Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	call_v	king_n	westminster_n	2,602	5	9.6831	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91317	A vindication of the imprisoned and secluded Members of the House of Commons, from the aspersions cast upon them, and the majority of the House, in a paper lately printed and published: intituled, An humble answer of the Generall Councel of the officers of the Army under his Excellency Thomas Lord Fairfax, to the demands of the Honourable Commons of England in Parliament assembled: concerning the late securing or secluding some Members thereof.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1649 (1649)	Wing P4128; Thomason E539_5; ESTC R7280	23,082	37

A VINDICATION OF THE Imprisoned and Secluded MEMBERS OF THE House of Commons From the ASPERSIONS cast upon them and the MAIORITY of the House in a paper lately printed and published INTITVLED An Humble Answer of the Generall Councel of the Officers of the Army under his Excellency THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX TO THE Demands of the Honourable Commons of ENGLAND in Parliament Assembled Concerning The late Securing or Secluding some MEMBERS thereof PSAL. 27. 5 6. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to passe And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgement as the noon-day LONDON Printed for Michael Spark an the blue Bible in Green-Arbour 1649. A Vindication of the imprisoned and secluded Members of the House of Commons from the Aspersions cast upon them and the Majority of the House in a Paper lately printed and published Intituled An humble Answer of the Generall Councel of the Officers of the Army c. to the Demands of the Honourable the Commons of England c. AFter our being secluded and some of us imprisoned and detained from our Service in the House of Commons of which we are Members now for above six weeks space finding a paper published in print against us wherein we are reproached with the names of Traitors Apostates Self-servers corrupt Members and divers other aspersions of the like nature charged upon us We are enforced for our Vindication and which is dearer to us the Vindication of the Freedom and Honour of the Parliament and for preventing the matters suggested against us in that Paper from abusing those by whom we are entrusted who might judge us guilty if should be silent to make this ensuing Answer to that paper In the Preamble of this Answer by way of Accompt concerning the securing some Members and secluding others It appears by the Proposals of the sixth of December the late Declaration and Remonstrance therein cited That this designe to break the House by force hath been long since plotted and contrived though not executed untill now Which Action the General Councel of the Army in their Answer say We acknowledge it to be a Course in it self irregular and not justifiable but both by honest intentions for publick good and an extraordinary Necessity for the same end leading us thereunto These being the two pillars upon which is laid the whole weight of the justification of the Army in this extraordinary and we beleeve unparallell'd course of proceedings We shall apply our selves to discover the weaknesse and unsoundness of them both For our more clear proceedings herein we shall first state the Case which is endeavoured by this paper to be justified They are an Armie raised and formed by Ordinance of Parliament of the 15 of February 1644 for the defence of the King and Parliament and true Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to be from time to time subject to such Orders and Directions as they shall receive from both Houses of Parliament And for that end they stand commissionated by them and receive pay from them at this day And besides the Trust they hereby have assumed they are under the obligation of a solemn Covenant sworn to Almighty God That they will in their places and callings with sincerity reality and constancy with their estates and lives preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdome and defend the Kings person and Authority in the defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom They being under these Trusts and Obligations by and to the Houses with their Arms contrary to their Orders marched into Westminster and without any order from them they placed some of their Regiments at and about the door of the House of Commons upon the sixth and seventh of December last and there with a List of the names of divers Members of the House their Officers and Souldiers appointed for that purpose forcibly secluded some seized upon imprisoned and detained others from their attendance of the House and occasioned many others to absent themselves The Question now is Whether any thing in this paper can justifie this Action of theirs either upon the good Intentions or Necessity pretended therein This being the point in Issue which they affirm and we deny We shall now proceed to consider their grounds For their good Intentions which cannot be known to us but by their expressions and actions they referre us to their Proposals Declarations and Remonstrances where wee finde their desires are to take away the Kings life to take away the lives of the Prince and the Duke of York at least to dis-inherit both them and all the Kings children to put a period to this Parliament to set up a new Representative which takes away all Parliaments to have an elective King if any These are the intentions for publick good which must come in to help their actions that are confessed to be otherwise irregular and unjustifiable We think the very naming of them doth manifest that they are apparantly against the Laws of God and the Laws of the Kingdom under which they live and have no justification for themselves much lesse any to spare for their actions whereof we leave the whole Kingdome for whose good as said these Intentions are to be judges And we shall produce no other witnesse to prove this but themselves On the 15 of November 1647 the paper called The Agreement of the people which is somewhat lower then these which they call Intentions for publick good was condemned by the Army the promoting of it judged capitall Colonel Rainshorough and Major Scot complained of by them to the House for appearing in it and the paper it self then adjudged by the House destructive to Government and the being of Parliament And upon this their evidence against themselves we leave this point And to proceed to the other ground of their justification viz. Extraordinary Necessity which is laid down in their paper thus After they have brought in their good intentions for their justification and what those are we have cited out of their own papers to which they refer us it is then added And an extraordinary Necessity for the same and leading us thereunto It appears in the first opening of this necessity of what nature it is that tends to such ends as they referre it But for the better disquisition thereof before we come to the particulars to set forth this necessity in this paper we shall lay down some generall Observations and Conclusions concerning this their Plea 1. The Army made the very same plea of extraordinary necessity in their Remonstrance June 23. 1647 that now is made in this paper upon quite contrary grounds then what they expresse now and both to justifie the same extraordinary violent proceedings against the Parliament differing onely in degrees this later worse then the former Then when the King was seized upon by a party of

the Souldiers in the Kingdom were published For the fourth Article their countenancing abetting and partaking wish the tumultuous violence of the Apprentices and others against both Houses of Parliament It seems strange to us when they had this in their thoughts to charge it as a Crime upon us they did not think of what themselves are doing and much more that they should urge the force offered to the House then which they declared horrid and treasonable to justifie the violence offered to the House by them of a far higher nature If it were a crim in the Apprentices why do the Army the same thing If it were no Crime why doe they complain of Us for abetting and partaking with it wherefore We say that there is not the least colour or shadow of truth and doe every one of Us for Our selves respectively utterly deny it And for setting up a new Speaker the House of Commons did no more then what in all ages hath been their undoubted right to do in the case of want of a Speaker And as to the Ordinances and Votes then passed We should make a particular Answer thereunto but that by the Ordinance of the 20. of Aug. following they are made void and null in themselves which silences Us for the present For the fifth Article The holding correspondency ingaging and assisting the tumultuous Petitioners last Spring the rebellious Ins●●rections in Kent the revolted Ships and Prince of Wales and with the Scots Armie We do every one of Us for our selvel respectively denie the having any hand therein Having thus given Our Answers to those Five particulars wherein the necessity is assigned by which they endeauour to justifie their proceedings against Us Wee leave it to the judgment of their owne Consciences whether they doe not bear witnesse within them that in all these particulars they have groundlesly accused Us of those things of which they for the most part are guilty and know Us to be innocent In these we have used the more brevitie that We might be the more large upon the sixt Section of the Paper wherein they say That when the Army was dispersed and engaged in severall parts of the Kingdome in opposing the Enemies suppressing the troubles these men had raised and when many faithfull Members of Parliament were employed abroad upon necessary publique services and others through malignant tumults about the Citie could not with safetie attend the House then the corrupt and apostatizing party taking advantage of these distractions and diversions which themselves had caused first recalled in those Members c. then they recalled those Votes for non-addresses and Voted a Personall Treatie with the King To all which scandalous aspersions Wee Answer That they are altogether groundlesse if there were any reality in what they would here insinuate That the proceedings of this Treaty were not by the Concurrrence of the House but surrepticiously gayned by taking advantage of the absence of many faithfull Members Why doe they complaine then in other parts of their Paper That the Majorit●e of the House is corrupt and take paines to shew how the Majoritie of the House came to be formed to serve the King and other coreupt Interests or what necessitie was there for them to force the absence of two hundred Members of the House at 〈◊〉 for what i● done in this Treat●e if the complaint here be just that 〈◊〉 proceedings thereunto were through the absence of the Members that could not with safety attend the House and for the distractions in the Countries which they speake of It is manifest to all men that heard the cryes of the Countries at that time who in part occasioned those distempers even in the Countri●a neerest and best affected to the Parliament who never during the Warre exprest so high contempt to the authority of Parliament untill the like had bin first done by the Armies quartering upon and amongst them a little before And although the president was followed by Sea and Land almost to the ruine of Parliament and Kingdome yet those Members if they meane such as are imprisoned and secluded which they most uncivilly and nuchristianly requite with the reproach of Apostates were many of them imployed and did improve the utmost of their interests in La●cashire Yorkeshire Lincolneshire Heref●rdshire Hampshire Suffolke Essex London and Surrey and many other parts of the Kingdome to quiet distractions and oppose Insurrections which the extremity of the Armies proceedings had i● part occastioned We never judged Tumults nor Insurrections the way to Peace and Settlement And for the Charge of some of the eleven Members to have taken Commissious from the Prince W●lay and every of them for themselves affirming the Charge of their taking Commissions from the Prince or any other whatsoever by verieu of his Authority is a most malicious and scandalous asperstion They abhorring to deviate in the least from what their primitive engagements were which they have from first to last continued in and shall doe by Gods assistance notwithstanding all Calamnies cast on them or sufferings though to the utmost for so doing Having thus cleared the entrance to the Treatie from th●se prejudices laid in the way therunto We come to that Vote of the House Decemb. 5. That the Answer of the Ke●● to the Propositions of both Houses are a ●ound for the House to proceed upon for the settlement of the Peace of the Kingdome Of which they say that though they advanced hither to attend Providence for the opening some way to avoid the present evils designed and introduce the desired good into the Kingdome yee they said nor acted nothing in relation to the Parliament nor any Member thereof untill by that Vote passed Decemb. 5. they found the corrupt majority so resolvedly bent to compleat their Design in bringing in the King c. Doe they call their threatning Remonstrance sent to the House and the Declaration then published to explaine the meaning thereof divers dayes before this a saying nothing in relation to the Parliament and their Marching up to the Citie of London and Westminster with so many Regiments of the Army contrary to the Order of the House a doing nothing in relation to the Parliament By this it seemes the passing of this Vote is the very point of that necessity which they take to justifie all their present actings in relation to the Parliament For before that passed they say they acted nothing therefore We shall be more large upon this Subject We shall therefore first state the matter in difference betwixt the Propositions of the Houses and the Kings Answers As the Propositions to the King in the Isle of Weight contained in them all that security which the Houses have judged necessary to propose for themselves those that have adhered to them in the Warres and for the peace of the whole Kingdome so the King granteth all those Propositions in which the main security resteth viz. His Majestie granted the first Proposition for

either by their services as Souldiers for the Parliament or in their Committees or otherwise by imminent services or sufferings in their Cause gave a testimony of their faithfulnesse to the Parliament before they were elected which may free them from the name of Neuters and Malignants And it were not hard to shew that many Officers of the Army who came in upon the last Elections are chosen by those places where they were scarce known and wherein they have no interest of their own and by what other influence they obtained those Elections we leave it to themselves to judge 〈◊〉 whom it is best known and so come to the first of those six particulars wherein is assigned the extraordinary necessity to justifie their proceedings in their own words First The betraying of IRELAND into the enemies bands by recalling the Lord Lisle from his command there and putting the best part of that Kingdom and where the Parliament had the strongest footing Munster into the hands of Inchequin a native Irish man who hath since revolted from the Parliament hath lately united with the Irish Rebels and with them and Ormond again engaged with the King To which we answer That if Munster be that part of Ireland wherein the Parliament had the best interest the Lord Inchequin did come in himself and bring that interest to the Parliament whom he served against the Irish Rebels and preserved a possession in Munster for the Parliament during the heat of their Wars in England when they had little other interest in Ireland and lesse means to relieve them out of England That the Lord Lisle was not recalled from his command there but his Commission for Lord Lieutenant of Ireland expiring about the fifteenth of April 1647. his Lordship on the seventeenth of April took shipping for England After the Lord Lisles departure out of Munster the Lord Inchequin proceeded successively against the Rebels and took from them many considerable Forts and Castles the Garrison of Oramanagh Capp●quin the Town and Castle of Dungarvan the Castle of Calur and others And upon the fourteenth of November following at the battell of Knocknowes he obtained one of the greatest Victories that ever was gotten over the Rebels Army under the command of the Lord Taff wherein were taken of the enemies Horse two hundred slain of the Foot four thousand Officers taken prisoners sixty eight Arms fix thousand the Lieutenant generall slain For all which we refer the Reader to the Letters and Papers concerning these severall services presented to the House and by their Orders published in print These were such testimonies of his reality to the Parliament long after the Lord Lisles coming out of Munster that the House did not call it into question and nothing to the contrary appeared to the Houses untill the third of April 1648. The Army here having disputed the Parliaments Commands the Lord Inchequin began to enter into Remonstrances and engagements against the Parliament for which he made the Remonstrances Engagements and Declarations of the Army the Summer before both the Cause and President as by the Relation made to the House published in print doth appear We mention not these things in the least measure to justifie the Lord Inchequins revolt from the Parliament but have onely related the truth of the matter of fact for our own justification against the Charge in this Paper of betraying Munster and we leave to the Reader to judge whether the Army hath cause to complain of us or reflect upon themselves for the losse of Munster and proceed to the second particular viz. Their endeavours to bring in the King upon his own Terms without satisfaction and security to the Kingdom viz. upon his Message of the twelfth of May 1647. and to this end with so manifest injustice and indignity to di●band the Army before any Peace made or assured For the engagement of the twelft of May it is well known the House of Commons upon the first knowledge of that engagement voted it to be treasonable and afterwards both Houses by Ordinance of the seventeenth of December 1647. put 〈◊〉 inc●patity upon all those in or about the City of London that entred into or contrived acted or ●●etted that engagement of bearing any Office in the City of London for that yeer which we take to be a sufficient Evidence to prove us herein a right majority as in other parts of their Paper they take the Votes of the House to prove us a corrupt majority The Charge here lying onely in generall and not fixed upon any particular Yet for our further cleering besides the Testimony we have given against the bringing in the King upon any such tearms by our continued insisting upon far higher tearms to which the King hath agreed in the late Treaty we doe every one of us for our selves respectively professe our utter dislike of that engagement or any endeavour to bring in the King upon any engagement made or contrived without the House And for what is said concerning disbanding of the Army we say that the Votes of the House that eight Regiments of Foot four of Horse and one of Dragoons should be sent out of the Army to Ireland which was desired might be in one entire Body and their resolution to contain ten thousand Foot and five thousand four hundred Horse under the command of the Lord Fairfax for the necessary defence of the Kingdom as the state of affairs then stood in England and Ireland as it was to no such end as is alledged but for the relieving of poor distressed Protestants in I●eland the easing of the heavy pressures lying upon the poor people of this Kingdom and an honourable and fit imploying the Forces of that Army to prevent the high Distempers that since have ensued so as it was no injustice nor indignity to the Armie To the third Article viz. That they endeavoured to protect the eleven impeached Members from justice and endeavouring with them to raise a new War We say that as we desire no other protection then our own innocency and the Laws under which we live so we never gave any other protection to the eleven Members then what stood with Law and Justice And for the mislending of two hundred thousand pounds or the greatest part thereof which w●● designed chiefly for Ireland We say that about eighty thousand pound of that money was paid to Mast●●Nicholas Loftus and others for the service of Ireland and above fifty thousand pound to the Treasurers at Wa● for the Army which might with more reason be said to be misimployed in regard there is an establishment for their pay another way unlesse part of the Army had gone to do Ireland service for that money then what the Reformado Officers and Souldiers who obeyed the Orders of the House for disbanding who received pressed the more earnestly upon the House for part of their Arrears after their Declarations and Remonstrances by the Army for satisfying the Arrears of all