Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	house_n	king_n	peer_n	4,968	5	10.0923	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29572	Two speeches of George, Earl of Bristol, with some observations upon them by which it may appear whether or no the said Earl and others of the same principles, deserve to be involved in the common calamity brought upon Roman Catholicks, by the folly and presumption of some few factious papists.; Speeches. Selections	Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677.	1674 (1674)	Wing B4786; ESTC R11516	12,016	34

Two SPEECHES OF GEORGE Earl of BRISTOL With some observations upon them By which it may appear whether or no the said Earl and others of the same principles deserve to be involved in the Common Calamity brought upon Roman Catholicks by the folly and presumption of some few factious PAPISTS LONDON Printed in the year 1674 Reader BEing a Roman Catholick agreeing in principles with what George Earl of Bristol hath of late publickly declared of himself in Parliament I could hardly bear with patience the injurious censures and uncharitable constructions made of a speech of the said Honourable Persons in the House of Peers by divers of the same Communion though of a differing stamp in relation to Government They did their best to have it understood that the persecution which seem`d to threaten Catholicks had whetted that Earls wit to find out specious and plausible distinctions betwixt Catholick and Catholick whereby to exempt himself from the inconveniencies likely to fall upon the generality of that profession Distinctions which in them selves they said had no solid grounds of discrimination and that his sentiments express`d therein were adapted only to the present occasion The publishing of the said Speech in Print I thought wonld be a service to the Publick as well as a Justice to that Lord wherein his distinction of Catholicks of the Church of Rome from Catholicks of the Court of Rome will certainly appear a right and a reasonable one Concerning which if the Reader rest not satisfied but will needs descend to particular differences he is referred to a dedication of a book lately published in Print and directed to all Catholicks of His Majesties Dominions by one Peter Walsh a Franciscan Fryer wherein the chief imposals of the Court of Rome upon the more orthodox Doctrines of the Church of Rome are faithfully and learnedly exposed Now as to the second part of their detraction I thought the injuriousness of it could not better be made appear then by Printing also another Speech of the said Earls made to the House of Commons many years since wherein the self-same sentiments were eminently declared by him at a time when Roman Catholicks were as free from Alarums of any new persecution as ever they have been during any Session of Parliament A Speech of GEORGE Earl of BRISTOLS made to the house of PEERS at the First reading of the Bill against Popery upon Saturday the fifteenth of March 167 2 3 The King being then present My Lords I Am very sensible to what inconveniences a man of my perswasion exposes himself that offers to speak especially to break the Ice first to a Bill of this Nature brought up to you from the great representative of the Commons of England a Bill which those of my own profession may possibly think so severe and most Protestants so necessary If I speak for the passing of this Bill it is likely I may give scandal to the first and if I speak against the passing of it it is certain I shall give high provocation to the latter And if I speak for some parts of it and against some others I may have cause to fear that I may offend both sides the usual fate of those who affect to shew their subtilty by cutting a Feather as we say well my Lords so be it let what will befall me upon this occasion I shall still have within me a consolation above even the power of an Act of Parliament to take from me I mean the testimony of a good conscience of having discharged the duty of a Peer of this house in so eminent a conjuncture clearly and candidly according to the best of my understanding Yet still with most humble submission to the superiority of yours My Lords before I enter upon the matter give me leave to tell those Lords of my own Profession that hear me what I think their duty as well as mine if any of them shall think fit to speak in this house upon this occasion My Lords I do understand that how different so ever our sentiments are from your Lordships in point of Doctrine and questions spiritual we ought to lay the consideration of them all aside in this place and to speak in it not as Roman Catholicks but as faithful members of a Protestant Parliament And as such give a preferrence before all temporal interests of our own to the right interest of the State under whose protection we live resting confident that whatever part of our ease and conveniences in this world we shall willingly sacrifice to the Peace and security of our Countrey will one way or other be recompensed unto us by Almighty God either in this or in the other Now my Lords as to the rest of this most honourable assembly give me leave to remind you what kind of Catholick I told you the other day I am that is a Catholick of the Church of Rome not a Catholick of the Court of Rome A distinction if I am not much deceived worthy of your memory and reflection when ever any severe proceeding against those whom you call Papists shall come in question since Catholicks of the Court of Rome do only deserve that name My Lords I could easily make clear unto you the reality and the reasonableness of this distinction by instances in matter of opinion did I not think it always impertinent to trouble this house with points of controversie but I shall only take the liberty to evidence the justness of the distinction to you by a Personal instance Fra. Paulo my Lords who writ so shrewdly the History of the Counsel of Trent I am sure will never pass with any body that hath read him for a Catholick of the Court of Rome the artifices and abuses of which he hath exposed to the world in such lively colours and painted them out in Figures give me leave to say even bigger then the life and yet this Fra. Paulo my Lords dyed piously and devoutly a steady Catholick of the Church of Rome such as I trust God will give me the grace to do were I put to the bloodiest tryal such a Catholick my Lords I am and as such I make no doubt but I shall live to do Roman Catholicks more service and procure them more advantages from the comiseration of this Parliament then all the unquiet spirits or rabbi-busies of the Court of Rome And now my Lords I come to speak to the matter of this Bill which I shall do at this time generally and at large reserving my self as to perticulars till it be read by Paragraphs yet thus much I cannot forbear telling you now that there are some perticulars in this Bill as those of the Queens and Duke of Yorks domestick servants which while I have a tongue to speak and a right to use it here I shall ever oppose until I shall find my self bound up by your Lordships determination In the first place my Lords I beseech you to consider that this Bill for

thus clear'd without the least dentraction to His Majesty If undertaking for you Gentleman be a guilt t is only I that stand guilty before you but you are too noble I sure and too just to condemn me in your judgements before you have heard the nature and circumstances of my undertaking which with your leave I shall now deelare to you the full taking the matter as I needs must to be rightly understood from a higher original Mr. Speaker Having had the honour heretofore to discharge with approbation a place of so high trust as that of Secretary of State to His Majesties Father of blessed memory and himself And since my quitting that place His Majesty having had the goodness to admit me frequently to the happiness of his Princely conversation you cannot imagine but that sometimes he hath vouchsafed to speak with me of business especially of Parliament having the honour to be a Peer at present and heretofore as much vers'd as some of my contemporaries in the proceedings of the honourable house of Commons I confess unto you Gentlemen that before you last assembling he did it more then once And the thing wherein I most constantly delivered my opinion concerning this honourable house was That never King having been so happy in a house of Commons as he in you A house compos'd of so many Gentlemen of birth and fortune eminent in their faithfulness to him such as could never be suspected for any sinister designs or any dependance but upon the Crown and upon their duty to those that chose them and such as in the former sessions had manifested their affections to him by such large aids and supplies nothing could be more important to his service then to make and preserve you still popular with those that sent you To which end I took the liberty to tell him that if the necessity of his affairs of which I that had no part in his Counsell was no good Judge could admit of it he ought not in prudence to let you give him any money this sitting But rather obliege you wholly to apply your selves to the making of such Laws as might endear both him and you to the people and make them think all that had been given well bestowed by which means at another meeting he would be Master of the hearts and Purses of his subjects But that in case his necessities should urge him to press you hefore your rising for a new supply That he ought by all means to let it be accompanied if not preceded by some eminent Acts for reformation of a former abuses and for the securing his subjects from the like for the future I persisted Mr. Speaker in pressing upon all occasions this advice to His Majesty till some few weeks after your meeting when as finding my self I know not by what misfortune fallen under some prejudices I thought that a total forbearance from speaking to his Majesty of any business would be the usefullest way of serving him Aud I do here protest unto you Gentlemen with all sincerity that from that time until this business of Sir R. T. I never once opened my lips to his Majesty concerning any publique affair whatsoever It is true Mr. Speaker that a ground being given me to enter again with his Majesty upon a subject which my heart was still full of I laid hold upon the occasion and in pursuance of what I had said in behalf of Sir R. T. I told his Majesty perhaps with more freedome and fervour then became me that I feared his Courtiers gave him wrong measures both of the temper of the house of Commons and of the means to obtain new supplies from them whether by way of present gift or of such settlement in his revenue as might indeed bring him out of necessity since that there could be no reasonable hopes of obtaining any such assistance but by a concomitence at least if not a precedency of such Acts as might be grateful and beneficial to his Subjects and secure them that what should be given hereafter should be better managed for his service then those vast sums that had been formerly granted That if His Majesty in his Princely wisdom should think fit to drive on his business upon such solid grounds and not upon the false and self-intrested measures of some Courtiers he had a house of Commons composed of Members so full of affection to his Person and zeal for his prosperity and glory That not only Sir Richard Temple but the most unprejudiced and ablest Men in the Kingdom as well as my self durst undertake That such a house of Commons would neither let him want such present supplies as the true necessities of his affairs should require nor such an established revenue as was fit to support the greatness and honour of his Crown If this hath been a criminal undertaking you have before you Gentlemen Confitentem reum But Mr. Speaker whilst I am endeavouring to do right to Sir R T. and to vindicate or arraign my self before you according as you shall be pleased to understand it by telling you what passed from me to his Majesty I must not omit to give the honour due to him for the Kingly reply he made me upon that occasion which was this That he had a sense of the affection and merit of the house of Comons towards him even beyond what I had expressed and that was the reason why relying so intirely as he did upon the affections of that whole body he was and should ever be offended at any proposition to carry on his business there by officious undertakings and Cabals either of his Courtiers or others An expressiion fit to be written with the rays of the Sun that all the world may read it An expression which certainly cannot but inflame the affections of this noble assembly that hears me and carry you to make good those happy impressions of you which are so deeply stamp'd in his Royal breast such as I should think it a crime in mē to doubt But that all suspitions being now vanished of His Majesties owing the supplies desired to any arts or contrivances of others your own Zeal for his service will even in the proportion and timeliness of that exceed the vain proposals of all Pick thank undertakers Mr. Speaker I should here put a period to your trouble of hearing me did I not think I might incurr the imputation of much weakness and supineness in my own highest concernments if valuing as I do above all earthly things the savour and esteem of my Countrey of which you are the illustrious representative And knowing what industry has been used by my enemies to blast me with you I should not lay hold on this just occasion to remove from me unjust prejudices with so great an object of my ueneration 'T is that Mr. Speaker which I humbly beg leave to do in a very few words more I appeal Gentlemen to numbers of you that hear me whether I have