at all So that it may be rather termed a Representative of the Free Corporations then a Representative of the Freeborn people of England The House of Commons therefore cannot be a Representative of the Freeborn people of England But suppose them the Representatives of the Freeborn people of this Nor the Supreme Authority of the Nation Nation yet cannot they be the Supreme Authority of it for no power can act beyond the power of its being I say therefore that no Representative can be supreme or superior to the cause of its being The House of Commons therefore cannot be granting it the Representative of the Freeborn people of this Nation the Supreme Authority of the Nation But if the house of Commons be not sent by the people and their Representatives Who creates them and by what right do they make a house of Commons Before we answer this Quaere wee will see of what sorts of men a house Of what sorts of men the house of Commons is compounded of Commons is compounded A house of Commons is compounded of three sorts of men viz. Knights of Counties Citizens sent by Cities and Burgesses of Corporations Barons of the Cinque Ports are the same thing differently expressed with Burgesses of Corporations Now that all Cities Burroughs Corporations and Cinque Ports are not so jure naturali nor by any inherent birthright but from their Charter which is nothing else but the Kings grant is so manifest that I think no man in his wits will deny But all Cities and Corporations are not alike in priviledges but more or less as they are impowred by their Charter or Grant of the King Some Corporations have Liberties Priviledges and are impowred to send Burgesses others have Liberties and Priviledges but not qualified to send Burgesses nay some Cities have Liberties and Priviledges but not endewed with this right of having Representative in the house of Commons as the Cities of Durham and Ely And as neither Cities nor Burroughs are endewed with these their Liberties What creates the house of Commons and Priviledges by any inherent birthright so neither are the Counties nor Inhabitants endewed with any right of sending Knights of their Counties by any inherent birthright for then had all the Counties a like right one as another and all the Inhabitans a like vote and they mighr create representatives as often as they should see occasion But all these are most evidently false for we have shewed before that not only the division of this Nation into Counties was an act of the Kings but all Counties are not alike endewed with this Priviledge some Counties in Wales sending but one and the County of Durham none at all Nor have all men a like vote in electing and yet as much subject to Laws made in Parliament as other men but men only who have 40 s. yearly freehold rent nor can these 40 s. a year men when they will send their representatives What then does impower these to send representatives Why let Sir Ed. Coke say Inst 4. p. 1. Knights of Shires Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Burroughs are respectively elected by the Counties Cities and Burroughs by force of the Kings Writ So that the Kings Writ is the first and efficient cause of the pag. 28. house of Commons as well of the Knights as Citizens and Burgesses the Commons cannot begin nor be dissolved without the King in person or representation If then Rebellion be as the sin of Witchcraft as the Holy Ghost saies Annot. and if crimen lesae Majestatis be the highest crime and impiety as all Lawyers hold and if Gratitude be one the chief of all Moral virtues as all men hold for si ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris no man who is an ingrateful man but has rendred himself as if he had committed all manner of wickedness How impious then is it for men only from the Kings grace endewed with this high favor to convert it in opposition and derogation of that power and person from whence they originally received it But they say if the Commons did it then was it done by the people and so just and not to be questioned as if the people were not a thing to be governed and all as much subject to the King and Laws as every one or that a thing just or unjust in it self were more just or unjust because more or fewer did it Will any man say the crucifying of our Saviour was therefore just because many of the Jews did it or that a rout or riot is therefore lawful because done by many men or that it is not paricide or regicide if many Sons and Subjects kill their Parents and King As all the Members of both houses are created by the King so cannot The Parliament cannot begin but by the King these Members be formed into a body but by the King either by his Royal presence or representation By representation two waies either by a Guardian of England by Letters Patents under the great Seal when the King is in remotis out of the Realm or by Commission under the great Seal of Inst 4. p. 6. England to certain Lords of Parliament representing the person of the King he being within the Realm in respect of some infirmity This House is so far from being the Supreme Authority of the Nation The Jurisdiction of the Commons House that they are not a Court of Judicature nor can impose an Oath or take any mans Examination Yet Sir Ed. Coke says Inst 4. 28. that the House of Commons is to many purposes a distinct Court because he says they cannot be prorogued or adjourned but by its self yet gives no more It is true indeed that to many purposes among themselves they do judge their Members and Elections and have a Committee for Religion but these things are more of custom whether good or bad I cannot tell then of any original right that I know or ever heard of And Sir Ed. Coke Inst 4. 11. says They being the general Inquisitors of the Realm have principal care in the beginning of Parliaments to appoint Committees of Grievances both in Church and Commonwealth of Courts of Justice of Priviledges and of Advancement of Trade They have been wont too ever since the Statute de Tallagie non concedendo of course to grant the King Aids in extraordinary cases The House of Peers assisted as aforesaid are the Supreme Court of The Jurisdiction of the House of Lords Judicature in this Nation not only to judge whether matters presented to them by the Commons be fit or requisite for the King to pass into Laws as Monsieur Bodin well observes who disputes this better then any of our English Lawyers that I know of has done but also of Writs of Error and of matters of Fact either not determinable in other Courts or else when though they are determinable in other Courts yet in regard of nicety or
Temporal Dominions and therefore may punish disturbers of the peace of the Church as well as the State Yet when the Temporal Magistrate shall arrogate to himself a power which our Saviour only left to his Church and make all Ecclesiastical rights and constitutions depending and subordinate to the Civil whereby the Enemies of our Church have taxed our Religion not for Christian but Parliamentary no doubt but it is a crying sin and I wish there had never been any such thing among us 19. And as God is to be obeyed before men in all things which concern Or the Laws of Nature Faith and Religion so in the observance of the Laws of Nature is God to be obeyed before men As if a King commands me to dishonor my parents this can be but a Humane law but to honor my parents is a law which God hath written in my heart and therefore ought to be preferred If a King commands his Subjects to dishonor him or to deny obedience to him this is but a Humane law whereas by the law of Nature I ought to honor and obey my King I therefore ought not to obey such a law Amurath the Second of that name King of the Turks upon a Vow resigned his Kingdom to his son Mahomet yet upon the League made by Uladislaus King of Pole and Hungary with other Christian Princes against him he resumed his Regal authority and so kept it until his death And so might Charls the Fifth if he had pleased nor was Philip any other then an Instrument of his Fathers during his Fathers life The King makes a Law giving the succession of the Crown from the right Heir This ought not to be received for Princes inherit by a higher Law then Humane 20. The King commands a Judge to pervert Judgment the Judge Or to pervert Judgment ought to give true Judgment for all Humane Laws in peaceable times ought to be â priori and proclaimed that all men after such a time should observe them This verbal command of the King wanting this formality and it being impossible for the Judge to observe both these commands he ought notwithstanding this verbal command to give Judgment according to Law The King when there is no necessity or publick danger commands me Quaere who am no publick Executioner without any Judicial sentence to put a man to death for which he can make no compensation As Davids commanding Joab to murder Uriah although we find David only reprehended and punished therefore yet sure if Joab had not fulfilled Davids wicked command he had not sinned But you may object Who shall judge whether this thing commanded be repugnant to Gods Majesty Mans faith Religion or the Law of Nature the King or the Subject I say though the Subject hath not an equal right of judging with the King whether this thing should be a Law or not yet every Subject hath a Conscience as well as the King which must dictate Whether Kings divest themselves of Regality by commanding what they ought not to him whether he ought to do or not to do such a thing 21. But if the King commands things contrary to Gods Majesty and Divine Laws ought he not to be obeyed in those things which do not contradict them It is so mad and wild an objection as it is scarce worth an answering unless a man will affirm that my doing of an act which I ought not to have done does divest me of Humane nature or that a Fathers or Masters commanding his Son or Servant what he ought not doth annihilate the relations of Father and Son Master and Servant or that Humane acts may dissolve Humane relations A Prince therefore ought to be obeyed in those things which he ought to command as Prince although he command such things as he ought not 22. It may be it will be objected That Temporal punishments being Though inflicting punishment for not observance the usual concomitants for not observing Humane Laws a good and conscientious man may be punished for what he ought not to have done I say his case is the same with his Lords and Saviours and all those blessed and glorious primitive Christians and Martyrs who suffered for the testimony of a good conscience Nor hath God made Heaven so easie a prize that it should be always won easily and delicately but many times by suffering and martyrdom 23. It is the most usual thing with seditious men before they enter Whether Princes ought to be resisted where they are not to be obeyed into open sedition to prepare mens mindes with certain Cases wherein Princes commanding things derogatory to Gods Honor or the Subjects Liberty that then in the preservation of themselves and Gods honor they ought to defend themselves from the raging Tyrannie of Princes and to be sure that whatsoever they command these good men will judge contrary to Gods Honor and the Liberty of the Subject It is worth the while if a mans patience will give him leave to look back upon the thing calling it self Parliament how after they had made the King grant whatsoever they could think might be beneficial to the Subjects though I might be sworne they never intended as plainly appeared afterward the good benefit or liberty of the Subject what pious ways they invented to make themselves great and so good a Prince nothing and odious to his Subjects As the demanding of six men holding intelligence with his Subjects who had been in open hostility and rebellion against him an affront not to be endured by any King to an ordinary and Legal Trial this was not only denied but Voted a Breach of the Priviledge of Parliament whenas the Priviledge of Parliament extends not to so much as breach of the Peace much less to Treason They pretend though most falsly that in case of extreme danger and necessity the Militia is in the Parliament meaning themselves excluding the King And then create Dangers and write Letters how great Fleets of Danes Swedes Hollanders c. were seen at Sea It must be from Westminster then for there were the Letters written and the Fleets never since heard of Then permit if not command the most insufferable affronts and indignities that ever were offered to Majesty yet if the King but offers to increase his Guard this is Voted no less then a raising of War against his Parliament and Subjects whilst all the while against the Lex consuetudo Parliamenti Inst par 4. 14. without any cause moving them they maintain an illegal Rout of men for their Guard and go armed themselves Nay what needs a man instance particulars All the Kings commands in prosecution of the Laws were Voted breaches of the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties of the Subject We will therefore shew that this Assertion is not only contrary to all Faith in both Testaments but also destructive to all Humane Society 24. There is no man sure will deny but
came under one Monarch or King again for the Royal dignity of a Monarch or King from whence all subordinate dignities tanquam lumen de lumine are derived without any diminution will suffer no division Regia dignitas est indivisibilis quaelibet alia derivativa dignitas est similiter indivisibilis The most woful event that fell out in this Kingdome when Gordobug divided this Kingdom between his two Suns Ferrex and Porrex and what heavy event came to pass untill it was reduced again under one Monarch let our Histories tell you and letting pass others I cannot overpass the miserable estate within this Kingdom under the Heptarchy untill all was reunited under one Soveraign and this is the reason that in England Scotland and Ireland the Royal dignity is descendible to the eldest daughter or sister Sir E. Coke Inst 4. 243. c. Regia dignitas est indivisibilis 2. Of these Governments Monarchy is the best as appears by reason by How many ways Monarchy is the best Government the consent of the world by the institution of God and his commanding obedience only to this Government and by woful experience 3. Monarchy in reason is the best Government for the dignity and Monarchy is the best Government in reason majesty of one man is more easie to be maintained then of many The ills that follow from bad Monarchs are no worse than what do and alwaies did happen from the best of humane Laws viz. mischiefs to particular men Nor can the mischiefs which happened to Silus Sabinus Sillanus c. who not well brooking the powers of Tiberius and Caligula Emperors as bad as who were worst had been over lavish of their tongues in vilifying the power of the Caesars and magnifying that of the Senate and probably had they been able would have advanced the power of the Senate to the abdication of Caesars be compared with the inconveniences which came upon the Senate and people of Rome in those times of Silla and Marius of Caesar and Pompey Besides factious and discontented persons cannot hope for that encouragement in their designs where the supreme power is in one individual person as where it is compounded of many The freedome and liberty of the Subject is more under one then more for it is easier to obey one then many The common people of Rome never enjoyed so much liberty as under the Emperors and therefore when after the death of Caligula the Senate endeavored to restore Rome to her antient liberty as they Sueton. in vita Claud. cap. 10. called it and extinguish the name and power of the Caesars and to that end had seised upon the Capitol they aided by the Preterian coherts continued the power of their Emperors in Claudius and the day and night wherein the Senate would not receive him was the cause of much trouble which Josephus notes l. 19. c. 30. 4. By the consent of the world for every where in the known world By the consent of the world before 1641. either in Europe Asia Africa or America over Christians Mahumetans and Infidels except the State of Venice the usurped power of the Cantons in Switzerland the State of the Neatherlands the Hans-towns Genoa and Geneva who seek protection of the Emperor and Kings of France this Government is established 5. By God himself for he never instituted any Government either in By Gods owning it only Priesthood Judges or Kings but only this nor commands obedience to any other Can a man touch the Lords anointed and be guiltless 1 Sam. 26 9. And submit your yelves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreame c. St. Pet. 2. 13. Feare God honor the King And I counsel thee to keep the Kings commandments and that in regard of the oath of God And therefore what thing an Unite is in numbers the Minde in the faculties of the soule a Centre in a circle the same is God the most omnipotent King in the world simple in unity indivisible in nature most holy in purity placed by an infinite interval far remote above the fabrick of the highest Heaven joyning this perspirable region with the celestial and intelligible keepes and preserves from ruine as by a secure care the whole universe framed and compounded in such admirable order and harmony to whose great example ought every good King who is the Unite the minde and centre of his kingdome that hopes to govern and preserve his subjects not only safe but honest and happy wholly to betake himself 6. By woful experience I do not find any mans life except the destitute and deposed Princes Arthur Ed. 2. Rich. 2. Hen. 6. and his sonne By wofull experience Ed. 5. and his brother herein and in many other things doubtless more unhappy then private men and the Duke of Clarence after conviction and attainder thought by the consent of Ed. 4. to be drowned in a Butt of Malmsey and Cromwell Earle of Essex condemned and executed unheard in Parliament see a remarkable passage herein by Sir Ed. Co. Insti 4. fo 37. 38. Queen Katherine fifth wife to H. 8. Mary Queen of Scots and the Earl of Strafford or estate taken away by any of the Kings of England for these last 500 years in an extraordinary and extrajudicial manner If the dissolution of the Abbies by Hen 8. be objected I answer it was usual in Parliament to alter many things in the Common law as the statute de donis conditionalibus made a great alteration in the Common law for before all estates which were not for life and under were either in fee absolute or conditional and so the Statutes which gave power of entry where before no remedy was to be had by Common law but by a Cui in vita And to Jointenants to compell others to sue a Writ of partition c. In case of life the ordinary way of trial was by Peers the Nobility by the Nobility and the Commons by the Commons but a Parliament being a body compounded of heterogenial and dissimilary parts viz. King Lords and Commons could not be Peers to any man which was the usual way of Trial with us neither were the Estates so taken from Abbots c. but that they enjoyed them or a full value in lieu of them during their lives so that by this act no wrong was done to any man living Yet it is true which Sir Ed. Co. saies in his Comment upon Magna charta chap. 1. Quod datum est Ecclesiae datum est Deo what was given to the Church was given to God which by the Law of God Numb 16 37 38. is unalterable nor can be be employed to any profane or common use So that I am confident I may safely affirm that the Subject in seaven years under the Long Parliament suffered extraordinarily and extrajudicially five hundred times more then all their Ancestors in 500 years before did
this opinion are all Christian Princes made in a worse condition then Infidel or Mahumetan and subject to the Spiritual powers in their Temporal jurisdiction But mutato nomine a new generation of men have sprung up and changed Bonum temporale sequitur in ordine ad bonum spirituale into The wicked have no right to their goods and It is lawful for the children of Israel to rob the Egyptians 11. The King is greater then the Singulars and less then all his Subjects Rex major singulis c. is a seditious opinion is a Fools bolt shot at such random that it is not worth the measuring whether it be near the mark or not For not only all Subjects owe their obedience as much as every one but never was any Prince universally rejected or disobeyed by his Subjects 12. See Sir Ed. Coke 3. par Inst pag. 9. On si homme leva guerre encontre That Subjects may upon any prerence levy war without consent of the Supreme power a seditious opinion See Calv. case 11 12. nostre Seignieur le Roy This was High Treason by the Common Law for no Subject can levy War within the Realm without authority from the King for to him it only belongeth And a little after If any levy War to expulse strangers to deliver men out of prisons to remove Councellors or any other end pretending Reformation of their own heads without warrant this is a levying of War against the King because they take upon them the Royal authority which is against the King 13. Let no Prince ever hope for obedience from his Subjects who Negligence in the worship of God takes no care that God be duly served by them For where the fear of God is not men will not honor their King but are disposed to sedition 14. Honor is nothing else then the estimation of anothers power Contempt of the Regal power disposes men to sedition viz. That a man hath power to protect reward and punish another And prudent Princes ought so to maintain the reputation of this in their Subjects that it may be received and believed of all For besides that ill men will where there is no fear of punishment become more licentious generally all men ambitiously where they are not restrained by fear desire to insult over their Superiors Aesop gives an Item of this last in the Fable of the Logg which Jupiter gave the Frogs for their King when they became fearless of it every one jumped insultingly upon it And examples of the former are clearly seen in men who condemned for offences to death they penitently acknowledge their faults and desire forgiveness of that Power that puts them to death whereas scarce any offender fearless of punishment did ever submit and ask forgiveness for it Princes therefore ought principally to take care how either by their vices remiss Government or otherwise they make their persons or power contemptible for when power is contemptible the exercise of it is never permanent 15. If the Age tends to worse and men of this latter Age have been Concessions of Princes to their Subjects disposes them to sedition worse then in the precedent as men generally hold and if Princes power in Ages when Mankind did not so fast degenerate into all forbidden wickedness were not sufficient at all times to restrain the seditions and disorders of their Subjects then is it a most unreasonable thing in Princes to indulge this ambitious desire of their Subjects by granting them liberties and priviledges which they had not before And if any man can shew that ever any where in the world Princes did make their Subjects better by granting them a more then usual liberty but only made them more arrogant to demand more until their Majesties and Authorities became so contemptible that in stead of governing their Subjects they must be content to have what terms their Subjects please to impose upon them or to reject them which in the end they will assuredly do I will be content to believe Princes do prudently by granting to their Subjects all their real Prerogatives and retaining only or some small matter more then the empty Title 16. It is not only the office of a Prince that good Laws be made but If Laws be not carefully executed that they be carefully put in execution There is no man who does not will and desire to be happy but few men who are daily sollicitous and industrious to attain to happiness It is the part of foolish men only to will and wish but the part of prudent men to do wisely A man shall see it in a family where the Master only commands and never looks to the doing that in a short time though he commands much he will have little performed And where Subjects have gotten a licentious habit of neglecting or transgressing Laws it will prove a hard thing to reclaim them whereas they might have been easily preserved in their obedience by careful execution of the Laws 17. There is nothing more dangerous in Church or State then Innovation Alterations of Laws It is therefore the most secure way of governing when mens manners and vices do not require new Laws by the antient and received Laws of a Nation This will secure the Prince from the imputation of Tyranny he may better hope to preserve a strong house built upon a sure foundation then by destroying it to undertake to build another which he either knows not how to finish or having built it cannot hope it will be better then the other or cannot tell whether it will be of any continuance but falling will overwhelm him in the ruine of it Besides the Subjects from the example of their Prince will become studious of innovation and censure whatsoever Laws he prescribes in lieu of the old ones Those he gives if they please one will displease another it will be the only talk of the City Country and Market If he punish any opposer for it is not possible but disadvantage will be to many and the loser will speak he shall by all his faction be cried up for a Martyr and Patriot of his Country and Laws It will make Subjects diffident of their condition and fearful that having Property by the old Laws they shall lose all by new ones Yet there is nothing in this world can secure men and make their condition permanent For what is usually objected by seditious men against their Prince viz. the invading and not suffering freeborn Subjects to have the benefit of their antient Laws and Customs was imputed a crime to our late King who was persecuted by his own Subjects because he adhered to the known and received Laws of the Land for after the year 1642. there was not any Petition presented to the King by one or both Houses of Parliament but was against the established Laws of this Nation But no question it was not the Kings adherence to the Laws but the iniquity
in the regencie of the Queen mothers Blanch the mother of St. Lewis of Francis the second Charles the ninth Lewis the thirteenth and Lewis the fourteenth 20. Neither have the French better observed the other part of the It has been ill observed by the French Salique Law for the descending of the Crown to the heirs male for Pepin having put King Childerick into a Monastery had not any colour of title but as he was chosen by the Parliament of Paris so that it seems the Parliament of Paris may do what the King and general Assembly cannot and alter the most fundamental constitutions of France which forsooth at other times are immutable and Hugh Capet to make his title good against Charles of Lorrain the right Masculine heire of Pepin did derive his pedigree from one of the daughters of Charlemain son of Pepin Nor could Lewis the ninth a most religious Prince be resolved in conscience till he was satisfied that by his Grandmothers side he was descended from the right heirs of Charles of Lorrain But I wonder with what face these Frenchmen can urge the Salique Law against others and yet practise the contrary themselves For Charles the eight having married Anne the Dutchess of Brittain and by that title possessed the Dutchy by whom he had Claude married to Francis the first who had issue Henry the second who had issue Francis the second Charles the ninth Henry the third and Hercules Elizabeth married to Philip the second of Spain and Margaret married to Henry the fourth Now Francis Charles Henry and Hercules dying without issue legitimate I would know how against the Salique Law Charles and his posterity should have a title to Britain and yet King Philip and his posterity be debarred of it by vertue of this pretended Salique Law CHAP. III. Of the Municipal Laws of England before 1640. 1. TEmporal or Secular Laws are made to preserve men so long as Of Temporal Laws and incidently of the Municipal Laws of this Nation they live in this world in unity and peace one with another and these do not bind in conscience only but injoyn corporal and pecuniary mulcts for not observance or transgressing them The Municipal Laws of this Kingdom are either the Common Law which are general usages of that long continuance that they have quite lost their prime institution That they were not brought in by the Conqueror is most evident Common Law or Generall usage for the Conqueror swore to observe the good approved and antient Laws of this Kingdom and that the Subjects might the better observe Proem 8. part of Sir Ed. Cokes Reports their duty and the Conquerors Oath he caused twelve the most discreet and wise men in every shire throughout all England to be sworn before himself that without swerving either ad dextram or ad sinistram they should declare the integrity of their Laws without concealing adding or in any sort varying from the truth and Aldreb the Archbishop that crowned him and Hugh the Bishop of London by the Kings commandement wrote that which the Jurats had delivered and these by Publick Proclamation he declared to be authentick and under grievous punishment to be inviolably observed And that 441 years before the incarnation of Christ Mulumutius of Preface 3. report some called Dunvallo M. of some Dovebant did write two Books of the Laws of the Britans the one called Statuta Municipalia and the other Leges judiciariae which is as much as to say the Statute-Law and Common-Law And 356 years before our Saviour Mercia Proba Queen and wife of King Gwintclin wrote a book of the Laws of England in the British tongue calling it Marchenleg King Alfred or King Alured King of the West-Saxons 871 years after Christ wrote a book of the Laws of England calling the same Breviarum quoddam quod composuit ex diversis legibus Trojanorum Graecorum Britanorum Saxonum Danorum In the year after our Saviour 653. Sigabert or Sigisbert Orientalium Anglorum Rex wrote a book calling it Legum instituta King Edward of that name the third before the Conquest ex immensa legum congerie quas Britanni Romani Angli condiderunt optima quaeque selegit ac in unam coegit quam vocari voluit Communem legem But whether these latter were the Laws which are now used in England under correction may be question made because the Authorities cited are from such obscure and uncertain Authors that no great credit is to be given to them nor are those Books except Alfreds and Edwards which are obsolete and out of use with us and so have been these 600 years any where to be found whereby it may appear that they have any affinity with the Common-Law But it does most certainly appear out of most authentical Records that time out of mind before the Conquest there had been Sheriffs for the Writ of Assise and every other Original Writ to whom they were directed except to the Coroner in special cases who stands in place of the Sheriff and for Trials by the Oath of Twelve men and that the Writs of Assise and other Original Writs were retornable into the Kings Courts and that there had been a Court of Chancery for all Original Writs to issue out and none other and that those Mannors that were in the hands of S. Edward the Confessor are to this day called Ancient Demesne All which does more copiously and fully appear in this Proeme to the Third Part of the Reports And that the Chancery Kings Bench Common Pleas the Exchequer be all the Kings Courts and have been time out of memory of man so as no Proem Rep. 8. man knows which of them is antientest Afterward in the Proeme to the Ninth Part of his Reports out of the Mirror of Justices which treats how the Land was governed almost twelve hundred years since having spoken of the Courts of Parliament Chancery Kings Bench Common Pleas and the Exchequer he descends to the Justiciarii Itinerantes or Justices in Eire The Kings do right to all men by their Justices Commissioners itinerant assigned to have Conusance Justices Itinerant sec 6. of all Pleas. In aid of such Eires the Sheriffs Turns and View of Frankpledges are necessary c. Then he treateth of the Sheriffs Turn That the Sheriffs of antient Sheriffs Turn sec 7. Ordinance do hold general Assemblies twice a year in every Hundred whither all the Freeholders within the Hundred are bound to come by the service of their Feifs or Fees that is to say once after Michaelmas and another time after Easter c. Leets or Courts of View of Frankpledge are Assemblies ordained Leets or view of Frank-pledge sec 8. once a year not only of Freeholders but of all in the Hundred as well Denizens as others except Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors and all Religious people and Clerks Earls Barons Knights Married women Persons dumb and deaf diseased Bastards and Lepers and
those that are Deciners elswhere to enquire of the offences personal and of all the circumstances of offences done in those Hundreds of the wrong done by the Kings or Queens ministers and of the wrong done to the King and the Commonalty But this ought not to be done by Bondmen or Women but by the Oath of Twelve Freemen The County-Court which the Sheriffs hold from moneth to moneth County-court sec 9. or from five weeks to five weeks according to the greatness or largeness of the County Of Court-Barons and Hundred Courts Court-Baron c. sec 10. The other mean Courts are the Courts of every Lord of the Fee c. Pipowders sec 11. Courts of Pipowders And that from day to day speedy Justice be done to Strangers in Fairs and Markets as of Pipowders according to the Law of Merchants Court of Admiralty The King hath soveraign jurisdiction upon Admiralty sec 12. the Sea Courts of the Forrest The Kings Ministers of his Forrests have Courts-Forest see 13. power by authority of their office to swear men without the Kings Writ for safeguard of the peace and the Kings right and the common good c. He treats of the Professors of the Law as Counters who are Serjeants and Pleaders Of Attornies Of Ministers of Justice as Viscounts Coroners Escheators Bailiffs of Hundreds c. And also by the antient Kings Coroners were ordained in every County and Sheriffs to keep the Peace when the Earls were absent from their charges and Bailiff in lieu of the Hundredors c. Of the Prerogatives of the King as of Deodands Alienation to Aliens Teeasure found Wreck Waif Estray Chattels of Felons and Fugitives Honors Hundreds Soakes Gaoles Forrests chief Cities chief Ports of the Sea great Manors These held the first Kings as their right and of the residue of the Land did enfeoff the Earls Barons Knights Serjeants and others to hold of the King by Services provided and ordained for defence of the Realm It was ordained that the Knights Fee should come to the eldest by succession of heritage and that Socage Fee should be partable between the Male-children and that the Liege-Lords should have the Marriage He treateth in the first Chapter of Crimes and their divisions of the crime of Majesty of Fausonnery of Treason of Burning of Homicide of Felony of Burglary of Rape c. In the second of Actions of Judges of Actors c. In the third of Exceptions dilatory and peremptory that is Pleas to the Writ and in Bar c. of Trial by Juries and by Battel of Attaints of Challenges of Fines c. In the fourth of Judgments and therein of Jurisdiction of Process in criminal causes and in Actions real personal and mixt So as in this Mirror you may perfectly and truly discern the whole Body of the Common Laws of England Thus far Sir Edward Coke Mr. Lambert in his unfolding the difficult things and words in his translation of the Saxon Laws says King Alured when he had made a League with Guthrun the Dane having followed the most prudent counsel given by Jethro to Moses first divided England in Satrapias Centurias Decurias He called Satrapiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to divide He called Centuriam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Decuriam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a company of Ten men and by those names they are called to this day And that no man might be ignorant the Decuria did consist of Ten men whereof all of them were pledges that every one should be forth-coming to any Action in Law and if any one did any damage the other were bound to make it good and from hence the other nine were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Free-pledges we in the Pleas of Courts call them Francos plegios The tenth man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called the Decurio or Tithingman by which name he is most known to the Eastern English at this day Others call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the first or chief Surety or Pledge The Kentish men call him Borsholder corruptly for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the first Surety Centuria or a Hundred was made up of ten Decuria's as one Hundred is made up of ten times ten This viz. Hundred the men beyond Trent called by another name not unknown to the common people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wapentac Alured then further ordained That every man of free condition should be enrolled in some Hundred and be conjoined into some Ten-men company That of lesser businesses the Decurions or Court-Leet might judge and if any weightier matter were it should be deferred to the Hundred or County-Court Lastly that the Alderman and Sheriff I take it he calls them Senator Praepositus should compound the most difficult Suits and of greatest moment in that frequent Convention from all parts of the Shire or County And what the manner of judging was King Etheldred in the fourth Chapter of his Laws which he enacted in a full Senate or Parliament at Vanatnigum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Woodstock expounds almost in these very words In all and every Hundred let there be Assemblies and that Twelve elderly men of free condition together with the Sheriff Praeposito be sworne that they will not condemn the Innocent or absolve the Guilty So that Mr. Lambert seems to be of opinion that the common-Common-Law had its origination from King Alured or Alfred who was King of all England and a most victorious pious prudent and glorious Monarch about the year of our Lord 890. And from a most deplorable condition by reason of the Danish invasion and robbery reduced it to a most quiet calm and laid that foundation upon which the body of the Common-Law is since builded But whosoever was the first Founder and Establisher of them certain it is they were antient and Laws which better suit to the nature and disposition of English-men then any other that are or ever were in the world would do 2. As those general Usages or Customs which are generally observed Particular Usages are called the Common-Law so there are almost infinite particular Usages Prescriptions and Customs in several parts of this Nation which are observed as Laws by the Inhabitants of those places and to all intents and purposes have the effect of Laws 3. statute-Statute-Laws are Acts of Parliament which are neither general statute- statute-Statute-Law nor particular Customs but are Laws made by the Kings of this Land in Parliament upon sundry and diverse occasions according to the then occasions as they represented themselves For although all innovations are dangerous and therefore if it were possible no doubt it were best that humane Laws as the Laws of Nature might be immutable and eternal but as God hath created all things transitory and nothing in this world the same the next
special matter they cannot well discern or judge I have therefore been particular herein as well to shew into what cause Annot. not only both Houses conjunctly but every particular Member in either have a right of being as also since Non datur progressus ad infinitum the Parliament being a body compounded of heterogenial or dissimilar parts if they sever or divide into what Subjects may ultimately with good conscience resolve their faith and obedience And no question it is better any thing should be Law then that every thing should be lawful And that is the greatest slavery where Subjects know not where to pay their obedience and from whence to expect protection but where different Factions shall with equal right or injury impose their lusts and wills for Laws to their Fellow-subjects The Jurisdiction of Parliament is so transcendent that it maketh inlargeth The Jurisdiction of Parliament diminisheth abrogateth repealeth and reviveth Laws Statutes Acts and Ordinances concerning matters Ecclesiastical Capital Criminal Common Civil Martial Maritime and the rest It may make Daughters and Heirs apparent of a man or woman during the life of the Ancestor Com. Lit. 110. adjudge an Infant or Minor of full age attaint a man of Treason after his death it may Bastard a Child that is Legitimate it may make a Bastard Inst 2 par 36. Legitimate A Parliament was called before the Conquest Michael Sinoth Michael By what other names called Gemote Ealsa Witenage Mote that is to say the Great Court or Meeting of the King and of the Wise men sometime of the King with the Council of his Bishops Nobles and wisest of his people The French call it Les estates and L'assemble des estates the Parliaments in France are no other Inst par 1. 110. a. then our Courts of Kings-Bench Common-Pleas Exchequer and Chancery in England The Germans call it a Dyet And Inst 4. p. 2. it was antiently called Witenage mote Conventus sapientum Commune concilium regni Generale concilium regni Concilium regni Assisa generalis Tully calls it Consessum Senatorum à considendo c. Object But it may be it will be objected That though the King be principium caput finis Parliamenti and that every Member as well as both Houses have their original right and sitting there from him and that though Laws of right ought to pass in Parliament at the rogation request or petition of the Commons by the counsel and advice of the Lords yet the Kings of the Nation have long since divested themselves of this power and have granted the Lords and Commons a concurring power in the making of Laws or by custom and usage it hath been so time out of mind and so ought to be observed as a Law To the first I say Kings reign by a higher then any humane law and Ans 1 therefore no act of any King can divest himself or successor of any attribute due to him or his successor And if Kings actions did oblige themselves or successors then were this Crown not free but subject to the Pope because King John made it so But I deny the assertion for it is false that ever any King of this Realm did ever grant the Parliament or either House a concurring power of making Laws with him For the second No usage prescription or custom can take place Ans 2 where there are records or proofs to the contrary Whether we cannot give proofs enough to the contrary judge good Reader David's calling all the Lords of Israel the Lords of the Tribes the Lords of the Companies that ministred to the King by course the Captains over thousands and over hundreds and the Lords that had the oversight over all the substance and possession of David and of his sons with the Chamberlains and all the mighty and all the valiant and all the active men unto Jerusalem to consult concerning the building of God a house 1 Chron. 28. 1 2. was a Parliament So was that Convention of Solomon's Inst 4 par 3. Ibid. 2 Chron. 2. and that Convention of the Israelites Judg. 20. 11. Ego Inas Dei gratia Westsaxonum rex exhortatione doctrina Cenredes patris mei Heddes episcopi mei Erkenwaldes episcopi mei òmnium Aldremannorum meorum Seniorum sapientum regni mei multaque congregatione servorum Dei sollicitus de salute animarum nostrarum statu regni mei constitui rectum conjugium recta judicia pro stabilitate confirmatione populi mei benigna sedulitate celebrari nullo Aldremanno vel alicui de toto regimine nostro conscripta liceat abolere judicia was an Act of Parliament Proem par 9. Reports Edwardus rex admonuit omnes sapientes suos qui fuerint Exoniae ut investigarent simul quaererent quomodo pax eorum melior esse possit quà m ante fuit was an Act of Parliament by Edward King Alfreds son Ibidem Haec sunt instituta quae Edgarus rex consilio sapientum suorum instituit were Acts of Parliament Ibidem Hoc est consilium quod Etheldredus rex omnes sapientes sui condixere ad emendationem pacis omni populis apud Woodstock Haec sunt verba pacis prolocutionis quae Etheldredus rex omnes sapientes ejus cum exercitu firmaverunt qui cum Anulano Justino Guemundo Stigrani filio venit Et haec instituerunt Etheldredus rex Sapientes ejus apud Habam were Acts of Ibidem Parliament Edmundus rex congregavit magnam Synodum Divini ordinis Seculi apud Londonum civitatem in Sancto Pasch solenni hae sunt institutiones quas Ed. rex episcopi sui cum sapientibus suis instituerunt apud Culinconam c. paulo post Ego Edmundus rex mando praecipio omni populo senior ' junior ' qui in regione mea sunt qui investigans investigari cum sapientibus Clericis Laicis were Acts of Parliament Ibidem Haec sunt statuta Canuti regis Anglorum Danorum Norvegar ' venerando sapientum ejus consilio ad laudem gloriam Dei sui regalitatem commune commodum habita in Sancto Natali Domini apud Wintoniam c. were Acts passed in Parliament Ibidem Rex Canutus an regni sui 5. per 130 annos ante copilationem decretorum quae an Dom. 1150. fuer ' copilat ' anno 7 pontificatus Papae Eugenii tertii ante copilation ' aliorum Canon ' quorumcunque cunctos reg ' sui praelat ' proceresque ac magnates ad suum convocans Parliam ' in suo publico Parliam ' persistentibus personaliter in eodem Wulstano Adelnodo archiepisc ' Ailwino episc ' Elmehamense aliis episcopis ipsorum suffragan ' septem Ducibus cum tot Comitibus nec non diversorum monaster ' nonnullis Abbatibus cum quamplurimis gregariis milit ' ac
cum populi multitudine copiosa ac omnibus adhuc in eodem Parliamento personalit ' existent ' votis Regiis unanimiter consentientibus praeceptum decret ' fuit quod Monasterium Sancti Edmundi c. sit ab omni jurisdictione episcopor ' com' illius ex tunc imperpet ' funditus liberum exemptum c. Illustris rex Hardicanutus pred' regis Canuti filius haeres success ac sui patris vestigior ' devotus imitator c. cum laude favore Aegelnod ' Dorobornensis nunc Cantuariensis Alfrici Eborac ' episcopor ' aliorumque episcopor ' suffragan ' nec non cunctorum regni mei mandanorum principum descriptum constituit roboravitque praeceptum were Acts of Parliament Ibidem Rex Eldredus convocavit Magnatos Episcopos Proceres Optimates ad tractandum de publicis negotiis regni And this was a Parliament Inst 4. p. 3. But none of these you will say have the obligation of Laws upon us Well let us see those Acts of Parliament which have and what is the difference By the way no Acts of Parliament are now nor these 400 years have had the force of statute-Statute-Laws in England but those made in Henry the Third's time and since And what was the first and great Act of Magna charta but Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Magna Charta an Act of Parliament Ireland c. We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole rights and liberties inviolable We have granted also and given to all the Freemen of our Realm for us and our heirs for ever those Liberties underwritten to have and to hold to them and their heirs of us and our heirs for ever Note this great Charter which made the Church and Nota bene Kingdom of England the most free in the world was a free and voluntary act of an English Monarch in Parliament And all that violation and destruction of all those happy Grants and Concessions both in Church and State have been made by a cursed conspiracie of a factious and seditious company of men falsly and most injuriously arrogating to themselves the name of Parliament without and against the Kings good mind and pleasure Charta Foresta was Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Normandy and of Guyen c. We will that all Forests which King Henry our Grandfather afforested shall be viewed by good and lawful men c. Statutum Hiberniae was nothing else but Henry by the grace of God King of England c. To his trusty and welbeloved Gerard son of Maurice Justicer of Ireland greeting Commanding him to cause the Customs recited in the Act and used in England to be proclaimed and streightly kept and observed in Ireland Statutum de Anno Bissextili was The King unto the Justices of the An. 21. H. 3. Bench greeting c. The Statute intituled Assisa panis cervisiae was An. 51. H. 3. The King to all to whom these presents shall come greeting We have seen certain Ordinances c. Stat. de Scaccario The King commandeth that all manner of Bailiffs Sheriffs An. 51. H. 3. and other Officers as well Justices of Chester c. Statutes made in the Parliament at Marleborough wherein the King An. 52. H. 3. made these Acts Ordinances and Statutes underwritten which he willeth to be observed for ever firmly and inviolably of all his Subjects as well high as low Statute of Westminster the first were the Acts of Edward the son of An. 3. Ed. 1. Henry c. by his Council and the assent of Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and all the Commonalty of the Realm c. the King ordained and established these Acts underwritten which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole Realm First the King willeth and commandeth that the peace of Holy Church and of the Land be well kept and maintained in all points and that common right be done to all as well poor as rich without respect of persons c. Statutes made at Gloucester where our Soveraign Lord the King for An. 6. Ed. 1. the amendment of the Land and for the relief of his people c. hath provided and established these Laws underwritten willing and commanding that from henceforth they be firmly observed within the Realm Statute of Rutland hath no other title then The King to his Treasurer An. 10. Ed. 1. and Barons of the Exchequer and to his Chamberlains greeting c. Articuli super Chartas were Grants in Parliament made by the King An. 20. Ed. 1. at the request of the Prelates Earls and Barons assembled in Parliament Note the Commons are not so much as named in these Acts of Parliament The Statute of Quo Warranto made at Gloucester and Statute de Protectionibus An. 30. Ed. 1. An. 33. Ed. 1. made at Westminster the King only speaks Stat. de conjunctim Feoffatis The King unto all to whom these c. An. 34. Ed. 1. greeting And after the recital of the things contained in the Act it is said In witness of which thing we have caused these our Letters Patents I my self being Witness at Westminster Statute of Amortising of Land made by Ed. 1. only the King speaketh Ordinatio pro statu Hiberniae made 17 Ed. 1. the King speaketh by the assent of his Council Statute Ne Rector prosternat arbores in coemiterio only the King speaketh and neither Council nor Parliament mentioned An. 35 Ed. 1. Statute for Knights hath no other title then Our Lord the King hath An. 1. Ed. 2. granted c. And Stat. de frangentibus prisonam 1 Ed. 2. hath nothing to create it a Law but The King willeth and commandeth and neither Parliament nor Council named in either of them Articuli Cleri made at Lincoln the King and his Council are named An. 9. Ed. 2. The Statute of York was made by the King by the assent of the Prelates An. 12. Ed. 2. Earls Barons and Commonalty there assembled So that in these three Kings reign although the King did enact them in Parliament yet the manner was different almost in all In Ed. 3. his time was the form of enacting Laws truly defined and An. 1. Ed. 3. much used by him and the subsequent Kings At the Parliament holden at Westminster King Edward at the request of the Commonalty and by their Petition made before him and his Council in the Parliament and by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other great men assembled at that Parliament hath granted c. In the next Parliament holden at Northampton the Laws are made by An. 2. Ed. 3. him and by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other great
men and all the Commonalty assembled in Parliament Statutes made at Westminster were enacted by the King his Prelates An. 4. Ed. 3. Earls Barons and other of the same Parliament at the request of the Commons Statutes made at Westminster The King by the assent of the Prelates An. 5. Ed. 3. Earls Barons and other great men of the Realm at the request of his people granted and established c. Statutes made at York were enacted by the King in Parliament upon An. 9. Ed. 3. the Petition of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses Statute of Money made at York was enacted by the King with the An. 9. Ed. 3. assent of the Prelates Earls and Barons and the Commons not so much as named Statutes made at Westminster were made and established by the King An. 10. Ed. 3. with the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other Nobles of this Realm and at the request of the Knights and Commons Statutes of Purveyors made at Westminster were enacted by the King An. 10. Ed. 3. with the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and also at the request of the Knights of the Shires and the Commons by their petitions put in the said Parliament Statutes made at Westminster were to the honor of God and of Holy An. 14 Ed. 3. Church by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other assembled at Parliament And see almost all the Acts of Parliament in Ed. 3. his time after in Rich. 2. Hen. 4. Hen. 5. Hen. 6. Ed. 4. Rich. 3. the King always made the Law and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal did assent at the instance request or petition of the Commons or by the King with the assent of the Lords and Commons which was not or but rarely used unless in Rich. 2. his time In Hen. 7. his time the Commons got to have their assent as well as the Lords in passing Laws And this manner of passing Laws continued generally until Edward the Sixth's time where they were sometime made by the King with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament and sometime by the Parliament But the form of enacting Laws by the King and the Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament was seldom or never used before Queen Maries time So that it is as clear as the Sun at noon-day That a King of England Sessions of Parliaments do not derogate from Regal Power by the ancient usages of this Nation is as free and absolute in the Session of Parliament as out And the Act of a King in Parliament is the free and voluntary Act of an absolute Monarch for the Act of the King in Parliament passed by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the Petition of the Commons is not less the act of the King because it is so passed unless a man will deny that my Will being a faculty of my Soul cannot imperate an act if it takes information from my Understanding or Reason Reason and Understanding being in proportion to the Will as Counsel is to a Law King Charles of Sacred memory commends to his Son the then Prince of Wales in his last Letter and Admonition to him though for his own particular he had little Reason God knows so to do the frequent use of Parliaments as the best means by which Laws may be received of the Subjects and diffused to all parts of the Nation and to hold a right understanding between the King and his Subjects But as nullum medicamentum est idem omnibus nay the same Medicine at one time may kill the same person which at another time may cure him And that thing which at one time may be a very probable reason of an action at another time may be none at all or quite contrary to Reason So in Reasons of State that may be a very probable reason at one time which may be none at all or perhaps destructive at another time As Henry the Third had great Reason of State to form a House of Commons and endue it with large priviledges to secure himself against a stubborn and rebellious Nobility But King Charles had not the same Reason of State to indulge the House of Commons contriving the destruction of himself the Church and Nobility Laws and Liberties of this Nation Edward the First had great Reason of State to call a Parliament and to pass the Act De Tallagio non concedendo for otherwise as the state of affairs then stood he could neither get money to assist his Friend and Ally the Earl of Flanders nor relieve his distressed Subjects in Aquitaine oppressed by the French King which Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon this Statute observes but King Charles had not the same Reason of State to call the Parliament in 1640. who instead of assisting their natural Sovereign against a Rebellious Rabble of Mungrel Hebrides and Lysisks give them Three hundred thousand pounds to be exported out of the Kingdom for their Brotherly assistance Edward the First had great Reason of State to pass the Statute of Mortmaine when as men were so superstitiously given that no man thought he could merit Heaven if he gave nothing to the Church whereby such large Revenues accrued to the Church that the third part of the Revenues of the Nation was in Church-mens hands who pretending exemption from the Temporal Power if some remedy were not taken the King would probably be left destitute of means to protect himself and his Subjects yet is there not now that Reason of State when in a Sacrilegious age all the Patrimony of the Church goes to wrack and ruine and men of Badges of Sacriledge make marks of Saintship It were endless to enumerate how Reasons of State vary with the times It must suffice that there be means always in the Supream Power to remedy and cure the maladies and mischiefs of State as they arise and represent themselves Yet it is a remarkable thing That they who oblige Kings and Supream Powers to their own Laws will never be obliged by either their own or any Laws of God if ever the Supremacy comes to be vested in them and let any man shew me in Five hundred years one time wherein the Kings of England did alter the Laws out of Parliament and I will shew him an hundred times in seven years where men arrogating to themselves the name of Parliament have altered the Laws without the King They who oblige Supream Powers to Humane Laws the Conditions must oblige God too to such things as is contained in those Laws and Conditions or else it is impossible for Powers to protect their Subjects But Corruptio optimi est pessima there were never so vile things done as have been by Parliaments or by men calling themselves so Sir Edward Inst 4. page 37 38. Coke being always mightily in love with Parliaments gives instances but in two viz. Thomas Cromwel Earl of
Essex and Edmund Earl of March the true and undoubted Heir of the Crown of England both condemned unheard and without tryal in Parliament when as he might have instanced twenty Sir Thomas Seimer Admiral of England and Brother to the Protector Anno 1549. the third year of Edward the Sixth was condemned to death unheard by a Law in Parliament Henry the Third after all the Acts of Grace of Magna Charta Charta de Foresta c. instead of means Good Governors are the Preservers or enlargers of the Government Parliaments have ever been the bane of the greatness of the English Monarchy given him by Parliament for the recovery of his right of the Dutchy of Normandy usurped and taken by the French King from his Father King John and the Dutchy of Guienne and Earldom of March the year before usurped and taken from him by the French King had all the exercise of Regal Government taken from him and given to the Twelve Peers by the * Insanum Parliamentum Mad Parliament whereof ensued the Barons Wars to the destruction and confusion of so many English-men as nothing but a Parliament could have done Henry the Fourth in the first year of his usurped Reign had the Crown entailed upon him and his Heirs in Parliament from whence ensued all the Wars of the Houses of York and Lancaster At a Parliament holden Anne Dom. 1470. begun at Westminster 26 November the Crowns of England and France were entailed upon Henry the Sixth and the Heirs male of his body lawfully begotten and for want of such Heirs unto George Duke of Clarence being the yonger Brother of Edward the Fourth the undoubted Heir of the Crown of England whereby a double injustice was done first to Henry the Sixth excluding his Heirs general then to Edward the Fourth to prefer his yonger Brother Clarence before him in case of want of Heirs male to Henry the Sixth See the Factious Conspiracy of the Commons together with the consequence against the Duke of Suffolk Speeds History Henry 6. p. 675. Para. 47 48. The Parliament in the First of Richard the Third his Reign though a bloody Usurper presented a Bill for the entailing the Crown upon his Heirs Ann. 1 Hen. 7. Nor was the Act of Parliament less injurious which entailed the Crown upon Henry the Seventh and the Heirs of his body he having no colour of title to it but in right of his Wife and because he suspected his title and reigned in his own right to the wrong of his Wife and after her decease to the wrong of his Son Henry the Eighth in the eleventh year of his Reign he got an Act of Parliament to pass which should protect all Subjects who should assist the King be he so by right or not for the time being So that other offences should be punished but he that perpetrates the highest villany by invading a Crown should be protected by Law Henry the Eight by authority of Parliament an 1533. Bastardized Queen Mary and so soon as he had cut off Anne Bullens head by authority of Parliament Bastardized Queen Elizabeth smally to his credit one would think Add hereunto the ridiculous yet cruel Act of Hen. 8 his Headship of the Church So that a stranger being one day in Smithfield and seeing one burnt for denying the Six Articles and another hanged for denying his Headship cried out Bone Deus quo modo hic agunt vivi hic comburuntur Papistae ibi suspenduntur Antipapistae The bloody Laws passed in Parliament in prosecution of the Six Articles in the time of Henry the 8. and the bloody Parliamentary Laws for Religion in Queen Mary's reign c. and all those Sacrilegious Acts made in the reigns of Hen. 8. and Ed. 6. and sure no man can imagine such horrid acts could be perpetrated but by Parliaments Nor have the General Assemblies in France who were wont to be assembled once or twice a year demeaned themselves much better then the Parliaments in England but in stead of providing good Laws fell into such Factions and used such affronts to the Regal power that Lewis the Eleventh a most subtile and cunning Prince was wont to say It was time to put the French Kings horce de page out of their minority and from being Pages any more and so he did And since his time they have been rarely convented in France For since the General Assembly at Bloys anno 1587. by Henry the Third where the famous Duke of Guise was killed there hath been but one anno 1614. in the fourth year of the reign of Lewis the Thirteenth and that succeeded so ilfavoredly that there is no probability of ever being another 4. Besides the general and particular Customs and Acts of Parliament there are almost infinite Corporations Colledges and Companies who have divers and sundry priviledges which are granted by the Kings Letters Patents and are observed as Laws and to all intents and purposes have the effect of Laws 5. But in all Maritime cases the Kings of England being Soveraigns of the Narrow Seas whatsoever Grotius says to the contrary and all actions done upon a Navigable river are judged by the course of Civil law and so the Probate of Wills and Letters of Administration are determinable by the Civil law Judge Jenkins a learned Gentleman and a stout Champion for the Laws of this Nation in the first page of his Lex terrae divides the Laws of this Nation into three grounds or species viz. 1. The Customs 2. Acts of Parliaments and 3. Judicial Records and that the two latter are declarations of the former touching Royal government so that he makes Custom to be the ground of Royal government and Acts of Parliament to have but a declaratory power of the Common Law touching Royal government and Judicial Records to be equivalent to Acts of Parliament In all which he is most manifestly mistaken For first there are an exceeding many Acts of Parliament which have no manner of dependence or affinity with the Common-Law and so cannot be declarations of it nay there are many Acts of Parliament which are so far from being declarations of the Common-Law that they do annihilate it and create other things in lieu thereof as the Statute of West 2. cap. 1. called the Statute de donis conditionalibus annihilated all the Conditional estates in Fee at Common-Law and created estates in Tail in lieu thereof At Common-Law no Lands or Tenemers were deviseable by Will but the Acts of 32 34 H. 8. create a power of devising Lands and Tenements in Fee by Will and Tenants at Common-Law might choose whether they would attorn to any Grant of the Lord but now the Lords Grant is good without it by 27 H. 8. cap. 10. Sir Ed. Coke com on Lit. sect 574. says Stat. 32. H. 8. takes away the reason of the Common-Law so that that cannot be a declaration of what it takes away the reason It were tedious
to instance the Acts of Parliament which give one Jointenant a power to compell the others to sue a Writ of Partition which was denied at common-Common-Law and right of Entry where they were put to their Cui in vita c. It may suffice that in no Kings reign there have not been Acts of Parliament which have been so far from making declarations of the common-Common-Law that they have made manifest alterations in it And as the common-Common-Law hath no force nor reason against an Act of Parliament so hath no particular Custom any force or reason against it for no man can prescribe against an Act of Parliament and all Lands in Gavel-kind were particular Customs but taken away by Act of Parliament And many Acts of Parliament have not declared the Succession of the English Diadem according to the usual custom thereof but made manifest alteration thereof as in the Succession of Hen. 4. 5. 6. Rich. 3. Hen. 7. 8. which being unjust and the cause not depending upon Humane laws ought not to be obeyed Nor secondly is that a less error that Judicial Records are equivalent to Acts of Parliament for they are so far from being equal to Acts of Parliament that in truth they are no Laws but Inferences and Conclusions which are deduced from Laws For there is not any Judicial Record which is not unjust if it cannot truly and ultimately be resolved in some general or particular Custom Act of the Parliament or grant of the King So that Acts of Parliament the Common Law Particular Customs and Prescriptions and Royal Grants are as Axioms Postulata or Principles in Arts or Sciences and Judicial Records Reported Cases and Yearsbooks are Inferences Conclusions or Sciences deduced from Acts of Parliament the Common Law and particular Customs of this Land or Concessions of the King Touching Royal Government Royal Government being the ordinance of God and from the Law of Nature is paramount to all Humane laws and the prime and efficient cause of them they cannot therefore declare the cause so as to create any obligation of what they are but the effects and from whence derived We have thus far treated of the means by which the Kings of this Nation have until 1640. governed and preserved their Subjects internally But because it is the office of Kings to preserve their Subjects as well from foreign force as internal broil there is yet something wanting of which we have not treated viz. The power of making War and Peace and maintaining Alliance and Traffique Of these in regard they refer to Foreign powers and jurisdictions and are not subject to the Laws of the Nation we shall forbear to treat only affirming that it is necessary that at all times this power must be so vested in the King that at all times he may have the aids and assistance of his Subjects in prosecution of the Ends aforesaid The end of the Third Book The Contents of the Fourth Book HAving thus far treated of all created Rights and the causes of all Laws and created Powers and Vertues and these being previous and necessary to all Justice and Obedience We in this Book descend to treat of Justice in the first Chap. as the most eminent and noble of all Humane vertues it being that which not only conserves private Families but all Nations and Kingdoms in unity peace and society and demonstrate it neither to be in Geometrical proportion as Plato would nor Arithmetical proportion as Zenophon held nor in Harmonical proportion as Bodin taught Nor is that corrective and distributive Justice which Aristotle affirmed to be in Arithmetical and in Geometrical proportion The Second Chap. treats of Obedience and shews how that it necessarily proceeds and yet is different from Justice The Third Chap. treats of Judgment and shews how it differs from Law and Justice The Fourth Chap. treats of Equity and shews how it differs from Judgment and how necessary Courts of Equity as well as Judicature are THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Of Justice 1. JUstitia est habitus animi communi utilitate Cicero's definition of Justice servata suum cuique tribuens Societatem conjunctionis Humanae munifice atque aequè tuens Justice is a habit of the Minde common utility being conserved giving to every one their right and bountifully and equally Cicero lib. 1. de legibus defending the Society of Mankinde Et Justitia est quae suum cuique distribuit Justice is that which does distribute to every man what is his right Where he says That Justitia est obtemperatio scriptis legibus we will shew that is not properly Justice but Obedience onely 2. Justice is the upright doing of an act conserving Society in that Quid sit Justitia formality as it is commanded or permitted by him who by right may command or permit it Justice is the doing of a just action the doing of a just action is the upright doing of any act as it is commanded or permitted by him who by right may command or permit it preserving Peace and Society I say Justice must have these two properties viz. upright doing that is abstraction from all affections of love hate or self-interest and the Law or Command of him who by right may command or permit such an act Other actions proceeding from Wisdom Reason Experiment or Discourse c. are prudent profitable c. but none are just or honest actions which cannot be truly and ultimately resolved into the Law or Command of him who by right may command or permit such an act So Quotuplex that Justice is twofold either commanded or permitted 3. Injustice is the abuse or falsifying the Law or Command of him What is Injustice who by right commands to the hurt or prejudice of another As a Law preceding and Integrity are inseparable incidents to Justice so Hypocracy seeming just and yet abusing or falsifying a Law and the damage of another or more are incidents inseparable to injustice 4. Let us see who may by right command and who are obliged to do God commands by highest right in conformity to their Laws and Commands I say God by highest right ought to command all the created things in Heaven and Earth and all Creatures are chiefly and absolutely obliged to do whatsoever he commands without any reasoning or disputing why he so commands For the earth is Psal 24. 1. Job 41. 11. Psal 50. 12. the Lords and all that therein is the compass of the World and all that dwell therein And whatsoever is under the whole Heaven is Gods and the World is mine and the fulness thereof All Gods commands therefore have a like and equal influence upon all his Creatures all Creatures as compared to him are alike vile and between him and them is no proportion To abuse then or falsifie any Law of God or Nature to the hurt or prejudice of another is a sin of injustice in all Gods Creatures and
Item Whereas Commissions be newly made to divers Justices that 6. they shall make enquiries upon Judges of the holy Church whether they made just proces or excessive in Causes Testimentary or other which notoriously pertaineth to the cognizance of holy Church the said Justices have enquired and caused to be Indicted Judges of the holy Church in blemishing of the Franchise of the holy Church That such Commissions be repealed and from henceforth defended saving the Article in Eyre such as ought to be No Scire facias shall be awarded against a Clerk for Tythes Item Whereas Writs of Scire facias have been granted to warn Prelates 7. Religious and other Clerks to answer Dismes in our Chancery and to shew if they have any thing or can any thing say wherefore such Dismes ought not to be restored to the said Demandants and to answer as well to us as to the party to such Dismes That such Writs from henceforth be not granted and that the proces hanging upon such Writs be annulled and repealed and that the parties be dismissed from the Secular Judges of such manner of Pleas saving to us our right such as we and our ancestors have had and were wont to have of reason In witness whereof at the request of the said Prelates to these present Letters we have set our Seal Dated at London this 8th of July the year of our Reign of England 18. of France the 5th In the Reign of Ed. 3. 16 Ed. 3. tit Excom 4. An Excommunication by the Archbishop albeit it be disannulled by the Pope or his Legats is to be allowed neither ought the Judges to give any allowance of any such sentence of the Pope or his Legat. It is often resolved that all the Bishopricks within England were founded In the Reign of Ed. 3. by the Kings Progenitors and therefore the Advousons of them all belong to the King and at first they were Donative and if that any incumbent of any Church with cure die if the Patron present not within six moneths the Bishop of that Dioces ought to collate to the end the Cure may not be destitute of a Pastor if he be negligent by the space of six moneths the Metropolitan of that Dioces shall confer one to that Church and if he also leave the Church destitute by the space of six moneths then the common Law gives to the King as Supream within his own Kingdom and not to the Bishop of Rome power to provide a competent Pastor for that Church The King may not onely exempt any Ecclesiastical person from the Jurisdiction 17 Ed. 3. 23. of the Ordinary but may grant him Episcopal Jurisdiction And thus it appears there the King had done of antient time to the Arch-Deacon of Richmond This resolution is not grounded upon any Custom or Law but onely upon a particular fact of a King à facto ad jus non valet argumentum All Religious or Ecclesiastical Houses whereof the King was Founder are by the King exempt from Ordinary Jurisdiction and onely visitable and 20 E. 3. Excom 9. 19. Ed. 3. corrigible by the Kings Ecclesiastical Commission This resolution too is onely grounded upon matter of Fact and what man will warrant all the Facts of Kings not to be repugnant to the Laws of God and man Yet shall not these men in other things of much less moment allow the Kings Proclamations to be Legal nor any thing less then the Commons Law or Acts of Parliament The Abbot of Bury was exempted from Episcopal jurisdiction by the Kings Charter This is nothing neither but matter of Fact 20 Ed. 3. tit Excom 6. The King presenteth to a Benefice and his presentee was disturbed by one who had obtained Bulls from Rome for which offence he was condemned 21 Ed. 3. 40. fol. 40. to perpetual imprisonment c. Tythes arising out of any parish the King shall have for that he having the Supream Ecclesiastical jurisdiction is bound to provide a sufficient Pastor 22 Ed. 3. l. 1. Ass pl. 75. that shall have the cure of souls of that place which is not within any parish And by the common Laws of England it is evident that no man unless he be Ecclesiastical or have Ecclesiastical jurisdiction can have inheritance of Tithes The King shall present to his free chappels in default of the Dean by 27 Ed. 3. fol. 84. lapsin respect of his supream Ecclesiastical jurisdiction And Fitz Herbert saith that the King in that case does present by laps as Ordinary Fitz nat Br. 34. Au Excommunication under the Popes Bull is of no force to disable any man within England and no suit for any cause though spiritually rising in 30 Ed. 3. lib. Ass pl. 19 c. this Realm ought to be determined in the court of Rome In an Attachment upon a Prohibition the Popes Bull of Excommunication of the plaintiff was adjudged insufficient 21 Ed. 3. tit Excom 6. 33 Ed. 3. tit Agel de Roy. 38 Ass pl. 20. Reges sacro Oleo uncti sunt Spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces A Prior which is the Kings Debtor and ought to have Tithes of another spiritual person may chuse either to sue for substraction of his Tithes in the Ecclesiastical court or in the Exchequer Fitz Herbert in his N. B. fol. 30. holceth that before the St. 18 Ed. 3. Cap. 7. the right of Tithes were determinable at the temporal courts at the election of the party And the courts of divers Manors of the Kings and other Lords in antient times had the probate of last Wills and Testaments and it appeareth by 11 H. 7. fol. 12. That the probate of Wills and Testaments did not appertain to the Ecclesiastical courts but that of late time they were determinable there The King by his Charter did translate Canons secular into regular and 38 Lib. Ass pl. 22. 46 Ed. 3. Proem 6. religious persons Nicholas Moris elected Abbot of Waltham which was exempt from ordinary Jurisdiction sent to Rome to be confirmed by the Pope who not having regard to the said Election gave to the said Nicholas the said Abby with all the said Spiritualities and Temporalities the Bull was adjudged against the Laws of England and the Abbot for obtaining the same was fallen into the Kings mercy whereupon all his Possessions were seised into the Kings hands Where the Abbot of Westminster had a Prior and Covent who were Regular 49 Ed. 3. lib. ass pl. 8. and mort in Law yet the King by his Charter did divide that Corporation and made the Prior and Covent a distinct and capable body to sue and be sued by themselves It was Enacted by the whole Parliament That as well they who obtained St. de 25 Ed. 3. de Provisoribus provisions from Rome as they that put them in execution should be out of the Kings Protection and that a man might do with them as enemies to the King c.
It was afterwards in open Parliament by grievous complaint of all the St. 25. Ed. 3. Commons of this Realm shewed that the grievances and mischiefs aforesaid did daily abound to the great damage and destruction of this Realm more then ever before viz. that of late the Bishop of Rome by procurement of Clerks and otherwise had reserved and did reserve daily to his collation generally and especially as well Archbishopricks Abbeys and Priories as all other dignities and other benefices of England which were of the Advowry of people of the holy Church and gave the same to Aliens as well as to Citizens and taketh of all such benefices the first fruits and many other profits and a great part of the treasure of this Realm was carried away and dispended out of the Realm by the Purchasers of such graces and also by such privy reservations many Clerks advanced by the true Patrons which peaceably holden their advancements by long time were suddenly put out Wherefore the said Commons did pray the said Soveraign the King that since the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm was such that upon mischiefs and damages which hapned to this Realm he ought and was bound of the accord of his people therefore to provide remedy and Law c. The said King Ed. 3. seeing the mischiefs and damage aforesaid c. and forasmuch as he was bound by his Oath to see the same to be kept as a Law of this Realm though that by sufferance and negligence it had been sithence attempted to the contrary also having regard to the grievous complaints made to him by his people in divers his Parliaments holden heretofore willing to ordain remedy for the great damage and mischiefs which had hapned and daily did happen to the Church of England by the said cause by the assent of all the great men and the commonalty of the said Realm to the honor of God and profit of the said Church of England and of his Realm did order and establish that the free election of all Archbishops Bishops and all other dignities and benefices electory in England should hold from henceforth in the manner as they were granted by the Kings progenitors and founded by the ancestors of other Lords and that all Prelates and other people of the holy Church which had Advowsons of any benefices of the Kings gift or of any of his progenitors or of other Lords and Donors to do divine service and other charges thereof ordained should have their collations and presentments freely as they were enfeoffed by their donors and in case that reservation collation or provision be made by the Court of Rome of any Archbishoprick Bishoprick Dignity or other Benefice in disturbance of the election collation or presentments aforesaid That at the time of the avoidance that such reservations collations and provisions ought to take effect the said Ed. 3. and his heirs should have and enjoy for the same time collations to the Archbishopricks and other dignities elective which is of his Avowry such as his Progenitors had before that free election was granted since that the elections were first granted by the Kings progenitors upon a certain form and condition as to demand license of the King to chuse and after the election to have his Royal assent and not in other manner which condition not kept the King ought by reason to resort to his first nature Upon complaint made by the great men and commons it was assented St. 27 Ed. 3. and accorded by the King great men and commons aforesaid that all the people of the Kings Allegiance of what condition that they be which shall draw any out of the Realm in plea whereof the conusance pertaineth to the Kings Court or of things whereof Judgement were given in the Kings Court or which did sue in any other Court to defeat or impeach the Judgments given in the Kings Court should incur the danger of a Premunire Made to confirm the Acts made the 25. and 27. years of the said Kings Reign but those that made those good Laws against such capital offenders St. 28 Ed. 3. Cap. 1. 2. 3. 4. were cursed defamed and reproved by such as maintained the usurped jurisdiction of the Church of Rome against which an especial Act of Parliament was made by the King and his whole Realm prohibiting thereby such defamations and reproofs In the Reign of Richard the second Against an Incumbent of the Church of England another sueth a provision 12 Rich. 2. tit Jurisdict 18. in the Court of Rome and there pursueth until he recovereth the Church against the Incumbent and afterward brought an action of account against him as receiver of divers sums of money which in troath were the oblations and offerings which the Incumbent had received and the whole Court was of opinion against the Plaintiff and thereupon he became nonsuit It is declared by that Parliament that the Crown of England hath been St. 16 R. 2. Cap. 5. so free at all times that it hath been in subjection to no Realm but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the same Crown be to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his will to the perpetual destruction of the King his Soveraignty Crown and Regality and of all his Realm And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be declared against the Kings Crown and his Regality used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors In the Reign of H. 4. H. 4. fol. 9 It is resolved that the Popes Collector though he hath the Popes Bull to that purpose hath no jurisdiction within this Realm and there the Archbishops and Bishops c. of this Realm are called the Kings spiritual Judges By the ancient Laws Ecclesiastical of this Realm no man could be convicted of Heresie being high-Treason against the Almighty but by the Archbishop Fitz. nat B. 269. Candries Case and all the Clergy of that Province and after abjured thereupon and after that newly convicted and condemned by the Clergy of that Province in the general councel of the convocation but the St. of 2 H. 4. Ca. 15. doth give the Bishop of the Dioces power to condemn a Heretick and that before that Statute he could not be committed to the secular power to be burnt until he had once abjured and was again relapsed to thar or some other Heresie whereby it appeareth that the King by the consent of Parliament directed the proceedings in the Court Ecclesiastical in case of Heresie and other matters more Spiritual Well but suppose the King did so it proves nothing for it is but matter of Fact But it does not appear neither that this direction of the King by consent of Parliament did direct the proceedings in the
Court in the conusance of Heresie but onely for the punishment of Heresie adjudged in the Ecclesiastical Court and all men know that it is the Temporal not Ecclesiastical power although it may be executed or pronounced by Ecclesiastical persons that punisheth men for Spiritual Crimes The Pope cannot alter the Laws of England The Judges say that the Statutes which restrain the Popes provisions 11 H. 4. 37. 11 H. 4. fol. 69. 76. to the Benefices of the Advowsons of Spiritual men were made for that the Spiritual durst not in their just Cause say against the Popes provisions so as those Statutes were made in affirmance of the common Law Excommunication made by the Pope is of no force in England and the same being certified by the Pope into any Court in England ought not to 14 H. 4. fol. 14 c. be allowed neither is any Certificate of any Excommunication available in Law but that which is made by some Bishop in England for the Bishops are by the common Laws the immediate Officers and Ministers of Justice to the Kings Court in Causes Ecclesiastical If any Bishop do Excommunicate any person for a cause that belongeth 14 H. 4. 14. not to him the King may write to the Bishop and command him to assoyl and absolve the party If any person of Religion obtain of the Bishop of Rome to be exempt St. 2. H. 4. Cap. 3. from obedience regular or ordinary he is in case of a Premunire which is an offence as hath been said contra Regem coronam dignitatem ejus Upon complaint of the Commons of the horrible mischiefs and damnable customs which there were introduced by the Church of Rome that no St 6. H. 4. Cap. 1. person Abbot or other should have any provisions of Archbishoprick or Bishoprick which should be void till he had compounded with the Popes Chamber to pay great and excessive sums of money as well for the first fruites of the same Archbishoprick or Bishoprick as for the other less services in the said Court and that the said sums or greater part thereof be paid beforehand which sums passed the double or treble of that that was accustomed of old time to be paid c. It was therefore Enacted That they and every of them that did pay greater sums then had of old time been accustomed to be paid into the said Chamber should incur the forfeiture of as much as they may forfeit to the King No person Religious or Secular of what estate or condition that he St 7. H. 4. Cap. 6. were by colour of any Bulls containing Priviledges to be discharged of Tythes appertaining to Parish-Churches Prebends Hospitals Vicaredges Purchased before the first year of King R. 2. or after not executed should put in execution anysuch Bills so Purchased or any such Bulls to be Purchased in time to come upon pain of a Premunire In the Reign of Hen. 5. In an Act of Parliament made in the third year of Henry 5. it is Declared 〈…〉 H. 5. â—â—â— 4. â— That whereas in the time of H. 4. father to the said King the seventh year of his Reign to eschew many discords and debates and divers other mischiefs which were like to arise and happen because of many provisions then made or to be made by the Pope and also of licence thereupon granted by the said King among other things it was Ordained and Established That no such Licence or Pardon so granted before the same Ordinance or afterwards to be granted shall be available to any Benefice full of any Incumbent at the day of the date of such Licence or Pardon granted Nevertheless divers persons having provisions of the Pope of divers Benefices in England and elsewhere and Licenses Royal to execute the same Provisions have by colour of the same Provisions Licenses and acceptations of the said Benefices subtilly excluded divers persons of their Benefies in which they had been incumbents by a long season of the collation of the very Patrons Spiritual to whom duely made to their intent to the final destruction and enervation of the Estates of the same Incumbents The King willing to avoid such mischiefs hath Ordained and Established That all the Incumbents of every benefice of Holy Church of the Patronage Collation or presentation of Spiritual Patrons may quietly and peaceably enjoy their said Benefices without being inquieted molested or any way grieved by any colour of such provisions licencies and acceptations and that all licences and pardons upon and by such provisions made in any manner should be void and of no valour and if any feel himself grieved molested or inquieted in any wise from henceforth by any by colour of such provisions licenses pardons or acceptations that the same molesters grievers or inquesters and every of them have and incur the pains and punishments contained in the Statutes of Provisors before that time H. 4. St. 2 H. 5. Cap. 7. Lollardy Was made for extirpation of Heresie and Lollardy whereby full power and authority was given to the Justices of Peace and Justices of Assize to enquire of those that hold Errors Heresies or Lollardry and of their maintainers c. and that the Sheriff or other Officer c. may Arrest and apprehend them A man should undertake a very hard task that goes about to maintain that all Humane Laws did never transgress their limits nor encroach upon things that were not properly in their conusance and this Law ill suits with the temper of these times The King by consent of Parliament giveth power to Ordinaries to enquire St. 2 H. 5. Cap. 1. of the Foundation Erection and Governance of Hospitals other then such as be of the Kings Foundation and thereupon to make correction and reformation according to the Ecclesiastical Law nor could any other Power grant such Ordinances In the Reign of Henry the sixth 8 H. 6. fol. 3. Excommunication made and certified by the Pope is of no force to disable any man within England and this is by the ancient Common Laws before any Statute was made concerning forein Jurisdiction The King onely may grant or licence to Found a Spiritual Corporation 9 H. 6. fol. 16. The Pope wrote Letters in derogation of the King and his Regality 1 H. 6. fol. 1â— and the Church-men durst not speak against them but Humfrey Duke of Glocester for their safe keeping put them into the fire In the Reign of Edward the fourth The Pope in the Reign of King Ed. 4. granted to the Prior of St. Johns H. 7. f. 20. to have Sanctuary within his Priory and this was pleaded and claimed by the Prior but it was resolved by the Judges that the Pope had no power to grant any Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore by Judgement of Law it ought to be disallowed There it appeareth that the opinion of the Kings Bench had been oftentimes Ed. 4. 3. that if one Spirital
after them Gunthramn Clowis Carloman and Pepin at Masscon first and second at Chalons That which is called Francia and that which is in Vernis Twenty of them at least in France In Spain by ten several Kings in two Councels at Braccara and in ten at Tolledo by the space of three hundred years together And how under what terms Peruse the Councel themselves their very acts spake Ex praecepto Imperio Jussu Sanctione Nutu Decreto Ex evocatione Dispositione Regis One saith Potestas permissa est nobis another facultas data est nobis a third Injunctu est nobis á rege and this for about eight hundred years after Christ Then arose another Empire here in the West under Charls the Great and he called six several Councils at Frankfort Arles Tours Chalons Mentz and Rhemes And what says he in them In that at Rhemes In conventu mere priscorum Imperatorum congregato à piissimo Domino nostro Carolo That he called that Convention by no other right then as the manner of the antient Emperors had been to do After him Ludovicus Pius Lotharius Ludovicus Balbus Carolus Calvus Carolus Crassus and Arnulphus at the several Councils of Aken Mentz Melden Wormes Colen and Tribur and so held it nine hundred years after Christ for about that year a year or two over or under was holden the Council at Tribur in Germany by the Emperors decree and himself President in it Nor are the Kings of England less absolute then either Emperors Kings of Spain or France And see B. Bramhalls Just Vindication of the Church of England cap. 7. how the Emperors Kings of France Spain and Portugal have by their own authority convened National and Provincial Councils which have not only determined without the Papal authority but very often in contradiction to it Nor are either the English or British Churches or ever were less free then the Gallicane the liberties whereof in the Chapter aforesaid are set down viz. 1. The Pope cannot command or ordain any thing directly or indirectly concerning any Temporal affairs within the Dominions of the King of France 2. The Spiritual authority and power of the Pope is not absolute in The priviledges of the Gallican Church France but limited and restrained to the canons and rules of the antient Councils of the Church and received in that Kingdom 3. No command whatsoever of the Pope can free the French Clergy from their obligation to obey the commands of their Soveraign 4. The most Christian King hath had power at all times according to the occurrence and exigence of affairs to assemble or cause to be assembled Synods Provincial or National and therein to treat not only of such things as concern the conservation of the Civil estate but also of such things as concern Ecclesiastical order and discipline in his own dominions and therein to make Rules Chapters Laws Ordinances and Pragmatique Sanctions in his own name and by his own authority Many of which have been received among the Decrees of the Catholique Church and some of them approved by General Councils 5. The Pope cannot send a Legate à latere into France with power to reform judge collate dispence or do such things accustomed to be specified in the autoritative Bull of his Legation except it be upon the desire or with the approbation of the most Christian King Neither can the said Legate execute his charge until he hath promised to the King in writing under his oath upon his holy Orders not to make use of his Legantine power in the Kings dominions longer then it shall please the King and that so soon as he shall be admonished of the Kings pleasure to forbid it he shall give it over And that whilst he doth use it shall be exercised conformable to the Kings will without attempting any thing to the prejudice of the Decrees of General Councils or the Liberties and Priviledges of the Gallicane Church and the Universities of France 6. The Commissions and Bulls of the Popes Legate are to be seen examined and approved by the Court of Parliament and to be registred and published with such cautions and modifications as that Court shall judge expedient for the good of the Kingdom and to be executed according to the said cautions and not otherwise 7. The Prelates of the French Church although commanded by the Pope for what cause soever it be may not depart out of the Kingdom without the Kings commandment or licence 8. The Pope cannot by himself or his delegates judge any thing which concerns the state preheminence or priviledges of the Crown of France nor any thing pertaining to it nor can there be any question or process about the state or pretensions of the King but in his Courts 9. Papal Bulls Citations Excommunications c. are not to be executed in France without the Kings command or permission and after permission only by the authority of the King and not by authority of the Pope to shun mixture and confusion of Jurisdictions 10. Neither the King nor his Realm nor his Officers can be excommunicated or interdicted by the Pope nor his Subjects absolved from their Oath of Allegiance 11. The Pope cannot impose Pensions in France upon any Benefices having cure of souls nor upon any others but according to the canons according to the express condition of resignation or ad redimendum vexationem 12. All Bulls and Missives which come from Rome to France are to be seen and visited to try if there be nothing in them prejudicial in any manner to the estate and liberties of the Church of France or to the Royal authority 13. It is lawful to appeal from the Pope to a future Council 14. Ecclefiastical persons may be convented judged and sentenced before a Secular Judge for the first grievous or enormous crime or for lesser offences after a Relapse which renders them incorrigible in the eye of the Law 15. All places of France are obliged to swear fealty to the King and to receive from him investitures for their fees and manors 16. The Courts of Parliament in case of Appeals as from abuse have right and power to declare null void and to revoke the Popes Bull and Excommunications and to forbid the execution of them when they are found contrary to Sacred Decrees the liberty of the French Church or the Prerogative Royal. 17. General Councils are above the Pope and may depose him and put another in his place and take cognisance of Appeals from the Pope 18. All Bishops have their power immediately from Christ not from the Pope and are equally successors of S. Peter and of the other Apostles and Vicars of Christ 19. Provisions Reservations Expective graces c. have no place in France 20. The Pope cannot exempt any Church Monastery or Ecclesiastical body from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary nor erect Bishopricks into Archbishopricks nor unite them nor divide them without the Kings licence 21. All those are not Hereticks
shall retain in service see or livery any person which shall forbear to goe to some usuall place of Divine service by the space of a moneth shall forfeit for every such moneth he knowing the same the summe of ten pounds This Act shall not extend to punish any person for maintaining relieving or harbouring his Father or Mother wanting without fraud any other habitation or sufficient maintenance or the ward of any person committed by authority to the custody of any by whom they shall be so relieved maintained or kept The Sheriff or other Officer upon lawfull Writ Warrant or Processe to him awarded to take or apprehend any Popish Recusant standing excommunicated for recusancy may break open the house where any such person excommunicated shal be or raise the power of the County for apprehending such person Every offence committed against this Act may be heard and determined before the Justices of the Kings Bench and Justices of Assize And all offences other than Treason shall be enquired heard and determined before the Justices of Peace in their next Generall and Quarter-sessions No attainder of Felony by this Act shall extend to forfeiture of Dower or corruption of blood The Defendant in any action commenced or brought against him by virtue of any thing in this Act may plead to the generall Issue by an Evidence that shall prove his doings or proceedings warrantable by this Law This Act nor any thing contained therein is said not to extend to take away or abridge any authority or jurisdiction of Ecclesiasticall censures No person shall be charged in any penalty by force of this Act which shall happen for the wifes offence in not receiving the Sacrament during her Marriage nor any woman shall be charged with any penalty for not receiving during Marriage In all cases where the Bishop or Justices of Peace by virtue of this Act may take of any Subject not a Nobleman this oath above mentioned The Lords of the Privie Councell or any 6 of them where of the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer or principle Secretary to be one have authority to require the same at any time of any Noble-man or Noble-woman being above the age of 18. years and if such Noble-man or Noble-woman other then the woman married refuse the same they shall incurre the penalty of a Premunire Where any person shall pass out of the Cinque-Ports or any member thereof to any parts beyond the seas to serve any foreign Prince State or Potentate the Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports for the time being or any person by him appointed have power to take bond and minister this oath to such passengers If any man discover any Recusant or other person which shall entertain or Stat. Annn. 3 Jac. cap. 5. relieve any Jesuit Seminary or Popish Priest or shall discover any Mass to have been said and the persons which were present and the Priest or any that were present within three daies shall not only be freed from any penalty but shall have the third part of the forfeiture of all such summes of money goods and chattels which shall be forfeited for such offence if the forfeiture exceed not 150 l. if it doth exceed 150 l. then the discoverer to have 50 l. and the discoverer after conviction of the offendor shall have a certificate from the Judges or Justices of Peace before whom such conviction shall happen to be directed to the Sheriffe or other Officer that shall seize the goods commanding him to pay the same accordingly No Popish Recusant shall come into the house where the King or the Heir apparent shall be unlesse commanded by the King or by Warrant from the Lords of the privy Councell upon penalty of one hundred pound the one moity to the King the other to the discoverer who will sue for the same in any Court of Record where no Essoine Protection or Law Gager shall be allowed All convicted Popish Recusants dwelling in London or within five miles within three moneths after the Session of Parliament shall depart out of it and not dwell within ten miles and deliver up their names to the Lord Major if they dwell in London and if such Recusant shall dwell within ten miles of London to deliver up his name to the next Justice of Peace within fourty dayes after the Session of Parliament upon the penalty of one hundred pounds the one halfe to the King the other to him who will sue as aforesaid All Recusants which shall dwell or remain in London or within ten miles thereof shall within ten dayes after indictment or conviction depart out of the said compass and deliver up their names to the Lord Mayor In case the said Recusant shall dwell in any County within ten miles of London then within ten daies after conviction or indictment shall give up his name to the next Justice of peace the person offending shall forfeit one hundred pounds the one halfe to the King the other to the Informer as aforesaid Tradesmen Recusants who have no other habitation may continue within London and the compass of ten miles This Act repeals that branch of the 35 Eliz. cap. 2. touching licence of Recusants to remove or pass above five miles from their place of abode The King or three or more of the Privy Councell under their hands may licence a Recusant to travell out of the compass of five miles So may four Justices of Peace of the County with the privity of the Bishop of the Diocesse in writing or of the Lieutenant or any of the Deputy Lieutenants the party taking his corporall oath that he truly informes them of the cause of his journey and making no causless stayes No convict Recusant shall practise the Common Law as a Councellor Clerk Atturney or Solicitor nor shall practice the Civill Law as Advocate or Proctor nor practise Physick nor be an Apothecary nor shall be Judge Minister Clerk or Steward of any Court nor keep any Court nor shall be Register or Town-clerk or other Minister or Officer in any Court nor shall bear Office as Captain Lieutenant Corporall Sergeant Auncient-bearer or other Office in Camp Troop Band or Company of Souldiers nor bear any office in any Ship Castle or Fortresse of the Kings upon penalty of one hundred pounds to be forfeited as aforesaid No popish Recusant convict or having a Wife convict shall bear any publick office in the Common-wealth Every married woman being a Recusant convict her husband not being convict shall forfeit 2. third parts of her Joynture and Dower during her life and be made uncapable of being Executrix or Administratrix to her husband Every Popish Recusant convict shall be deemed as a person excommunicated so long as he continues not conformable and not come to Divine service and receive the Sacrament and take the oath appointed by this Parliament in the first chap. Yet such Recusant may sue for such of his Lands Tenements c. and for the profits thereof which are not
of the Commons Lawes of this Land yet a great assertor of them and in disgrace with him would oftentimes affirm that there was no time whenever he could speak reason but the King would hear him With the reputation of these virtues he governed these Islands in greater peace then posbly in the ordinary nature of things could be expected In the 3. year of his Reign viz. Anno Dom. 1605. was a most hainous and The cause of the many Laws made against Popish Recusants vile attempt intended not only against the very Person of the King but even of his Posterity which had not advanced the designe of the conspirators and the Church and all the Nobility not of their faction with the Commons in Parliament assembled And the conspirators had proceeded so far that they had not only made provision to have effected their purpose and intended the fifth of November being the day for the convention of the Parliament after their Proroguement and therefore probably expecting not only a more then usuall convention both of the Lords and Gentry but even of the King himself to have blown up the Parliament House But the designe being as foolish as desperate was discovered the night before it should have been executed although it is thought that it was known even to the King himself and the Earl of Salisbury before as by accident and so had no other effect then what the conspirators might reasonably have expected had it succeeded viz. ruine to themselves for their faction being so very few in proportion to the rest of the Nation and without either money Forts or Army in reason they could not have done any thing considerable in order to their further designes and severe Lawes against all which might be suspected to be of their faction to prevent any such further attempts It is true where Tacitus observes that the conspiracies of Subjects where His defects and frailties they succeed not doe advance the Soveraignty and verefied in this attempt of the Gunpowder-Treason for how many Lawes were that Parliament and afterward enacted against all Popish Recusants we have before shewed yet so it happened and so usually happens when not carefully minded by Princes that another faction far more formidable both to King and Church openly pretending assistance to the King and Church in persecuting this faction secretly acquired strength to themselves in so doing Nor was this unseen by this wise King being naturally a greater enemy to the Faction persecuting the persecuted but either not having that magnanimity which is so requisite in a Soveraign or apprehending he had not means sufficient to goe through he neglected to apply such medicines as were necessary to the curing of this Gangrene so dilating it self both in Church Court and State but desiring Peace especially at home although almost upon any termes he rather sought to repell the breaking out of Puritanisme during his Reign then to eradicate it for the future Add hereunto that being excessively addicted to Hunting and not greatly loving the Common Lawes and finding it impossible to govern this Nation otherwise and minding controversies in Divinity more than the management of his temporall affaires and though free from Sacriledge and Corruption in his person yet carelesse of it in his Favourites and Countrymen and nothing so prudent a Manager of the Revenues of the Crown as his Predecessor whereby being forced to recede from many of his Regalities the Reins of Government both in Church and State became so loose that in the ordinary nature of things it was very difficult they should be reassumed by his Successor Ecclesiasticall Laws made by King Charles THere were some few Lawes made against Interludes c. on the Lords day and 10. groats penalty for offence to be levied by Justices and Constables which a man may read in the first Car. 1. 3 Car. 1. There had never in any time been before this Kings Reign so long Peace The state of the Church State in the beginning of K. Charles his Reign viz. for neer 80 years in this Nation as in the beginning of his Reign but neither doth peace make mens minds peaceable nor were things otherwise well disposed for the continuance of it for not only the zealous and obsequious duty which the Subjects paid to the Royall name in the person of Queen Elizabeth was quite dead and almost forgotten the great wisedome and learning of his Father not to be hoped for in the tender years of the Son the Exchequer without money and yet the King engaged in a Warre against the Spaniard for recovery of the Palatinate but the Puritan Faction which Queen Elizabeth desired so much to suppresse and so much hated by his Father was grown so farre up in Church State and Court that in all they were far more numerous both in England and Scotland and all forein Plantations then all his other Subjects Nor was the condition of Ireland better for not only the Protestant party were jarring among themselves but the Popish intent upon their destruction which after they did execute in a terrible manner To these may be added the government both in Church and State so neglected that the exercise of any Lawes to reduce them to conformity would be imputed to have been Innovations and Tyranny The Kings Councell either uncapable of giving counsell or not faithfull to their Prince Nor was there any thing left to oppose all these growing calamities but the hopefull virtues of a young Prince unacquainted in Temporall affaires and a stranger to all worldly calamities which are of no more power to protect him against seditious and rebellious Subjects then the Lawes of God and all which may be called sacred will retain men in obedience where they are not restrained by a present coercive power But these stormes which after brought this Saintlike Prince and this wofull Church State to so lamentable a condition as they lately lay under did not breake out in the very beginning of his Reign but in all three Nations did gather into such black clouds in all his reigne that almost at once breaking forth in such a terrible Tempest as upon the matter it so overwhelmed King Church and Government that there was scarce any footsteps of them left I had here designed to have inserted a short History of the chiefe occurrences of his Reigne and by what degrees this saint-like Prince became a victim to the rage and lust of his seditious subjects and have the papers now by me but in regard it must needs rub soares which may rather in their tendernesse anger then ease them and also because the History of his life hath been by others more fully written but most of all because it is his Majesties pleasure to have the memory of things rather buried in oblivion then renued I shall forbeare and doe no more then give the description of him and shew the consequence of his calamities The Description of King
his tail for his Second Ground is That the nature of Man reacheth not to the perfection of Government But what does our Author here mean by Freemen if by Freemen he understands men free to do what they list then our Author leaves them as he found them and has done nothing at all but if these Freemen be subject to their Trustee so far as he apprehends it fit and necessary for the good of the Commonwealth then I believe we shall finde them as very slaves as any our Author Ground 9. makes So that after all this ado our Author has made a multitude of slaves or he has made nothing at all And thus hath our Author endeavored to shew why men desire to live in Community viz. By having nothing common at all The Eighth GROUND Of the Authority given to an Absolute Governor and of Vnder-sorts of Government Author NOw comes our Author with a dog in a line his Absolute Governor tyed up to certain Laws and Limits which he has no right to transgress Observ What is this our Authors Absolute Governor Why the Roman Dictator was worth ten of this for he had power of life and death of disposing of all Offices at his own will and pleasure without the controlment of any either Senate or People Consul or Tribune and this power to continue during the exigence and danger of the Commonwealth Yet so far was the Dictator from being an absolute Governor that he was the while but a Minister of the Peoples which was plain in Fabius Maximus for Plutar. in vita Fabii Liv. lib. 22. though he were chosen Dictator yet during the danger of the Common-wealth the People made Minutius equal to him And so was the Athenian Archon who though chosen for Ten years and called a Judge and chiefest of power in the Commonwealth yet as Bodin observes cap. 8. fol. 80. de repub was not the Majesty of the Commonwealth in him but he a Provider and Procurator of the People and was bound to give an account of his Government And the reason why the Dictator and Archon were not absolute Governors is plain because this power was not immediately in them from God but delegate and constituted from another And any power that makes any thing may alter it for Unumquodque dissolvi potest eo ligamine quo ligatum est Well but let us see what manner of beast our Authors Absolute Governor is Why our Author tells you he is an Absolute Governor but restrained and tied up to certain Laws and Limits Which is a contradiction and impossible for in being absolute he is freed from all Laws and Limitations And now I will tell our Author that if his absolute Governor be tied up to any humane Limits or Laws he has so little power that it is impossible for him to protect and defend his rational people For suppose the Laws he is restrained to be as many as are contained in the body of the Civil Law our Statutes and all the Acts and Ordinances made since 1641. and twenty times more yet would not this be sufficient for an absolute Governor For all these are finite and mens actions are infinite and therefore Enemies may find out such ways to invade this free people as this absolute Governor cannot find in his Laws where he has power to oppose them and so this rational freeborn people must be left destitute if any Enemy may be found who can outwit them and find a way to oppress them out of the Laws and Limits which they have given their absolute Governor And who will desire any greater advantage against another then to have him look always one way or what Enemy desires more against another then against such a one whose absolute Governor is tied up to certain Instructions and those known to themselves And Laws are things which must be in esse And how can any man tell to day what may happen to morrow but Princes must to morrow and next day and every day steer their course according as the wind and storms shoals and deeps c. represent themselves which no man can possibly foresee Well let us see what the restriction of any one thing in the Supream Prince may bring upon himself and Subjects Let us look upon a King of England after the Act of Parliament De tallagio non concedendo an Act of Parliament is the Act of the King in Parliament As when the Lords and Commons present any Bill to the King and he passes it this is an Act of Parliament which is no more a Law of the Lords and Commons then the Laws passed at the Petition or Rogation of Coelius Cassius Sempronius c. were the Laws of Coelius Cassius and Sempronius And let every King expect that whatsoever the Subject can get of the King by hook or crook he will hold that as fast as the King shall any flower he leaves in his Crown Well then if Edward the First will not pass this Law he gets not a groat of his Subjects in England towards the relief of his oppressed Subjects of Aquitain in France which Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon this Statute observes Well then the Scots in the year One thousand six hundred and forty having-transgressed all Laws of God and Humanity as well as the Borders and Bounds of their own Countrey raise Arms the second time and make an invasion upon us and seise upon Berwick and Newcastle but though the Kings hands were tyed up yet the Divine Vengeance of Heaven shall overtake them and their Countrey by a hand they could so little fear as I believe few of them knew whether there were any such or no. And now oh you who have not forced all mankinde from Humane brests come and stand amazed with horror for the most deplorable condition of the most Pious the most Religious the most Just the most Chaste Vertuous and Serenest Prince that ever swayed the English Scepter and not to be parallel'd by any Countrey whatsoever The Scots having invaded this Nation to treat with them a second time was too too much an indignity for their Natural Soveraign besides it was an affront not to be endured by the Englishmen That their Countrey must be made a prey to such Locusts and Caterpillers whensoever they will pretend grievance in Kirk and Discipline To restrain them by force it could not be without raising money By this Statute the King they say can raise none but by Parliament and to call a Parliament in this mad conjuncture of times was judged by himself and Council to be a means to increase the power of the Scots by the Parliaments joyning with them to the endangering himself and his Posterity Well then what is to be done what stand still and look on while these hungry Vermine devour and make a prey of his afflicted Subjects No the King to make his goodness appear above his own danger calls a Parliament where not deceived in his
expectation the Scots and they are Simeon and Levi straight sworn Brethren and the first thing agreed between them was That Humane Blood must be offered up to them a preparative to a greater Draught nor must Strafford suffer by an ordinary way of Judicature by his Peers but that the King may be involved in the same Crime with themselves he must die by Act of Parliament and then having made the King to divest himself of all possible power to defend himself when ever they will strike him they give the Scots Three hundred thousand pounds to be exported out of the Kingdom because they had made a prey and devoured the goods of their fellow Subjects in the four Northern Counties which forsooth these good Saints call Brotherly Assistance See oh see here O my Countrymen the Assertors and Avengers of the Honor of the English Nation These are the Noble Patriots of their Priviledges I am sure not of your Liberties These are the glorious Reformers of our Church and State These are they who in order to so many Protestations Declarations Swearings and forswearings have made Charls a more glorious King then any of his Predecessors more feared abroad and more renowned at home And now tell me whether you had not better at first have given your pence and your two pences then paid your pounds and forty shillings since you knew not for what Nor was our case much unlike the case of the Constantinopolitans who alleaging Poverty and Priviledge in opposition to their Safety and Defence became a prey to the Turks 1453. their most merciless enemies who put them all to the sword the Turks themselves wondering there should be so much wealth in the World as was found in the sacking of this one City The Ninth GROUND Of Slavery and the lawfulness of it Author HEre our Author tells us We must first look into the notion of Slavery which signifies a Subjection to command in all things and that meerly for the Masters profit Well I will not quarrel with our Author about the notion of Slavery but tell him he mistakes it in all his specifications of it For his first It is he says clearly against nature for a man to submit his will so far as to renounce his eternal bliss Observ This is out of his notion and is so monstruous as it is not imaginable any man should do it but Witches and any man may chuse whether he will do it or not for no mans will can be compelled Author The like he conceives of Subjection to be killed or maimed causelesly nay or to be so penuriously abused as to have no content in life and the reason he gives is It is evidently against the inclination of nature to consent to the loss either of life or the profit of life which is either to be well in this world or the next And therefore it cannot be conformable to nature to renounce either so then a man must not by our Authors rule renounce any depraved affection or appetition in him if it conduces to his profit in this life especially the quiet in this world being the means to gain bliss in the other Observ And so our Author hath shut out of doors all suffering for the testimony of a good Conscience because the quiet of this world is the means to gain bliss in the other Author Nor does it scare our Author he says to cast his eyes upon so many holy men and women as have put themselves voluntarily upon penurious and painful lives because they enjoy the fruit of contemplation and sweetness of Conscience in expecting a great reward for what they did But for a man to renounce the content of this who either thinks not of another or at least hopes nothing out of his resignation this must of necessity be extreamly irrational and against nature Observ Why if our Author had learned thus much out of the Poet Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore Horace Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae He needed not to have thought it so irrational for if the love of Vertue will not make men do their duties the fear of stripes and halters must or our Author will not get Paper to write his Grounds of Obedience and Government upon Our Authors next specification is no more then every servant ought to do Now let us see what servitus or mancipium or servitude is and who are properly Slaves or as we use to term them Vilains Slaves happen Bodin says to be so five ways Either by birth as the Bodln cap. 5. lib. 1. de Repub posterity of the Parents who are so or accidentally as prisoners taken in war or thirdly those who for some offence or debt are condemned to slavery either for years or life fourthly they who voluntarily make themselves so and fifthly those that are sold by Theeves and Pirates are for the price paid slaves to the buyers But whether this last be truly accounted slavery is disputable that is Whether such buyers may use them as slaves or no. See more hereafter Cap. Domestical Power Now Slaves have nothing properly but whatsoever they get is their Lords who may sell them or give them away at their pleasure and have power of life and death over them Here in England the Lords power over their Vilains was restrained neither might the Lord maim his Vilain for though the Vilain could not recover any damage against his Lord yet after Attainder the Lord was finable to the King See Litt. 194. And the Neife who is the Vilains Wife or Daughter might have an appeal of Rape against her Lord Litt. 190. But this not being a condition for any one who bears the Image of God upon him God did restrain it Levit. 25. 39. to them who were not Israelites or Proselytes onely Wherefore I conceive that neither Mahometans Jews or Christians all acknowledging the Moral Law do not make Slaves of any who are of their Faith and Religion from this ground neither do I understand how the use of Vilains used with us heretofore can be justified if they were Christians for no question Christianity makes not men in a worse condition in this world then if they had been Jews or Turks What difference the Romans made between Slaves and Libertines and what Manumission is and how many ways Slaves become free read Bodin de Repub. cap. 5. lib. 1. And of Manumission or Enfranchising of Villains read Littleton and Com. of Sir Edward Coke thereon Cap. Villenage Author And now our Author tells you how a Nation may enslave it self by its too much wit and most prudently and wisely takes care that it be not our case And so goes on very prettily in Questions and Answers as Whether any Nation be by nature born to slavery of Joseph and the Nation of Egypt of a Nation and Nature and how like Nation sounds to Nature Gens to Natura and at last concludes Out of this Conclusion it is is easily
it be that when God shall have called thee to his Kingdom which alone is better then thine thou maist confidently say I have received this sword from thee for defence of Justice this sword I return to thee pure and undefiled rashly guilty of no bloodshed Observ So that if he saies true that Lewis the 13. had his sword of Justice from God then does he say false here and in twenty places more that all Power of Governing is from the wills of the people Well but let us suppose a King made by the People which is the party governing and which is the party governed all Government being in the predicament of Relation where there is any one to govern or command there must be another to be governed and commanded Well then here are two the People and the King made by the People the one to govern the other to be governed Say now which is the party governing the King or the People it cannot be that the King should be the governing party for he is but a Creature and a thing made by the People and the Creator cannot be ruled and governed by the Creature the People then must be the party governing and the King must be the party governed the King therefore of France whom he so much flatters and all other Kings whatsoever from this determination of Grotius are the governed party and the People their Subjects are the governing party If therefore it be impossible to serve two Masters who by equal right command I would fain know how it is possible for a King to obey above Ten hundred thousand every one of his Subjects having as much right to command him as another and it is very like indeed to be a very well ordered Government and much conducing to the benefit and safety of the People where there is many Hundred thousands commanding and one individual person obeying But good Man he is very careful that though the People give Kings all their Regal Power that they part not with too much nay though they make Kings yet if you beleeve him they part with nothing at all for otherwhere he saies Imperium quod per Reges exercetur non desinit impeperium Lib. 2. cap. 16. Para. 16. populi Is not here a pretty play of a King and no King a King without Power and a People with all Power So that at the same time that he flatters Lewis the 13. by telling him neither King nor People are Judges of his succession he had before given the People of France a power of altering the right of succession without doing any wrong to his Son Lewis the 14 who now rules for he was res non existens when he wrote this book De jure belli pacis Sometime neither as Hogan Mogan nor stipendary to Lewis the 13 Lib. 2. cap. 7. Para. 25. directly where he saies In alienable Kingdoms the King may disinherit his heir Observ Who gave him his Fee to say this We cannot think it was Lewis he denies all his Grounds to pleasure him yet latet anguis in herba it may be because Henry the First was younger Son to Robert and Robert disposessed his eldest Son who bare his name and made his younger Son King from whom Lewis derives himself But how then can this stand with the 27 Para. that neither King nor People are Judges in succession or if Power which is exercised by a King does not cease the Power of the People then cannot Lib. 2. cap. 16 Para. 16. Kings give away their Kingdoms nor disinherit their Heirs for delegata potestas non potest participari Observ Well let us see his reason for this He says Such a Kingdom is like other alienable goods Here the right of the alienation of a Kingdom is well proved viz. I may give a poor man a penny and therefore a King may disinherit his Heir or give his Kingdom to whom he pleases And so he says Jacob did disinherit Ruben Observ What Kingdom was then given by any people to Jacob to which Ruben was Heir Besides for ought he knows or can find by Cicero Tacitus Demosthenes Cleon or any tale told by any Poet the time when Jacob lived and died was then when all things were common and undivided and how then could Jacob disinherit Ruben Observ Another Instance for the right of Alienation is of Davids disinheriting Grotius Adonijah Whether this be true read 1 Chron. cap. 28. v. 5 6 7. And of all my sons for the Lord hath given me many sons he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel And he said unto me Solomon thy son he shall build my house and my courts for I have chosen him to be my son and I will be his father Moreover I will establish his kingdom for ever if he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments as at this day Nor was it for any crime Adonijah did not reign after David for David had sworne Solomon should reign before Adonijah's usurpation 1 King 1. 13. Mr. Hobbs makes no doubt but a Monarch may choose his Successor and Cap. 7. art 15. Cap. 9. art 12. by his will dispose of the Supreme power of the City And in the next Article he gives him leave to give it or sell it to whom he will Observ King James was observed to make his Honors vile because he exposed them to sale and so conferred them upon unworthy men not as they deserved them but they were able to pay for them thereby to satisfie his hungry Countrimen who were daily begging boons of him How vile would this man make Majesty how light the ligeance which is due not only by nature but by oath from all Subjects to their rightful Soveraigns And The Crown of England has been so free at all times that it hath no earthly St. 16. Ric. 2. cap. 5. subjection but immediately subject to God touching the regality of the same Crown and to no other And it is declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament upon demand made by the King That they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disinherison of the King and his Sir Ed. Coke Inst 4. par p. 15. Crown whereto they are sworne How this can be consistent with this mans Sale of Crowns I do not understand Our Author is so in love with his Supreme and Absolute Trustee that let him but do what he list and he may say with Tiberius Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I am dead let the earth be mingled with fire Bodin in the last Chapter of his Republique because neither from Plato's nor Xenophon's opinion he can find Justice to consist in Geometrical nor Arithmetical proportion will therefore have it to consist in Harmonical he not understanding harmonical proportion For he makes it consist in four terms viz. 4. 6. 8. 12. and what proportion
to the prejudice and dishonor of it for sure no man can imagine that because a Man is a King that therefore he should divest himself of Nature and neglect to use some means to get an Estate for his Posterity where there is none provided If it be objected that the Crown descends to the Heir not to the posterity if more then one I answer That no Crown but hath many Offices and Dignities appertaining to it which descend to the Heir he probably will not reject his own flesh and blood to advance strangers whereas in an Elective Kingdom it cannot be hoped for 10. The Government in Britain and England untill 1641. was Monarchy The Government of Britain was ever Monarchy Hereditary before 1641. hereditary If you believe Mr. Selden in the First Book cap. 1. of his Analecton Anglo-Britanicon he will tell you upon the Faith of Jeoffrey of Monmouth the stem and progeny of Brutus the Nephew of Aeneas and give you a series of the Government of his posterity to Cassivellanus King of the Trinobantes when Cesar first made his invasion here and cap. 5. from Cassivellanus Essex and Middlesex to King Lucius Now I trowe our Author for the honor and reverence of the Apostolick sea will not deny Lucius to be a King and the first Christian King of the Britaines who and whose subjects were baptised Plat. in vit S. Eleutherii p. 21. about anno 176. by Fugatius and Damianus sent to this end by Pope Eleutherius And see Tacitus Lips pag. 457. in vita Agricolae Ii Britanni scilicet his atque talibus invicem instincti Voadicâ generis regii faemina duce neque enim sexum in imperjis discernunt sumsere universi bellum c. with these and the like speeches inciting one another by common consent they resolve to armes under the conduct of Voadica a Lady of the blood royal for in matter of governing in cheif they make no distinction of sex It is not my purpose here to relate a series and Catalogue of all the Brittish Kings to the Saxon Monarchs nor of the Saxon to the Dane and Norman I deny that in any of these times there was any other Government but Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy never nor was ever any of those Kings chosen by the people Here by the way though I affirm the Government of England and Brittaine to be Monarchy yet I do not affirm that part of this Island which is called England was governed by one Monarch only till King Athestan reduced it about the yeare 938 nor the whole Island under one King before it was united under James anno 1602. And this Monarch not a thing in abeiance an aiery title but an absolute free and independent Monarchy Stat. 24. H. 8. cap. 12. It is resolved and declared that by sundry and old antick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realme of England is an Empire and so has been accepted in the world Publick Notaries made by the Emperor claimed de Jure to exercise their office here in England but were prohibited because it was against the dignity of a supream King see Sir Ed. Coke Instit 4. fo 342. Omnis sub rege ipse sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub hominibus sed sub Deo And Rex autem qui vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc constitutus ut regnum terrenum populum domini super omnia sanctum veneretur ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis defendat maleficos ab ea evellat destruat penitus disperdat ibid Now would I fain know what higher power can any man upon earth claim then is here by the Law acknowledged to be in the Kings of England Nor hath any Subject any property in his estate but what he claims from the King for all Lands and Tenements in England in the hands of Subjects are holden mediately or immediately of the King Sir Ed. Co. Com. on Lit. fol. 1. Inst part 4. pag. 363 364. Nor have the Lords and Commons a concurring power with the King in making Statute-Laws for the King makes the Law the Lords and Commons consent Co. Lit. 159. b. And what concurring power of Lords and Commons is there in Magna Charta but only Henry by the grace of God King of England c. We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever c. And Charta de Foresta hath nothing which makes it a Law but Edward by the grace of God c. We will that all Forests c. Stat. Hiberniae made at Westminster 9 Feb. ann 14 H. 3. Henry c. commands that the Customs recited in that Statute and used in the Realm of England be proclaimed in Ireland and straightly kept and observed there And Stat. de Anno Bissextili made at Westm. ann 21 H. 3. ann 1236. is The King unto his Justices of the Bench greeting The Statute entituled Assisa panis cerviciae is made by the King The Statute de Scaccario is nothing but what the King commandeth And so let any man peruse all the antient Statutes of this Realm and he shall not find any so much as Consent of the Lords and Commons named in the making of them though it may be it was implied Nor had the Lords and Commons in the Parliament Anno 1641. any more power de jure then their Predecessors had before them And therefore the Common-Law and Statute-Law of this Realm were nothing but the declared Will of the King Nor hath any City or Borough c. any Priviledge but what they claim and hold immediately from the Kings Grant Customs I take to be those Usages which the Kings have permitted Sir Ed. Co. comment on Littleton 113 to divers of their Subjects in several places of this Realm time out of mind distinct and not the same with the Common Law And herein they differ from Prescription because this refers to the person that to the place so Prescription is what such an individual Man and his ancestors have done in such a place and Custom is what divers Men at once have used in such a City Borough Mannor or Village Add hereunto the Militia of the Kingdom the Mint the power of making War or Peace which were always in the King and for the manageing of which he hath usually taken the Results of his Ordinary Council and who will deny the Kings of England to have been Absolute Soveraigns What the Government since 1641. hath been I cannot tell nor do I care If you believe the Instrument it will tell you It is in One Person and the Freeborn People of this Nation so in Two and divided But who are the Freeborn People of this Nation Every man hath as much right to this Freedom as another here is no Vassalage no Civitate donatus in
although no man can hope to preserve any thing which he hath but as he and what he hath is secured by that Power which gives him property which Power must be preserved by every mans life and fortune or else no man can hope to enjoy any thing he holds by that Power and the paying of Taxes is to maintain others who are to expose themselves and their lives in defence of what he and his fellow-subjects enjoy Yet are none of these things considered by the greatest part of men but as Mr. Hobbs observes The raising of Taxes makes men fire as those who are in Cap. 12. art 9. the disease called Incubus or as we say ridden with the Night-mare which rising from the stomach makes men think they are invaded oppressed and suffocated with great weight Which thing they who seem to themselves to be oppressed with all the weight of the City are prone to sedition and men declining in their fortunes will not spare though the fault be in themselves to impute their declining condition to the payment of the publick Taxes nor will avaritious rich men fail to pretend poverty and seek by innovation and sedition to prevent them 23. Honos est in honorante Honor is nothing else but the opinion of Passionate desire to punish Subjects especially where many are peccant moves to sedition anothers power joined with goodness Majesty does never appear so amiable as when arrayed in Clemencie whereas he who rigorously executes his power will be hated and servilely feared by them who otherwise would honor and willingly obey him It were the most easie and natural thing in the world to govern well if the violent and rigid execution of Laws against all offenders would cure the maladies of State nay Subjects ought to be preserved though peccant where the pardoning may appear an act of grace not remisness and the example not encourage others to the like offence Punishment ought always to look forward never backward that is Princes in punishing ought by the example to deter others from the like offence not to take pleasure in punishing any who hath offended him I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease the house of Israel saith the Lord Hos 1. 4. How should God avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu whenas Jehu did nothing but what the Lord commanded him The reason is given that Jehu took pleasure in executing so dreadful a judgment upon his Masters house Weak and indisposed bodies are killed never cured by violent physick nor will Patients ever seek to Physitians who they fear will rather kill than cure them Princes who by violent and cruel ways do govern suppress yet nourish a fire which breaking out will hardly be quenched Yet it is sometime the fate I dare not think through the fault of most serene and clement Princes to suffer death and martyrdom from the sensless rage and fury of their seditious Subjects If then the insite piety of the most devout religious and best of Princes adorned with all the excelling virtues of Patience Temperance Chastity Justice Mercy love and tender care of his Subjects Magnanimity in Adversity Moderation in Prosperity could not secure Innocent Majesty from the violence of unnatural Subjects sure Peace and happiness may by other men be endeavored and prayed for in the next World but it can scarcely be hoped for in this If there were neither Heaven nor Hell no hope of bliss or fear of Annot. punishment hereafter yet sure so much Morality should be harbored in humane breasts as not causelesly to offer violence or injury to them of their own kind How much more unnatural ingrateful and inhumane then is it for Subjects against all Oaths of faith and allegiance not only not to make any restitution of those things which they hold of their Prince before they attempt any thing against him but also to imploy them all to the destruction of that Person and Power by whose grace and favor they enjoyed them And if that Monarchy be Tyranny as Libertines affirm and that all power is from the People then ought they not in reason to condemn it in the cause and allow it in the effect and rob the People of so great a part of their original right by retaining their Estates which were all mediately or immediately holden of the Crown If Regal power be unjust and usurped in the cause then cannot any act of it be just or legal and so by consequence all these famous Assertors of Liberty do unjustly and illegally hold their Estates which are nothing but Concessions originally from the Crown and do unjustly usurp them from the People from whom originally all power is derived And where these men complain so much of unjust illegal and arbitrary power of a Prince let any man shew where ever after they had usurped Regal power they made Justice Law Equity or Reason but only their Rage and Will the rule of their Actions and Laws 24. It is a vain thing to expect that Subjects will long be governed in By what degreâ—s and from what causes thâ—â— Nation became miserable peace where either they are not governed by force of Arms as the Turks English Scots Irish and Low-Dutch are or where the Subjects have not that estimation of their Prince that by his power they are protected in their lives and estates and from him do claim whatsoever may be called theirs and do not unite themselves in a Religious Unity which is the chiefest bond of Peace or Publique Form and Communion of serving God For both in Church and State there must be some one thing to which all Subjects must indifferently submit themselves or it is impossible there should be any decision of their differences in either Where men therefore will not indifferently submit themselves to the just and legal established Government in Church and State there necessarily must men whatever they pretend or hope for be forcibly governed by Arms or they will infinitely destroy one another It is true indeed that Henry the Eighth who being of all mortal men the most unfit for a Churchman ascribed to himself the Headship of the Church and having converted to his own use so great a part of the Church-lands the veneration which men retained of the Church became vile and contemptible and the Crown lost the chief support thereby The Crown thus left almost without support it descended to a Child in whose Aristocratical reign not only the Chantries and divers other Religious Houses were given by the Parliament and Bishops to the King but almost all things Sacred became a prey to the ravenous Courtiers Queen Mary endeavored to have had restored all to the Church again but the lands being incorporated into particular mens estates it was not in her power After her Queen Elizabeth by Act of Parliament so stopt the precipice of things that what was left in the Church
subsequent minute that it was before and therefore the state of Humane affairs being every day variable and putting on a new face to morrow which they had not neither to day nor yesterday which cannot be certainly foreseen by any man or men no more then any Master of a Ship can foresee what winds will blow to morrow or next day or whether it will be serene or stormy weather whether deep or Rockey Seas Yet if no prudent Mariner will venture himself and those under his command to Sea without sufficient provision against all the contingencies which may happen and be prevented Then sure no man or men not vainly blinded with ambition will undertake to manage the Government of a Nation without sufficient means to protect themselves and Subjects from all future storms and confusions which may either arise from within the Nation or be caused from without Yet will it not follow that every day there should be new Laws made for Nihil semel perfectum inventum there is nothing which is perfect so soon as begun and many mischiefs and inconveniencies may be begun and yet be prevented before they can be brought to perfection But then it must be presupposed that there may be remedies used which must of necessity be that there be a present and coercive power in being which may suppress and dissolve those mischiefes and inconveniences by making new Laws if the old ones will not remedy them and this is no new thing but is and alwaies was in all governments that ever were whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy A Parliament is a Politick body compounded of Heterogenial or Of what parts a Parliament is compounded Inst 4. pag. 1. dissimilar parts viz. the King the Lords spiritual and temporal in one distinct house and of a house of Commons another distinct house Since there has been so much contest about the power and jurisdiction What creates the Lords house and cause of Parliament and since it being compounded of unlike parts and some of these unlike parts nay pieces of those parts have assumed the name of Parliament We will examine all the parts of it and see whether it be not all made and created by the King and into him only can be ultimately resolved he being principium caput finis of it First For the Lords spiritual they are all parts of the Lords house and sit there by succession in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcell of their Bishopricks but all Bishopricks were originally of the Kings foundation and donative per traditionem baculi viz. the crosier annuli viz. Inst 4 par 1. the ring whereby he was married to the Church King Henry the first being requested by the Bishop of Rome to make them Eligible refused it but King John by his Charter bearing date 5 Iunii an 17. granted that the Com. Lit. Sect. 648. pag. 344. Bishopricks should be Eligible so that the foundation donation and election to Bishopricks was only and immediately caused by the King and in this capacity by virtue of the Kings Writ out of the Court of Chancery does every Bishop sit as a member of the upper house of Parliament So that Inst 4 par 1. 4. the Lords spiritual did immediately hold their Bishopricks of the King and were members of the upper house only by vertue of the Kings Writ Secondly That the Lords Temporal are created immediately by the King is so manifest that I think no man will question it and that every Temporal Lord is impowred to sit as a Member of the Lords house by vertue of the Kings Writ issuable ex debito justitiae out of the Chancery See Inst 4. part pag. 1. 4. All the Judges of the Realm Barons of the Exchequers of the Coif Temporal Assistants of the Lords house the Kings learned Council and the Civilians Masters of the Chancery all called to give their assistance and attendance in the Upper house of Parliament but have no voices in Parliament How their Writs differ from the Barons see Inst 4. part page 4. In every Writ of Summons to the Bishops there is a clause requiring Spiritual Assistants or Procuratores Cleri them to summon these persons to appear personally at the Parliament which is in these words Premonientes Decanum Capitulum Ecclesiae vestrae Norwicensis ac Archidiaconos totumque Clerum vestrae Dioces quod iidem Decani Archidiaconi in propriis personis suis ad dictum Capitulum per unum idemque Clerus per duos Procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero divisim habentes praedict die loco personaliter intersint ad consciendum hiis quae tunc ibidem de communi Concilio dicti Regni nostri Divina favente clementia contigerit ordinari So that not only the Lords Spiritual and Temporal but their Assistants are only created by the Kings Writ or immediately by the Kings authority But since there is so much contest about the House of Commons and The House of Commons are not the Representatives of the Free people of the Nation men say they represent the Freeborn people of this Nation and are the Supreme Authority of the Nation We will therefore enquire into the cause and see what may be the Freeborn people and whether a House of Commons as it now stands can be their Representative and whether being their Representative they may be the Supreme Authority of this Nation First What are the People If any man had said the people of Rome or the people of Athens or the people of Carthage c. a man had understood them and only them of Rome Athens or Carthage c. who were civitate donati But in England the case is much otherwise for with us there is no civitate donatus in one more then another but all men are alike born free and so by consequence every man as a freeborn man of England has as much right to his freedom one man as another I say therefore if every man of England has not a like vote and power in electing Members for the House of Commons then cannot the House of Commons be the Representative of the Nation for Plus valet contemptus unius quâm consensus omnium But it is most manifestly evident that the House of Commons are not elected by the equal consent of the freeborn people of England for not only two parts of three have not Forty shillings a year yet are as freeborn as they who have and as liable to penalty for transgressing Laws made in Parliament as they who do elect but many men have double votes in the election in Corporations where they send Burgesses and yet have like power with the Forty-shillings-men in electing a Knight of the Shire and such a place as Rising-Chase and Old Sarum c. have a like power in this House with the County of York and the Bishoprick of Durham sends none
as Judicial The end of the Fourth Book The Contents of the Fifth Book HAving before treated of the Causes of all Regal and Ecclesiastical power and having in the last Chapter of the Third Book treated of the Laws and Civil Government of this Nation being the exercise of Regal power in reference to the publick preservation of Peace and Society in it In this First Chap. we shall treat how far Ecclesiastical power has been exercised in this Nation and by whom Whether originally the Britanick and English-Saxon Churches were free or subject to the Papal power quoad exercitium And whether as well before the Conquest as after the Kings of this Nation were not Nursing Fathers to the Church of Christ And whether always before the Conquest the Royal Government did not extend as well to the Persons as Possessions of Ecclesiastical persons And whether all Bishopricks were not originally of the Kings foundation In the reciting the Ecclesiastical Laws made by the Kings and Queens of this Realm we shall observe three periods viz. The Ecclesiastical Laws made by the Kings of England before the Conquest The Laws made by the Conqueror and subsequent Kings until Henry the Eighth And lastly the Laws made by him and the Kings and Queens after him until the end of King Charls his Reign Note good Reader that in the reciting of these Laws I do not affirm that these Laws made by the Kings of this Realm did never incroach upon that Ghostly power which our Saviour by Divine positive institution left only to his Church and therefore make no construction upon them but only when they are recited and objected as Authorities against that Power My designe is to shew having already demonstrated that by the Law of Nature the persons of all Subjects born in the dominion of rightful Kings are their natural Subjects which is an indelible character and can never be washed out and therefore Subjects being Ecclesiastical persons cannot free them from it And that all priviledges and endowments which Ecclesiastical persons enjoy besides their ghostly power is created by the King That the exercise of the Kings power over the persons and possessions of Ecclesiasticks as also Laws made by them for the order and preservation of the extern peace of the Church is no new thing as hath been by some objected THE FIFTH BOOK CHAP. I. How far the Kings Popes and Bishops of England have exercised their Spiritual Jurisdiction in England before Henry the Eighth IT cannot sure be reasonably denied Apology by any man but that Ignorance is the mother of all Error nor is any man better in any kind whatsoever for being innurtured or ignorant We daily see no where more feuds If learning or knowledge were the cause of dissentions or distractions how then comes it to pass that all dissentions are determined by learned and knowing men or else they would be endless and dissentions then among ignorant and mean men which were there not Laws to decide their difference would be endless and Mankind left in a worse condition then any other creatures Nor is Education and Learning any cause of the dissentions and debates which arise among learned and better educated men but some internal cause proceeding from pride or some other appetitions or affection in them And though Education and Learning does not totally alter mens natures from bad to good yet does it soften mens manners and makes them not to be so bruitish as those who are destitute of Learning and Civil breeding For Didicisse fideliter Artes Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros It is true indeed that in that state in which God hath placed all men here they do not see all things truly but men are and always were and will be subject to humane error and frailty and in many things notwithstanding all the arts and helps which can be devised men will never be reconciled But that men should therefore condemn all Science and Learning is like to a man that if he sees and hears not all things distinctly and clearly although it may be he sees and hears well enough to do things which are necessary for his conservation that therefore he will put out his eyes and have his ears always stopped Nor shall ever ignorance of any mans duty totally excuse him for his not observance of Laws be they Divine or Humane Nor shall the blind belief of Subjects in their Superiors whether Ecclesiastical or Temporal ever totally excuse them from those things which are due and they believe that they owe to God I am not so very a Hobbian as to believe that it is impossible for Supreme powers to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature nor yet so very a Papalian as to think that the Pope is infallible Especially since it is evident that Aarons joining with the people in their idolatry did not excuse Exod. 32. the Israelites of old nor did the command of both King and Priests ever under the Old Law excuse the subject Israelites from Gods judgments upon them for their idolatry Nor is this very opinion of them in the Church of Rome of the Popes infallibility believed by themselves however urged against others who are not of her communion For then were not only General Councils supervacaneous and useless things but also there could be no difference among them which is superior a Pope or General Council Nor do they less deny it in their practice then their opinion For when Sixtus Quintus had excommunicated 9 Sept. 1585. the King of Navar and Prince of Conde and as he affirmed made them uncapable of succession to the French Monarchy yet were most part of the French troubled at it doubting the Priviledges of the Gallic Church would be trodden under foot which they needed not have doubted or feared if they had believed the Pope to have been infallible and all the Parliament of Paris who were all of the Church of Rome desired the King Henry the Third to have the Bull torne in pieces as you may read Davila 575. And the Parliaments of Chalons and Tours did not only decree the Bull of Gregory 14. to the Prelates and Catholiques of the Kings party under pain of Excommunication of being deprived of their Dignities and Benefices and of being used as Hereticks and Sectaries that within a certain time they should withdraw themselves from those places that yielded obedience to Henry of Bourbon and from the union and fellowship of his Faction to be publikely burnt but it was so far rejected and scorned by the very Prelates and all other Catholiques of the Kings party that it did extreamly confirm them all in the Kings obedience being before unsetled and inclining to the Cardinal of Bourbons faction as you may read more at large in the Twelfth book of Davila's History But it may be they will say That this was not in matter of Faith and that the Popes infallibility is affixed to Faith
their submission to the Church of Rome But on the contrary when Austin first arrived in England he stayed in the Island of Thanet until he knew the Kings pleasure and offered not to preach in Kent until he had the Kings licence to preach throughout his Dominions c. Neither was there any Appellant from the Conversion of the English he says to Rome until Wilfrid Archbishop of York who notwithstanding pag. 60. that he gained Sentence upon Sentence at Rome in his favor and notwithstanding that the Pope did send express Nuntio's into England on purpose to see the Sentence executed yet could he not obtain his restitution or benefit of his Sentence for six years during the reigns of Egbert and Alfred his son yea Alfred told the Popes Nuntio's expresly That he honored Spelm. concil an 705. them as his Parents for their grave lives and honorable aspects but he could not give any assent to their Legation because it was against reason that a person twice condemned by the whole Council of the English should be restored upon the Popes Letter And after he says That after Alfred and pag. 62. Theodore were both dead Theodore was the Archbishop of York that opposed Wilfrids Donation from the Pope and continued it so long as he lived we find the Sentence of the Pope and Wilfrids Restitution still opposed by the surviving Bishops in Alfreds Sons reign c. Neither were there any Appeals to Rome from that time until after the Conquest in the reign of Henry the First by Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury 8. See Comment Lit. sect 648. pag. 344. where it appears by our All Bishopricks were of the Kings foundation originally and donative books and divers Acts of Parliament that at first all the Bishopricks in England were of the Kings foundation and Donative per traditionem baculi id est the Crosier which was the Pastoral staff annuli the ring whereby he was married to the Church King Henry the First being requested by the Bishop of Rome to make them elective refused it But King John by his Charter bearing date quinto Junii anno decimo septimo When they became eligible and by what power granted that the Bishopricks should be eligible So that all Bishopricks were not only at first of the Kings foundation and Donative but afterwards became eligible from no other cause but the Kings Charter 9. That the sacred character of Priesthood does not free men from The Kings of England before the Couquest did exercise their Regal power over all persons in all cases the subjection due to the Laws of their Prince and Country is not only evident by many examples in Sacred Writ and by almost infinite precepts and examples of Gospel and holy Martyrs in primitive times but also by a concurrent consent of all Histories where Christianity hath been planted And that these powers have been justly exercised by the Kings of England before the Conquest among the many Laws of Ina Withred Alfred Edward Athelstan Edmund Edgar Athelred Canutus and Edward take these of Canutus Si quis sacra tenens pejerasse convictus fuerit ei manus praeciditor ni dimidiatam Lambert Saxon laws lex 33. f. 113. sui capitis astimationem domino atque episcopo dependerit neque vero deinceps qui juret dignus putandus est nisi quidem Deo cumulatè satisfecerit atque ab ejusmodi in posterum nefario scelere abstinendi fidejussores admoverit If any in Holy orders be convict of Perjury let him be branded on the hand unless he shall pay to the King and Bishop half the price of his head Neither shall he afterward be esteemed worthy to take an Oath unless he shall have abundantly satisfied God and shall have given Sureties that afterward he shall abstain from such wickedness Si quis eorum qui arae deservierint alicui mortem obtulerit omni cum divini lex 36. 114. tum humani juris patrocinio excludatur nisi quidem cum exilio cumulatè id sceleris compensarit atque caesi etiam cognatis satisfecerit aut saltem una cum hominibus qui jurent idoneis omnem criminis suspicionem diluerit Hanc vero quae Deo hominibus debetur compensationem intra ter denos idque cum fortunarum suarum omnium discrimine dies aggreditor If any one who serves at the Altar shall kill any man let him be excluded from the protection of Divine and Humane laws unless with his banishment he may abundantly satisfie that wickedness and shall also give satisfaction to the kindred of him who is killed or at least together with sufficient men who shall give Law-gager their oaths shall wash away all suspition of the crime And let him go in hand to make this compensation which is due to God and men within thirty days and that upon the forfeiture of all his fortunes Si eorum qui arae deservierint aliquis hominem occiderit aut insigne aliquod lex 38. ibid. perpetrarit flagitium gradu honore dispoliatus proinde atque ei Papa circumscripserit habitandi locum exulato ac cumulatè compensato Sin is crimen fuerit inficiatus excusatio tripla esto Atque in hanc quae Deo hominibus debetur compensationem intra ter denos aggrediatur dies ab omni legis commoditate destitutus habetor If any one who serves at the Altar shall kill a man or commit any foul offence despoiled of his honor let him be banished the place of his habitation and make abundant satisfaction yea though the Pope make it void But if he deny the crime let his excuse be threefold and if within thirty days he does not endeavor to give this satisfaction which is due to God and man let him be outlawed Si quis sacris inauguratus rei capitalis obnoxius extiterit comprehenditor lex 40. 115. atque ut tandem episcopo criminis admissi poenas dependat asservator If any one in Holy orders be guilty of any capital crime let him be apprehended and fafely kept until he be punished by the Bishop for the crime committed Si quis sacrum ordinem atque vivendi formulam commutarit pro ipsa lex 46. 116. ordinis dignitate sive capitis aestimatione mulcta legis violatae poena sive rebus suis omnibus compensato If any one shall change his holy order and form of living for the dignity of the order or price of the head let him be fined for punishment of the violation of the Law or forfeit all he hath But how far this good Prince was from having any spight to Holy Orders or men separated to the Worship of God and Service at the Holy Altar he does enact Siquis sacris initiatus incoláve in iis quae ad fortunas Law 37. fol. 114. vitamve ejus spectarint decipiatur tum ei rex ni is aliunde habuerit loco Patroni cognatorum esto Fraudator
this Popes Letter but pleaded the Fundamental Laws and Customs of the Land Consuetudo regni mei est à patre meo instituta ut nullius praeter licentiam Regis appelletur Papae qui consuetudines regni mei tollit potestatem quoque coronam Regis violat It is a Custom of my Kingdom instituted by my Father that no man may appeal to the Pope without the Kings licence He that takes away the Customs of my Kingdom doth violate the Power and Crown of the King And these Laws were no other then the Laws of the Confessor viz. the old Saxon Laws but also in the execution of these things the Bishops of England adhered to the King and Laws and denied their suffrage to their Primate as you may read in the Bishop of Derry's Vindication of the Church of England p. 63 64. 14. After pag. 65. he instances out of Sir Hen Spelman conc an 78. Legations as rare as Appeals before the Conquest that Gregory Bishop of Ostium the Popes Legate did confess that he was the first Roman Priest that was sent into these parts of Britain from the time of Austin and that those Legates were no other then ordinary Messengers or Ambassadors sent from one Neighbour to another Such a thing as Legantine Court or a Nuntio's Court was not known in the British world and long after 15. See Speed in the Life of Stephen para 4. where Stephen having The Pope and all the English Hierarchy conspire with Stephen against Maud the undoubted Heir of Henry the first entred his Government in the year of our Lord 1135. the 2. of December and was crowned at Westminster the 26. of the same moneth being S Stephen's day by William Corbel the Archbishop of Canterbury who with the rest of the Bishops doing him homage and knowing now he would yield to any conditions for performance whereof his brother the Bishop of Winchester did there engage himself for a Pledge they all took their Oath of Allegiance conditionally traiterously I might say to obey him as their King so long as he should preserve their Liberties and the vigor of Discipline And that the Lay-Barons made use also of this policy appeareth by Robert Earl of Gloucester who sware to be true Liegeman to the King as long as the King would preserve to him his dignity and keep all covenants c. And having buried the body of Henry the First he went to Oxford where he acknowledged he attained the Crown by Election only and that the Pope Innocentius confirmed the same 16. The next contest which after Anselm happened between the King The second contest between the King and Pope and from what cause and the Pope was caused by Tho. Becket Archbishop of Canterbury For Stephen the Usurper having made a Law whereby the Temporal Judges might not meddle with Ecclesiastical persons Henry the Second upon many disorders committed by the Clergy did repeal this Law and restored the antient Laws of this Realm commonly called Avitae leges whereby the persons of Priests were not exempted from being judged by the Temporal Judges And though the Archbishop sware to observe the Laws restored by the King yet was he absolved by Pope Alexander 3. Nor could the Archbishop ever after be brought to conform to the Laws called Avitae leges which was the cause of his assassination and of great trouble to the King and Realm And whether this man did deserve to be canonized for his stubborn disobedience to the Laws of his Country which no ways concerned Faith but only Civil and Temporal obedience and those not new neither but a restitution of the antient Laws let any man judge 17. The first occasion of the quarrel between King John and Innocent The quarrel between King John and the Pope the Third was Hubert the Archbishop of Canterbury being dead the Monks of S. Augustine in that City elected without any licence of the King one Rainold and took an oath of him to go to Rome and take his investiture from the Pope The King incensed hereat caused John Gray to be chosen and desired the Pope to ratifie this last choice The Pope notwithstanding confirms the former The King hereupon grows angry and divers of the Monks against their own act refuse to accept him The Pope although Rainold were chosen by the Monks and confirmed by the Pope adviseth the Monks to choose Stephen Langton the Monks do so the King is highly exasperated and forbids all Appeals to Rome and did alleadge that he had Bishops Prelates Nobles and Magistrates of his own who could according to the Laws of the Land decide and determine all Controversies which should arise in Church or Commonweal The Pope insisted upon the election of the Cardinal Stephen Langton was Cardinal of Chirsogone and required the King not only to give him the quiet possession of the See but also to recall all such Monks as were exiled and to restore them to their Goods which were seised on by the King for the last choice and for default to interdict him and the whole Realm The King is so far from obeying that he seised upon the Lands and Goods of those Bishops to whom the Pope had forsooth given the power of Interdiction The Pope constant in his resolutions by Pandulphus and Durant interdicts the King and Kingdom and gives it the French King King John driven into a great strait gives his Crown and Kingdom to the Pope he good man had before given it to the French King Philip the second sirnamed Augustus and his son Lewis had gotten such footing in England that he would not be gotten out The Pope interdicts both father and son but his curses took not such place that they would give over what they had gotten by the first grant nor did these troubles end until the English Nation uniting themselves under Henry 3. did by plain force drive Lewis out of England to such an insufferable height was the Papacy grown in those days 18. Although the stubborn Barons made Henry 3. swear to observe The Bishops in H. 2 his reign conspire against him the Ordinances made in the Mad Parliament at Oxford and the Archbishop of Canterbury and nine other Bishops did denounce a Curse against all those who either by direction arms or otherwise should withstand the Ordinance of the Twelve Peers which gave the exercise of all Regality to them yet did the Pope absolve him from it very easily Addit Matth. Paris 990. 19. How zealous the most noble Prince Edward the first was in the Contests between the Pope and Ed. 2. cause of Christianity and how observant of the Papal power is evident by his victorious Voyage into Holy Land But he afterwards became hated by the Churchmen both in respect of the Statute of Mortmain made in the fourth year of his Reign and also because that by the advice of William Marchyan his chiefest Treasurer he seised into his hands the
be laid up in safe keeping under the Private Seal of the Abbot of the same House So that the Abbot or Prior which does govern the House shall be able of himself to establish nothing though heretofore it hath been otherwise used And if it fortune hereafter that writings of Obligations Donations Purchases Sales Alienations or of any other Contracts be sealed with any other Seal then such a Common Seal kept as is aforesaid they shall be adjudged void and of no force in Law But it is not the meaning of our Lord the King to exclude the Abbots Priors and other Religious Aliens by the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid from executing the office of Visitation in his Kingdom and Dominion but they may visit at their pleasures by themselves or others the Monasteries and other places in his Kingdom and Dominion in subjection to them according to the duty of their office in these things only that belong to Regular observation and the discipline of their Order Provided that they which shall execute this office of Visitation shall carry or cause to be carried out of his Kingdom or Dominion none of the goods or things of such Monasteries Priors and Houses saving only their reasonable and competent charges Stat. Ne Rector prosternat arbores in Caemiterio made 35 Ed. 1. Anno Dom. 1307. In what cases and by whom Trees may be felled in a Churchyard Because we do understand that controversies do ofttimes grow between Parsons of Churches and their Parishioners touching Trees growing in the Church-yard both of them pretending that they do belong unto themselves We have thought good rather to decide this controversie by writing then by Statute Forasmuch as a Church-yard that is dedicated is the soil of a Church and whatsoever is planted belongs to the soil it must needs follow that those Trees which be growing in the Church-yard are to be reckoned amongst the goods of the Church the which Laymen have no authority to dispose but as the holy Scripture does testifie the charge of them is committed only to Priests to be disposed of And yet seeing those Trees be often planted to defend the force of the wind from hurting of the Church We do prohibit the Parsons of the Church that they do not presume to fell them down unadvisedly but when the Chancel of the church does want necessary reparations Neither shall they be converted In the Reign of Edward the First A Bull of Excommunication brought by one Subject against another 30 E. 3. li. Ass Pl. 19 c. was adjudged by the Common law Treason against the King his crown and dignity Edw. 1. seised the lands of the Archbishop of York because he refused Par. 2. 19. E. 1. Quare non admisit to admit his Clerk but pleaded that the Bishop of Rome long time before provided to the said Church The King and his Council did not receive the constitution of the Bishop Para. 3. Stat. de Biga 4 Ed. 1. of Rome at Lions which excluded men twice married or Bigami from all priviledges of Clergy It was declared that the holy Church of England was founded in the Stat. 25 Ed. 1. Carlisle state of Prelacy within this Realm of England by the King and his progenitors And that the Bishop of Rome usurping the seigniory of such Benefices c. that the said oppressions grievances and damages in this Realm from thenceforth shall not be suffered Articuli Cleri made at Lincoln Anno 9 E. 2. Anno Dom. 1315. The King to all whom c. sendeth greeting Understand ye that whereas of late in times of our Progenitors sometimes Kings of England in divers their Parliaments and likewise after that we had undertaken the governance of the Realm in our Parliaments many Articles containing divers grievances committed against the Church of England the Prelates and Clergy were propounded by the Prelates and Clerks of our Realm and further great instance was made that convenient remedy might be provided therein And of late in our Parliament holden at Lincoln the ninth year of our reign we caused the Articles underwritten with certain Answers made to some of them heretofore to be rehearsed before our Council and made certain Answers to be corrected and to the residue of the Articles underwritten Answers were made by us and our Council of which said Articles with the Answers of the same the tenors here ensue No Prohibition shall be granted where Tithes be demanded but where Cap. 1 money for them First whereas Laymen do purchase Prohibitions generally upon Tithes Obventions Oblations Mortuaries Redemption of penance violent laying hands on Clerks or Coverts and in cases of Defamation in which cases Spiritual penance ought to be injoined The King doth answer to this Article That in Tithes Oblations Obventions Mortuaries when they are propounded under these names the Kings prohibition shall hold no place although for the long withholding of the same the money may be esteemed at a sum certain But if a Clerk or a Religious man do fell his Tithes being gathered in his barn or otherwhere to any man for money if the money be not demanded before a Spiritual Judge the Kings Prohibition shall lie for by the sale the spiritual goods are made temporal and the Tithes are turned into chattels Regist fol. 34. 39. v. N. B. f. 3032. Fitz. N. B. fo 40 c. Rast pla fo 484 c. Debate upon the right of Tithes exceeding the fourth part Enjoining Cap. 2 Penance corporal or pecuniary Also if debate do arise upon the right of Tithes having his original from the right of Patronage and the quantity of the same Tithes do come unto the fourth part of the goods of the Church the Kings Prohibition shall hold place if the case come before a Judge Spiritual Also if a Prelate enjoin a penance pecuniary to a man for his offence and if it be demanded the Kings Prohibition shall hold place But if Prelates enjoin a penance corporal and they which be so punished will redeem upon their own accord such penances by money if money be demanded before a Judge Spiritual the Kings prohibition shall hold no place Laying violent hands upon a Clerk Excommunication for Cap. 3 Penance corporal Moreover if any lay violent hands upon a Clerk the amends for the Peace broken shall be before the King And for the Excommunication before a Prelate that Penance corporal may be enjoined which if the offender will redeem of his own good will by giving money to the Prelate or to the party grieved it shall be required before the Prelate and the Kings Prohibition shall not lie Prelates may correct for Defamation In Defamations also Prelates shall correct in manner aforesaid the Kings Prohibition notwithstanding first enjoining a penance corporal which if the offender will redeem the Prelate may freely receive the money though the Kings Prohibition be granted No Prohibition where the Tithe is demanded of a new Mill. Also
Spiritual Judge for remedy as right shall require The Answer Of the ability of a Parson presented unto a Benefice of the Church the examination belongs to a Spiritual Judge and so it hath been used heretofore and shall be hereafter There shall be a free election of the Dignities of the Church Also if any Dignity be vacant where election is to be made it is moved that the Electors may freely make their election without fear of any Power temporal and that all prayers and oppressions shall in this behalf cease Ans They shal be made free according to the form of Statutes Ordinances A Clerk fleeing into the Church for Felony shall not be compelled to objure Moreover though a Clerk ought not to be judged before a Temporal Judge nor any thing may be done against him that concerneth life or member nevertheless Temporal Judges cause that Clerks fleeing unto the Church and peradventure confessing their offences do abjure the Realm and for the same cause admit their abjurations although hereupon they cannot be their Judges and so power is wrongfully given to Lay-persons to put to death such Clerks if such persons chance to be found within the Realm after their abjuration The Prelates and Clergy desire such remedy to be provided herein that the immunity or priviledge of the Church and Spiritual persons may be saved and unbroken The Answer A Clerk fleeing to the Church for felony to obtain the priviledge of the Church if he affirm himself to be a Clerk he shall not be compelled to abjure the Realm but yielding himself to the Law of the Realm shall enjoy the priviledge of the Church according to the laudable custom of the Realm heretofore used The priviledge of the Church being demanded by the Ordinary shall not be denied to a Clerk that hath confessed Felony Also notwithstanding that a confession made before him that is not lawful Judge thereof is not sufficient whereon Process may be awarded or sentence given yet some temporal Iudges though they have been stantly desired thereunto do not deliver to their Ordinaries according to the premises such Clerks as confess before them their hainous offences as Theft Robbery and Murder but admit their Accusation which commonly they call an Appeal albeit to this respect they be not of their Court nor can be judged or condemned before them upon their own confession without breaking of the Churches priviledges The answer the priviledge of the Church being demanded in due form by the Ordinary shall not be denied unto the Appealer as to a Clerk We desiring to provide for the state of the Church of England and for the tranquillity and quiet of the Prelates and Clergy aforesaid as far forth as we lawfully may do to the honor of God and the emendation of the Church Prelates and Clergy of the same ratifying confirming and approving all and every of the Articles aforesaid with all and every of the Answers made and contained in the same do grant and command them to be kept firmly and observed for ever willing and granting for us and our heirs that the aforesaid Prelates and Clergy and their successors shall use execute and practice for ever the jurisdiction of the Church in the premises after the tenor of the answers aforesaid without quarrel inquieting or vexation of our heirs or any of our Officers whatsoever they be In the Reign of King Edward the second Albeit the Ordinance of Circumspectè agatis made in the 13. of Ed. 1. Candries Case and by the general allowance and usage the Ecclesiastical Court held Plea of Tithes Obventions Oblations Mortuaries Redemptions of Penance laying of violent hands upon a Clerk Defamations c. Yet did not the Clergy think themselves assured nor quiet from Prohibitions Purchased by Subjects until Ed. 2. by his Letters Partents under the Broad Seal in and by consent of Parliament upon Petition of the Clergy had granted unto them to have Jurisdiction in those cases The King in Parliament holden in the ninth year of his Reign after particular answers made to those Petitions concerning the matters abovesaid does grant and give his Royal assent in these words We desiring as much as of right we may to provide for the state of the Cap. 2. Church of England and the tranquility of the Prelates of the said Clergy to the honour of God and the amendment of the state of the said Church and of the Prelates and Clergy ratifying and approving all and singular the said answers which appears in the said Act and all and singular things in the said answers contained we do for us and our heirs grant and command that the same be inviolably kept for ever Willing and granting for us and our heirs that the said Prelates and Clergy and successors for ever do exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the premises according to the tenor of the said answer A Satute of the Clergy made Anno 18. Ed. 3. Anno Dom. 1344. Bigamy shall be tryed by the Ordinary and not by Inquest Item If any Clerk be arraigned before our Justices at our Suit or the Suit of the party and the Clerk holdeth him to his Clergy alleadging that he ought not before them thereupon to answer and if any man for us or for the same party will suggest that he hath married two Wives or one Widow that upon the same the Justices shall not have cognizance or power to try the Bigamy by Inquest or in other manner but it shall be sent to the Spiritual Court as hath been done in times past in case of Bastardy and till the Certificate be made by the Ordinary the party in whom the Bigamy is alleadged by the words aforesaid or in other manner shall abide in prison unless he be mainpernable Item If Prelates Clerks beneficed or Religious people which have Cap. 3. purchased Lands and the same have put to Mortmain be impeached upon the same before our Justices and they shew our Charter of Licence and Proces thereupon made by an Inquest of ad quod Damnum or of our Grace or by Fine they shall be freely let in peace without being further Impeached for the same Purchase and in case they cannot sufficiently shew that they have entred by due Proces after Licence to them granted in general or in special that they shall be well received to make a convenient Fine for the same and that the inquiry of this Article shall wholly cease according to the accord comprized in this Parliament Item That the Statues touching the Purveiances of us and our son made in times past by us and our Progenitors for the people of holy 4. Church be holden in all parts And that in the Commissions to be made upon such Purveiances the Fees of holy Church shall be excepted in every place where they be found Item That no Prohibition shall be awarded out of the Chancery but 5. in case where we have the cognizance and of right ought to have
excommunicated or damned who differ in some things from the doctrine of the Pope who appeal from his decrees and hinder the execution of the ordinances of him or his Legates Although the Sesession of the Church King and Kingdom of England The reformation of King 1 d. was not Schismatical from the Papacy were an Act of Schism yet being done in the Reign of H. 8. one of the greatest favorers of the Papacy that ever was King of England and to his death as great an assertor of the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of it and in such a state independent from the Church of Rome was the Church and Kingdom at the time of Edwards Reformation whatsoever therefore his Reformation was yet could it not be Schismatical Whatever the Romanists pretend to unity and peace in their Church yet The rites and ceremonies of Edwards reformation were more uniform then before it is most manifest that in the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales in several places were used divers forms of Prayer commonly called the Service of the Church viz. that of Sarum of York of Bangor and Lincoln but also of late divers and sundry forms and fashions were used in the Cathedral and Parishes Church of England and Wales as well concerning the mattens or morning prayer and evening song as also concerning the holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of other Sacraments of See preamble to the Statute of 2 3. Ed. 6. Cap. 1. That the Scriptures Lords Prayer and Creed should be read in the English tongue is no new thing in England the Church whereas the service enjoyned in the Reign of Ed. 6 was uniform in all places of England and Wales as well in Parish Churches as Cathedrals In the Reign of King Ethelbald in the year of our Saviors incarnation 748. in a convocation held in the Prouince of Canterbury Cuthbert the Archbishop of his Clergy did Enact that the sacred Scriptures should be read in their monasteries the Lords Prayer and Creed taught in the English tongue Speed in the Reign of Ethelbald para 4. page 343. and how much it was against the Word of God and the custom of the ancient Church to use a tongue unknown to the people in common prayer and administration of Sacraments see the conference at Westminster an primo Eliz. which were never yet answered that I know of If any thing Heretical had been contained in the common Prayer administration Edwards reformation was not Heretical of Sacraments c. made in the Reign of Ed. 6. it would have been sufficiently shot at having so many adversaries at home and abroad but no such crime was ever that I ever heard of imputed to it if there be let the adversaries of it yet shew it affirmanti incumbit probatio If then not onely the Kings and supreme powers always under the old Covenant King Edwards Reformation was warrant-able materially and formally had this right of invoking the high Priest and other Priests and if God always punished the Kings of Judah and Israel for suffering the people to commit Idolatry and if God himself so often commends the zeal and reformation of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah Asa Josiah c. and if ever since Christianity the Bishops by that Divine Canon to Timothy have always had in 1 Tim. cap 2. their particular Churches right of composing publick Liturgies and in national Synods a right of composing publick and national Liturgies And the Liturgy of Edward being composed and received by the Bishops of the Church of England to that end convened and assembly by the King this Liturgy being neither schismattical nor containing any thing heretical is both for matter and form warrantable Object If the Sacriledge and extention of the civil Jurisdiction in giving the civil Magistrate licence to take cognizance of the publique Liturgy and administration of the Sacraments be objected The answer is easie Let the Courtiers and Parliament answer for it the Church was patient not agent in them The Church of Rome having robbed the poor laity of one half of the institution of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and kept the people in such The King and Church had great reason to make Reformation in Religion stupid ignorance that in the publick worship and service of God they should neither use their reason nor understanding by imposing it upon them in an unknown tongue as if in the publick worship and service of God he were not to be served by intellectual and rational creatures and had filled the Mass with more prayers to the Virgin Mary and Saints which could no ways relieve them and so at best super fluous and vain there was great reason in the King and Church to a make a reformation of the Religion and publick Worship and Service of God Of Queen Maries Ecclesiastical Laws Although King Ed. were a Prince of transcendent Vertue and Learning far above his years yet doubtless his youth was not onely much abused in his Reign where a man might have seen all the woes pronounced by God upon that Nation where the King is a childe or where a company of men in Parliament arrogate to themselves the Politick capacity of a King abstracted from his person but also at his very death caused not without suspicion of poyson was he deluded upon specious pretences by his whole Councel but principally by the Duke of Northumberland to make way for the Lady Jane Gray in the time of his sickness married to his fourth son Guilford Dudley to declare the said Lady Jane the rightful heir and successor to the English Monarchy to the manifest wrong and injury not onely of Queen Mary and Elizabeth afterward Queens of England but also of Mary Queen of Scots heir to Margaret the eldest daughter of Henry the seventh whereas the Lady Janes Title was descended from Mary the younger daughter of H. 7. yet it so pleased God that this unjust Will should onely bring destruction both to the Lady Jane and her husband whereas the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth and the Posterity of Mary Queen of Scots did all succeed and enjoy the possession of the English Diadem of which they were debarred by this Will of King Edward That the Title of Head of the Church was continued by Queen Mary appears by the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster the fifth of October in the first year of her Reign in the first and second session of it where she is stiled our Gracious Soveraign Lady Mary by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland but in the second Parliament of her Reign being holden at Westminster the second of April the first year of her Reign the Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland is not mentioned Declares
Queen Mary to be born in lawful Matrimony and all sentences Stat. An. Pri. Cap. 1. sess 2. Mariae of divorce to the contrary repealed particularly the sentence of Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury touching the Kings marriage with Queen Katherine and the two Acts of Parliament of the 25 H. 8. 22. 28 H. 8. 7. confirming the same A Repeal of the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. 2. made against such as speak unreverently St. An. Pri. Ma. sess 2. Cap. 2. of the body and blood of Christ and of the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. 2. touching Election of Bishops and the 2 Ed. 6. 1. concerning the uniformity of service and administration of the Sacraments and of 2 Ed. 6. 21. made to take away all positive Laws ordained against the marriage of Priests and of the 3 Ed. 6. 10. made for the abolishing of divers books and Images and of the 3 Ed. 6. 12. made for the ordering of Ecclesiastical Ministers and of the 5 Ed. 6. 1. made for the uniformity of common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments and of the 5 Ed. 6. 3. made for the keeping of Holy days and Fasting days and of the 5 Ed. 6. 12. touching the Marriage of Priests and legitimation of their children All such divine service and administration of Sacraments as were most commonly used in England in the last year of H. 8. shall be used through the Realm after the 20 day of December Anno Dom. 1553. and no other kinde of service nor administration of Sacraments It is Enacted That if any person or persons of their own power and authority after the 20. of December shall willingly and of purpose by open or St. An. 1 Mariae Sess 2. Cap. 3. overt word fact c. maliciously or contemptuously neglect vex or disturb c. any Preacher or Preachers licensed allowed or authorized to Preach by the Queens Highness or by any Archbishop or Bishop of this Realm or by any other lawful Ordinary or by either of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge or otherwise lawfully authorized by reason of his Cure or Benefice c. in any open Sermon Preaching or Collation in any Church Chappel or Churchyard c. Or if any person shall wilfully disturb c. any Parson Vicar Parish-Priest Curat or other lawful Priest saying or celebrating the Mass or other divine service sacraments or sacramentals as was commonly frequented and used in the last year of H. 8. or afterward should be allowed and set forth or authorized by the Queen Or if any person shall contemptuously unlawfully or maliciously deface spoil abuse or unreverently handle or order the most blessed comfortable and holy sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar being in any Church Chappel or other decent place or the Piece or Canapy wherein the same Sacrament is or shall be or pull down deface spoil or otherwise break any Altar or Altars or any Crucifix or Cross in any Church Chappel or Churchyard That then every such offender his ayders and abettors shall be apprehended c. by the Constable or Churchwarden of the place wherein the said offences shall be committed Which persons so apprehended c with convenient speed shall be brought and carried to any Justice of Peace within the said Shire c. where the said offence shall be committed and the said Justice of Peace upon due accusation shall forthwith commit the said person or persons to safe custody as by the discretion of the said Justice shall be thought meet and within six days next after such accusation the said Justice with other Justices of Peace in the said Shire City c. shall diligently examine the acts and offences aforesaid And if two of the said Justices of Peace shall upon examination finde the person or persons so accused guilty of any of the said offences by two sufficient witnesses or by confession the said Justices of Peace shall commit the person or persons so accused to the Gaol of the County City Burrough c. where the said offences were committed without bail or mainprize by the space of three moneths and further to the next quarter sessions to be holden in the said shire city burrough c. next after the end of the said three months which quarter sessions the party offending upon his repentance and reconciliation shall be discharged out of prison upon sufficient security for his good behaviour for one whole year but if he or they will not repent and be reconciled then to be committed again to the said Gaol there to remain until he or they shall repent and be reconciled for their offences If any person shall receive the offendor or disturbe the arrest he shall forfeit to the Queene her Heires and Successors for every such offence the summe of five pounds If any offendor bee not taken but escape hee shall forfeit to the Queene for every such escape five pounds The Justices of Peace Justices of Assize Justices of Oyer and Terminer all Mayors Bayliffs Justices of Peace within any City Borough or Town-corporate have power and authority to enquire into heare and determine the offences and misdemeanors aforesaid and to set fines and amerciaments therefore This Act doth not take away any authority jurisdiction c. of Ecclesiasticall Lawes then in force This Statute repeales all Statutes made against the Church of Rome particularly Anno 1 2 Phil. Mar. cap. 8. the Statute of 21 H. 8. 13. made against plurality of Benefices taking of Farmes by Spirituall men and non residence The Statute of 23 H. 8. 9. That no person shall be cited out of his Diocess wherein he or she dwelleth except for certain cases Stat. 24 H. 8. 12. That Appeals in such cases as had been proved in the See of Rome should not from henceforth be had nor used but within this Realm Stat. 25 H. 8. 19. entituled The submission of the Clergy to the Kings Majesty Stat. 25 H. 8. 20. concerning restraints of Payments of Primates and First-fruits of Arch-bishopricks Bishopricks to the See of Rome Stat. 25 H. 8. 21. concerning the exoneration of the Kings Subjects from exactions and impositions before that time paid to the See of Rome and for having licences and dispensations within this Realm without suing further for the same Stat. 26 H. 8. 1. concerning the Kings being supreme head of the Church and to have Authority to reform and redresse all errors heresies and abuses in the same Stat. 26 H. 8. 14. for nomination and confirmation of Suffragans within this Realm Stat. 27 H. 8. 15. whereby the King should have power to nominate 32. persons of his Clergy and Lay Fee for making Ecclesiasticall Lawes Stat. 28 H. 8. 10. Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome Stat. 28. H. 8. 16. For release of such as then had obtained pretenced licences and dispensations from the See of Rome Stat.
of them or by any Generall Councell wherein the same was declared heresie by expresse and plaine words of Scripture or such as should be determined Heresie by the high Court of Parl. with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This Statute revives the 23 H. 8. 9. 24 H. 8. 12. 25 H. 8. 20. 25 H. 8. 21. 26 H. 8. 14. 28 H. 8. 16. So much of the Act of the 32 H. 8. 38. concerning precontracts of Marriages and touching degrees of Consanguinity as by the 2 Ed. 6. 23. was not repealed the 37 H. 8. 17. the 1 Ed. 6. 1. This Act repeales the Statute of the 1 2. Ph. M. 6. the 1 2 Ph. M. 8 except those things touching the Premunire in the said Statute It repeales the 5 R. 2. 5. the 2 H. 4. 15. the 2 H. 5. 7. made for the punishment of Heresies by fire and faggot This statute repeales the statute of the first of Mary and the 2 and revives Stat. 1 Eliz. cap. 2. the statute of the 5 6 of Ed. 6. for the uniformity of Prayer and administration of the Sacraments with the alteration or addition of certain Lessons to be used every Sunday of the yeere and the forme of the Letany altered and corrected and two sentences only added in the delivery of the Sacrament to the Communicants If any Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should say or sing Common-Prayer mentioned in the said Booke in such Cathedrall or Parish-Church or other places where he should Minister the same in such manner and forme as is mentioned in the said Booke refuse to doe the same or use any other forme or shall preach declare or speake any thing in derogation of the said booke or any thing therein contained or any part thereof and shall thereof be lawfully convicted according to the Lawes of the Land by the Verdict of 12 men or confession or notorious evidence of the fact shall forfeit to the Queene c. for the first offence the profits of one whole yeere next after such conviction of all his spirituall Benefices and suffer imprisonment for the space of six moneths without Bayle or Mainprize If any such person once convicted concerning the Premisses shall after such conviction offend and be thereof lawfully convict shall suffer imprisonment for the space of one whole year and be deprived ipso facto of all his spirituall promotions and that it shall be lawfull for all Patrons and Donors of such Spirituall promotions to present or collate to the same as if the person or persons so offending were dead If any person be convicted the third time of the premisses he shall ipso facto be deprived of all his spirituall promotions and shall suffer imprisonment during life Any person that shall offend and be convicted inform aforesaid concerning any of the premisses not being beneficiall or having any spirituall promotion shall for the first offence after such conviction suffer imprisonment for the space of one whole year without Bail or Mainprise and for the second offence after lawfull conviction shall suffer imprisonment during life If any person shall doe or speak any thing in derogation of the book of Common-prayer or disturb or interrupt any Parson Vicar or other Minister in any Cathedrall or Parshi Church or Chappel in the celebration of the Common-prayer or ministration of the Sacraments or shall compell or cause any other Service to be celebrated being thereof lawfully convict shall for the first offence forfeit to the Queen c. the summe of one hundred Marks and for the second offence the summe of four hundred Marks and for the third offence he shall forfeit all his Goods and Chattels and suffer imprisonment during life If any person shall for the first offence be convict of the premisses in form aforesaid and shall not pay the sum to be paid by virtue of his conviction that instead thereof he shall suffer imprisonment for the space of 6. moneths without Bail or Mainprise and he that shall not pay for the second conviction shal suffer imprisonment for the space of 12. moneths without Bail or Mainprise Every person shall having no lawfull or reasonable excuse to be absent diligently and faithfully endeavour to resort to the usuall places where Common-prayer and such Service of God shall be used upon Sundayes and other dayes appointed to be kept holy and there abide orderly and soberly during the time of Common-prayer Preaching and other Service of God upon pain of punishment by censures of the Church and twelve pence to be levied by the Church-wardens to those of the poor of the Parish by way of distress The Ordinaries and all other Officers Ecclesiasticall as well in places exempt as not exempt within their Diocess have power and authority by this Act to correct and reform and punish by Church censures all who shall offend within their Jurisdictions The Justices of Oyer and Determiner or Justices of Assise in open and generall Sessions have power to hear determine and punish these offences yet so that every Arch-bishop and Bishop in their severall Diocesses by virtue of this Act may associate or joyn themselves with the said Justices No person shall be molested for any offences abovesaid unlesse he be indicted at the next generall Sessions next after such offences are committed All Lords of Parliament for their third offence shall be tried by their Peers Chiefe Officers of Cities and Boroughs have the like authority to hear and determine the offences aforesaid as the Justices of Assize and Oyer and Determiner have Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors Commissaries Arch-Deacons and other Ordinaries having any peculiar Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction have by virtue of this Act power in their Visitations Synods and elsewhere within their Jurisdictions to enquire and take the accusations and informations of all the offences aforesaid and to punish the same by Admonition Excommunication Sequestration or Deprivation and other censures in like form as heretofore has been used by the Queens Ecclesiasticall Laws Any person offending in the premisses and punished therefore by the Ordinary having a testimoniall thereof under the Ordinaries Seal shall not for the same offence be convicted before the Justices and likewise punished for the first offence by the Justices he shall not again receive punishment of the Ordinary Such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers shall be reteined Anno 5 Eliz. cap. 1. and be in use as was in this Church of England by authority of Parliament in the 2 year of the Reign of Ed. 6. untill other Order shall be taken by authority of the Queen with the advice of the Commissioners appointed and authorised under the Great Seal of England for causes Ecclesiasticall or of the Metropolitan of the Realm It was enacted That whatsoever person inhabiting in the Queens Dominions who by word or deed should maintain that the Bishop of Rome had any authority or jurisdiction in any of the
she was rather carefull to conserve peace at home then to maintain it abroad and was more mindfull of the present age then of posterity and sure that King that succeeded her might justly expect to finde a hard taske so to Govern as to preserve the love and obedience shee had for besides her prudence and frugality in Government and expences she was single had not any kindred in the Nation which were any charge to her whereas the King succeeding not only having a Queen but also Posterity must multiply expence whereby hee shall lose the affections of his Subjects from whom it must be raised or abate of the magnificennce which is necessary for the reputation and Regality and which every Monarch ought especially to be carefull of for Where Majesty or Power is contemptible the exercise of them is never permanent Ecclesiasticall Lawes made by King James THis Statute doth Enact That all Statutes made by Queene Elizabeth Anno 1. Jac. cap. 4. against all Jesuites Priests and Seminaries made in the Church of Rome and all those Statutes made against all manner of Recusants be put in due and exact execution Every Recusant that shall conforme himselfe to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church of England and repaire to Church and continue there during the time of divine Service and Sermon according to the true intent of the statute in that case made in the time of Queen Elizabeth shall be discharged from all penalties of Recusancy so long as he continues in such obedience and conformity The heir of any Recusant who is no Recusant shall not incur any penalty for the Recusancy of his ancestor if at the death of any Recusant the heire of the Recusant be a Recusant and after become conformable to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church and take the oath of Supremacy made in the first yeere of Q. Eliz before the Archbishop or Bishop of the Diocess then every such heir shall be discharged of all penalty hapning in respect of the Recusancy of his Ancestor If the Heire of any Recusant bee within the age of sixteene yeeres at the death of his Ancestor and after become or bee a Recusant that then hee shall not bee discharged from the penalty of Recusancy untill hee submit to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church and take the said oath of Supremacy in manner and form expressed 23 Eliz. cap. 1. Where any seisure shall be had of the 2 parts of any Lands or Tenements c. for the not payment of the 20. l. due and payable for each moneth according to the Statute in that case lately made * in such case two third parts shall goe to the payment of the said twenty pound a moneth the third part shall not be extended by the King nor forfeited by the Recusant where any seisure hath beene made by the King and the debt or duty by reason of Recusancy not paid then the King may continue the seisure untill the residue of the debt be fully satisfied and discharged The King and his Heirs shall not seize nor extend any third part descending to any such heirs or any part thereof either by reason of the Recusancy of such heir or the Recusancy of his Ancestor Every person under the Kings obedience which at any time after the end of the session of that Parliament shall send any childe or other person under his Government into any parts beyond the Seas out of the Kings obedience to be resident in any Colledg or house of any popish Order or Profession whatsoever or repair to the same to be instructed in the popish Religion or in any sort to professe the same shall for every such offence forfeit to the King the summe of one hundred pounds and every person so passing or sent beyond the Seas in respect of himselfe or her selfe only and not in respect of his or her posterity be made incapable to inherit or purchase in any of the Kings Dominions If any person borne in any of the Kings Dominions at the making of this Act were in any such house or Colledg to be instructed in the popish Religion and should not return into some of his Majesties Dominions within one yeere next after the session of that Parliament and submit himself as is aforesaid shall be in respect of himselfe only and not in respect of his heirs and posterity utterly uncapable of inheriting or purchasing within any of the Kings Dominions Provided that if any such person shall afterward become obedient and conformable to the lawes and ordinances of the Church of England and repaire to Church according to the true intent of the said statutes and ordinances and continue so to doe that then every such person shall be discharged of such disability No woman nor any childe under the age of twenty one yeeres except Saylors and Ship-boyes or the Apprentice or Factor of some Merchant in trade of Merchandize shall be permitted to passe over the Seas without License from the King or six or more of the privy Councell under their hands upon paine that the officers of the Port that willfully or negligently did suffer any such to passe and did not enter the names of such passengers so licensed shall forfeit their office and all their goods and chattels and that every owner of any ship or vessell that shall willfully carry over seas any such person without license shall forfeit his ship or vessell and all the tackle and every Mr. or Mariner of or in any such ship offending as aforesaid shall forfeit all their goods and suffer imprisonment by the space of 12 moneths without baile or mainprize No person shall keepe any Schoole or be a Schoole-master out of any of the Universities or Colledges of this Realme except it bee in some publick or free Grammer-Schoole or in some such Noblemans or Noblewomans Gentlemans or Gentlewomans house as are not Recusants or where the said same Schoole-Master shall not be licensed by the Archbishop Bishop or Guardian of the Spiritualties of that Diocesse upon paine that as well the schoole-master as the party that entertains him shall forfeit for every day so offending the sum of forty shillings the one halfe to the King the other to him who shall sue for the same in any of the Kings Courts of Record in Westminster by Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information in which no Essoine Protection or wager of Law shall be allowed Because some popishly affected did repaire to Church monethly whereby Stat. Anno. 3. Jac. cap. 4. they did evade the penalties imposed by precedent Parliaments as is alledged It was therefore Enacted That if any Recusant so conformed shall not once a yeere at least after the Session of Parliament receive the Sacrament in the Church of that parish where he or she usually abides or if there be no Church then in the Church next adjoyning shall forfeit for the first yeere the summe of twenty pounds for the second yeere
forty pounds and for every yeere after the summe of sixtie pounds untill hee or shee shall receive the Sacrament as aforesaid and if he or she who hath received the Sacrament as aforesaid shall after offend in not receiving the Sacrament as aforesaid by the space of one whole yeere that then he shall forfeit for every such offence the summe of sixty pounds the one moity to the King the other to him who will sue for the same in any of the Courts of Record in Westminster or before any Justices of Assize or before Justices of Peace at their generall Quarter-Sessions by Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information wherein no Essoyne Protection or Wager of Law shall be allowed The Churchwardens and Constables of every Towne Parish or Chappel for the time being or some one of them or if there be none then the chief Constables of the Hundred where such Town Parish or Chappell is or one of them as well in places exempt as not exempt shall once every yeere present the monthly absence from Church of all popish Recusants within such Townes and parishes and shall present the names of every of the children of the said Recusants being above the age of nine yeeres and as neere as they can the age of the said children as also the names of the Servants of the said Recusants at the next generall or quarter-Sessions of that shire limit division or liberty All such Presentments shall bee Recorded in the said Sessions by the Clerke of the Peace or Towne-clarke for the time being without any Fee and for default of every such Presentment the said Churchwardens Constables or High-constables shall forfeit twenty shillings and for default of recording such presentment without a Fee the Clerke of the Peace or Town-clerke shall forfeit 40. s. Every Presenement made by any Churchwarden constable or High-constable as aforesaid whereby any Recusant shall happen to be convicted shall be rewarded by having 40. s. to be levyed out of such Recusants goods and estate in such manner as by the more part of the Justices shall be ordered by warrant under their hands and seales The Justices of Assiize and Justices of Quarter-sessions have power to heare and determine of all Recusants as well for not receiving the Sacrament as for not coming to Church and have also power to make Proclamation that the body of every such offendor shall be rendred to the Sheriff of the county or the Baylif or keeper of the Goale of the liberty before the next Assizes Generall or Quarter-sessions and if then the offendor shall not make his appearance upon Record that every such default shall be deemed as a sufficient conviction by verdict of 12 men This Statute recites the penalties imposed by the 29 Eliz. 6. upon a Recusant convict and that every conviction shall be certified into the Exchequer as is in the statute of 23 El. 1. concerning Recusants monethly forfeitures yet by this statute the King may refuse the 20 l. a moneth and take the 2 parts of the Recusants lands yet the King shall not take into his two parts the Mansion house nor shall demise nor lease over the 2 third parts or any part thereof to any Recusant nor to the use of any Recusant and whosoever shall take any lease of the King of such lands shall give such security as the Court of Exchequer shall allow not to suffer any waste to be committed upon the Premisses For the better tryall how the Kings subjects stand affected in point of loyalty and due Obedience it is Enacted That after the end of the session of Parliament any Bishop of the Diocesse or any two Justices of peace whereof one of the Quorum within the jurisdiction of their sessions may require any person of the age of 18 yeeres or above being or which shall bee convict or indicted for any Recusancy except noblemen and noble women for not repairing to Divine service according to law or have not received the Sacrament twice within the yeere next past or any person passing through the County or Liberty and unknowne except as is before excepted that being examined by them upon oath shall confesse or not deny himself to be a Recusant or shall confesse or not deny that he hath not taken the Sacrament twice within the yeere to take this Oath hereafter upon the holy Evangelists which said Bishop or two Justices shall certifie in writing subscribed with his or their hands at the next generall or Quarter-sessions the Christian name Sirname and place of abode of every person which shall take the said Oath which Certificate shall be there Recorded and kept among Records of the said sessions If any person other then noblemen and noble women shall refuse to answere upon Oath to such Bishop or Justices of Peace or take the said Oath duely tendred then the said Bishops or Justices of Peace shall commit the same person to the common Goale without Baile or Mainprize untill the next Assizes or quarter Sessions where the said Oath shall be againe tendred unto them by the Justices of Affize or Justices of Peace or the greater part of them and if such person shall then refuse to take the Oath he shall incur the penalty of a praemunire except women Covert who upon refusall shall only be committed to the common Goale there to remain without bail or mainprize untill they take the said Oath The Tenour of the Oath I A. B Doe truly and sincerely acknowledg professe testify and declare in my Conscience before God and the World that our Soveraign Lord King James is lawfull and rightfull King of this Realm and of all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries and that the Pope neither of himselfe nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other meanes with any other hath any power or authority to depose the King or to dispose of any of his Majesties Kingdomes or Dominions or to authorize any forreigne Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his subjects of their Allegiance and Obedience to his Majesty or to give licence or leave to any of them to beare Arms or raise tumults or to offer any violence or hurt to his Majesties Royall Person State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his Majesties Dominions Also I sweare from my heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successors or by any authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heires and Suceessors or any absolution of the said Subjects from their obedience I will beare faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crowne and Dignity
said Justices of peace or any of them or shall hinder or disturb any such Justices or any person authorised by them to seize the same shall forfeit all such armour and amunition to the King and beimprisoned by warrant from any of the Justices of the County during the space of three moneths without bayl or mainprize This Act nor any thing therein shall not abridge the authority and jurisdiction of Ecclesiasticall censures See Statute 6 anno 7 Jacobi who shall take the oath of obedience to the King and by whom it shall be ministred and within what time If any married woman being lawfully convict as a popish Recusant for not coming to Church shall not within three moneths after such conviction conform her self and repair to Church and receive the Sacrament according to Law then shall shee be committed to prison by one of the Kings Privy Councell if she be a Baroness or if she be under that degree by two of the Justices of the peace of the County whereof one of the Quorum without Bail or Mainprise untill she conform her self to come to Church and receive the Sacrament unlesse the Husband shall pay to the King ten pounds a moneth or the third part of his Lands and Tenements so long as the Wife remaining out of prison shall continue a convicted Recusant during which time and no longer she shall have her liberty If the giving of the temporall powers cognizance of crimes meerly spirituall Annot. be objected to Edw. 6. Queen Elizabeth and King James I think no man will undertake to answer for all things done by men yet thus much may be answered that it was no new thing for the Statute of 2 H. 5. cap. 7. gives Justices of peace and Justices of assise full power and authority to enquire of these who hold Errors Heresies and Lollardy and of their maintainers and that the Sheriff and other Officers may arrest and apprehend Anno 1. Sess 2. cap. 2. them and that this was done by Queen Mary See Mary Of King James AS there was never any Prince who had a more clear and undoubted King James his Title and Reception right and title to the English Diadem then King James for besides that he was Heir to both Houses of York and Lancaster as is most truly acknowledged by both Houses of Parliament Anno 1. cap. 1. Jac. he was derived by a long descent of Royall Ancestors from Malcolm Conmor or Cammore King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret being the name of her from whom the united Title of both Houses of York and Lancaster descended upon him Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling Son and Heir of Edward eldest son of Edmond surnamed Ironside so that all titles as well of right of blood as of conquest might so truly be ultimately resolved into him that in the whole world no just exception could be taken against them so never was any Prince received with so little opposition and contradiction by all sorts of his Subjects both in England and Ireland where all those long rebellions and commotions did expire with Queen Elizabeth and in both Kingdomes all became so pacate and calme that during all his Reign in neither Nation was any sword drawn in opposition to him There was such havock made in the Reign of H. 8. Ed. 6. of all Church His care of the Church Lands upon pretence forsooth of Reformation that to stay it there was a Law made in the first of Queen Eliz. cap. 19. that all Gifts Grants Feofments Fines and other Conveyances made by any Arch-bishop or Bishop of any Honours Castles Manors Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments being parcell of the possession of his Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick or united or appertaining or belonging to any of the same to any person other then the Queen her Heirs and Successors whereby any Estate should or might pass from the Arch-bishop or Bishop other then for the term of 21 years or three lives reserving the old Rent or more shall be utterly void Cambden Eliz. Reg. pag. 36. takes notice of the great abuse made by the Courtiers of that clause or exception of the Queen c. And indeed William of Burley had by the Queens permission so gelt the Bishoprick of Ely by virtue of this clause that it lay void above twenty years before any man of abilities or honesty would take it so pol'd and maimed although some were conunitted to prison for refusing of it But King James as his first and chiefest care by an Act of Parliament in the first year of his Reign cap. 3. made a Law that all assurances afterward made to the King of any of the Lands of Arch-Bishops or Bishops should be void so that the rapine and prey made upon the Church was first restrained totally by him King James was not only a devout observor of the Government Rites His care of Religion and Ceremonies of the Church of England but made it one of his chiefest cares to have brought an Uniformity as well in Scotland as in England and proceeded so far as to settle Episcopacy among them naming thirteen new Bishops for so many Episcopall Sees as had been anciently in that Church three of which received consecration from the Bishops of England and conferred it on the rest of their Brethren at their comming home Which Bishops he armed also with the power of an High Commission the better to keep down the insolent and domineering spirit of the Presbyterians In order to the other he procured an Act to be passed in the Assembly at Aberdeen 1616. for composing a Liturgy and extracting a new book of Canons out of the scattered Acts of their old Assemblies At the Assembly held at Perth anno 1618. he obtained an Order for the receiving the Communion kneeling for the administring Baptisme and the Lords Supper in private houses in cases of extreme necessity for Episcopall confirmation and finally for the celebrating the Anniversaries of our Saviours birth his Passion Resurrection and Ascension and the coming down of the Holy Ghost all which he got confirmed in the following Parliament So far did this wise King advance the work of Uniformity before his engaging in the cause of the Palatinate his breach with Spain and the warre which issued thereupon did divert his thoughts To his peacefull disposition and his care of the Church and Religion His great learning and clemency in the next place may be truly added his great abilities in learning so far transcending not only the Kings of the present age his contemporaries but all his predecessors and surely scarcely to be paralled by any of his time as his many learned works testifie To these other virtues may be added a mind no wayes vindicative although sometimes transported with present passion yet of some small continuance that in person or estate he was never noted to punish any man rashly or extrajudicially And although he was no great lover
CHARLES IT is a thing very worthy of great consideration To thinke how the singular virtues and eminent qualities of so good and pious a Prince should come to so cruell so unfortunate an end for in him was all those amiable qualities which in another age would have rendred him reverenced and admired So singular Piety That the Portracture of King CHARLES in his sufferings will be a Character of it beyond all expression but his own so ardent a zeale in Religion that not any Regular in Religion was a more devout observer of his Order then the King was of the Rites and Liturgy of the Church So free from Simony that the suspicion of it in any man how deserving soever otherwise was sufficient bar from any advancement in the Church So just that though he every day saw the Puritan-faction budding out more formidably both in Church or State yet did he never proceede illegally or in an extrajudiciall manner against any man before the stormes of his Adversaries broke out upon him on every side So mercifull that the Scotish Lord Balmerino An. 1634. being legally convict of Treason was pardoned by him Nor was Louden proceeded against for holding correspondency with the King of France without the Kings privity and giving him the Title of Du Roy nor in all his Reigne how formidable soever the faction grew did he before the war brake out against him put any to death except one in the Lambeth conspiracy for fomenting and contriving the conspiracy against him To these may be added a profound Judgement in the affaires both of Church State how much it appeared in the former appears in the entercourse between him and Master Hinderson nor was his Pietie to his Parents lesse conspicuous being truly the principall Mourner at his Mothers funerall and chose rather to expresse the Piety hee owed to his Father in attending his dead body to his grave although contrary to the custome of his predecessors then to insist upon nicities of State So singular was his conjugall love and chastity to his Queene that a little before his death he commanded the Princesse Elizabeth his daughter to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never strayed from her and that his love should be the same to the last Jealous he was of the honour of the English Church and Nation and well understanding that where mens mindes are not well knit in Religion nothing will long keep their affections cemented He had a great desire to have finished King James his designe of uniting the Kirk of Scotland in an Uniformity with the Church of England who had made some progresse in an Assembly held at Aberdeen 1616. and afterward in another at Perth 1618. which King Charles got passed in Parliament of Scotland 1633. In him was a perpetuall love to the good and an infinite desire of doing good to all These noble vertues and graces towards God his Parents Wife and Subjects were adorned with most eminent and singular personall vertues and graces as moderation in prosperity magnanimity in adversity so wonderfull patience that after the fight of Cropredy-bridge in his march after the Earl of Essex it chanced that one of his Carriages brake in a narrow long Lane where his Majesty was to passe and gave a stop to him at a time when a great showre of rain happened to fall some of them who were neer about him offered to hew out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get some shelter in the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake the Canon upon any occasion at which some seeming to admire his patience his Majesty lifting up his hat said That as God had given him afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his afflictions So severe an observer of his words and actions that he was never observed to say any thing lightly or rashly or in his personall actions did any thing which might render his person or authority contemptible So temperate that in all his life he was never observed disorderly to exceed in eating or drinking affable yet conserving the dignity of his Majesty to all men free and open in his conversation little practicing the only lesson which Lewis the eleventh would learn his Son Charles the ninth Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare So frugall that though he had a Queen and plentifull Issue and expended much more in repairing the Navy for recovering the Soveraignty of the narrow seas then he received of his Subjects and the Exchequer left empty by his Father yet he encreased it before the first Scotish expedition to a greater mass then was ever found since it was exhausted by Henry the Eighth So elegant and pure a stile he had in writing that I expect to live to see it as much imitated by Englishmen as Caesar's was among the Romans Neither which is no lesse remarkable were any of these virtues stained with any suspected vice To the qualities of his mind were joyned Ornaments of his body every way answerable a venerable and gracious aspect yet best when he did not speak agility of members so disposed that in riding the great Horse running the ring vaulting shooting in the Crosbow Musket and sometime the great Ordinance He was thought to be the best Marksman and comliest manager of the great Horse of any man in the three Nations nor was lesse judicious in choosing a Winter Deere which is one of the hardest taskes of a Woodman then excellent in shooting a Deere Dr. Harvey Gen. Anim. exerc 64. pag. 422. propt med affirmes him to be delighted in observations the Dr. made of the causes of Generation from his dissection and Anatomies of the Deere in Hampton-Court c. but whether wanting that magnanimity of looking dangers in the face upon their first budding which is so necessary to the conservation of Regality or whether not having sufficiently understood that benefits conferred upon seditious men never begot any obligation of gratitude upon them but on the contrary they alwaies make advantage of them to get more untill not having more to expect grow jealous least their benefactors might by some means better reassume them then they extort them they hate them which usually ends in the murder of Princes but thinking to overcome his adversaries by his benefits example and clemency or to give satisfaction to all Factions of his Subjects he preferred all Factions in his Court and Councell though he excluded them out of the Church whereby he gave vent to all the Factions so as the veneration of the Royal name became every day more contemptible the Factions increased daily more formidable his counsels became distracted and betrayed and all the treasure he had gathered consumed in the first Northern expedition against the Scots where having many advantages to have subdued them he made a dishonorable peace with them io the increase of their reputation and losse of his own being destitute of treasure and
are the English and Scottish And also since the corruption of the best thing is worst it will not be amiss before we conclude this Chapter and Book to discourse this Probleme whether upon all occasions it be the only and necessary way to cure all distempers of State by a full convention in Parliament according to the usuall constitution And first we will see what may be said for it That the passing of Lawes in Parliament where the major part of the Object 1 Freeholders are represented creates and begets a right understanding between the King and his Subjects that it is not the intention of the Prince to alter the old Lawes and introduce new ones to their prejudice To this I subscribe That when Lawes are so passed it confirmes and strengthens the Prince both by the person and purse of his Subjects in any designe he shall undertake because the representatives of the Freeholders consent unto it To this I subscribe That Parliaments have been of that antiquity and the Nation so habituated to them that it will never long be governed peaceably without them To this I subscribe That the grievances of the Nation can never be so well represented and redressed as in Parliament where the major part of the Freeholders are represented To this I subscribe That men will lesse dare to abuse their Prince or Country by any sinister or indirect means when Parliaments are frequent and free To this I subscribe The frequent use of Parliaments takes away all strangenesse between the King and his Subjects and begets a confidence and right understanding between them To this I subscribe That since it is necessary that every Prince in governing must necessarily ultimately resolve his confidence into something besides the Lawes to which upon all occasions he may betake himself for the Execution and defence of himself and Subjects and this must be by a constant Army in pay of his Subjects according to the institution of the Roman Legions or out of a diffidence of his own Subjects or from some reason of state trust the protection of his Person and Lawes into the hands of Foreigners as did the Kings of Aegypt before Sclymus conquered them or as the King of France now does in the hands of Switz and Scots or he must betake himself to the protection of a mercinary Army made up of his Subjects and Foreiners as the Turks Janizaries and Spahi are or establish his security and refuge up-the affection of his subjects and intrust them with the Militia in such manner as hath beene used heretofore in England and that this agrees better with the nature and constitution of English-men then any of the other as being established as well by common-Law as many Acts of Parliament To this I subscribe To these may be added that Tacitus in the life of Agricola makes it one great cause of the Romans conquering our Ancestors That they consulted not in common Nec aliud adversus validissimas Gentes pro nobis utilius quam quod in commune non consultant Rarus ad Propulsandum commune periculum conventus It a dum singuli pugnant aniversi vincuntur Quaere Yet quaere whether Rising-Chase in Norfolke and old Sarum in Wilts where are no Inhabitants but a few meane Tenants sending twice the numbers to the Parliament with the county of Yorke and whether the County and City of Durham sending none at all and whether Cornwall's sending ten times as many as either Warwick-shire or Leicestershire and yet eyther of them bigger and far more rich Counties Or whether Cities and Boroughs not only sending a like number of Citizens and Burgesses with the County having alike Vote with them of the County be an equall representative of the Freeholders Or whether the waies used in the Elections doe not animate the Electors and those that stand in Competition against one another and that to such a height That many of the Electors and those who stand are never after reconciled Answer It is true indeed that if God had determined all things in this inferior Orbe without any variation and that this thing were alwaies to be attained only by some one means that this in governing were by councell in Parliament then could there be neither reason or discourse upon variation and alteration of things and no difference betweene the wisest of Princes and the most foolish but this is so far from truth that there is nothing sublunary not only variable but doth vary every moment neither is there any thing in Reason Physick or State alike to all men nay in all of them the same thing may be at one time good and profitable at another time bad and hurtfull What man sees not that in health nature is not repaired by any man without a proportionable measure of diet which when he is indisposed may surcharge nature to the overthrow of it in him Strong physick may be proper to a man at one time and kill him at another Parliaments although ordinarily are the Kings surest refuge yet by how much they are more excellent by so much the worse are they corrupted Times are and will be bad when they are not made so by any cause in the Prince and so bad that in such conjuncture it may prove the utmost evill if the Houses or eyther of them shall assume the title of Parliament or give head to such Factions and distempers And no question when the Scots invaded England in 1640 it was unsafe Councell that advised the King to summon a Parliament and worst of all to convene it at London as things then stood For that saying of Tacitus it is rather Rhetoricall and makes against the Antiquity of Parliaments then any way proves necessity of them upon all occasions unless he could make consulere and pugnare the same thing nor could Agricola ever have obteined such victory against our Ancestors if he had fought with no more then had councelled him Epilogue WHen I looke back and consider the unstable condition of mankinde especially among Islanders and that often times the fate of good religious and just men is in this World more calamitous then of bad and vicious men I did then conclude with my self that Religion Justice and Piety cannot of themselves procure peace and society to mankind nay what is yet more lamentable that first sublunary cause from whence all Subjects derive and expect their protection is more subject to calamity then the condition of the meanest of mortall men Let a man take a survey of all the Kings in Britain since there were any Records of time and see whether neer one halfe of them did attain a naturall death nor is this confined within the Seas which encompass our Isle or a new thing in other parts of the world for Adgenerum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Juvenal Sat. 10. Descendunt Reges I shall therefore before I conclude endeavour to shew whether any peace and happinesse may be reasonably
with the Opinion of Learned men That the marriage with his Brothers wife was contrary to the Law of God and void The King not expecting the Popes sentence anno 1533. marries his beloved Anne but such love is usually too hot to hold for about two years after he cut off her head yet the King did not wholly renounce the Papacy but still expecting the Popes sentence The Pope for the reasons aforesaid not desiring to end the business The slow proceedings of the Pope but to expect advantage from time reduces the matter into several points or heads which he would have particularly disputed and at the time of the Kings marriage with Anne was not got further then the article of Attentates in which the Pope gave sentence against the King that it was not lawful for him to put away his wife by his own authority without the Ecclesiastical Judge For which cause the King in the beginning of 1534. denied the Pope his obedience commanding his Subjects not to pay any money to Rome nor to pay the ordinary Peter-pence This infinitely troubled the Court of Rome and they daily consulted of a remedy Some thought to proceed against the King with censures and to interdict all Christian nations all commerce with England But the moderate counsel pleased best to temporise with him and to mediate a composition by the French King K. Francis accepted the charge and sent the Bishop of Paris to Rome to negotiate a Pacification with the Pope where they still proceeded in the cause gently and with resolution not to come to censures if the Emperor did not proceed first or at the same time with his forces They had divided the cause into twenty three articles and then they handled whether Prince Arthur had had carnal conjunction with Queen Katherine in this they spent time till Midlent was past when the 19. of March news came that a Libel was published in England against the Pope and the whole Court of Rome and besides a Comedy had been made in presence of the King and Court to the great disgrace and shame of the Pope and every Cardinal in particular For which cause all being inflamed with choler ran headlong to give sentence which was pronounced in the Consistory the 24. of the same month That the marriage between Henry and Katherine was good that he was bound to take her to wife and that in case he did not he should be excommunicated But the Pope was soon displeased with this precipitation For six days His rash censure repented of after the French Kings letters came That the King was content to accept the sentence concerning Attentates and to render obedience upon condition that the Cardinals whom he mistrusted should not meddle in the business and that persons not suspected should be sent to Cambray to take information â—and and the King had sent his Proctors before to assist in the Cause at Rome Wherefore the Pope went about to devise some pretence to suspend the precipitate sentence and again to set the cause on its feet But the King so soon as he had seen it said It was no matter for the Utterly loses the obedience of England Pope should be Bishop of Rome and himself sole Lord of his Kingdom And that he would do according to the antient manner of the Eastern church not leaving to be a good Christian nor suffering the Lutheran Heresie or any other to be brought into his Kingdom From that time forward Henry the Eighth of a zealous Assertor of the No anger lost between the King Pope Papacy both by pen and purse became the first and greatest Opposer of it of all the Western Christian Princes for the Eastern Christian Princes except sometimes the Emperors of Greece and the Kings of Holy Land did seldom or never submit to the Papacy in her Spirituals yet did he afterwards seed to be reconciled to the Pope even by means of his Nephew Charls the Fifth Nor were the Popes much behind hand with him For besides Clement's petty Excommunication Paul the Third Anno 1538. thundred out such a terrible Excommunication against him as the like was never heard of which deprived him of his kingdom and his adherents of whatsoever they possessed commanding his Subjects to deny him obedience and Strangers to have no commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against and persecute both him and his followers granting them their states and goods for their prey and their persons for slaves But the Popes anger ended in words whereas the Kings deeds took place against the Pope But what there was in all the Kings reign which might be called Reformation What was the Kings Reformation I do not understand For whatsoever the King took from the Pope except Peter-pence he ascribed to himself If the Pope would be Head of the Catholique Church the King would be Head of the Church of England If the Pope challenged Annates and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy the King would do no less If the Pope did give Abbots and Priors power being Ecclesiastical persons to make divers Impropriations to their benefit the King will take a power to take them all away and convert them into Lay-fees and incorporate them so into particular mens estates that they shall never return to the Church more Nor had he any love or desire of Reformation of the Church but only to the Church-lands for all the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of the Church of Rome was continued and that with such bloody cruelty that a Stranger going over Smithfield one day and seeing two men there executed one for denying the Kings Headship of the Church and another for subscribing to the Six Articles cryed out Bone Deus quomodo hic agunt vivi hic suspenduntur Papistae ibi comburuntur Antipapistae And so zealous did he continue herein that Pope Paul the Third after he had fulminated so dreadfully against him Hist Conc-Trid fol. 90 proposed him for an Example to be imitated by Charls the Fifth Although such was the temper of this Prince that he never spared man The exclusion of the Papai jurisdiction was an act of the King Kingdom and Church of England in his rage woman in his lust nor any thing which might be called sacred in his avarice yet so absolute was he that his Divorce was attested by both the Universities at home besides that at Paris abroad his freeing himself and the Nation from the jurisdiction of the Pope was not only assented to by a Synod and Convocation of all the Clergy of England but the English and Irish Nobility did make their submissions by an Indenture to Sir Anthony Sellinger then chief Governor of Ireland wherein they did acknowledge King Henry to be their lawful Soveraign and confessed the Kings Supremacy Bram. Vind. of the Church of England p. 43. in all causes and utterly renounced the Pope But Divorce banishing the Papal authority
Dissolution of Abbies and all were easily passed and assented to in Parliament But whatsoever the King were otherwise yet sure the Popes passion The Pope was more unjust in his censures then the King was in excluding the Papal jurisdiction against him carried them to greater extravagancies and exorbitancies then were on his part against them For suppose that the Pope had de facto the Investitures of Bishops Peter-pence Annates and First-fruits paid them and did exercise a jurisdiction over all the Church and Clergy yet no question all these things were by the grants and permission of precedent Kings and if Kings may grant and permit these things then what hinders but that they may recall them for Cujus est velle ejus est nolle Besides we have already shewed that although there were not that bitter personal spite between the Kings of England and and the Popes formerly as was between Henry 8. and Clement 7. and Paul 3. yet did many of them ascribe as little to the Pope as Henry did But for a Pope to deprive a Christian Prince of his kingdom over whom he had no manner of right his Adherents of whatsoever they possessed to command his Subjects to deny their obedience to their Soveraign and Strangers not to have any commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against him and his followers granting them their estates and goods for a prey and their persons for slaves is so unlike to the example and precept of S. Peter whom they pretend to succeed who not only suffered death under Temporal power but inspired by God does command so expresly obedience to Kings not as subordinate to himself 1 Pet. 2. 13. but as supreme And of our Saviour himself who both suffered himself under Temporal power and paid tribute to Caesar and took not away but fulfilled the Moral Law which commands obedience to Princes and Higher powers and whose kingdom was not of this world that sure no Turk or Infidel was so much an enemy to Christians or indeed rather to mankind as to have desired it The state of the Church and of the Ecclesiastical Laws made by Edward the sixth THe time of this Kings reign being a Child and therefore woful and of his Father were perillous days The Father in his Laws scarce ever took advice but from his passion lust or avarice the Son although a Prince of infinite hope and goodness yet wanting the authority and reputation requisite in a Soveraign was either not able to restrain or else perswaded it was beneficial to give reins to a company of Sacrilegious Harpies and Courtiers to make a total prey not only upon all Colledges Free-Chappels Chantries and all their Lands except them of the Universities and some few other which by the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. cap. 14. were given to Camb. pref Eliz. Reg. Life of Ed. 6. the King upon specious pretences but the Lands of the Bishops generally became a prey unto them So much worse is it for every thing to be lawful then that any thing should be Law It was enacted That if any man spake irreverently or contemptuously An. 1. Ed. 6. c. 6. of the Sacrament of the Altar he should be imprisoned and fined at the Kings will and pleasure and that Justices of Peace might enquire of offenders Yet should not the person offending be arraigned or tryed unless the Bishop of the Diocese or his Chancellor or Deputy learned were required to be at the Quarter-Sessions to which purpose a new Writ was made Rex c. Episc L. salutem Praecipimus tibi quod tu Cancellarius tuus vel alius deputatus tuus sufficienter eruditus sitis cum Justiciariis nostris ad pacem in com nostro B. conservand assignat apud D. tali die ad sessionem nostram tunc ibidem tenend ad dand consilium advisament eisdem Justitiariis nostris ad pacem super arraiment deliberationem offendet contra Formam statuti concernend sacrosanctum Sacramentum Altaris And by this Satute it was Enacted that the Sacrament should be delivered to the people under both Kindes viz. of Bread and Wine From thenceforth no Conge deslier shall be granted nor any Election An. 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 2. shall be made of any Archbishop or Bishop by the Dean and Chapter but when any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick shall be voided the King by his Letters Patents may confer the same to any person whom he shall think meet c All summons citations and other proces Ecclesiastical shall be made in the name and with the stile of the King as in the Writs of the common Law and the test thereof shall be in the name of the Archbishop or Bishop c. All persons that have the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall have in their Seals of Office the Kings Arms with certain characters under them for the knowledge of their dioces but the Archbishop of Canterbury shall use his own Seal and his own name in all faculties and dispensations A man speaking against the Kings Headship of the Church shall being An. 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 12. thereof attaint or convict forfeit all his Goods and Chattels to the King and suffer imprisonment during the Kings will and pleasure for the first offence and for the second offence forfeit to the King the whole issues and profits of all his Lands and all his Goods and Chattels and suffer perpetual imprisonment and for the third offence shall be adjudged a Traytor and suffer death and forfeit all his Goods and Chattels Lands and Tenements as in cases of High Treason And it shall be deemed Treason for any by Printing Writing or Deed to affirm the King not to be Head of the Church An Act for uniformity of Service and administration of Sacraments being An. 2 3 Ed. 6 Cap. 1. before divers and different viz. of Sarum of York of Bangor and of Lincoln and divers and sundry forms and fashions were used in Cathedrals and Parish-Churches of England and Wales as well concerning Mattens or Morning Prayer and the Evening Song as also concerning the holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of the Sacraments of the Church The Statute does inflict upon every Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should say or sing the said Common Prayer mentioned in the said Book Entituled the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England and shall refuse it or use any other form or shall Preach Declare or speak any thing in derogation of the said Book or any thing contained therein and be thereof lawfully convict by a Jury of twelve men or by confession shall forfeit to the King for the first offence the profit of all his Spiritual benefices and promotions arising in a whole year and