Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	england_n	lord_n	seal_n	2,973	5	8.8632	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88228	The opressed mans opressions declared: or, An epistle written by Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, prerogative prisoner (by the illegall and arbitrary authority of the House of Lords) in the Tower of London, to Col. Francis West, Lieutenant thereof: in which the opressing cruelty of all the gaolers of England is declared, and particularly the Lieutenant of the Tower. As also, there is thrown unto Tho. Edwards, the author of the 3 vlcerous Gangrænes, a bone or two to pick: in which also, divers other things are handled, of speciall concernment to the present times.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2149A; Thomason E373_1; ESTC R201322	33,049	40

Justice which the Law of England affords me which is all I crave or stand in need of no longer to wait upon the destructive seasons of prudentiall men but forthwith to make a formal Appeal to all the Commons of the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales and set my credit upon the tenters to get money to print 20000. of them and send them gratis to all the Counties thereof the ingredients of which shall be filled with the Parliaments own Declarations and Arguments against the King turned upon themselues and their present practise and with a little Narrative of my Star-chamber tyrannicall sufferings and those I haue there to complain of are first Dr. Lamb Guin and Aliot for committing me And 2. Lord-Keeper Coventry Lord privie-Privie-Seal Manchester that corruptest of men whose unworthy Son is now and hath been for some years the chiefe Prosecutor of my ruine for no other cause but that I have been honest valiant and faithfull in discharging the trust reposed in me which he himself was not my L. Newburgh old Sir Henry Vane a man as full of guilt as any is in England whose basenesse unworthinesse I shall anatomize to the purpose the L. chiefe Justice Bramston Judg Jones who sentenced me to the Pillory and to be whipt c. And then 3. Canterbury Coventry Manchester Bishop of London E. of Arundel Earl of Salisbury Lord Cottington L. Newburgh Secretary Cook Windebanke who sentenced me to ly in irons and to be starved in the prison of the Fleet With a short Narrative of my usage by Lords and Commons this present Parliament and conclude with a Declaration of what is the end wherefore Parliaments by law ought should be called which is to redresse mischiefes grievances c. but not to increase them 4. E. 3. 14. 36. E. 3. 10. to provide for the peoples weal but not for their woe Book Declar. 1. part pag. 150. and yet notwithstanding all the trust reposed in them and all the Protestations they have in their publique Declarations made faithfully without any private aimes or ends of their own to discharge it And notwithstanding all the bloud and money that hath been shed and spent at their beck and commands I would fain have any of them to instance me any one Act or Ordinance since the wars begun that they have done or made that is for the universall good of the Commons of England who have born the burthen of the day Sure I am they have made several Ordinances to establish Monopolies against the Fundamental Lawes of the Kingdom and thereby haue robbed free-men of their trades and liveli-hoods that at their command have been abroad a fighting for maintaining the Law and in practise annihilated Magna Charta and the Petition of Right So that a man though of their own Party may perish if committed by a Parliament-man or Parliament men hefore he can get the Judges to grant an Habeas Corpus to bring him and his cause up to their Bar there to receive a tryal secùndum legem terrae that is according to the Law of the Land although the Judges be sworn by their oathes to doe it So Sir desiring you seriously to consider of the premises which I could not conveniently send you but in print I rest Your abused Prisoner who is resolved to turn all the stones in England that lye in his way but he wil have right and justice against you JOHN LILBURN semper idem From my illegall and chargeable captivity in Cole-harbour in the Tower of London this 30 Jan. 1646. FINIS

other Presbyterian books licenced by publike authority and others sold without controule there be no more said to justifie and maintain that which Gangrena calles Vtopian Anarchy then in any bookes whatsoever published by these he calles Sectaries Thirdly whether or no that out of my own words in my booke called INNOCENCIE AND TRVTH JVSTIFIED there can any thing be drawn to justifie the Lords in that which now I condemn them in as Gangrena affirmes pag. 157 158. For the first see what the ninth Chapter of Magna Charta saith No freeman shall he taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his free hold or Liberties or free Customes or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed nor we will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawfull judgment of his PEERS or by the Law of the Land See the 3. of E. 1. ch 6. And that no City Borough or Towne nor any man be amerced wiithout reasonable cause and according to the quantity of his trespasse 9. H. 3. 14. that is to say every free man saving his freehold a Merchant saving his Merchandise a villain saving his waynage and that by his or their Peers Now here is the expresse Law of the Land against the Lords jurisdiction over Commons in criminall cases Now in the second place let us see what one of the ablest expositors of the Law that ever writ in England saith of this very thing and that is Sir Edward Cooke in his exposition of Magna Charta 2. part institutes which book is published by two speciall orders of the present House of Commons as in the last page thereof you may read who in his expounding the 14 Chapter of Magna Charta p. 28. saith Peers signifies Equalls and pag. 29. he saith the generall division of persons by the Law of England is either one that is noble and in respect of his nobility of the Lords House in Parliament or one of the Commons of the Realms and in respect thereof of the House of Commons in Parliament and as there be divers degrees of Nobility as Dukes Marquesses Earles Viscounts and Barrons and yet all of them are comprehended within this word PARES so of the Commons of the Realme there be Knights Esquires Gentlemen Citizens Yeomen and Burgesses of severall degrees and yet all of them of the COMMONS of the Realme and as every of the Nobles is one Peere to another though he be of a severall degree so is it of the Commons and as it hath been said of men so doth it hold of Noble-women either by birth or by marriage but see hereof Chap. 29. And in Chap. 29 pag. 46. Ibim he saith no man shall be disseised that is put out of ●eison or dispossessed of his freehold that is Lands or livelihood or his liberties or free Customs that is of such franchises and freedoms and free Customs as belong to him by his birth-right unlesse it be by lawfull judgment that is verdict of his equalls that is men of his own condition or by the Law of the Land that is to speake it once for all by the due course and processe of Law No man shall be in any sort destroyed to destroy id est what was first built and made wholly to overthrow and pull downe unlesse it be by the verdict of his equalls or according to the Law of the Land And so saith he is the sentence neither will we passe upon him to be understood but by the judgment of his Peers that is equalls or according to the Law of the Land see him page 48. upon this sentence per judicium Parium suorum and page 50. he saith it was inacted that the Lords and Peers of the Realme should not give judgment upon any but their Peers and cites Rot. Parl. 4. E. 3. nu 6. but making inquiry at the Record-Office in the Tower I had this which followes from under the hand of Mr. William Colet the Record-Keeper Out of the Roll of the Parliament of the fourth yeare of Edward the third THE FIRST ROLL Records and Remembrances of those things which were done in the Parliament summoned at Westminster on Munday next after the Feast of Saint Katherine in the yeare of the reigne of King Edward the third from the Conquest the fourth delivered into the Chancery by Henry de Edenstone Clerk of the Parliament THese are the Treasons Felonies Wickedensses The judgement of Roger de Mortimer done to our Lord the King and his people by Roger de Mortimer and others of his confederacie First of all whereas it was ordained at the Parliament of our Lord the King which was held next after his coronation at Westminster that foure Bishops foure Earles and six Barons should abide neere the King for to counsell him so alwayes that there may be foure of them viz. one Bishop one Earle and two Barons at the least And that no great businesse be done without their assent and that each of them should answer for his deeds during his time After which Parliament the said Roger Mortimer not having regard to the said assent took upon himself Royall power and the government of the Realm and encroacht upon the State of the King and ousted and caused to be ousted and placed Officers in the Kings House and else-where throughout the Realm at his pleasure of such which were of his mind and placed John Wyard and others over the King to espy his actions and sayings so that our Lord the King was in such manner environed of such as that he would not doe any thing at his pleasure but was as a man which is kept in Ward Also whereas the Father of our LORD the KING was at Kenilworth by ordinance and assent of the Peeres of the Land there to stay at his pleasure for to be served as becommeth such a Lord the sayd Roger by Royall power taken unto himselfe did not permit him to have any money at his will and ordered that hee was sent to Barkly Castle where by him and his he was traiterously and falsly murthered and slain But that which is to my purpose is Roll the second being the judgement of Sir Simon de Bereford which verbatim followeth thus THE SECOND ROLL ALso in the same Parliament our Lord the King did charge the said Earles and Barons to give right and lawfull judgement as appertained to Simon de Bereford Knight who was aiding and counselling the said Roger de Mortimer in all the treasons felonies and wickednesses for the which the foresaid Roger so was awarded and adjudged to death as it is a known and notorious thing to the said Peeres as to that which the King intends The which Earles Barons and Peeres came before our Lord the King in the same Parliament and said all with one voyce that the foresaid Simon was not their Peere wherefore they were not bound to judge him as a Peere of the Land But because it is a notorious thing and known to all that

that from thence-forth no person should be compelled to make any Loanes to the King against his will because such Loanes were against reason and the franchise of the Land and by other Lawes of this Realme viz 1. E. 3 6. 11. R. 2. 9. 1. R. 3. 2. it is provided That none shall be charged by any charge or imposition called a benevolence nor by such like charge by which the statutes before-mentioned and other the good lawes and statutes of this Realm your subjects have inherited this freedome that they should not be compelled to contribute to any taxe tallage aid or other like charge not set by common consent in Parliament All which the King confirmes And by the statute made this present Parliament that abolished Ship-money All and a very the particulars prayed or desired in the said Petition of Right shall from henceforth be put in execution accordingly and shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed as in the same Petition they are prayed and expressed yea in this very statute it is declared and enacted to be against Law for his Majesty upon any pretence what ever to levie money of the people of England without common consent in Parliament And truly sir let me tell you without fear or flattery that if your great Masters the Lords the true prerogative-friends of the house of Commons had any true and reall intentions to preserve the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of England or had any time to spare to punish those that justly and groundedly infringe them and doe as much as in them lies to destroy them from their weighty employment of dividing great and vast summes of the Common-wealths money amongst themselves without either doing justice and right in the like nature to any man breathing unlesse it be themselves or some of their sons kinsmen or near friends whose principles are to serve their ends to the breadth of a haire in all they enjoyn them they would scorn to give cause to be reputed so base and unworthy as they are to deny the King the power unto whom ever and anon they give such glorious and transcendent titles unto to levie and raise money without common consent in Parliament when they allow every paltery Jaylor in England to do it at his pleasure yea and for any thing I can perceive abet and countenance him in it for they will not nor have not done all this long Parlament any man any effectuall Justice against them that have complained of them but every man is crushed and in a manner destroyed that meddles any thing to the purpose with them I pray sir tell me whether this be to keep the Solemn League and Covenant which now is made a cloak for all kind of knavery and villanie which they and you took with your hands lifted up to the most high God and swore to maintain the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome But this I dare boldly tell you you never intended it as by your practises appears But sir in the second place I should desire to know of you the reason why Jaylors are so impudent and oppressive as they are and go so scot-free from punishment though often complained of as they do Truly for my part I am not able to render any more probable one then this That it may be some powerfull Parliament-man or men are sharers with them in their profits for as grose if not groser things are commonly reported yea printed of some of them See the 99 100 101 102 103 c. pages of the fore-mentioned book called Regall Tyrannie discovered and therefore must and do improve their interest and power to protect them in their knaveries and oppressions For within these few daies I was talking with an understanding knowing Gentleman that came to visit me and he told me he durst venture his life to make it evident to any rationall man in the world that there is one Goaler about this Citie that makes of his Prison above 20000 l a year and commits all manner of villanies and yet no Justice can be had against him though hee hath often and powerfully been complained against to the Parliament it self where he said he had more favour countenance and protection then the honest man that complained of him yea more then them all put all in one Now sir in the last place I come to acquaint you what monies I have paid since I came to the Tower for my Chamber-rent only the 10. of July last I came hither and you sent me to the Lodging where I am with extraordinarie strict and severe command upon my Keeper who within certain daies after I came to him demanded chamber-rent of me at a great deale higher rate then I pay and I told him necessitie had no law and I therefore desired him to ask me reasonably and he should see what I would say to him So at last he asked me 15. s a week I told him I knew well the lawes of all Prisons in England and 15. s a week was a great deale of money for bare Lodging but in regard it was with me as it was conditionally that hee for his part would use me and those my friends that should come to to see me with civilitie and humanitie I would give him 15. s a week and find my own linnen besides protesting unto him that the first time he used me or any that came to see me churlishly I would not pay him one peny more of money and I must ingenuously confesse I have no cause in the least to complain of the man in point of civilitie nor he of me in performing my promise for I have paid him though it hath been with some straights to me betwixt 20. and 30. l which I am now able no longer to pay And therefore I desire you according to your duty which by law you are bound unto to provide me a prison gratis for I professe unto you no more rent I can nor will pay though it cost me a dungeon or as bad for my pains And truly Sir I shall deale ingeniously with you and give you the true reason wherefore I condescended to pay chamber-rent at first and have done it so long It was because I had extraordinary potent adversaries to deale withall viz. the House of Lords or Peeres as they are called who had pretty-well managed their dealings with me like tyrants in keeping very strictly my friends from me and also pen ink and paper that so I was debarred of all ability in the world to publish to the view of the whole kingdome my own innocency and their inhumane and barbarous tyranny which they knew well enough I would doe if I had not been debarred of all meanes to doe it and then fell upon me and transcendently sentenced me to pay 4000. l c. and illegally and unjustly entred notorious crimes against me in their records And you know I told you at my first comming to the Tower I was refreshed at

but he that is ordained that is to say unlesse they be depending on the Bishops by Ordination or else on the Presbyters who are no Presbyters unlesse they depend on the Bishops for their Ordination for they have no other and what is this else but to punish every one that shal truly endeavour the true and reall performance of the Covenant Truly we have lived to a fine forsworn age that men must be punished and made uncapable to bear any office in the Kingdome if they will not take the Covenant And then if they do take it it shall be as bad if they will not forswear themselves every moment of time that the Assembly shal judg it convenient and the house of Commons vote it And truly there is in my judgment a good stalking-horse for this practise in the Assembly of Dry-vines alias Divines Deut. 32.32 33. Esa 44.52 Exhortation to take the Covenant in these words and if yet there should any oath be found into which any Ministers or others have entred not warranted by the Lawes of God and the Land in this case they must teach themselves and others that such Oaths call for rapentance not particularly in them that is to say that neither the Covenant nor any other Oath whatsoever that they have before or hereafter shall take binds them any longer then the time that they please to say it is not warrantable by the Lawes of God the Land and so by this Synodian Doctrine a man may take a hundred Oaths in a day and not be bound by any of them if he please Besides I would fain know if by the Parliaments so eager pressing of the Covenant they do not presse the hastening of many of their own destructions For by the Covenant every man that takes it is bound thereby to maintain and preserve the fundamental lawes of the Kingdome with us every day troden under foot by some of the members of both Houses arbitrary practices not onely towards Cavaliers for which they have some colour by pleading necessity but also towards those of their own party that have as freely and uprightly adventured their lives to preserve the lawes and liberties of the Kingdome as any of themselves for justice and right effectually they have scarce done to any man that is a suiter to them And therefore I here chalenge all the Members of both Houses from the first day of their sitting to this present houre to instance me that man in England that is none of themselves nor dependance upon themselves that they have done effectuall justice to though they have had thousands of Petitioners and Complainants for grand grievances before the Parliament some of which have to my knowledge even spent themselves with prosecuting their businesse before them and run themselves many hundred pounds thick into debt to manage their businesse before them and yet to this houre not one peny the better and yet they can finde time enough since I came prisoner to the Tower to share about 200000. l of the Common-wealths mony amongst themselves as may clearly be particularized by their owne newes bookes licenced by one of their own Clerkes O horrible and tyrannicall wickednesse Was a Parliament in England ever called for that end as to rob and poll the poore common people and to force those that have scarce bread to put in their mouthes to pay excise and other taxations or else to rob and plunder them of all they have and then share it amongst the members of both houses as 10000. l to one man 6000. l to another 5000. l c. to another and this many times to those that never hazarded their lives for the Weal-publique no nor some of thē never intended I am cōfident of it good to the generality of the people but that they should be as absolutely their vassals slaves if not more as ever they were the Kings O thou righteus and powerfull Judge of Heaven and Earth that of all the base things in the world hatest abhorrest dissemblers hypocrites Jer. 7.9 10 11 12. to 16. Matth. 23 deal with these the greatest of Dissemblers thy self who like so many bloudy and cruell men have ingaged this poor Kingdom in a bloudy and cruell war pretendedly for the preservation of their lawes and liberties when as God knowes by a constant series of actions they declare they never truly and really intended any such thing but meerly by the bloud and treasure of the people to make themselves tyrannicall Lords and Masters over them So that for my part if I should take the Covenant I protest it before the God of Heaven and Earth without fear or dread of any man breathing I should judge it my duty and that I were bound unto it in duty in conscience by vertue of my oath to do my utmost to prosecute even to the death with my sword in my hand every member of both houses that should visibly ingage in the destruction of the fundamentall Lawes Liberties of England and prosecute them with as much zeal as ever any of them prosecuted the King for tyrannie is tyrannie exercised by whom soever yea though it be by members of Parliament as well as by the King and they themselves have taught us by their Declarations and practises that tyrannie is resistable and therefore their Arguments against the King may very well serve against themselves if speedily they turn not over a new leaf for what is tyrannie but to admit no rule to govern by but their own wils 1 part col declar pag. 284 694. But Tho Gangrana one word more to you your threatning to write a book against liberty of Conscience and toleration of Religion I pray let me ask you this question if the Magistrate quatenus as Magistrate be Judge of the Conscience and thereby is indowed with a power to punish all men that he judgeth conceiveth or confidently believeth are erroneous and hereticall or because in Religion he differeth from the magisterial Religion in the place where he lives Then I pray tell me whether all Magistrates quatenus as Magistrates have not the very same power And if so then doth it not undeniably follow that Queen Mary and her Parliament did just in her dayes in making a law to burn those Heretiques that dissented from her established Religion who were as grose in their tenents in the then present Magistrates eyes as any of your Sectaries tenents are now in the present Magistrates eyes and if you and your bloody-brethren of the Clergy-Presbytery shal ingage the present Parliament and Magistracie to prosecute the Saints and people of God under pretence of heretical Opinions I wil upon the hazzard of my life justifie and prove it against you and the present Parliament that you and they thereby justifie Q. Mary in murdering and burning the Saints in her dayes yea and all the bloudy-persecuting Roman Emperors that caused to be murdered thousands of the Saints for bearing witnesse to the