Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	army_n	city_n	london_n	3,465	5	7.2357	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88236	A plea, or protest, made by VVilliam Prynne, Esquire, and by him sent unto J.M. Knight, one of the eleven impeached Members. Wherein he declares the injustice and illegality of the Lords, Commons, and grandees of the Armies proceedings against him. Whereunto is annexed the case of A.B. (a citizen of London, and a free commoner of England) truly stated, in reference to a pretended impeachment of treason depending in the House of Peers against him : with an answer to certain queres framed thereupon : unto which is annexed the answer of the said A.B. unto the Lords assembled in Parliament in point of law, ... in which it is fully proved, that the House of Lords ... hath not the least jurisdiction in the world over any commoner ... with a full answer to all their presidents in such cases; and that it is not safe for the said A.B. to kneel at the Lords barre, because it is stooping and submitting to their jurisdiction. / Published for the common good of all honest Englishmen, by Lionel Hurbin Gentleman, March 17. 1647.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; J. M.; Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1648 (1648)	Wing L2161; Thomason E432_18; ESTC R202738	18,211	22

the Houses the 26. of July 1647. and that day or immediately after endeavoured to passe a Vote for the owning of the Engagement entred into by the Speaker and Members as aforesaid with the Army which would not then passe as also a Vote for the nulling of all Ordinances c. betwixt the 26. of July the day of the force and the 6. of August the day the Army put the Speaker into their Chaires as aforesaid which many severall daies passed in the Negative both these Votes and many more to this purpose which first passed in the House of Lords consisting then of the engaged Lords and from day to day renewed by those Lords and sent down to the House of Commons for their concurrence And at length by meanes of more force and a Remonstrance from the Army of the 17. of August the Vote was passed and being obtained divers of both Houses of Parliament and of the City of London were examined upon questioned impeached and imprisoned and for their very obedience to and acting upon the Order and Ordinances of the House of Parliament who sate in the absence of the rest and are allowed to be Houses of Parliament by that Order wherein all they did in that time is declared to be null are ordered to be brought to their Triall upon pretended treason and misdemeanour amongst which A. B. is one and is to be tried by those very Lords if he submit thereto who entred this Engagement and who if they condemne not A. B. and the rest upon the said treason and misdemeanours make themselves guilty for their thus acting and engaging with the Army against the Houses as aforesaid and so will bring a condemnation upon their own heads All which premised and considered I frame three Quaeres 1. Query Whether it be safe for A. B. questioned by the House of Commons and the Army to submit to any triall by the engaged Lords who by their engagement have passed judgement upon him already which they are to make good with their lives and fortunes and must as the case lies condemne themselves or him To which I answer negatively for these ensuing reasons 1. Ans It s not to be supposed that the Lords will declare themselves Traitors and warre being Levied by A. B. and them each against other the fact of one or the other must necessarily be included in the Stat. of 25. Ed. 3. where levying warre against the King is declared treason 2. A. The quality of A. B. his supposed fact is so prejudged treason by the Commons already and who have so transmitted it to the Lords as that the Lords dare not dissent least the House of Commons and the Army should fall furiously upon them and incline to abolish their vsurped jurisdiction over Commoners or any other ways to be revenged of them and therefore in case A. B. submit to a triall by those Lords the hopes of his life solely depends upon the defect of evidence as to the matter of fact 3. A. The Interest of those Lords and of the Army Grandees whom they are obliged to serve is to excute exmpelary punishment upon some that resisted the Army otherwise their reputation with the people will be utterly lost and therefore if A. B. put himselfe upon a triall by the Lords assuredly they must and will lay Load upon him to the purpose 2. Query If the first be not safe then secondly what is A. B. his safest Plea whether to the Lords none Iurisdiction of his cause being against Magna Charta the Petition of Right c. by the authority of which the Commoners of England are only to be tryed by their equalls Or to the incompetencie of judging in this case being both judges and parties A. It s not safe for A. B. to plead that the Lords are incompetent Iudges because they are parties and the reasons are First Because that Plea is not only an implicit acknowledgment of their jurisdiction over Commoners but also a tacit confession of the matter of fact for the very Plea implies a mutuall Levying warre else they could not be parties Second Because that Plea is not valid in Law for the King sits by his Deputies in all Courts of justice and yet he is in Law a party Third Because that Plea lies onely as to the equity of the Laws nd therefore admitts of the exercise of the judiciall power about it and so the Commons which transmitted A. B. unto the Lords and the Lords themselves must be judges of the validity of the Plea and it cannot be supposed that either the Commons or the Lords will take that dishonour to themselves to reverse their former judgement and so consequently the House of Commons acknowledge the Injury they have offered to A. B. by imprisoning him c. And the House of Lords also acknowledge the wrong they have done to the Lord Willoughby and the rest of the seven impeached Lords by restraining them c. There remaines therefore no secure Plea to A. B. but to the non-jurisdiction of the Lords over Commons 3. Query If the first or second be judged the safest Plea then in the third place when is the proper time of pleading A. 1. The only proper time is to begin when the Lords send their first warrant to bring A. B. up to their Barre before them to answer to the impeachment and this to be done by a salvo to his Liberty put into the Liev. of the Tower in the nature of that which Sir Iohn Maynard sent to Col. Tichhurne the 17 Feb. 1647. which you may read in Print it the 36 and 37 Pages of his case truly stated 2. But secondly at the least A. B. must refuse to kneele at the Lords Bar because it is a cleare acknowledgment of their jurisdiction over him and this appeares by these insuing reasons First Because kneeling at their Barre is the only distinguishing note between those who come to their Bar only by a bare Summons or for witnesses c. and those which comes to their Bar as Deliquents the first of which they never require to kneele but only the second viz. Those which they look upon as Delinquents therefore whosoever kneeles at their Bar acknowledgeth the Lords power and jurisdiction over him to Summon him to their Bar as a Delinquent and there to judge and condemne him Second The Lords claime to that adoration by kneeling extends to no other then those Delinquents which are under their jurisdiction and that only as they are Delinquents Third It s evident by the constant practise of all such as are not looked upon as Delinquents comming to their Bar that kneeling is no note of Civill respect it being never required of them nor performed by them and therefore by consequence must be a symptome of delinquency performed only by those that stoope to their jurisdiction over them to try them therefore Fourth It s very observable that in the ordinary Courts of justice no man holds up

other Members of both Houses continued sitting but likewise enter into and subscribe a solemne Engagement to live and die with the Army in this cause and to prosecute your Petitioner and others who then continued sitting in the Houses who in pursuit of that Engagement have exhibited these Articles against this Defendent and thereby absolutely disabled themselves being pre-engaged parties to give any Vote at all or prosecute this Impeachment in the Commons House or to be indifferent competent Judges thereof in the House of Peers who have no proper conusance of expresse Treasons triable by Verdict and Indictment at the Common-Law and not in Parliament it being against Magna Charta ch 29. 25. E. 3. c. 2. 4. 28. E. 3. c. 3. 37. E. 3. c. 8. 42. E. 3. c. 3. The Petition of Right 3. Caroli and sundry other Statutes Upon which just grounds and considerations he this Defendent by this his Protestation absolutely protests against all and every of the said Articles as null and void in Law to which he is bound to give no present Answer in Parliament and to except against all those Members of either House who have subscribed the Engagement to the Army as being incompetent prosectors and Judges in his publike cause and therefore he this Defendent humbly appeales from an empty forced and over-awed to a full and free Parliament where he shall be alwaies ready to answer all such crimes properly triable in and by Parliament as shall be objected against him in a due and legall way not triable elsewhere by Indictment Jury and the ordinary course of the Common-Law in other Courts of Justice as this pretended levying of Warre is both by Common and Statute-Law and therefore this Defendent for the reasons aforesaid humbly prayeth to bee excused from giving any further or other answer to this void impeachment till this his solemne Protestation shall be debated and over-ruled in a full and free Parliament exempted from the Armies Jurisdiction Wardship and over-awing force Courteous Reader Thou art desired to take notice that the reason wherefore the forementioned Plea and Protest of Mr William Prynne is now printed is because since he sent it to the foresaid Knight which will be punctually and fully proved he did if he shall deny it he hath since published a large Plea to justifie the Lords Jurisdiction over Commoners in Criminall Cases and thereby done as much as in him lies to the height to animate and incourage the House of Lords to proceed to adjudge condemne and execute the foresaid Knight and the four Aldermen of London now Prisoners in the Tower and who now stand impeached before the Lords Barre by the House of Commons being forced thereunto by the over-awing power of the Grandees of the Army of high Treason But I desire any rationall man in England but especially all those that wish well to the foresaid Prisoners seriously to consider whether a more mischievous malicious and destroying action could be done to destroy the Lives Liberties and Estates of the foresaid Prisoners by the most malicious adversarie they have in England then that illegall and desperate Plea made by their much pretended friend Mr. Prynne who thereby hath if I have any judgement stab'd them and there Liberties as much as in him lies to the very heart but what should be the reason of his so unseasonable publishing of the foresaid desperate Plea at this very nick of time when they are all upon their trialls and their lives and Estates thereby at stake and absolutely in danger to be destroyed if they stoope and submit to their Jurisdiction as is undeniably evinced in the following case of A. B. I am not able to render unlesse it be because the foresaid Knight would not follow his advise in delivering the foresaid Protest which he of purpose sent unto him for that end the which if any rationall man please to compare with his foresaid Plea he shall find it an absolute answer to the chief things in it and a contradiction of it and which in the following lines so much as concernes the Lords Jurisdiction over Commoners is fully answered The Case of A. B. truly stated c. THe two Houses of Parliament the 26. of July 1647. were petitioned by the City for the Militia as the Houses had established to them for one yeare in May before and notwithstanding had been the 23. of July at the desire of the Army altered and put into such hands as they desired This Petition was seconded though not with the knowledge of the City by another from the Apprentices and others who came tumultuously upon the Houses and prevailed for re-establishment of the Committee of Militia as in May before The day following being the 27. of July the Houses sate and adjourned till Friday following upon Friday after long waiting and much inquiry made for the Speakers it appeared they were gone to the Army and deserted the Houses whereupon both Houses chose new Speakers and proceeded as before and endeavoured to provide for the safety of the Parliament City and Kingdome and in order thereunto gave order to Committees formerly named to that purpose whereupon the Army with the former Speakers divers others viz. 9. of the House of Lords that now sit and 58 or thereabouts of the House of Commons marched up towards the Parliament and City in a hostile manner notwithstanding the Houses then sitting ordered the Army not to march towards the City nor nearer it then 40 miles which Orders were sent and delivered to the Generall and Commissioners of Parliament resident in the Army to which they yeelded no obedience but contrarily marched nearer the City and upon the third of August last the Army published their Declaration against the City and Parliament then sitting pretending the Houses were no Houses of Parliament but a company of Lords and Gentlemen assembled together assuming to themselves a Parliamentary power and all they that acted therein or upon their Orders they acted without any authority of Parliament the Army avowing those that had left the Houses as invested with the Parliaments Authority and that the Army would onely act upon and according to their Councell and this the Army ingaged to make good with their lives and fortunes This Declaration the said Speakers and Members upon the 4. of August entred an Ingagement under their hands to make good with their lives and fortunes And upon these grounds the Army and they joyne and march upon the Parliament and City and accordingly the 6. of August the said Speaker and Members in an hostile manner came up with a part of the Army to the Houses and there the Speaker and Members tooke their seats as before and have ever since with that force or some other part of the Army attending them continued sitting Upon the said 6. of August they appoint a Committee another Committee then the Houses had appointed in the absence of Speaker and Members to examine the force upon