum Sanguinis in bellis Civilibus exhaustum neque Regis ipsi toties temporibus subsequentibus periclitati fuissent Sed tam bene constituta partim bella Civilia quae statim post ejus obitum recrudescentia pene omnibus legibus executionem impediebant videantur Edvardi senioris querelae lege quarta Danique post renovatas invasiones sub canuto victores maxime vero Normanni labefactarunt Gulielmus enim sive ut Magnates in invasione regni hujus maxima momenta pro meritis pactis etiam remuneraret sive ut Anglos dominio suo efficacius subderet nobilibus suis Normannis maximam potentiam que postea tot malorum origo indulsit Henricus vero primus quantum potuit leges Aelfredi nostri instituta revocavit sed tempora consuetudinesque perversae omnia quae expedire poterant inferri non patiebantur And the authority of our Kings in Parliament were not only in the Ages before but in King Alfreds or Alureds time Superior and Super-eminent in his great Councells over his Subjects as Asser Menevensis living in his Court and Writing his Life after his Death saith that Saepissimo in concionibus Comitum praepositorum ubi pertinacissime inter se dissentiebant ita ut pene nullus eorum quicquid a Comitibus praepositis judicatum fuisset verum esse concederet qui pertinaci dissensione obstinatissimo compulsi Regis subire judicium singuli subarrabant and when Appeals and Writs of Error came before him from his Earls or Ealdermen saith Mr. Selden out of Asser Menevensis when he found Error and Injustice committed by them would Sharply reprove them For in our Monarchicall Government with the ancient long continued and well-experimented existence and constitution of the House of Peers and Peerage in the Kingdom of England the Common People were so subordinate to the Baronage and Peers as the Commons were allways understood by our Kings and our Laws and the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and by the Common People themselves to be comprehended in and under the Baronage who did for them and as they were included in them very often in our great Councells and Parliaments grant or deny aids or Subsidies and in their behalf without the Commons themselves speaking or advising alledge their poverty and disability and the Popes and Forreign Neighbour Princes in their letters and rescripts understanding it no otherwise of which Mathew Paris and Thomas of Walsingham authors of great credit living in the Reign of King Henry the 3d. and King Edward the 1st his Son have afforded us plentiful instances And all things rightly observed or Considered could not give any one the least of reason or colour of it for if our Comites Burones Bracton not mentioning the Bishops who then had great power if not too much over our Kings and Princes there then being no Dukes Marquisses and Viscounts whom our Kings then used not to create though there were many Dukes or said to be in the time of the Saxons before the Norman Conquest who by our fundamentall Laws enjoyed all their authority Subordinate unto their Parliaments and Great Councells might forfeit their Lives Estates and Lands holden of them in Capite which was the only Measure of punishment in England before the Act of Parliament in the 25th Year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. was made which did at the request of the Lords and Commons the Bishops not mentioned declare what should afterwards be attempted and punished as High Treason against him and his Heirs or for Counterfeiting his Great Seal which did or should bear record of the Laws and Actions and Kingly Government of our Kings Princes there having not been in that Act of Parliament or any Act of Parliament or Laws of our Brittish Saxon Danish or Norman before or since tacitly or expressly for the abolishing or taking away our Feudall Laws and Customs or that ever to be wailed unhappy Act of Parliament made by his now Majesty King Charles the 2. for the taking away of the Court of Wards and Liveries by reason of his tenures in Capite and of all homage and fealty drawn and prepared by a Learned Lawyer and a Member of that House of Commons in Parliament Dreaming of a Common-Wealth untill their man of Sin Oliver Cromwell was pleased to awake them who was in his profession well known to have been eminently skilled in
the Common Laws of England some part of the Civil and Canon Laws and a great part of the Records of the Kingdom and much honoured for his love and care of Justice But being a Judge in those Times and seduced by another of that Rank to take such a place upon him upon the pretence of keeping up and supporting the Law and was upon his Majesties Restauration advanced into an higher degree seemed notwithstanding not to have been so much or so well read as he might have been in the Feudall Laws excellent constitution and frame of the Monarchick Government of this Realm when in that House of Commons either in a cool neutrality or over perswaded by by his fears of or desire of living in safety or to preserve the Common Law when against his will and well known Integrity he was in that house of Commons in Parliament heard by another Member that Sat next unto him to say or declare his opinion that the King was trusted by the People wherein he might have better considered that two parts of our Laws most precious and necessary both to and for the King and his People which were the Summoning and calling of Parliaments or Great Councells and the Tryals of his Subjects Guilts or Innocencies per Pares with Reliefs Herriots due to our Kings and Princes and unto Ten thousand Lords of Manors or thereabouts Subordinate unto their Kings in England and Wales with Fines and Amercements Felons and Out-Laws Goods Annum diem vastum cum multis aliis c. were solely and principally derived from the Feudall Laws Which with some of the Usages and Customs of the Nation and our Statutes and Acts of Parliament from Time to Time after made and added thereunto were the Laws which many of our Kings and Princes took an Oath at their Coronations to Protect and Defend as also the leges Consuetudines quas vulgus elegerit who if our Feudal Laws had not been so very ancient as they have been would not want such as would heartily desire and make choice of them to have Lands given to hold of their King in Capite and enjoy to them and their Heirs under his more especiall protection and was in the Reign of our famous Arthur King of Brittain esteemed so great an happiness as Consensu Historicorum eruditorum of that Age and Time Leland hath informed us Utherus Pendraco fuit pater Arthuri cujus Gorlas Corinnae regulus beneficiarius erat a Notion or Title anciently used of such as held their lands in Capite or by Knight Service And therefore howsoever the learned Bracton's Pen might seem to have erred in his expression or words of Fraenare Regis it might as it ought consonantly to the Proper and Genuine Sense Intention and Meaning of all his Arguments through the Context and Tenor of his whole Books being no little one be accepted and taken to be no otherwise then a restraining him as Kings and great and good men have usually been by good advice and Councell of friends or Servants as Naaman the Syrian's Servants did in their Lords returning back in an anger from the Prophet Elisha who came near unto him and perswaded him to wash in Jordan in order to his recovery from his Leprosy when otherwise that harsh word or phrase of fraenare Reges could not without great danger damage or forfeiture be used or any forcible perswasion put upon a free Prince by Authorities coutrary to their Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy Justly and Truly descending from the Feudall Laws which commandeth all men holding of them in Capite to do otherwise And although some of our Ancient Historians have informed us that in a Parliament holden at Merton in the 20th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 〈◊〉 upon the Bishops endeavouring to have a Law made that according to the Canon Law the Children born before Marriage illicitis amplexibus should by a subsequent Marriage of the Parents be esteemed legitimate the Temporall Lords restiterunt and laying their hands upon their Swords Jurarunt quod noluerunt leges Angliae mitare it was not any plain absolute deniall of the Kings Decisive and Legislative Power but only an Altercation Debate or Dispute betwixt the Spirituall and Temporall Lords in Parliament concerning that matter And neither the Bishops or the house of Commons or any of the Commons represented or not could not so much as attempt to force or bridle their King by Commotions or force of Arms which by the Feudall Laws and the most of our Laws and Customs derived from thence would have been legally adjudged a Rebellion and Fraenare Regis in that undecent expression si quod rei fecerit aut neglexerit quod Dominum contempsisse dicitur aut si Dominus per consequentiam laedatur persona cujus existimationem sartam tectam manere Domini interest for Concilio auxilio Domino adesse debet which was the Cause and ground of right Reason that in the Reign of our King Edward the 2. the Lord Beaumont or de Bello monte was in Parliament Fined for refusing to come to Parliament and give the King his advice or Councell And it is not many Years since that the Emperor of Germany Seised and Imprisoned Prince William of Furstenburgh a feudatory for appearing in Person at a Treaty betwixt the Emperor and the King of France against his Lord the Emperor And our Mesne Lords holding their Lands Jurisdictions Courts Baron and Courts Leet notwithstanding that Act of Parliament for dissolving the Court of Wards and Liveries and the tenures in Capite supporting it did from the 24th Day of February in the Year of our Lord 1645 when in the height of their Wars against their Sovereign they had but Voted the Dissolution of thrt Court and the Tenures in Capite for at that Time there appeared not to have been any Act of Parliament although an Act made in the Time of Oliver Cromwell might be an usher or used as a pattern in the drawing of that by a learned Judge of those Rebellions Times wherein the Reliefs Herriots were found necessary to be reserved unto his now Majesty his Heirs and Sucessors Which may sadly be believed to have been a Decapitation or cutting off the head of the Body-Politick or Government as a Prologue to the Tragicall and Direfull Murder in the cutting off the Head of their most Pious better Deserving King No King or Prince in the World Christian or Heathen black or white that had all their Subjects except their Nobility and the Bishops and such as hold their Lands by the Honorary Services of grand Serjeanty or by the tenures of Copyhold or by Copy of Court-Roll unto which our Littleton giveth no better a name or Title then tenure in Villainage or any service incident thereunto which being originally derived from the tenures in Capite were not many Years ago very nigh a fourth Part of the Kingdom that had so
who had a great desire to unite the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in their Laws and Religion as well as they were in their neighbourhood and to have them to be in Subjection under one and the same King and Sovereign were after long and learned Conferences and disputes constrained to forsake that impossible to be atchieved Enterprize and our great Incendiary Mr John Pym could in the Year 1641. harangue in that unfortunately seditious Parliament that our Laws which he might or should have known as to a great part of them to have been composed and derived unto us from our German and Northern Progenitors Feudall Laws intermingled with the Civill and Cannon Laws with some municipall Laws Consuetudines non Malos in se as Gavel kind and the Rescripts Edicta mandata principum Responsa adjudicata Judicum prudentum not dissonant or contradicting each other the Laws of God an rules of Right Reason were the Peoples Birth-Right and our persecuted untill he was Murthered blessed Martyr King Charles the First did in the 3. Year of his Reign when he signed that which they stiled the Peoples Petition of Right declare unto them that his maxime is that the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liherties and may when all is done if well and truly weighed in the Ballance of Right reason and understanding and what hath hapned and may come to pass hereafter easily discern that in England there never was such a Confusion and overturning of our Laws and Ancient Monarchick Government through all the Successions of our Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman Kings as hath been in England since the beginning of that famously infamous Rebellious Parliament and their Undermining of our Laws and Libeties and turn all into an Anarchy that they might gain a power to enrich themselves by the spoil of 3 Kingdoms and ruining of as many as would not be as Wicked Rebells as they had been And that when his Majesty had Released unto them the arrears of his profits by his Tenures and Court of Wards and Liveries a Million and a half Sterling and in his pourveyances Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds It was hugely praejudiciall to the King and beneficiall unto his Subjects too many of whom had Rebelled against his Royall Father persecuted and Murthered him Hunted and would have extirped his Royall Posterity And that it can be no otherwise accompted to be then a most Barbarously Ingratefull and unworthy Act of the Nation and People of England after many Knights fees and Lands freely given and granted by the Kings Royall Progenitors to their forefather and their Heirs to be holden by Knight-service and in Capite of which if the Sixty Thousand Knights fees and more reckoned by some Authors should be no greater a number then ten thousand and valued but at 20l. per Ann. as they may be conjectured to have been accompted in Anno. 1 Edwardi 2. they would amount unto 200000l per Ann. and if each of them have since increased but unto 300l per Ann which may be thought to be now the least improvement might amount in yearly value unto 3 Millions Sterling and if that should be multiplyed 60 times more as Ordericus Vitalis reckonet it the Yearly value thereof might swell unto one Hundred Eighty and 3 Millions Sterling besides great quantities of other Lands freely granted in the severall Reigns of his Majesties Royal progenitors unto others of them their heirs to be holden of them in Socage besides 200000l per An. or a very great Yeerly sums of Mony necessarily expended upon his Military Guards for the defence of himself his people against Sedition and Rebellion-mongers more then his Royal Father progenitors needed to have done if he had kept entire his said eminent and Legall Rights of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service to endeavour to extinguish the Right use of them and forget their great and very great obligations to their Prince and Common parent and Royall progenitors and take away from our Kings the means whereby they should protect and defend themselves and their Subjects from damage and Injuries forreign and domestique And those Tax improvers and Advantage Catchers can as if that were not sufficient make it as too many of their Actions and business to cozen and beg all they can from him and instead of never ceasing to give him thanks for breaking the barrs of an Hell of Arbitrary power and slavery wherein their Counterfeit Commonwealth's men by their perjuries and Hypocriticall Rebellion had brought them And their Cheating Man of Sin Oliver Cromwell had by his Instrument of his own making lockt and bolted them fast enough as he hoped with a Domine quid retribuam what shall we render for all his benefits make it the greatest of their care and Imployment not only to take and keep from him all they can even at the same time when they had obteyned of him an unparalleld Act of Indempnity and Oblivion to pardon and forget all their Treasons and offences committed against him and his blessed Father which in a small kind of Calculation may not unprobably be believed to amount unto Sixteen Millions Sterling in arreres of his own Revenue and 2 or 3 Hundred Millions Sterling at the least for the forfeitures which our Laws would have given him with some Mercy and Moderation to boot for so small a Recompence as during his life in the Moyety or one half of the Excise to his Heirs and Successors to be drawn out of the Groans Tears Complaints and sorrows of which the main part of the Common People who never did or are like to hold any Lands of our Kings in Capite or by Knight Service And should not have forgotten how they promised him to be his Tenants in Corde and with what a Princely and Fatherly affection he told their Representatives that he was sorry to see so many of his Good People come to see him at Whitehall and had no Meat to feed or entertain them yet when he had bereaved himself of that grand and continuall part of the strength and support of his Crown Power and Dignity and those entire Rights of his Monarchick Government which our prudent second Fabius ever to be praised and remembred from Generation to Generation the late George Monke Duke of Albemarle for his military wary Conduct thorough almost insuperable Difficulties without hearkning to the Syren songs of those that pretended to be for a Common wealth or being tempted or deluded to restore his Majesty to a Cripled Monnarchy as the men of the Rebellious Rump or no Parliament with their Jugling Covenant or as many Faces as they should have occasion to impress or stamp upon it would have perswaded him to have done and that great Hero denyd to do And that ill advised framer of that Unhappy Act of Parliament to cut or take away the Arteries
by Torch-light into Pisa or Florence and so ever after lived peaceably and quietly in the neighbourhood of the Feudall Laws So as the One became Assistant unto the Other cohabited and would never after depart from each other and even the Late Commonwealth Rebells could not amongst all their new-Fangles and Devices forbear their being much in love with the Tryalls by Juries both in Civill and Criminall Actions which had both their Use and Foundation from the Civill and Feudall Laws And Oliver Cromwell could after he had over-reacht and Mastered them find no better expedient to maintain the Grandeur of his wickedly-gained Protectorship but to borrow and make use of that part of the Feudall Laws which allowed a subservient Peerage and therefore Created some of his Major-Generalls amongst whom were those grand States-men Hewson the Cobler Pride the Drayman and Kelsy the Bodiesmaker c. Members of an House of Peers which he would by another name have called the Other House as Superior to his House of Commons or Rebellion-Voters who having sate and executed as much Power as he could bestow upon them did after death had cropt his Ambition and carried him to his deserved severe accompt attend with their whole House in grevious melancholly and mourning his Funerall and Magnificent Charriott of State to be buried in Westminster-Abby to lye there untill the Hangman afterwards by a better Authority fetched away his Hipocriticall Carcass to a more proper Place with their long-mourning Train Supported by 6 or 8 of his nicknamed Peers And after those pullers down as much as they could of our Excellent Foundations to build up their Abominable Babell of murdering their King Destroying Massacring Plundering Sequestring and decimating of his Loyal Subjects ruining his Royal Posterity should after his Miraculous Restauration think it to be a great piece of service to themselves and the whole Nation to put under the shame and Ignominy of a tenure unto which our Laws never yet afforded any more then the lowest of Titles as Rusticks men holding by the service of the Plough and Villainage to teach the most Ignorant and Incapacious part of the People how to Master equall or abuse their betters or invite the Hogs and Swine into the Gardens and Beds of Spices to root up foul and trample upon the Lillyes of the Vallies and Roses of Sharon hoping thereby to frustrate the glorious actions of that great Generall Monke in the Restoring of the King unto his Just entire regall Rights and to lay a Foundation hereafter of binding him and our Kings in Chains and our Nobles in Fetters of Iron and to make an easy way for all the People of other Kingdoms to order and Govern their Kings as they hoped by transforming their Laws and Regalities into such evil and Ignorant shapes Interpretations and Constructions as the People 〈◊〉 like the Dogs in the Fable of Acteon might when they pleased be the Murderers of their Kings and Princes and of their own Laws and Liberties But that Great and Prudent Prince in the time of his travail and abode after his fathers death in the parts beyond the Seas and other great Actions done by him before he returned into England as Fleta a Lawyer of good accompt and not meanly instructed as well in the Civil as Common Laws or else Mr Selden would neither have Caused his Manuscript so long concealed in Libraries and passing from hand to hand of such as could be made happy by the view thereof to be Printed and Published with his learned Dissertations or Comment thereupon saith that there having been a Congress or Meeting at Montpellier in France upon the 16th day of November 1275 or some short time after in the year 1276 about the 4th year of his Reign between him and many other Christian Kings or their Embassadours Viz. Michael Paleologus Imperator Orientis Rodolphus Primus Occidentis Galliae Philippus Audax Castellae Leonis Alphonsus Decimus summus ille Astronomus Partitarum Author Scociae Alexander tertius Daniae Ericus octavus Poloniae Bodislaus Hungariae Uladislaus quartus Aragoniae Jacobus Boemiae Ottocarus Carolus Siciliae Hugo Hierosolonicorum alii Complures minoris nominis qui Regum Christianorum vocamme fruebantur wherein certain agreements and provisions were severally made touching the resumption of the Lands and Manors appertaining to their Crowns Kingdoms together with their Homage Rights Jurisdictions wherein although Mr Selden that great Diver and Searcher into antiquities seemeth to doubt of the truth thereof for that Scriptores de hoc Anno non Conveniunt and at that time Rodolphus Caesar had granted unto Pope Gregory the 10th Latifundia circumquaque amplissima quae antea Imperii pars insignis And saith that assertion or place in Fleta is locus prodigiosus the rather for that Azo Item Jurisconsulti illius aevi summi vecusti and our Bracton maketh no mention of it in his Chapter de donationibus nor Britton in his Compendium Juris neither is it found in any other Jurisconsults or in Fortescue who lived long after Howsoever Notwithstanding the great reverence and respect which every man of learning or well-wishers thereunto must or ought to bear unto our great Selden that Dictator of learning so universally acknowledged not only in England but in the parts beyond the Seas to be Decus gentis Anglorum I shall be of necessity constrained in this particular to Vâ—ndicate Fleta from what he chargeth upon him concerning the provisions and resolutions made and taken by our King Edward the 〈…〉 and â—â—e aforesaid Christian Kings and Princes who especially Alexander King of Scotland and the Kings of France Castill and Leon near neighbours to England or his French territories together with the Emperor of Germany and the King of Sicily by whom he had been Sumptuously Feasted in his Return from Jerusalem might probably not have been Ignorant of his own and his Fathers and Grandfathers troubles and Ill usage by some of his Rebellious Baronage and a party of the Ecclesiasticall and Common People depending upon them or allured unto their Ill usage of their Kings and Princes but to appeal to his own Vast reading and the Company of his large and Eminently furnished Library with his Collection and recherches of and into all the Records and Choice Manuscripts in England all the Uuiversities thereof and Forreign parts the Roman Vatican not excepted and what could be in that famous Library of Sr Robert Cotton whilst he lived truly believed to be the Esculapius Librorum And it will be undoubtedly certain that there hath never been since the Writings of the books of Sacred Scripture any Infallibility or absolute Certainty that a Gospell of St Thomas hath been assayed to be Imposed upon the Christian World that St Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews though by the Church admitted to be canonicall have met with some Jealousies who was the Author thereof the great Care of the Monks mentioned in the preface
and testify that the Land is holden of them and that without taking away the Fealty and repealing the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy the Duty and Oaths of the Subjects remained as they did whilst they held their Land in Capite and by Knight Service Which probably as may sadly be lamented could never have hapned if the later men of the Law in England had not by the space of something more then Forty Years last past leaped over as it may be feared they have overmuch done the successive learned labours and Books in a long process of Time in the Reign of our Regnant Kings and Princes divers Judges and Sages of our Laws Recording from Time to Time Cases Judgments Decrees and Dicisions maturely and Deliberately adjudged therein But too much neglected those guidings better guides and faithfull Directors the Civill and Feudall Laws and suffred their Studies and practice to be imployed and incouraged in the Factious Seâ—iâ—ious Rebellious principles of those Times by following the gross Mistakes of Sr Edward Coke in his Discontent malevolence and Ill will unto the necessary and legall Regalities of the Crown and Idolizing as he did those grand parcells of forgery and Imposture entitled the Mirrour of Justice and the Modus tenendi Parliamentum and their neglecting the readings of Glanvile Bracton and Britton and other good Authors And the Civil Law was the Parent and Mother of many of the maximes and principles of that which is now called our Common Law And those men of the Law who without Books subsistence or Estates when they went beyond the Seas with their Sovereign and had not there the opportunities of the Knowledge or help of the Records of the Kingdom that might have been their best Instructers were for the most part but Young Gentlemen Born and Bred in the times of our Distempered Parliaments as those were that Tarried here who walked along with the Rebellion too much adhered unto them and came Weather-beaten again with his Majesty had understood as they might have done the Originall Foundation and Continuance of our Monarchick Government But King Edward the 1. who had passed over and overcome so many Hardships Difficulties Misfortunes and Storms of State was so unwilling to be afraid of a part of his Unquiet Baronage or to Humour the popularity and ignorance of any of the Common People or to be in fear of them or of any their Factious or Seditious Machinations making what hast his affairs would permit to return into England where his father having by his Death escaped the restless conflicts of a long and troublesome Reign and his Exequies and Ceremonies of buriall performed Róbertus Kilwarby Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus Gilbertus de Claro Comes Gloverinae a man that had been in Armes and opposite enough against his father and himself in the former convulsions of State and John Warren Earl of Surrey saith Samuel Daniel went up to the High Altar cum aliis Praelatis ac Regni proceribus Londiniis apud novnm Templum convenerunt Edwardum absentem Dominum suum Ligeam recognoverunt paternique Successorem honoris ordinaverunt assensu Reginae non Populi and before his return into England John Earl Warren and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester in the Abby Church of Westminster sware unto him Fealty without asking leave of the People and proclaimed him King although they knew not whether he were Living or Dead caused a new great Seal to be made and appointed six Commissioners for the Custody of his Treasure and Peace whilst he remained in Palastine where by an Assassin feigning to Deliver Letters unto him he received 3 Dangerous Wounds with a poysoned knife then said and believed to have been cured by the Love of his Lady that Paragon of Wives and Women who sucked the Poyson out of the Wound when others refused the adventure and after 3 Years Travail from the time of his setting forth many conflicts and Disappointments of his aids and Ends left Acon well fortified and manned and returned homewards in which as he travailed he was Royally feasted by the Pope and princes of Italy whence he came towards Burgundy where he was at the foot of the Alpes met by Divers of the English Nobility and being Challenged to a Tournament by the Earl of Chalboun a man of extraordinary Renown Successfully hazarded his Person to manifest his valour thence came again into England with the great advantages of his Wisdom Courage and Reputation assisted by the memory of the fortunate Battle at Evesham and his Actions in the East SECT XVIII Of the Methods and Courses which King Edward the 1. held and took in the Reformation and Cure of the Former State Diseases and Distempers KIng Edward the 1st was together with his Queen Crowned at Westminster by Robert Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander King of Scotland and John Duke of Britanny attending that Solemnity which being finished he shortly after forced Leoline Prince of Wales who had taken part with Montfort against his Father King Henry the third to do him Homage and after a Revolt imprisoned and beheaded him did the like to his brother David and United Wales as a Province to England made the Statute of Snowden considered and perused their Laws allowed some repealed others collected some and added new as he well might there do for the Prince or King which Governed Wales had always used so to do and appointed one to give his assent to the Election of Bishops and Abbots And when The Pope demanded 8 yeares arreares for the rent or tribute of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that his Parliament was dissolved before it came and that sine Praelatis et Proceribus communicato concilio sanctitati suae super praemissa non potuit respondere et Jurejurando in coronatione suam praestito fuit obstrictus quod jura Regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquod quod diadema tangat Regni ejusdem no such clause or promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil absque illorum requisito concilio faceret Sent to Franciscus Accursius Docto of laws resident at Bononia in Italy the son of the famous Accursius the Civil lawyer to come with his wife family into England by his writ to the Sheriff of Oxfordshire commanded him to deliver unto the said Doctor Accursius the King 's manor house and castle of Oxford then no mean place for him and his wife to Inhabit Did so imitate the wisdom and providence of the Roman and Caesarean laws as Augustus Caesar and other of the Succeeding Emperours had done as he gave unto men learned in the laws which was more for the peoples good then in their suits and actions at law to court and live under the protection and humours of their popular Patroni's libertatem respondendi to give councell and advice to their clients in their concernments at law and
direct and plead their causes and was with us in England the originall of our Serjeants at law and pleaders mentioned in the Statute made in the 3d year of his Reign with great penalties to be inflicted upon them for any falshoods or deceits which should be committed by them which in the 3d year of the Reign of King Edward the 2d came to be so much in use and reputation much more since augmented by the grace and permission of our Kings and Princes into an eminent State and degree as they are only to be made and constituted by the King's writs appointed for the people to help them to Justice in their causes or actions either as to Prosecute for their Rights or defend them from wrongs and oppressions and intimate and shew unto Judges what the laws do require to be done according to Justice and equity and must needs be gratefull to the people who were so thereby freed from maintenance champerty and quarrels too frequently haunting the courts of Justice as it was enough for an advocate or Lawyer in discharging himself from actions brought against him for Champerty or maintenance to plead that he is Homo legis and was retained by his Client Although the word Narrator or Narratores pleaders have been found to have been used in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the 3. which might either proceed from the Civill or Caesarean Laws whereof the Lawyers of those Times would have been ashamed to have been such profest Enemies as some of ours are pleased to be because they do not or cannot afford to understand their excellencies or from the use or misapplication of some newly Devised Verba Novata by some rash or inconsiderable Authors or Writers unto some long before by gone and past ages such as Hint Sham c. not at all in those Times made use of or understood which have produced great Digladiations and Disputes both amongst Writers and Readers and made many that otherwise would not or should not go to Cuffs in the Dark for little or nothing And to satisfy his Subjects in the grand concernments of their Laws and Liberties Lives and Estates and to cause them to be fully kept and Executed sent his Writs to his Justice of Chester and the Sheriffs of all the Counties of England in these Words viz. Cum propter communem utilitatem totius Regni nostri meliorationem populi nostri relevationem de Communi concilio Praelatorum Magnatum Regni ejusdem no Knights or Citizens and Burgesses for the Commonalty being then present or believed to have been necessary quasdam provisiones quaedam Statuta cum magua diligentia ordinari postmodum sigillo nostro signari fecerimus tam a nobis quam a ministris nostris quibuscunque quam ab ipsis Praelatis Magnatibus nostris ac tota communitate Regni praedicti then understood to be included in the advice of the Prelates and Nobility ad perpetuam memoriam rei gestae inviolabiliter observand vobis mandamus in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungentes quod provisiones Statuta illa in pleno Com. Cestr. in singulis Hundredis ejusdem comitatuus Civitatibus Burgis Villis Mercatoriis locis aliis ubi expedire videritis legi publice solempnitor proclamari ea in omnibus singulis articulis suis ab omnibus de baelliva vestra futuris temporibus juxta tenorem corundem firmiter inviolabiliter observari provisionibus Statutis illis sic proclamatis ea in singmlis locis infra ballivam vestram ubi expediri videritis distinct aperte conscribi ea fidelibus nostris locorum illorum sic Scripta sine dilatione liberari vobis ac ballivis fidebus nostris habere cum eis indigueritis ostendenda quatuor vel duobus militibus de fidelioribus discretioribus militibus Comitatus praedicti de assensu totius communitatis tradâ— faciatis those Knights only and no Citizens or Burgesses trusted therein ad Securitatem dictae communitatis Cusiodiend it a vos habeatis in hoc mandato nostro exequendo ne nobis seu aliis per vos vel vestros seu vobis per defectum vestrum vel vestrorum imputari possit vel debeat quod ea quae in dictis provisionibus Statutis continentur vel corum aliquae in balliva vestra minus plene observentur hoc vobis universitati Comitatus praedictitenore presentium significamus T. R. apud Westm. 28 die Mar. consimiles literae diriguntur singulisVice comitibus per Angliam which needed not to have been said there if there had then been an House of Commons in Parliament or any such comprehension or representation of Commons by Commons in Parliament as the Authors of their supposed Sovereignty have fondly imagined And at the instance of John de Cobham altering the tenure of some of his Lands in Gavel-kind did it by his Charter in these Words ad Regis celsitudinis potestatem pertinet officium ut partium suarum leges consuetudines quas justas utiles censuerit ratas habeat observari faciat inconcussas illas autem quae regni robur diminuer potius quam augere conservare abolere convenit aut saltem in melius commutare Directed his Writ to Roger de Seyton and other his Justices Itinerant at the Tower of London in these Words viz. Rex dilectis fidelibus suis Magistro de Seyton Sociis suis Justiciariis Itinerantibus apud Turrim London Salâ—tem Sciatis quod per dominum H. Regem patrem nostrum nos ac Consilium nec non alios fideles suos qui cum eodem patre nostro convenerant apud Marleberge provisum fuit quod si coram quibuscumque Justiciariis Itinerantibus appellum vel querimonia fieret de roberia pace fructa vel homicidio aut aliis commissis tempore guerrae nuper suborte versus eos qui fuerunt contra eundem patrem nostrum vel alios aut dc hujusmodi commissis presentationes fierent sicut ad Capitula Coronae fieri solent nullus ea occasione amitteret vitam vel membra aut penam perpetui Carceris incurreret set alio modo de dampius amissis vel ablatis transgressionibus fieret Judicia castigatio secundum discretionem Justiciariorum dicti patris nostri insuper diligenter attenderent observarent ea que continentur in dicto de Kenilleworth Et habeant Justiciarii in singulis Itineribus suis transcriptum dicti prefati Ita quod de his quae per alios Justiciarios ipsâ—â—s patris aostri ad hoc assignatos termina fuissent seu terminari deberent nichil facerent Justiciarii dicti patris nostri Itinerantes sine speciali mandato suo si forte sibi idem pater noster aliquid injungeret sciendum quod tempus guerrae
incepit a quarto die Aprilis Anno. Regni dicti patris nostri 48 quando vexillis explicatis exivit cum exercitu suo ab Oxonia versus Northt duravit continue usque Sextum decimum diem Septembris Anno Regni dicti patris nostri xl nono quando apud Wyntouiam pacem suam post bellum de Evesham in presentia Baronum suorum qui ibidem convenerant firmari fecit clamari no Commons or Knights or Burgesses representing for them Provisium fuit etiam ne aliquis amittteret vitam vel membra pro Roberiis aut homicidiis aut aliis commissis sub specie guerrae per illos qui contradictum patrem nostrum erant a quarto die Junii Anno Regni ejusdem patris nostri xlvii quando illi vexillis explicatis primo per terram suam incedentes roberias homicidia incarceraciones tam personis Ecclesiasticis quam secularibus fecerunt usque ad predictum tempus quo ab Oxonia versus Northt cum exercitu suo recessit De aliis autem quae tempore illo sub specie guerrae non fiebant haberetur tempus illus velnd tempus pacis A tempore autem supradicto quo apud Winton pacem suam firmari fecit clamari curreret Lex pro ut tempore pacis currere consuevit Ita tamen quod illi qui fuerint apud Axeholm sive apud Kenill vel Insula Elyens vel apud Cestrefeld vel postmodum apud Suwerk observaretur plene pax sua prout eam habere deberent sive per dictum de Kenileworth sive per privilegia sua de pace sua sibi concessa De illis autem qui cum Com. Gloverniae in ultima turbatione fuerunt observaretur pax facta inter dictum patrem nostrum ipsum Com. Ita quod a tempore quo dicto Comes recessit a Wall versus London usque ad diem quo recessit a Civitate praedict non procederent Justic. contra ipsum vel eos qui erant in parte sua Et hoc de illis tantummodo intelligeretur De depredationibus autem utrobique factis tempore praedicto observaretur hoc quod pace inter dictum patrem nostrum ipsum Comitem facta continetur Et ideo vobis mandamus quod hec omnia in prefato Itinere diligenter observari faciatis T. R. apud Kickleton xix die Marc. 6. E. 1. He commanded the Sheriffs to distrain every man that had 20 l. per Annum in Land or a whole Knights Fee of the liâ—e value and hold of him in Capite milites esse debent ad arma militaria within such a Time a nobis suscipiend which was like a Nursery for military affairs for the continuance of those gallant necessaries for publique Defence in and by the obligations of their Tenures wherein a great part of our Fundamentall Laws Oaths of Allegeance Loyalty and Duties of Subjects do subsist And by an Inquisition taken in the same Year at Launceston in Cornwall by a Commission out of his Court of Exchecquer it was found by a Jury that Dominus ratione Regiae dignitatis Coronae suae habet privilegium quod nullus in Regno suo aliquo qui sit de Regno Angliae alieni homagium sine fidelitatem facere debeat vel aliquis hujusmodi homagium vel fidelitatem ab aliquo recepire debeat nisi facta mentione de fidelitate domino Regi debita eidem Dominus Regi observanda Episcopus Exon adfuit contrarium c. Et in contemptu c. Et le Evesque mis a respond And like a second Justitian did cause John le Breton one of the Justices of the King's-bench Or as others have written Bishop of Hereford to compile in his name a Book of the Laws and Customs of England wherein the King directring the Book to all the People which were under his protection par la Soufrance de Dieu saith for that peace could not be without Laws he had caused those which had been heretofore used in his Realm to be put in Writing which he Willed and Commanded should be Observed in all England and Ireland en toutz pointz Sauve a nous de repealer de eunoiter d' amander a toutz les faitz que nous verron que bon a nous serra par l'assent de nos Countes de nos Barons autres de nostre Conceil Sauve les usages a ceux que prescription de temps oul autrement use en taint que leur usages soyent mys discordants a droiture in which Book and the Droits de Roy there is no mention made of the Election and Summoning of Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament By his Edict or Proclamation prohibited the burning of Seacole in London and the Suburbs thereof for avoiding its noysom Smoak and without any Act of Parliament divided Wales into Shires and ordained Sheriffs there as was used in England caused some London Bakers not making their bread as they ought to be drawn upon Hurdles and 3 men for rescuing a prisoner arrested by an Officer to have their right hands cut off by the Wrists Fined without advice or assent of Parliament which might well be so understood to have been so upon the Act of Parliament in Anno 3 of his Reign ordained that such offenders should be ransomed and Punished at the Kings Will and Pleasure Sr Ralph Hengham Chief Justice of his Bench 7000 Marks Sr John Lovetot Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 3000 Marks Sr William Brompton 6000 Marks Sr Solomon Rochester or Roffey 4000 Marks Sr Richard Boyland as much Sr Thomas Sodenton 2000 Marks Sr William Saham 3000 Marks Roobert Littlebury Clark Master of the Rolls 1000 Marks Roger Leicester no less Henry Bray Escheator and Justice of the Jews 1000 Marks Sr Adam Stratton Chief Baron of the Exchequer 34000 Marks and Thomas de Weyland being the greatest delinquent and of the greatest substance could not be so easily excused but was Banished and had all his Goods and Estate Confiscate to the King only John de Metingham Elias de Beckingham two of the itinerant Judges to their eternall honour saith Henry Spelman appearing Guiltless and Righteous in that severe and Kingly examination and Justice purged his Courts of Justice and the Officers and clarks thereof from Bribery and extortion banished the usury of the Jews hanged 297. of them for abusing the Coyn and Money of the Kingdom curbed the pretended Independent power of the Clergy Clipped their Jurisdictions and upon their refusall to pay Tallage towards his Wars Seized many of their Temporallities put them out of the protection of his Laws and Justice and caused them to be excluded out of one of his Parliaments untill their Submission whom he had by wofull experience understood to have had too great an Influence upon some of the unquiet Nobility Made himself the Arbitrator and Umpire betwixt the many great Pretenders to
be no pardon or protection granted of those Felonies which shall be hereafter committed without the Special Commandment of us our selves In the Ordinatio Forestae made in the 34th Year of his Reign the King ordained The like in Ca. 2. That an Officer dying or being absent another shall be put in his place That no Forester should be put in any Assize or Jury the King willeth The like touching the punishment of Officers surcharging the Forest. The like for Grounds disafforested Touching Commons in Forests and that the Justices of the Forest in the presence of the King's Treasurer and by his assent may take fines and amerciaments it is said the King willeth In the Statute de Asportatis Religiosorum it being recited that it came to the knowlege of our Lord the King by the grievous Complaints of the honourable persons Lords and other Noblemen of this Realm that Monasteries and other Religious Houses founded by the King and his Royal Progenitors and by the said Noblemen and their Ancestors and endowed with great portions of Lands that the Abbots and Priors especially certain aliens Priors c. have letten the said lands and laid great impositions and tallages thereupon our Lord the King by the Councell of his Earles Barons great men and other Nobles of his Kingdom no Commons in his Parliament hath ordained and enacted That Religious persons shall send nothing to their Superiors beyond the Seas That no Impositions shall be Taxed by Priors Aliens it is said moreover our aforesaid Lord the King doth inhibit it By whom the Common Seal of the Abbys shall be kept and how used it is said and further our Lord the King hath ordained and established And though the publication and open notice of the ordinances and Statutes aforesaid were in suspence for certain causes since the last Parliament until this present Parliament holden at Caerlisle the Octaves of St Hilary in the 35 Year of the Reign of the said King to the intent they might proceed with greater deliberation and advice our Lord the King after full conference and debate had with the Earls Barons Noblemen and other great men of his Kingdom no Commons touching the premisses by their whole consent and agreement hath ordained and enacted that the ordinances and Statutes aforesaid under the manner form and conditions aforesaid from the 1st day of May next ensuing shall be inviolably observed for ever and the offenders of them shall be punished as is aforesaid And so well did he and the Lawyers of that age understand the Originall Benefit and use of the Feudall Laws the Ancient Honour Glory and Safety of the English Nation their Kings Princes and People as he did as the Learned and Judicious Dr. Brady hath asserted in and by the right of the Feudal Laws and their original grant of the Fees without assent or advice of Parliament give license to their Tenants to Talliate Tax and take Scutage for ayd of performing the Knight or Military Service incident or chargeable upon their Lands and likewise to Tenants otherwise employed by the King in Capite though not in the Army to charge their Tenants with Scutage warranted by the Writ following in the 10th Year of his Reign directed to the Sheriff of Worcester in these words Rex Vicecomiti Wigorn. salutem Quia dilectus fidelis noster Hugo le dispencer per praeceptum nostrum fuit cum dilecto consanguineo fideli nostro Edmundo Com. Cornub. qui moam traxit in Anglia pro conservatione pacis nostrae Anno regni nostri decimo nobis tunc existentibus in Guerra nostra Walliae Tibi praecipimus quod eidem Hugoni facias habere scutagium suum in feodis militum quae de eo tenentur in balliva tua videlicet quadraginta solidos de Scuto pro exercitu nostro praedicto hoc nuâ—latenus omittas T. Edmundo Comite Cornubiae Consanguine Regis apud Westm. 13 die Aprilis Et Consimiles literae diriguntur vicecomitibus Leicest Eborum Lincoln Suff. Wilts South Surr. Buck. Essex North. Oxon Berk. Norff. Staff Rotel Justic. Cestr. And a Writ on the behalf of Henry de Lacy Earl of Lincoln directed the Sheriff of York in the Words Quia delectus fidelis noster Henry de Lacy Comes Lincoln non sine magnis sumptibus expensis ad Communem utilitatem regni nostri in obsequium nostrum per praeceptum nostrum in partibus Franciae pro reformatione patis inter nos Regem Franciae tempore quo Eramus in Guerra nostra Scociae Anno videlicet Segni nostri 31. Quod quidem obsequium loco servitii sui quod tunc nobis fecisse debuerat Acceptamus tibi praecipimus quod eidem Comiti haberi facias scutagium suum de feodis militum quae de eo teneantur in balliva cua videlicet Quadraginta solidos de scuto pro Exercitu nostro praedicto Et hoc nullatenus omittas Teste Rege apud Westm. 6. die Aprilis Consimiles literas habet idem Comes direct Vicecomitibus Warr. Bedford Buck. Somerset Dorset Glouc. Norff. Suff. Hereford Leic. Lenc Notting Derby Northampton Midd. Cantabr Oxon. Berk. Another on the behalf of Henry de Percy in the form ensuing videlicet Rexvicecomiti Eborum salutem Quia dilectus fidelis noster Henricus de Percy fuit nobiscum per praeceptum nostrum in exercitu nostro Scotiae Anno Regni nostri 31. Tibi praecipimus quod eidem Henrico haberi facias Scutagium suum de feodis militum que de eo tenentur in balliva tua videlicet quadraginta solides de Scuto pro Exercitu nostro praedicto hoc nullatenus omitas teste Rege c. Consimiles literas habet idem Henricus Vicecomitibus Lincoln Derb. Notting Cant. Hunt Norff. Suff. Salop. Stafford Consimiles literas habent Executores testamenti Johannis de Watrenna quondam Comitis Surr. defuncti probably the same man that being called to an account Quo Warranto he held many of his Liberties is said over Sturdily to have drawn out or unsheathed an old broad Rusty Sword and shewing unto the Justices Itinerants instead of his Plea answered by this which helped William the Conqueror to Subdue England which so much incensed the King as he afterwards as some of our English Annalists have reported at his return home caused him to be Besieged in his Castle at Rigate untill in a better obedience to his Laws he had put in a more Loyall and Legall Plea Had the like letters de Habend Scutag de feod militum quae de ipso Comite tenebantur die quo obiit in guerra Regis speciale direct Vicecomitibus Surr. Sussex Essex Hereff. Buck. Lincoln Northampton Ebor. by writ of privy seal Consimiles literas habuit prior de Coventry qui finem fecit c. direct Vicecomitibus Warr. Liec Northt Glouc. Wigorn. Abissa Shafton qui fecit finem c. Habet Scutagium suum But
Year of the Reign of King Henry the 3. and for many ages past and are and should be no more then as Sr Edward Coke saith a Grand Enquest as men that were most Cognisant that best knew the grievances of their Countries with what might be their proper remedies and their abilities or disabilities to aid their Sovereign and assist the publick good being the truest most intelligent and most considerate Judges of their own Interest and the right and only use of their being Elected appeareth by the use and reason thereof to be no other in Parliaments then Informers of grievances and are to be Petitioners for Laws or Remedies When it is Judicis Officium that is to say the Suprema potestas which in England was never yet proved or rightly understood to reside in the People or any other then the King and in valde dubiis opinionibus in quibus non appareat quae sit magis communis rationes quae ex utraque parte efficaces adducuntur Trutinare non est dubitare de iis quae lege vel apertaratione monstrantur Qua propter opinio quaelibet contralegem veram rationem vana est And if any should be so wild or gone out of their reason as to endeavour to make an Assent to be aequivalent or as much as an innate Authority or any Effect of a Superiority or so much as a resemblance thereof they may as well undertake to assert that the Prelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of Engl. had power to create Edward the black-Prince Son and heir apparent of King Edward the 3d Prince of Wales and to give him the Principality thereof because that great and victorious King in the 11th year of his Reign did grant it unto him concilio et concensu Praelatorum Comitum Baronum Communitatum Regni sui non suorum Angliae in generali Parliamento when in the preamble thereof he declared that he did it de serenitate Regalis praeeminencia and the Commons in Parliament in the 50th year of the Reign of that King after that the Archbishop of Canterbury had spoken much in the commendation of Richard de Burdeaux Son and heir of Edward late Prince of Wales Son and heir apparent of the Realm did with one voice pray the Lords so ignorant were they then of their own supposed co-ordination and so over-valuing the power of the Lords that they would make him Prince of Wales as his father was Who answered that it lay not in them but in the King so to do but promised to be Mediators for him So as they who would pretend to such a large representation of the people are to remember that they can give no power but such as they are themselves justly and by law entitled unto as Subjects obeying in their Elections the words intention and true meaning of their Sovereign who did cause them to be Elected to come unto his Parliament with a consenting performing and obeying power only but not an equall coordinate or Superior and that it hath been a ruled and allowed case thorough all the Nations of the World and the Ages thereof that nemo plus juris dare potest quam in se ipso habet And however that prudent Prince King Edward the 1st did for the avoiding of some troubles which a remnant of his and his fathers unquiet Barons would have put upon him and his people whom he was bound to protect condescend to that Act of Parliament that no Tallage or aid should be granted without the consent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons Knights Citizens Burgesses and Freeholders of the land put himself and them under the frailty of the good and kind will and intentions of a part of his subjects yet he could not find either any cause or reason to doubt or suspect that they or any of their posterity should so little follow the conduct or manage of their understanding the care of their self-preservation and the prevention of the ruine of their private in the publick as not to submit to that known and almost every where approved rule or Aphorisme of wisdom that Publica privatis anteponenda sunt and that of the Poet Tunc tuares agitur paries cum proximus ardet Or that any if not an enemy to himself his posterity and his Country as much as a Traytor to his King would in a case of publick necessity when every man was as greatly concerned to defend themselues their King Country and posterities by a giving giving a timely aid and assistance ai if it had been pro Aris focis and Hannibal had been at Porta's have been either forward or backward to gard and relieve themselves their King and Country and not make hast to imitate the Romans who at other times Factious and Seditions enough would not suffer the more prudent Fabious the preserver of his and their Country even in the mioest of their discontents and murmurings that he made no more hast to fight and beat the enemy to want their help either with men or money When as Bornitius saith Quicquid boni homo Civisque habet possidet quod vivit libere vivit quod bene quod Beate omniumque rerum bonorum usu interdum etiam copia ad voluptatem utitur fruitur totum hoc beneficium Reipublicae civilique ordini acceptum est reserendum And that omnis homo res singularum in Republica conservari nequeant nifi conservetur Respub sive communis adeoque singuli sui causa impendere videntur qnicquid conferunt in publicum usum And St Chrysostome was of the same opinion when he said that ab antiquis temporibus communi omnium sententia principes a nobis sustinere debere visum est ob id quod sua ipsorum negligentes communes res curare universumque suum otium adeo impendunt quibus non solum ipsi sed quae nostra sunt salvantur And Zechius saith Regi competunt ratione excellentiae ejus dignitatis quae Regalia dicuntur and that multa adjumenta sunt ei necessaria ut dominium totum externa tueri valeat With whom accordeth Bodin informing us that Sine majestatis contemptu fieri non potest ea res enim peregrinos ad principem aspernandum subditos ad deficiendum excitare consuevit For surely it was never rightly understood that their Membership of the House of Commons in Parliaments did abridge or lessen the Superiority of their Sovereign as may be evidenced by the procedures and affairs of all the Parliaments of England from the beginning of their admission thereunto untill the late unhappy distempers thereof It having been by long experience Tried and found to be in Government a Policy as successfull as prudentiall to gain in the making of Laws the approbation and good-liking as much as may be of those that are to obey and be guided by them to the end that they may the more
upon less overt-acts and Praesumptions have been accompted and punished as High Treason § 27. That no Impeachment by all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament or of the House of Peers in Parliament hath or ever had any Authority to invalidate hinder or take away the power force or effect of any the pardons of our Kings or Princes by their Letters Patents or otherwise for High Treason or Felony Breach of the Peace or any other crime or supposed delinquency whatsoever FOR if Monarchy hath been by God himself and the Experience of above 5000 years and the longest Ages of the World approved as it hath to have been the best and most desirable form of Government And the Kingdom of England as it hath been for more than 1000 years a well tempered Monarchy and the Sword and Power thereof was given to our Kings only by God that ruleth the Hearts of them The means thereunto which should be the Power of Punishment and Reward can no way permit that they should be without the Liberty and Prerogative of Pardoning which was no Stranger in England long before the Conquest in the Raign of King Athelstane who did thereby free the Nation from four-footed Wolves by ordaining Pardons to such Out-Laws as would help to free themselves and others from such villanous Neighbours the Laws of Canutus also making it a great part of their business to enjoyn a moderation in punishments ad divinam clementiam temperata to be observed in Magistracy and never to be wanting in the most Superior none being so proper to acquit the offence as they that by our Laws are to take benefit by the Fines and Forfeitures arising thereby and Edward the Confessors Laws would not have Rex Regni sub cujus protectione pace degunt universi to be without it when amongst his Laws which the People of England held so sacred as they did hide them under his Shrine and afterwards precibus fletibus obtained of the Conqueror that they should be observed and procured the observation of them especially to be inserted in the Coronation-Oaths of our succeeding Kings inviolably to be kept And it is under the Title of misericordia Regis Pardonatio declared That Si quispiam forisfactus which the Margin interpreteth rei Capitalis reus poposcerit Regiam misericordiam pro forisfacto suo timidus mortis vel membrorum per dendorum potest Rex ei lege suae dignitatis condonare si velit etiam mortem promeritam ipse tamen malafactor rectum faciat in quantumcunque poterit quibus forisfecit tradat fidejussores de pace legalitate tenenda si vero fidejussores defecerint exulabitur a Patria For the pardoning of Treason Murder breach of the Peace c. saith King Henry the First in his Laws so much esteemed by the Barons and Contenders for our Magna Charta as they solemnly swore they would live and die in the defence thereof do solely belong unto him super omnes homines in terra sua In the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Peirce Gaveston Earl of Cornwal being banished by the King in Parliament and all his Lands and Estate seized into the Kings hands the King granted his Pardons remitted the Seizures and caused the Pardon and Discharges to be written and Sealed in his Presence And howsoever he was shortly after upon his return into England taken by the Earl of Warwick and beheaded without Process or Judgment at Law yet he and his Complices thought themselves not to be in any safety until they had by two Acts of Parliament in the seventh year of that Kings Raign obtained a Pardon Ne quis occasionetur pro reditu morte Petri de Gaveston the power of pardoning being always so annexed to the King and his Crown and Dignity And the Acts of Parliament of 2 E. 3. ca. 2. 10 E. 3. ca. 15. 13 R. 2. ca. 1. and 16 R. 2. ca. 6. seeking by the Kings Leave and Licence in some things to qualifie it are in that of 13 R. 2. ca 1. content to allow the Power of Pardoning to belong to the Liberty of the King and a Regality used heretofore by his Progenitors Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent Chief Justiciar of England in the Raign of King Henry the third laden with Envy and as many deep Accusations as any Minister of State could lie under in two several Charges in several Parliaments then without an House of Commons had the happiness notwithstanding all the hate and extremities Put upon him by an incensed Party to receive two several Pardons of his and their King and dye acquitted in the Estate which he had gained Henry de Bathoina a Chief Justice of England being in that Kings Raign accused in Parliament of Extortion and taking of Bribes was by the King pardoned In the fifieth year of the Reign of King Henry the third the Commons in Parliament petitioning the King that no Officer of the Kings or any man high or low that was impeached by them should enjoy his Place or be of the Kings Council The King only answered he would do as he pleased With which they were so well satisfied as the next year after in Parliament upon better consideration they petitioned him that Richard Lyons John Pechie and lice Pierce whom they had largely accused and believed guilty might be pardoned And that King was so unwilling to bereave himself of that one especial Flower in his Crown as in a Grant or Commission made in the same year to James Botiller Earl of Ormond of the Office of Chief Justiciar of Ireland giving him power under the Seal of that Kingdom to pardon all Trespasses Felonies Murders Treasons c he did especially except and reserve to himself the power of pardoning Prelates â—arls and Barons In the first year of the Raign of King Henry the fourth the King in the Case of the Duke of Albemarle and others declared in Parliament that Mercy and Grace belongeth to Him and his Royal Estate and therefore reserved it to himself and would that no man entitle himself thereunto And many have been since granted by our succeeding Kings in Parliament at the request of the Commons the People of England in Worldly and Civil Affairs as well ever since as before not knowing unto whom else to apply themselves for it So as no fraud or indirect dealings being made use of in the obtaining of a Pardon it ought not to be shaken or invalidated whether it were before a Charge or Accusation in Parliament or after or where there is no Charge or Indictment ant cedent The Pardon of the King to Richard Lyons at the request of the Commons in Parliament as the Parliament Rolls do mention although it was not inserted in the Pardon was declared to be after a charge against him by the Commons in Parliament and in the perclose
said to be per Dominum Regem And a second of the same date and tenor with a perclose said to have been per Dominum Regem magnum Concilium John Pechies pardon for whom that House of Commons in Parliament was said to intercede only mentioneth that it was precibus aliquorum Magnatum 15 E. 3. The Archbishop of Canterbury before the King and Lords humbling himself before the King desired that where he was defamed through the Realm he might be arraigned before his Peers in open Parliament Unto which the King answered that he would attend the Common Affairs and afterward hear others 5 H. 4. The King at the request of the Commons affirmeth the Archbishop of Canterbury the Duke of York the Earl of Northumberland and other Lords which were suspected to be of the confederacy of Henry Percy to be his true Leige-men and that they nor any of them should be impeached therefore by the King or his Heirs in any time ensuing 9 H. 4. The Speaker of the House of Commons presented a Bill on the behalf of Thomas Brooke against William Widecombe and required Judgment against him which Bill was received and the said William Widecombe was notwithstanding bound in a 1000 pound to hear his Judgment in Chancery And the many restorations in blood and estate in 13 H. 4. and by King E. 4. and of many of our Kings may inform us how necessary and beneficial the pardons and mercy of our Kings and Princes have been to their People and Posterities The Commons accuse the Lord Stanley in sundry particulars for being confederate with the Duke of York and pray that he may be committed to prison To which the King answered he will be advised And Pardons before Indictments or prosecution have not been rejected for that they did anticipate any troubles which might afterwards happen For so was the Earl of Shrewsburys in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth for fear of being troubled by his ill-willers for a sudden raising of men without a warrant to suppress an insurrection of Rebels Lionell Cranfeild Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer of England being about the 18th year of King James accused by the Lords and Commons in Parliament for great offences and misdemeanours fined by the King in Parliament to be displaced pay 50000 l. and never more to sit in Parliament was in the 2d year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr upon his Submission to the King and payment of 20000 l. only pardoned of all Crimes Offences and Misdemeanors whatsoever any Sentence Act or Order of Parliament or the said Sentence to the contrary notwithstanding For whether the accusation be for Treason wherein the King is immediately and most especially concerned or for lesser Offences where the people may have some concernment but nothing near so much or equivalent to that of the Kings being the supreme Magistrate the King may certainly pardon and in many pardons as of Outlaries Felonies c. there have been conditions annexed Ita quod stent recto si quis versos eos loqui voluerit So the Lord Keeper Coventry in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr to prevent any dangerous questions touching the receiving of Fines and other Proceedings in Chancery sued out his Pardon The many Acts of Oblivion or general Pardon granted by many of our Kings and Princes to the great comfort and quiet of their Subjects but great diminution of the Crown Revenue did not make them guilty that afterwards protected themselves thereby from unjust and malicious Adversaries And where there is not such a clause it is always implyed by Law in particular mens cases and until the Soveraignty can be found by Law to be in the People neither the King or his people who by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are to be subordinate unto him are to be deprived of his haute ex basse Justice and are not to be locked up or restrained by any Petition Charge or Surmise which is not to be accompted infallible or a truth before it be proved to the King and his Council of Peers in Parliament and our Kings that gave the Lords of Mannors Powers of Soke and Sake Infangtheif and Outfangtheif in their Court Barons and sometimes as large as Fossarum Furcarum and the incident Power of Pardons and Remissions of Fine and Forfeitures which many do at this day without contradiction of their other Tenants enjoy should not be bereaved of as much liberty in their primitive and supream Estates as they gave them in their derivatives And though there have been Revocations of Patents during pleasure of Protections and Presentations and Revocations of Revocations quibusdam certis de causis yet never was there any Revocation of any Pardon 's granted where the King was not abused or deceived in the granting thereof For in Letters Patents for other matters Reversals were not to be accounted legal where they were not upon just causes proved upon Writs of Scire facias issuing out of the Chancery and one of the Articles for the deposing of King Richard 2d being that he revoked some of his Pardons The recepi's of Patents of Pardon or other things were ordained so to signifie the time when they were first brought to the Chancellour as to prevent controversies concerning priority or delays made use of in the Sealing of them to the detriment of those that first obtained them And the various forms in the drawing or passing of Pardons as long ago His testibus afterwards per manum of the Chancellour or per Regem alone per nostre Main vel per manum Regis or per Regem Concilium or authoritate Parliamenti per Regem Principem per Breve de privat sigillo or per immediate Warrant being never able to hinder the energy and true meaning thereof And need not certainly be pleaded in any subordinate Court of Justice without an occasion or to purchase their allowance who are not to controul such an Act of their Sovereign Doctor Manwaring in the fourth of sixth Year of the Raign of King Charles the Martyr being grievously fined by both Houses of Parliament and made incapable of any place or Imployment was afterwards pardoned and made Bishop of St. Asaph with a non obstante of any Order or Act of Parliament So they that would have Attainders pass by Bill or Act of Parliament to make that to be Treason which by the Law and antient and reasonable Customs of England was never so before to be believed or adjudged or to Accumulate Trespasses and Misdemeanors to make that a Treason which singly could never be so either in truth Law right reason or Justice May be pleased to admit and take into their serious consideration that Arguments a posse ad esse or ab uno ad plures are neither usual or allowable and that such a way of proceeding will be as much against the Rules of Law Honour and Justice as of Equity and good
Citizens or Tradesmen nor can all the Members of the Body Politick be equally wounded in their Estates or concernments by the vain imaginations causless fears and jealousies and bugbears of other seditious or fanciful Mens own making And to men that have not yet proceeded so far in the School of Revelation as to be sure of the Spirit of Prophesie it may prove a matter of ill consequence that the universality of the People should have occasion ministred and continued to them to be apprehensive of utmost dangers from the Crown from whence they of right expect Protection And a Wonder next a Miracle from whence the Premisses to such a trembling and timorous conclusion can be fetched or how a People whose valiant and wiser Fore-fathers were never heretofore scared with such panick fears nor wont to be affrighted with such Phantasmes should now suspect they can have no Protection from the Crown when some of them do at the same time labour all they can to hinder it Or how it should happen in the long Rebellious Parliament that after Mr. Chaloner a Linnen Draper of London was hanged for Plotting a Surprize of the City of London and reducing it to the Kings obedience honest Mr. Abbot the Scrivener should be pardoned without any such discontent and murmuring of the People or that Oliver Cromwel should not be debarred of his Power of Pardoning in his Instrument of Government and be allowed to Pardon the Lord Mordant for a supposed Treason against his usurped Authority and our King deriving his Authority legally vested in Him and His Royal Ancestors for more than one thousand years before may not adventure to do it without the utter undoing and ruine of his Subjects in their Properties Lives and Estates by His pardoning of some Capital Offenders Or why it should not be as lawful and conveninent for the King to grant Pardons to some other Men as to Doctor Oates or Mr. Bedlow When no Histories Jewish Pagan or Christian can shew us a People unless in Cases of intollerable Villanies Petitioning their Kings that they would not Pardon when all are not like to be Saints or Faultless and it will ever be better to leave it to the Hearts of Kings and God that directs them than to believe Tyranny to be a Blessing and Petition for it And the most exact search that can be made when it findeth the Commons petitioning in Parliament to the King or House of Peers that they may be present at some Tryals there upon their Impeachments cannot meet with any one President where they ever desired or were granted such a reasonless Request pursued and set on by other Mens Designs to have one Mans Tryal had before another and by strugling and wrestling for it expose the King and Kingdom to an utter destruction And therefore in those their fond importunities might do well to tarry until they they can find some Reason why the Lords Spiritual may not Vote or Sit as Judges or Peers in Parliament in the Case of the five Lords as well as of the Earl of Danby Or any President that it is or hath been according to Parliamentary proceedings to have any such Vote or Request made by the Commons in Parliament Who neither were or should be so omnipotent in the opinion of Hobart and Hutton and other the learned Judges of England as to make a Punishment before a Law or Laws with a Retrospect which God himself did never allow but should rather believe that Laws enacted contrary to the Laws of God and Morality or that no Aids or Help are to be given to the King pro bono Publico or that there should be no Customs or Prescription or that the King should be governed by His People would be so far from gaining an Obedience to such Laws or Acts of Parliament as to render them to be ipso facto null and of none effect When the King hath been as careful to distribute Justice as his Mercy without violence to his Laws and well inform'd Conscience hath sometimes perswaded him to Pardon to do Justice or to cause it to be done in a legal and due manner and is so appropriate to the Office and Power of a King so annext appendant and a part of it as none but His Delegates are to intermeddle or put any limits thereunto and if it should not be so solely inherent in Him would be either in abeyance or no where For the House of Commons are not sworn to do Justice and if they were would in such a case be both Judges and Parties and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are not as to particular proceedings sworn but meerly consultive So as Justice can vest in none but the King who is by his Coronation-Oath only sworn to do it if His Right of Inheritance and greater Concernments than any of his Subjects did not abundantly ingage and prompt Him thereunto and is therefore so every way and at all times obliged to do Justice and Protect the Lives Estates Peace and Liberty of His Subjects as he is with all convenient speed and hast to Try or bring to Judgment a Subject accused of Treason by the Houses of Lords and Commons both or either of them in His Court of Kings-Bench before the Justices thereof or by special Commission by a Lord High Steward in or without the time of Parliament And the King may acquit which amounteth to a Remission or Pardon by a more Supream Authority than any of His Judges some particular Cases wherein Appeals are or may be brought only excepted do ordinarily by an authority derived from no other not to be debarred by probabilities or possibilities or by consequences not always to be foreseen or avoided For a Man pardoned for Man-slaughter may be so unhappy as in the like manner afterwards to be the death of five or ten more 20000 Rebells pardoned at a time as in the Insurrections of Wat Tyler Jack Cade c. may be guilty of the like Offence twenty or forty years after The Lord Mayor of London that hath an allowance of Tolls and Profits to take a care of the City and wholsomness of Food might be as they are too much careless and undo them in their Health and well being The Judges may as those in the Raign of King Edward the First and Thorp in the Raign of King Edward the Third be guilty of Mildemeanours yet that is not to bereave us of that good which better Men may do us in their administration of Justice our Kings have granted Priviledges to certain Cities and Towns not to pay Subsidies and granted Pardons as their Mercies and right reason inclined them in the course of their several Raigns for many Ages last past yet have not acquitted or left unpunished all the Offenders ever since there being a greater likelyhood that they would not be so easie in pardoning where they were to gain so much by Attainders Fines and Forfeitures And therefore panick and
without any wiser Body to regulate or take care of their Actions would deem it to be a brave Sport and Liberty to play with the Fire until they had set the whole House on fire and burnt themselves into the bargain and if after he had by his practice and study of the Common Law which was nothing but our Feudal Laws too much forgotten or unknown unto those that would be called our Common Lawyers and gaining 10000 l. per Annum Lands of Inheritance made his boast that he had destroyed the so fixed and established Deeds of Entail and the Wills and Intent of the Donors as nothing of Collusion Figments or other Devices should prejudice and no Gentleman or Lover of Honour Gentry or Families would ever have had an hand in such a destruction Levelling Clowning Citizening and Ungentlemanning all or too many of the Ancient Families of England And if he could have lived to have seen or felt the tossing plundering and washing in Blood three great and flourishing Kingdoms would have wept bitterly and lamented or with Job have cursed the hour or time of his birth that he should ever have given the occasion or been Instrumental in the promoting or being a Contributor unto those very many dire Confusions and Disasters that after happened for if he had well read and weighed the History and Records both before shortly after the gaining of that Act of Parliament de Tallagio non concedendo without the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled and how much that great and prudent Prince King Edward the first was pressed and pinched when his important affairs caused his sudden transfrecation by the overpowering party of three of his greatest Nobility viz. Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex Constable of England Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and Bigod Earl of Norfolk Earl Marshal of England all whom and their Ancestors had been advanced to those their Grandeurs by him and his Royal Progenitors had so catched an advantage upon him and were so merciless in their demands as they not only would not allow him a saving of his Jure Regis very usual and necessary in many of our Kings and Princes grants as well in the time of Parliaments as without but enforced an Oath upon him which he took so unkindly as he was constrained shortly after to procure the Pope to absolve him of for that it had been by a force put upon him which a Protestant Pope might have had a Warrant from God Almighty so to have done but did after his return into England so remember their ill usage of him as he seized their three grand Estates and made the two former so well to be contented with the regaining of his favour as Bohun married the one of his Daughters and Clare the other without any portions with an Entail of their Lands upon the Heirs of the Bodies of their Wives the Remainder to the Crown laid so great 〈…〉 Fine and Ransom upon Bigod the Earl Marshal as he being never able to pay it afterwards forfeited and lost all his great Estate and be all of them so well satisfied with his doings therein as they were in the 34th year of his Raign glad to obtain his Pardon with a Remissimus omnem Rancorem And they and Sir Edward Coke might have believed that that very prudent Prince might with great reason and truth have believed his Regality safe enough without a Salvo Jure Regis when the Law and Government it self and the Good and Interest of every Man his Estate and Posterity was and would be always especially concerned in the necessity aid and preservation of the King their common Parent appointed by God to be the Protector of them And our singularly learned Bracton hath not informed us amiss when he concluded that Rex facit Legem in the first place Lex facit Regem in the second giveth him Authority and Power to guard that Regality which God hath given him for the protection of the People committed to his charge who are not to govern their King but to be governed by him and should certainly have the means to effect it for how should he have power to do it or procure his People to have a Commerce or Trade with their Neighbour People or Princes if he as their King had not any or a just Superiority over them c. and must not for all that have and enjoy those Duties Rights and Customs which not only all our Kings Royal Progenitors but their Neighbour Princes and even Bastard and self-making Republiques have quietly and peaceably enjoyed without the Aid and Assistance of any the Suffrage of the giddy Rabble and vulgar sort of the People controuling in their unfixt and instable Opinions those of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the wiser and more concerned part of the People of which and the Rights and Customs due and payable to our Kings and Princes Sir John Davies a learned Lawyer in the Raign of our King James the first hath given us a learned full and judicious Account which well understood might adjudge that Petition of Right to deserve no better an entertainment than the Statute of Gloucester made in 15 E. 3. which by the Opinion of the Judges and Lords Spiritual and Temporal was against the Kings Praerogative and contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England and ought not to have the force and strength of a Statute and Sir Edward Coke might have remembred that in the Raign of King Edward the Third the Commons of England did in Parliament complain that Franchises had for time past been so largely granted by the King that almost all the Land was enfranchised to the great arreirisment estenisement of the Common Law which they might have called the Feudal Law and to the great oppression of the People and prayed the King to restrain such Grants hereafter unto which was answered The Lords will take order that such Franchises as shall be granted shall be by good Advice And that if by any Statute made in the 25th year of the Raign of King Edward 3. it was ordained that no man should be compelled to make any Loan to the King against his will because such Laws were against Reason and the Franchise of the Land that Statute when it shall be found will clearly also appear to be against our Ancient Monarchick Government Fundamentally grounded upon our Feudal Laws that our Magna Charta Charta de Foresta are only some Indulgence and Qualification of some hardship or Rigour of them that the Excommunication adjudged to be by the Statute of 25 E. 1. ca. 4. And the aforesaid dire Anathema's and Curse pronounced in that Procession through Westminster-Hall to the Abbey Church of Westminster against the Infringers of those our Grand Charters are justly and truly to be charged upon the Violaters and Abusers of our Feudal Laws and
Ancient Form of Government who ought better to assert them and that the Coronation-Oaths of all our many Kings and Princes swearing to maintain the Laws of King Edward the Confessor which have for those many Ages past so highly satisfied and contented the Common People and good Subjects of England do enjoin no other than our Kings and Princes strict observation of the Feudal Laws and their Subjects Obedience unto him and them by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and his and their Protection of them in the performance thereof and from no other Laws or Customs than the Feudal Laws have our Parliaments themselves derived their original as Eginard Secretary unto Charles the Great or Charlemain who Raigned in the year after our blessed Saviours Incarnation 768. consisting of Lords Spiritual and Temporal if not long before had their more fixt beginning How then can so grave and learned a Professor of our Laws and after an eminent Administrator of the Laws and Justice of the Kingdom so either declare to the World that he hath not at all been acquainted with our Feudal Laws but gained a great Estate out of a small in a Government and Laws he knew no Original thereof and make many things to be grievances of the People which are but the Kings Just Rights and Authority and the Peoples Duty and their grievances in doing or suffering their Duties to be done as if disobedience which in our Nation hath too often hapned were a Franchise of the Land and a Right to be Petitioned for by the People But howsoever Mr. Will. Pryn being better awake could be so kind a Friend unto the truth as to give us notice that the Abridger of the Parl. Records left out much of what he should have mentioned viz. The Prelates Dukes Earls Barons Commons Citizens Burgesses Merchants of England in the Parliament Petitioned the King not only for a Pardon in general and of Fines and Amerciaments before the Justices of Peace not yet Levyed in special but they likewise subjoin a memorable request saith Mr. Pryn omitted by the Abridger that in time to come the said Prelates Earles Barons Commons Citizens and Burgesses of the Realm of England may not henceforth be charged molested nor grieved to make any Common Aid or sustein any charge unless it be by Common Assent of the Prelates Dukes Lords and Barons and other People of the Commons of the Realm of England as a Benevolence or Aid given to their King in his want of Money wh 〈…〉 h King Henry the 3d. sometimes had when he went from Aboey to Abbey declaring his Necessities and King Richard the Third that Murthered his Brothers Sons to Usurp the Crown flattered the People they should no more be troubled with when it was never 〈…〉 ked before the Raign of King Henry 3d or 〈◊〉 by any of our Kings or Princes until the urgent Necessities of our blessed Martyr for the preservation of his People caused him once to do it Or such as the imprisoning of some few wealthy Men as obstinately refused to lend him 〈…〉 e and small Sums of Money because they would force him to call such a Reforming and Ruining Parliament as that which not long before hapned in Anno 1641. Or such as their heavily complained of Charges levied upon the People by the Lord Lieutenants or Deputy Lieutenants in some seldom Musters or Military Affairs which a small acquaintance with our Feudal Laws might have persuaded the Gentlemen of the misnamed Petition of Right to have been lawful or that some imprisoned were not delivered upon Writs of Habeas Corpus when there were other just Causes to detain them at least for some small time of Advice And if they will adventure to be tryed by Magna Charta will be no great gainers by it for Magna Charta well examined notwithstanding the dissolution of the Tenures in Capite is yet God be thanked holden in Capite and loudly proclaims our Feudal Laws to be both the King and the Peoples Rights and disdains to furnish any contrivances against their Kings who were the only free givers and granters thereof And the Statute of 28 E 3. And all or the most of our Acts of Parliament do and may ever declare the usefulness of our Feudal Laws and that Reverend great Judge might have spared the complaints of Free-quartering of Land-Soldiers and Marriners or of punishing Offenders by Martial Law and will hardly find any to commend him or any Lawyer for their proficiency in their amassing together so many needless complaints And that in full Parliament The King then lying sick at Sheene whereof he died and divers of the Lords and Commons in Parliament coming unto him with Petitions to know his pleasure and what he would have done therein nor no Imposition put upon the Woolls Woolfels and Leather having as they might think as great an opportunity and advantage as the three great Barons Bobun Clare and Bigod had when they forced the Statute aforesaid de Tallagio non concedendo upon King Edward the first and would not suffer him to insert his Salvo Jure Regis or any the Annaent Custom of Wooll half a Mark and of three hundred Woolfels half a Mark and of one Last of Skins one Mark of Custom only according to the Statute made in the 14th year of his Raign saving unto the King the Subsidy granted unto him the last Parliament for a certain time and not yet Levied Unto which the King gave answer That as to that that no Charge be laid upon the People without common Assent The King is not at all willing to do it without great necessity and for the defence of the Realm and where he may do it with Reason For otherwise all Monarchies may be made Elective and the Will and great Example and Approbation of God disappointed where the Subjects and People will not be so careful of their own preservation as to help their King when his and their Enemy hath invaded the Kingdom and the People may as often as they please change or depose their Kings when they shall resolve to stand still and not help to aid him as the cursed and bitterly cursed Moroz did and be as wise to their own destruction as the Citizens of London were in the late general Conflagration of their City or a foolish fear of breaking Magna Charta which could never be proved to have been any cause of it they would to save and keep unpulled down or blown up ten houses and save some of their goods leave that raging and merciless Fire to burn twenty thousand houses in their City and Suburbs And it was no bad Answer also that that great and victorious King Edward the third as sick as he was made likewise unto that other part of their Petition that Impositions be not laid upon their Woolls without Assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and other People of the Commons of his Realm That there was a
acquiruntur In concessione Privilegiorum observari debet ne contra Jus divinum possumus morale ejusque abolitionem quicquam indulgeat vel largiatur which would so have been if the parties supposed to have been Priviledged should extend them against their King and Gods Vicegerent And it neither was or could be by any Rule of Law or Right Reason any Priviledge granted unto any Members of the House of Commons in Parliament by any of our Kings to their Speaker or otherwise that any of our Kings and Princes should not upon any occasion of High Treason Felony or breach of the Peace personally enter into the House of Commons and cause to be Arrested any of the Members thereof when Queen Elizabeth caused Dr. Parry one of their Members to be Arrested sitting the Parliament for High Treason and tryed condemned and executed for it by Sentence of her Justices in the Court of Kings Bench at Westminster §. 29. Neither could they claim or ever were invested by any Charter or grant of any of our Kings or Princes or otherwise of any such Priviledge or Liberty nor was or is in England any Law or Usage or Custom that a Parliament sitting cannot be prorogued or dissolved as long as any Petition therein exhibiteth remained unanswered or not determined IT being never likely to have been so in a well-constituted government of a Kingdom built constituted upon sound solid principles of Truth Right Reason as ours of England is to have either often or always Ardua to be considered of or of those Arduorum quaedam most especially concerning the defence of the Kingdom and Church of Eng. which were not only to make an Act for the killing of Crows of Paving of Streets or that ex se or per se naturally or properly it could be or ever was in any Regal government in the Earth any Law or Custom to perpetuate or everlastingly to hold a Parliament a thing altogether unknown and unpractised by our English Monarchs who thought it enough at three great Festivals in every year to be attended with their Praelates Nobility and Grandees viz. at Christmas Easter and Pentecost and inquire into the State of affairs of the Kingdom which many times did occasion as much of Advice and Conference amounted as to a Parliament some addresses upon home emergencies being then made for Remedies of evils happened or as fires been to be prevented private petitions seldom interposing if in the inferiour Courts of Justice they might otherwise have Redress for that had been expresly forbidden by a Law of King Canutus and those Sumptuous Feasts and Solemnities being of no longer duration than the Festivals themselves And in so many inferior Courts that gave Remedies the people had no need to trouble themselves or their Kings in Parliament with Petitions especially when in the 9th year of the Raign of King H. 3. A peculiar Court was granted by our Magna Charta and Erected to give Remedies to all the peoples Actions Complaints not Criminal with a lesser charge and attendance in an ordinary and more expedite course and when they came with Petitions proper as they thought for Parliaments they were to be tryed by Bishops and Barons thereunto by the King appointed who by the advice of the Chancellor Treasurer Justices and the Kings Serjeants at Law were if they thought fit to receive them or otherwise to reject them with a non est Petitio Parliamenti and they that were received were many times referred by the King to his Privy Councel and sometimes with an Adeat Cancellariam and at other times with a farther Examination to the Justices of the Courts from whence the complaints did arise or with a respectuatur per dominum principem or referred to the Judges as against the multitude of Attorneys as in the Raign of King Henry 4. And Petitions were not seldom answered with there is a Law already or the King will not depart from his Right And when the Acts of Parliament were made in the 4th and 36th years of the Raign of King Edward 3. wherein he granted that Parliaments should be holden once in every year if need be the Petitions of the people could not avoid the like Limitations or Tryals of them as the Laws required Certain Petitions having been exhibited by the Clergy to the King it was agreed by the King Earls Barons Justices and other wise men of the Realm that the Petitions aforesaid be put in sufficient form of Law A time was appointed to all that would exhibit any Petitions The first part of a Petition the King granted and to the rest he will be advised The Commons did pray that the best of every Countrey may be Justices of Peace and that they may determine all Felonies to which was answered for the 2d the King will appoint Learned Justices they pray that the 40 s. Subsidy may cease Unto which was Answered the King must first be moved They pray that the King may take the Profits of all other Strangers Livings as Cardinals and others during their Lives Unto which was answered the King taketh the profits and the Councel the Kings privy Councel hath sent their Petitions to the King who was then busied in his Wars in France The Commons did pray that all Petitions which be for the Common profit may be delivered in Parliament before the Commons so as they may know the Indorsement and have Remedy according to the ordinance of Parliament unto which was given no Answer The Commons having long continued together to their great Costs and mischief desire Answer to their Bill which in the Parliament Language signified no more than a Petition leur deliverance The Commons petitioned against the falshood of such as were appointed Collectors for 2000 Sacks of Wooll To which was answered This was answered in the last Parliament and therefore Commandment was given to execute the same And the like Answer given ut prius to their Petition touching Robbers and Felons They pray that all Petitions in this present Parliament may be presently answered To which 〈◊〉 answered by the King after Easter they shall be answered The Parliament in Anno 6. E. 3. began upon Monday but forasmuch as many of the Peers and Memb 〈…〉 were not come the assembly required the continuance of the Parliament until the 5th of Hillary next following which was granted The Commons praying the King to grant a pardon for the debts of King John and King Henry the third for which process came dayly out of the Exchequer The King answered he will provide Answer the next Parliament No Parliament being after summoned until Anno 13. of his Raign when the Lords granting to the King the 10th Sheaf of all the Corn of their demesns except of their bound Tenants the 10th fleece of Wooll and the 10th Lamb of their own store to be paid in two years and would that the
promised the People of England after that they had murthered their King and Laws that they would maintain and govern by the Fundamental Laws when they did all they could to subvert them after they had coined it to be High Treason in their cutting off the Head of the late Earl of Strafford and the Illustrious Family of the Prince of Orange William the great Restorer and Rescuer of the Ordines or States of Holland and West-Friezland without the rest of their United Provinces lying now interred under a stately Tomb at 〈◊〉 in Holland with his well deserved Attributes could not escape their Ingratitude when to please that Protector of the English villanies and provide as well as they could for their self preservation they made a League and Agreement with that great Master of Hypocrisy se neque Cel 〈…〉 um Oransionensem Principem at que ex ejusdem familiae Linea quempiam provinciae suae praefectum vicarium vel Archithalassim dehinc electum esse neque etiam quantum ad provinciae suae Ordinum suffragia aâ—â—inet permissaros obliging themselves for the Residue ut unquam eorum quisquam Foederatorum provinciae militiae praeâ—â—iuntur which they perswaded themselves would be sufficient enough to satisfie their particular Consciences if they could but procure their associate Confederates to be of the same perswasion and be as little to be trusted as themselves upon no other reason than that Quinimo eousque remedisse videtur ut ea quae reliqui provinciarum Ordines perversa Indicarunt varia uti loquuntur deductionibus D. D. Ordinum Generalium concilio judicata adeoque concepta adeoque conscripta fuerunt exhibita Idcirco jam ante inquirenti Nobiles ac provinciarum Hollandiae West Frisiaeque Ordines neutiquam dubitantes quin nonnulli provinciarum â—â—deratarum Ordines non aliam ob causam minus convenienter indicarent rerum omnium statum fundamentum quaecunque ex illo dependent ipsas denique veras rerum circumstantias haud plane edocti fuerunt nec quenquam fere quin postremum omnia singula eorundem acta factaque cognoverit sive alteri examini subjicere omni dubio procul solitae sollicitudini Nobilium procerum West Frisiae Ordinum quam in salutem reipublica quotidie intendant attributum sic nunc demum secundum promissa juxta decretum quarto die Junii proxime elapso praepotentibus D. D. Ordinibus General uti quoque literis deinde nono die exarat relinquarum provinciarum Gen. potentibus B. B. Ordinibus exhibita apertam sinceram veramque rerum omnium quae ad Instrumentum seclusionis pertinent detectionem foederatis Ordinibus exhibere voluerunt simul etiam omni ex parte nihil se quicquam in universo hoc negotio actum concessum confirmatumque fuisse quin id omne extra controversiam sibi absque alicujus provinciae damno aut praejudicio agere concedere seu confirmare labore licuerit in quantum patriae comodum ejusdemque Incolarum subditorum salus atque Incolumitas postulat being no good excuse but an Oliver satisfaction either in Latine English or Dutch but a trick of Olivers to work and model his own designs by affrighting them into the height of Ingratitude and an Act of Oblivion of their Oaths and League with their formerly united Confederates And our English in the troubles and stirs betwixt King John and some of his Barons when there were thirteen Knights in every County of England and Wales sworn to certifie the Liberties of the People and in the Raign of King Henry the third the like number there were no Liberties of a third Estate to be found in either of them And when the tired self created Republick never before heard of seen felt understood or exampled in England Wales Ireland or Scotland and its vast American Plantations and knew not how like Phaeton to guide their Ambitious Chariot and the horses would for want of conduct be disorderly run and tear themselves Chariot and all in peices and make the driver never more covet exaltations and fearing that the great Villanies and Oppressions which they had for many years together committed and pillaging of three Kingdoms might shortly after retaliate and give them bitter Meat to their sweet Sauce and supposing that they might have no small assistance from their Hypocrite Oliver Cromwel and his Rebel Army did so suffer him and his Officers and Mechanicks to creep into their Parliament or House of Rebels as in a short time the one part of the Army getting into London and the other quartering or encamping round about it and intermedling with the Government and procuring for themselves and their Friends Memberships in the House of Commons in Parliament as no small part of them had wrought themselves into that House of Commons and the Speaker Lenthal with as much weathercock fidelity as Rebellion fear and folly had suggested unto him ran away to the Army who triumphantly marching in a Militrary manner with their Cannon and Artillery brought him back again and seated him in his Traytors Chair which kind of House of Commons being thus tamed became easily perswaded by a Pack of Daemons on both sides to make a formal surrender of that which they would call the Peoples Liberties which could be no more than what was forfeited by Treason by them which had Rebelled against their King And where then could remain lurk or lye hid their so longed after third Estateship when Cromwel had over-reached them with an Instrument of his own making and allowed them especially when he pulled Mr. Pryn that had so championed the business as he stuft a large Book with arguments to evidence the Supremacy of both Houses of Parliament when a little before he had written a Book of the Superiority of the House of Peers in Parliament and was little to be pardoned when Mr. Pryn the Barrister wrote against Mr. Pryn a Bencher of Lincolns-Inn therein not their third Estateship or any such Republican Title at all but in lieu thereof caused some of his Janisaries amongst whom was an Irish Popish Priest with his Red-coat Musket and Bandaliers to pull out of that House of Commons Mr. Pryn and divers other of the Members and imprisoned him and some other in a Room or Alehouse under Westminster-Hall for a night and some short time after And without any belief as is probable of Sir Edward Cokes aforesaid new Modus tenendi Parliamentum made a frame or Modus of his own with six Knights of every County where there were before but two and in some Boroughs fewer than formerly and at another time pulled out their Members and shut up the House doors called our Magna Charta when it was pleaded Magna Farta which was not the Method praescribed in Sir Edward Cokes modus which Mr. Pryn saith would be an absolute or certain way to introduce levelling or a power in the Common people or to aggrandize the power
respectively which had their Original contradistinct Powers and Customs to judge and determine such Errours and Offences in Words or Actions that shall be committed by any of their Members in the handling or debating any matter depending which was contradicted by Queen Elizabeth when she charged the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament not to intermeddle in matters of Church or State or receive any Bills of that nature and severely punished some Members that attempted to do otherwise Yet they complained in their so strange a claim of those their never to be found Priviledges that they were to their great grievance broken by the Kings endeavouring to put a Salvo Jury to their Bill or Act of Parliament forbiding the pressing of Souldiers at that instant when there was so great an occasion for the Wars in Ireland and went much higher than the great Earls the Constable and Earl Marshal of England and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester did when in a Parliament of King Edward the first they denyed him his accustomed Salvo Jure where he or his Privy Councel or Councel at Law adjudged it necessary And therefore humbly intreated his Majesty by his Royal Power and Authority whereof it may 〈◊〉 they would leave him as little as possibly they couldâ— to protect them in those and all other their Priviledges of Parliament And for the time to come would not interrupt the same and that they may not suffer in his Majesties favour when he should be so greatly obliged unto his Subjects as to restore again to his knowledge and Judgment after the end of such a Parliament never before known in England or any other Nation of the Christian World such a kind of Priviledge neither being possible to be found or heard of on Earth or amongst the Antipodes or in the discovery which Gonzagua's Geese made of the Countrey of the Moon where the Servants are reported to govern the Masters and the Children their Parents And that his Majesty would be pleased to nominate those that have been his Advisers that they may receive such condign Judgment as may appertain unto Justice And this his most faithful Councel shall advise and desire as that which will not only be a comfort to themselves but of great advantage to his Majesty by procuring such a confidence between him and his People as may be a Foundation of honour safety and happiness to his Person and Throne And probably had never adventured to fly so high a pitch if some of the Lords and Commons in Parliament had not upon the Scotch petitioning Rebellion and entring into England borrowed 150000 l. upon their several personal securities to pay their quarters whilst they were here which Parliament Manacles of their King would have amounted to more than the aforesaid Sir Edward Cokes figment of a modus tenendi Parliamentum used as he beleived in Edward the Confessors time And in the absence of Parliaments might have the Name and Title of King until they should make an occasion to Print a Remonstrance against him or arraign him And as a Prologue to their intended Remonstrance the next day they seeming not a little to congratulate his safe coming from Scotland did beseech him to give more Life and Power to the faithful Councel of his Parliament and being necessitated to make a Declaration of their grievances and the corruption of some of his Bishops especially such as are in a near trust and employment about him and were divers of them of his Privy Councel and about the Prince his Son and have thereby a dangerous operation in his Councel and Government in this time of a preparation for War betwixt his Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland which was then but procured and fomented by confederacy Insurrection of the Papists and Bloody Affairs in Ireland for prevention whereof they have ingaged themselves and their Estates in the sum of 150000 l. Sterling or thereabouts for the necessary supply of his Majesty in his dangerous Affairs therefore they prayed 1. That he would concur with the desires of his Parliament for the depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament which was the one half of that grand Fundamental of the Laws and Government of England in the House of Peers in Parliament and abridge their immoderate power usurped over the Clergy to the hazard and prejudice of the Laws Liberty and Religion of his Subjects and the taking away oppression in Church Government and Discipline punishing such Loyal Subjects as join together in Fundamental Truths against the Papists and by the oppressions of unnecessary Ceremonies 2. Remove from his Councel all the promoters thereof and to imploy such persons in his great Affairs and trust as his Parliament may conside in which was to govern him both in times of Parliament and without when he hath at his Coronation taken his Oath to govern according to his Laws not any of the Peoples 3 That he would not alienate any of the forfeited Irish Lands which begot good bargains for some of the ungodly contrivers when they after purchased their Rebel perjured Soldiers arrears for xvj d. per pound Which being fulfilled they his most great and faithful Councel upon these conditions â—â—all by the blessing of God as they would have it cheerfully undergo the expence of the War and apply themselves to such other means and Councels as shall support him and make him glorious both at home and abroad In order whereunto the contrary way they did the 15th day of December 1641. notwithstanding his earnest request unto them print and publish it wherein besides some of their own or their instigators unquiet Spirits ambitious or evil designs to misuse and Govern their Soveraign plainly appearing may be seen and the many greivances of their own making in the oppressing of each other and undertaking to determine of matters and Mysteries of State and the Arcana's and necessities of State of which they could not possibly without necessary Praecognita's be competent Judgâ—s they made a great addition to that prologue to their subsequent Rebellion and abominable consequence of the murder of that excellently pious Prince insomuch is it may be over and over again a wonder to be ranked amongst the greatest in what untrodden or dark inaccessible Caverns of the Earth these unknown and never accustomed Priviledges of the Parliaments of England could lurk or lye hidden when in all the Conservatorships of liberties devised at Running Mede forced upon King John the â—ovisions made at Oxford in the Raign of King Henry the 3d. neither any thing in the Raigns of King Edward the 2d 3. 4. and Richard 2d Henry 4 5 6. Richard the 3d the Usurper Henry the 7th King Henry 8. E. 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and and King James had never such shackles desired or claimed to be put upon any of them unto which those Parliament Remonstrants were the more incouraged by that oppressed Princes having his three Kingdoms
set on fire about his Ears at once that of Ireland incited by his condescensions to that of Scotland and that of England as busy as the worst but gaining more by it when the King had to pacify all given them license by an Act of Parliament to continue in Parliament without adjourning proroguing or dissolving until those great Sums of Money should be satisfied and Ireland quieted which they never intended but hindred and perplexed all they could although he offered to go thither in Person himself which they would not consent unto for fear least he should thereby get Arms and Power into his own hands to frustrate their wicked design which that Republican wicked party durst never offer to Oliver Cromwell the Protector of their supposed Liberties with any the least of those monstrous conditions by them called Priviledges but could tamely suffer him to make his own Instrument of Government alter the Course of Parliament with more or less Members of the House of Commons in Parliament pull out and imprison diverse Members of that House and shut up the Doors constitute a new House of his mechanick and ordinary Commanders instead of a House of Lords after the Republican partty had made such an Act of Parliament as they could that none should have benefit of the Laws who did not take an oath of engagement not to have any more a King or House of Lords And to be disappointed as little as they could possibly in those their intentions made all the hast they could to fire their Beacons of personal Plots and dangers against themselves the great Patriots of the Kingdom and Weal publick as they had done before against Popery and therefore incredible Plots and Conspiracies were discovered by one of their Members who had an especial faculty therein and likewise by others as a Plaister taken from the sore of a man infected therewith and brought by an Incognito in a Letter to Mr. John Pym the Lord Digby seen at Kingston upon Thames with four Horses in a Coach in a warlike manner Horses kept and trained under ground and a dangerous design to blow up the River Thames with Gunpowder whereby to drown the Parliament Houses with many the like ridiculous fopperies to affright the easy to be deluded silly Vulgar and engage them in a Rebellion and were in the mean time to be secured themselves by a guard for which they â—eâ—tioned the King who ordered the Justices of Peace to command the Constables of that division to furnish one but that would not accommodate their purposes nothing would help forward their more than ordinary designs than a guard by the Trained Bands of the City of London by turns which being granted by the King suddenly after the Citizens Wives were so afraid of the danger oâ— the Tower of London as they could not lye dry in their Beds and the Lieutenant of the Tower must be displaced and a more confiding one put in to give them content that never intended to be satisfied Which being done the Pulpits of the Prebyterian Scotized Clergy flaming and the Printing Presses Stationers and Cryers in the Streets as busy in the publishing the Harangues of the House of Commons Members in proclaiming the imaginary grievances and he was a small man at Arms that had made and published no more than one or two such Speeches mean while Protestations were ordered to be made in every Parish of England and Wales to defend the King and the Protestant Religion the King going into London in his Coach hath a Paper thrown into it with a writing thereupon To your Tents O Israel the many Rude â—eople of the adjoyning Hamlets came in droves to the Parliament crying No Bishops and for Justice and as they pass by Whitehall Gate and knock at it desire to speak with the King who sends unto the Students of the Inns of â—ourt with some Captains and Commanders to attend him as a supplemary Guard who came and had a Diet and Table provided for them the Bishops do leave the House of Peers with a protestation patterned with one in 11 R. 2. that they could not sit there in safety for which they were all made Prisoners in the Tower of London but were all afterwards released except Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely who remained there sequestred from his Bishoprick for something more than 13 years without knowing for what cause or crime until his late Majesties happy Restauration Mr. Henry Martin a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament more fearing the Anger of his Mistress than his God or King begins in Parliament to declaim against the King saying that he was not fit to Raign or Govern and moved that all the Regal Ornaments customarily lodged in the Abby of Westminster under the custody of the Dean and Chapter thereof might be seised one Mr. Parker made hast to make himself an Observator of the Rebellious way with dislocated Maximes abused and wrested out of their proper meaning and Interpretations viz. Quod efficit tale est magis tale the King is Major singulis but minor universis salus populi est suprema Lex which although Learnedly answered by the more Loyal Orthodox Party to an ample Conviction that should be could not satisfie or stop the designed Confederacy and Rebellion but the ten Judges of the twelve that gave their Opinions in the case of Mr. Hambden against him concerning the Ship-money for the King were by the Parliaments Order put out of their Offices and Places Justice Berkly one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench taken Prisoner as he was sitting by the Usher of the Black Rod attending the House of Peers after which Mr. Denzal Hollis came to the House of Lords and with greater boldness than assurance claimed the Militia and Power of the Sword to appertain of Right to the People and Mr. Pryn writes and Publishes his Book of the Supremaey of Parliaments seconded by Mr. John Whites Book entituled a Politick Chatechism undertaking to prove by our Laws the Resistibility and Forcing the Power of our Kings to be Vested in the People and the Judges were commanded by the Parliament without the King to declare to the People in their Circuits that the Militia is and ought to be in the Parliament as the Representative of the People which was never before done read seen or heard of in England which all the Judges obeyed but my honoured Friend the worthy Sir Thomas Mallet one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench who not forgetting his very Ancient and Noble discent plainly and resolutely at every place in his next Circuit declared it in all his Charges to be in Law de Jure Coronae suae in the King and for his so exemplary Loyalty was in the last place of that Circuit by Sir Richard Onslow Knight a Member of the Commons House in Parliament with a Troop of Horse as he was sitting upon the Bench at Kingston upon
Thames Arrested and carried Prisoner to the Tower of London and the Wind and Tyde of fear and self-preservation did then so impetuously drive Sir Edward Littleton the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England who some years before when he was a young Man made it a part of his Praise or Olympick Game to prove by Law that the King had no Law to destrain men esse Milites and Sir John Banckes Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas that they joyned with the then Illegal concurrent Votes of too many of the House of Peers that the Militia which was the Right and Power of the Sword and Jus divinum gladii and the totum aggregatum and support of the Government was in the People when our Learned Bracton hath truly informed us that in Rege qui recte regit necessaria sunt duo Arma videlicet Leges quibus utrumqne bellorum pacis recto possit gubernari utrumque enim istorum alterius indiget auxilio quo tam Res militaris possit esse in tuto quam ipsae Leges usu Armorum praesidio possent esse servatae si autem Arma defecerint contra hostes Rebelles Inimicos sic erit Regnum indefensum si autem Leges sic exterminabitur justitia nec erit qui justum faciet Following therein that opinion of Justinian the Emperour in his Institutes And did declare not like men that had taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy before they were admitted into that House that if any Person whatsoever wherein the King or his Command ought to have been excepted shall offer to arrest or detain the Person of any Member of that House without first acquainting their House or receiving further Order from that House that it is Lawful for any such Member or any Person to assist him and to stand upon his and their guard and defence and to make resistance according to the protestation taken to defend the Priviledges of Parliament which was neither to commit or maintain Treason or make that without the Kings Authority to be Treason that never was their intollerable haughty Priviledges so incompatible and inconsistent with Monarchy demanded by the Petition of the Lords and Commons in Parliament the 14th day of December 1641. can never be able to withstand the dint and force of the Law and Right Reason if a Quo Warranto should be brought against them Whereupon the King the 4th day of January 1641. coming into the House of Commons in Person no such Company attending with Pistols at the Door as was untruly reported and being sate in the Speakers Chair said he was sorry for the occasion of coming unto them Yesterday he had sent a Serjeant at Arms to apprehend some that were accused of High Treason whereunto he expected Obedience and not a Message and that he must declare unto them that in case of High Treason no Person hath a Priviledge And therefore he was come to know if any of these Persons accused were here for so long as those Persons accused for no slight crime but for Treason were there he could not expect that that House could be in the Right way which he heartily wishes and therefore he came to tell the House that he must have them wheresoever he can find them but since he sees the Birds are flown he doth expect from them that they should send them unto him as soon as they return thither But assures them in the word of a King he never did intend any force but shall proceed against them in a legal and fair way for he never meant any other which they might easily have done when they had his own Serjeant at Arms attending that Honse for no other than such like purposes The next day being the 5th day of January 1641. notwithstanding that Treason Felony and Breach of the Peace were always by the Laws of England and Customs of their Parliaments exempt and never accompted to be within the Circuit of any Parliament Priviledge for otherwise Parliaments and great Assemblies well Affected or ill Affected would be dangerous unto Kings they declare the Kings coming thither in Person to be an high breach of the Rights and Priviledge of Parliament and inconsistent with the Liberty and Freedom thereof and therefore adjourned their sitting to the Guildhall in London which they should not have done without the Kings Order that a special Committee of 24 should sit there also concerning the Irish Affairs of which number was Sir Ralph Hopton that after got out of their wicked errors and fought and won sundry glorious Battels for the King against those Parliament Rebels and some few more of that their Committee deserted their Party And the Writ sent by King Edward the first to the Justices of his Bench by Mr. Pulton stiled a Statute made in the 7th year of his Raign might have sufficiently informed them and all that were of the profession of the Law in the House of Commons in Parliament that in a Parliament at Westminster the Prelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Realm have said that to the King it belongeth and his part is through his Royal Seignory streightly to defend force of Arms and all other force against his Peace at all times which shall please him and to punish them which shall do contrary according to the Laws and Usages of the Realm and therefore they are bound to aid him as their Soveraign Lord at all times when need shall be and therefore commanded the Justices to cause those things to be read before them in the said Bench and there Inrolled The before confederated national Covenant betwixt England and Scotland being by Ordinance of Parliament for so they were pleased to call their no Laws confirmed under a penalty that no man should enjoy any Office or Place in the Commonwealth of Engl. and Ireland that did not Attest and Swear it which the King prohibiting by his Proclamation sent unto London the bringer whereof was hanged the King certainly informed of the traiterous practices and other misdeameanors of the Lord Kimbolton and his aforesaid Associates did as privately as possible with the Prince Elector Palatine his Nephew and no extraordinary attendance go in person to the House of Commons to seize them because his Serjeants at Arms durst not adventure to do it who having notice of it by the Countess of Carlisles over-hearing his whispering to the Queen and suddenly sending them notice thereof were sure to be absent wherein he being disappointed did afterwards by his Attorney General exhibit Articles of High Treason and other Misdemeanors against them 1. That they had traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom and deprive the King of his Legal Power and place on Subjects an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power which shortly after proved wofully true and for many years after so continued 2. That they have endeavoured by many foul aspersions upon his Majesty
the provisions Derogatory to Kingly Government made at Oxford in the Raign of King Henry the third and constrained of King Edward the second And might have happened into a question unanswerable what mischief our Magna Charta or Charta de Foresta had done unto our Nation or upon what other cause or reason those excellent Laws were granted by our King Henry the 3d and so dearly beloved as they thought themselves utterly undone if they had not with the 15th part of their Moveables obtained them eisdem modo forma without any substraction or addition the same which have been continued confirmed by their several Kings and Princes above thirty times and was such a caution in one of their Parliaments as the Bishops in their several Diocesses were impowered to Anathematize all the Infringers thereof and King Henry the 3d in that direful Procession was constrained to walk through Westminster-Hall the Abby-Church of Westminster with all the Bishops Earls Barons and Nobility of England and Wales holding burning Tapers in their hands the King only refusing after the reading of the aforesaid Magna Charta's freely granted by that King and likewise that enforced upon King John his Father and throwing down their Tapers wishing that the Souls of the Infringers thereof might so burn and fry in Hells everlasting fire being such a cursed obligation as was never enforced upon any King or Prince by their people in any Nation of the World and might if Right had been done unto that distressed King have been deeply censured in foro Animae gratitudinis And if those Magna Charta's have been such a darling of the people as they seemed to value it as their Blood and Estates how could they fall so much out of their love as they would do all that they could to be rid of them as if they had been Circe's Swine tearing them in peices when they are for the most part a compleat System or figure of our Antient Monarch Feudal Laws and every Chapter therein loudly proclaim them to be no otherwise And what have we got in Recompence of the overturning of our beneficial and ever to be praised Feudal Laws but the forfeitures of all our Lands and Estates if God and the King should be extream and mark what is done amiss Or can any man of Learning Reason or Understanding or any but one that is or hath been mad without Lucid Intervals believe that St. Edward the Confessors Laws have not deduced their Original for the most part if not all from the Feudal Laws when by the solemnest and greatest Jury of the World impannelled by King William the Conqueror they appeared sine dolo malo ingenio to be no other than our Feudal Laws by which the Soveraignty did appear to be in the King not the People by which our Kingdom had been Governed and did bear as near a resemblance thereunto as one Hen Egg doth or can unto another in shape or figure And what strange kind of Imaginary Soveraignty radically or otherwise at any time was believed to reside in the people when the Pope and his Legate Pandulphus made our affrighted King John to do homage by laying down his Crown and Scepter at the feet of his Legate multum dolente Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi saith Matthew Paris nor was the Tribute paid or thought fit to be paid thereupon for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland though demanded of King Henry the third his Son or Edward the first his Grandson but by all our Kings and Princes neglected it being an allowed Maxime in our Law that Angliae Rex nunquam moritur which could not be if all the People had been understood to have been Soveraigns Or can any man believe that our English Ancestors did not think St. Edward the Confessors said Laws to be tantum sacrae when they hid them under his Shrine in the Church of Westminster-Abby and afterwards precibus fletibus obtained of him to be Governed by them Which William the Conqueror would not have granted until he had by the aforesaid grand Jury examined and compared them per sapientes viros in Lege eruditos and the People of England and Wales have ever since being about 619 years never believed their Lives Estates and Posterities to be in any kind of safety if the Conqueror and all the succeeding Kings and Princes did not at their several Coronations take their Oaths to observe most especially St. Edward the Confessors Laws which they never failed to do and hath been so taken both by his late Majesty and this our present King And it would be a strange forgetfulness of Duty and our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy upon which and no other our Feudal Laws are built to forget them and the care of our Souls which the Britaignes in Armorica in France could never do since the dread and fear of the cruel Invasion of the Scots and Picts making them forsake their Native Countrey of England and retire where they now are where they yet retain their Antient Feudal Customs used in England which is that Ligeance est ordinaire en tous fiefs la quelle de sa nature emporta obeyssance du vassal foy homage autre les droits devoirs contenus en l'infeodation anciens advouz tenures L'homage lige ce fera en ceste forme scavoir que le vassal l' Espee Esperons ostez teste nue ayant les mains entre celles de son Seigneur se enclynant dira telles paroles mon Seigneur Je deviens vostre home Lige pour telles choses lesquelles Je releve tien de vous ligement en tiel vostre fief Seigneurie lesquelles choses me sont advenues par tels moyens a cause de quoi Je vous doy la foy homage lige vous promittes par ma foy serment vous estre Loyal feable porter l' honneur obeysance envers vous me gouverner aynsi que noble homage de foy lige doit faire envers son Seigneur Le Seigneur respondra come sensuit vous devenus mon home pour rayson de tales choses par vous dites de choses en tel me promittant que vous me serra feal obeysant home vassal si que vostre fief le requier le Subject respondra Je le promets ainsi lors le Seigneur dira Je vous y recen sauf mon droit de l' autrui Insomuch as when all the aforesaid concurrences of the Laws of God and Man Records and Annals Truth and rectified Reason shall be united and laid together he must be an ill Subject and a very great INfidel that cannot with great assurance believe that the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first and his late Royal Majesty and our now Gracious Soveraign have been much wronged in their Regal Rights Revenue and Authority and had as their Blessed Father been made likewise Martyrs if
the Divine Providence of God had not in favour unto a sinful People prevented those very often attempts of Villany And may put us thus preserved from a ruin and confusion impending upon a Nation as unto too many of them nursed and enriched by plain or palliated Disloyalty seeing his now Royal Majesty his Indulgent Brother and Pious Father have taken their Coronation Oaths to observe the good Laws of King Edward the Confessor which are the same with our so often confirmed Magna Charta's and Charta de Foresta the Blessings of this Nation and ordained by Act of Parliament to be read in all the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales the Infringers whereof have been as aforesaid so bitterly Anathematized And that the Honour Dignity and Strength of the Nation may no longer remain Ecclipsed and that our weakness in the want of our most Honourable and Ancient Monarchick Fundamental Feudal Laws may not be told or made use of in Gath and Askalon and that our King may not be without the means to defend himself and his People and avoid the disadvantages and damages which Forreign Princes and his Allies may put upon him in all his Leagues and Treaties with them concerning his Imperial and Monarchick Crown and Dignity and in matters of Commerce wherein all his People are not a little concerned and that there is now more reason and necessity than ever was that the Temporal Nobility the principal and most concerned part of the Nation should as they did in a Parliament at Merton publickly and seriously declare that noluerunt mutare Leges Angliae Collapsa ruunt subductis tecta Columnis Moribus antiquis stant res Britannae viresque FINIS Thucidides Regale Necessarium per Fabian Philipps Plowdens Commentum Fabian Philipps Regale Necessarium c. Mich. 18. E. 3. coram Râ—gt Mich. 19. E. 3. coram Rege Ro. 161. Bracton in proâ—â—io Additament Mat Paris Dr. Brady in Histor. H. 3. in Appendix 221. 222. Dr. Stillingfleets Origines Brittannicae a Dr. Duck De authoritate Juris Civilis Romanorum Lib. 2. Spelman Conal 35. c. 8. Sect. 14. 16. Chronicon Io. Brompton 956. Selden Dissert ad Fletam c. 4. sect 4. b Sir J. Spelman de vita Aelfredi Regis 8. R. Ep. Chalâ—edon Nich. Smith appendix 190. doctissimae Annot. in lib. ejusdem Iohn Spelman 6. c Chronicon J. Brompton 788. d Dr. Duck lib. 2. c. 8. sect 14. 16. e LL Inae Reg. in legib Saxon per Ab. Whelock W. Lambard Latin reddit f Chronic. Joh. Brompton 700. g LL Alluredi Regis h Balaeus Jâ— Spelm. de vita Aelfredi Regis 166. i LL Edwardâ— Regis k LL Aethelstani Regis l LL Edmunds Regis m Dr. Duck de authorit Iuris civilis Rom. li. 2. c 8. sect 16. n Sammes Brit Antiq. iâ—â—str 100 101 102 103. n Sammes Brit Antiq. iâ—â—str 100 101 102 103. o Jo. Spelman in vita Aelfredi 124. ex Ingulfo p LL Edgari Regis Cook in Praefat 4. relat q LL Ethelredi Regis r LL Canuti R s LL Edwardi Reg. Confess t Tit. l. x Noricorum Danor in Britannâ—a u Chron. Lech seldense x LL Guilielmi Regis Conqu Matt. Paris y Tit. 95. z Seldeni notae spicilegium ad eadmerum 167. a Spelman gloffar in legib Reg. H. 1. b Mat. Paris 240 241. c Mat. Paris 21. d Spelman glossar in diatriba de Magâ—â— Charta e Balaeus de scriptoribâ—â— Anglix 93. f Dugdale's Origmes Juridiciales 17. g Chronicon Jo. Bromton 62. h Spelman's glossor i Mat. Paris 197. k Daniel 127. l Balaeus de scriptoribus Anglicis 102. m Sam. Daniel in the Life of King John n Daniel 129. o Daniel 130. p Daniel 131. q Ibidem 132. r Daniel 135. s Daniel 137. t Daniel 138. u Matt. Paris 134. 235. x Mat Paris 236 237. y Daniel 139. 140. z Râ—claus 15 Johannis part 2. m 8. dorso z Matt. Paris 226 and 239. Daniel 139. a Matt. Paris 212. h Matt. Paris 240. 241. Daniel 140. t Pat. 16 Johannis m. 1. Dorso d Anno 16 Johannis in Alba Turre London e A. 16 Johan in turre Lond. f Ro ' pat 17. Johannis in 16. in dorso 3. g Ro ' pat 17 Johan in 16 in dorso h Pryn's History of K. John 34 35. i Mat. Paris ad annos 14 15 16 17 Johan k Mat. Paris 249. l Daniel 140 141. m Daniel 143. Matt. Paris 244. 255. o Charta Reg. Johannis in Mat. Paris 254 255 256 257 258 259 260. p Balaeus de scriptoribus Angliae 102. Polydor vir gil lib. 15. q Cokes 1 part Institut 108 159. Vide L. I. Edwardi Confessor cart L. L. s Matt. Paris 161. 162. Daniel 145. u Daniel 149 147. x Ranulphus Cestrenfis Henry de Knighton Caxton's Chronicle y Pryns history of the Pope's Usurpation in England in the Reign of King John 36. z y Pryns Animadversions upon the 4th part of Cokes Instit. * Daniel 148 149. * Daniel 150 151. * M. Par. 323. * 9 H. 3. * Pryns history of the Pope's Usurpation in England 6 8. * Epist in turre Lond. inter Record ibid. * ibid. fo 61. * Inter recordd anno 8 H. 3. in turre â—ondon * Magna Charta 9 H. 3. * Spelman's glossar ' 376. * Mat. Paris * Pryn's Animadversions upon Coke's 4. part of the Institutes * M. Par. 257. * Pryn's Animadversions upon Coke's 4. part of the Institutes * Tabulae censuales Angliae Or Dooms-day-book Dugdale's Baronage 〈◊〉 â—ome â—it Warren Earl of Surrey and Ferrers Earl of Derby and his Preface to the Antiquities of Warwickshire illustrated * Magna Charta 9 H. 3. c. 31. * 9 H. 3. c. 29. * Mat. Paris 380. Spelman glossar ' 331 332. * Daniel 154. * Daniel 157. * Anno 21 H. 3. * Daniel 157. â—Ro ' Cart. 21. H. 3. m. 7. * Mat. Paris 458 459. Matthew of Westminster 249 Pryn's hist. of the Pope's Usurpation in England â—Ro'clause 23 H. 3. m 14. 18 80. a Daniel 161. b Ro ' claus 28 H. 3. c Ro ' claus 32 H. 3. m. 15. d Daniel in the life of K. H. 3. 164 165. e Daniel 165. Ro ' pat 35 H. 3. m. 6. f Mat. Paris 580 581 583. Mat. Par. 812 15. Ro ' clause 37 46 H. 3. h Mat. Paris i Mat. Paris 758 811 812. Ro ' claus 37 46 H. 3. k Pryns hist. col of the Pope's Usurpation in England 107. Daniel in the life of K. H. 3. l Ro ' pat 37 H. 3. m. 12. in dorso n Mat. Par. 977. in additament is o Spelmans Glos 〈…〉 p Mat. Parit q Mat. Westminster r Daniel 177. s Mat Paris 983. t Mat. Paris 986. Daniel 178. u M. Paris 992 w Mat. Paris 992. x Inter Recorâ— in recept ' scienti apud Camerar y Mat. Paris 261. z Hen. Knight de
of such Assistance as his Majesties and the publick Records of the Kingdom unto which for more than 45 years I have been no Stranger and my own private Library could afford me wherein I cannot be without hope but something considerable may appear in my Labours that do not in his but walking together in the inquiries after our Fundamental Laws have not contradicted but concurred with each other in the Rescue and discovery of the truth of our Ancient and excellent Government and that which I have done might have been more exact if I had not by the no small disturbances of my own affairs and the common Falshoods and Delays of most of the Printers been greatly hindred so as I was in some part thereof to endure the disadvantage of writing as the Printing Press went and therein also could not escape several discouragements and can as Livy that grand Historian of the Roman Empire hath truly said of his Enterprise that it was res magna Ardua with great sincerity say with the learned Bracton perpetuae memoriae commendium postulans a Lectore ut diligenter legat bene consideret si quid super fluum aut perperam in hac opere invenerit illud corrigat aut emendet cum omnia habere in memoria Et in nullo peccare divinum sit potuis quam humanum And with the learned Dr. Barlow Bishop of Lincoln to the like purpose as unto what he wrote against the Church of Rome that if he had miscited or quoted added or omitted any thing or matter willingly against the truth Errors of misinterpretation or definition and of the Printers only excepted I shall be willing to reform any humane frailties or frrors of that kind that shall so appear unto any considerate impartial Reader that do not read it here and there a little runing over as the Irish do their Bogs or as some others do after dinner and in afternoons Nap or Slumber or by Indexes so as I may not prejudice that grand truth concerning the Just Rights of the Imperial Crown of England and the Doctrine of the reformed Church of England against all the Engines of Rebellion Falsities Cavillations and Impostures that have been made use of against it and all their Loyal and Learned Propugnators that have done so worthily in our Israel to defend them Wherein if any shall object and think I have been too copious and fewer words and more labour might have been spared they that have been conversant with Books or the learned or be themselves learned should know that a little may be enough to some when a great deal will not be so for others especially where the Arch Enemy of Mankind hath sown and planted Weeds such as Henbane and Night Shade in our G 〈…〉 dens amongst our wholsom Herbs and Flowers the Lillies of the Vallies and the Roses of Shaâ—on which will require much time and labour and more than a few words to eradicate or pull them up or a few most clear demonstrations to a numerous party the more is the pity that for the space of almost Fifty years last past have been strangely effascinated and infatuated and yet like well of it because they have enriched themselves by turning Religion into Rebellion and Rebellion into a part of that which never was any part of Religion extravagant Religion is now made Liberty and Liberty and Religion too much turned into Rebellion And our Laws and long approved good Monarchick Government having by a seditious party of Rebels abusing the Right power and use of Parliaments diverted our Antient Just and True Laws out of their proper course and channel wherein they had blessed both our Kings and their People I am not unlike to escape the rash or envious censure of some that either have not read throughly as they ought or misread or not understood our genuine proper and true Laws therefore should be content with the duty of those that have made it their endeavour either to vindicate the Rights of their King or relieve a too much neglected unvalued truth and be as much blamed as the Bishop Elect of Winchester was in the time of the troubles and Imprisonment of King Henry the 3d. by some of his overgrown Nobility when they wrote unto the Pope as bitterly as they could against him for maintaining the justice of his Kings cause and when it may be heard of or read by some of our long missed Lawyers that have for almost 50 years been suckled or nursed up in a contrary practice may take it to be a bet ter way and more agreeable to their genuine at least to their profit and humor of the present times to do as Demetrius the Silver smith did unto St. Pauls Doctrine rather cavil and say something against it to no purpose then any thing concerning truth or cogent Arguments yet it must be adventured with a melioraspero and that the errors and mistakes of too many of our men of Law and others may no longer as it were successively afflict our Nation that the subjects may learn understand and practise the duty of Allegeance and Supremacy and not be so much out of their wâ—es as to believe that there ever was a Treason committed by a King or Emperour against their people or that the Members of the House of Commons in 〈◊〉 proceeding beyond their Limits and the King 〈◊〉 â—oples Commission ought to be accompted the reasion of the People but that so many Advocates and Lawyers as England is and hath been abundantly replenished with should rather make it their business strongly upon all occasions to defend their â—ings Rights which every man would expect of his stipended Lawyer as the Advocates of other Kingdoms never failed to do Or can any man adventure to say or think that the All-knowing Never-erring God did not intend to keep his word but made one Vicegerent after that he had made or promised it unto another or ever made the Common People his Vicegerent or any King or Prince subject to their ignorances mutabilities and Passions to be Arraigned and Murdered when they pleased at the suit of the People for Treason committed against them or if any Nation Record or History did or could ever furnish out such an example when the Murder of our Prince did so stink and was more than ordinarily abhorred and detestable as besides many learned men in Forreign parts publickly writing and declaiming against it the Czars or Czar of that great Empire of Russia or Moscovia were so sensible of it as he banished and seized many of the English Merchants and their goods and effects to the ruin of many of them for no other cause than that as he said they had been Traytors unto their King and had Murdered him though they were then men of great Loyalty and were not then Resident in England and see and read Milton over much learned in the School of his Master the Devil and our infatuated Regicides
of France until he were absolved and had confirmed unto them their Liberties whereupon the King much against his will was constrain'd to submit to the present pressure and necessity sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who were yet in France promising them present restitution and satisfaction under the Hands and Seals of 24 of his Earls and Barons undertaking for the performance thereof according to the form of his Charter and Agreement made and granted in that behalf and the better to prepare them to give him their assistance directed the ensuing Letter to meet them in these words Rex Venerabili in Christo Patri S. Dei gratiâ Cant ' Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinali omnibus suffraganeis suis Episcopis cum eo existentibus Johannes eadem gratiâ Rex Angliae c. mandamus vobis quòd cùm veneritis in Angliam scientes quòd jamdiù vos expectavimus adventum vestrum desideravimus unde in occursum vestrum mittimus fideles nostros Dominum H. Dublin ' Archiepiscopum J. Norwici Episcopum W. Com' Arundel Mattheum filium Herberti W. Archidiaconum Huntindon rogantes quatenùs ad nos venire festinetis sicut praedicti fideles nostri vobis dicent T. meipso apud Stoaks Episcopi primo die Julii Whereupon Pandulphus with the Archbishop and the rest of the exiled Clergy upon his confiscation of their Estates forthwith came over and found him at Winchester who went forth to meet them and on his knees with Tears received them beseeching them to have Compassion on him and the Kingdom of England and being thereupon Absolved with great Penitence Weeping and Compunction accompanied with the Tears of the many Beholders did Swear upon the Evangelists to Love Defend and Maintain Holy Church and the Ministers thereof to the utmost of his Power that he would renew the good Laws of his Predecessors especially those of King Edward abrogating such as were unjust would Judge all his Subjects according to the just Judgment of his Court which was then and for many Ages before composed only of the King and his Nobility Bishops and Lords Spiritual with his great Officers of State and such Assistants as he would please to call unto it and that presently upon Easter next following he would make plenary satisfaction for whatsoever had been taken from the Church Which done he went to Portsmouth with intention to pass over into France committing the Government of the Kingdom to the Bishop of Winchester and Jeffrey Fitz-Peter Justiciar a man of a Generous Spirit Learned in the Laws and Skilful in Government who were also to take the Councel of the Archbishop of Canterbury The Souldiers being numerous and wanting Money to attend him desired to be Supplied out of his Exchequer which he refusing to do or wanting it in a great rage with his private Family took Shipping and put forth to the Isle of Jersey but seeing none of his Nobles and others followed him according to their Tenures and Homage was forced having lost his opportunity of the Season to return into England where he gathered an Army with intention to Chastise the Lords who had so forsaken him having for the like Offence some years before taken by way of Fine a great sum of Money Quòd noluerunt eum sequi ad partes transmarinas ut haereditatem amissam recuperaret But the Archbishop of Canterbury followed him to Northampton urging him that it was against his Oath taken at his Absolution to proceed in that manner against any man without the Judgment of his Court to whom the King in great wrath replyed that he would not defer the business of the Kingdom for his pleasure seeing Lay Judgment appertained not to him and marched to Nottingham The Archbishop followed him and plainly told him that unless he would desist he would Excommunicate all such as should take Arms against any before the releasing of the Interdiction and would not leave him until he had obtained a convenient day for the Lords to come to his Court which shortly after they did And a Parliament was assembled at St. Pauls in London wherein the Archbishop of Canterbury produced the said Charter of King Henry I. whereby he granted the ancient Liberties of the Kingdom of England according to the Laws of King Edward with those emendations which his Father by the counsel of his Barons had ratified upon the reading whereof gaudio magno valdè saith Matthew Paris they greatly rejoyced and swore in the presence of the Archbishop that for those Liberties viso tempore congruo si necesse fuerit decertabunt usque ad mortem Archiepiscopus promisit eis fidelissimum auxilium suum pro posse suo sic confederatione facta inter eos colloquium solutum fuit The Pope advertised of those disturbances by his Bull directed Baronibus Angliae but not to those Bishops displaying the Banner of his supposed Authority which had encouraged and animated and caused them to persist therein stiling those Quaestiones novitèr suscitatas grave dispendium parituras did prohibit under the pain of Excommunication all Conspiracies and Insurrections from the time of the Discords inter Regnum Sacerdotium which had been quieted Apostolica autoritate admonished them Regem placare reconciliare exhibentes ei servitia consueta which They and their Predecessors had done unto Him and his Predecessors and if they had any thing to require of him they should not ask it insolenter sed cum reverentia preserving his Regal Honour and Authority that so they might the more easily obtain what they desired and assured them that he would desire the King that he should be kind to them and admit their just Petitions But the Barons persisting in their armed Violence and Rebellion against the King notwithstanding that weather-beaten Prince had for shelter taken upon him the Cross and War for the recovery of the Holy-Land then so called the Pope in July following sent his Bull to the universality of the Barons Bishops and Commonalty of England wherein reciting that the Barons had sent their Agents unto him and that he had commanded the Archbishops Bishops and Archdeacons ut conspirationes conjurationes praesumptas from the the time of the discords inter Regnum Sacerdotium that they should Apostolic à autoritate forbid them by Excommunication to proceed any farther therein and enjoyn the Barons to endeavour to pacifie the King and reconcile themselves unto him and if they had any thing to demand of him it should be done conservando sibi Regalem Honorem exhibendo servitia debita quibus ipse Rex non debebat absque Judicio spoliari And that he had commanded the King to be admonished and enjoyned as he would have remission of his sins graciously to give them a safe conduct and receive their just Petitions ita si quod fortè non posset inter eos concordia provenire
which the Honor of Peverell did consist in Derbyshire fourteen and six in Leicestershire Roger de Montgomery Earl of Shrewsbury had in the Reigns of VVilliam the Conqueror and his Son VVilliam Rufus besides great Possessions in Normandy in VViltshire three Lordships in Surrey four in Hantshire nine in Middlesex eight in Cambridgeshire eleven in Hartfordshire one in Gloucestershire one in Worcestershire two in Warwickshire eleven in Staffordshire thirty in Sussex seventy-seven with the City of Chichester and Castle of Arundell and in Shropshire very many near all that County with the Castle and Town of Shrewsbury Odo Earl of Albermarle and Holderness had shortly after the Conquest given him by William the Conqueror the large Territory of Holderness with fifteen Mannors or Lordships in other Counties that would bear Wheat because he alledged that of Holderness would bear only Oates and had in the Raign of King Henry the Third the Barony of Skipton in Craven with sixteen Knight-Fees a Moyety of the Forrest of Allerdale Caldebec with the Mannor of Cockermouth in the County of Cumberland the Bond Service of the Tenants in Freston a Member of Brustwick in Holderness and in the right of Isabell his Wife the Castle of Carisbrooke and Isle of Wight Robert de Stafford was shortly after the Conquest seized of two Lordships in Suffolk one in Worcestershire one in Northamptonshire twenty in Lincolneshire twenty-six in Warwickshire with eighty-one in Staffordshire Walter de Eureux had shortly after the Conquest two Lordships in Dorsetshire three in Somersetshire one in Surrey one in Middlesex two in Hantshire two in Hartfordshire two in Buckinghamshire and thirty-one besides the Mannors of Saresbury and Ambresbury in Wiltshire and as Sheriff of that County received in Rent one hundred and thirty Hogs thirty-two Bacons two bushels and sixteen gallons of Wheat and as much in Barley bushells and eight gallons of Oates thirty-two gallons of Honey or sixteen Shillings four hundred and forty-eight Hens one thousand and sixty Eggs one hundred Cheeses fifty-two Lambs two hundred Fleeces of Wool having likewise one hundred and sixty-two Acres of arable Lands and amongst the Reves Lands to the value of Forty Pounds per Annum Baldwin de Molis second Son to Gilbert Crispin Earl of Beton Son of Godfrey Earl of Eu natural Son of Richard Duke of Normandy great Grand-Father to William the Conqueror was one of the principal Persons of the Laity that won much Fame at the Conquest and Marrying Aldreda a Neice of the Conqueror had shortly after the Castle of Exeter granted unto him and besides Mola and Sappo had given unto him Werne in Dorsetshire Apely Portlock and Mundeford in Somersetshire one hundred and fifty-nine Lordships in Devonshire and nineteen Houses in Exeter To whose eldest Son Richard was also given the whole Honor and Barony of Okehampton with the Shrievalty of the County of Devon Geffry Mandeville had given him by the Conqueror in Barkshire four Mannors in Sussex twenty-six in Middlesex seven in Surrey one in Oxfordshire three in Cambridgeshire nine in Hertfordshire nineteen in Northamptonshire seven in Warwickshire two in Essex forty with Hurley and the Woods in Barkshire Alan Sirnamed Rufus or Fergaint Son of an Earl of Britany in France had given him by William the Conqueror the Northern part of the County of York called Richmond which with what he had in Yorkshire made one hundred and sixty-six Lordships besides the Castle of Richmond one called the Devises in Wiltshire in Essex eight in Hartfordshire two in Cambridgeshire sixty-three with ten Burgages in Cambridge in Herefordshire twelve Mannors in Northamptonshire one in Nottinghamshire seven in Norfolk eighty-one and in Lincolneshire one hundred and one Together with many others of the Norman Nobility and Adventurers who had great quantities of Lands and Possessions given unto them by that Conquerour of England And some of our English Nobility were so Great Magnanimous and Munificent as at the Coronation of King Edward the First when Alexander King of Scotland his brother-in-Brother-in-Law came from thence to Westminster to be present and do him Homage Sir Edmond Earl of Kent the King's Brother the Earls of Cornewall Gloucester Pembroke and Earl Warren each of them by themselves Led on their Hands one hundred Knights disguise in their Armes and whame they weren alyght of theyr Horse they let them goo whedyr they wolde and they that cowd them take had them stylle at their own lyking The great Ancestors of whom as well as those that stood with or against King Henry the Third or were but as sad Spectators of those tragick Wars had in their Hospitalities and huge quantities of Lands holden of them as may appear by their Certificates of Knights Fees recorded in one part of the Book called the Red-Book of the Exchequer happily preserved from the Conflagration or great London Fire several Forrests Parks and Chases with multitudes of Castles in some of their Possessions had been the Procurers of many of their own and the common peoples Liberties and Priviledges in the often confirmed Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta with divers great Priviledges Fairs and Markets and had given unto them large Commons of Pasture and Estovers and by their Grants of Markets and Fairs and likewise by their very many Advowsons and Patronages of Churches of a great part of which they had been the Founders Builders and glebe Endowers had to their Spiritual Estates laid upon the Commonalty as great Obligations of Gratitude as they had in the before-recited Temporal Favors and Benefits besides their granting of Leases of part of their demesne Lands at small Rents with reservation of some Service in permitting their Charity and good Will in Copy-hold Lands to Tenants or Servants or their Widdows or Children which at the first was but at the Will of the Lord or for Life or Years to continue and breed into a custom of Inheritance Secundum consuetudinent manerii and enfranchised and made many of them Free-holders permitted many Copy-hold Fines incertain to be made certain where they had been anciently at the Will of the Lord and to be limited by the Chancery or Courts of Justice to the Rent of two Years improved Value and when they do in these later times demise any part of their demesne Lands to a Tenant for twenty-one Years now that the legal Usury or Interest for Money is but six per cent for ten Years purchase do take as many Landlords do now Money before hand at a chargeable Interest and next to the manifold reiterated Blessings of the God of Heaven and Earth together with the favours and benefits of the Elements and superior Regions and astral Influences by and under the divine Providence were as much Blest and Happy under their Kings Princes Bishops and Nobility as any Nation or common People of the World could be or expect to be in their Properties Liberties Protection and Priviledges whom those
consensum deliberare nolo The King of Scotland hath as a Feudatory to our Kings of England in fide ligeancia Sate in the House of Peers in Parliament by the Summons of King Edward the Third in the 22d and 25th Years of his Raign in a Chair of State set upon his Left hand The Arch-Bishops and Bishops do enjoy the Priviledge and Honour of being present by reason of their Baronies which howsoever some of them not all were given at the first in Frank Almoigne and as Eleemosynary are holden in Capite debent interesse judicijs Curiae Regis cum Baronibus and are not to be absent saith the Constitution made at Clarendon in the 10th Year of the Raign of King Henry the Second and that honourable Tenure of Servitium militare was accounted to be such a Tye and Duty of Service incumbent upon the Bishops as well as the other Baronage as any Neglect thereof was so poenal unto them as Thomas Beckett the then ruffling and domineering Arch-Bishop of Canterbury notwithstanding all the Pleas and Defences which he could make wherefore he came not to that great Councel or Parliament when he was Commanded was Condemned in a great Sum of Money the Forfeiture of all his moveable Goods to be Guilty of High Treason and be at the King's Mercy and the reason was given of that Judgment for that Ex reverentia Regiae Majestatis ex astrictione Ligij Homagij quod Domino Regi fecerat ex fidelitate observantiâ terreni honoris quem ei juraverat he ought to have come but did not For such kind of Courts and Councels where Kings and Princes with the Lords Spiritual and Temporel as their greater Tenants in Capite did for mutual Aid Assistance and Counsel assemble and meet together have been no Novelty or new Device amongst the Cimbri Germans Gothes Francks Longobards Saxons and several other Northern Nations were brought unto us from them amongst whom Tenures in Capite and by Knights-Service more agreeable to Humanity were justly esteemed to be a better Foundation and Subsistency of the right Power and Conservation of Soveraignty and Government than that of the Eastern and Southern Princes was where Dura erit servitus Dominorum the condition of Servants was hard and the severity of Masters who had Potestatem vitae necis Power of Life and Death over their Servants very great and rigorous and having nothing which they could call their own but Misery were put to maintain their Masters Luxury out of their Labours and enduring Vilissima ministeria all manner of Slaveries ab omni militia arcebantur were not suffered to know or have the use of Armes but amongst the Northern Nations there was a more just and gentle Usage of the better part of their Servants for that they did divide a great part of their Lands and Conquests amongst those their Servants and Soldiers Pactionibus interpositis inter Dominum servientem de mutua Tutela with an especial care to have those Feudal Lands to remain to their Primogeniture Heirs Males or the next Survivor of them and saith l' Oyseau ce fut un Droict commun que les Enfans masles succederoient au fief du Pere lous ensemble tel est le Droict des Lombards amongst whom the Tenants were to redeem their Lords taken Prisoners with the Expence or Loss of half their Lands and saith Martinus Margerus a Schomberg Vasallus juramento fidelitatis tenetur non solum Domino damnum per se alios in rebus non dare sed etiam concilium auxilium praestare nè damnum ab alijs incurrat Vasallus Domino contrà fratrem succurrere tenetur Et contrà Filium pro Domino arma suniere debeat Et Patriam pro Domino etiam contrà Filium defendere And the Feudal Laws were so well known here in England in King Edward the Confessors Raign as it was accounted in his so greatly reverenced and beloved Laws to be consonant to Justice and right Reason that Qui sugit à Domino vel Socio suo pro timiditate belli vel mortis in condictione Heretochij in expeditione navali sive terrestri perdat onme quod suum est suam ipsius vitam manus mittat Dominus ad terram quam ei anteà dedâ—rat si terram haereditariam habeat ipsa in manus Regis transeat And the Nobility and Magnates Great and Rich Men having received those ample Favours and Bounties from their Emperors Kings and Princes and reserved some of their Demesne Lands to themselves for their own House-keeping were so willing to Communicate it to others as they distributed their other great quantities of Lands and Tenements in like manner Colonis hominibus inferioris notae to their Friends Servants and followers under the various Tenures of in Capite by Knights Service Soccage Castle-Guard and Copy-holds Burgage grand and petit Serjeanty and were also to attend their Lords and Donors in the Service of their Prince which was wont to be carefully excepted in all their Oaths of Homage and Fealty made unto their Mesne Lords and Antiquissimo tempore sic erat in Dominorum potestate connexum ut quando vellent possunt auferre rem in Feudum à se datam and such an Harmony and great Obligations of Bodies Souls and Consciences Lands Estates Dependance and Protection could be no other but a very great Safety and constant kind of Defence to this Kingdom and all the Subjects and People thereof For In feudalibus Consuetudinibus say the Civil or Caesarean Laws Jura regnorum Ducatuum Marchinatuum adeoque totius Imperij leges fundamentales ac nervi quibus Monarchiae Romanae cum ipso senescente mundo lanquescentes inter pedes Feudorum materiam privatim publicè utilem in ea hodie totius Christianae reipublicae Jus publicum magna ex parte Consistere vires nervos robora tam togatae quam armatae militiae sita esse Johannes Calvin I. C. in Epist. dedicat Jurisp. seudal feuda feudorum quae Jura inquit fidelitatem ac fidem publicam pacem Incolumitatem communis patriae firmavit Imperiosam Principum Magnatum dignitatem amplificant firmissimum militiae contra Communes Reipublicae hostes nervum ac praesidium subministrant adeoque fulcra Germanico Romani Imperij nunâ—upari desiderant and have received the Respect Reverence and Approbation universally and almost every where allowed and not denied unto them in the Labors and Studies of very great and eminent Civil Lawyers as Zasius Wesenbechius Vulteius Harrisanus Corvinus Bronkhorsius Rosenthalius Gothofedus Schwedecus multi alij Ac etiam in Belgio Fridericus Sande omnesque qui non tantum severa Lege proficere Cupit in foro rideri non vult Feuda à Germanis principio rerum gentium nationumque ad vires Imperij augendas atque
of King Edward the Fourth with the allowance of Sir Edward Coke his justly adoring Commentator hath taught us That Tenures in Capite do draw and bring along with them as incidents thereunto Homage which is the most humble and honourable Service and Reverence that a Tenant can do unto his Lord when upon his Knees with his Sword ungirt and his Head uncovered holding his hands between the Hands of his Lord he sweareth and professeth to be his Man of Life and Limb and earthly Worship and to bear him Faith for the Lands and Tenements which he holdeth of him saving the Faith which he holdeth to his Soveraign Lord the King together with Fealty Service in War or instead thereof Escuage Socage Franck Almoigne Homage Auncestrel Grand Serjeanty Petit Serjeanty Tenures in Burgage and Villeinage and then the Lord so sitting Kisseth him And where the Service is not done by the Tenant in Capite or by Knight-Service in Person the Escuage Money or Fine that is to be paid in recompence thereof is to be Assessed by Parliament and if any Controversy do arise whether the Service were done personally or not it shall be tryed saith Littleton by the Certificate of the Marshal of the King in Writing And Tenant saith Sir Edward Coke is derived from the word Tenere and all the Lands in England in the hands of Subjects are holden of the King immediately or mediately for in the Law of England we have not properly any Alodium that is any Subjects Lands that are not Holden unless saith he you will take Allodium for a Tenant in Fee Simple as it is often taken in the Book of Dooms-Day and Tenants in Fee Simple are there called Alodii or Alodiales and he is called a Tenant because he holdeth his Lands of some Superior Lord by some Service and therefore the King in this Sence cannot be said to be a Tenant because he hath no Superior but God Almighty and Praedium domini Regis est directum Dominium cujus nullus est Author nisi Deus And Alodiarius Alode seu Alodium saith Sir Henry Spelman est Praedium liberum nulli Servituti obnoxium but were never so free as to be no Subjects or exempt from Obedience to our Kings in whose Land and Dominion they lived Ideoque Feudo oppositum quod hoc semper alicui subiacet servituti Feuda enim antiquò dicuntur Servitii Fidelitatis gratia proprietate feudi penes dantem remanente usu fructu tantummodo in accipientem transeunte ut ex C. de feud cogn ' collegit Barat ca ' 1. Quamobrem nec vendi olim poterant invito Domino nec ad haeredes Vassalli transiunt nisi de ipsis nominatim dictum esset sed laesa fidelitate adimerentur dicitur à Saxon ' Leod quasi populare dicitur Alodium ab à Privitiva Leed Gallicè Leud pro Vassallo quasi sine Vassallagio sine Onere quod Angli hodie Load appellant Alodium feudo opponitur in antiqua versione LL Canuti ca ' 73. Ubi Sax ' Bocland dicitur quod in Aluredi LL ca ' 36. tota Haereditas vocatur idem esse videtur quod hodiè Fee Simple Dicitur etiam Alodium terra libera quam quis à nemine tenet nec recognoscit licet sit in alieno Districtu Jurisdictione Ita quod solum est sub Domino districtus quoad Protectionem Jurisdictionem And believes the Aloarii mentioned in Dooms-Day Book do signify no more than our Sockmanni or Socage Tenants Cum Germanis Liberos Gallis Nobiles qui militiam ex arbitrio tractantes nullius domini Imperio evocati nulloque sendali gravamine Coerciti sui Juris homines non Feudales seil qui dominium tamen agnoscerent ut locus ille e Domesday citatus plane evincit qui fidelitatem apud nos Jurarent Censum quantulumcunque augebunt siâ—t etiam qui de nomine eos tenâ—isse asserunt ac si Hunnoniorum more adeo sole suum accepissent patrimonium And du Fresue Etymologizing the word Alodiarias saith It is Praedium etiam domino obnoxium possidet tenens Domesday quando moritur Alodiarius Rex inde habet Alleniationem terrae a releife excepta terra sanctae Trinitatis Gulielmus Gemeticensis Lib. 3. Ca. 8. Abbatique locum cum tota villa quam ab Alodiariis auro redemit Thomas Walsinghamus p. 419. Et in definitione Alodialis which he saith is Idem quod Tenens mentioneth Chartam Gulielmi ducis Normanniae p. 1042. In Monasticon Anglicanum Tom. 2. p. 959. Dedi etiam Ecclesiam Radulphi villae umon Allodialem in ipsa villa dedi quoque unum Allodialem in Amundevilla quietam ab omni Consuetudine Bignenius dicit quod significat Haereditatem paternam Terram Et Dominicus de Prorogat ' Allodiorum dictum oppinatur quasi Alo Leuden id est sine Subjectione a voce Leuden quae Germanis paâ—i subire fignificat sicut subjectionem servitium Spelmannus derivat a Leod populare Saxonice Ita ut Aleod sit idem quod Praedium populare oppositum Feudo quod est Praedium dominicale And the Learned du Fresne amongst the various Opinions mustred up by him Concludeth with a Deniquè plerique è doctioribus existimant vocem esse primogeniam Gallicam vel Francicam quae Praedium ac rem proprietario Jure possessum denotat Feudum novum absque domini Concensu alienatum revocari potest a Domino Decis 14. Feudum in dubio praesumitur esse haereditarium non ex pacto providentia Decis 30. n. 22. Feudum antiquum absque concensu domini alienatum ex communi D. l. sententia a filio revocari potest n. 11. And the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service were of so high an Esteem and Value amongst the English whereby to do unto their Kings and Country that Honor and Service which was due and might be expected from them in their several Degrees and Stations as the great Lords and other Men of Note did many times purchase or obtain of each other the Homages and Servitia of so many Men or parts of Knights Fees by Deeds or Charters and so much beyond any Money or other kinds of Estate Lands or Offices as Robert Earl of Leicester's Ancestor having at the Coronation of King John agreed to pay unto Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk's Ancestor Ten Knight's Fees for the Purchase of that great Office of High Steward of England of which Seven and an half were paid and a Controversy arising afterwards betwixt the said Earls for the Satisfaction of the Remainder in the 31st Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third the King undertaking to make an Accord betwixt them adjudged Simon Montfort who afterwards ill requited him to have and execute the said Office of High Steward and that Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk who afterwards joyned in the
Christianity in this our British Isle whither with divers good Authors we believe that King Lucius who is said to lie buried at Winchester did in the year 156 after the Birth of our Redeemer or in the year 185 186 or 187. write his Letter to Pope Eleutherius to transmit unto him the Roman Laws it is allowed by Sir Henry Spelman to have been written Rege Proceribus Regni Britanniae and that Faganus and Dervianus two Doctors being sent by Eleutherius to King Lucius Baptized him cum regulis populum Baptizant Clerum ordidinant 3. Metropolitanos 28. Episcopos instituunt Rex Ambrosius Aurelius ut memoriale Procerum Britanniae quos Hengistus Saxonesque sui complices nefanda proditione in monte Ambrosij qui nunc vulgò Stohenge dicitur trucidaverant 480. Consul ' Barones aeternum fieret praegrandes Lapides qui ibidem in borum memoriam usque in praesens positi sunt ab Hybernia cum magna manu Germano suo Uther illuc transmisso deportari fecit qui câ—â—n allati fuissent congregati sunt in monte Ambrosij edicto Regis magnates eum Clero cum magno honore dictorum nobilium sepulturam prepararent In the Charter of King Aethelbert confirming his Grant of the Land given to the Church of St. Pancrase in the Year 605. It is mentioned to have been done consensu venerabilis Augustini Archiepiscopi ac Principum suorum Et Decreta judiciorum ordinavit juxta exempla Romanorum concilio sapientum and when Edwin King of Northumberland was perswaded to be a Christian it is said that he consulted cum principibus conciliariis suis. Anno Dominicae incarnationis Aethelbertus Rex in fide roboratus Catholica unà cum beata regina filioque ipsorumque Eadbaldo ac Reverendissimo praesule Augustino caeterisque Optimatibus terrae solemnitatem natalis Domini celebravit Cantuariae convocato igitur ibidem communi concilio tà m Cleri quà m populi In Anno Domini 673. a Parliamentary Councel was holden at Hertford presentibus Episcopis ac Regibus Magnatibus universis but not any Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons as we read of saith Mr. Pryn. A great Councel or Parliament was held at Becanfeld where Wythred King of Kent was present Anno 694. In like manner where none but the Peers were present The like Anno 710. at Worcester but without any Commons The like in the Councel at Cliff Anno 747. holden by Ethelbaldus King of Mercia omnibus Regni sui principibus ducibus being present but not one Knight or Burgess mentioned The like in Anno 787. at Colchuth coram Offa Rege suis magnatibus convenerunt omnes principes tà m Ecclesiastici quà m seculares Anno Domini 793. King Offa held a Councel at Verulam wherein the King suorum Magnatum acquiescens concilio took a journey to Rome Anno 794. after his return Celebrated two Councels the one at Colchyth where were present nine Kings twenty-five Bishops twenty Dukes but no House of Commons the other at Verolam Congregato apud Verolamium Episcoporum Optimatum concilio About the year 796. Cynewolf King of West Sex held a Councel where he wrote to Lullus Bishop of Mentz touching matters of Religion unà cum Episcopis suis nec non cum caterva Satraparum Anno 800. Kenulf King of Mercia called to the Councel at Clovesha omnes Regni sui Episcopos Duces Abbates cujuscunque dignitatis viros where there was no mention of any Commons Anno 816. at the Councel of Colechyth Caenulf King of Mercia was present cum suis principibus ducibus optimatibus but not a Syllable of Knights or Burgesses present About the year 822. in the Councel of Cloveshâ— where Beornulf King of Mercia Wilfred Archbishop Omniumque dignltatum optimates Ecclesiasticarum Secularium were present but no Knights of Counties or Burgesses Anno 824. another Councel was held by the same King at the same place assidentibus Episcopis Abbatibus Principibus Merciorum universis but no Commons for ought appears the King Archbishops Bishops and Dukes Subscribing their Names to the decrees there made About the same time a Councel called Pan-Anglicum or for all England was holden at London Praesentibus Egberto Rege West Saxonum Withlasio Rege Merciorum utroque Archiepiscopo caeterisque Angliae Magnatibus who Subscribed it Anno Domini 838. a Concilium Pan-Anglicum was holden at Kingston where King Egbert and his Son Ethelwolph were present cum Episcopis Optimatibus but not a word mentioned of the Commons Assent or Dissent Anno 850. A Councel was holden at Beningdon Praelatis proceribus Regni Merciae under King Bertulf when Lands were Setled and Confirmed by them to the Abbey of Crowland without the Assent or Mention of any Commons Anno Domini 851. In a Councel held at Kingsbury under King Bertulf Praesentibus Ceolnotho Archiepiscopo Doroberniae caeterisque Regni Merciae Episcopis Magnatibus without Knights or Burgesses Anno 855. There was a Councel or Parliament of all England held at Winchester where Ethelulf King of West-Sex Beorred King of Mercia and Edmond King of East-Sex were present together with the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York Caeterisque Angliae Episcopis Magnatibus wherein King Ethelwolf Omnium praelatorum principum suorum gratuito concilio without any Knights or Burgesses gave the Tithes of all the Lands and Goods within his Dominions a matter of no small Concernment to all his Subjects in their Estates and Proprieties to God and the Church which hath continued ever since in Force through all England Betwixt the Year 871. which was the beginning of King Alureds Raign and the end of which was in Anno Christi Domini 900. that excellent and prudent Prince Collected and Corrected divers Laws made by the Saxon Kings his Predecessors omitting others consulto sapientum Prudentissimorume suis consiliis usus edicit eorum observationem which was probably so done in a great Councel or Councels which were afterwards called Parliaments which in that so generally an unlearned age cannot be understood to be less than the Magnates of the Kingdom Bishops and Barons And the like is to be said of the Prudentum concilium given to Edoard who began his Reign in Anno 900. and ended it in Anno 924 and as much is to be believed of the Councel or Parliament of King Aethelstan who began his Raign in Anno 924 and ended it in the year 940. who besides what is mentioned in the making of his Laws that he did it prudenti Ulfheline Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum suorum concilio did about the year of our Lord 930. by his Charter give divers Lands to the Abby of Malmesbury in one of which Charters or Grants there was a Postscript or Subscription in these words Sciant sapientes Regionis Nostrae non has prefatas terras me injustè rapuisse rapinas Deo dedisse
of King William the Second there was a great Councel De cunctis Regni principibus and another which had all the Peers of the Kingdom In the 7th Year of his Raign was a great Councel or Parliament so called at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire Episcopis Abbatibus cunctisque Regni Principibus coeuntibus and a Year or two after the same King De statu Regni acturus called thither by his Command his Bishops Abbots and Peers of the Kingdom Anno 1106. Robert Duke of Normandy coming into England and seeking to be reconciled to his Brother King Henry the First which could not at Northampton be effected Magnatibus regni ob hoc Londonium edicto Regis convocatis the King by fair Words and Promises so frustrated the Dukes designs as Omnium corda sibi inclinavit ut pro ipso contra quemlibet usque ad capitis expositionem dimicarent Dux in Normanniam iratus perrexit Rex ipsum secutus est usque in Herchebrai Castellum trahens secum omnes ferè Proceres Normanniae Andegaviae robur Angliae Britanniae ut ipsum debellaret The Emperour having sent Ambassadors unto him to request his Daughter Maud in Marriage Tenuit ità que Rex apud Westmonasterium in Pentecosten Curiam suam quâ nunquam tenuerat splendidiorem wherein the Marriage was concluded Anno Domini 1114. Rex Anglorum Henricus fecit omnes suae potestatis Magnates as if there were no need of Commons which were then believed to be included in them fidelitatem jurare Willielmo filio suo At the Coronation of which King who had usurped his said elder Brothers Kingdom and stood in fear of his better Title it was said That all the People of the Kingdom of England were present but the Laws and Charter then made were Per commune concilium Baronum suorum confirmed and that Charter was attested by Mauritio Londoniensi Episcopo Willielmo Wintoniensi electo Odoardo Herefordiensi Episcopo Henrico Comite Simone Comite Waltero Gifford Comite Robert de Monti forti Rogero Bigod aliis multis Et factae sunt tot Chartae quot sunt Comitatus in Anglia Rege jubente positae in Abbatiis singulorum Comitatuum ad Monumentum In the 3d. Year of his Raign the Peers of the Kingdome were called without any mention of the Commons and Orders were at another great Councel made Consensu Comitum Baronum Florentius Wigorniensis saith that Lagam Edwardi Regis reddidit cum illis emendationibus quibus eam Pater suus emendavit concilio Baronum suorum After whose Death King Stephen having Usurped the Crown of England which did not at all belong unto him and Fought stoutly to keep it Concilium congregavit de statu Reipublicae cum Proceribus suis tractare studuit Anno Domini 1153 Justitiâ de Caelo prospiciente diligentiâ Theobaldi Archiepiscopi Cantuar ' aliorum Episcoporum regni King Stephen having no Issue Facta est concordia betwixt him and Henry Duke of Normandy after King Henry the Second who was by King Stephen acknowledged In conventu Episcoporum allorum Optimatum wherein it was accorded That Duke Henry saith Mathew Paris should Succeed him in the Kingdom Stephen only enjoying it for his Life if he should have no Children ex concessione Ducis Henrici ità tamen confirmata est pax quòd ipse Rex Episcopi praesentes cum caeteris Optimatibus regni no Commons jurarent quòd Dux post mortem Regis si ipsum superviveret Regnum fine contradictione aliqua obtineret King Henry the Second in the 10th year of his Raign held a great Councel or Parliament at Clarendon where some of the Customes and Constitutions of the Kingdom were Recognized which was an Assembly only of Prelates and Peers Anno 1118. in a Peace or League made betwixt him and Philip King of France it was agreed That in any Matters of Difference afterwards ariseing betwixt them they should abide by the Award of three Bishops and three Barons to be Elected on the King of France his part and the like on the King of Englands Anno Gratiae 1272. Venit Oxenford in generali Concilio ibidem celebrato constituit Johannem filium suum Regem in Hybernia concessione confirmatione Alexandri summi Pontificis in eodem concilio venerunt ad Regem Resus filius Gryphini Regulus de South-Wales David filius Owini Regulus de North-Wales qui Sororem ejusdem Regis Angliae in uxorem duxerat Cadwallanus Regulus de Delmain Owanus de Kavillian Griffinus de Bromfeld Madacus filius Gerverog alii multi de Nobilioribus Gualliae omnes devenêrunt homines Regis Angliae patris fidelitatem ei contra omnes homines pacem sibi regno servandam juraverunt In eodem concilio dedit Dominus Rex Angliae praedicto Reso filio Griffini terram de Merionith David filio Owani terram de Ellismore Deditque Hugoni de Lasci ut supradictum est in Hybernia totam Midam cum-pertinentiis pro servitio centum militum de ipso Johanne filio suo Chartam suam ei inde fecit And being to return an Answer to the Popes Letter inviting him to take upon him the Croysado and succour the Holy Land assembled a Parliament at London ubi dominus Rex Patriarcha Jerusalem Episcopi Abbates Comites Barones Angliae but no Knights Citizens or Burgesses thereof saith Mr. Pryn Willielmus Rex Scotiae David frater ejus cum Comitibus Baronibus terrae suae convenerunt Anno Domini 1162. without leave of Parliament or People Fecit jurare fidelitatem Henrico filio suo de haereditate suâ inter omnes Magnates Regni Thomas Cancellarius primus fidelitatem juravit salvâ fide Regi patri quamdiù viveret regno praeesse vellet In the 22d Year of his Raign held a great Councel at Nottingham by Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons At Windsor Communi concilio with Bishops Earls and Barons And the like afterwards at Northampton King Richard the 1st held shortly after his Coronation upon the invitation of the King of France and his undertaking to do the like a great Councel or Parliament cum Comitibus Baronibus suis qui Crucem susceperant in generali Concilio constituti apud Londonias taking their Oaths for the recovery of the Holy Land hasting thither and passing into Normandy Elianor Regina mater Richardi Regis with whom he had left the care of the Kingdom and Alays Soror Phillippi Regis Franciae Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Norwich Durham Winchester Ely Salisbury Chester Geffry the Kings Brother elected Archbishop of York and John Earl of Morton the Kings Brother shortly after transfretârunt de Anglia in Normanniam per mandatum Domini Regis habito cum illis concilio Dominus Rex statuit Willielmum Episcopum Eliensem Cancellarium
then untill after a long intervall of time in Anno. 22. E. 1. re-continued sub eadem fo 〈…〉 a which was in no other Tenour or to any other purpose then ad faciendum consentiendum iis to those matters or things which the King by the Councell and advice of the Peers viz. the Lords Spirituall and Temporall should ordain and although there have been ab ultima antiquitate great Councells or Parliaments Now although not formerly called Parliaments in this Nation or Kingdome yet they were not materially or formally the same and if it could be proved that the members thereof consisted of 3. Estates besides the King their Sovereign Lord before the 49th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 3. which all our Parliament Records do deny yet they that were admitted or came under the Elections illegally forced Writs and designs of Montfort and his rebellious partners by their then only newly contrived House of Commons can never entitle themselves to the same Origene Identity purpose and usage of our former Parliaments before that House of Commons in Parliament were admitted to consent unto and do what the King by the advice of his Lords Spiritualand Temporall therein should Ordain And there might be allways reason enough found that there should be a distinction betwixt the great Councells of Parliament which were not only for extraordinary emergencies touching the defence of the Kingdom and Church and redress of grievances in Civill affairs and contingencies and that which was for Military aids and services for saith our old and learned Bracton in Rege qui recte regit necessaria sunt duo haec Arma videlicet leges quibus utrumque tempus Bellorum pacis recte possit gubernare utrumque enim illorum alterius indiget auxilio quo tam militaris res possit esse in tuto quam ipsae leges usu Armorum praesidio possint esse servatae Si autem Arma defecerint contra hostes rebelles indomitos sic erit regnum indefensum sic autem leges sic exterminabitur Justicia nec erit qui rectum faciet Judicium And our Kings whose Royal Progenitors had heretofore all the Lands in England holden of them in Capite might in their greater concernments better deserve to keep their seperate and particular Military Courts for aids and services then those many of their Subjects do that would be unwilling not to be allowed to do it in their own Estates which had no other fountain or originall then the bounty and indulgence of their Kings and Princes and Bracton hath inform'd us that quod ille homagium suum facere debet obtentu reverentia quam debet domino suo adire debet dominum suum ubicunque inventus fuerit in regno vel alibi si possit commode adiri Et non tenetur dominus quaerere suum tenentem And in the homage Secundum quosdam there is to be salva fide debita domino Regi haeredibus suis. Et quod faciet servitium debitum domino suo haeredibus suis non debet homagium facere privatium sed in loco publico communi coram pluribus in Comitatu Hundredo vel Curia ut si forte tenens per malitiam homagium vellet dedicere possit dominus facilius probationem habere de homagio facto servitio recognito Which with the aid of tenures and feudall Laws and the homage services due from the Subjects to the Crown their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and our many and excellent Laws for self-preservation and publique safety did so firm and fix the Militia and Jus gladii in our Kings and Princes ordained and appointed by God for the execution of Justice Defence and Protection of the People their Religion Persons Lives Laws Liberties and Estates as they that would by perverted wrested and falsly concluded arguments overturn our Government and have Labour'd by all the Shifts and Falsities which the Devill and his Imps could contrive and furnish to Propagate their Designs and Principles of Wickedness and Confusion may find that all the Laws Records Annalls and Historians of the Kingdom do assert and prove the Jus gladii to appertain to none but our Kings and that the attempt to take it from them hath been ever accompted and punished as a Rebellion And that they are not Masters of their Wits or are Lunatiques without intervalls that can think their Industry and Pains well bestowed to go about to prove that there ought to be or ever was an Allegiance Oath or Homage made or taken to the People universally considered or was unto them due or could be by any right rule of Law Custom or Right Reason claimed by them or any way appropriate unto them Unto which well known and allways due Rights of our Kings and Princes were very subservient those great aids and support of the Kingdom the Knights fees and lands held of our King in Capite the strength and honour whereof could neither well be preserved called upon or certified unto our Kings in their Exchecquer as the book called the Red-book in that Court kept only for that purpose will inform us without an often Summoning those necessary and useful Courts or keeping them from a disuse which heretofore were wont to serve as Prognostiques or Indications or a feeling of the strength and pulse of the Kingdom by our Kings and Princes the careful Phisitians thereof the neglect whereof by the dissolution of the Abbies Monasteries and religious Houses and those large quantities of lands being no less then a fourth part of the Kingdom and the parcelling thereof into small quantities afterwards granted with a tenure in Soccage and our Kings granting of other great quantities of the Monastick Manors and lands to be holden in free and Common Soccage of the King as of his Manor of East Greenwitch together with the carlesness of the Court of Wards and Liveries and the Eascheators and Feodaries of the after ages so little minding their Duties and Oaths as if one parcell of lands were by a Jury found to be holden in Capite they were well content to suffer all the rest to pass with a per quae servitia ignorant and the carelesness in the levying of Fines and not suing out of Writs in such cases accustomed called per quae servicia which if the tenures in Capite and by Knight service had not been so ever to be lamented unhappily exchanged for a moyety after the Kings decease of a corrupt and unwholsome Drunken Excise those Terms in Capite with their Military aids and services the quondam strength and glory of our Kings and Nobility would have dwindled and shrunk into a consumption and Tabes of our heretofore Gigantine body politique and have for a great part by themselves without the so often murmuring and unwilling taxes and assessments been too weak or feeble to preserve their grandeur and protect and defend them and their peoples properties trades and
totum Regnum for he said that his Ancestors omnium Baronum fere Normannorum Antecesseres Norwigenses exticissent Et quod de Norwicis olim venissent Et hac Authoritate leges eorum cum profundioses honestiores omnibus aliis essent prae caeteris Regni sui Legibus asserebat se debere sequi observare and the Saxon Laws being in the Saxon language and he and his Normans for some Generations past alltogether speaking French written in another Idiome and manner could not be thought so soon well to understand Quippe cum aliaerum legibus Nationum Britonum scilicet Anglorum Pictorum Scotorum praeponderassent as if he or his Normans having so lately Conquered the Kingdom of England and he had after some time returned into Normandy whether he had Carried some of the most Potent of the English Nobility as Pledges and Hostages And after some tarrying there and time expended in the setling of his Affairs returned into England where he found some Mutinies and Rebellions might not in a mind wholly imployed in the Study of War Glory be allowed some parcell of Ignorance or so much as to make him his Norman Adventurers mistake not understand that the Feudall Laws and those of Norway were the same for the most part with the Laws of the Saxons or their Praedecessors or their often invading and contending neighbors the Picts and Scots or the Saxons so impoverished and affrighted as not to be able to declare unto him that the Laws of St Edward the Confessor were the same which the Conquerers Compatriots the Norwigians were governed by or might not so well as they should have understood their own Laws or the Feudal Laws which their Northern or German Ancestors had so much affected to be ruled and governed by more especially when those Laws so Sacred of St Edward the Confessor had by reason of some discords in England layne as it were hid and asleep about Sixty Eight yeares from the Reign of King Edgar untill the Reign of King Edward the Confessor Which the Conqueror himself had then only as the learned Sr Roger Twisden saith ut melius unicuique administraret Anglicam locutiorem Saâ—egit ediscere Et in perceptione hujus durior aetas illum compescebat endeavoured to learn which Verdict or Carefull Enquiry in the poor Conquered Englishman's greatest Concernments in this world next unto their greatest in the next being presented to him he Concilio habito precatu Baronum granted their Petition Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury and Maurice Bishop of London Scripserunt propriis manibus omnia ista praedicta per praeceptum praedicti domini Regis Gulielmi Et ex illo igitur die multa Authoritate veneratae et per universum regnum Corroboratae et Observatae sunt prae ceteris patriae legibus leges Edwardi Regis Sancti Insomuch as King William the Conqueror upon a better understanding that those Laws of St Edward were one and the same or very near of kindred unto the Norway or Danish Laws had not only given and distributed amongst his great Officers and Soldiers Seventy Thousand Knights Fees in lands of a great value to be holden of him his Heirs and Successors in Capite but in his own Laws afterwards made other Feudall Laws as additions thereunto as de Clientari seu Feudorum Jure Ingenuorum Immunitate Ca. 55. de Clientum seu vassallorum praestationibus Ca. 58. nequis Dominio suo debitas suas praestationes substrahat Ca. 34. de foemina granida quae capitali supplicio damnatur Ca. 35. which was a Law either before or since brought hither by the Phenitians or Roman Colonies de relevio eorum qui Clientes pendent c. 40. And in the decretis made by him it is mentioned that cum principibus suis constituit post Conquisitionem Angliae not Constituerunt that next unto the Reverence of God and Faith in Christ he would have inviolably observed and kept pacem securitatem Concordiam Judicium Justiciam inter Anglos Normannos similiter inter Francigenes Britones Walliae Cornubiae Pithos Scotos Albaniae Similiter Francas Insulicolas omnium Insularum provinciarum quae pertinent ad Coronam dignitatem ad defensionem observationem ad honorem Regis infra omnes sibi subjectos per universam Regni Britania firmiter inviolabiliter Statuimus etiam ut omnes liberi homines fide Sacramento affirment quod intra extra universum Regnum quod olim vocabatur Regnum Britanniae Willielmo Regi Domino suo fideles esse volunt Terras et Honores suos omni sidelitate ubique servare cum eo contra Inimicos Alienigenas defendere volumus Et hoc firmiter precipimus Concedimus ut omnes liberi homines totius Monarchiae Regni nostri praedicti habeant teneant terras suas possessiones bene in pace ab omni exactione injusta ab omni tallagio Ita quod nihil ab eis exigatur vel capiatur nisi servitium suum liberum quod de Jure nobis facere debent facere teneantur prout Statutum est eis illas a nobis datum Concessum Jure Haereditario in perpetuum per Comune Concilium totius Regni nostri Statuimus firmiter praecipimus ut omnes Comites Barones milites servientes universi liberi homines totius Regni nostri praedicti habeant teneant se semper bene in armis equis ut decet oportet quod sint semper prompti parati ad servitium suum integrum nobis explendum et peragendum cum semper opus abfuerit secundum quod nobis debent in feodis tementis suis sicut illis statuimus per Commune Concilium Regni nostri praedicti illis dedimus Concedimus in feudis Jure haereditario hoc praeceptum non sit violatum ullo modo super forisfacturam plenam statuimus etiam firmiter praecipimus ut omnes liberi homines totius Regni praedicti which could not be understood to have been any other then his Norman Commanders and Nobility for the most part if any English sint fratres conjurati ad Monarchiam nostram ad Regnum nostrum pro viribus suis facult atibus contra omnes pro posse suo defendendum viribus servandum pacem dignitatem nostram Coronae nostrae integrum observandum ad Judicium rectum Justitiam constanter modis omnibus pro posse suo sine dolo sine dilatione faciendum Which being made at London was without any limitation or restraint as to the number of Days wherein the Service was to be performed or how long to be at their own Wages or their Kings was not at all expressed in that Kings originall Grant Law or Constitution for although the Fortune or Fate of a War in those bold
Nerves Sinews and Ligaments of the Crown and head of our body Politick and in the doing thereof also might have bereaved the Nation of the ancient and honourable assistance of the House of Peers in Parliament which of Ancient and long time Immemoriall have been as they should ought to be the firm strong pillars supports of our Monarchick Government had not the Earls of Oxford and Strafford Magnanimously as a Prologue to its Restauration come to the House then called the House of Commons in Parliament wherein that great Monck that Unus homo nobis qui cunctando restituit rem was then admitted a member guarded with his own so warily conducted Army out of Scotland before his Majesties happy Restauration and the way had been prepared for it and calling him unto the Door of that house demanded as Peers their Rights and priviledges to have their house of Peers doors opened which upon his Majesties Blessed Father's murther that so misnamed house of Commons in Parliament had shut up and Voted to be Useless and Dangerous which he instantly of himself Ordered to be opened without any Act Order or Vote of Parliament into which they went and sat untill they gained more of their Loyall Party to help to fill their House again which by Degrees was shortly after especially after his Majesties Landing and Coming to London Replenished and Restored as their King and Sovereign was And the Nation had notwithstanding by that Framer of that aforesaid ever to be deplored Act of Parliament been deprived of that only part of our Parliament Subordinate unto their King from the beginning of our very ancient Monarchy and as it ought ever to be till the 49th Year of K. Henry the 3. when he was a Prisoner unto Simon Montfort and his Army of Rebells and not before When some Commons were in that Rebellion Elected to be as a part of Parliament and to sit in a Seperate Lower House ad faciendum consentiendum iis which the King and Lords should think fit or necessary to Ordain had it not been rescued and prevented by the Care of the Lord Viscount Stafford and the Barons of Abergavenny and Dudley awakened by the Book a little before Printed and Published entituled Tenenda non Tollenda who caused a Proviso to be inserted in the said Act of Parliament that nothing therein contained should be extended or prejudiciall to the Rights and Priviledges and Honours of the Peers in Parliament or any that held by Grand Serjeanty c. And having by their good will left as few Spears or Swords as they could in our Israel to help to protect or defend it could notwithstanding readily find the way to that Ingratefull River Lethe and Sin of unthankfullness which God and all good men do not only Abhorr but the most fierce and Savage Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air do detest and could not be fully satisfied untill they could add unto the Kings evil Bargain the taking away of the Royal Pourveyance which amounted unto no Smaller a damage unto him then Ninety or One Hundred Thousand Pounds per Ann. it being in the 35th Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Estimated in the Saving of the houshold expences 25000 l. per Ann. communibus Annis in the 3. Year of the Reign of King James 40000 l. per Ann. And in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr at the most not above 50000 l. per Ann. Communibus Annis But whether more or less is not to be found in the receipt or Yearly Income of the Moyety of the dayly ceasing pretended Recompence by the Excise arising unto no more then one Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds deducting the no little charges in the Collection thereof and in taking away of that 50 l. per Ann. for the Royall Pourveyance brought upon the King no less a Damage then One Hundred Thousand Pounds per Ann. And cannot by the most Foolish of the People Lunaticks out of their Intervalls Ideots very small Infants and Children only excepted be with any manner of Colour or Shadow of reason believed to be any thing near a Compensation singly for the Pourveyance and a great deal less for that inestimable Jewell of the Crown the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service the later a principall part of the support of the Sovereignty and the former of the Crown For that the Power Might and Majesty that resideth therein is unvaluable and not to be Ballanced by any thing that is not as much the Pourveyance being in the Fourth Year of the Reign of King James held to be such an Inseparable adjunct of the Crown and Imperiall Dignity and some few Years after believed by the Incomparable Sr Francis Bacon Lord Chancellor of England to be a necessary support both in Law and Politiques in other Nations as well as our own hath told us is such a Sacra Sacrorum as Baldus and Individua as Cynus termeth them which Jurisconsultorum Communi quodam decreto by an uncontroverted opinion of all Lawyers nec cedi nec distrahi nec abalienari a Summo Principe cannot as Bodin saith be granted or released nor by any manner of way aliened or witholden from the Sovereign Prince nec ulla quidem temporis dinternitate praescribi posse nor by any length of time prescribed against him and therefore by Besoldus called Imperii Majestatis Jura bona Regni conjuncta incorporate seu Coronae unita quae princeps alienare non potest the Rights and Empire of Majesty and the goods and part of the Crown so Incorporate and annexed unto it as the Prince cannot alien which for the Subjects to attempt would not be much different from an endeavour to restrain a Prince by Law against the Law of God bonos more 's which by the opinion of the Learned Bacon the Lord Chief Justice Hobart and Judge Hutton would be Void and of none Effect for the presents and good will of Inferiors to their Superiors is one of the most ancient and Noble Customs which mankind hath ever practised and began so with the Beginning and Youth of the world as we find the Patriarch Jacob sending his Sons to his then unknown Son Joseph besides the Mony which he gave them to buy Corn a Present of the best Fruits of the Country a little Balm a little Honey Spices Mirrh Nutts and Almonds The Persians in their Kings Progresses did munera offerre neque vilia neque exilia neque nimis pretiosa nec magnifica bring them Presents neither Pretious nor Contemptible from which etiam Agricolae Opifices Workmen and Plowmen were not freed in the bringing Wine Oxen Fruits and Cheeses and the first Fruits of what the Earth brought forth quae non tributa sed doni loco consebantur which were not accompted to be given as tributes but oblations and free Gifts which made the poor Persian Synetas when he met with Artaxerxes and his
to provide remedy hath ordained In Ca. 3. where a cui in vita shall be granted and a Wife or he in reversion received the King hath ordained Ca. 6. Where a Tenant Voucheth and the Vouchee denyeth the Warranty the King hath ordained Ca. 9. Entituled in what case the Writ of Mesne is to be pursued it is said in the perclose that for certain causes Remedies are not in certain things provided God willing there shall be at another time Ca. 10. Providing at what time Writs shall be delivered for suits depending before Justices in Eyre the parties may make Generall Attorneys it is said the King hath ordained Ca. 14. Concerning Process to be made in wast our Lord the King from henceforth to remove this error hath ordained Ca. 24. For the granting of Writs of Nuysance quod permittatis in consimili casu where the King ordaineth for which by no ground or colour of reason it is otherwise to be understood that whensoever from thenceforth it should fortune that in Chancery which is no body's Court but the Kings a like Writ is found and in another case falling under the like Law a like remedy is not found the Clerks of the Chancery shall agree in making the Writ or the Plaintiffs may adjourn it untill the next Parliament and let the cases be written in which they cannot agree and let them referr themselves untill the next Parliament by consent of men learned in the Law which could not in those times be understood as of the Members of the House of Commons none of them being then chosen or Summoned to give their consent in Parliament Ca. 25. In the Act of Parliament entituled of what things an Assize shall be certified It is said that forasmuch as there is no Writ in the Chancery whereby Plaintiffs can have so speedy remedy by a Writ of Novell Disseisin our Lord the King willing that Justice may be speedily ministred and that delays in Pleas may be taken away or abridged granteth c. And our Lord the King to whom false exceptions be odious hath ordained c. The like words of the King 's granting and ordaining are to be understood in the Chapters immediately following viz Ca. 26. 27. 28. 29. and 30. In that of 13. E. 1. ca. 30. The two Knights of the Shire are changed by length of time or some other causes into those which are now called Associates and are indeed but the enrolling Clarks which by that Statute are allowed the Justices in their Circuits as they have used to have in times past Were not Knights of the Shire Elected for an House of Commons in 29. E. 1. ca. 5. the King willeth that the Chancellor and Justices of his Bench shall follow his Court so that he may at all Times have some near unto him which be learned in the Laws and be able to order all such matters as shall come unto the Court at all Times when need shall require And the like that the King ordained and willed is to be understood in the chapters or articles 31. 32 33. In that of 32. where it is mentioned and so the Statute is defrauded it is said our Lord the King hath ordained and granted Ca. 39. Concerning the manner of Writs to be delivered to the Sheriffs to be executed it is said that our Lord the King hath provided and ordained c. And the King hath commanded that Sheriffs shall be punished by the Justices for false Retornes once or twice if need be Ca. 41. entituled contra formam collationis which was of great concernment in their lands and estates and also as they then thought in matters of provision for the souls of their parents Ancestors and near relations it is said our Lord the King hath Ordained In ca. 42. appointing the several fees of Marshall Chamberlains in fee Porters of Justices in Eyre c. which was of great Importance to many it is mentioned that our Lord the King hath caused to be enquired by an enquest what the said Officers of fee used to have in times past and hath ordained and commanded that a Marshall in fee c. which was then Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk a man of great power and authority it is in like manner Ordained Ca. 43. That Hospitalers and Templers which were a part of the People then of great Estates Power and Authority in the Kingdom shall draw no man in suite c. it is said to have been prohibited and the King also prohibiteth Ca. 44. Setling the Fees of Porters bearing Virges before the Justices c. it is said be it provided and ordained and the King chargeth his Justices In the Statute of Winchester made in Anno. 13. E. 1. that fresh suit shall be made after Felons from Town to Town our Lord the King to abate the Power of Felons hath established a pain in that case Ca. 2. Where the County shall answer for the Robbery where the Felon shall not be taken which though it was an excellent Law and ever since put in execution might upon the first impression seem to bear hard upon the People that they not committing the Crimes should be responsable in their Purses and Estates for it the preamble saith likewise our Lord the King hath Established Ca. 3. Respiting that Act until Easter then next nsuing it is mentioned that forasmuch as the King will not that his People should be suddenly impoverished by reason of the penalty which seemeth very hard to many the King granteth that they shall not incurr immediately but it should be respited untill Easter next following within which time he may see how the Country will order themselves whether such felonys do cease After which time let them all be assured that the aforesaid Penalties shall run generally that is to say the People in the Country shall be answerable for Felonies Robberies done amongst them In an Act of Parliament at what time the gates of great Towns shall be shut and Night-Watches begin and end it is said the King commanded For the breadth of High-ways leading from one Market-Town to another it is said and further it is Commanded In the Act of Parliament that every man should have Armour in his house according to his ability it is said and further it is commanded and the Justices assigned shall present in every Parliament unto the King such defaults as they shall find and the King shall provide remedy therein In the Statutes of Merchants made in the same year wherein the form of a Statute Merchant is appointed it is recited that the King and his Councel at his Parliament holden at Acton Burnell in the 11th year of his Reign hath ordained In the Statute of Circumspecte Agatis the King only saith Use your self circumspectly concerning the Bishop of Norwich and his Clergy In the Statute of Quia Emptores terrarum made in the 18th of his Reign it is said our Lord the King in his Parliament at the
to his people that they shall have Election of their Sheriff in every Shire where the Shrievalty is not of Fee if they list which would have been very prejudicial both to the King and his people as to the collecting of his revenue and Executing his Justice by his Mandates Writs and Process if the confirmation allowance or disallowance thereof had not been by Law lodged in the King and his Supream authority What persons shall be returned in every Jury the King Willeth and Commandeth For a remedy against Conspirators False Enformers and Embracers of Juries the King hath provided a remedy Against Mainteynors of Suits it is said the King willeth but it may not be understood hereby that any person shall be prohibited to have Councel of Pleaders or of Learned Men in the Law for his Fee or of his Parents or next Friends What distress shall be taken for the Kings debts and how it shall be used the King willeth What sort of Persons the Commons of shires shall chuse for their Sheriffs forasmuch as the King hath granted it is said the King willeth That Baylewicks and Hundreds shall not be let too dear to charge the people with contribution In summons and attachments in plea of land the writ shall contain 15 daies it is in like manner to be understood In like manner against false retornes of writs The King willeth that the Statute of Winchester shall be read 4 times in the year and put in execution The King willeth that Escheators shall commit no wast in Wards lands In an act of Parliament declaring in what cases the owner shall have his lands delivered out of the King's hands with the issues it is said the King willeth In an Act of Parliament that vessels of gold shall be assayed it is said to have been ordained and that notwithstanding all those things before-mentioned or any point of them both the King and his Councell and all that were present at the making of that Ordinance meaning the Judges and Assistants of that Honourable Court will and intend that the right and prerogative of his Crown shall be saved to him in all things In the Statute de Escatoribus 29. E. 1. at the Parliament of our Lord the King at Lincoln in his Councell it was agreed and also commanded by the King Himself and this order shall be held from henceforth in the Chancery notwithstanding a certain ordinance lately made by our Lord the King concerning lands and tenements taken into his hands by his officers and not to be delivered but by the King himself and as it is conteined in a Certain dividenda or indenture made betwixt the King himself and his Chancelor whereof one part remaineth in the Custody of the Chancelor In the new Statute of Quo Warranto made Anno 30. E. 1. it is recited that the King himself in the 6 year of his Reign providing for the wealth of his Realm and the more full administration of Justice as to the Office of a King belongeth the more discreet men of the Realm as well high as of low degree being called thither it is provided and ordained but in the writs framed to enquire by what warrant the Liberties were granted to the people they are said to be in Parliamento nostro per nos concilium nostrum 31. E. 1. In an ordinance for Measures it is said that by the consent of the whole Realm of England the King's measure was made In the Statute of 33. E. 1. Touching protections granted by the King it is said to have been provided In the ordinance or definition of Conspirators made in the aforesaid Year it is declared that this ordinance and final definition of Conspirators was made and aworded by the King and his Councell in Parliament In the Statute of Champerty made in the 33d year of the Reign of the aforesaid King it is recited that whereas in our Statute it was contained and provided by a common accord the writ framed thereupon mentioneth that law to be the Kings Ordinance In the Ordinance for enquests made in Parliament the same year it is said to have been agreed and ordained by the King and all his Councell In the ordinatio Forestae made in the year aforesaid whereas certain people have by great men made request to our Lord the King that they may be acquitted of their charge and the demand of the Foresters our Lord the King answered that when he had granted Pour lieu he was pleased it should stand as it was granted albeit the thing was sued and demanded in an evill point Nevertheless he willeth and intendeth that all his demeasne lands which have been of the Crown or returned unto it by Escheat or otherwise shall have free chase and free warren and in right of them that have lands and tenements disafforested for the said Pourlieus and such as demand to have Common within the bounds of forests the intent and will of our Sovereign Lord the King is c. And if any that were disafforested would rather be in the Forest it pleaseth the King very well and our Lord the King willeth and commandeth the Justices of the Forest c. In Anno 34. of his Reign there being an Ordinance for measuring of Land In the same Year the King by his Letters-Patents with the Teste meipso certifying the Statute de Conjunctim Feoffatis declared that it was no new thing that among divers establishments of Laws which he had ordained in his time upon the great and heinous mischiefs that happen in Writs of Novel disseisin chiefly above others he as if he neither did know or believe any co-ordination or that he was to be tutored by a Conservatorship had devised a more speedy remedy then was before and willeth and granteth that that Statute shall take his effect the morrow after the feast of St Peter ad Vincula next coming In the Statute for Amortising of Lands tempore E. 1. the King commandeth c. In Ca. 4. Which seemeth to be about the 27th Year of that Kings Reign in the confirmation of all our Laws Liberties and Customes it is said that the King willeth and granteth if any Statutes have been made or any customes brought in contrary thereunto that such Statutes and Customes shall be void for evermore And for the more assurance of this thing we will and grant that all Archbishops and Bishops for ever shall twice in the year cause to be openly read in their Cathedralls the said Charters and denounce curses against the willing infringers thereof and the Archbishops Bishops c. have voluntarily Sworn to observe the tenor thereof In the ordinatio pro Statu Hiberniae made by him at Nottingham by the assent of his Councel there being in Ca. 6. in what cases the Justices of Ireland may grant pardon of Felony c. and where not there is an exception so always that there
if aids and Scutage were assessed by Parliament the military Tenants were to be the only Collectors thereof 35. E. 1. In the Statute Ne rector prosternat arbores in Caemiterio it is said that because we do understand that Controversies do oftentimes grow between Parsons of Churches and their Parishioners concerning Trees growing in the Church-yards both of them pretending that they do belong unto themselves we have thought it good rather to decide the controversy by writing then by Statute and declaring them to be parts of the goods of the Church the King did Prohibit the Parsons of rhe Church that they do not presume unadvisedly to fell them but when the Chancel or the body of the Church wanted necessary reparations in which cases the Parsons of their Charity shall do well to relieve the Parishioners with bestowing upon them the same Trees which he will not command to be done but will commend it when it is done So happy and ready was the obedience better Wisdom of the Subjects of this Kingdom in the ancient and former Ages when an agreement made before the King or his word was adjudged to have the power force of a Fine any one of his Writs or Edicts wanted not the operation and efficacy in many things of an Act of Parliament or Statute and so degenerate and unhappy are our present times as to suffer our interest and wrangling peevish disputes to disobey or lay aside not only the King's mandates and edicts in the ordinary and necessary course of his Government but in extraordinary and his Supream power in Parliament Who was as well furnished with Common as he was with Civil Lawyers which as a militia togata were as strong and impregnable forts and bulwarks to help to guard his Crown and Dignity namely Henry de Bracton John de Breton the sincere and upright John de Metingham Elias de Beckingham together with Accursius Doctor utriusque Juris Civil and Canon Gilbert de Thorneton first his Attorney general afterwards Chief Justice ad placita cor am Rege Gilbert de Rowbery Roger Brabazon and William Howard a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas cum multis in legibus eruditis side dignis as to this day it appeareth in the steddy and unarbitrary pleadings and Records of his glorious Reign In whose Time it was not denied to be Law and Right Reason that that verificatio patriae Contra Chartam Regis non est admittenda And did in the making of his Laws but imitate his great Ancestors For King Ina who Reigned in Anno Domini 712. Conredi patris sui Heddae Ercenwaldi Episcoporum suorum omnium senatorum suorum natu majorum sapientum populi sui in magna servorum Dei frequentia who in his making of his Laws did believe it necessary in his Imprimis to use the word precipimus King Alured who began his Reign in Anno Domini 871. made his Laws with a Proposuimus esto and in those which were published by Johannes Brompâ—on with a Praecipimus King Aethelstan who Reigned in the Year 930. made his Laws prudenti Ulfhelmi Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum suorum concilio with a Signif 〈…〉 Decrevimus Statuimus omnibus clare significat and saith Brompton Mandat praepositis suis and declared many of his Laws with a Volo diximus Ediximus Placuit nobis King Edmund that began his Reign in Anno 940. made his Laws solemni Paschatis Festo frequentem Londini tam Ecclesiasticorum quam Laicorum coetum celebravit cui inter fuerunt Odo Wolstanus Archipraesul plurimique alii Episcopi with an Ego Edmundus Rex omnibus qui in ditione ac potestate mea sunt clare significo Decrevimus Edwardus Rex saith Brompton made his Laws with a mandit Praecipit omnibus praefectis amicis ut justa judicia judicent injudiciali libro stant quod unum quodque placitum terminum habeat King Edgar who began his Reign in Anno 959. made his Laws frequenti senatu with a Sancivit Porro autem has populo who were not then understood to be Law-makers quas servet proponimus leges publici juris beneficio quisque fruitor and like his Predecessors made them short and imperative and his Canons in Ecclesiastical Affairs with a Docemus King Ethelredus who began his Reign in Anno Domini 979 made his Laws sapientum concilio habito Woodstoci Merciae quae legibus Anglorum gubernatur solely imperatively with an Esto Canutus Anglorum Dacorum Norweglorum beginning his Reign here in England in Anno Domini 1016 made his Ecclesiastical Laws solely and imperatively with an Imperimus sapientum concilio ad natale Domini And his humanae politica sapientum concilio with an Omnibus observari praecipio Edocemus Esto and touching his Dominions of Mercia with an Haec eadem in Mercia pro suis vendicat praeterea praecipimus and an Esto Satisfacto poenas dependito Compensato Castigetur Exterminetur in potestatem detur Plectitor Mulctator mando Invitus cogatur Habetor omnibus singulis in Dei nomine obtestor praecipio Gulielmus Rex Anglorum cum Principibus suis constituit post conquisitionem Angliae quâ—dam decreta with a Volumus firmiter praecipimus Statuimus Decretum est Interdicimus Prohibimus when the English had in the 4th Year of his Reign fletibus precibus by the assistance of his Norman Subjects also obtained of him a confirmation of King Edward the Confessors Laws and to be governed by them it is said to have been concilio Baronum after an enquiry throughout all England and Certificate returned per universae Angliae consulatus Anglos nobiles sapientes suâ— lege eruditos what those Laws and Customs were Et cum Rex quae audisset cum aliis sui regni legibus maxime appretiatus est praecepit ut observaretur per totum regnum And they that will peruse the laborious Collections of my ever honoured friend Mr Edward Falconbergh one of the Deputy Chamberlains of the Exchecquer the truest lover and carefullest preserver of the Records entrusted to his Charge that ever come into that place the very ancient Gervasius Tilburiensis Mr Agard Scipio le Squier many other learned men in the revolution of more then in that Office 600 Years last past not excepted of the proceedings upon the very many Quo Warranto's brought before the Justices Itinerant in their several Circuits throughout all the parts of the Kingdom in the Reign of King Edward the first as well High as Low Lords Spiritual and Temporal Abbots and Priors Great or Small therein sparing not his own Brother Edmond Earl of Kent may have premisses enough to conclude that that Stout and Magnanimous Prince did as our Common English saying is lay about him and had a mind to let his friends the Kings and Princes at the
very great was the power command and influence of the Nobility and dignified Clergy as they could from time to time as the Winds and Tydes do usually agitate and blow upon the unruly waves of the Ocean make them lacquey after their good-will and pleasure and attend their ambitions and advantages which began but to peep out and câ—awl in the later end of the Reign of King E. the 2d when Roger de Mortimer Earl of March was in a Parliament holden in the Reign of King Edward 3. Accused of Treason and accroaching to himself Royal power by procuring certain Knights of the Shires attending in the House of Commons in Parliament to give their consent to an aid to the King for his Wars in Gascoigny and the humours and interests of the Common people were so governed and influenced by the grandeur of the English Nobility and principal Clergy enticing them thereunto more by their own respects and desires to please and humour then by any particular motive or impulse of their own as in an Election of Members for the House of Commons in Parliament in the 13th year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th the Archbishop of York and Sundry Earls Barons and Ladies being said to be Suitors in the County-Court of York were by their Attorneys the sole Electors of the Knights of the Shire of that County namely by William Holgate Attorny for Ralph Earl of Westmorland William de Killington for Lucy Countess of Kent William Hesham for the Lord Peter de Malo lacu William de Barton for William Lord Roos Robert de Evedale for the Baron of Graistock William de Feston for Alexander de Metham Chivaler and Henry de Preston for Henry de Percy Chivaler who was then a Baron Earles and Barons in those times being well contented to make use of that then no disparaging Title Sectatorum communium com no other electors being then named in the Indentures betwixt the Sheriff and the County of York upon that Election and in the 2d Year of King Henry the 5th with little variation except for the persons for whom the Electors were Attorneys as namely in Yorkshire William Mauleverer Attorney for Henry Archbishop of York William Feutores for Ralph Earl of Westmorland William Archer for John Earl Marshal William Rillington for Henry le Scrop Chivaler Domino de Masham William Heshum for Peter de Malo lacu William Postham for Alexander de Metham Chivaler William Housam for Robert Roos Robert Barry for Margaret the Wife of Henry Vavasour Chivaler and Robert Davinson Attorney for Henry Percy sectatorum communium pro com Eborum No other suitors or electors being in that Election and Sheriffs Indenture then mentioned the like upon Writs for Election of Knights issued to the Sheriffs of Yorkshire were found by Indentures hereupon And in Annis 8. and 9. H. 5. And in 1. 2. 3. 5. and 7. Henry 6. the Attorneys only of Nobles Barons Lords Ladies and Knights were made the suitors who made the election of the Knights of Yorkshire and sealed the Indentures untill 25. of King Henry 6. when that undue course and way ceased and the Election and Indentures were made by the Freeholders and being Elected were not at that instant enabled by them or at any time after to act or do any thing otherwise then according to the Intent Tenor and Purport of their said Writs of Elections untill some farther Requisites were to be by them performed and done in order to the Trusts reposed in them by their King and Fellow-Subjects SECT XXII Of the Actions and other Requisites by the Law to be done by those that are or shall be Elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses to attend our King in their great Councells or Parliaments precedent and preparatory to their admission therein FOr the Sheriffs and people of the Counties were at the first so punctuall in the due performance of their Kings aforesaid Writs and Mandates in all and every the clauses and particnlars thereof and so carefull in their Elections of such as were to be trusted by and for them in affairs of so high and more then ordinary concernment as the States well-being and defence of the King the Church the Kingdom Themselves and their Posterities not only for their personal appearance but performance of the trust reposed in them and not to do less or more too short or beyond the bounds of their Commissions or Authority granted by the King as they that were elected were constrained at the same time to give pledges and main-pernors and sometimes four securities but never under two that they should not omitt what was commanded by the Tenor of those Writs insomuch as in the 30th Year of the Reign of King Edward the first John de Chetwood and William de Samtresden being elected Knights of the Shire for the County of Buckingham gave four manucaptors and the like did Robert de Hoo and Roger de Brien elected Knights of the Shire in the same Year for the County of Bedford and in that Year Andrew Trolesks and Hugh de Ferrers Elected Knights of the Shire for the County of Devon were districti per terras catalla quia Pleg invenire noluerunt And in Anno 8. E. 2. a Sheriff of Gloucester Bristow at that time being neither City or County made his return on the dorse of the Writ of Summons that the Custos libertatis villae Bristol respond quod elegi fec Robertum Wildemersh Thomam L'Espicer ad essend ad Parliamentum apud Westminster in Octavis Sancti Hillarii qui manucaptores ad essendi ad diem locum praedictos invenire recusarunt per quod propter eorum vim malitiam resistentiam executione istius mandati ulterius facienda intromittere non potuit And a Writ appeareth in that Year to have been returned for the County of Midd. that William de Brooks and Richard le Rous milites electi fuerunt per communitatem Comitatus praedict essendi coram concilio Domini Regis ad diem locum in brevi content qui potestatem habent ad faciend quod de eodem concilio Secundum brevis tenorem ordinabitur after which followed the names of their Manucaptors or sureties and was a caution in those times believed to be so necessary as in the 15th Year of the Reign of King Edward 2d when Thomas Gamel one of the Citizens of Lincoln being returned with 2 manucaptors a burgess for the Parliament and not vouchsafing to attend the Mayor and Commonalty of Lincoln they elected Alain de Hodolston in his place and desired Sr William Ermyn then Keeper of the Great Seal that he being so elected by them might be received with the other Citizen first elected with Gamel as their Busgess for that Parliament and sent that their Certificate and return under their City-Seal affixed to the Writ of Election that very ancient and necessary usage of giving Manucaptors upon Parliamentary Elections being used in
records or Historians or even of our Neighbor nations find or make any but Fools or Knaves or Criminals of the highest nature believe that any Law was ever made in England or concerning any part of its dominions or teritories without their Kings regal Assent Will or Dictate untill that House of Commons made that most damnable ever to be abhorred wicked Vote or Order which they would have called a Law for the Murder of K. Charles the First Two of the principal Contrivers whereof Cromwell and Bradshaw have since had their Carcasses by a just Judgment of God thrown and buried under Tyburn a Common place of Execution for Theeves and Traytors the worst of Criminals and Malefactors in mankind but lest the over hast of the designs of those that would make a gain thereby should Gallop them into Errors of no small dangers or mischiess to the publique they may be pleased to take a little breath pause and consider the true meaning acceptation and extent of the words Constitute Convince Colloquium so often and necessarily used in the Writs and Mandates of our Kings and Princes in summoning or calling a part of their subjects unto their great Councels or Parliaments For Constituere convenire Significat conveniendo obligat se ad id quod jam debitum est sic constituere pecuniam est jam ante debitam absque stipulatione promittere Theophil in Sect de const non solum pro alio sed pro seipso quis recte constituat Sect. de constitut inst de act debitum autem oportet esse quod instituitur constituere possunt qui bona vel peculia habent cum libera administratione Gad. l. 182. de verb. res Signif constituimus nudo consensu eoque sufficiente ad actionem producendam Sect. 9. de just act constituere in dignitate munere Briss. ex F. C. constituere quaestionem est decernere ut judicetur Constitutio in generali nomine dicitur jus quod a principe conditur Theophil Sect. F. de jur natur Constitutum i. e. decretum Constitutus dies dies praefinitus Lex Lengobard si talis causa fuerit quam deliberare minime possit paenas constituat distringat hominem illum de judiciaria sua i. e. diem constituit lib. 1. 2. tit 21. And it was the duty and interest of the Commons Elected to come unto Parliament to consent unto such things as the Lords of whom they held their Lands and stood in great awe of to gain their loves or avoid their ill-wills should advise which with their Oath of Allegeance to the King their Superior Lord and their Homage and Fealty done to the Mesne Lord might perswade them to be as unwilling to forfeit their Lands as they would be to injure their Judgments and Consciences And though in some of the Writs for the wages of the Commons in Parliament assembled it hath by the mistaking or inadvertency of Clerks been sometimes said that they came and tarried ad consulend tractand yet the Tenor and intention of the most part of the Writs of Election for the Commons have been since the 21st Year of the Reign of King Edward the 1. as many as almost 20 for every one in the purpose Tenor and commanding part of it no more then ad faciend consentiend and sometimes ad loquendum and at another time ad audiendum faciendum upon which and no other account they came thither and were returned as Subjects not King-makers Law-makers Governours Disposers or Deposers and whilst they remained there or in veniendo redeundo and tarried at home were nor could be no otherwise then Subjects And in that and no other manner certainly did King Edward the 3d understand it when in a Parliament holden by him at Westminster in the 45th Year of his Reign there had been a great mistaking in the designed manner of levying an aid granted to the King of 22 s. and 3 d. out of every parish of England as hath been before mentioned Upon the examination whereof after the Parliament was dismissed the King and his Privy-Councel finding that that rate upon every Parish would fall much short of the summ intended and not supply the publique occasions did by an extraordinary special Writ directed to the Sheriff of every County command them to Summon only one Knight Citizen and Burgess of each County City and Borough serving in that Parliament especially named by the King in those Writs to avoid trouble and expences to appear at a Councel to be holden at Winchester to advise how to raise the intended summ of Money and directed the Sheriffs to enquire and return the number and names of all the Parishes Churches Chappell 's and Prebendaries within their respective Counties in the hands as well of Lay-men as of Clerks and Religious persons who accordingly meeting in the said Councel of Winton which continued sitting but 9 days as the Writ for the Knight of Southamton expresses and for Sussex Berks Oxon Wilts only for 11 days and to others in like proportions each of those Knights Citizens and Burgesses though they received their expences for going to tarrying at and returning from the Parliament at Westminster which granted that aid to the King and were specially again Summoned to that Councell to rectify their great mis-calculation in the aid intended and number of Parishes had their expences by the Kings Writs allowed unto them for that purpose for repairing to continuing at and going home from that Councell and in that and no other sense or manner did the Commons in that Parliament understand it Neither did the Commons in Parliament when upon the grant of the Lords in Parliament in the 13th year of the Reign of that King of the 10th Sheaf of all the corn in their demesnes except that of their bound Tenants the 1â—th fleece of wool and the â—0th lamb of their own Store to be paid in 2 years They made answer that they knew and tendred the Kings estate and were ready to aid the same only in this new device they durst not agree without further conference with their Countries and so praying respite untill another time they promised to travell their Countries think themselves to be Kings or Sovereigns over their fellow-Subjects or that they themselves were any other then Subjects And Sr Edward Coke having affirmed it to have been as it were a Law or Custom of Parliament hath likewise informed us that in the 42 year of the Reign of that King it being declared to the Parliament by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury that in a Treaty between the Kings Councel and David le Bruce of Scotland the last offer of the said David was that he was willing to have so as he might freely enjoy to him in fee the whole Realm of Scotland without any subjection or any other thing which might be accompted a perpetuall charge concerning which the Lords and Commons being willed to give their advice
8th who being a Member of the House of Commons and Imprisoned the House of Commons made an address to the King for his release when they could not do it by their own power Mr Speaker said I am to deliver unto you her Majesties commandement that for the better and more speedy dispatch of causes we should sit in the afternoon and that about this day sennight her Majesties pleasure is this Parliament shall be ended At a conference with the Lords their Lordships told the Commons they would not have their Judgment prejudicated and in that conference of the House of Commons stiled themselves the Lower House There was saith Justice Hussey a whole Alphabet of paenall Laws in the time of King Henry the 7th Mr Mountague said The praerogative Royall is now in Question which the law hath over allowed and Maintained Serjeant Heale speaking somewhat that displeased the Generality of the House they all made an humming and when he began to speak again they did the like whereupon the Speaker stood up and said It is a great disorder that this should be used for it is the antient use of this House for every man to be Silent when any one Speaketh and he that is Speaking should be Suffered to deliver his mind without interruption Sr Edward Hobby upon the debate of a bill brought in for the peoples more diligent repair to Church whether the Church-Wardens were the more proper to certifie the defalters said that when her Majestie did give us leave to chuse our Speaker She gave us leave to chuse one out of our own number Mr Onslow the Clark of the House of Commons in Parliament being Sick the House gave his man leave to officiate for him every Members contributing 12d apeice for his support In the case of Belgrave depending in the Court of Star-Chamber upon an Information brought by Sir Edward Coke her Majesties then Artorney General prosecuted by the Earl of Huntington for wearing his Livery to make himself a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament after several Motions Debates and Disputes in the House of Commons a Conference was concluded to be had with the Lords thereupon the rather for that it had been said that the Lords in Parliament were reported to have directed the said Bill to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber one of their House being concerned therein and a day appointed by the Lords accordingly which failing and revived again by a motion of one of the Members of the house of Commons in their own House and the matters limitted whereupon it should consist first touching the offence committed by Mr. Belgrave whether it was an Infringement of the Liberty of the House of Commons and for the first that the Commons would do nothing therein until a Conference with them for the 2d to know the reasons of their Lordships appointment of the Information and to bring it to some end Mr. Speaker at another day certifying a message from the Lords concerning some other matters Sir Edward Hobby said We attended the Lords that morning which was appointed touching the Information against Mr. Belgrave who in the end concluded that forasmuch as it concerneth them as the House of Commons Priviledges they desired some time to consult and they would send us word of their Resolutions and some days after a Copy of the Information against Belgrave was sent to the House of Peers unto them under the hand of the Clerk of the Star Chamber by them and Sir Edward Hobby with some Bills but nothing appeareth to have been done touching the said Information against Belgrave In the mean time a servant of Mr. Huddleston a Knight of the Shire for Cumberland being arrested in London upon a Writ of Execution the Plaintiff and Serjeants denying to release him because it was after Judgment they were upon complaint to the House committed to Prison the Serjeant released paying the Serjeant at Arms Fees and the Plaintiff paying them as well as his own was ordered to remain three days in the Serjeants Custody For a like Judgment was cited to have been given by the House of Commons in the case of the Baron of Wilton in that Parliament Upon Thursday December the 7th Sir Edward Hobby shewed that the Parliament was now in the wain and near ending and an order was taken touching the Information delivered to this house viz. the House of Commons in Mr. Belgraves case but nothing done therein and as it seemeth by not taking out the Process no Prosecution of the Cause is intended against the said Mr. Belgrave he thought it fit because the chief Scope of the said Information seemeth to be touching a dishonour offered to this House that it would please the House that it might be put to the question being the original and first horrid fashion of their afterward altogether course or manner of voting and making their own pretended Liberties whether he hath offended this House yea or no If he hath he desireth to be censured by you and if he hath not it will be a good motive to this Honourable House here present who are Judges in this Court and yet he might have remembred what long and learned debates and disputes there had lately been amongst themselves whether the Custom of that House was or had been in cases of grievance to proceed by Bill or Petition to the Queen and it was resolved that it was the most proper and dutiful way to proceed by Petition which was done accordingly in clearing the Gentleman of that offence when it came before them which had then no higher esteem in Sir Edward Hobbyes opinion than to be previous to an after disquisition which that Law and the Queens Writ and the Election of that part of the people that brought them thither neither did or could give them any greater authority than ad faciendum consentiendum to do and perform that which the King and Lords in Parliament should ordain to be done and performed and when all should be rightly considered was an offence too often by more than one or once since practised to procure a Membership indirectly in an House of Commons in Parliament committed by Mr. Belgrave that should as little have been countenanced as there was any just or legal Warrant for it wherein Mr. Comptroller said I know the Gentleman to be an honest Gentleman and a great Servant to his Prince and Countrey I think it very fit to clear him I wish it may be put to the Question I will be ready to vouch your sentence for his offence when it comes there but if any other matter appears upon opening the Cause with that we have nothing to do Mr. Secretary Cecil who had not long before said in the same House he was sorry to see such disorder and little do you know how for disorder this Parliament is taxed I am sorry I said not slandered I hoped that as this Parliament began gravely and with Judgment
that nothing was done upon their Petitions and therefore prayed that they might be answered before the Parliament ended It appeareth by divers Answers to Petitions in Parliament that the Kings Councel unto whom they were committed did but report what they thought fit to be done for Answer prout Anno 15. E. 3. n. 17. where it is said our Lord the King caused the same Answers to be given to the said Petitions the which together with the Petitions were reported in full Parliament Eodem Anno it was answered Our Lord the King commanded Answers to be made the which put into writing were reported before our Lord the King and the Prelates and other Grandees Anno 17. E. 3. It seemeth to the Councel that it be done Anno 18. E. 3. Divers Petitions of the Commons being exhibited a Memorandum was entred viz. Unto which Petitions it was answered by the King and the Grandees as to the second Article Soit cestipetition granted To the third Article il plaist au Roy c. To the eight Article il plaist au Roy au Son conseil quae se soit To the eleventh il plaist au Roy c. To the 12th Article Soient les Statutes sur ceo faites tenus c. Anno eodem the Answer was It is assented by our Lord the King the Earls Barons Justices and other Sages of the Law that the things above written be done in convenable manner according to the prayer of the Commons in a long Petition of theirs against provisions from Rome whereunto the Bishops durst not assent Eodem Anno the Commons exhibited their Petitions which were answered drawn into a Statute sealed and delivered unto them Sedentibus before the Parliament ended in the same Parliament also the Parliament exhibited their Petitions which were answered sealed and delivered unto them sitting the Parliament which was not usual for the Statutes were most commonly made after the end of the Parliament The Answer to one of the Clergies Petitions in this Parliament was accord est pur assent du conceil Unto which may be added those of the 20th year of the Raign of King Edward the third which concerned the Pope to which Answers the Praelates who were of that Committee not daring to agree the opinion of the temporal Lords and the Judges were only reported viz. It seemeth to the Earls Barons and other Sages Lay-men of the Kings Councel c. Anno 21. E. 3. il Semble a conseil qu'il faut faire pour grand bien si plaist au Roy as grandes du terre Eodem Anno It seemeth unto the King the Praelates and the Grandees that the Custom stand in force the Commons having petitioned that the Custom of the Cloth made in England might be taken away Anno 25. E. 3. It seemeth to the Councel that such enquires cease if it please the King Eodem Anno It seemeth to the Councel that the Laws heretofore ordained ought to suffice for that this Petition is against the Law of the Land as well as against the holy Church It seemeth to the Councel that it ought not to be granted the Petition being that no Capias Excommunicat should issue before a Scire facias to the party Et al. hujusmodi c. Eodem Anno It was answered It is not the interest of our Lord the King nor of the Grantz Anno 28. E. 3. n. 33. It seemeth to the Lords and to the Grands that the Petition is reasonable Eodem Anno It is answered Let the Common Law used stand for the Lords will not change it Anno 30. E. 3. The Petition of the Commons touching Chaplains Wages had two answers The Archbishops and Bishops at the motion of the King and Grandees have ordained c. And therefore the King and the Grandees have ordained c. Those two Answers are recited almost ad verbum the Prelates first and then the Temporal Lords considered of the Answer Anno 47 E. 3. It was answered The King and the Lords have yet no will to change the Common Law Eodem Anno The Commons do require that every mans Petition be answered Anno 2. R. 2. apud Glocester le Roy del assent des Praelats Dukes Countz Barons de les Commons de son Royalme ad ordeigne c. The Commons having petitioned that all manner of Merchants might have free Traffick here And the like Answer was made to their Petition in Anno 3 R. 2 n. 37. 38. In 16. R. 2. Upon a Petition of Robert de Mull and his Wife touching the discharge of a Fine the King answered Soyent au Roy car ceo nest petition du Parlement In Anno 20. R. 2. Robert Mull petitioned the Commons stiling them by the title of honourable and Sage Commons in Parliament praying them to be discharged of a Fine to the King imposed upon him and supplicating them to make Relation thereof to the Parliament and alledging that his Bill or Petition had been put upon the file the last Parliament which doth prove that there was no standing Committees then appointed by the Commons in Parliament 2 H. 4. The King by Advice of the Lords in Parliament hath committed this Petition to his Councel Eodem Anno upon a Petition of the Commons for removing of Stanks and Milks generally it was answered It seemeth to the King and to the Lords that this Petition sounds in disherison of the King and of the Lords and others wherefore let the Statutes before made be held and kept Eodem Anno It is assented and accorded by the King and Lords c. Anno 2. H. 5. The King by the assent of all the Lords granteth c. Touching the Petition for taking of Tithe of great Wood contrary to the Statute of 4 E. 3. whereupon the Judges were of sundry opinions It was answered because the matter of the Petitioners demands required great and mature deliberation the King therefore would that it be adjourned and remitted to the next Parliament and that the Clerk of the Parliament cause this Article to be brought before the King and the Lords at the beginning of the next Parliament for declaration thereof to be made In the 2d year of the Raign of King Henry the sixth the King by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons granted the contents of their Petition in all points Divers other Answers given do prove Debates to have been in Parliament upon Petitions betwixt the Lords and the Kings Councel And saith Mr. Noy that grand and very Attorney General to King Charle 〈…〉 the Martyr who unhappily died before his Royal 〈◊〉 had so much need as he had afterwards of his great abilities or who ever was the careful Examiner of many of the Parliament Rolls and Compiler of that Manuscript which is honoured with his name there can be no question made of those or the
the Reign of King Henry the 3d included in the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Tenants and Knights Fees of the Lords Temporal and Spiritual not a few were not represented when with those and their dependancies they so over-powered King H. 3. in a Parliament at Oxford as to inforce him to yield unto those Provisions which afterwards proved to be the fatal Incentives of an ensuing bloody War and the Seminary of many Commotions and Contests betwixt some of our Succeeding Kings and their Subjects in their after Generations those only excepted being Tenants Paravail who held their Lands subordinately of the Tenants that were mean to those that held their Lands of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Majores Barones holding of the King in Capite with multitudes almost innumerable of Copy-holders Lease-holders Tenants at Will or Sufferance Villani or Bordarii le menu peuple et de busse condition were exempted by Order of Parliament as represented by them and no other and always used to be so the almost numberless Herd of Monks Fryers and Religious Persons and their Revenues Servants Tenants and Dependants were not nor could be represented but freed by the Kings Orders in Parliament from payment of the Commoners Wages that came to Parliament by two several necessary sorts of Priviledges and Immunities instead of many more which they claimed the Religious and Monastick People of the Nation with their very large Possessions and Revenues before the dissolution of them in the Reign of King Henry the 8th and King Edward the 6th being rationally to be accounted little less than a full 4th part of the Lands of the Kingdom the Secular Clergy always giving Subsidies apart by themselves being almost 10000 were represented by the Bishops or Convocation of the Clergy the Tenants in Antient demesne or of the great number of the Tenants of the Kings Annaent demesne proper and largely extended Royal Revenue that should be which before they were Granted or Aliened away by our Kings like Indulgent Common Parents to their almost every days craving Subjects and People or in Rewarding and Incouraging publick and great Services done or to be done for the Common-wealth or Publick good which were very large and diffusive through all the parts of the Nation and the Clerks of the Chancery Beneficiate as most of them Antiently were and the Judges Kings Council and Officers attending the Honourable House of Peers in the like condition and should be exempted although by length of Time Custom Indulgence or Permission they have been since the Original of the House of Commons in the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the 3d. which was then no more than our Embrio and from thence discontinued until the 22d year of the Raign of King Edward the first charged and made contributary to publick Aids and Necessities and the largely Priviledged County Palatine of Lancaster having heretofore comprehended in it the three great Earldoms of Leicester Derby and Lincoln with their largely extended Revenues was not at the first represented but did forbear the sending of Members the remainder whereof is now a great part of the Kings Revenue the whole County Palatine of Chester with Wales and its Provinces had none until the Raign of King Henry the 8th nor the County Palatine of Durham and the Burrough of Newark upon Trent until some few years ago Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Pryors Religious Men and Women and all that have hundreds of their own as very many have by Grant from the Crown are by the Statute of 42 H. 3. exempted from coming to the Sheriffs Torn or County Court and so not intended to be Electors or Elected The Kings very large should be Demesne Lands and Crown Revenue and that of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the many other before mentioned exempted And the Records of the House of Peers in Parliament have often told us that many times when the Commons gave Subsidies they did it by the Assent of the Lords Spitual and Temporal And as a very Learned Divine of the Church of England there being many Pseudo-Protestant Divines that are not of it hath well remarked there is no Subject of the Kingdom of England represented in Parliament by the Commons thereof but as subordinate to the King and to join with him and the Lords in their As-Assent and Approbation not against him or either of them in our Kings and Soveraign Princes making of Laws for the good of the Kingdom For Repraesentare is no more than locum implore autoritate vel vicaria potestate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita iotis est exhibere vi quà dam juris praesentiam ejus qui revera non est Budaeus definit esse repraesentationem per figuram facere imaginario visu rem ipsam repraesentare locum implere loco sistere loco praesentis sistere repraesentatio quaedam imaginaria And being but Commissioners special Attorneys or Procurators of some part of the Lay-Commonalty and Freeholders not of the Copy-holders Lease-holders Villains or Bondmen Servants or Apprentices could not by their Indentures Letters of Attorney or Procurations with any reason truth understanding or propriety of speech be believed to represent for them that never delegated or authorised them or to Act beyond the purpose or design of those that Elected sent or imployed them nor can make it to be any thing more than an aenigma or Riddle with some hidden and inveloped sense or meaning not to be comprehended in the genuine obvious or proper meaning sense or construction of the word Repraesent for who can without a great weakness failing or Error in his Judgment think that they could by any tentering or straining of the word make all the several kinds of people that sent them in obedience to the direction of their Kings Writs or Orders to impower them whilst they sate in the House of Commons in Parliament to Sentence Condemn Fine Arrest Imprison Banish or Sequester any of those that they pretended to represent when the Praedecessors of those that would be Masters of such a Latitude did in Parliament in the 42d year of the Raign of King Edward the third when a Tax or Aid was proposed for the King being the first and only end for which they were elected and sent make it their request to the King to give them leave to go home to their several Countries and places to advise before hand with those that sent them Otherwise the Pledges or Sureties which every Member of the House of Commons being to give their County and place whom they would represent as their Procurators or Attorneys are to be well heeded and cautiously taken for pledges or security well watched in their doings and not left to trick and purchase to themselves by unlawful Encroachments an Arbitrary and Illegal Soveraignty which the Laws of the Land never allowed them and their Masters the Counties and places that sent them
could neither give or intend for nil dat qui non habet as being never able to give them complextly or singly their diversities of Powers or Interests present or to come other than such as the intent and purport of their Writs of Election Commissions allowed when the Devil with a pair of Spectacles cannot find in their Indentures or Procurations any Commission either by the King or those that Elected them other than to do and perform such things as the King by the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament should ordain but not to make War against their King and Murder him Plunder and destroy their fellow Subjects and Masters that elected and sent them for better purposes neither can they or any of their Record-massacring Champions ever be able to prove that the Lords Spiritual or Temporal did or could transfer unto them their power representative in Parliament which without the Authority of the King that gave it is not transferrable And when there were but 170 Counties Cities and Towns that sent Knights Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament in the latter end of the Raign of King Edward the First were but almost one Part of three that could be truly esteemed Representers of many of the Commons too many having been since only added by corruption of Sheriffs and otherwise it could never be intended or at all possible or so much as probable as all could be Freeholders or otherwise within the true meaning and intention of the word Representation or represent applied to the House of Commons or any particular member thereof was until our late Factious and Seditious Times never found in any of our Parliament Rolls Records or Memorials which hath lately been made to be very large and drawn into a factious and seditious extent and interpretation For the Parliament being only the Kings great Councel not of the people his Subjects upon special emergent occasions concerning the weal publick in the defence of the Kingdom and Church all offences committed against the Members of either of the Houses siting the Parliament or in their coming or returning are by Law to be prosecuted and punished in the behalf of the King and in his name and by his only Regal Authority and the Prison of the Tower of London is the Kings by a long possession but none of the peoples as it was adjudged in the Raign of Edward the 1st in the case of the priviledge of the Earl of Cornwal and long after that viz. In the latter end of the Raign of King Henry the 8th in the case of the Lord Cromwel and Tailbois and in the extraordinary forcible Riot and Trespass committed in the 12th year of the Raign of K. Richard 2. upon the Goods Lands and Servants of one of the Knights of the Shire of Cumberland sitting the Parliament whereupon that King upon his complaint directed a Writ or Commission to enquire and certify the Fact directing the Sheriff of Westmorland by a Jury of his County to attend them therein and those that were found offenders to arrest and bring coram nobis concilio nostro not the House of Commons in Parliament in Quindena sancti Michaelis with a nos talia si fuerint relinquere nolentes impunita upon which Mr. Pryn observeth that the King upon that complaint did not presently send for the Offenders in Custody by a Serjeant at Arms as the Commons of late times have done And did the more as he saith urge that Record and Precedent to rectify the late irregularities of sending for persons in Custody upon every motion and suggestion of a pretended breach of priviledge to their extraordinary vexations and expence before any legal proof or conviction of their guilt against the great Charter and all ancient precedents and proceedings in Parliament further evidenced by him to appertain only to the King by the Commons own Petitions from time to time in several Parliaments in the Raigns of Henry the 4th Henry the 6th and Edward the 4th in the cases of Chodder Atwil Dome Colyn c. And that it was expresly resolved and declared to belong only to the King by his Writs of Priviledge supersedeas habeas corpora issued out of the Court of Chancery to deliver members of Parliament or their Servants imprisoned or taken in execution against the Priviledge of Parliament for in the great Debates and Arguments in the House of Commons in the case of Fitz-Herbert in the 35th year of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth when Sir Edward Coke was Speaker it was at the last concluded that it was meet that the whole matter should be brought before them by an Habeas corpus cum causa issued out of the Chancery and there to be returned since no Writ of Habeas Corpus nor yet of priviledge could be returned into the House of Commons but only into the Chancery or Lords House as Writs of Error were whereupon the Speaker attending the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England pressed for a special Habeas Corpus with a clause to be inserted therein that Fitz-Herbert existens de Parliamento captus suit c. with a recital of the cause of priviledge who upon conference with the Judges would not Assent thereunto and resolving not to depart from the usual form issued out the Writ to the Sheriff returnable in Chancery who bringing the Body of the Prisoner and certifying the cause of his imprisonment the Lord Keeper sent the Sheriffs return of the Habeas corpus to the Commons House the Chancery men who brought it being ordered to read it which they did with the Writ thereunto annexed whereupon Mr. Dalton argued that the House had no power to deliver him he being not arrested sedente Parliamento but before it sate and that in a point of Law whether in this case he ought to be priviledged the Commons House ought not to pass any Vote therein but ought to advise with and receive instructions from the Judges of the Realm whether in this case by the Law they could grant Priviledge which being seconded by Sir Francis Bacon and thirded by Sir Edward Coke it was ordered that Fitz-Herbert should appear and be heard by his Councel the next morning and that the advice of the Judges should be had therein which being bad the Judgment of the House was that he was not to have Priviledge for three causes First because he was in Execution taken the same day of his Election Secondly because it was at the Queens suit which was the grand Reason Thirdly because he was taken neither sedente Parliamento nec eundo nec redeundo and Mr. Pryn likewise humbly conceived that in case of any Member of Parliament Arrested their only legal Means and Remedy was and is by a Writ of priviledge out of the Chancery In the Journal of the House of Commons in Parliament Anno 6. E. 6. There is an Order entred that if any Member require priviledge for him
certaines pointz limitez par le samant la suite al partie forspris cyn quont persones queux plaira au Roi nomer tour ceux qui serront Empeacher en ce present Parlement dit austre que le dit Roi voet que plein droit Justice soyent faitz a Chascun de ses liges qui en voilent complandre en cest Parlement ad ordiner assigner Receivers Triers des Petitions en cest Parlement And did in pusuance thereof in full Parliament excuse the Duke of York the Bishop of Worchester Sir Richard le Scroop then living William late Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander late Archbishop of York Thomas late Bishop of Exeter and Michael late Abbot of Walton then being dead of the Execution and intent of the Commission made in the Tenth year of his Raign as being assured of their Loyalty and therefore by Parliament restored them to their good Name And it is more than a little probable that the Prelates Counts and Barons in that Honourable House of Peers in Parliament did well understand that the King was a fit and the only person to Petition unto for that Pardon Discharge or Dismission amounting to a Pardon and did not think it to be either legal or rational to Petition the People and their fellow Subjects upon a supposed incredible and invisible Soveraignty no man knows when or how radicated and inherent in them The Decree of the great Ahashuerus that Raigned from India to Ethiopia over one hundred twenty seven Provinces whose Laws were holden to be irrevocable was reversed for the preservation of the Jewish Nation upon the Petition of Queen Esther and his holding out his Golden Scepter unto her The Inquiet People of Athens now come enough under a Mahometan Slavery would not again wish for Draco's bloody repealed Laws without the mercy of a Prince to moderate them according to the Rules of a prudent and discerning mercy Which made the Goodness and Wisdom of Solomon so extraordinarily eminent in his determination in the Case betwixt the two Mothers claiming one Child Neither can a People ever be or so much as think themselves to be in any condition of happiness when their Laws shall be inflexible and hard hearted and there shall be no Superior Power to allay the rigidness or severity of them No Cities of Refuge or Asylums to fly unto upon occasion of Misfortunes which God himself ordained for his Chosen People of Israel And therefore when Juries may erre or play the Knaves be Corrupt Malicious or Perjured and Judges mistaken our Judges have in their doubtings stayed the Execution until they could attend the King for his determination Whereupon his Pardons did not seldom ensue or a long Lease for Life was granted to the penitent Offender it being not amiss said by our old Bracton That Tutius est reddere rationem misericordiae quam Judicii the Saxons in doubtful Cases appealed to God for discovery by Kemp or Camp Fight Fire or Water Ordeal which being now abolished and out of use requires a greater necessity of the right use of pardoning for Sir Edward Coke saith Lex Angliae est Lex misericordiae like the Laws of Scripture wherein Mercy is not opposite unto Justice but a part of it as 1 John 19. Psalm 71. 2. Jer. 18. 7 8 9 10. Ezek. 33. 13 14. and it hath not been ill said that Justitia semper mitiorem sequitur partem for it is known that a Judge since his Majesties happy Restoration who were he now living would wish he had made a greater pause than he did in a Case near Brodway-Hills in the County of Worcester or Glocester where a Mother and a Son were upon a seeming full evidence Hanged for the Murther of a Father who afterwards when it was too late appeared to be living And Posterity by the remembrance of Matters and Transactions in Times past may bewail the Fate of some Ministers of State who have been ruined by being exposed to the Fury of the People who did not know how or for what they did accuse them and left to the never to be found Piety or Wisdom of a Giddy Incensed and Inconsiderate accusing Multitude and Hurrying on the reasonless or little Wit of one another And consider how necessary it had been for the pious good Duke of Somerset in the Raign of King Edward the Sixth to have had his Pardon when at his Tryal neither his Judges nor the prevalency of the faction that would have rather his Room than his Company nor himself could remember to put him in mind to demand the benefit of his Clergy Or how far it would have gone towards the prevention of that ever to be wailed National Blood-shedding miseries and devastations which followed the Murthers of the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Land if their Inno cencies had but demanded and made use of his late Majesties Pardon Or what reason can be found why a Pardon after an Impeachment of a particular Person by an House of Commons in Parliament or an House of Peers joyning or consenting therewith should not be as valid and effectual in Law Reason and good Conscience As the very many General Pardons and Acts of Oblivion which have been granted by our Kings and Princes to their People for Extortions of Sheriffs Bayliffs c. together with many other Misdemeanours Grievances and Offences often complained of in many of our Parliaments as the Records thereof will witness whereby they have acquitted and given away as much of their own just Rights and Regal Revenues to their Subjects then the Aids and Subsidies which they have Contributed towards their Preservation and in theirs their own and have been more especially by our late Soveraign who may be truly stiled le deboniere and to have been Piger ad paenas ad praemia velox And whilst we sit by the Waters of Babylon and sadly bewail the loss and casting away of our Tenures in Capite the Chariots and Horsmen and the glory and strength of our Israel for a miscalled Recompence by an Excise before our Presbyterian and Common Ill rather than Commonwealth Rebels had to maintain their wicked designs introduced that Dutch Devil called the Excise upon our half boiled and half malted Ale and Beer making our drink to be as the Waters of Marah and in the opinion of our Doctors of Physick an Especial Friend to our now much complained of seldom heard of before that wicked Rebellion the Scurvy and one of the most grievous and general Burdens that could be laid upon the Common sort of labouring poor people and those Tenures in Capite were so Essential and high a part of our Monarchick Government as all the Judges of England did in the Raign of King James the First agree and certify that they were so inseparable from the Crown of England as they could not be altered or taken from it by an Act of
Parliament and that learned and pacifique Prince having been much tempted thereunto in his great want of Money by an offer of 200000 l. per annum which was more than the whole profits of the Excise upon Ale Beer Cider Coffee c. All the Salaries Cheats Charges and Allowances Filchings Lurches and False Accompis deducted could or did amount unto that kind of Revenue being since his late Majesties death to be no more than a moyety thereof And these Tenures in Capite were so inherent in the Crown of England as divers of the learned Judges of England in their Arguments in the Exchequer-Chamber in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr made no Scruple to assert that the Tenures in Capite were of so high a nature that they could not be taken away by any Act of Parliament And to take away from our Kings and Princes the love and honour of the people as well as they had done the Tenures in Capite the Nerves and Sinews of our Monarchick Government it was the especial work and design of those Enemies of our former happiness to take away also the Honour of his Crown and Hospitality and could not think they had done all their work until they had thrown the Pourveyance into the bargain of the Tenures in Capite which nothing but the value of the Kingdom it self could make an Equivalent recompence or purchase and the unhappy contrivers thereof might have put a better value upon it when in Michaelmas Term in the third year of the Raign of King James the first all the Judges of England did certify that it was a Praerogative of the King at the Common Law and that all the Statutes which have been made to correct abuses in the Purveyances took not away the Purveyances but confirmed them Et qui tollit Iniquitatem firmat proprietatem confirmat usum And all those mischiefs done by one that unhappily might have taken more heed of an Assembly which some flatteringly called the Collected Wisdom of the Nation when he could not well esteem them so to be when by Fudling Drinking Bribing and all the base Cheats imaginable they had procured themselves to be made Members of that much miscalled Parliament And yet after his late Majesties miraculous restoration being advanced unto great preferments and at the last a Grand Minister of State did so think well of his own doings as he publickly at the Table of Sir Harbottle Grimston Master of the Rolls in Chancery-Lane in the hearing of many worthy persons Sir Nicholas Strode John Hern Esquire and others one of them yet living ready to testify it what a most especial Service he had done for the King and Kingdom when he was a Member in Parliament and known to be the Kings Sollicitor General by a motion without any the Kings privity or direction to dissolve and destroy the Tenures in Capite and accept a Recompence for them which Serjeant Glyn a former Grand Rebel to his Majesty and after his Restauration crept in as the most of them did and got to be Members of Parliament was ready to assist by the offer of a Recompence by an Excise upon Ale Beer Sider and Coffee a Limb of that Dutch Devil which they had made use of in their Rebellion and time of his late Majesties and now Majesties persecution At which the Company standing amazed and Sir Nicholas Strode said that he should never have fought for the late blessed Martyr or come to his setting up his Standard at Nottingham if he could have foreseen it the most of the Nation at that time and almost ever since verily believing that it had been the folly and evil doing of Sir Edward Hyde the late Lord Chancellor afterwards Earl of Clarendon and therefore was sufficiently railed upon Cursed and Banned for it and yet he was so Faultless and Innocent therein as it can be witnessed by the now Earl of Clarendon his Son Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Lord privy Seal in the Kingdom of England that this overbold presumptuous motion of a Servant and Councel at Law of that unfortunate weather-beaten Prince not being at all informed how or by whom the project came to be first hatched or moved his late Majesty calling together his privy Councel and advising upon that most unhappy proposition wherein the Rebel Parliament in February 1647. had made some Vote Act or Ordinance against the aforesaid Tenures under the notion of the Court of Wards being but two years before his Royal Fathers Murther and Oliver Cromwel had made some Act of his Worships miscalled Parliament some few years after as it behoved for the destruction of those Tenures in Capite when he intended as much as he could to take away the Kingship and Monarchy until he could make himself fit to govern a foolish besotted rebellious people they having before not at all made any mention or request to have the said Court of Wards put down or the Tenures in Capite by their High and mighty 19 Propositions nor were any complaints of grievances made thereby nor in all our Parliament Records or Journals or Historians since or before the Raigns of King Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror doth there appear to have been any Petitions in Parliament against them neither in that as it were intended deposing Remonstrance of the 15th of December 1641. wherein nothing was omitted that might injure or calumniate per fas aut nefas the Kings Authority or Government there appears to have been nothing against either the Tenures in Capite or Court of Wards And it can be proved that the Royal Martyr during his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight had designed that if ever he came again to his Rights he would upon all his Crown or Chequer Leases reserve some military Services notwithstanding all which his late Majesties great want of present Money and some setled Revenue perswaded him to hearken more than otherwise his own great Judgment would have done The Earl of Radnor was much against their dissolution alledging that the constitution it self was good and was not in it self to be cast away by any Male-administration Sir Geffery Palmer was very much for the preservation of the Tenures and so were many other and the Lord Chancellor Clarendon very much and so greatly as he called to the said Sollicitor General and said will you also put down the Pourveyances saying with some passion by God we seem to be against the late Commonwealth and yet are acting for it And his late Majesty was so unwillingly drawn to be in Love with that ever to be deplored Parliament contrivance to decapitate the Monarchy and not only that but Ireland and render all the Inferiour part thereof to be in a paralitique or dead palsical over-benummed in its Members as before that Act passed he sent for one Mr. Darnel an ancient and experienced Clerk and Attorney in the Court of Wards and Liveries to propose some expedient for the Regulation of
the order of the House of Commons who returning to their places again ordered that their Serjeant should go to the Sheriffs of London to demand the delivery of their Burgess without any Writ or Warrant albeit the Lord Chancellor offered to grant them a Writ which they refused as being of opinion that all commandments and orders of their House by their Serjeants only shewing of his Mace the Ensign of their Soveraigns authority without a Writ would be authority sufficient but before the Serjeant came into London the Sheriffs having intelligence how heinously the matter was taken better bethought themselves and delivered the Prisoner but the Serjeant according to his command charged the Sheriffs to appear the next morrow in the House of Commons bringing with them the Clerks of the Compter and the said White was likewise taken into Custody whereupon the next morning the said Sheriffs and Clerks together with the said White appearing were compelled to make Answer without Councel and with the Sheriffs and the said White were committed to the Tower of London and the Officers and Clerks to Newgate where they remained for some days and were after delivered not without the humble suit of the Lord Mayor of London and divers of their friends But a debate and questions arising in the House of Commons which lasted 9 or 10 days together how to preserve the debt of the Creditor whilst they enjoyed the priviledge of Parliament by delivering Mr. Ferrers out of prison upon an execution and some being of opinion that it was to be salved only by an Act of Parliament and not well agreeing also thereupon the King being advertised thereof summoned to appear before him the Lord Chancellor and the Judges and the Speaker of the House of Commons and other the gravest persons of that House who after his Judicious arguments concerning the extent and warrantableness of the priviledge of Parliament and his own more especially in the granting thereof touching the freedom from Arrests which all the Judges assented unto none speaking against it commended notwithstanding the intention of his Houses of Parliament to have an Act to preserve the Creditors debt who he said deserved to have lost it the Act of Parliament was consented unto by the Commons but passed not the House of Lords by reason of the sudden dissolution of the Parliament Upon the report made by Mr. Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster Chairman or principal of the Committee of the House of Commons for the delivery of Edward Smally a Servant of Mr. Hales a Member of Parliament arrested in Execution that the said Committees found no President for the setting at large by the Mace and if they had it had but denoted the Kings sole Authority for that it was his Mace and his Serjeant at Arms that carried it and none of their Mace or Serjeant any person in Arrest but only by Writ and that by divers precedents of Record perused by the said Committee it appeareth that ever Knight Citizen and Burgess of the House of Commons in Parliament which doth require Priviledge hath used in that case to take a corporal Oath before the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being that the party for whom such Writ was prayed was his Servant at the time of the Arrest made And thereupon Mr. Hall was ordered by the House that he should repair to the Lord Keeper and make Oath in form aforesaid and then to proceed to the taking of a Warrant for a Writ of Priviledge for his said Servant according to the said report and it so appears by the Journal of the House of Commons and saith Mr. Elsing the Writ of Priviledge being so easy to be had what needed any Petitions to be made by the Commons to the King and the Lords for the same and as there is no precedent for this in the times of Edward the third Richard 2d H. 4. nor H. 5. so there are none to the contrary There being then no such opinions as have been since indulged and seditiously enough espoused by some that would go so far beyond Truth and Reason as to believe that the Members of the House of Commons that are or shall be have a Charter of Ordination or which is more of a never to be prov'd Commission from an unintelligible power of Soveraignty of the People And a man might wonder himself almost into an Extasy or Inanition how or by what magical or strange artifice Sir Edward Coke in the latter end of his Age and Treasury of Law and good Learning if he had ever Studied and read as he ought to have done the Feudal Laws which were our Fundamental Laws and the Original of our once and I hope may be again happy government and might before he came to be over-credulously infected with the Impostures of the modus tenendi Parliamenta and mirrour of Justice have well understood that they were no other than those which are and long have been the Laws of the Britains Saxons Germany France and Spain the Goths Vandals and Longobards Denmark Norway Sweden Hungary Bohemia Holland and West Freizland Gelderland Savoy Transilvania Silesia Moldavia Walachia Navarre Catalonia and the Republicks of Geneva and Genoa Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily Dutchies of Lorrain Millian and Florence with some little small diversities and that all our multitudes of allowed Customs Usages and Priviledges by the Indulgence of our Kings and Princes and their Laws have had no other Fountain or Original and should confess that our Magna Charta and Carta de Foresta which were not only some Relaxations Liberties and Priviledges granted and allowed by our King Henry the third but were expressly granted to be holden of that King his Heirs and Successors in Capite and that both they and all our Acts and Ordinances made them to be no other than as their Patroni or foundation and that our Colloquia generalia or Magna Concilia or Curia as Brodon stiles them now or for many Ages past called Parliaments and even those beneficia and Laws were not unknown to the Brittains in the time of their valarous and great King Arthur and could tell how when he was a Member of Parliament in the third year of the Raign of King Charles the Martyr and one of the most eminent and busy to Name and Stile the Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled their Petition of Right when that which they would there claim to be their Rights and Liberties had no Right Reason Law President true History or Record to back or assert what they desired the King to give his Royal assent or Fiat unto and was no more the Rights of the People truly understood than to desire a Liberty to pull down the House or Government upon their own heads carve out their own destruction and entail it or as little Children left alone in an House with a great fire
of his Aerarium or Treasury without which no King or Prince can be safe or great and protect and defend himself and his people from Injuries and Contempt which put all together may give Gods appointed watchman of our Israel besides their more weighted and occasional business in Parliament scarcely time to slumber or sleep or enjoy his natural refreshments or divertisements without the addresses and Importunities of his almost always wanting and complayning Subjects which they that will be at leisure to peruse all the orders of himself and his privy Councel and treasury References upon Petitions in the Secretary of State and Master of the Requests Books and the Reports and Returns thereof with all that are contained in the patent close Rolls fine and liberate Rolls of every year besides the Writs Remedial granted out of the Chancery from which no man as our Laws say is to return sine Remedio those of the Common or Ordinary sort in every year amounting to no smaller a number than eighty Thousand in a year which by Law were anciently intended not to have been granted but by immediate Petitions to the King howsoever are now dispatched of Course as it hath long been by his Majesties not a few subordinate Officers very much to the ease and relief of his People who have so long enjoyed those benefits and accommodations as those Writs of Course without the trouble either of our Kings or their more especial Court of Parliaments as Anciently as King Canutus Raign who began his Raign in the year of our Lord 1016. and from thence so continued until the Raign of King John wherein a Writ of Novel diseisin is noted in the Margin of a Roll to be de cursu from whence the Cursistors in Chancery have taken and do yet keep their Name not a Cursitando as Fleta who wrote about the Raign of King Edward the 2d terms them Juvenes pedites little Lads who carried and fetcht Writs to and from the Great Seal but Clerici de Cursu mentioned in the Oath ordained to be given unto them in Parliament in Anno 18. E. 3. Insomuch as when Simon de Montfort that Married the Sister of King John and either his Father or himself had about that time been the destruction of the Protestant Albigenses and Waldenses in France did in the time of the Imprisonment of King H. 3. and his Son Prince Edward whom he and his Rebellious Partners had taken Prisoners in the Battle at Lewes take an especial care that in the absence of Thomas de Cantilupo the Kings Chancellor the Kings great Seal being committed to the Trust of Ralph de Sandwich Keeper of the Kings Wardrobe assisted by Hugh le Despencer Justiciar of England and Peter de Montfort two special Rebels to be kept until the return of the Chancellor and that the said Ralph should Seal brevia de Cursu but those which were de praecepto were to be Sealed in their presence And when that Rebellion was afterwards broken and Simon de Montfort and the most of his Rebel partners were slain at the more fortunate Battle at Evesham and the King restored to his Regality and Rights of government he and his Successors afterward did in all their Parliaments enjoy the power and authority of Monarchs in their great Councels or Assemblies of Parliament wherein by reason of their great and important affairs in War a in France Scotland and Wales they could not be able to be personally present but summoned and held their no long lasting Parliaments by their Lieutenants or Guardians of the Kingdom for the short continuance thereof § 31. That our great Councels or Parliaments except Anciently at the three great Festivals viz. Christmas Easter and Pentecost being ex more summoned and called upon extraordinary emergent occasions could not either at those Grand and Chargeable Festivals or upon Necessities of State or Publick Weal and preservation ex natura rei continue long but necessarily required Prorogations Adjournments Dissolutions or Endings FOR extraordinary occasions being not common or ordinary and the Summons or calling of fit and well capacited Persons to those venerable or great Councels of Parliament for purposed sometimes especily Limitted and Declared to be for Advice and Aid not in omnibus arduis only but in quibusdam arduis concerning the defence of the King his Kingdom and the Church always howsoever declared by the King himself or such as he appointed and there being other great and little Courts enough in the Kingdom to dispatch and administer Justice it could not but put our Kings and Princes in mind not to trouble their highest Court for small and trivial Affairs but to believe that Canutus an Ancient King of this Nation who began his Raign in Anno Domini 1001. had reason by an express Law to prohibit the troubling of him or his Parliament or greatest Councel with small matters when they might with more ease less delay expences and attendance be determined at home or in their proper Courts or Places in these words videlicet neme de injuria alterius Regi quaeritur nisi quidem in Centuria Justitiam consequi aut impetrare non potest Centuria autem Cominus quisque ut quidem par est intersit aut saltem debito absentiam luat supplicio and that Law might well be said to have been made by that King sapientum Concilio which might occasion the use of Receivers and Triers of Petitions constantly appointed by the King or his House or Councel of Peers until our late times of Rebellion and Confusion that great Councel or Court never being intended by our Kings or their Laws to be a standing often or continual Court for ordinary Affairs The wisdom of our Kings and their House of Peers having often rejected and not given any Remedies to Petitioners that might more properly be relieved in Inferiour Courts For King Offa in the year 787. after the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ had a 2d Session in his great Councel And therefore as all Parliaments have had very urgent and necessary causes of Calling and Summoning them by their Kings so they were to have their continuance and duration proportionable to the Business and Affairs for which their Advice Assent or Approbation were required and even in the Ecclesiastical Councels begun as early after the Incarnation of our blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ as the year 446. The many Secular Businesses as making of Laws and redressing of Grievances in and by the Presence and Assistance of our Kings and many of the Nobility continued until the Norman Conquerour who separated the Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdictions one from the other and the Attendance upon Parliaments were not a little troublesom and chargeable to the Spiritual and Temporal Baronage and therefore the Ancient Custom of our Saxon Kings was more easy and less burdensom unto the Prelates and Nobility when it required their constant and annal Attendance
Duty and Allegiance they are obliged to attend their Soveraign and come to the General Consult of a Parliament so is it to be considered that the Speculator and Prorector of our Kingdom and Nation under God just allowances being always to be made of natural rests and refreshments and competent care of health cannot be Master if he could of much time whilst he is to encourage and maintain the Publick Good of his People and Guard them from any evils or inconveniences which do or might assail them in his care and distribution of Justice in all the complaints and Petitions of a numerous and mighty People in the issuing out of Writs Edicts and Proclamations which do every day and hour in the year almost imploy his Ministers of State and substituted in their several stations and qualifications Sundays and the grand Festivals in every year not always escaping and the not to be expressed almost perpetual cares of a Kingly and Monarchick Government largely attested by the many Patent Charter and Clause Rolls brevia Regis Rescripts Commissions Certioraris Writs of ad quod dampnum Inquisitions cum multis aliis in the Raigns of our Kings and Queens now lodged and preserved in the Tower of London the Exchequer and the Treasures thereof with the Records of the other Courts with what else could be rescued from the ravage of War and Time together with the Memorials of their Secretaries of State Privy Councel Table Books referrences and the returns thereof hearings of causes complaints and orders and redresses thereof with a necessary Inspection and Survey in and of all the affairs and conditions of his people and their well or ill being when the cares of government were so accompted to be an heavy burden for Moses in his conduct of an affrighted and oppressed people of Israel driven out of Egypt with six hundred thousand men on foot besides Women and Children with their Flocks and Herds in their travelling and unsetled condition through the wilderness towards their hopes in the Promised Land of Canaan with murmuring enough in the hearing and determining of their Suits and Complaints one against another raised in Jethro his father-in-Father-in-Law such a compassion of his Labour and Toil therein as he told him he would surely wear away both himself and the People and therefore Councelled him only to reserve hard matters unto himself and appoint out of the People able Men such as fear God and love the Truth hating Covetousness to Judge the People in smaller matters Wherein they that shall rightly consider the cares of Kings and Princes and the trouble of preserving and doing good to a far greater number of People not seldom as unto too many against their Wills may think themselves to be happy under the Protection of Gods Vicegerent and bound to obey with cheerfulness his Providence therein and that it was never intended by our less murmuring and more grateful Ancestors to make perpetual extraordinaries or a standing Court of Parliament which could not fall within the Reason Necessity or Practise of any good or rational Government and if it could as it never can must of necessity tear in pieces our happy best Established Monarchy and Sacrificing it to an inexorable misery leave our Posterities to be tossed and driven in and upon the Waters of Strife Self-interest and Vain Imaginations and in the fear without any cause of an Arbitrary Power of our Kings never like to happen over-hastily and madly run into the Arbitrary Power of a multitude or some prevailing Party of plundering and pretending Reforms amongst them many of which is and will be the worst of all Arbitraries of a Rude Ignorant Unreasonable and Senseless multitude with the greatest certainties of miseries as fatally as inevitably likely to happen §. 32. That Parliaments or great Councels de quibusdam arduis concerniug the defence of the Kingdom and Church of England neither were or can be fixed to be once in every year or oftner they being alwaies understood and believed to be by the Laws and ancient and reasonable Customs of England ad libitum Regis who by our Laws Right Reason and all our Records and Annals is and should be the only watchman of our Israel and the only Judge of the necessity times and occasion of summoning Parliaments FOR notwithstanding that by an Act of Parliament made in the 4th year of the Raign of King Edward 3. It was accorded that a Parliament should be holden once in every year and more often if need be And in an other Act of Parliament made in the 36th year of the Raign of the aforesaid King Edward it is said that for the maintenance of the Articles and Statutes made in the said Parliament of the 36th and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which dayly happen a Parliament shall be holden as at other times was appointed by a Statute yet the latter Act of Parliament was but with reference to the former and that imparted no more than that a Parliament shall be holden once in every year and more often if need be and howsoever that in the 50th year of the Raign of that King the Commons renewed their petition that a Parliament might be holden that Knights of the Parliament might be chosen by the whole Counties and that the Sheriffs might likewise be without brocage in Court the King only answered to the Parliament there are Statutes made therefore to the Sheriffs there is answer made to the Knights it is agreed that they shall be chosen by common consent of every County and in Anno Primo R. 2. petitioned the King that a Parliament might be yearly holden in a convenient place to redress delays in Suits and to end such Cafes as the Judges doubt of which the Consequences after will shew were only to be at the pleasure and will of the King as his prudence care and necessity of himself and the publick good should necessarily advise if the true Interpretation of both those Acts of Parliament could as it never can bear any other signification for although that which next followed that Act of Parliament made in the 4th year of the Raign of that King was in the next year after yet that which succeeded that was in Anno 6 and not printed For the Parliament was for a few days Adjourned and being after holden at York was for a short time likewise Prorogued and afterwards the Assembly being not come was Adjourned until the 5th of St. Hillary next following at York and from thence again to a Reassembly at the same place at the end of which Re-assembly the Commons had License to depart and the Lords were commanded to attend him the next day at which time the Parliament was Dissolved The Duke of Cornwal the Kings Eldest Son as Guardian of England by the Kings Letters Patents held the Parliament at Westminster and a memorandum made to Summon the Parliament at the 5th of St. Hillary
the Kings Brother and Chancellor of England in the behalf of the King Lords and Commons declaring the cause of calling the Parliament and taking for his Theme Multitudo Sapientum learnedly resembled the Government of the Realm to the Body of a man the Right-hand to the Church the Left-hand to the Temporalty and the other Members to the Commonalty of all which Members and Estates the King not deeming himself to be one was willing to have Councel The Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England by the Kings commandment declaring the cause of the Summoning the Parliament and taking for his Theme Regem honorificate shewed them that on necessity every Member of mans Body would seek comfort of the Head as the Chief and applyed the same to the honouring of the King as the Head And in that his Oration mentioning the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Knights Citizens and Burgesses giveth them no Title of Estates but the Kings Leiges In the presence of John Duke of Bedford Brother of the King Lieutenant and Warden of England and the Lords and Commons the Bishop of Durham by his commandment declared that the King willed that the Church and all Estates should enjoy their Liberties which could not include the King It was ordained that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties without the words Concessimus which could not comprehend the King who granted it to them but not to himself The Chancellor at the first assembling of the Parliament declared that the King willeth that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties which must be intended to others that were his Subjects and not to himself that was none of them The Archbishop of York Chancellor of England declaring the cause of Summoning the Parliament said the King willeth that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties in which certainly he well knew that the Person willing or granting was not any of the Persons or Estates to whom he willed and granted that they should enjoy their Liberties The Duke of Gloucester being made Guardian or Keeper of England by the King sitting in the Chair the Archbishop of York being sick William Linwood Doctor of Laws declaring the cause of summoning the Parliaâ—ent said that the King willed that every Estate should enjoy their due Liberties which properly enough might be extensively taken to Military men and Soldiers the Gentry Agricolis opificibus all sorts of Trades Labourers Servants Apprentices Free-holders Copy-holders Lease-holders single Women and Children Tenants at Will and which never were themselves Estates but the several sorts and degrees thereof wherein if any Law Reason or Sense could make the King to be comprehended an inextricable problem or question would everlastingly remain unresolved who it was that so willed or granted The King sitting in his Chair of State John Bishop of Bath and Wells Chancellor of England in the presence of the Bishops Lords and Commons by the Kings Commandment declared the causes of summoning the Parliament taking for his Theme or Text the words sussipiant montes Pacem Colles Justitiam divided it into three parts according to the three Estates by the Hills he understood Bishops and Lords and Magistrates by little Hills Knights Esquires and Merchants by the People Husbandmen Artificers and Labourers By the which third Estates by sundry Authorities and Examples he learnedly proved that a Triple Political vertue ought to be in them viz. In the first Unity Peace and Concord In the second Equity Consideration Upright Justice without maintenance In the third due Obeysance to the King his Laws and Magistrates without grudging and gave them further to understand the King would have them to enjoy all their Liberties Of which third Estates the Chancellor in all probability neither the King or they that heard him did take or believe the King himself to be any part The 15th day of August the Plague beginning to increase the Chancellor by the Kings Commandment in the presence of the 3 Estates the Clerks Translator or Abridger being unwilling to relinquish their Novelty or Errors of which the commonest capacity or sense can never interpret the King to be one Prorogued the Parliament until the Quindena of St. Michael The Bishop of Bath and Wells Chancellor of England in the presence of the King Lords and Commons declaring the cause of the Summons of Parliament said that the King willed that all Estates should enjoy thâ—â— Liberties which might intitle the King to be the Party willing or granting but not any of the Parties who were to take benefit thereby It was enacted by the whole Estates which may be understood to be the King Lords Spiritual and that the Lords of the Kings Councel none of theirs should take such order for the Petition of the Town of Plymouth as to them should seem best Letters Patents being granted by the King to John Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury of divers Mannors and Lands parcel of the Dutchy of Lancaster under the Seal of the Dutchy were confirmed by the whole Estates for the performance of the last Will and Testament of King H. 5. though it was severed from the Crown and was no part of the concernment thereof nor had any relation to the Publick or any Parliamentory Affairs the King himself that granted the Letters Patents could not be interpreted to be one of those whole Estates which were said to have confirmed them By the whole Estates were confirmed King Henry the 6th Letters Patents of the Erection and Donation of Eton Colledge and also of Kings Colledge in Cambridge with the Lands thereunto belonging which might well conclude the King although he being the Donor could not be believed to be any part of the whole Estates who by their approbation are said to have confirmed his Letters Patents The Chancellor in the name of all the Lords in the presence of the King protested that the Peace which the King had taken with the French King was of his own making and will and not by any of the Lords procurations the which was enacted And it was enacted that a Statute made in the time of King H. 5. that no Peace should be taken with the French King that then was called the Dolphin of France without the assent of the three Estates of both Realms should be utterly revoked and that no Person for giving Counsel to the Peace of France be at any time to come impeached therefore which may demonstrate that neither the Dolphin of France nor the King of England were then accompted to be any part of the several 3. Estates of the said Kingdoms The King by his Chancellor declared that he willed that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties it cannot be with any probability supposed that either he or his Chancellor intended that himself was one of the said Estates The Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England in the presence of the King gave thanks in his behalf to the 3. Estates wherein no
the Mazorites to understand their own Language and by creeping themselves into that which our Rebel Innovates would have called a third Estate made themselves the Governing Essential and Constituent part of the Parliament the generale Consilium or Colloquium of the Nation in arduis not in omnibus but quibusdam being the most useful wholesome and profitable in and through all the Christian World and so experimented where they are kept in their due and proper Limits and Boundaries in a due Obedience to their Kings and Soveraigns and cause as many as they can to believe them that they as representing the People who never trusted them to any or the like purpose have an Inherent Right of Soveraignty in themselves to accuse depose or murder their Kings and Elect or Choose another turn a Monarchy into a Republick or Common-wealth when there had not been in England within the memory of any true Record or impartial History any one before framed by a Factious and Unquiet Party of Rebels in Parliament under the basest of Hypocrisy that ever was practised in the World upon the pretence of setting Christ upon his Throne And could not be content until they had without any cause raised a Rebellion against their pious Prince and murdered him forced from the People to maintain those their ungodly doings by Taxes as much as amounted unto 48 Millions of Sterling Money besides the vast sums of Money and Riches gained by the extorted Fines and Compositions from the Kings Loyal Party at Goldsmiths and Haberdasher's Halls in London the one for the 20th part of their Estates and the other for compounding for their supposed forfeiture for fighting to defend their King against his Rebels and their Plunderings Sequestrations and Decimations of those with whom they had before compounded besides a Tax for six Months of every House-keeper in London and its vast Lines of Communication for as much as their weekly Diet amounted unto with Money borrowed upon that which they would call the Publick Faith which cheat brought that Godless Party into their Repository of the Guild-Hall in London abundance of Money Plate Rings Jewels Silver Bodkins and Thimbles many of whom after those villainous Wars and Rebellions something appeased being in Poverty have been the constant Attenders at the House of Commons doors in Parliament to enquire for Madam Publick Faith's Habitation but could never be able to find it and besides all these wickednesses could not think they had done enough until they had added unto their many sins that no small sin of Sacriledge by Sequestring the Orthodox Ministers Imprisoning of the Bishops and sale of their and the Deans and Chapters Prebends and Cannons Lands and their Woods and Possessions Banishing and every way Impoverishing them shutting up all or many of the Church doors in Wales upon pretence of Reforming or Propagating Religion but gathering the Tithes into their own Purses sale of the King Queen and Princes Houses and Rich Moveables and of all their Lands and Revenues the Coats of their Yeomen of the Guard and the Plate in their Royal Chappels Allen a Goldsmith and Member of that House of Commons picking out and exchanging the Jewels out of the Kings Crown and putting in counterfeit plundered and sold much of the Lands and Goods of the Nobility displaced the Masters of Colledges and Halls in both the Universities without shewing any cause more than that they would put in another of their own Party and began to gape and lick their Lips after a like Reformation of their Lands and Revenues tore up the Brass upon Monuments upon the ground and made Money of them because there was inscribed upon them Orate pro nobis and broke those Glass windows that had any Pictures or Images in them for fear of Superstition made a Stable for Horses in the Cathedral of St. Pauls in London where heaps of dung might be as high as the Roof and Sawyers seen sawing in the Grave where the Bishop of London was buried that obtained the City of Londons Charter of their Liberties from William the Conqueror for which their more grateful Successive Mayors and Aldermen at great solemnities never failed at their coming to that Cathedral in a kind of Procession to walk about it And the Othodox Clergy of the Church of England calumniated by Mr. John White a Lawyer of the late seditious Edition who being a Chairman appointed by a Committee of Parliament to relieve those that they would call plundered Ministers being the Factious Antichurch party did so order the matter as to put out all the Orthodox Ministers and taking his Notes and Examinations in Characters was able to interpret them how he pleased and upon the Accusation of a Cobler at Lambeth that the Learned Dr. Featly had Preached false Doctrine he must be turned out of his Benefice and imprisoned at Lambeth wherein besides many other if not all he or his Notes were shrewdly mistaken when one Mr. Clopham a Minister was for Adultery Ejected when it was proved that by a fall from his Horse he was so disabled in his Genitals as he could not be guilty of it And the Ecclesiastical plunder Masters were to take a more than ordinary care that when their small comcompassion had been pleased to allow the Sequestred Ministers Wives and Children a 5th part of their Husbands Benefices that they should have as little and as hardly as could be of it when after they had tired themselves with their Petitions to the upper and lower Committees they had obtained an Order for that their small pittance found no other comfort after that they had travelled forty or fifty or more miles unto one that should pay it then one who being more merciful and candid than the rest was pleased to shew a small common or private almost invisible note or mark in the Order that they should not obey it Mean while about 100 of Sequestred Ministers of the West parts of England could have no better a place provided for them than to be imprisoned at Lambeth House but a little before notoriously infected with the Plague and ordered an Alderman of London whose Son is yet living to attend them with two Culverings or small pieces of Cannon ready charged to fire upon them as they were in the Chappel serving God and hearing Doctor Featly preach unto them where they had perished if God had not in mercy provided an escape for them And if this were or could be proved or justified to be a work for such a third Estate as that modus tenendi Parliamentum was so willing to provide for our Laws having in their Subordination to Gods Laws and not opposite unto them been truly believed and said to have been derived from Right Reason yet that is always to be understood to be so when it hath received the Sanction of the King and are not agitated by the various wills interest and fancies of the People next unto madness And it might amuse and
of a contrived Parliament to govern the King when that gentle fictitious modus is content to allow the King a Salvo dom Regi et ejus Consilio quod ipsi hujusmodi Ordinaciones of 6. 3. or 1. of the Committee Postquam scripta fuerint examinare emendare valeant si hoc facere sciant valeant Ita quod hoc fiat tunc ibidem in pleno Parliamento de assensu Parliamenti Et non retro Parliamentum which last clause saith Mr. Pryn quite spoils Altars and contradicts what the Community of twelve six or three had ordained And King Edward the confessor whom the many foregoing and after ages have justly and truly reported and esteemed to be neither Oliver Cromwel or the mistaken Sir Edward Coke with their several modi tenendi Parliamenta did not find either of them in his Recherches amongst all the Laws of the Mulumtians Mercian Saxon and Danish Laws and other ancient Customs used in England in his time when he was Monarch thereof and Vicarius Summi Regis ordained Laws concilio Baronum Angliae leges 68 Annos sopitas excitavit excitatas reparavit reparatas decoravit decoratas confirmavis confirmatas vero vocantur Leges Edwardi Regis non quod ipse primo eas adinvenisse dicitur sed cum praetermissa fuissent oblivioni penitus dedita a diebus avi sui Edgari qui 17 Annis regnavit ipse Edwardus quia Justa erant honesta a profunda Abyssu extravit as if he had pulled them out of some Holes Vauts or Cranyes eas revocavit ut suas observandas contradidit wherein there is nothing at all that may be subservient to the wildest kind of Interpretation of a modus tenendi Parliamentum which in the case of so great Rational and Fundamental general Councel as a Parliament could not be beleived to be omitted in the making and framing K. Edward the Confessors Laws nor can they be conceived or believed to be made at one time but at several times during his Raign and in these although there are extant a very great commendation of the usefulness of the Law of Friborghs or Tithings there is not a word or any thing to be understood of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament being a third Estate For it appears in Anno 1244 in a Parliament holden at London the King consulted with the Bishops apart the Earls and Barons apart and the Abbots and Priors apart about the Popes not performing his promise concerning his removal of the grievances of the Kingdom where were none of the Common people either as a third Estate or otherwise which was before his imprisonment in the 48th year of his Raign by some of his Rebellious Barons and in all his Raign before there is often mention of his Bishops Earls and Barons Magnates and Grand Conseil but nothing at all of Commons or a formed House of Commons until the 49th year of his Raign and not long before at a Parliament assembled totam Nobilitatem Angliae For before the 42 year of that Kings Raign Nobiles Angliae tam viri Ecclesiastici quam seculares met in a Parliament at London Ita quod nunquam tam populosa multitudo ibi antea visa fuit where the King informing them of his necessities and requiring an aid they not any Commons but the Lords Spiritual and Temporal began to be very querelous and remembring old grievances as they called them demanded the Justiciary Chancellor and Treasurer might be chosen by the Common Councel of the Kingdom which by the Records and Annalists was never understood to be any other than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament summoned to give their advice to the King as the greatest men of wisdom and Estates in whom that and the obedience of the Common people were Justly included the choice of which great Offices of State Sir Edward Cokes modus tenendi Parliamentum having not then peeped into the World to help to disturb it the Lords Spiritual and Temporal then alledged to appertain unto them not unto the Vulgar or Common people and had been Justly and anciently due unto them ab antiquo Justum consuetum which had no longer a date than the enforced Charter of King John at Running Mede and the collateral strange security at the same time given for the 25 Conservators of the Liberties of the people to maintain its antiquity than something less than 42 years before which propositions the King denying that Councel was dissolved without any Claim of the common peoples third Estateship or being an Essential or constituent part of the Parliament or to have votum decisivum therein There was no such Modus tenendi Senatum or Parliamentum then so stiled when the Roman Empire began its rise for shortly after though their Stile or Title was Senatus populusque Romanus yet their Historians tell us that they had their Patritii and Menenius Agrippa when the Rabble Vulgus or Common people had made an Insurrection or mutiny and gone tumultuously into the Mount Aventine knew better how to bring them again into their Wits by a pleasant well understood fable or Apologue of the head Members Belly and Paunch in their Bodies natural and our Republican 3 Estate men might read and understand that those Common peoples Votes or Dictates were able to reach no further than their Plebiscita and never could arrive unto a Senatus consultum that when Julius Caesar came into our Brittain before the Incarnation of our Redeemer and that Nation had planted Colonies here they left us no Modus tenendi Senatum neither did Agricola Governor here for the Roman Colonies who had taught our Nation the use of the Roman Gown and Civilities teach them the modus tenendi Parliamentum or Senatum which Sir Edward Coke dreamed of or inform them that the Common people were a third Estate or had an inhaerent Soveraignty in them In all the Laws of Dunwallo Mulumtius there was no mention of Law for a modus tenendi Parliamentum or in those of Mercia Regina Britonum or in the time of the Heptarchy of the Saxon Kings or of King Ethelbert who raigned here in the year after Christ 568. Neither in the Laws of King Ina who raigned in England about the year 712. Or in the Laws of King Alured who began his Raign in Anno 871. and ended in Anno 900. and declares that he had ordained collected and put them together Atque easdem literis mandavit quorum bonam certe partem Majores sui religiose coluerunt mulâ—a etiam sibi digna videntur quae sibi observari melius commoda videbantur ea consulto sapientum partim antiquanda partino Innovanda videbantur curavit At quoniam temeritatis videatur ex suis ipsius decretis quenquam literarum monumentis consignare tum etiam se quidem apud posteros Justitiae suae fidem quae se magni fecerit
quaecunque in Actis Inae Gentilis sui Offae Merciorum Regis Ethelfredi magni Ethelbaldi qui primum Anglicos sacro Baptismate tinctus observata digna deprehendit ea collegit congessit reliqua plene omisit Or in any of the Books if they were extant said to have been written by that great King viz. Breviarium quoddam collectum ex Legibus Trojanorum Graecorum Britannorum Saxonum Danorum as hath been before mentioned Or in or by the Laws of King Edward who Raigned here in Anno 900. when iis omnibus quae republicae praesunt etiam atque etiam mandavit ut omnibus quoad ejus facere poterint aequos se praebeant Judices perinde ut in Judiciali libro Scriptum habetur no Warrant yet appearing for a Modus tenendi Parliamentum nor a third Estate over-ruling or voting their Soveraign nec quicquam formident Jus Commune audacter dicant litibus singalis dici quibus dijudicantur codicibus statuit Or in the Laws of King Athelstan who Raigned here in the year 924. the Heptarchy being then reduced to its pristine Estate of Monarchy or in or by his Laws in a Councel holden at Exeter or in or by any the Laws of King Edmond Or in or by any the first written Laws said to be of the Brittains in the Raign of their King Howel Dha stiled the good or in or by any the Laws of King Eldred made in or about the year 948. or in or by any the Laws of King Edgar who Raigned about the year 959. and stiled himself favente dei gratia not of the people totius Angliae Rex Imperator as he might well do when he was Rowed in a Ship or Barge upon the River Dee in Wales by four of his Tributary Kings Or by King Edward made in or about the year 950. in the Senatus Consultum League or Agreement made betwixt him and the Monticuli Walliae Angliae sapientum and Walliae consiliis Or in the pact or agreement made betwixt King Edmond Ironside and Canutes the Dane when they were perswaded to spare the dire effect of a Bloody Battle and leave the â—vent unto a personal combate betwixt the King and his Danish Competitor in the view of both Armies whereupon they both being ferried over into the near Isle of Alney the strong Ironside so wearied and almost vanquished the Dane as he willingly agreed to be content with the moity of the Kingdom Neither doth there any thing appear in or by the Laws of our King Canutus who Raigned here about the year 1608. ex sapientum Consilio Or in or by any the Laws or Constitutions of William the Conqueror or any of our succeedings Kings or Princes And the late new Framers of new Governments calculated for the meridian of their own Profit and Ambitious Factious designs might have better informed themselves by the reading those mischievous Provisions imposed at a Parliament at Oxford upon King Henry the third and his Son Prince Edward which being afterwards by the King and the contending Barons referred to the Arbitration of the King of France a not long before enemy enough of King Henry the third with an engagement on both sides upon Oath to abide by his award those Provisions were upon a full hearing before that King and his Great Councel the Parliament at Paris in the presence of all the contending parties adjudged to be null and void as derogatory to Kingly government as hath been here before expressed that although in those Provisions there was another solemn Jury Impannelled in every County to Enquire and Certify all and every the supposed Breaches of Liberties and their Verdict under their Hands and Seals were returned into the Court of Chancery there is nothing to be found of the contents or complaints expected and that there being by those Provisions to be 3 Parliaments in every year one at Michaelmas or 2 at Candlemas and a third at the first of June and 12 to represent the Common people were to be Elected by the Barons and they that were chosen were none other than Bishops and Barons and the hautes homes so small was then the trust in the Vulgus or Common people and so nothing at all either in behalf or consideration of modus tenendi Parliamentum or a third Estate or Soveraignty in the people or can any rationally beleive that the Clerks in the House of Peers which is the highest Court of Record under their Soveraign and the house of Commons none but often supplicating the other to Record and Inrol their Special matters and Protestations and in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. when the five great Lords appealed five other as big as they of High Treason and throwing down their Gauntlets with Armies ready to attend their purposes and the Bishops had made their protestation and forsook their places might not by a facile inadvertency have suffer'd the word Estates to have crept under their Pens and be a means of procreating some of the like unfortunate Errors yet were they now amongst the living and examined they would swear they intended none other than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal but subordinate to the King especially when the whole tenor and current of our multitudes of Acts of Parliament except those few of Richard the 3. that murdered his Nephew the young King to get into his Throne by flattering the people and calling them Estates seem to have no acquaintance with that since misused word or expression as some have done by saying when he came once to sit in Chancery the King can do no wrong And it might be more marvellous than the seven wonders of England that so great an Elevation and belief should be in that mistaken part of Parliament when in the storm and tide of a Faction and Sedition driving on a horrid Rebellion in order to the Murder of their King they had in their more than Pharisaical Fastings and Prayers with Protestations to make him a glorious King put him into insufferable Fetters as it were of Iron as to impose upon him in the 16th year of his Raign to put the power of summoning the Parliament once in every three years if he should omit it to the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal under severe penalties upon their Oaths at a certain praefixation of time and upon his failing to any twelve or more of the House of Peers and every house might choose their own Speaker and Administer the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to their Members and that therein should be omitted the title of Estates or some other Character of Grandetza if it had at all been justly due unto them When in December 1621 the House of Commons in Parliament by a Remonstrance made unto King James not being able to shew any good Law or Reason to the contrary did declare that they did not assume to themselves any power to determine of Religion or War nor did intend to
defectum ejus Et dixit D. Tho. qui. 1. P. 62. Quest. dixit Angelos quia peccare non possunt liberiores esse nobis qui pecca e possunt And Cicero defineth liberty to be potestas vivendi ut velint at non vivit ut velit qui juxta sensus carnis suae Cupiditatis sed is solummodo qui vivit juxta rationem Plutarchus Epictetus eandem Libertatis definitionem Nobis dederunt not that liberum esse debet dici cui nec impedimentum praeberi possit volenti nec vis inferri volenti but if none of the fancied vast liberties which the too many of our State or Government Menders would entitle their own evil designs and entail upon all that shall be so foolishly wicked as to be deluded by them and the costly searches of Mr. William Pettit amounting by his own Report unto more than five hundred pounds in all that could be found in any the Books and Manuscripts publick or private of England cannot reach or come so near as unto a probability that there ever were in the Brittish Roman Saxon Danish or Norman Raigns of our Kings and Princes and their many Royal Successors ever since or long before that since the Creation of the World either in Parliament or without any mention of a third Estate inherent in the people and they must be content to go a begging for a belief in some lately discovered Island where they may dream any such stuff may be sound either as their modus tenendi Parliamentum or a third Estate as Subjects at the same time governing their Kings and Princes when by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy they are bound alwaies to be obedient unto them as next under God their SupremeHead and Governor And may curse their fate that every thing their scrutinies can assist them with should not with wresting wringing and false and senseless Interpretations appear at all to be for their purposes but every thing clearly against them and sorrowfully repent that they or their Predecessors had so unhappily busied themselves in destroying so many Props of the Monarchick Government as the Court of Star Chamber wherein did sometimes sit as Judges the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer and the Chief Judges of both the Benches and the Barons of the Exchequer the Archbishop of Canterbury and divers of the Kings Privy Council who as Judges in seveveral Courts did sit there upon special occasions and the procuring the King to take away the High Commission Court in their miscarried designs of Levelling the Hierarchy and order of Bishops The want of which two very necessary and useful Courts hath suffred the Nation to be overflown with all manner of wickedness and Impiety And in that their over-hasty carreer of breaking our English Monarchy like a Glass into many small or little peices needed not to have been so hasty but have paused a little while have considered that as unto the circumstances of Time Place Number of Persons Usages and Customs in a variety of contingencies being the only ancient proper and efficient cause of summoning Parliaments adjorning or dissolving them there could not be a probability of a modus tenendi Parliamentum either in King Edward the Confessors Raign or before or after for that our Parliament Rolls and Records do una voce plainly declare against it and shew that many times Parliaments have been holden in the absence of our Kings by the Prince his Eldest Son or by some other of their Sons as Lieutenants or Guardians of their Kingdom or by the Queen Mother assisted by the Kings Justitary or other Commissioners during the Imprisonment of King Richard the first or by the Queen Consort of King John in his absence or by King Henry the 4th in his usurpation upon King Richard the second when he unjustly made use of a Parliament summoned by him And there could not be a third Estate in the Raign of King Charles the second when he had as aforesaid so unfortunately been ill advised to exchange the Nerves Sinews Strength and Honour of his Crown and Government for a mistaken Recompence of an Excise upon Ale Beer and Syder and then there were but two Estates viz. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal subordinate unto their Soveraign and it would be a difficulty insuperable to find any Truth Reason Evidence Probability or Possibility that there is or ought to be a Soveraignty inhaerent in the people or if such Improbabilities were or could be what Method or contenting Equal distribution could be made thereof amongst Learned and Unlearned Ambitious Rich and Poor Rude Ignorant or better tempered vicious or virtuous Women and Children or Fooles Madmen in their intervals or without when some have not improbably calculated the number of the Kings Subjects in England only to be not much under five Millions besides these vast numbers in Scotland and Ireland And who upon any or many discords like to happen should be the pacifying Reconciler Justiciary or Umpire betwixt them and what Charters Agreements or Surrenders should be contrived or put in writing betwixt them concerning the Right use or distribution of that never to be proved inhaerent Soveraignty in the people taking as Subjects the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy or that ever it was attempted before our English Rebellions either in England Scotland or Ireland or can they give us any reason or demonstration that it was ever allowed of or that any pact or Agreement was made to confirm it Neither is there any Modus tenendi Parliamentum or any such thing or matter as a three governing Estate in the solemn Recognition made in a Parliament at Clarenden in the Raign of King Henry the second of the Anitae Consuetudines or Laws used in the time or Raign of his Grand-Father King Henry the first which the Archbishops and Bishops verbo veritatis sine dolo malo Ing nio promised faithfully to obey and the Earls and Barons likewise And will be a Priviledge never taught to the Athenians sometimes the wiser part of Greece by their great Legislator Solon who after he had made them some Laws feigned a Voyage or Journey to Salamia and caused them to swear to observe them until his Return and absented himself the longer because he would not have them break them as Pisistratus the Tyrant did afterwards to his own advantage perswade them to do the Spartans under their great Legislator Lycurgus and the many other little Commonwealths of Achaia first fooled by Philip of Macedon afterwards by Alexander the Great his Son who conquered all that part of the World but Diogenes the Philosopher in his Tub now all into slavery the Ottoman Empire had long before better business to trouble their Heads with than the fond Imagination of a Soveraignty inhaerent in themselves although one of their most â—acred Laws in their Ten Tables was Slus populi sit Suprema Lex ne quid detrimenti res publica capiat Neither did
the Romans those Cordatissimi Mortales as the learned Pettus Cunaeus hath stiled them and most watchful of their Priviledges the wary long lasting Republick of Venice or the later Confederates of the United Provinces ever trouble themselves or any other with such reasonless incredible Whimsies it being impossible that Subject and Soveraignty should constare vel consistere in uno eodenque Subjecto neither when Jeroboam drew away the Ten Tribes of Israel from the Obedience of Rehoboam and made as the Holy Scripture saith all Israel to sin was there any such opinion amongst their Cabalistical Doctrines The Republicks of Venice Holland could not be capable of Leagues and Treaties with Monarch and Forreign Princes as unto War and commerce nor the little Common-wealths of Genoa and Geneva or those many Imperial free Cities or Towns in or near Germany or the Electors of the Empire or the Hanse Towns should they give entertainment unto such Fancies and Fopperies as a Soveraignty in the people neither would the Cantons of of Helvetia or Switzerland think themselves well used to be obliged to such a Parcel of unpracticable folly And if those Egregious Cavillators can find no way of retreat for those their notorious follies but to fly for Succour unto praescription that will if they could as they will never be able to prove it yeild them as little comfort for a Rebellious electing of some few Members into the House of Commons first formed as unto a small number of them during the Imprisonment of King Henry the third by Montforts Army of Rebels that would not mount unto a Prescription quia mala fide and if it could have come up to any thing like a Prescription there would be no reason or need for an Election of Members to be in the House of Commons in Parliament by the Sheriffs by the Mandate or Warrant of the Kings Writs or how could a party drawn out of such a pretended inhaerent Soveraignty in the people rationally subsist when those their untruly supposed Rights or Priviledges cannot upon the most exact enquiry be found or discerned amongst all the Records Charters and Patents of our Kings and Princes or those of any of our Neighbour Nations of Christendom or of any other Nation White Black or Tawncy but do plainly contradict it and declare the quite contrary and will manifest it to be the greatest Cheat and Villany that ever was put upon the Sons and Daughters of mankind either as unto a pretended inhaerent Soveraignty or a third Estate or the figment of a Modus tenendi Parliamentum Or how could any of our Kings Rightly and Justly stile them a third Estate when they could not choose a Speaker without their License nor leavy their Wages without his Writs directed to the Sheriffs for that purpose nor punish any that had arrested any of them or their maenial Servants whilst they attended the King in their Service for him and their own good and at all conferences either in their own House or in the House of Peers were to stand uncovered when the Lords sate covered could not grant Tax or Aid without the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and in King Edward 1. His Raign and some of our after Kings have refused to intermeddle or give advice in matters of Peace and War but desired that the Councel of the Lords as the most able might be taken therein In the 34 and 35. H. 8. the Knights and Burgesses of Chester had no title of Estates but the same King in the Act of Parliament declaring in what Order and Manner the Lords should sit in the House of Peers in Parliament made no appointment for or concerning any of the House of Commons as if they had been no Essential part of Parliament that in the great case of Mr. George Ferrars a Member of the House of Commons as wel as a Servant of that Kings upon a complaint that he had been imprisoned and the Kings Serjeant at Arms attending their Speaker was beaten and abused the House of Commons in Parliament complained to the House of Lords who remitted it to them again and no remedy or punishment could be had until it came to the King himself who without any mention or Title given unto them of a third Estateship was pleased to grant it And in Queen Maries Raign 39. of their Members were Indicted by her for not attending the Parliament yet none either claimed a third Estateship or to be tryed by their Peers Queen Elizabeth imprisoned some and at several times charged them and their Speaker not to intermeddle with matters of Church or State but all the Masters of any Understanding Reason or Common sense ought to understand them to be no other than Petitioners and her Leige-men And it is well known that King James in his Instructions to his Son Prince Henry and his learned answer to Cardinal Peronius does assert the Jus Regium to be the Right of Kings from God immediately without any notice taken of a third Estate But if those Kingly Government or Monarchy Reformers would but give their contemplations and designs some little Respite they might easily perceive the frailty of the Materials out of which they mould would the Members of the House of Commons into a third Estate and might find Evidenee Records Reason and Law enough if they have not forsworn them to desist from such an impossibility And it might better become their own busying themselves in the government of the Kingdom wherein they have no manner of skill or knowledge to consult the consequences and the Events and having no knowledge of the causes Mediume contengencies or treacheries too much or too often attendant in Princes affairs not seldom also miscarrying for the Sins of the people or of some Jonas in the Ship deserving a punishment ought more seriously to weigh and consider how little the people of England will think themselves hereafter beholding or obliged unto them when in a popular and aboundance of Ignorance accompanied with sin and wiekedness they advised King Charles the Second to dissolve by Act of Parliament these Nerves and Sinews of the Crown which the Judges of England in the Raigns of King James the first and King Charles the first upon several consults have declared to be so inseparable to the Crown of England as the most potent and binding Act of Parliament that could be made will never be able to disunite them when they have thereby against their wills converted those Tenures of Honour and safety to their King and Protection peace and plenty to his people and the Releifs and Herriots due and payable to the King into a Chimney-Money granted afterwards by another Act of Parliament and what a profitable bargain they have made by forfeiture of all the Lands which they held by and under their Feudal Laws converted into Socage when by a Law made by King Athelstan ever plow Land in Socage was to find in Service
maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adhaerents to subvert and suppress it whereby his Majesty will be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentory way for his aid and assistance in restoring his Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same cause 18. That his Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parliament to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the 5 Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the consequence of that evil president 19 That his Majesty would be graciously pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the consent of both Houses of Parliament which would have made him such a King as never was or can be found in any Christian or Heathen Kingdom or Nation and themselves such Subjects as until they could agree the matter amongst themselves or they should be couzened by some Republicans and those publick Plunderers by some Cromwel cheat those kind of extraordinary mad Men and Fools of both Sexes must have been all Kings Queens and Princes and that which they would have called their King to be but as a shadow or semblance or none at all which would have restrained the King from all power that other â—ings and Princes had to reward men of merit when as Joseph had the Honour done him by Pharaoh that they should make him ride them second Chariot and cry before him Bow the Knee and as Mordecai who had preserved King Ahashuerus Life was Arrayed with the Royal Apparel and rode upon the Horse on which the King used to ride with the Crown Royal on his Head and the Horse to be led by one oâ— his greatest Princes through the Street of the City who sh 〈…〉 Proclaim before him Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to Honour All those or which their humble desires being granted by his Majesty they should faithfully apply themselves to regulate his present Revenue in such sort as may be for his best advantage and likewise to settle such an ordinary and constant increase of it as shall be sufficient to support his Royal Dignity in Honour and Plenty beyond the proportion of any former Grants of his Subjects of the Kingdom of his Majesties Royal Predecessors And what he owed to himself his Posterity People Prudence Honour and Dignity as to have granted what they desired they would too easily have obtained their advantages of bereaving him of his Monarchy by such their Propositions not fit to be advised and Petitions neither to be made or granted more than Pepin the Mayor of the Palace at Paris ever had when he perswaded the last King of the Merovignian Line to indulge his ease leave all his Affairs of State to his care manage which brought that Prince within a short time after to be shaved and put into a Monastery and the great Charles or Charlemain Son of Pepin established King of France or the like opportunities which Hugh Capet the Ancestor of the now King of France had by his getting the Rule and Reins of the Government into his own hands which did the like to the Family of that Great Charles and placed himself and his ever since flourishing Lineage in that Throne And would make him as small a King as Arise Evans a Fanatick Taylor in Black Fryers in London had proposed when Sir James Harrington had modelled his Government of Oceana Mr. Henry Nevil his Plato Redivivus and Mr. Charles George Cock his Houshold of God upon Earth and every one would be busy as he could in shooting of his bolt That a King should be Elected out of the Poorest sort of Men and have an 100 l. per Annum for his care and pains to be taken in the Government which would have been much better than the aforesaid 19 careful manackling Propositions when the Parliament must have been the King and the King only executive and as the Subject and the Parliament from time to time impowered to make Laws contrary to those which he and his predecessors had made and governed by and when they please is to execute quite contrary and procure a pardon when he can of God Almighty for it And having by the help of their Seditions and Rebellion gained as they hoped a new Magna Charta for themselves as representatives for the people their next care and industry were employed not only to guard and keep what they had thought themselves possessed of but to add as many more advantages unto them as the pressures and necessities of their King might join unto them and therefore when the Noble General Monke after Duke of Albemarle had by Gods mercy to King Charles the 2d under the mask of a Commonwealth by his wary conduct in almost a miraculous manner reduced the King to his Kingdoms Dominions and Monarchick Rights without as the Parliament Rebels would have perswaded him the taking of the Rebellious Covenant or the abstracting of any of his Regal Rights they did so contrive their matters as in an Act of general pardon larger than ever was granted by any of our Kings of England with some small exceptions prepared by two Serjeants at Law that had Sailed along with the Wind and Tide of that long lasting Rebellion they had bestowed upon it an especial praeamble That whereas divers Rebellions and Insurrections had been by vertue of divers Commissions of the King and of the Parliament as if any could be guilty of High Treason or other Misdemeanors or could forfeit that acted by the Kings Authority the King had pardoned all Treasons Felonies c. And as if they had nothing more to incroach upon the Monarchy did take it to be a breach of they knew not what Priviledge for their murdered King to send for a Printing-press from London to York or Oxford and the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament after that huge pardon granted by King Charles the 2d of the forfeiture of all the Lands in England which were in the Rebels possessions with all their rich Goods and Chattels together with another Act to unbastardize their Children and unadulterate their Fathers and Mothers fastened and entailed upon them by a new Fanatical way of Marriage before Justices of Peace as if they were only to part a fray or keep them from fighting for which they seemed not to be at any rest or quiet with themselves until every County City Burrough Market Town and Corporation or Company of Trade had attended his Majesty with Addresses of huge protestations of Loyalty and Obedience and the expence of their Blood Lives and Fortunes and all that could be dear unto them yet too many of them could after make their counterfeit Loyalty with promises to live and dye with him to
ruine all those that really and heartily wishout any other ends than that of duty and endless Loyalty came to help her and not by so many Plots and Conspacies against your Government and Monarchy and the lives of your Majesty and Royal Brother give a far greater disturbance thereunto than the unhappy severely punished Corah Dathan and Abiram did to the Government of Moses and Aaron who did but only murmure against them saying Ye do take too much upon you but did not plot or contrive Treasons Conspiracies or Rebellions against or to Assassinate or Murder them From all which disturbances and troubles that God will be pleased whilst you are on Earth enjoying a happy life amongst an unquiet as unto too many of them never to be contented people to free your Majesty your Heirs and Successors shall as it hath ever been be the prayers of Your Majesties always Constant and Obedient Subject FABIAN PHILIPPS THE PREFACE TO THE READERS THey that have read and duly considered though but with an ordinary compassion and sense of humanity the dismal Effects of Wars Rebellions and Discords in Kingdoms and Republicks and the little gain more than a Sacrifice to the Devil and the Ambition Revenge Self-Interest and the Ruine of Kingdoms Commonwealths Families and Estates might if there had been no other evidence have clearly and lamentably seen it in those once very famous Republicks of Athens and Sparta in the Peleponesian Wars ingaging most of the little Republicks of Achaia to run the adventure with them and did in the conclusion bring them all together under the Tyranny of the Ottoman Empire in those also of the Merciless Proscriptions of Sylla and Marius at Rome and the bloody Pharsalian Fields or Battels fought betwixt Julius Caesar and Pompey too nearly allied to have made such a quarrel or bustle to disturb so great a part of the World for Empire that of the Guelphes and Gibelines happening near about the time of our King John when the Pope so domineered over him as he constrained him to do homage unto him for England and Ireland and pay him a then great yearly Tribute that of our two great contending Families in England York and Lancaster under the several Badges or Liveries of the White Rose the Red to the destruction of many of the Nobility and Gentry taking their several parties that of the German Wars betwixt the Duke of Saxony and the Emperour Charles the 5th that of the Sicilian Vespers that of the King of Spain and the Netherlands or united Provinces of the Holy League in France and the cruel Massacre of so many thousand Protestants in Ireland and that our Incomparable late Rebellion of all the Rebellions the Devil had ever abused and Cheated a Nation withal the most hypocritical horrid and abominable and the just care that every pious and good man ought to have of his King and Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and the Blessings of God to attend his posterity might cause them to make as much hast as the dumb Son of King Craesus did to save the life of the King and therein prevent the Ruine of his Countrey And therefore I may hope that a Minimus Apostolorum one of the least Professors of the Law though of an ancient standing may be permitted without the reproach of Arrogance or scribling quiddities or Impertinences or troubling the World with the Idea's of Plato Aristotle Solon Licurgus or the unquiet Commonwealth of Rome until they were after the Experiments of divers sorts of Governments constrained to be more quiet and content with that of the Empire and Monarchy or Theocracy ordained by God be permitted to lay or bring before the Reverend Judges and Sages of the Laws of England and the Professors and Students of the Laws therein what may be found in the Records Annals and approved Authors and Historians concerning the ancient Feudal and Monarchick Government thereof without any Additions Omissions wtested Interpretations Forgeries Impostures or the fond and often abused credulity of Monkish and feigned lying Manuscripts may incite others to approve and like better of it than they have done that have to the hazard of their Estates in this World and the World to come done all that they could to pull in pieces that ancient Government upon which all our Laws reasonable Customs and Constitutions with Remedies for publick grievances have been built and founded which Sir Edward Coke hath before the dissolution of our Tenures in Capite the Ligaments of the Crown of England and the nerves sinews and strengths thereof when he was better pleased with his Soveraign not unjustly called the Quintessence of all Laws expended very near 1000 l. Sterling in my labours and travails therein and other matters concerning the Government without any penny profit or recompence either from or by the Stationers or any others more than an Employment as Deputy Comptroller of the Law Tax wherein I endeavoured all I could to serve his late Majesty and the Farmers thereof and may hope it was acceptable when his Majesty not long before his departure out of this World was by his principal Secretary of State Sir Leoline Ienkins Knight graciously pleased to declare that he had a particular regard for me and was sensible of the many Services which I had done unto the Crown which in the greatest of truth humility and modesty I might have said was done by me one of the smaller sort of the Atoms in his Kingdoms as an oblation of Duty when besides my no small loss and damage in the late horrid Rebellion I did adventure with the late learned George Bate Dr. of Physick and Mr. Nicholas Odeart sometimes Secretary to Sir Edward Nicholas principal Secretary to the murthered King did when the Rebels had refused to allow him in his own defence the assistance of his own or any other Councel learned in the Law at that they falsly called his Tryal when the Intercession of the French and Dutch Embassadors the Scots their Rebel partner Commissioners and some of the London factious Ministers could not prevail to rescue his sacred life did with great danger and hazard of our lives and Estates cause a small paper of Advice to be secretly delivered unto him not to acknowledge any jurisdiction to be in their highly wicked misnamed Court of Justice never before heard of or made use of in England or in any other Nation of the World And I did also after that wicked of wickedest sentence of death pronounced against my Soveraign Write and cause to be Printed and affixed upon the Posts and publick places in or about the Cities of London and Westminster a Protestation in the name of all the Loyal people of England against that most abominable sentence and did within a short time after Print and publish a Book in Justification and defence of him and the first as I believe that in print justly stiled him a Martyr for his people with some assurance
Power or were Elected by Them THe Laws of GOD Nature and Nations our Laws of England and the Records thereof no Strangers at all unto them but much in League and Friendship with them did never deny our Kings and Princes to make use of the Councels and Advice of such of their Subjects as were fit and able to give it Nor did any of our Kings by such applications unto their Subjects for their advice and councels either in general or particular common publick or private Councels or any of their Laws Grants Charters or Customs ever allow them any co-ordinate or equal Authority with Them or over any of their Actions in the giving of their Approbation Advice or Consent Or otherwise if we may believe as we ought those Records and Accounts which the World and its aged Companion TIME have from their Infancies left and recommended unto us no such Liberties Customs or Priviledges at all ever appearing to have been granted or of right appertaining unto them by any Warrant Foundation Law Act of Parliament Reason Prescription or Custom In the time of our Ancestors the Britains Qui Legibus Romanis not of the Senate but the Emperours Caesareis seu imperialibus paruerunt quamdiu sub Imperio Romano which Mr. Selden hath asserted to have continued 360 years or thereabouts from the time of Claudius the Emperour to that of Honorius and that Severus the Emperour kept his Court for several years at York where Papinian that great and famous Lawyer sate Praetor or Lord Chief-Justice under him Which could not but introduce much of their Laws and Usages amongst us and the near succeeding Ages were so unwilling to part with them as they would never after be altogether Strangers unto them For King Aethelulph travelled with his Son Aelfred to Rome and Aelfred whilst he was there and likewise after his return and being King Librorum omnium notitiam habebat saith William of Malmsbury and was very learned as Asser Menevensis who was his Contemporary and privy to most of his Actions and Hoveden and Ingulsus have recorded it to Posterity Plurimam partem Romanae Bibliothecae Anglorum auribus dedit And Offa King of the Mercians had in the year of Christ 790. before the time of Aethelulph sounded erected and maintained in Rome a Schola Saxonica which could not be either constituted or continued without some Commerce with the Latian Language and Laws the one being likely to be an effectual means to convey the other and by a constant intercourse continue the course and knowledge of some part of these Laws and Customs in England Or in any of those Laws which Dunwallo Molmucius cujus Leges Molmucianae dicebantur ordained Or in those which Mercia Regina Britonum Uxor Gurtheli à qua Provincia Merciorum containing Gloucester shire and seven other Counties putatur denominata edit as an authentique Historian saith discretione justitia plenas quae Lex mercia dicebatur Of King Ethelbert Circa annum salutis 588 or 613. qui sub Heptarchia Saxonum as venerable Bede relates it decreta judieiorum inter subditos suos juxta exempla Romanorum Consilio sapientum constituit decreta judiciorum scribi fecit genti suae Et sub Saxonibus Danis quamvis pauciora Legum Romanorum vestigia reperiamus The learned Dr. Duck seconded by Dr. Langham in observationibus de antiquitatibus legibus Romanorum in Britannia exercitatissimus have not indiligently noted constabit tamen Reges eorum qui reliquis pietate virtute gloriae cupiditate praecelluerunt in judiciis jure dicundo inter subditos suos ad exempla Romanorum saepius se composuisse In the Laws of King Ina who about the year 712 after the Redemption of Mankind suesu instituto Cenradi Patris sui Heddae Erkenwaldi Episcoporum suorum omnium Senatorum suorum natu majorum sapientum populi sui in magna servorum Dei frequentia commanded ut justa judicia per omnem ditionem suam fundita stabilitaque sint at que ut nulli liceat in posterum Senatori sive alteri cuivis in ditione sua degenti sua antiquare judicia institutiones sive Leges genti suae condidit solempnes Of King Alured who about the year 871. prudentissimorum è suis consilio declaring that many of the Laws of his Ancestors quae sibi minus commoda videbantur ex consulto sapientum partim antiquanda partim innovanda curavit quaecunque in actis Inae gentilis sui Offae Merciorum Regis vel Ethelbert qui primus Anglorum sacrotinctus est Baptismato observatu digna deprehensus fuit ea collegit omnia reliqua plane omisit atque in istis discernendis prudentis simorum è suis consilio usus atque iis omnibus placuit editi eorum observationes Or in the League made betwixt King Alured and Guthrun the Dane or afterwards betwixt King Edward and Guthrum à sapientibus recitata sepius atque ad commodum Regni utilitatem aucta amplificata Or in or by any of the Books if they were extant and now to be seen said to have been collected and written by that great King viz. Breviarium quoddam collectum ex Legibus Trojanorum Graecorum Britannorum Saxonorum Danorum 2o. Visi Saxonum Leges 3o. Instituta quaedam 4o. Contra judices iniquos 5o. Dicta sapientum 6o. Acta Magistratum 7o. Collectiones Chronicorum Or by the Laws of King Edward about the year 900. where iis omnibus qui Reip. praesunt etiam atque etiam mandavit ut omnibus quoad ejus facere poterint aequos se praebeant judices perinde ut in judiciali libro scriptum habetur nec quicquid formident jus commune audacter liberèque dicant ac litibus singulis dies quibus dijudicentur condictos statuit Of King Athelstan about the year 924. the Heptarchy being then reduced to its pristine estate of Monarchy Consilio Ulfhelmi Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum servorum Dei. Or in his Laws not long before made in a Councel held at Exeter where he was as they mention sapientibus stipatus Of King Edmond made in a Councel at London about the year 940. tam Ecclesiasticorum quam Laicorum cui interfuerunt Oda Wolstanus Archipraesul plurimique alii Episcopi Or in or by the first written Laws of the Britains about the same time in the Reign of their King Howel Dha stiled the Good the Bards and Druids men of great veneration power and esteem amongst them not before recommending to posterity or committing to writing any of their Laws Customs or Memorials qui convocati Episcopis Laicis doctissimis Leges antiquas correxit novas condidit Or in the Laws which King Eldred made about the year 948. in festo nativitatis beatae Mariae when universi magnates Regni per Regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi totius Regni quam
his elder Brother Geffry's Son being at that time not able to carry it he would endeavour to obtain the Crown and therefore the safer way to prevent confusion was that the Land should rather make him King than he make himself and that the Election would be some tie upon him Or in or by the Books if extant which that King is said to have wrote entituled Leges pro Republicâ 2d Statuta Regalia 3d. in the Epistle which he wrote Ad Innocentium Papam contra Stephanum Langton Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem 4th Ad Stephanum Cantuariensem Episcopum 5th Ad Innocentium Papam contra Barones 6th Ad Londinenses pro Praetor 7th Super Charta Obligatoria Which if the devouring teeth of Time or corruptions of their Originals have not met with them might if perused be believed to make no opposition to that which should be in a well-ordered Regal Government Or in or by the Charter at Running Mead called Magna Charta Charta de Forestae wrested and enforced from him by a mighty Army of too many of the Barons of England with their innumerable adherents upon their Oaths solemnly taken upon the Altars never to desist until they had obtained a grant of their Laws and Liberties which they pretended to have been violated which saith Daniel the Historian might be wished to have been gained by those unruly Barons in a better manner Or by any of our Laws or any of the Charters or Liberties granted by any of our Kings or Princes before or after SECT II. Of the Indignities Troubles and Necessities which were put upon King JOHN in the enforcing of his Charters by the Pope and his then Domineering Clergy of England joyned with the Disobedience and Rebellion of some of the Barons encouraged and assisted by them THat unfortunate Prince so ill used by Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury in the beginning of his Reign and as bad by Philip King of France who had given the Honour of Knighthood unto Arthur the Son of King John's elder Brother and taken his Homage for Anjou Poicteau Touraine Maine and the Dutchy of Normandy with an endeavour to make it the most advantageous for himself in regard that King John had neglected to do his Homage for those Provinces being Members of the Crown of France And in the third year of his Reign imposing 3 s. upon every Plough-land for discharge of a Dowry of 30000 Marks to be given in marriage with his Niece Blanch the collecting whereof the Archbishop of York opposed in his Province for which and refusing to come upon summons to his Treaty in France seizing his Temporalities the Archbishop Interdicted the whole Province of York and Excommunicated the Sheriff Into which County the King with his Queen Isabel afterwards making their Progress in their Journey towards Scotland and exacting great Fines of Offenders in his Forests the Archbishop his Brother refused him Wine and the Honour of the Bells at Beverly A reconciliation was notwithstanding made betwixt them by the mediation of four Bishops and as many Barons with a great sum of money and a promise to reform excesses on both parts When the King upon Easter after his return from the North was again Crowned at Canterbury and with him his Queen by the Archbishop Hubert and there the Earls and Barons of England were summoned to be ready with Horse and Armour to pass the Seas with him presently after Whitsontide but they holding a Conference together at Leicester by a general consent sent him word that unless he would render them their Rights and Liberties they would not attend him out of the Kingdom whereupon he required of them security by the delivering up unto him the principal of their Castles and began with William de Albany for his Castle of Belvoir who delivered unto him his Son as a Pledge but not the Castle And the King with the King of France being after solicited by the Popes Legate obtained a Subsidy of the fortieth part of all their Subjects Revenues for one year by way of Alms to succour the Holy Lands for the levying whereof in England Geffery Fitz-Peter Justiciar in England sent out his Writs by way of request and perswasion not as of due or by co-action to avoid example Howsoever the King of France declared for Arthur to whom he married his youngest Daughter required King John to deliver up unto him all his Provinces in France and by a peremptory day summon'd him to appear personally at Paris to answer what should be laid to his charge and abide the Arrest of his Court which he refusing was by sentence adjudged to lose all which he did hold in France of that Crown who thus beset with the King of France on the one side and his Nephew Arthur and the Barons of Anjou on the other who laid siege to Mirabel defended by Eleanor Mother of King John who by her intermedling turbulent and unquiet spirit had done him no good with great expedition relieved it by defeating the whole Army carrying away Prisoners Earl Arthur Hugh le Brun all the Barons of Anjou and 200 Knights Whereupon Arthur being shortly after murdered in Prison and the deed laid to his charge with the cruel execution of many of his Prisoners it so exasperated the Nobility of Britain and Poicteau as they all took Arms against him and summon'd him to answer in the Court of Justice of the King of France which he denying was condemned to forfeit the Dutchy of Normandy which his Ancestors had held by the space of 300 years and of that and all his other Provinces in France became wholly dispossest And with that disastrous success returning into England charged the Earls and Barons with the reproach of his losses in France and fined them to pay the fourth part of all their Goods for refusing their aid to which the feudal Laws and their tenures had obliged them Neither spared he the Church or Commonwealth in the like Imposition of which Geffery Fitz-Peter Justiciar of England was Collector for the Laity and Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury for the Clergy Which being not enough to supply his occasions for War in France where great Estates of many of the English Nobility then lay a Parliament was convoked at Oxford wherein was granted two Marks and a half of every Knights Fâ—e for Military Aid the Clergy promising to do the like on their part In anno 8o. of his Reign another Imposition was laid of the 13 th part of all the moveables of the Clergy and Laity which was again opposed by the Archbishop of York who solemnly accursed the Receivers thereof within his Province and departed out of the Kingdom Unto which also was added a miserable breach betwixt Legiance and Authority for Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury being dead a great controversy happened betwixt the King and the Pope upon the Monks of Canterbury's who were sent about it to Rome election of Stephen Langton a Cardinal who
Canterbury in the behalf of the State of his Oath made and taken by others for him upon the Peace made with Lewis for confirmation of the Liberties of the Kingdom for which the War was begun with his Father without which the whole State would again fall assunder and they would have him to know it betimes to avoid those miserable inconveniencies which might happen William Brewere a Councellor urging it to have been acted by constraint and therefore not to be performed Notwithstanding which it was at that time being the 7th year of his Reign promised by the King to be ratified and a Commission was granted by Writs unto Twelve Knights in every Shire to examine What were the Laws and Liberties which the Kingdom enjoyed under his Grandfather and return the same by a certain day which saith the learned and judicious Sir Henry Spelman were never returned or could not be found In the mean time the Earls of Albemarl Chester and divers of the Nobility assemble together at Leicester with intent to remove from the King Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justiciar and other Officers that hindred their motion but the Archbishop of Canterbury by his Spiritual Power and the rest of the Nobility being careful to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom stood to the King and would not suffer them to proceed therein so as they were constrained to come in and submit themselves And the King in Parliament resumed such alienations as had been made of the Lands appertaining to the Crown by any of his Ancestors to the end he might live of his own and not be chargable to the People The next year after being the 8th year of his Reign another Parliament was holden at Westminster where the King required the Fiftieth part of all the movables both of the Clergy and Laity but Mat. Paris more probably saith the Fifteenth for the recovering of those parts in France which had been held from the Crown being one and the same which is said in Magna Charta to have been granted as a grateful acknowledgment for the grant of their Liberties which though it concerned the Estates of most of the Nobility that had Lands therein would not be yielded unto but upon confirmation of their Liberties atque his in hunc diem prosecutis Archiepiscopus concilio tota Episcoporum Comitum Priorum habita deliberatione Regi dedere responsum quod Regis petitionibus gratunter ad quiescerent si illas diu petitas libertates concedere voluisset annuit itaque Rex cupiditate ductus quod petebant Magnates Chartisque protinus conscriptis Regis sigillo munitis in the next year after for the Charters themselves bear date in the 9th year of his Reign And the several Charters or Copies thereof were sent to the Sheriffs of every County and Twelve Knights were out of every County chosen to divide the Old Forests from the New and lay open all such as had been afforested since the first Coronation of King Henry II. Although at the same time or a little before or after it some of the Nobility who had formerly crowned Lewis of France King and had been the cause of King John's death for which they were banished the Realm endeavouring to return into England and to set up again the French King's Interest and domineer over the King and his faithful Councellors by circumventing Pope Honorius Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justice of England the Earl of Chester and seven other of the King's Councellors sent an Epistle to the Pope desiring him to assist the King and them and prevent those dangerous Plots and Designs And the King having sent also his Proctors to Rome upon the like occasion they returned him an account of a new Confederacy betwixt his discontented Barons and the French King to invade England and dispossess him of the Crown thereof adding thereunto quod Gallici praedicabant omnibus quod majores Angliae obsides offerebant de reddendo siâ—i terram â—um primo venire curaret ad illam adjicientes Si aâ—iquid in curia Romana contra voluntatem Regis Franciae attemptaretur incontmenter Rex transfretaret in Angliam Nor could any such authority accrue to them in or by those Charters called Magna Charta and Charta Forestae granted by King Henry III. his Son which were in very many things but the exmeplaria or patterns of that of King John in the like method and tenour containing very many Liberties and great Priviledges which were by King Henry III. as those Charters do declare of his own free accord granted and confirmed in the 9th year of his Reign to his Subjects and People of England Liberis hominibus Free-men or Free-holders for otherwise it would have comprehended those multitudes of Villains Bondmen and Bond-women which the Nation did then and long after employ and make use of and those very many men accounted by the Laws of England to be as dead men viz. Monks Fryers Priors and Abbots to be holden to Them and their Heirs of Him and his Heirs for ever But in those Charters or his confirmation of them in the 21st and 28th year of his Reign could not procure to be inserted or recorded those clauses which they had by their terrours gained from his Father in these words viz. Nullum scutagium vel auxilium ponam in Regno nostro nisi per commune consilium Regni nostri ad corpis nostrum redimendum ad primogenitum filium nostrum militem faciendum ad primogenitam filiam nostram semel maritandam ad hoc non fiet nisi rationabile auxilium simili modo fiat de auxiliis de Civitate Londinensi quod omnes aliae Civitates Burgi Villae Barones de quinque portubus omnes portus habeant omnes libertates omnes liberas consuetudines suas Et ad habendum commune concilium Regni de auxiliis assidendis aliter quam in tribus casibus praedictis scutagiis assidendis submoneri faciemus Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Comites majores Barones Regni singillatim per literas nostras Et praetereà faciemus submoneri in generali per Vicecomites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in capite tenent de nobis ad certum diem scilicet ad terminum quadraginta dierum ad minus ad certum locum in omnibus literis submonitionis illius causam submonitionis illius exponemus sic facta submonitione negotium procedat ad diem assignatum secundum consilium eorum qui praesentes fuerint quamvis non omnes submoniti Nos non concedimus de caetero alicui quod capiat auxilium de liberis hominibus suis nisi ad corpus suum redimendum ad faciendum primogenitum filium suum militem ad primogenitam filiam suam semel maritandam ad hoc non fiat nisi rationabile auxilium but were constrained to omit altogether and forgo those clauses and provisions which
evil Doings marching and maintaining their Army from place to place Ungarrisoning and Garrisoning divers of the King's Castles and Places of strength together with the no small Charges of their disloyal Contrivances Envoys and Ambassadours to their good Friends the King of France and the Pope Their great Necessities appearing very demonstrable in their harshly pressing the Bishops for some Arreares of the Clergy Tenths Seizing and Sequestration of the Rents and Estates as much as they could come at of the Loyal Party to the pretended Use of the King taking away the Tax and Tallage of the Judaism or Banks of the Jews the then besides the Caursini the Popes Bankers or Brokers only Usurers of the Kingdom which had been assigned to the Prince not omitting the getting into their hands the Tolls and Profits of the Markets and Fairs appertaining to his Mannor of Stamford who untill the very instant of his Escape from the Castle of Hereford where he had long lain a quiet Prisoner under their Persecution had enjoyed them All or but some of which might have given them a Temptation and Opportunity if they had had the mind or least Inclination to it to have taken those few Commons that were with them into their Association and moulded them into a neverbefore-used Form or Figure of a Parliament ever since so mistakenly called or Constitution of a third Estate and House of Commons therein when anciently and long before our Kings great Councels or Parliaments consisted only of such Lords Spiritual and Temporal as they should please to advise withal and those Commons which they had with them do not appear to have made any Act of Parliament or Ordinance for the raising of Money to support the charges of their Rebellion But that part of the Baronage appeared to have been so unwilling to take them into their Company or give them any occasion to contemn or lift themselves above their former condition as when in the Difficulties with which they wrestled upon the Prince's denying his Consent ever to have been given to a supposed Ordinance then lately as they would have as many as they could make believe it to have been made at London by the Prelates and Barons by the unanimous Assent of the King and his Son the Prince totius Communitatis Regni concerning the setling of Peace in the Kingdom the freeing of the Prince from his Imprisonment and the Discharge of the ill Opinion which many of the People had of their Actions they were constrained to send Writs in the King's Name the 12 th of June in the same year of that imprisoned King dated at Hereford unto the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Salisbury Chester Coventry and Lichfeild Bath and Wells and the rest of the Prelates who may then be understood to have been absent to come omni festinatione to advise with him at Gloucester to assist him with their Councels and be a Means to take off those Rumours which had been raised that by the Testimony of the King himself and the rest of the Prelats the Truth might appear that it was not the King himself but the Rebels as whilest he was in their Power he was made to stile his Son the Prince and his Loyal Party But none of the Commons before summoned or designed to have been summoned had any new Writs sent unto them for that purpose to meet at Gloucester which would have been very necessary if they could have born any Testimony to that supposed Ordinance which is not in any of the Records of that year or any other year those monumenta vetustatis veritatis to be seen or if they had had any Vote in that imaginary Parliament it would not have been said in that King 's Writ dated at Westminster the first day of February in the year aforesaid and in the Close Rolls of that year That although upon some Discords arising amongst the Scholars in the University of Cambridge the King had given leave that there might be an University established at Northampton yet being informed by all the Bishops of the Kingdom that it would greatly inconvenience the University of Oxford he did de concilio magnatum strictly forbid it But if there had been any Proceedings upon those Writs for the Election of Members to constitute an House of Commons for that or any long time expended in the duration thereof few of whom either came or were willing or dared to be present at that new-fancied Parliament which could not be believed to have had any Duration or long Continuance if it had at all gained a lawful beginning or could have overcome those many Obstructions which lay before them those two Knights of the Shire sent out of Yorkshire who had obtained a Writ for their Wages or Charges in coming tarrying or returning and were possibly gone homeward or shortly going would not have made such hast to be gone It being alwayes to be remembred that although King Edward the First had so subdued Wales as to make them obedient unto such Laws as he would have them obey yet King Henry the Eighth was the first that removed the Barr and accustomed distances and Enmities that had long continued between the English and the Welsh when in the 27 th year of His Reign he did incorporate his Dominion of Wales with his Kingdom of England and ordained that All that were born or to be born in Wales should enjoy the Laws of the Realm which and no other be willed should be used in Wales and that two Knights should be chosen to be Knights as Members in the House of Commons in Parliament for the County and one Burgess for the Town of Monmouth Knights and Burgesses shall be chosen in every Shire and Borough of Wales to come unto the Parliament and have the allowance of Wages as others used to have and there should be two Knights for the County of Chester chosen and two Burgesses for the City to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament Which rendred it to be not only improbable but impossible that any Knights or Burgesses for Wales and the Counties of Chester and Monmouth and the Boroughs thereof in that so New-created Parliament of Symon de Montfort's own framing in Anno 49 of King Henry the Third or in any other Parliaments better authorized until the aforesaid Reign of King Henry the Eighth And it is also remarkable and to be observed that the County Palatine of Durham and the Borough of Newark in the County of Nottingham had no Authority to send Burgesses to Parliament neither did untill His now Majesties Happy Restauration Or if that so would be called Parliament could by any stretch of Fancy have been supposed to have been itinerant with the Army it could never come up to any Probability that that King so governed against his Will by it would the fourth day of June by his Writ dated at Hereford directed to the Mayor and Bayliffs of Bristol have
Advantage and to take care that there should be some Bridle or Method to restrain them And there being besides Twenty-Four Cities in England where two Citizens were to be chosen out of each by the direction of that novel Writ and a great number out of as many Boroughs and Corporation-Towns then in England at the arbitrary and corrupt Power of the Sheriffs as it after proved and hapned with its Thirty-Nine Shires and two Knights to be chosen out of each the Counties and Boroughs of Wales not being at that time to be put into the Account and Four out of every of the Cinque-Ports the number would so swell and increase as might very much exceed that of the Peers and Barons which in the largest Estimate would not then arrive unto Two Hundred and Eighty and according to the then more common Accompt and they then summoned ad libitum Regis not many more than Sixty in which high and honourable Court and House of Lords Spiritual and Temporal should that very great surpassing number of Commons have their equal Suffrages as it may be believed they never were intended to be allowed the lesser number would be over-powered by the greater the more noble prudent and concerned by those that were little at all and introduce a Community or Vassalage upon themselves and their Posterity which the Roman Senators and Patritii in a Common-Wealth made out of a Monarchy for fear of Tyranny were unwilling to admit and when they were seditioned and mutinyed unto it left their Chiland Seri nepotes to endure the dire Effects of their often Changes from Kings to Consuls from Decem-virates unto Tribunes of the People Censors Tribunes-Military bloody Proscriptions and Wars betwixt the Patritii and Plebeians pacified and succeeded by a Dictator after that a Trim-virate after that an Emperor and semper Augustus Caesar with an arbitrary Power until good and wholsome Laws of their own making gave an Allay unto it For such a Miscellany of Imis cum Summis of Inferiours with Superiors could not be deemed to be either more or better enabled than the Prelates and Baronage of the Nation the Moratiores bomines Men of better Extraction Education the ancient extraordinary grand Councel of our Kings and Princes not meanly but eminently skilled in matters of State and Policy Religion War forreign Languages and Affairs of their own State and others and in the quieting the Troubles of it Nor could that their Device at that time have much Assurance of any good Success therein when the Prince was a Prisoner and Hostage for his Father who was long after in no better a condition against the Laws of Wars and Rules of Hostages and the Tenor of those Writs of Summons carried nothing in them of a perpetual Constitution or any thing more than pro hac vice and for that only time and purpose Or that such a Parcel of the lower ranks of People could be more knowing and intelligent than the King of France assisted by his grand and learned Nobility Clergy and Wisdom of his Parliament of Paris were not long before when they determined those grand and long-depending bloodily-agitated Controversies betwixt that persecuted King and some of his then ungovernable Barons concerning the disloyal and unhappy Provisions enforced from Him at Oxford some Years before And such a novum inauditum betwixt a Monarch and King no Feudatory and his rebellious Subjects referred to the Advice of themselves or their Partizans touching the Claim of their Pretences in their own particular Cases being not easily to be found in any the Annals Histories or Records of this or any other Kingdom or Nation For many of the Milites or Knights in that new Contrivance to be Elected were at that time as to their Estates of so general and lost Esteem as Twenty or Fifteen pounds per Annum was by the Statute of the First Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second which was not much above Forty Three Years after conceived to be no contemptible Rate or Proportion of Livelihood for a Knight when William de Felton an Ancestor of a Family now of good Note in the County of Suffolk being in the Third Year of the Raign of King Edward the Third presented before the Justices itinerant to be seized of the Mannot of Botingdon quod valet per Annum Twenty Pounds to be Thirty Years Old nondum Miles ideo in misericordia and many Gentlemen of good Extractions and Families did heretofore appear to have been long after retained under Earls and Barons in the Wars and Service of their Prince and not seldom as Domesticks and more especial Servants in their then large and honourable Families and have been their Receivers Stewards or Feodaries worn their more special Livings and taken Wages Dyet and Allowance for themselves and a limited Number of Men and Horses altho some of them have been Gentlemen of good Value and Descent and very many of those which have been since Elected are not denyed to have been Persons of ancient and worshipful Families The Citizens and Burgesses Merchants excepted such as did Sordidas artes exercere as the Civil Law stileth them Men that usually made their Gain or manner of Living by Deceits and Lying and were as our Common Law above Two Hundred Years after declared them saith Littleton to be Men with whose Daughters to Marry would be to a Gentleman such a Disparagement as the Parents and Kindred might Legally complain of it and the Testimony saith the Caesarean or Civil Law of a Gentleman was to go as far or to be valued as two of them And how unequal they were like to be in their Births Reputations and requisite Parliamentary Abilities who being to be very Burgesses and City or Town-Trading Inhabitants according to the Intention of those Writs could not be expected to be other than such as were only bred and instructed in the Arts Tricks Deceits and Mysteries as they have been since well called of Trade and the most of their Estates and Livelihood gained by it being much more wickedly than Honest as their Apprentices and Journey-men who know the Secret thereof can Witness nor to be able or serviceable to their Prince in any thing more than to attend Him if He should need or call him as a Merchant to some great and publick Mart or Fair to help him to buy or sell such Things as should be there Marchantable or that the Knights to be chosen in the Shires who in those times made the Military Exercises to be their greatest Care and Employment would not be more necessary and fit to attend their Soveraign to perform the Office and Intention of those Writs to defend their King themselves their Country Friends and Neighbours and to do that which every Gentleman and such as were è meliori luto of the more refined Clay better born and bred than the rude Vulgus or common sort of People would of
or Parliaments in these his Words or Annotations Pares dicuntur qui ejusdem sunt Conditionis vel Dignitatis In charta Grodegangi Episcopi Metensis apud Meurisium p. 167. It is said Ego Grodigangus unâ— cum voluntate illustrissimi Pipini Inclyti Francorum Regis Avunculi mei cum Consensu omnium Parium nostrorum Episcoporum Abbatum Presbyterorum Diaconorum Subdiaconorum vel omnis Cleri seu hominibus Sancti Stephani Metensis Ecclesiae cogitavi casion humanae Fragilitatis c. Apud Baldricum Noviocomensem Compares sunt Pares Feudales in legibus Henrici primi Regis Angliae ca. 34. Et exinde appellati unius domini Convassalli quod ratione Hominij Tenurae sibi invicem Pares sunt qui Domino subsunt à quibus soli judicari poterant nam Convassalli diversarum Baroniarum seu Territoriorum eidem Domino subjecti non dicuntur propriè Pares à Paritate igitur conditionis dignitatis appellatio illa profluxit Exploditur virorum doctissimorum Sententia quòd Pares derivaâ—tur à Patritijs Francicijs tenebantur Pares judicijs dominicis interesse Judicumque munere fungebantur ad id astringebantur Feudorum suorum obligatione Quod si legittimam Excusationem haberent quò minùs possent Judicijs dominicis interesse tenebantur eo casu Paris sibi conditionis Vicarios submittere qui eorum locum tenerent in ijsdem Judicijs Dignitas autem Regia Ducatus Marchio Comitatus non dicitur propriè eò quòd Duces Marchiones comites Regibus sint Pares sed partim quòd à Rege proximè descendit Parium autem Judicia in ipsos Pares convassallos exercebantur adeò ut si aliquis oriretur sententia inter ipsos Pares dirimi non possit nisi in Conventu judicio Parium suorum Domino ipso Feudali praesidente In Parium consessu judicia ab ijs in dominum non exercebantur quippe ils ne sont mis appeller Pers pour ce qu'il soient Per a lui mais Pers sont entre eux ensemble Parium Judicia inter Pares seu Convassallos tantùm exercebantur Neque Pares duntaxat per Pares seu Convassallos ad judicium subeundum summonebantur sed actiones caeterae omnes Judiciae per Pares peragebantur Cùm igitur Pares sint Vassalli qui à Domino Feudali nudè pendent ratione Tenurae atque ita etiam vulgò appellati sunt Barones ideò vox utraque eadem notione passim usurpata legitur pro majoris dignitatis Vassallo qui vel in Consilium adhibentur à Domino aut Rege That which was mentioned by Ingulfus to have been in use amongst the Monks in the Abby of Croyland being in the Raign of William Rufus And as to the Court Barons of the mesne Lords derived from their Superiour saith du Fresne Parium judicijs non modo intererat Dominus vel ejus Ballivus sed etiam in rebus arduis concilium expetebat ità ut Conciliariorum Domini feudalis vicem fungerentur In quibusdam tamen locis ut in Comitatu Bellovensi le Seigneurs ne jugent pas en les Cors mes les Homes jugent in locis ubi cum Paribus suis considet ejusmodi judiciis interesse non posse si Litem vel Controversiam habet cum Paribus Pariae ex Hispanico Parias feudales redditus honores homagia And we might as well borrow from them the word Parliament which Du Fresne hath told us was made use of by Lewis the 8 th King of France in the year 1224. which was in the 8 th year or 9 th of our King Henry the 3 d. nineteen or twenty years before it was found that the word Parliament was used in any of our Publick Records in the Antient and former Ages in all the latter in our King's Writs of Summons to their Parliaments except some few by Inadvertency giving it no other Title than Confilium or Colloquium And Du Fresne after his learned Comments upon the word Baronia and the Antient Usages thereof in England saith That our Bishops had their Regalia seu majora dominia Episcoporum ac Praelatorum quae à Regibus in feudum tenentur and the Laws of our King Henry the 1 st as our Gervasius Dorobernensis reporteth do allow that Archiepiscopi Episcopi habeant possessiones suas de Domino Rege sicut Baroniam inde respondent Ministris justitiae Regis id etiam obtinuit saith du Fresne in Francia ut Regalia Episcoporum Ecclesiarum Baroniae dicerentur And he citeth very antient Authorities out of the French Authors Records and Registers of their Parliaments mentioning an Arrest or Judgment thereupon given in the year 1282. which was in the 9 th Year of the Raign of our King Edward the First and that long before viz. in the Year of Grace 1233. which was in the 17th Year of the Raign of our King Henry the Third t 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Barâ—â—ia Ecclesiae Lugdinensis nam non modo propriè Regali◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Barones Servitiis omnibus feudalibus obnoxii erant sed â—â—iam in Comitiis publicis seu Parliamentis sâ—dere jus iis erat cujus apud nostros usus infinita praestant exempla apud Tullium Alios in Angliam vero Episcopos in Parliamentis publicis eo nomine locum sedem habere constat And that Barones Eleemosynarii apud Stanfordum in jure Anglicano dicuntur Archi-episcopi Episcopi Abbates Priores qui praedia sua Ecclesiae à Rège tenent per Baroniam Baronias enâ—m suas ex Eleemosynis Regum perhibentur accepisse licet ipsa praedia 〈…〉 rum saepè munâ—ficentia consecuti fuerint quomodo etiam apud nos Regalia Ecclesiarum censentur esse ex sola Regia liberalitate iis olim concessa And amongst our English Bishopricks besides those of Oxford Bristol and Gloucester which our King Henry the Fighth erected and endowed the Bishoprick of Lincoln had many Mannors and Lands granted by or in the time of King Henry the First not in Eleemosinam and that of Durham by King Richard the First and great Possessions afterwards gained and laid unto it by Anthony Beke a Bishop of that See in the Raign of our King Henry the Third or King Edward the First And Quaestio agitata fuit saith that Learned Sieur du Fresne an supremi Palatii Francici Officiales possunt Parium Franciae judiciis interesse cum iis consedere in judiciis in lite mota inter Joannam Comitissam Flandriae Johannem de Nigello wherein by an Arrest of the Parliament of Paris in the Year One Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Four which was in the Eighth Year of the Raign of our King Henry the Third it was adjudged That the Cancellarius Buticularius Camerarius Constabularius Franciae Marescalli Hospitii Domini Regis debent ad usus consuâ—â—â—dines observatas interesse cum Paribus ad judicandum Pares ut
Elizabeth King James and King Charles the 1. And our Annalls Historians and Records can appaâ—ently evidence that Queen Elizabeth in the designed Invasion of England by the King of Spain with a formidable Navy and Army in the Year 1588. did not by any of her Councells Judges Delegates or Lawyers great or small limit in the raising of Forces either by Land or Sea the Numbers Time of Continuance or Wages and it hath been a part of the Jus Gentium or Law of Nations not to contradict but allow the Seizing of Ships of Merchants and Strangers in the Potts or Havens of a Prince like to be Assailed and in Danger of War when every man ought to fight tanquam pro Aris Focis And that magnanimous great and wise Princess could not without that Power inhaerent in her Monarchy have aided with Men and Arms the great Henry King of France and the distressed Belgick Provinces checked the Papall Powers and Plots and Planted and Supported the Protestant Religion in most of the parts of Christendom holding by a steddy hand the Ballance thereof and so well understood her own Rights and the true methods of Government as she blaming some of the House of Commons for flying from their Houses near the Sea Coasts in the affright of the Spanish Invasion did Swear by the Almighty God that if she knew whom in particular she would punish and make them Examples of being the Deserters of their Prince and Countrey King James asked no leave of his Subjects in Parliament to Raise and Send Men and Arms into the Palatinate being his Son in Law 's Inheritance for the Defence thereof under the Command of Sr Horatio Vere and an Army for the same purpose also under the Command of Count Mansfelt a German Prince King Charles that blessed Martyr by a Company of accursed Rebells furnished to Sea 3. severall Armies and Navies in aid of the distressed Protestants at Rochell in France in whose Reign all the Judges of England subscribed to their Opinions that the King was to prevent a danger impending upon the Commonwealth might impose a Tax for the furnishing out of Ships and was to be the sole Judge thereof which had but a little before been inrolled in all the Courts of Justice in Westminster and in the Chancery as the opinion of all the Judges of England under their hands which in the leavying but of Ten Shillings being Cavilled at by Mr Hamden a man of 3 or 4000 l. per Annum one of the grand Sedition-Mongers who as a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament had by an Execrable Rebellion almost Ruined destroyed England Scotland and Ireland to pacify which that Pious Prince being willing to satisfie their scruples as much as the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom as he hoped might Allow and being a Principall part of the Monarchy the Arcana's whereof Queen Elizabeth believed not fit to be sacrâ—ficed unto Vulgar and Publick disputes and hammered upon the Anvills of Lawyers arguments tending unto more what could then should be sayd and therefore did in some of her grants or rescripts insert the words as King James afterwards did de quo disputari nolumus a maxima which the great Henry the Fourth of France in his Government strictly observed and which every Sea or Land Captain hath through many Ages and traverses of the world ever experimented to be necessary and usefull Insomuch as licence was given to frame a Case or question thereupon that never was before done in England through all its Changes of our Monarchs under the Brittish Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Races or in all the Empires and Kingdoms of the habitable World for amongst the Israelites there was an outward Court for the Common People there was a Sanctum Sanctorum there was no dispute suffer'd about their Urim and Thummim or the dreadfuly delivered Decalogue and the Ancilia and vestall fire at Rome were not to be pried into by the Common People neither would the vast Ottoman Empire suffer the secrets of Mahomets Pidgeon or the laying the Foundations of their Religion or Alcoran vast Empire to be disputed or exposed unto vulgar Capacities that would sooner mistake or abuse then assent unto truth or the most certified reason In the way unto which our fatality and ever to be lamented sad Consequences that followed the late long Parliament Rebellion Mr Oliver St John and Mr Rober Holborne two young Lawyers affecting a Contrariety to the approved sence and Interpretation of our most known and best old Laws and to Criticise and put doubtfull Interpretations upon the ever to be reverenced and wholsome Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom did to that end expend much Time in the search of all the Records of the Kingdom The first of which laboured to propagate his design of Ruining the Kings Power of taxing Ship Mony and leavying it in Case of necessity for the defence of his Kingdom and Subjects but Mr Holbornes better opinion after all could not but leave him an earnest Assertor of the Kings Rights and Power therein So as of the 12 Judges upon the debates of the Kings learned Councell and the Peoples Lawyer Mr St John and others dispute arguing Pro and Contra One against the Other Ten of the Judges giving their Judgements therein against the said Mr Hamden that that unhappy aforesaid Ten Shillings ought to be leavyed upon him Notwithstanding Justice Hattons and Justice Crokes dissenting opinions who did afterwards forsake that begun and after long continued paths of Rebellion And that good and great man that prepared the Act of Parliament for the Converting Tenures in Capite into free and Common Socage that took away the strength of our Israel and worse then the folly or ill managed love of old Pelias Daughters to make their aged Father young again whether misled by his friend Oliver St John or overmuch in love of the well poysed temper of his so much admired the Roman Pomponius Atticus needed not to have been so over Severe in the astringent penalties nailed and fastned upon that Act of Parliament and the breaking of that Socage Act by adding to that much better of the tenures in Capite no less then the affrightfull penalty of that of a Praemunire when it was not likely to be so great a Stranger to his memory that the Learned Judges of the Kingdom had at severall times in the Reigns of King James and King Charles the Martyr declared their well weighed opinions that the Tenures in Capite were so fundamentall a part of our Laws as no Act of Parliament could be able or have force to repeal change or take them away And that in all the Icarian attempts and high Flights of the long called Parliament Rebellion and even in their Hogen Mogen unparaleld Nineteen Propositions made unto their King which if granted had taken away from him all the Power of a King and a Father or to govern or defend
the States of Holland West-Freisland did by a Publique Decree order that omnia Instrumenta Feudalia publica Feudalia Scrinia should be searched put kept in order And in his Epistle Ded. unto the Estates aforesaid Judges of the said Feudal Court Dated no longer ago then in the Month of Sept. 1665. from Alemar saith likewise that de qua Intromissa saepissime quaerebatur denuo instaurata fuisset adeo ut vos the Estates qui hoc tempore ejusdem reminiscentis Feudalis Curiae Senatores sive pares estis negligereaut aliis postponere non posse And yet they do think Themselves at this day to be as free a people as any in the World with an high and mighty Hoghen Moghen into the bargain And the Framers and Voters of that overturning as much as it could of our ancient Monarchy many of whom as House of Commons Members in that Parliament were Knights Baronetts Knights of the Bath and Knights Batchelors might have been something more cautious then they were and taken more care of the fatall Consequences that might and would inevitably happen yea more then by Chance by an unavoidable necessity or for the liberties of 10000 manors in England and Wales and a great many of manors liberties in Ireland which had no other originall or Foundation then Monarchy or the unrebellious Feudall Laws and it and their continuance for what could they imagine but Confusion and Villany would follow in the order of Baronetts Created by King James in the 9th Year of his Reign limited at the first unto the number of 200. now supernumerated unto almost 1500. to hold by the tenure of maintayning 30. foot-Soldiers at 8d per diem for 3 Years for the regaining of the Province of Ulster in Ireland what for any of the Honourable Knights of the Garter that have no priviledge of Peers in Parliament what for the Knights of the Bath that are to be made at the Creation of every Prince of Wales being the King of Englands eldest Son what for such as our Kings have honoured or shall be pleased to Dignify with the honor of Knighthood or the Sword or to be an Eques Auratus what care was taken in that levelling Act in the effect of turning the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into free and Common Socage for the honour and degree of Knighthood or of that more meritorious extraordinary one of Knight Banneretts Was it ever intended they should go all to Plow with some ill brewed Ale to wet their Whistles with their sword and guilt spurrs promiscuously some with blew or red Garters or ribbons and the rest without and could there be no Exception or proviso's inserted in that Act for those Honourable degrees which appertained so only to the Sovereign or a power derived from them as our Queens Regent in their Incapacities of wearing or brandishing a sword or personal fighting are by themselves or others commissionated by them only to grant or give those Priviledges which are not a Few and can have no other derivation or reason for their Commencement then a Militando not as Common Soldiers but ex strenua continuata militia tantum adipiscatur honor when by the Imperiall Laws Knights ex Jure concessione principis prescriptione consue 〈…〉 dine were anciently at the receiving of that honourable o 〈…〉 to swear not to reveal any thing by solemn Oath or Vow 〈◊〉 concerneth his Sovereign or his Countrey never to put on Armour against his Prince never to forsake his Generall never to fly the field of his Enemy c. had Jus Annulorum as the Equestris Ordo were amongst the Roman Knights used to be honoured with when at the Battle and overthrow of them at Cannes there were gathered amongst the slain 2 Bushell of Rings in England and other Northern Kingdoms had jus Imaginum Coate Armorius and besides what Sr Edward Coke cannot deny to be an ancient priviledge due unto Knighthood as hath been before said to be free ab omni Tallagio a Knight is not to have his Equitature or Horse distrained and taken in Execution although it be for the Kings Debt a Knight accused of any Crime Treason shall not be examined but before his Competent Judge against a Knight in warr no prescription runneth neither shall he be compelled to be Guardian to Children except they be the Children of Knights shall not suffer any Ignominious Corporall Punishment as hanging upon a Gibbet unless first Degraded nor be set at any ransome but such as he shall be able after to maintain his Degree And in time of peace hath been so much valued and esteemed as 3 Knights Associated in the Kings Commission of Oyer and Terminer might hear and determine forcible Entries and outrages in the same Country or Province A Coroner formerly an especiall officer of the Crown was to be a Knight a Sheriffs Certificate and return of the Tallies of the Kings Creditors and Monies paid as due unto them is to be accompanied with the hands of 2 Knights a Sheriff cannot remove a plaint out of an Inferiour into a Superior Court without the testimony of 4 Knights Knights and no other are to be sent by the Sheriffs to make the View de malo lecti the Knights of the shires elected to be members of the House of Commons in Parliament ought to be gladiis cincti and the Commons have in Parliament Petitioned the King and obteyned a grant that it might not be otherwise Ou autrement tiel notables Esquiers Gentilhomes del nation des mesmes les Counties come soyent ables d'estre Chivalier noul home destre tiel Chivaler que estoite enles degrees de vadlet ou Varlet saith Mr Selden de south an Infant holding his Lands in Capite or by Knight Service shall not be in Ward after he is Knighted a Knight inhabiting in any City or town Corporate shall not be Impannelled in a Jury for the Tayal of a Criminall in a Civil Action for Debt or the like wherein any of the Nobility are plaintiffs or defendents 2 Knights are to be Impannelled on the Jury A Knight shall not be distrained to serve in person for Castle guard although he do hold Lands by that Tenure A certain number of Knights are to elect a Jury in a Writ of grand Assize and none but a Knight should be permitted to wear a Coller of S. S. or Golden or Guilt Spurrs And the Dignity of Chivaler or Knight hath been in England so honorable as Earls besides their Greater Titles would many times use the Title of Chivaler only and at other times desire to receive the Honour of Knighthood from the King after they were Earls and our Kings have sometimes sent their Eldest Sons to be Knighted by other Kings And a Villain which Sr Edward Coke stileth a Sokeman or one that holdeth in Socage is not by the Law of Nations and Arms to
be made a Knight unless he can manifest himself to be a Gentleman So great a disparagement inconvenience and disarming and disabling the Nation both in the defence of their King and Themselves and their Posterity and the Honour and Dignity of their Kings and Princes with as much Wisdom as if they should make their most Earnest Supplications unto God Almighty the King of Kings to lessen the Sun make him to be no more then a small Farthing Candle have the Procurers Contrivers of that most prejudiciall Act of Parliament for Metamorphosing the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into Free Common Socage brought upon us that ever was contrived against the Imperial Crown Dignity of our Kings and the safety of their People and Subjects wherein they have attempted as much as they could to Manacle our Monarchy and Invalidate and make ineffectuall at once that great and unvaluable service done by the gallant and Generous George Monke in his Majesties most happy Restauration with his entire and Just Regalities When they should rather admire and give God thanks for that goodly Fabrick and Structure of our Laws and Liberties under the best of Monarchies then seek to eradicate and pull them up Root and Branch by hearkening to that wicked advice which Mr Bond the Master of the Savoy in the time of their troubles and some distresses happening to the hopes of erecting their Project of a Commonwealth Founded in the Murther of their Religious King and the Blood of multitudes of their Fellow-Subjects gave unto his Fellow-Rebells in a Consolation Sermon preached by him before the then Usurped House of Commons in Parliament that if they could not prevail they should imitate Sampsons Revenge upon the Philistians by pulling down the House upon their Heads with an Encouragement and Assurance that if they should fail or miscarry in that Cause of God he would have it after his death to be Written upon his Tombe Here lieth he that was deceived in his God and his Gospel The Scutifer Armiger or Esq. which in a right definction and in its true Etymon and radix is and should be less and of a lower Degree then Gentleman as de gente Fabia Cornelia although of later Times it hath been otherwise believed and used and is not Equivalent unto that of a gentleman who hath many Priviledges As to bear Arms or Coat Armory The Clown Varlet or Sokeman shall arise and give him place A gentleman ought to be preferred unto Offices before any man Ignoble and in matters of Testimony Magis Credendum Nobilibus quam plurimis aliis may wear better Apparell as to his body and use more rich utensils in his House or necessaries his vote vow or opinion is in the Election or Scrutiny of Voices next after the President or Magistrate primam vocem Edit Nobilis the ungentle shall not Challenge the Gentle to a Combat Quia Conditione impares with 28 more Priviledges which the Civill Caesarean and Feudall Laws have given them And those Confusion Mongers might once if ever they Intend to repent ought not only to look back into the days of old where in all Kingdoms and Nations of Mankind they may see it was found to be necessary to have severall orders degrees and Classes of people according to each of their Capacities had under Kings appointed by God those that were fit for Magistracy and Councell Military men and such as were necessary for War by Land or Sea Plowmen or such as might manage or Till the Earth Opifices or Tradesmen with the plebs or imperita Multitudo and how much Sin and Villany great Damage Ruine and Confusion they have committed or done against their Kings Themselves and their own Posterities in assaying to make an head out of the feet or turn an head into a foot or what kind of Reformation could those Contrivers imagine could ever be made out of such a Chaos of their own making which will inevitably prove to be in the sequel as Impossible as for Circes Inchanted Cup soundly or deeply drank off ever to Unswine those that had been Inchanted or Transformed by it or what Form or Frame of Government we should have when the Caesarean and Feudall Laws and the Ancient rectified and rational Customes of the Kingdom shall be Massacred when the happily escaping Baronage Temporall and Spirituall the Knights Esquires Gentlemen and Freeholders the later of whom had no other stile or Title at the best then probos legales Homines must be put under or into no better a respect or Condition then to be sent to Plow as Villain or Varlets and be no more then Socage or Sokeman of which that of Villainage or Husbandry hath been both by our Littleton and Coke accompted to have been a part for Laudes apud Galloâ— liberi sunt aut serviles vernacula Laudes Francks Laudes serfs hi rei rusticae ascripti tributa pendunt opera servilia illi ad militiam designati nobiles habentur Immunes a tributis And all men but meanly acquainted with the beginning rise Duration and Continuance of the vast Roman Empire must Acknowledge that they were at the first but Bubulci Opiliones such a Company of Shepheards and Heardsmen as their neighbours the Sabines scorning to intermarry with them they were forced to Ravish and steal their Daughters to make Wifes and that after many Wars Troubles seditions and Expulsion of their Kings and abrogating of former Laws and Customes they rowled tumbled over and over and so disquieted each other as they were constrained to send to Sparta and Athens to enquire what Laws and Government they had which for a while Contenting and keeping them in some order whilst they were busied in the Building up their Empire robbing and Conquering a great part of the World Although with troubles enough the while in the often change and turmoile of their Magistrates as in their Decemviri Consuls Tribuni Plebis patricii and Commons with the bloody interchange of the Marian and Syllan proscriptious Triumvirate c. untill they arrived at the happiness of perpetuall Dictator and Monarchy yet in all that time and after the Division of that overgrown Empire mole ruentis sua into that of the West and East they never sought to abrogate the Laws of the 12 Tables the Fontes and Origines of the Civill Laws and those voluminous Comments which have been made upon them by their Jurisconsults though long after hidden as for a great part disused and driven almost into Oblivion by the Irruption of the Goths and Longobards into the Western Empire and the Establishment of their better-natured and approved Feudall Laws untill about 500. Years after they had escaped the Edicts of those Northern People to be burned and never more used and being found safe and entire were in the time of Lotharius the Emperor brought in a grand Procession and Ceremony
faceret And that greatly learned man could not but acknowledge that there were afterwards resumptions of Crown-Lands in the Reign of King Henry the 2. the alienation of some of the Crown-Lands severely charged upon King Richard the 2d Anno. 33. H 6. by an Act of Parliament and in the reign of King Edward the 4th at the request and upon the Petition of the Commons and were much more needfull then those that had been before in the Reign of King Henry the 2. made Leoline Prince of Wales to come and do him Homage and Baliel King of Scotland attending in our Pâ—rliament to arise from his State placed by the Kings and Stand at the Bar of the House of Peers whilst a cause was pleaded against him And it might not be improbable that that League betwixt that King and the aforesaid Christian Princes might be entred not amongst the Common Rolls and records of England but of Gascoigne where it was most proper and that some Vestigia of his great Actions might be there found of it as well as that of the 22th Year of his Reign of a Summons of divers English Barons to come to his great Councell or Parliament in England and it could not be unknown to that great man of learning that as Authors and Writers have learned and Writ one out of another so have many Wrote that singly and alone which many of the Contemporaries have either not been Informed of or did not think fit to Mention the dreadfull plagues of Egipt and the most remarkable that ever were in so short a Time inflicted by God upon any Nation of the Earth since the universall Deluge destroying all but the Righteous Noah his Family the several Kinds of Creatures perserved with him the passage of Moses thorough the Red-Sea in his conduct of the People of Israel into the land of Canaan were not to be thrown out of the belief of Christians all others Venerating the Sacred Scriptures because Plato or Pythagoras travailing into Egypt in the inquest of learning have given us no particular accompts thereof and it will ever be as truly said as it hath been that Bernardus non videt omnia the ancient institution rites ceremonies of the most Honourable Garter is not to be suspected because our Law and Statute books have not made such Discoveries Recherches or a worthy and most elaborate Record thereof as the learned and Judicious Mr Elias Ashmole hath lately done or our Glauviles Book de legibus Consuetudinibus Angliae is not to fall under the question whether he was the Lord Chief Justice of England that Wrote it because there hath not been so much heed taken of him as ought to be by our common-Common-Law Year-Books or Memorialls of Cases adjudged in our Courts of Justice and later Law Books when the learned Pancirollo in his Book de deperditis Ac etiam de novis repertis and the exquisitely learned Salmuthius in his Comment or Annotations thereupon or the learned Pasquier in his Recherches and our ever to be honored Mr Selden in his rescuing from the Injuries of Time those many before hidden truths which he in his history of Tithes Jauus Anglorum Analett Brittanniae Titles of honor de Synedriis Judeorum uâ—or Jus naturae Gentium Historia Ead mei cum multis aliis and those very many discoveries of learning and Truth which the world must ever confess ought to be attributed to his walking in unknown paths nullius ante trita pede have very Justly escaped any such suspicions and that long and Eminent Treaty for Peace at Nimiguen for divers Years last past managed by most of the Monarchs of Europe and their concerns wherein the care and mediation of our King in the charge of his Plenipotentiaries have not wanted gratefull Testimonialls of the many very much concerned Kings and Princes in the putting a stop to the Warrs effusion of Blood and devastation of so great a part of Christendom is not or ought to be placed amongst the non liquets or Doubtings of after Ages because which by some Incuria or neglect of our Recording of it amongst our Archives which the more is to be pittied is not much unlikely to happen it is not to be met with amongst our Records or Historians When the so much Deservedly admired speculations and Experiments of the excelently Learned Sr Francis Bacon Lord Verulam in his Philosophy more then Aristotle and many others had made those Discoveries of des Cartes Depths and Investigations of our Sr Kenelme Digby into the most abstruse parts of Learning and that great addition now every where allowed to be true to that most necessary and usefull Art or Faculty of Physick of the circulation of the Blood in the Bodies of men first Discovered and made apparent by our late Learned Doctor Harvey though the Egiptian Arabian and Grecian Doctors and the greatly Famed Galen and Hypocrates had in all their labors knowledge and Practice not so much as taken notice of it were never the worse but rather much the better that former ages and men in the length of Art and the short Curriculum of their lives often intermitted with Sickness and the Cares and Troubles of the World had no sooner communicated it neither ought the Truth and value of our allways highly to be esteemed Seldens Labours in the vindication of our Kings Sovereignty in our Brittish Seas suffer any abate because no Englishman before had undertaken it or of his learned Observations and Comments upon Sr John Fortescues Book de laudibus Legum Angliae because he did not mention or had Discovered that that over-tossed and turmoiled worthy and learned Chancellor was after the Expulsion of the 3 Henrys 4. 5. 6th of the House of Lancaster under the later of whom he had Faithfully served from the Inheritance of the Crown of England by King Edward the Fourth with his better Title enforced publickly to beg his Pardon and with much ado and by Writing and delivering unto him a Book contradicting the Title of those former Kings and asserting that of his own which appeareth in that Act of Parliament in the 13th Year of that King for the Reversall of his Attainder And those disturbers and misuses of our Fundamental Laws might do well to sit down and consider that our uncontrolled every where in England venerable Littleton can certify us that if a man hold Land of his Lord by Fealty only for all manner of service it behoveth that he ought to do some service to his Lord for if the Tenant ought to do no manner of service to his Lord or his Heirs then by long Continuance of time it would grow out of memory whether the Land were holden of the Lord or his Heirs and thereupon the Lord may loose his Escheat of the Land or some other Forfeiture so it is reason that the Lord and his Heirs have some service done unto them to prove
the Crown of Scotland amongst which was Erick King of Norway and received the homage of the King thereof and in his Claim to the Superiority strongly Asserted it when the Pope had by his Letter unto him mediated on the behalf of the King of Scotland and claimed that Kingdom And was so watchfull over his own Rights and what belonged to his Crown and Dignity as upon an appeal from John Baliol King of Scotland and his Parliament to the Parliament and Court of the K. of England unto which when he was Summoned personally to appear before him appearing sate with him in Parliament was Suffered no longer to sit by him but untill the Cause came to be heard when he was cited by an Officer to leave his Seat and Commanded to stand at the Barr appointed for pleading which he having no mind to do craved leave to answer by his procurator but was denied and as a Feudatory made to arise and descend to the Barr and defend his own Cause before him as his Superiour Which by the Ancient feudall Fundamentall Laws of England without the assistance of any other of our Laws concerning Treason might have excused and Justified our excellently virtuous Queen Elizabeth in her unwilling Tryall Condemning Beheading and putting to Death Mary Queen of Scotland her Feudatory not only for Usurping the Arms and Title of the Crown of England but plotting after her flying for Refuge unto her and her Kingdom of Scotlands Superior for Resuge to bereave her of her Kingdom of England and the Dominions thereof by her intended Marriage of the Duke of Norfolk for which he was likewise condemned and Executed for Treason In the same Year by his Writ commanded to be arrested Susurrones publicos predicatores contra personam Regis In the 7th year of his reign upon occasion of false rumours sent his Commissioners into severall Counties of the Kingdom ad inquirendum qui dicebant Regem inhibuisse ne quis blada sua meteret vel prata sua falcaret quod omnes tales sine dilatione in prisona custodiantur douec authores suos invenerint tunc liberent authores in prisona custodiant donec pro deliberatione corum mandatum habuerint Speciale In the 13th Year of his Reign for a fine of 20 Marks paid by W. gave him a respite de se militem faciendo Et a pres il fut amerce per les Justices itinerant parceo q'il ne leur monstre son Charter In the 10th Year of his Reign granted authority to Signify his assent to a future Abbot And in the same year impowred Edmond Earl of Cornwall to admitt in his name the Mayor of Oxon when the commonalty of the town should present him and the like for the Mayor and Sheriffs of London In the 12th Year of his Reign granted to the Citizens of London power to make Sheriffs of London and Middlesex In the 13th Year of his Reign directed his Writts to the Sheriffs in the words ensuing cum de consuetudine regni qui habent 20 libratas terrae vel feodum militis valens 20 libratas terrae vel feodum militis valens 20 libratas per annum distringerentur ad arma militaria suscipiendum nos ob servitium c. in Wallia a communitate regni nostri volumus quod non habentes tantas libratas terrae non distringantur Ordained that in Parliament certain Bishops Lords and Other their Assistants should be named of that Honourable Assembly of Parliament at the very beginning thereof which for many Ages after hath been duly observed to be receivers and tryers of the Petitions Complaints and Desires of his People to be exhibited therin whether properly to be there determined or in the Courts of Justice in Westminster-Hall or other inferior Courts In the 14th and 16 Years of his Reign made his cousin Edmund Earl of Cornwall custos regni Spared not in his Court of Kings-bench Robert the Son of William de Glanvile and Reginald the Clark of the said William for delivering at Norwich a Panell of the Kings Writs which the King 's Coroner ought to have brought Banished his Son Prince Edward from his Court Presence for 6 Months for giving reproachfull words to a great Officer of his Court or Houshold Caused the Prior of the Holy Trinity in London and Bogo de Clare a man of great power and reputation to be arrested at his suit by Peter de Chanet Steward of his houshold and Walter de Fancourt Marshall of the King for citing Edmond Earle of Cornewall to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury as he was passing thorough Westminster-Hall to the Parliament whereupon the Prior and Bogo after some pleadings in the said case submitting themselves uuto the King's Grace Will and Pleasure were committed to the Tower of London there to remain during his Will and Pleasure and being afterwards Bailed the said Bogo paid to the King a Fine of 2000 Marks and gave security to the Earl for 1000. which by the interposition of the Bishop of Durham and others of the King's Councell was afterwards remitted unto 100 l. and the Prior was left to the Judgment and process of the Court of Exchecquer In the 20th Year of his Reign praecepit singulis vice Comitibus per Angliam Justic. Cestr. quod proclamari facerent quod omnes qui habent 40. libratas terrae in feodo haereditate sumerent militaria arma In that and the Year following seized the Lands of those that would not take that Degree and made speciall respites to some during their lives Caused his Justices to certify into the Exchecquer at the return out of their Circuits by particular Rolls under their own Names the Fines and amerciaments set imposed and forfeited upon Actions of trespass rescous deceit attaints non est factum or salse Pleas untrue avowries appeals of Murder felony manslaughter meyheim Contempts and attachments upon process out of any of his Courts of Justice abuse of the Law Fictitious actions and vexatious Suits Non-suits in Actions reall and personall or when but part was found for the Plaintiff or Defendant which were in those Days as much for the advance and well ordering of Justice as they were for the Kings profit who took such a care not to have it neglected as by his Writ without an Act of Parliament he prefixt his Justices certain times for the causing the said Monies to be levied when their own then little Wages or Salaries were to be paid out of it which made them to be so exact therein as there was no fault deserving a Just Punishment could escape the Eyes and Ears apprensions and Watch of his regulated Justices insomuch as Offenders were Fined or amerced pro falso clamore or quia non invenerunt pleg for Deceipts Sheriffs for not returning of Writs Jurors for not appearing or pro falsa appretiatione or giving verdicts before
they were sworn Fined such as threatned or abused them and sometimes the Common People that had occasion to attend his Courts of Justice pro garrulitate or irreverent Behaviour kept his Courts of Justice within their Centers and Limits of Jurisdiction held them to their just and legal forms of Pleadings in verbis Curia and was severe against any of the Pleaders Counters or Officers pro Seductione Curiae as the Language of the Records of those times did import for any Deceits or Collusion misleading or abusing the eyes and ears of his Judges and the Clients as well as the faithless Officers and Ministers of his Courts of Justice or in the Circuits of the Judges itinerant and therein was something less severe then the Law and Usages were in the Reign of his Great Grandfathe Henry 2. when William Fillius Nigelli a judge itinerant being in misericordia of the King pro defalt qui postea venit cognovit quod emendavit rotulos Sine Sociis suis ideo in miser Did not leave the grand Jurors so much Arbitrary Power as too many now please themselves to mind more where to have good Meat and Wine untill some seldom Indictments more for Malice then Love of Justice or a care of their Oaths be brought unto them but ordained their Charges not to be given in fine orations or speeches as soon gone out of their Memory as come in but to put in Writing in distinct articles of enquiry whereunto they were upon Oath to answer negatively or affirmatively whereby the offences against the Laws Conspiracies Treasons Dangers and Disturbances of the Nation were in the Embrio's stisled and as soon Discovered as hatched But the troubles and injuries forced upon the Crown his Father and Himself by the wicked attempts of Simon Montfort and his Rebellious partners putting him in mind to make his business to give a stop to growing mischiefs and prevent as much as was possible any thing of the like nature for the future did find it necessary for the good of himself and the Kingdom as the judicious Sr Henry Spelman hath recorded it to lessen those high powers authorities and priviledges which the Chief Justices of England had before that time exercised and claimed as appurtenances to that great Office as it were to be Vicarias Regis Pro Rex locum tenens Regis Custos regnii regni Guardianus in absentiae Regis tanto etiam prae aliis omnibus emicuit Justiciariis ut eisdem suo brevi more regio imperaret restraine ejus phtestatem cancellis circumscriptis arctioribus adeo ut se sejunctum a rerum fastigio priscae amplitudinis forensi solummodo negotio judiciis exercendis eum abdicavit did by his Writ constitute the said Chief Justice and all that were to succeed him in that Office and place under the form and declaration only concerning the affairs and business wherein he was to Officiate and be imployed in his Court of King's-bench rs by his Writ appeareth in these Words Quia volumus quod sitis Capitalis Justiciarius noster ad placita coram nobis tenenda vobis mandamus quod Officio illo intendatis Tmeipso apud Westm c. And in all probability praeteritorum memor By sad misfortunes warn'd learnt to beware How dang'rous innovations ever are Well considering that if that contrived Writ of Elections gained by a rebellious force and imprisonment from his father almost 30 Years before could have created in or to the Knights Citizens or Burgesses to be elected or brought into our King's greatest councels of the highest and most important concernments of the weal publick of the Nation Any such Rights or Priviledge as some of their Successors or Factious flatterers have since arrogated yet so long a Discontinuance of a Priviledge not at all executed or vested in them after a forfeiture incurred by the Cities of London Bristoll Gloucester and the most of the Counties Cities or Boroughs which had taken Arms against their King instead of their aid and assistance not very fully pardoned by any the Compositions or agreement made by King Henry the 3d his Father by the dictum de Kenilworth after his Victory gained of them at the Battle of Evesham And that notwithstanding he might have taken in again his own just Rights and debarred them fâ—om an after Invading or disturbing of him therein and that neither his Fatheâ—s Charters nor his own Confirmation of all the Peoples Liberties and priviledges either in Words expressed in his Father 's Magna Charta or Charta de Forestae or any way to be implyed within the verge or meaning thereof could bind him to Continue such a kind of Election of a separate part of the Vulgar or Common People as Simon Montfort and his Rebellious Complices had Traiterously devised and that such an attack of the Regall Government by the hoped for advantages of some or intermedling ambition of others in matters wherein they had little or no understanding or whereby they sought only to accomplish their own evil Designs making them ever afterwards more industrious then they should be to associate the creeping Ivy with the Royall Oke which by its clipping Kindness and drawing to it self its Sap and nourishment might at length Canker enervate and destroy it Yet willing to show them that he would as little as he could recede from what had been granted as privileges and Liberties to his Subjects and probably to pacify their then too much accustomed fears and jealousies and allure them into a course of obedience to those Laws provisions which should be made by the Privity and approbation of a Select number of the more wise and discreet part of his Common People and give them experience of an Adage or worthy saying of his own in many or some of his rescripts quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet in some speciall cases but not either by the laws of God Nature or Nations or our laws always adjudged to be Requisite or necessary And at the same time to lessen as Mr Prynne Sr William Dugdale and other weighty Authors have well observed the Strength and power of a part of his ungovernable Baronage by counter-ballancing in some sort their over-great power in his great councells or Parliaments by Requiring and making use therein of the service of the Knight Citizens and Burgesses fairly to be elected according to the intention of his writs and Royall mandates and acting according to the commissions or procurations which their Counties Cities or Boroughs should lawfully give or trust them withall But so little approved of Popular elections and that which had been imposed upon his Father as he was unwilling to adventure upon any thing like it untill he had rectified many things which he bâ—â—ieved had been much of the causes of the Distempers in the Body Politick and was to be warily done by a care and retrogradation as much as might be before he
would condescend to please the People which Some of them or those that would make use of them began to be too fond of and therefore could hardly bring himself to please them in that kind especially when he could perceive the Nobility Disliking and averse unto it Howsoever with some Confidence believing it to be beyond any fear or Imagination that any Danger to the English Monarchy and Government so Anciently rationally and well founded according to the Laws of God Nature and Nations Laws of the Land and reasonable Customes thereof could happen thereunto by the election of a part of the People Subordinate to the Nobility and Baronage as well Spirituall as Temporall adstricti legibus and obliged by their Tenures in Capite Homage and Fealty in the strongest manner that the Wisdom and Care of Mankind could devise as bonds never to be shaken off and a tye upon their Estates Bodies and Souls by their Oaths of Allegiance Tenures and Forfeiture of their Lands to be true and faithfull to their King and those which they held of or that they or any of their Posterities could be so ingratefull for benefits received from the Crown and his Progenitors from Generation to Generation as to be so unmindfull of their often repeated Homages and Oaths of Allegeance as when they were Summoned only to perform and obey what the King and his Lords Spirituall and Temporall in his greatest Councell should adjudge meet to be done for the Publique Good and to stand as Petitioners in the outward Courts should by Insinuations from some priviledges and the Power granted unto them and others for that purpose and only end of contributing necessary aids for their Kings for the defence of themselves and their Defenders by gradations and the over indulgence of their Kings and Princes and the advantages of catcht opportunities creep into the Arcana Imperii and snatching the thunderbolts and authority of the Sovereign out of his hands make themselves too busy with the supream power themselves that should be governed to be the unruly and unreasonable Governors of their King and Gods Vice-Gerent Who might have thought himself and his Successors to have been in some condition of Safety when the Summons to Parliament were to be only by his Writs and Authority and the Sheriffs who were not the Parliaments Officers but the Kings and by the Law Sworn unto him not unto both or either of the Houses in Parliament and strictly bound to observe and Execute his Writs and Mandates made himself content to allow some things of that way or course which had been before unduly and Illegally contrived and therefore did as it appeareth alter and change it into a more legall and just way with different methods enough as he thought to make them and after Ages understand that it was his only right to do it and that they were to be no more then consenters obedient and ready to do and perform what the Lords Spiritual and Temporal should in Parliament advise wherein he was to be the sole Director Ratifier and Ordainer and to be at his Disposing in the Summoning and Calling them together as to Time Place Continuance Proroguing Adjourning or Dissolving any such or the like Assemblies and that he in all things to be done therein was as their Sovereign to have his Granting Directive and Negative Voice and in the sending out of his Writs of Summons for any Great Councells or Parliaments to vary in the circumstances orders or limitations or additions as his occasions for the Weal publick should require with such other variations as might signify his care to prevent future Evils or impending Dangers and reserve to him and his successors the long ago just rights of the best tempered Monarchy in the Universe And for the better method and order to be used in his House of Lords and Peers whom he had Summoned and made use of in his great Councels and Parliaments untill that time without the Commons or any Procurators on their behalf in the making of divers Laws and Statutes of very great Concernment to them and the Weale Publick And to make the Councells and Assistance of the Wiser and better part of his People more Effectuall and in a better order then that which the rebellious part of his and his Fathers ill-affected Baronage had neither well provided for themselves or them did whilst he was content to admit into the fitting and necessary Secrets and intimacy of his great Councells a select part of them to be duly chosen by his Writts and commands as to Time Occasion and Place resolve to give after ages to understand that he did notwithstanding reserve to himself as his Royal Progenitors had Anciently done when they only Summoned the Prelates and Peers to their Great Councells his and their most undoubted rights and power of Summoning Proroguing Adjourning or Dissolving those Assemblies and the sole and only affirmative or negative voice in the making of Laws as being the only breath Life and being thereof Did at his being in Goscoigne in the Twenty Second year of his Reign send his Writs of Summons to Summon divers great Lords as well French as English being in number Sixty one amongst whom were Roger de Moubray William Trussel Symon Basset Theobald de Verdon c. habere colloquium tractatum with him in England ubicunque fuerit in a much Differing form then those of Henry the 3 his as aforesaid Imprisoned Father And Directed his Writ to the Sheriff of Northumberland in these Words viz. Rex c. Vice Comiti Northumbriae Salutem tibi praecipimus quod de Comitatu praedicto duos milites de qualibet Civitatem ejusdem Comitatus duos Cives de quolibet Burgo duo Burgenses de discretioribus ad laborandum potentioribus sine dilatione eligi eos ad nos ubicunque in Regno nostro fuerimus venire facias it a quod dicti milites plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se communitate Comitat praedicti duos Cives Burgenses pro se communitate civitatum Burgorum praedict divisum ab ipsis tunc ibidem habeant ad consulendum consentiendum pro se communitate illa his quae Comites Barones proceres de Regno nostro ordinabunt c. T. Rege octavo die Octobris alltogether Different from the Writs made out and enforced from his Father King Henry the 3. During his Imprisonment in Anno 49 of his Reign Consimilia brevia diriguntur singulis aliis Vicecomitibus Angliae And in the same Year and the next Day after sent another Writ to the same Sheriff in these words Cum nuper tibi praeceperimus quod duos milites de discretioribus ad laborandum tunc potentioribus ejusdem Comitatus de consensu ejusdem eligi eos ad nos usque Westmonasterium in crastino Sancti Martini proximo futuro cum plena potestate pro se tota Communitate
custome of the House of Lords was that when any Bills or messages were sent to them the Lord Keeper and some of the Lords were to â—rise from their places and from thence to go unto the Barr and receive the said Bills or messages but contrarywise when any answer is to be delivered by the Lord Keeper in the name and behalf of the Lords the Commons sent were to stand at the Barr and the Lord Keeper is to receive the Bills or answer the messages with his head covered and all the Lords were to Keep their places with which the Lower House was satisfied and the same order hath been ever since observed accordingly Anno 39. Eliz. There being in former times a custom in the house of Commons to have a bill read before the house did arise the same could not now be done at that time because her Majesty and the upper House had adjourned the Parliament untill Saturday Sennight at Eight of the Clock in the Morning which being signified by their Speaker he said all the Members of the House might depart and so they did Eodem Anno. At the ending of the Parliament after they had given the Queen subsidies and prayed her assent to such laws as had passed both Houses she gave the Royall assent to 24 publick Acts and 19 private but refused 48 Bills which had passed both the Houses Anno 43. Eliz. John Crook Esq. Recorder of London being chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament disabling himself desired the Queen to command the House of Commons to choose another but his excuse received no allowance The Lord Chief Justice of the Queens bench and Common pleas together with the Lord Chief Baron and Attorney Generall were ordered to attend a Committee of Lords and Bishops Sr John Popham Lord Chief Justice Francis Gaudy one of the Justices of the Kings bench George Kingsmill one of the Common pleas Dr Carew and Dr Stanhop were constituted Receivers of petitions for Gascoigne and other lands beyond the Seas Sr Edmond Anderson Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common pleas Sr William Peryam Lord Chief Baron Thomas Walmisley one of the Justices of the Common pleas Dr Swale and Dr Hone. Tryers of petitions of England the Archbishop of Canterbury Marquis of Winchester Earls of Sussex Lord Marshall Lord Admirall and Steward of the Queens Houshold Earls of Nottingham and Hertford Bishops of London Durham and Winchester Lords Zouch and Cobham calling unto them the Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer and the Queens Serjeants at Law Great fault was found by many of the House of the factouring and bribing of too many of the Justices of the Peace and it was by one of the members alleadged that the five bills â—arely passed against Swearing Drunkenness and for the making of good Ale would be as much worth to those kind of Justices of the Peace as a Subsidy and two Fifteens Mr Conisby Gentleman Usher of the House of Peers complained that forasmuch upon the breach of any Priviledge of that House he only was to be employed and not the Serjeant at Arms the House ordered a Committee to consider of Presidents and settle it a motion was made by the Lord Keeper and approved of by the Lords that the Ancient course of the House might be kept by certifying the Excuses for the absence of any of the Peers by the Peers and not by others The House being offended with Sr Walter Rawleigh for some words and crying to the Barr Mr Brown a Lawyer stood up and said Mr Speaker par in parem non habet Imperium we are as members of one body and we cannot Judge one another whereupon it being put to the question it was resolved in the negative that he should not stand at the Barr. The Speaker of the House of Commons at the ending of the Parliament of 44. Eliz. humbly desired of the Queen that certain Acts may be made Laws by her Royall assent which giveth life unto them Unto which the Lord Keeper answered that as touching her Majesties pioceeding in the making of Laws and giving her Royall assent that should be as God directed her Sacred Spirit and delivered her Majesties commandement that as to the Commons proceedings in the matter of her Prerogative she is persuaded that Subjects did never more dutifully observe and that she understood they did but obiter touch her Prerogative and no otherwise but by humble petition but she well perceived that private respects are privately masked under publique pretences Admonished the Justices of the Peace some whereof might probably be of the House of Commons that they should not deserve the Epithetes of prowling Justices Justices of Quarrells who counted Champerty good Conscience Sinning Justices who did suck and consume the good of this Commonwealth and likewise all those who did lye if not all the Year yet at the least Three Quarters of the Year in the City of London Anno 43. Eliz. One Mr Leigh of the House of Commons complained that whilst the Speaker of the House of Commons was presented to the Queen he was denyed entrance into the House of Peers which the Lords excused by saying it was the ignorance of some of the Grooms or attendance in the choosing of a Speaker Mr Knolls the Comptroller alleaged that it was not for the State of the Queen to permit a confused multitude to speak unto her when it might often happen that one or some might move or speak that which another or some or many would contradict or not allow The Queen being sate in her State in the House of Lords the House of Commons were sent for to present their Speaker who in a modest pretence of disability prayed her Majesty to command the House of Commons to choose one more able but had it not allowed And she in her grant of freedom of speech gave a caution not to do it in vain matters verbosities contentions or contradictions nor to make addresses unto her but only in matters of consequence and prohibited their retaining or priviledging desperate debtors upon pain of her displeasure and desired a Law might be made to that purpose Which done the Lord Keeper said for great and weighty causes her Highness's pleasure was that the Parliament should be adjourned untill the Fryday following At which time the House of Commons did appoint a Minister every morning before the House sate to officiate and use a set form of prayer specially ordained to desire Gods blessing upon their Councells and preserve the Queen their Sovereign The Ancient usage of not coming into the House of Commons with spurs was moved by the Speaker to be observed others moved that they might not come with Boots and Rapiers but nothing was done therein Sr Robert Wroth a Member of the House of Commons did in his own particular offer 100 l. per Annum to the Wars Sr Andrew Noel Sheriff of Rutlandshire having returned himself to be a Knight of the shire for that
Soveraigns privity or order being far without the Bounds or reach of their Commission or purpose of it and an incroachment upon the regall power was in the House of Commons in Parliament used until the Late distemper thereof or for their late Speaker Mr Williams when Sr Robert Peyton one of their Members was for some matter which they would create to be criminall brought upon his knees and adjudged to be expelled the House and to receive his sentence from their Speaker in no smoother an expression or language then Go thou cursed thou worst of men the House of Commons hath spewed thee out when they and others may know that the House of Peers do never use by themselves to exclude any of their members without the order and concurrence of their Sovereign and in case of Treason Upon the great debate of Monopolies as they called them granted by the Queen a list being brought into the House she having notice thereof sent for the Speaker and declared unto him that for any patents granted by her whereby any of her Subjects might be grieved or oppressed she would take present order for reformation thereof her Kingly Prerogative was tender and therefore desired them not to speak or doubt of her carefull reformation but that some should presently be repealed others suspended and none put in execution but such as by a Tryall at Law should appear to be for the good of the people which he reporting to the House to his unspeakable joy as he said and comfort but thereupon Secretary Cecill said that there was no reason all should be revoked for the Queen meant not to be swept out of her Prerogative And therefore gave them a caution for the future to believe that what soever is subject to a publick exposition cannot be good and said that Parliamentary matters were ordinarily talked of in the streets that the time was never more apt to disorder or make ill interpretations of good meanings and thought those persons would be glad that all Sovereignty were turned into Popularity we being here but the popular bouch and our liberty but the liberty of the Subject if any man in the House speak wisely we do him great wrong to interrupt him if foolishly let us hear him out we shall have the more cause to tax him and I do heartily pray that no member of this House may plus verbis offendere quam concilio inuare Mr Francis Moore moved that the Speaker in the name of the House might give thanks to her Majesty for setting at liberty her Subjects from the thraldom of those monopolies and crave pardon for any extravagancy of words in that House Mr Wingfield wept and said his heart was not able to conceive or his tongue express the joy that he had in that message but his opinion and Mr Francis Moore and Mr Francis Bacon's were against the making of the Apology for that would be to accuse themselves of a fault when they had committed none and being put to the vote it was by the whole House agreed that the Speaker should return the Queen their humble thanks Mr Donald wished that her gracious message might be recorded in their books others that it might be in Letters of Gold others in their Hearts Mr Secretary Cecill said there is not any soul living deserves thanks in this cause but our Sovereign Mr Francis Bacon said he had served as a member in 7 Parliaments and never knew but two committed to the Tower the one was Mr Arthur Hall for saying that the Lower House was a new Person in the Trinity and the other was Parry for making a seditious speech in the House When the thanks were given by the Speaker she said She was the person that still yet under God had delivered them and trusted that by his Almighty power she should be the Instrument to protect them Declared to the Speaker of the House of Commons that she rejoyced not so much to be a Queen as a Queen over so thankfull a people Sir George Belgrave was complained 〈◊〉 for procuring himself to be elected Burgess of Leicester by appearing in a blew coat with the Earl of Huntingtons cognisance for which the Queens Attorney Sr Edward Coke exhibited in the Earl of Huntingtons name an Information at the Queens suite in the Star-Chamber Mr Bacon said there never were but 2 articuli super chartas the one when the Sword was in the Commons hands the other Articuli Cleri when the Clergy of the land bore sway Some bill being brought in concerning monopolies which had been formerly by the Queen redressed Sr Edward Hobby said If we will be dealing herein by petition will be our only course this is a matter of Prerogative and this no place to dispute it Upon the bill concerning the transport of Iron ordnance Mr Cary said we take it for an use in the House that when any great and weighty matter or bill is here handled we straightway say it toucheth the Prerogative and that must not be medled withall and by that we come here to do our Country good bereave them of that good help we might administer unto them To which Mr Speaker replyed qui vadit plane vaditâ—sane let us lay down our griefs in the preamble of the bill and make it by way of petition Mr Francis Hastings said How swiftly and sweetly her Majesty apprehended our griefs I think there is no Subject but knoweth for us then to deal in a matter so highly touching her Prerogative we shall not only give her Majesty just cause of offence but to deny our Proceeding by bill Sr George Moor disliked the proceeding by bill Mr Laurence Hyde said that he saw no reason but we may proceed by bill and not touch her Prerogative her Majesty is not more carefull and watchfull of her Prerogative then H. 8. E. 6. were and then there was no doubt or mention made of Prerogative Mr Comptroller said in duty we should proceed to speak unto the Queen by wny of petition and not by way of bill or contestation we must note that her self and her Prerogative will not be forced and I do not hold this course by bill to fiand either with respect or duty In the debate concerning the Earl of Huntingtons bill in the Star-chamber sitting the Parliament against Sr George Belgrave for indirectly making himself a Burgess in Parliament some of the House moving for a conference with the Lords about it Mr Dale said id possumus quod dejure possumus and that the safest way would be a conference Mr Tate said it will not be good to pry too near into her Majesties Prerogative by examining Informations exhibited in the Star-Chamber Mr Cary said that the custom of the House of Commons was when they wanted any Record to send their Warrant to the Lord Keeper to grant a Certiorari to have the Record brought into the House in Ferrers case in the Reign of King Henry the
authoritative where Sentences or Judgments are not received upon the knees neither in the Ecclesiastical Courts where the Bishops in the name of God and as the Church do only give their sentences and make their decrees without the Majesty or Ceremony of kneeling unto them to be performed by those that are concerned to obey the Condemnation it may be a Quaere harder to unriddle than many of those of Sphinx how it can consist with the reason of such a repraesentation that they whom they would seem to represent should be Petitioners unto themselves and that if any of the County or place represented shall commit any offence against any single Member of the House of Commons representing for another County or place as for breach of priviledge or for words c. The persons of the other Province or place must be punished and come upon their knees and not they that represented them a Warrant sent by their Speaker for the Kings Writ to the County City or place to Elect another in that House and might have done much better to have hindred it Or if any Freeholder Gentleman or Clown that Elected them were not before accustomed to be kneeled unto as by an adoration how these enlightened over-lofty Members can compel men to adore and kneel unto them under a colour of Representation when those that they would have believe that their new-found Representation with an adoration designed to be entailed upon them would have been ashamed to have it to be done unto them and durst never claim or own it in their own Counties or places that Elected them and might be abundantly satisfied that neither the Kings Writs or their Election Indentures Letters of Attorney Procurations or any Praescription or supposed Priviledge of Parliament could entitle them unto such a kind of Majesty or how they that are no Judicature or Court of Record and have no power to give or administer an Oath to Witnesses can escape the blame or censure of Magna Charta and all the Laws Right Reason and Rules of Justice and Equity to be Parties and Judges in their own Cases or enforce their fellow Subjects and not seldom of better Births and Extractions to receive upon their knees with adorations their unjust dooms and sentences when better tryed Criminals in the Court of Kings Bench where the King as a Judge is supposed to sit himself do not likewise in his other Courts receive their Judgements upon their knees but only when they receive the Kings pardon in rendring their thanks unto him But should rather remember that the Angel in the Apocalipse would not suffer St. John to kneel unto him and that the often sawcy Plebs or Vulgus of Rome could be content with the Exorbitant power of their Tribuni Plebes in their Intercessions for Laws without any the adoration of kneeling nor are there to be found any Records or Presidents in England or any scrap of Law or Reason that any of our Kings in their licensing any of the Speakers of the House of Commons should give them any Power or Priviledge to Eject any of their fellow Members and make them on their knees receive uncivil and ungentleman-like words such as Mr. Williams a late Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament was pleased to say unto Sir Robert Peyton Knight being commanded and enforced to receive his Lawless Ejectment upon his knees in these words Go thou worst of men the House hath spewed the out or after such an Insolence to require the Kings Clerk of the Crown to make out a Warrant in the Kings name to Elect another Member in his place And our England nor any other civilized part of the World have yet found such a Parcel of Representatives or Deputies that can think themselves so to be entituled as the Author of the Character of a Popish Successor in this Kingdom of England hath been pleased to grant unto them to that which they would willingly stile their own Royal Inheritance and Sacred Succession of Power when they are not as Embassadors Repraesenting Princes sent unto or Treating with Princes but as Procurators or Attorneys employed by those that are nor ever were more than Subjects their ne plus ultra Or by what Art or refined Chymistry was such a Majesty entailed or infused into them when Kelsy a Body or Bodice-maker and Barebone a Fanatick Letherseller were Members or what or whose Charters or Letters Patents have they to entitle them thereunto when Sir Edward Coke a learned Lawyer gives them no greater Title than that of a grand Enquest and Mr. William Pryn that adventured Body and Soul for them and with great mistakings joyning them in a Supremacy conjoynt with the House of Peers in Parliament abundantly found fault with them in taking too much upon them in other matters when those designs of Majesty were not arrived or let down from Heaven as the figment of the Anciliae at Rome was believed to be or how could the Commons in Parliament charge as they did so unjustly and wickedly King Charles the first for coming unarmed without any Guard to seize Pym Hambden Haselrig and the rest of the five Members and Kimbolton then and long after guilty of High Treason if he were then in the House of Commons in his Politick or personal Capacity a distinction which the Master of Hypocrisy and Lyes had taught them when in several of his Battels in the defence of himself and his Loyal Subjects Weemes a prefidious Scot and others Levelled their Cannons at him with Perspective Glasses to be sure to hit him a Method which David had not learned when he found Saul sleeping and was afraid to touch or kill the Lords Anointed and never left persecuting him until they had cut off his Head and murdered him in both his Capacities which did not serve for a Plea in the case of Cook Hugh Peters and other his justly condemned Murderers who had not then the Impudence to plead or rely upon such a parcel of devilism when they might know that the Politick and personal capacity of a King or any subordinate Magistrate were so conjoint and inseparable as in articulo mortis that part of Kingship or Magistracy could not be severed from the natural unless it were in such an apparent and publick manner as in the self-deposing and Renunciation of our King Richard the 2d of Charles the 5th Emperor of Germany retiring into a Monastery or as some of the ancient Kings and Princes of France were when they were cheated of their Kingly Power and forced to be shaven as Monks and put into a Monastery And that notwithstanding the House of Commons new-fashioned way of their own framing since the Raign of Queen Elizabeth of making their own Committee to find out and determine such Priviledges as they would claim and have they might have discovered that in the Court of Kings Bench in the case of Richard Chedder a Servant to a Member of the
appointed by the King are in every Parliament Tryers of the Petitions of the Commons but they are not of any Petitions to the King and House of Lords the Commons not being to be allowed petitioning to themselves and our Kings often refusing to grant what was required where any had offended and broken the Priviledge of the House of Lords or committed any Treason or misdemeanor against the King and many times upon a charge of the House of Commons they were to receive their sentence at the Bar of the House of Lords kneeling but never in the House of Commons until the late new-fashion'd Rebellion and fancied Soveraignty of the people which God never gave them and the Devil cannot allow them after a Parliament ended and leave given by the King to depart the Commons do Petition the King for his Writs to the Counties and places that sent them to pay them their wages which the House of Peers never did And a strange representation partial much disordered and disjointed it was when 45 Members in the time of a Rebellious and Parliamentary confusion ejected 400 of their better conditioned fellow Members and have since taken upon them when their Soveraign hath with some restrictions given them proper and necessary liberty of Speech in the discussing of matters pertinent and becoming the reason and business for which they were called to deny innocent liberty to their Partners chosen and intrusted by other parts of the Nation not at all depending upon them but Elected sent and intrusted by their fellow Subjects Arraign and Murder their Pious King at the Suit of the People when they neither could or did give them any Order or Authority to do vote and make a War against him his Loyal and their fellow Subjects to the Ruine and Destruction of above two hundred thousand and punish others as their Votes shall carry it receive upon their knees their Sentence sometimes to be imprisoned in the Tower of London sent thither only by their Speakers Warrant or expelled the House with a Warrant for the Kings Writ to Elect another and no man can tell whence that power was is or could be derived unto them either by Warrant of the Laws of God Nature or Nations or the Laws and reasonable Customs of England or of any Forreign Senates or Councels to disprove approve or remove or punish one another or how they can underprop that their beloved Authority when many times the Major part of the Members were absent in person and many of those that are present and have no mind to concur were either wanting in their courage or that for which they were Elected and what with those that were absent and tarryed in their Countries or were in London and come late to the House or stayed there but a very short time there is seldom the one half or so many of them as could make a Major part of them understand to give an energy or certain establishment to what within the limits and bounds of their constitution should be agreed unto or by what Rule of Law or rectified reason any that are represented should be condemned by those that represent them not for that but for better other purposes Or how they can be said to represent the People that sent them in the matter of Parliament Priviledges when they that they represent are not to partake of their Freedom from Arrests Troubles of Suits c. for themselves and Moenial Servants or how do they represent in their properties when there is no such thing in their Writs Commissions or Procurations and they did in the 13th year of the Raign of King Edward the 3d ask leave of the King to go home to their several Countries and Places to confer with those that sent them concerning a Tax or Subsidy required or how they can be said to represent for all that sent them and call themselves one of the three Estates of the Kingdom if any can tell how to believe them when they whom they would represent are not nor ever were Estates c. If the People had a Soveraignty Vested and Inhaerent in them should be no more when they are in Parliament but as a Grand Enquest as Sir Edward Coke saith to some only purposes but to many and the most of their business but as Petitioners for Redress of Grievances or if they could by any right or construction be understood to be Soveraigns when they can do nothing there or have admittance until they shall have taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to their King and Soveraign or can demonstrate how many kinds of Soveraigns there be and which is on Earth the Single and Sole Soveraign under God or when or how came all the People they would represent to be Soveraigns or how can they be Soveraigns after they have taken their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy unto their King and Prince and his Heirs and Successors their only very not Fictitious Soveraign and how it happeneth that they have in many of their Petitions in Parliament stiled themselves your Pourez Leiges the Commons of England if they at that time had any part of Soveraignty in them and were not all Poor neither or when sometimes in the Raign of King H. 6. or in his Absence or Infancy their Petitions were directed unto them by the Title of Sages Senators tres Honourable Seignieurs or how they could as representatives of the Commons be Petitioned unto by any of the Commons For that would have been as absurd to have been Petitioners to themselves or to have been believed to be all Wise or Honourable or that all they represented could by any kind of Grammar Reason or Sense be understood to have been sent as Soveraigns or were ever so understood to be by those that Elected or sent them they should when they were to go home to those that delegated them were not to depart without the Kings License and then did not neglect to Petition the King for Writs to be paid their Wages by the Countries or Places that employed them and if any Sheriff had levied their Wages with an overplus for himself they that were so wronged have complained to the Kings Justices in Eyre and have been remedied But were never found to complain to their unintelligible Soveraigns or to have any process from them to levy their Expences or to Petition to have them paid out of the Lands Estates of those that sent them or was granted by any Order or Procurations of those that sent them Or if all the people of England who are and should be certainly to be known and Ranked according to their several degrees and qualities unless all should be levelled into a Lump informity or menstrosity Higeldy Pigheldy all Fellows at Football it might put Heraldry it self at a stand or out of its wits to distinguish how much of a Knight of a Shire is a Duke Marquess Earl Viscount Baron Knight Esquire Gentleman Yeoman
or Common Freeholder or the Widdows or Feme Soles of any of them resides or is incorporate in that one Knight of a Shire or how much in the other Knight of the Shire when by the Kings Writs there were to be no more than two and by Oliver Cromwels the Usurpers Writs there was as many as six and when in his Time of Villany two English Earls Knights of the Kings Honourable Order of the Garter sate as Members of that which was miscalled the House of Commons in Parliament although it might well deserve the Question of what Nation they were or Riddle my Riddle what is this how much of them were Earls or Commons or what Epiccen or Hermophrodite kind of men they were or whom if not very Rebels they did then and there represent Or whether the Knights and Burgesses of England and Wales as they were admitted into the House of Commons from the 48th and 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. until the Raign of King Henry the 7th did or could represent for Ireland Gastoign the Isles and other Dominions of our Kings and sometime Scotland for which until then there were Receivers and Triers of Petitions particularly appointed for those other Dominions and places or who did represent for Wales the Bishoprick of Durham before there were Knights of the Shires and Burgesses allowed by our Kings or for the Town of Newark upon Trent so lately priviledged by his now Majesty or whether they do in one entire and complexed Body represent for all the Commons of England when as the Journals Parliament Rolls and Memoriols can inform us that sometimes the City of London as also other particular places have separately petitioned the King and not at all Times in a generality name and behalf of all the Commons of England Servants Mechanicks and Labourers c. which being no Freeholders or Electors can never be understood to have given any of the Members of the House of Commons any procurations jointly or separately to give any consent or represent for them in Parliament So that whatsoever hath or shall be done or acted in Parliament either for Lease or Copyholders villani Bordarii Mechanicks Labourers Servants c. Neither is or can be obliging to those multitudes otherwise than by the Soveraign power of the King when by the Energy and Vertue of his Royal Assent that which was before but an Embrio comes to be aminated and have as it were a Life and a Soul breathed or put into it by his sanction or giving it the force of a Law by his and no others Act of Parliament further than the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Assent or Approbation of the Commons in Parliament assembled Or how they can by or with any Law Right Reason Construction propriety of Speech or Grammar be said or believed to represent those of the Commons of England whom they have many times accused and take upon them to imprison or punish When our Parliaments have been or should be founded upon the Feudal Laws our Monarchick best of Governments and there could be no Election of Members of the House of Commons to come to Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum iis which the King by the advise of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal should there ordain not in omnibus in all matters for that was the proper care and business of our Kings and Princes and their private Councel by whose advice the Writs of Summons issued out under the Kings great Seal of England to Summon the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to a Parliament to consult not de omnibus or de omnibus arduis but de quibusdam arduis and until the 49th of King Henry 3. when Simon Montforts Rebellious Parliament and his Counterfeit Writs of Election of Members to be a then endeavoured to be constituted House of Commons in Parliament received its first foundation and gave the occasion and encouragement to many Rebellions and Mischiefs afterward and from the 21 and 22 E. 1. until that gave it some rectifyed allowance unto such a kind of Election and Convention of Members in an House of Commons in Parliament to be assembled the so Elected Members of Commons of Parliament could neither meet or assemble until there were Writs of Summons issued out to assemble the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as Peers not unto the King but one unto the other in Parliament for when the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are not to be assembled by the Kings Writs of Summons the Commons cannot be Elected to attend the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for to meet without so much as unto Markets or Fairs or Indulgent allowance of our Kings would be a breach of the Kings Peace which should be so sacred and ever was accompted to be of so great a concernment unto him and his people as when he pardoned any of his offending Subjects against his Laws the ancient forms of our Kings pardons were only without enumerating or particular specification of the Crimes damus concedimus pacem nostram and gives us the reason that all our Parliaments as well relating either to the upper or lower House do specially except Treason Felony or breach of Peace which seemeth certainly to be no other than a necessary Clause added by our Kings in their priviledges of Parliament And otherwise it would be an unread unheard unintelligible mixture of a Supremacy or Soveraignty that a King deriving his Soveraignty only from God and his People and Subjects sworn unto him by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and obliged unto him for their Estates and Self-preservation at the same time be invested with a Soveraignty which is to be certainly placed amongst the most puzling Riddles of Madam Sphinx and none of the over-turning Republicans can give us no manner of solution until all the Vulgus or Rabble multitude of the World can be persuaded to be of one mind and for many years continue therein and all impossibles come to be possible And there cannot be a greater absurdity offered to the Common Intellect or understanding of mankind than to endeavour to perswade them that there is a plurality of Soveraigns and that all the Subjects of England do or can represent the King and are his Soveraigns or that he is the Subject or general Servant of so many Millions of people as he is rightfully King of and are sworn unto him by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy but are conditionally only his Subjects until some fair opportunity to Arraign him at the suit of his own Subjects cut off his head and extirpe him and his Illustrious Family by no other Warrant than to set up the Kingdom of Jesus Christ who never yet gave them any Order or Authority to attempt any such egregious Villany And should not have been so locked up in their Morphaeus commonly erring wandring dreams or imaginations as to think that two or three necessary priviledges only
Conscience And may be likewise very prejudicial to the very ancient and honourable House of Peers in Parliament for these and many more to be added Reasons viz. Former Ages knew no Bills of Attainder by Act of Parliament after an Acquittal or Judgment in the House of Peers until that unhappy one in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr which for the unusualness thereof had aspecial Proviso inserted That it should not hereafter be drawn unto Examples or made use of as a Presidâ—â—t And proved to be so fatally mischievous to that blessed King himself and His three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland as he bewailed in his excellent Soliloqâ—â—es and at his Death his consenting to such an Act and charged His late Majesty never to make Himself or â—is People to be partakers of any more such Mischief procuring State Errors The House of Commons if they will be Accusers wherein they may be often mistaken when they take it from others and have no power to examine upon Oath wild and envions Informations and at the same time a part of the Parliament subordinate to the King will in such an Act of Attainder be both Judge and Party which all the Laws in the World could never allow to be just And such a course if suffered must needs be derogatory and prejudicial to the Rights and Priviledges and Judicative Power of the Peers in Parliament unparallelled and unpresidented when any Judgments given by them shall by such a Bill of Attainder like a Writ of Error or as an Appeal from them to the House of Commons be enervated or quite altered by an Act of Attainder framed by the House of Commons whereby they which shall be freed or absolved by their Peers or by that Honourable and more wise Assembly shall by such a back or by-blow be condemned or if only Fined by the House of Peers may be made to forfeit their Estates and Posterities by the House of Commons or if condemned in the Upper House be absolved in the Lower who shall thereby grow to be so formidable as none of the Peerage or Kings Privy-Councel shall dare to displease them and where the dernier Ressort or Appeal was before and ought ever to be to the King in his House of Peers or without will thus be lodged in the House of Commons and of little avail will the Liberty of our Nobility be to be tryed by their own Peers when it shall be contre caeur and under the Control of the House of Commons Or that the Commons disclaiming as they ought any power or Cognisance in the matters of War and Peace should by a Bill of Attainder make themselves to be Judges and Parties against a Peer both of the Kings Privy Council and Great Council in Parliament touching Matters of that Nature For if the Commons in Parliament had never after their own Impeachments of a Peer or Commoner Petitioned the King to pardon the very Persons which they had Accused as they did in the Cases of Lyons and John Pechie in the 51 year of the Raign of King Edward the Third whom they had fiercely accused in Parliament but the year before the Objection that a Pardon ought not to be a Bar against an Impeachment might have had more force than it is like to have Neither would it or did it discourage the exhibiting any for the future no more than it did the many after Impeachments which were made by the Commons in several Parliaments Kings Raigns whereupon punishments severe enough ensued For if the very many Indictments and Informations at every Assizes and Quarter Sessions in the Counties and in the Court of Kings-Bench at Westminster in the Term time ever since the Usurpation and Raign of King Stephen and the Pardon 's granted shall be exactly searched and numbred the foot of the Accompt will plainly demonstrate that the Pardons for Criminal Offences have not been above or so many as one in every hundred or a much smaller and inconsiderable number either in or before the first or latter instance before Tryal or after and the Pardon 's granted by our Kings so few and seldom as it ought to be confest that that Regal Power only proper for Kings the Vicegerents of God Almighty not of the People hath been modestly and moderately used and that the multitude of Indictments and Informations and few Pardon 's now extant in every year will be no good Witnesses of such a causelesly feared discouragement And it will not be so easily proved as it is fancied that there ever was by our Laws or reasonable Customs anâ— Institution to preserve the Government by restraining the Prince against whom and no other the Contempt and Injury is immediately committed from pardoning offences against Him and in Him against the People to whose charge they are by God intrusted Or that there was any such Institution which would be worth the seeing if it could be found or heard of that it was the Chief to be taken care of or that without it consequently the Government it self would be destroyed To prove which groundless Institution the Author of those Reasons is necessitated without resorting as he supposeth to greater Antiquities to vouch to Warranty the Declaration of that excellent Prince King Charles the First of Blessed Memory made in that behalf when there was no Controversie or Question in agitation or debate touching the power of pardoning in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament wherein stating the several parts of this well regulated Monarchy he saith the King the House of Lords and the House of Commons have each particular Priviledges Wherein amongst those which belong to the King he reckons the power of pardoning if the Framer of those Reasons had dealt fairly and candidly and added the Words immediately following viz. And some more of the like kind are placed in the King And this kind of excellently tempered Monarchy having the power to preserve that Authority without which it would be disabled to protect the Laws in their Force and the Subjects in their Peace Liberties and Properties ought to have drawn unto him such a respect and reverence from the Nobility and Great Ones as might hinder the Ills of Division and Faction and cause such a Fear and Respect from the People as might impede Tumults and Violence But the design being laid and devised to tack and piece together such parcels of his said late Majesties Answer as might make most for the advantage of the Undertaker to take the Power of Pardoning from the Prince and lodge it in the People and do what they can to create a Soveraignty or Superiority in them which cannot consist with his Antient Monarchy and the Laws and reasonable Customs of the Kingdom the Records Annals and Histories Reason Common Sense and understanding thereof the long and very long approved usages of the Nation and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy of those that would now not only
both Houses and had no Royal Assent unto them must at the next Assembly begin again for every Session of Parliament is in Law where any Bill hath gained the Royal Assent or any Record upon a Writ of Error brought in the House of Peers hath been certified is and hath been accompted to have been a Session And although some of this latter quarrelling Age have Espoused an Opinion too much insisted upon that an Impeachment brought by the House of Commons against any one makes the supposed Offence until it be Tryed unpardonable A Reason whereof is undertaken to be given because that in all Ages it hath been an undoubted Right of the Commons to Impeach before the Lords any Subject for Treason or any Crime whatsoever And the Reason of that Reason is supposed to be because great Offences complained of in Parliament are most effectually determined in Parliament Wherein they that are of that Opinion may be intreated to take into their more serious Consideration That there neither is nor ever was any House or Members of Commons in Parliament before the Imprisonment of King H. 3. by a Rebellous part of his Subjects in the Forty ninth year of his Raign or any kind of fair or just evidence for it Factious designing and fond conjectures being not amongst good Pa 〈…〉 ots or the Sons of Wisdom ever accompted to be a sufficient or any evidence Nor was the House of Lords from its first and more ancient original intituled under their King to a Judicative Power to their Kings in common or ordinary Affairs but in arduis and not in all things of that nature but in quibusdam as the King should propose and desire their advice concerning the Kingdom and Church in matters of Treason or publick concernments and did understand themselves and that high and honourable Court to be so much forbid by Law ancient usage and custom to intermeddle with petty or small Crimes or Matters as our Kings have ever since the sixth year of the Raign of King Edward the first ordained some part of the Honourable House of Peers to be Receivers and Tryers of Petitions of the Members of the House of Commons themselves and others directed to the King to admit what they found could have no Remedy in the ordinary Courts of Justice and reject such as were properly elsewhere to be determined with an Indorsement of non est Petitio Parliamenti Which may well be believed to have taken much of its reason and ground from a Law made by King Canutus who began his Raign about the year of our Lord 1016. Nemo de injuriis alterius Regi queratur nisi quidem in Centuria Justitiam consequi impetrare non poterit For certainly if it should be otherwise the reason and foundation of that highest Court would not be as it hath been hitherto always understood to be with a Cognisance only de quibusdam arduis matters of a very high nature concerning the King and the Church But it must have silenced all other Courts and Jurisdictions and have been a continual Parliament a Goal-delivery or an intermedler in matters as low as Court Leets or Baron and County Courts and a Pye-Powder Court And the words of any Crime whatsoever do not properly signifie great Offences and that all great Offences do concern the Parliament is without a Key to unlock the Secret not at all intelligible when it was never instituted or made to be a Court for common or ordinary Criminals For the House of Commons were never wont to take more upon them than to be Petitioners and Assenters unto such things as the King by the advice of His Lords Spiritual and Temporal should ordain and obey and endeavour to perform them And an Impeachment of the House of Commons cannot be said to be in the Name or on the behalf of all the People of England for that they never did or can represent the one half of them and if they will be pleased to exaimine the Writs and Commissions granted by our Kings for their Election and the purpose of the Peoples Election of them to be their Representatives Substitutes or Procurators it will not extend to accuse Criminals for that appertained to the King himself and His Laws care of Justice and the Publick for the Common People had their Inferiour Courts and Grand Juries Assises and Goal-Deliveries to dispatch such Affairs without immediately troubling Him or His Parliament and the tenour and purpose of their Commissions and Elections to Parliament is no more than ad faciendum consentiendum iis to obey and perform such things as the King by the advice of His Lords Spiritual and Temporal should in Parliament ordain For although where the Wife or Children of a Man murdered shall bring an Appeal the King is debarred from giving a Pardon because by our Saxon Laws derived from the Laws of God they are not to be disturbed in that satisfaction which they ought to have by the loss or death of the Man murdered Yet the publick Justice will not be satisfied without the party offending be Arraigned and brought to Judgment for it if the party that hath right to Appeal should surcease or be bought off so as an Appeal may be brought after or before the King hath Indicted and an auter foitz acquit in the one case will not prejudice in the other and where the Matter of Fact comes to be afterwards fully proved and the Appeal of a Wife or Child of a Bastard called filius populi quia nullius filius where only the King is Heir cannot vacate or supersede an Indictment of the Kings Neither is an Appeal upon a Crime or in criminal Matters in the first instance to be at all pursued in Parliament by the Statute made in the First year of the Raign of King H. 4. the words whereof are Item for many great inconveniences and mischiefs that often have happened by many Appeals made within the Realm of England to the great afflictions and calamites of the Nation as it afterwards happened by the Lancastrian Plots and Desings in that mischievous Appeal in Anno 11. of King Richard the Second before this time It is ordained and stablished from henceforth That all the Appeals to be made of things done out of the Realm shall be tryed and determined before the Constable and Marshal of England for the time being And moreover it is accorded and assented That no Appeals be from henceforth made or in any wise pursued in Parliament in any time to come And therefore that allegation that the House of Peers cannot reject the Impeachment of the Commons because that Suit or Complaint of the Commons can be determined no where else will want a better foundation an Impeachment of the House of Commons in the Name of all the People being no other than an Appeal to the King in Parliament And the Suit of such as might be Appellants in another place being there
expresly prohibited cannot be supposed to be the concern or interest of all the People deserving or requiring satisfaction or especially provided for by Law to have satisfaction unless it could by any probability or soundness of Judgment be concluded that all the People of England besides Wives Children or near Kindred and Relations the necessity of publick Justice and deterring Examples are or should be concerned in such a never to be fancied Appeal of the People And it will be very hard to prove that one or a few are all the People of England or if they could be so imagined are to be more concerned than the King who is sworn to do Justice unless they would claim and prove a Soveraignty and to be sworn to do Justice which though they had once by a villanous Rebellion attacked until Oliver Cromwel their Man of Sin cheated them of it for God would never allow them any such power or priviledge or any Title to the Jesuits Doctrine which some of our Protestant Dissenters their modern Proselites have learned of them that the King although he be singulis major is minor universis And it is no denial of Justice in the House of Peers to deny the receiving of an Impeachment from the House of Commons when they cannot understand any just cause or reason to receive it and the Records Rolls Petitions and Orders of Parliament will inform those that will be at the pains to be rightly and truly directed by them that Petitions in Parliament have been adjourned modified or denied and that in the Common or Inferior Courts of Justice Writs and Process may sometimes be denied superseded or altered according to the Rules of Justice or the circumstances thereof And our Records can witness that Plaintiffs have petitioned Courts of Justice recedere a brevi impetrare aliud And it cannot be said that the King doth denegare Justitiam when he would bind them unto their ancient legal well experimented forms of seeking it in the pursuing their Rights and Remedies hinders them in nothing but seeking to hurt others and destroy themselves For Justice no otherwise denied should not be termed Arbitrary until there can be some solid reason proof or evidence for it When it is rather to be believed that if the Factious Vulgar Rabble might have their Wills they would never be content or leave their fooling until they may obtain an unbounded liberty of tumbling and tossing the Government into as many several Forms and Methods as there be days in the year and no smaller variety of Religions And by the Feudal Laws which are the only Fundamental Laws of our Government and English Monarchy those many parts of the Tenants that held of their Mesne Lords in Capite could not with any safety to their Oaths and Estates Authorise any of their Elected Members of the House of Commons in Parliament to accuse or charge any of the Baronage of England in the House of Peers in Parliament although every Tenant in his Oath of Vassalage to his Mesne Lord doth except his Allegiance to the King and would be guilty of Misprision of Treason if he should conceal it by the space of twenty and four hours and if any of the Elected would or should avoid such Misprision of Treason in the not performance of his Duty and Oath of Allegiance it would require a particular Commission to his own Elected Members and is not to have it done by way of a general Representation when there is not to be discerned in the Kings Writ or in the Sureties or Manucaptors matters or things to be performed or in the Indentures betwixt the Sheriff and the Electors and Elected any word of Representation or any thing more than ad faciendum consentiendum iis to assent and obey do and perform such things as the King by the Advice of the Lords in Parliament shall ordain and if they would make themselves to be such Representers were to have a particular and express Commission to charge or impeach any one of themselves or of the House of Peers with Treason or any other high Misdemeanours And they must be little conversant with our Records that have not understood that the Commons have many times received just denials to their Petitions and that some have not seldom wanted the foundations of Reason or Justice That many of their Petitions have adopted the Concerns and Interests of others that were either Strangers unto them or were the Designs of some of the grand Nobility who thought them as necessary to their purposes as Wind Tide and Sails are to the speeding of a Ship into the Port or Landing-places of their Designs For upon their exhibiting in a Parliament in the 28 year of the Raign of King Henry the Sixth abundance of Articles of High Treason and Misdemeanours against William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk one whereof was that he had sold the Realm of England to the French King who was preparing to invade it When they did require the King and House of Lords that the Duke whom not long before they had recommended to the King to be rewarded for special services might be committed Prisoner to the Tower of London the Lords and Justices upon consultation thought it not reasonable unless some special Matter was objected against him Whereupon the said Duke not putting himself upon his Peerage but with protestation of his innocency only submitting himself to the Kings mercy who acquitting him from the Treason and many of the Misdemeanours and for some of them by the advice of the Lords only banished him for five years And that thereupon when the Viscount Beaumont in the behalf of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal required that it might be Inrolled that the Judgment was by the Kings own Rule not by their Assent and that neither they nor their Heirs should by this Example be barred of their Peerage No Protestation appears to have been made by any of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for or on the behalf of the Commons Or by the Commons for themselves So as a different manner of doing Justice can neither truly or rationally be said to be an absolute denial of Justice and was never believed to be so by the Predecessors of the House of Commons in Parliament in our former Kings Raigns when some hundreds of their Petitions in Parliament have been answered There is a Law already provided or let the old Law stand or the King will provide a covenable or fitting remedy And is not likely if it were as it is not to be any Arbitrary Power or any temptation or inducement thereunto to produce any Rule or incouragement to the exercise of an Arbitrary Power in the Inferiour Courts when there is none so weak in his Intellect but may understand that different Courts have several Boundaries Methods and Forms of Proceedings and that the Kings extraordinary great Court and Councel in His House of Peers although very just and
any thing that had been Acted amiss in that Court who bringing it unto him in writing he so much approved thereof as he took him by the hand and gave him great thanks but the fatality of that lamentable attempted alteration of our ancient Monarchy into an Anarchy or Poliarchy with by their good will a nudum nomen of a metamorphosed Monarchy and that unhappy as aforesaid proposer of it cannot if he were now amongst the living but remember that after I had Written a Book to Justify the Tenures in Capite entituled Tenenda non Tollenda dedicated to the Lord Chancellor but delivered it unto him before the Act had passed against them and not at all imagining that Mr. Solicitor General had been so over-active in destroying them desired him that he would be a means to procure the military Services to be reserved was answered it could not be done and yet notwithstanding about a year or two after attending him about some other affairs he was pleased to say unto me Mr. Philipps do you ever think to write in the Tenures in Capite again unto which I answering no Sir but I think the Child that is yet unborn may rue it unto which he replyed so do I also think or I am of that opinion which shews that though he did it without the Kings knowledge and as a special Service to be done unto him did him that great mischief he never intended and was sorry for it afterwards But when it was the wisdom of former ages to know what to contend for before they quarrelled therefore it may be necessary to let the Cavalling party understand that there are multitudes of Priviledges which are not Priviledges of Parliament but truly and properly are the Priviledges and Properties in their own Estates and they may be kinder to themselves if they will but take a view of such Priviledges and Properties as they can call their own § 28. Of the Protection and Priviledge granted unto the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament by our Soveraign Kings and Princes during their Attendance and Employments in their great Councels of Parliament according to the Tenor and Purport of their Commissions COuld be granted by none but by our Kings the Original either by grant or permission of all Priviledges and Liberties enjoyed by their Subjects under or in order to their Monarchick Regal Government a view or Prospect whereof well warranted by our Laws Records and Annals and from time to time contemporary Historians and experimented rules of right reason may serve to settle and rectifie the ill founded and superstructed fancies and opinions rather than Judgments built thereupon which like some ignis fatuus have led many otherwise well meaning people that heartily hated Rebellion and Perjuries into the Bogs and Snares of those very great and pernicious sins against God and his Vicegerents their Neighbours and fellow Subjects when their so ever much mistaken priviledges of Parliament will appear to be no more but temporary and of no long duration but from one usually short Parliament to another when they were petitioned for before they were granted The Finis end or motives whereof was primarily and principally the Kings important occasions of summoning a Parliament and causing them to come thither and he only was the Efficient cause or causa sine qua non thereof to protect and keep them from disturbances whilst they were busy and employed in his service either in their coming tarrying or returning And therefore the Members of the House of Commons were so sensible and willing to have those priviledges to be granted unto them as might be necessary for the affairs wherewith he had intrusted them as they not dceming any other to be requisite or belonging unto them And not thinking any more or other Priviledges to be requisite for the publick good were by the Kings License for better Orderand methods sake to Elect one of their Members to be their Speaker and present him unto the King who very seldom refused him notwithstanding his usual disabling himself by modest excuses after whose allowance he did in the presence of many of his fellow Members make it his and the House of Commons special request at that time before and ever since believed to be pertinent and necessary the priviledge of freedom of Access to his Majestys person and freedom from Arrest and Imprisonment for themselves and their moenial Servants whilst they according to their duties attended his commands in veniendo morando redeundo and a third for himself since the miscarriage of an over-busy Speaker in the Raign of King Henry the fourth to be pardoned for his ignorance in case he should speak any thing ignorantly to the displeasure of his Majesty which ought to be kept within their proper limits and bounds and not let loose to all or any the Extravagant interpretations of the Roving fancies either of the Vulgar or Factious neither making additions thereunto or Supernumeraries or as many as they please by a new Art of mutiplication Alchymy or Transmutation or as if they had purchased th◠often beggaring and deluding so called Philosophers Stone properly enough so stiled from making their Sectaries to be as poor as Philosophers use to be by transmating all that it toucheth into it self or something like it and rendring the aforesaid two or three priviledges to be 100 or 1000 10000 or 20000 cum multis aliis there having been an abundance of various sort of priviledges not Priviledges of Parliament as well Civil as Ecclesiastick even to an Excess granted by the Indulgence of our Kings and Princes in the great and various concerns of their particular Affairs and Estates as far as the extent of their fancies could carry them and therein grew to be something confident if they could procure some success to Warrant it they might in good time by the help of their never-tyring Cavilling Tricks and Endeavours accomplish as much as ever the Colledge de beaux Esprits at Paris or the Experiment-mongers of our Gresham Colledge did hope to do by the transmutation of young Blood into Old Bloodless Carcasses which might have done no small mischief to our circulating Doctors of Physick And therefore certainly it would be more available before we hunt our selves out of our Loyalty Christianity Religion Wits and Estates to enquire into the natural and true meaning of the word Priviledge of Parliament and Proprieties and how far it can carry us into those very different Proprieties and that which we may truly and not fictitiously call our own Wherein the Civil Law that universal Method of the reason of the World in the diffinition and true meaning and intent of priviledges concludeth that privilegium neque stricte neque nimis large interpretari debet ne gravem aliis Jacturam adfert Quando igitur sine quavis gravamine alterius non possunt concedi Privilegia proximum est ut cessant cum nimium laedant Et Privilegium est
Corone soient sustretz on amemuser a sin que par lour bon advis discretion tiel remedie puisse estre mis le Roy puisse esteer en sa libertie ou poir Commune ses Progenitors out este devant lui duissent de droit non obstante ascun ordinance an contrarie anisi le Roy as Tenez les governera in which Speech of the Chancellors no man as it is sufficiently probable did then â—nderstand the King to be a part of the Estates he was speaking unto who if they could then in a time of Faction and Trouble of State that had then affrighted and disturbed the greatest part of the Nation have had any thought or imagination that their King was so comprehended in that Novel word Estates had a fair opportunity to have entred their claim to that Triumviracy or never to be proved Co-ordination or which would be beyond a lurking Soveraignty for the Common People to resort when they please and were in the same Parliament afterwards so little elated with the expression of the Clerk of the House of Peers in the entry of the Record of the Kings vacating of the Earl of Arundels Pardon par assent de touz le Estats du Parlement as they made their Protestation and prayed the King that it might be Inrolled that it was not their intent ou volunte to impeach or accuse any Person in that Parliament sans Congie du Roy and if they had been any such Estates as some of late would entitle them unto did not perceive themseves to have been then so great or in Partnership with their Soveraign or above him And thereupon the Chancellor by the Kings command likewise declared that nostre Seigneur le Roy considerant coment plusieurs hantes offenses mesfaits outestre faitz par le people de son Roialme en contre leur ligeance l' estat nostre Seigneur le Roy la loie de la terre devants ces heures dont son people esciet en grant perill danger de leie lour corps biens voullant sur ce de sa royalle benignite monstre 〈◊〉 faire grace a son dit people a fyn quils ayent le greindre corage 〈◊〉 volonte de bien faire de leur mieux porter devors le Roy en temps avenir si voet grante de faire ease quiete salvation de â—on dit people une generalle pardon a ces liges forsâ—ris certaines pointz limitez par le sonuant la suiâ—e al partie forspris cyn quont persones queux plaira au Roy nomez touz ceux qui serront Empeshez en ce present Parlement dit oustre que le dit Roy voet que plein dâ—oit Justice soyent faitz a Chastun de ses liges qui en voilent complandre en cest Parlement ad ordinez assignez Receivers Triers des Petitions en cest Parlement And did in pursuance thereof in full Parliament excuse the Duke of Yorke the Bishop of Worcester Sir Richard le Scroop then living William late Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander late Archbishop of York Thomas late Bishop of Exeter and Michael late Abbot of Walton then being dead of the â—xecution and intent of the â—ommission made in the tenth year of his Raign as being assured of their Loyalty and therefore by Parliament restored them to their good name And Sir Edward Coke might have bestowed a better gift unto the Laws and Lawyers of England and his native Countrey than that Pandoras Box or Circes inchantment in his doted upon or so much admired modus tenendi Parliamenta which he at an adventure not knowing himself from whence that Bastard came but was as a Foundling so young left in the streets as it could neither declare who was its Father or Mother and that which was something marvelous none had the luck to find it and in charity pay for the nursing of it as himself and the Name of that nurse as unknown as the Father or Mother or progenitors thereof and made himself so much assured of it as if he had been present when that Modus supposed to have been made by 〈…〉 ing Edward the Confessor was read before King William the Conqueror and approved by him could not forbear but his fourth part of the Institutes or Comment upon Littleton but he must frequently use it but transmitted into Ireland to be there observed in King Henry the seconds Raign which there as little to be found Recorded and Authenticated or Legitimated as it hath been in England as hath been before mentioned and grew so over-fond of it as he hath as he thought done no little piece of Service to after Ages to insert it as an especial part or undiscernable point or parcel of Law although he might have seen that Mr. Selden would not not oblige himself or his Readers to walk along with him in his over-credulity and all our Records both of England and Ireland and all our Historians and Annalists as well Coaeval as of nearer times as Ordericus Ingulphus Vicalis Eadmerus Malmesbury Simon Dunelmensis Hovedon Huntingdon Florentius Wigornensis Nubugensis Matthew of Westminster Matthew Paris Trevisa Chronica Johannis Brompton Walsingham Giraldus Cambrensis Matthew Parkers Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brittanicae Hollinshead Daniel Speed Fox Spelman and many others cited by Mr. Pryn in his manifest Proofs Evidence Conviction Discovery and Refutation of that modus tenendi Parliamenta to be full of Falsities Forgeries and Errors a fabulous Legend and meer Imposture to furnish out Jack Cades Rebellion in the latter end of the Raign of King Henry the 6. for the advance of Richard Duke of Yorks Title to the Crown of England and if there had been such a modus it may be more than an ordinary wonder that the Conquered and Inslaved People of England should precibus fletibus beg of the Conqueror Sir Edward the Confessors Laws whereupon he Anno quarto regni sui Angliae caused to be summoned concilio Baronum suorum per universos regni Angliaeâ— Consulatus Angliae Nobiles sapientes in sua lege eruditos ut eorum leges Jura 〈◊〉 consuetudines ab ipsis audiret Electi igitur de singulis eorum patriae Comitatibus viri duodecim Jure Jurando primum coram Rege confirmaverunt ut quoad possent recto tramice incedentes nec ad dextram nec ad sinistram divertentes legum suarum consuetudinum sancita patefacerent nihil praetermittentes nihil addentes nihil praevaritando mutantes a ligibus igitur sanctae matriis Ecclesiae sumentes exordium quantum per eam Rex et Regnum solidum subsisâ—ens haberet fundamentum leges libertates pacem ipsius confirmati sunt there never having been before or since such a solemn Jury either in the Raigns of our Brittish Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Kings or their many succeeding Kings or Princes sworn and impannelled by a
Themate suspiciant montes Pacem Colles Justiciam in quibus Rex verbis asservit quod triplex regni status potuit ut sibi videbat rationabiliter annotari several degrees or conditions of men videlicet per Montes Praelalati Proceres Magnates per Colles Milites Armigeri Mercatores in populo Cultores Artifices Vulgares used to be Elected to come to Parliaments in those days Quos quidem status enuncialius exponend asserint ser nonnulla autoritates Historias Exempla summaria demonstravit quod triplex deberet virtus politica eisdem tribus statibus specialiter pertinere videlicet Prelatis Magnatibus pax veritas vera concordia absque sictur vel dissimulatione Militibus mediocribus aequitas mera Justitia absque manutenentia pauperum expressione vulgaribus vero vel inferioribus voluntaria Regi ejus Legibus when he intended none of the three several States to be allowed the Legislative Power obedientia absque perjâ—rio manutenentia Ex quibus si in Regno Angliae â—aliter se haberent maxima de conqueacencia ac Regi Regno Commoda quam plurima fine dubio pervenirent ad providend igitur qualiter in Regno montes praedicti pacem suscipiant Colles que Justitiam vulgari populo administrant ipsi etiam populi vulgares eorum antiquis relictis perjuriis divinis legibus humanis plus solito fideliter obediant intendant prefat dominus noster Rex ex sui sani avisamento concilii dictum presens Parliamentum facerit convocari volens concedens quod praefati Magnates Comitates praedict without giving either of them the Title of Estates omnibus singulis libertatibus quietanciis eis per nobiles Progenitores ipsius domini Regis quondam Reges Angliae concessis per eundum dominum Regem confirmatis minime revocalis nec per legem Angliae revocabilibus set per eosdem Prelatos Magnates Comitatem bene rationabiliter usitatis gaudeant ut antur dedit insuper prefat Cancellarius praedict Communibus without any Title of Estates nomine Regio firmiter in mandatis quod in eorum domo Communi antiquitus uâ—â—tato in Crastino convenirent eorum prolocutorem eligerent sic Electum prefat Domino Regi 〈◊〉 ea celeritate qua commode poterant realiter presentarent Et ut Justitia conqueri volentibus possit celerius adhiberi idem dominus noster Rex certos Receptores â—riatores petitionum in praedicto Parliamento exhibend constituit assignavit Item 13. die Augusti Anno presento domino Rege tribus regni statibus in presenti Parliamento existentibus which being but a Phrase or Expression of the Clerk could reach no further than the Chancellors meaning in his before mentioned Speech relating several soâ—s or qualities of People then assembled in Parliament post gratias redditas ex parte domini Regis ejus mandato Communibus regni without any Title or Stile of Estate tunc ibidem presentibus deorum bonis diligentiis laboribus circa ea quae sibi ex parte regni injuncta fuerunt exhibitis ostensis praefat dominus Cancellarum de mandato ejusdem domini ulterius declaravit qualiter idem dominus Rex ipsorum Communitat relatione conceperat quod in Civitate London et Suburbiis gravis pestilentia ceperat oriri qualiterque prefat Communes without the appellation of Estates plenam et particularum informationem et nolitiam notarium extorsionum oppressionum manutent et aliorum defect in dicto regni habitorum unde idem dominum Rex certiorari affectabat per eosdem nullatenus habuerint attendens etiam idem dominus Rex qualiter tempus Autumpâ—ale in quo magnatibus circa suas recreationes et deductas without any Title of Estates insisquet Communibus with no Title or Estates circa suarum messium congregationem intendere competabat similiter 〈…〉 propinguabat Quibus de causis et presertim ut prefati Communes without any other Title de extorsionibus oppressionibus riotis manutentiis et aliis defectibus praedictis particulariter informari possent ac dictum dominum Regem inde plenius edoteri idem dominus Rex dictum presens Parliamentum usque xv nam post festie scilicet Michaelmis tunc proxim futurum apud Westminster voluit prorogari ac illud realiter prorogavit omnibus et singulis quorum interfuit firmiter injungendo quod apud Westminster dict xv die excusatione quacunque cessante personaliter convenirent ad tractandum comitandum et consentiendum super hiis quae tum ibidem pro pacis bono et Regis et regni commodo favente domino contigerit ordinari c. And it is not a little remarkable how a man of so great learning and practise in the Laws of England as the aforesaid Sir Edward Coke should either be so much bewitched with that modus tenendi Parliamentum and at the same time so much admire Littletons Book of Tenures as he believed many of his caetera's or abbrieviations therein to comprehend some more than common or ordinary point or special matter of Law worth the enquiry and not be able to understand that the Feudal Laws were the Fundamental Laws of England and supporters of the Ancient Monarchick Government thereof and were nearly allied to the Civil or Caesarean Laws with their Patroni or Clients and have descended unto us from the Longobards Brittains Saxons Goths and Vandals and other Northern Nations now and very anciently the Laws whereby for the most part all Christendom is and hath been Governed and that that excellent Book of Littleton who was a Judge in the Raign of King Edward the fourth now not above 219. years ago contained a Compendium Summary and Practice of our Feudal Laws those best most wholesome firm and obliging Laws in the World then and long before used in England should be so little acknowledged or beloved by Sir Edward Coke whose principal care and design hath for a long time been to disparage and bury them in Oblivion by his over-much magnifying that fatal and grand Imposture of modus tenendi Parliamentum made it to be the Machine or Engine to batter and destroy our Fortresses of Loyalty and should not have allowed his Admirers as much or more than he did his and our Littleton to believe either that Empusa or Modus to be as a Creed to a People in that Frenzy and almost national infatuity wherein to he and his beloved modus had perswaded them and by the help of the Master of all Craft and Subtlety turned our Laws out of their Ancient Inheritance and by stiling our Feudal Laws the Common Laws by the Hocus Pocus Insolence and Perjury of Parliament Rebellion now almost of fifty years continuance rendred us to be like the Jews in their seventy years Captivity who so forgot their Primitive Language as they were enforced to crave the incertain help of
amaze all the men of Law and Learning in the Kingdom of England how Sir Edward Coke that hath been attempted to be a man of so great knowledge and experience in the Law and entrusted with so many weighty Charges and Offices in our Laws as Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and afterwards of the Court of Kings Bench and so great a Collector and Remembrancer of the cases and judgments in the Law with their various forms and entries should have so often read in his so greatly beloved Book of Littleton the Chapters of Homage and Homage Auncestrel and Escuage assessed in our Parliaments could think it to be the Common Law of England and that by which it had for many Centuries past been Governed and not to be by its true and original Name and Nation as well here as in all the other parts of the Christian World the Feudal Law and what else where those Feudal Laws used in England which our Learned Sir Henry Spelman and Dr. Zouch Mr. of Alban-Hall in Oxford so largely directly mentioned to have their beneficial Use and Residence amongst us allowed and repeated by the very learned the Sieur du Fresne a Baron of France and other good Authors and Historians And if those premises cannot be enough to satisfy us Sir Edward Coke if he were alive might do well to instruct us what Law that Homage and Escuage appertained unto And if there were any other Laws that this Kingdom was governed by when and by whom they were introduced and of how long continuance for it may be hoped that our Sons of Novelty will not be so impudent as to offer to obtrude upon the World the Follies and Villanies of Wat Tiler and Jack Cade our late pretended Rebuplicans or their cheating Instrument maker Oliver Cromwel Or upon what other Laws than Feudal are our Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta supported and as often as thirty times in several of our Parliaments confirmed when all our many English Rebellions troubles of State and Commotions either at home at abroad have left it as a quiddam Sacrum more than the safe guarded vestal fire amongst the Romans or can shew us in any of our Records Annals or holy Writ wrested or misinterpreted that the Dernier Resort or Appeal hath been or ought to be in the people unless they can make themselves or any others believe that there was something or more revealed to them than was in the Scripture or Holy Prophets for there was no third Estate under our Kings to assist their Councels in Parliaments subordinate unto them put upon them nor intended to be by the 25 Conservators enforced upon King John in the Rebellious Parliament and Battle at Running Mede afterwards reduced to four or when their Captain General Robert Fitz-Walter was stiled Mariscallus Exercitus dei Ecclesiae Anglicanae neither in Anno 42. H. 3. being over-powered by some of his Rebellious Barons where those 25 Conservators were turned into 24 the one half to be nominated by the King the other by the contending party at the Parliament at Oxford or when that afterwards adjudged derogatory Parliament to Kingly Authority was referred by King Henry the third and the Rebellious Barons unto the Arbitration of the King of France or sworn to abide it none of the Rebellious party were entituled Estates or in that after Rebellion and detaining King Henry the 3 and prince Edward his Son about a year and a quarter they would not adventure to form or imitate a general Councel in that captive Kings name those few that came were not called or intended to be a 3 Estate in an House of Commons nor in any of the many Rescripts or Mandates which Symon Montfort and his partner Rebels made in their Captive Kings name nor in any Parliament after his Release or in the Parliament of King Edward the first when he was pleased to suffer some of the Commons Elected by his Writs to attend in the House of Commons in Parliament neither had they the boldness in all his long Raign of 35 years or in the 17 or 18 years of King Edward the second or the fifty one years of King Edward the third or in the Raign of King Richard the 2 until the Title of Estates crept in as aforesaid and Mr. Pryn made himself after the Creator of them in his misused rectifying And having as they thought turned the Tables the wrong way in calling our Feudal Laws the Common Laws which indeed they are should be and a long time have been have so far put them out of their Right place Order and Station as they think they have changed our Feudal Laws which are should be the only Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and Government thereof into a quite contrary and too many of our Lawyers have been so willing to forget them as they had rather now of late make us believe if they could the tricks of Attorneys to be our Common Laws than our more Ancient Legal Rational and Fundamental Feudal Laws Insomuch that one that thinks himself no small one hath of late been pleased to say very considerately as he thought that the Study and Knowledge of Antiquities was but like the picking up of Old Iron in the London Streets or Kennels As if the Prophet Jeremy had either mistaken or lost the Commission which our Alwise and Omniscient God had given him when he advised us Stare super vias antiquas inquirere veritatem and such Lawyers of a late Edition might find themselves hard put to it to answer the question how or from whence proceeded or were derived our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which have for so many ages past been legally taken and enjoyned and do and ought yet to continue if not from an ancient Fundamental Feudal Laws from what other Laws of God or man were they derived or any the various Customs or Usages of either Heathen or Christian fixt or established by by any other rational Custom or Usage or unfixt and left only to the divers Interests Occasions and Contingencies of every mans particular Interest and Affairs and can never be ascertained how long they shall continue in one and the same mind and good liking and where the Systeem of these Laws Usages or Customs are or may be found or what Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy have been sworn unto or upon them Whether upon the Old Custom of England of wrastling or choosing King and Queen at the Epiphany or Twelft Night at Christmas And if they would be a 3 governing Estate may think themselves not a little beholding unto such as can either think or believe that they are or ought to be so in love with them as to trust them as formerly they had done and could tell their Brethren of Scotland that their promises were but conditional and did very lovingly alter order their man of sin Oliver Cromwel to beat subdue and after their Laws and Religion
amount unto no more than the breeding of Factions and dislike of his Majesties mild and tender hearted Government lampooning and scandalizing him robbing and pilfering his Royal Revenue whereby to encompass him with all manner of importunate necessities as if the cheating and misusing of Kings had been no small part of their Praerogative contrived a most abominable Association upon him and his Royal Brother his now Sacred Majesty to murder and ruine them as they were to come thorough a narrow Lane from Newmarket to London in the same Coach and being disappointed therein proceeded to infect as much as they could the Parliament that should have been his best and most wholsom Counsel to make and enter into an Association upon their Oaths without their King to exclude and banish his Royal Brother his now present Majesty and his Heirs and Successors from the Royal Succession for that he was suspected to be addicted to the Religion of the Church of Rome Which being by the King and major part of the House of Lords contradicted a Force and Insurrection was contrived and enough as they hoped listed and made ready to accomplish it but it being discovered by some that had been persuaded to assist therein and some of the Nobility being according to Law attainted of High Treason and forfeited they would not leave prosecuting of him with their Plots and Designs until God the Appointer of Kings had called him to his mercy from them that would have no mercy for him And having thus long abused their Kings with their Rebellions and brought a long lasting Series of mischief and miseries upon their seduced Followers could not rest satisfied if they should not give more Credit to their New Commonwealth-Mongers that would entitle them to the only power of summoning proroguing adjorning or dissolving of Parliaments and manackling of their Kings and Princes and did not think they had enough established it and themselves if they had not when for Loyalty or any such matter they were to eject any of their Fellow-Members caused them to receive their Sentence upon their Knees although they had committed no Offence neither supplicated for any pardon or had it And another being as willing as some others to adore his own fancy without any evidence of Truth Law or Right Reason in his Wringing Wresting and Torturing of Tropes Metaphors Allegories Improprieties of Words or Phrases beyond their Right or common use or what he had picked together out of some lying Manuscripts and abused Records by omissions of truths whereby to put his vain and groundless imaginations into some frame and method hath in his Book Printed and Published endeavoured to make the House of Commons to be an Essential and Constituent part of Parliament and to have a votum Decisivum therein and hath therein committed more dangerous errors than the late Author of the Theory of the Earth in his endeavouring to prove Noahs Flood to have been more from natural causes than the product of God Almighty's Will and Infinite Power declared by his more especial Servant Moses sufficiently confuted by the Reverend Father in God Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford And it must needs be said that he hath over-dangerously handled Joves Thunder-bolts and made himself as instrumental as he could to take the Soveraignty from the King and bestow it upon the People whom he and his Opiniotretees would suppose to be represented in Parliament whereas he should have only said it was a constituted part of the Parliament from the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the 3d sub modo forma during that Kings Imprisonment under Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Rebel Associates and were neither in Authority or Degree the same with the more Honourable and better Estated House of Peers although in that then constituted House of Commons in Parliament there were to be four Knights out of every County in England to be Elected and sent thither few of them appearing and that more or less they might have claimed as they have lately done the summoning of the Peers and the Nobility of the Kingdom Electing the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and they representing all the People might more easily have continued and maintained their Post and Station of a never to be proved senseless and reasonless Soveraignty which was not to be seen heard or read in this Kingdom either in the time that it had been a Roman Colony or of the Great Arthur or the Saxon Heptarchy Norman Conquest and our many since succeeding Kings and Princes and is and hath ever been attended with so many possibilities of setting People together to kill destroy and ruin one another as hath no where in the habitable World but in our late English Frenzy and Infatuation and most egregious Hypocritical pretences of Religion whilst they for almost fifty years together imployed their Godless time in murdering of their Kings and Laws and the one half or more of their Fellow-Subjects Lives and Estates and that Author can never prove that there are two Supreams nor find any way to agree them which should be uppermost or which the lowermost And what pro Deus atque hominum fidem could those liberties be that they by a pretence of Reformation of grievances of their own making had usurped upon their King to mould themselves and their wicked fellow Complotters into a Republick as they would have it stiled when it proved to be nothing but a Society of Rapine plunder and villany whereof their Regicide Oliver Cromwell had afterwards cheated them and was almost as great a mistake in what a very learned Judge had said when he was Member of the House of Commons that the King was primarily a Trustee for the People yet it could not be so affirmed by any Truth Rule or Law of God or man as immediately from or by them but only as immediately from or by God commanded to take care of his People And a wrongfull misinterpretation hath been endeavoured to be put upon some part of our Reverend Mr. Hookers Book of Ecclesiastical Policy as if he had positively affirmed that the King was a Trustee for his People as he is doubtless for his protection when the late learned Dr. Sanderson Bishop of Lincoln hath affirmed unto me that he having heedfully perused the Book written with Mr. Hookers own hand could discover no such words therein So here is complexedly met and united a Systeme and a Mass of the Conspiracies Factions Seditions Treasons and abominable confusions put together and agitated sometimes at one time and after at others from the later end of the Raign of King Richard the first until the Raign of King Charles the 2d in the dream of the Election of our Kings and Princes in the Rebellion at Running Mede some Barons in the Raign of King Henry the third threatning to choose another King and enforcing of Conservators of the Liberties of the People in
his Subjects Untill in that much mistaken Erroneous Act of Parliament said to have been made in Feb. 1645. by some of the Lords Commons of that which should not have been called a Parliament when they made War had like strange Subjects and Advisors beaten away their King neither had there been any design of abrogating the Tenures in Capite or of that kind in all the Brittish Roman Saxon Danish or Normam times to annull or dissolve so strong and solid a Foundation as our Feudall Laws nothing in the Rebellion Force and strange unkingly restrictions Articles and agreements put upon King John at Running Mede no grievance by the Tenures in Capite or by Knight-service certified upon any the Writs sent by King Henry the 3. unto all the Sheriffs of the Counties and Cities of England and Wales to Elect 4 Knights of every County and City to certify to the King and his Baronage their Grievances nothing in the forced Parliament and Oaths upon King Henry the 3. and his Son Prince Edward in the 42. Year of his Reign nothing in his direfull procession and waâ—king with his Parliament of Praelates and Nobility throuâ—h Westminster Hall unto that Abby Church with burning Tapers Curses and Anathema's against the Infringers of Magna Charta and Charta de Forresta then and yet holden in Capite with many of our Liberties Fundamentall and Feudall Laws therein contained nothing desired or ordered to be taken away of them or any of them no mention of them in the arbitration or award made by the King of France betwixt that King and his Rebell Barons or when Simon Montfort and his Partners kept him in their powerfull Army a Prisoner about a Year or a Quarter no Complaints or grievances against those Tenures in Capite in all those multitudes of other supposed grievances nothing in the Petition of Right and 30 times confirmation of Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta as if they could never have enough of them nor Reformation desired in and through all the Clownish Rebellions and Insurrections in England in the Times of Wat Tiler John Ball Jack Cade Ket and others And therefore whilst these Underminers of our long lived Monarchy and in that their own happiness have gratified their fond feavourish fancies in procuring a Dissolution of as many as they could of our Tenures in Capite for all if any they could not with the Costly expence of 48. Millions sterling in mony besides an uncomptable and unvalued damage of four hundred thousand Men Women and Children slain or Massacred whole families ruined or for ever Crpled Heaven angry and incensed Hell gaping Religion torn in more then one hundred pieces and all for want of the Care Provision and Protection that the despised Mother Church of England like the Voice that was heard in Ramah Rachel mourning for her Children that they were not our Shames Published in the Streets of Gath and Askalon in the Time of its peace and the Sins of Rebellion and Witchcraft have as the Egiptian Locusts covered overspread the face of our heretofore fruitfull Island And the Protection and Provision usually made by our Tenures in Capite for Younger Children as well as the Eldest affords them no better a care then to leave them when the Mother is after the Fathers Death by some Debaucht Rooking or Gamiug Coxcomb made a fool of and Married again as very often they will are like Lambs left as a Prey unto the Wolves or Foxes the Second Husbands who if the Mother have Children by him will be as too many are well content to help to Fricasse the first husbands Children to make Portions or Estates for the Second so as if it be Enquired where is now the Court of Wards and Liveries which hath been so pretendedly without any Just Cause at all complained of they may find every where a Court of Wards and Liveries lamentably governed by the Fathers in Law of England Wales and Ireland They might do well to make more hast then they have done to repentance consider how much more then nothing at all the Nation was beholding to those overtures as much as they could of the Monarchy Tenures in Capite have been to those Commonwealth Erecters have deserved of the People and those whom they pretended to represent in Parliament when instead of bread they have given them Stones and of Fishes Scorpions and to shew the profoundness of their wisdom did as wisely as those that attempâ—ed to drown the Eel when upon a great serious consult they may Easily discover no better effects or fruit of their overchargeable expences enforced upon the people to their own great and Villanous gain and the ruin spoil and inestimable damage of our 3 before that most happy flourishing redoubtable Kingdoms When that Act of Parliament for taking away the Tenures in Capite doth but as much as it could convert them into Free and Common Socage without any mention of pro omnibus servitiis and the Law made by King Ina who Reigned here from the year of our Savior 923. untill after some part of the Year 940. which is not specially repealed by that Act of destroying as much as it was able the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service did ordain that Scutarorum nullus ex pelle ovina Scutafabricatur qui secus fecerit 30 solides mulctator pro singulo quoque aratrobinos alat quisque ornatos atque instructos Equites and in a Tenure in Free and Common Socage Fealty is a duty and service inseparable as Littleton saith and signifieth although as he putteth the Case is in the Ceremony of the doing thereof sometimes different from homage for when the Tenant doth fealty unto his Lord he shall hold his hand upon a Book and shall Swear that he shall be faithfull and true to his Lord and shall bear him faith for the Lands which he holdeth of him and fealty is derived a fidelitate Feltman bestowing upon an originall of the like nature a fide and Escuage draweth unto it homage and Homage draweth unto it fealty for fealty is incident to every manner of Service unless it be in the Tenure of Franck-Almoigne and the Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service some only excepted being transferred into Free and Common Socage without saying per fidelitatem tantum pro omnibus servitiis may notwithstanding the forebidding or rejection of of Homage and all other Incidents of Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service render the fealty incident unto free and Common Socage by our Laws to amount unto as much as that which the framer of that Act of Parliament hoped to extinguish by Converting those Tenures in Capite as much as he could into Tenures in pede which should have been beleived to have been very fundamental and dangerous to alter when the wisdom of the English and Scottish Commissioners authoris'd by an Act of Parliament in the Reign of King James
vain Fears such as in constantem virum cadere non possunt should not be permitted to affright our better to be imployed Imaginations unless we had a mind to be as wise as a small and pleasant Courtier of King Henry the Eighths who would never endure to pass in a Boat under London-Bridge lest it should fall upon his Head because it might once happen to do so Our Magna Charta's and all our Laws which ordain no man to be condemned or punished without Tryal by his Peers do allow it where it is by Confession Outlawry c and no Verdict Did never think it fit that Publick Dangers such as Treason should tarry where Justice may as well be done otherwise without any precise Formalities to be used therein For although it may be best done by the advice of the Kings greatest Council the Parliament there is no Law or reasonable Custom of England either by Act of Parliament or without that restrains the King to do it only in the time of Parliament When the Returns Law-Days and Terms appointed and fixt have ever given place to our Kings Commissions of Oyer and Terminer Inquiries c. upon special and emergent occasions And notwithstanding it will be always adviseable that Kings should be assisted by their greatest Council when it may be had yet there is no Law or Act of Parliament extant or any right reason or consideration to bind Him from making use of His ordinary Council in a Case of great and importunate necessity For Cases of Treason Felony and Trespass being excepted out of Parliament first and last granted and indulged Priviledges by our and their Kings and Princes there can be no solid Reason or cogent Argument to perswade any man that the King cannot for the preservation of Himself and His People in the absence or interval of Parliaments punish and try Offenders in Cases of Treason without which there can be no Justice Protection or Government if the Power of the King and Supream Magistrate shall be tyed up by such or the like as may happen Obstructions So that until the Honourable House of Commons can produce some or any Law Agreement Pact Concession Liberty or Priviledge to Sit and Counsel the King whether he will or no as long as any of their Petitions remain unanswered which they never yet could or can those grand Impostors and Figments of the Modus tenendi Parliamenta and the supposed Mirror of Justice being as they ought to be rejected when the Parliament Records will witness that many Petitions have for want of time most of the ancient Parliaments not expending much of it been adjourned to be determined in other Courts as in the Case of Staunton in 14 E. 3. and days have been limited to the Commons for the exhibiting of their Petitions the Petitions of the Corbets depended all the Raigns of King Edward the First and Second until the eleventh year of Edward the Third which was about sixty six years and divers Petitions not dispatched have in the Raign of King Richard the Second been by the King referred to the Chancellor and sometimes with a direction to call to his assistance the Justices and the Kings Serjeants at Law and the Commons themselves have at other times prayed to have their Petitions determined by the Councel of the King or by the Lord Chancellor And there will be reason to believe that in Cases of urgent necessity for publick safety the King is and ought to be at liberty to try and punish great and dangerous Offenders without His Great Council of Parliament The Petitions in Parliament touching the pardoning of Richard Lyons John Peachie Alice Peirce c and a long process of William Montacute Earl of Salisbury were renewed and repeated again in the Parliament of the first of Richard the Second because the Parliament was ended before they could be answered Anno 1. of King Richard the Second John Lord of Gomenez formerly committed to the Tower for delivering up of the Town of Ardes in that Kings time of which he took upon him the safe keeping in the time of King Edward the Third and his excuse being disproved the Lords gave Judgment that he should dye but in regard he was a Gentleman and a Baronet and had otherwise well served should be beheaded but Judgment was howsoever respited until the King should be thereof fully informed and was thereupon returned again to the Tower King Henry the Second did not tarry for the assembling a Parliament to try Henry de Essex his Standard-bearer whom he disherited for throwing it down and aftrighting his Host or disheartning it 16 E. 2 Henry de bello monte a Baron refusing to come to Parliament upon Summons was by the King Lords and Council and the Judges and Barons of the Exchequer then assisting committed for his contempt to Prison Anno 3 E. 3. the Bishop of Winchester was indicted in the Kings-Bench for departing from the Parliament at Salisbury Neither did Henry the Eight forbear the beheading of His great Vicar General Cromwell upon none or a very small evidenced Treason until a Parliament should be Assembled The Duke of Somerset was Indicted of Treason and Felony the scond of December Anno 3. 4. Edwardi 6. sitting the Parliament which began the fourth day of November in the third year of His Raign and ended the first day of February in the fourth was acquitted by his Peers for Treason but found guilty of Felony for which neglecting to demand his Clergy he was put to Death In the Raign of King Philip and Queen Mary thirty nine of the House of Commons in Parliament whereof the famous Lawyer Edmond Plowden was oneâ— were Indicted in the Court of Kings-Bench for being absent without License from the Parliament Queen Elizabeth Charged and Tryed for Treason and Executed Mary Queen of Scots her Feudatory without the Advice of Parliament and did the like with Robert Earl of Essex her special Favourite for in such Cases of publick and general Dangers the shortest delays have not seldom proved to be fatally mischievous And howsoever it was in the Case of Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury in the fifteenth year of the Raign of King Edward the Third declared that the Peers de la terre ne doivent estre arestez ne mesnez en Jugement Si non en Parlement par leur Pairres yet when there is no Parliament though by the Law their Persons may not then also be Arrested at a common persons Suit they may by other ways be brought to Judgment in any other Court And Charges put in by the Commons in the House of Peers against any of the Peers have been dissolved with it For Sir Edward Coke hath declared it to be according to the Law and reasonable Customs of England followed by the modern practice that the giving any Judgment in Parliament doth not make it a Session and that such Bills as passed in either or