Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	lord_n	petition_v	2,720	5	12.1897	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91263	A seasonable, legall, and historicall vindication and chronologicall collection of the good, old, fundamentall, liberties, franchises, rights, laws of all English freemen (their best inheritance, birthright, security, against arbitrary, tyrannicall, and Egyptian burdens) and of their strenuous defence in all former ages; of late years most dangerously undermined, and almost totally subverted, under the specious disguise of their defence and future establishment, upon a sure basis, their pretended, greatest propugners. Wherein is irrefragably evinced by Parliamentary records, proofs, presidents, that we have such fundamentall liberties, ... that to attempt or effect the subversion of all or any of them, ... is high treason: ... / By William Prynne of Swainswick, Esquire.; Seasonable, legall, and historicall vindication and chronologicall collection of the good, old, fundamentall, liberties, franchises, rights, laws of all English freemen. Part 1	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1654 (1654)	Wing P4062; Thomason E812_10; ESTC R207634	45,225	63

others who condemned it I A. B. do swear that I will never give my consent TO ALTER THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS CHURCH BY ARCH-BISHOPS BISHOPS DEANS AND ARCH-DEACONS c. AS IT STANDS NOW ESTABLISHED AND AS BY RIGHT IT OUGHT TO STAND * See Cant. Doom p. 19 26. 40. Diurn Occurrences p. 13. Resolved by the whole house of Commons and Peers too without one dissenting voice in Parliament Decemb. 1640. to be a most dangerous and illegal Oath contrary to THE RIGHTS and PRIVILEDGES OF PARLIAMENT and to the FUNDAMENTAL LAWS STATUTES OF THE REALM c. and OF DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCE The contriving whereof was objected to the late Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his Original and Additional Articles of Impeachment to be HIGH TREASON for which amongst other things he lost his head The fourth is the notable Petition of Grievance of the whole House of Commons in Parliament presented to King James in the seventh yeer of his Reign after their Vote against his right to lay any Impositions on Goods imported or exported without assent of Parliament in these ensuing words THe Policie and Constitution of this your Majesties Kingdom See Propos 1. in chap. 2. appropriates unto the Kings of this Realm with assent of Parliament as well the Soveraign power of making Laws as that of taxing or imposing upon the Subjects Goods or Merchandizes wherein they have justly such a Property as may not without their consent be altered or changed this is the cause that the People of this Kingdom as they have * O how are they now degenerated ever shewed themselves faithful and loving to their Kings and ready to aid them in all their just occasions Nota. with voluntary Contributions SO HAVE THEY BEEN * And should they not be so now then EVER CAREFUL TO PRESERVE THEIR OWN LIBERTIES AND RIGHTS WHEN ANY THING HATH BEEN DONE TO PREJUDICE OR IMPEACH THE SAME And therefore when their Princes either occasioned by War or by their own bounty or by any other Necessity have without consent of Parliament set on Impositions either within the Land ●r upon Commodities exported or imported by the Merchants they have in open Parliament complained of it in that it was done without their consents AND THEREUPON * And shall we now at last fail h●rein NEVER FAILED TO OBTAIN A SPEEDY AND FULL REDRESS without any † Howdare then any self created powers who are neither Kings nor Parliam●n●s now arrogate to themselves or exercise such a super-Regal arbitrary power prerogative Claim made by the Kings of any Power or Prerogative in that point And though THE LAW OF PROPERTY BE ORIGINAL and carefully preserved by the Common Lawes of this Realm WHICH ARE AS ANCIENT AS THE KINGDOM IT SELF yet those famous Kings for the better contentment and assurance of their loving Subjects agreed THAT THIS OLD FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT observe the words should be further declared AND ESTABLISHED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT wherein it is provided That no such Charge should ever be laid upon the People without their Common consents as may appear by sundry Records of former times We therefore your Majesties most humble Commons assembled in Parliament Nota. * And O that we would sollow it now again FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF THIS WORTHY CARE OF OUR ANCESTORS AND OUT OF OUR DUTY TO THOSE FOR WHOM WE SERVE finding that your Majesty without advice of your Lords and Commons hath lately in times of Peace SET BOTH GREATER IMPOSITIONS AND FAR MORE IN NUMBER THEN ANY YOUR NOBLE ANCESTORS DID EVER IN TIME OF WAR do with all humility present this most just and necessary Petition unto your Majesty THAT ALL IMPOSITIONS SET WITHOUT ASSENT IN PARLIAMENT MAY BE QUITE ABOLISHED AND TAKEN AWAY And that your Majesty likewise in imitation of your Royal PROGENITORS will be pleased that a Law in your time and during this Session of Parliament may be also made to declare THAT ALL IMPOSITIONS OF ANY KIND SET OR TO BE SET UPON YOUR PEOPLE THEIR GOODS OR MERCHANDIZES SAVE ONLY BY COMMON CONSENT IN PARLIAMENT ARE AND SHALL BE VOID wherein your Majesty shall not only GIVE YOUR SUBJECTS GREAT SATISFACTION IN POINT OF THEIR RIGHT but also bring exceeding joy and comfort to them who now suffer partly through the abating of the price of Native Commodities and partly through the raising of all Forraign to the overt● row of Merchants and Shipping the causing of general dearth and decay of all wealth among your people who will be thereby no less discouraged then disabled to supply your Majesty when occasion shall require In which memorable Petition the whole House of Commons resolve in direct terms 1. That the Subjects of England have old original Fundamental Rights and more particularly in the Property of their goods exempted from all Impositions whatsoever in times of Peace or War without their common consent in Parliament declared and established both by the ancient Common Law of England and sundry Acts of Parliament and Records of former times 2. They declare the constant vigilant care zeal of our Ancestors and former Parliaments in all Ages inviolably to maintain defend preserve the same against all encroachments together with their own care duty and vigilancy in this kind in that very Parliament 3. They relate the readiness of our Kings to ratifie these their Fundamental Rights by new Acts of Parliament when they have been violated in any kinde 4. They declare the benefit accruing both to Prince and People by the inviolable preservation and establishment of this old Fundamental Right and the mischiefs accruing to both by the infringement thereof by arbitrary illegal Impositions without full consent in Parliament 5. They earnestly in point of conscience prudence and duty to those for whom they served Petition his Majesty for a new Law and Declaration against all new Impositions and Taxes on Inland Goods or Merchandizes imported or exported without the Peoples free consent in Parliament as null void utterly to be abolished and taken away Whether it will not be absolutely necessary for the whole English Nation and the next ensuing Notional or real Parliament to Prosecute Enact Establish such a Declaration and Law against all such future arbitrary illegal oppressive Taxes Impositions Excises that have been imposed and continued for many years together on the whole Kingdom by new extravagant self-created usurping Army Officers and other Powers without free and full consent of the People in lawful English Parliaments against all former Laws Declarations and Resolutions in Parliament to their great oppression enslaving undoing and that in far greater proportions multiplicity and variety then ever in former Ages without the least intermission and likewise against their late declared design to perpetuate them on our exhausted Nation without alteration or diminution beyond and against all Presidents of former Ages both in times of Peace and War for the future by the 27 28 39 30 9. Articles of the Instrument

punishm●nt again and again and i●stifie it still in 〈◊〉 at his pleasure dissolve this Parliament the Kingdom is not only deprived of the present but made uncapable of enjoying the benefit of any future Parliament or Laws any longer then shall stand with the will and pleasure of the King and consequently THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ALL OUR LAWS GOVERNMENT ARE SUBVERTED Let the Parliament-dissolving Officers Army and their Confederates seriously ponder this with all who shall hereafter sit in Parliamen● consider it in the first place The eleventh is ●1 the a A Collection c. p. 504. Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament 13. Junii 1644. for the Forces raised in the County of Salop which begins thus The Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament taking into their serious considerations the great oppressions under which the Inhabitants of the County of Salop by reason of insupportable Taxes c. and the present condition of the County by reason of the great number of Irish Rebels that have invaded it and joyned with Papists and other ill-affected Persons now in those parts doth threaten the extirpation of the Protestant Religion and the s●b●e●sion of THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS GOVERNMENT OF THE KINGDOM For prevention whereof c. The twelfth is b A Collection c. p. 877 878 879. A Declaration of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament 17. 12. Aprilis 1646. Of their true intentions concerning the AN●●IENT FUNDAMENTAL GOVERNMENT OF THE KINGDOM securing the people against ALL ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT c. wherein they complain That the Enemy being in despair to accomplish his designs by War do misrepresent our intentions in the use we intended to make of the great Successes God hath given us and the happy opportunity to settle peace and truth in the three Kingdoms to beget a belief that we now desire to exceed or swerve from our first Aims and Principles in the Undertaking of this War and to recede from the Solemn League and Covenant and Treaties between the two Kingdoms and that we would prolong these uncomfortable Troubles ●nd b●eeding Distractions IN * And is not this now proved a real exper●●mental 〈◊〉 in some of 〈◊〉 Remonst●●s to their shame ORDER TO ALTER THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTION FRAME OF THIS KINGDOM to leave all Government in the Church loose and unsetled and our selves to exercise THE SAME ARBITRARY POWER OVER THE PERSONS ESTATES OF THE SUBJECTS which this present Parliament hath thought fit to abolish by taking away the Star-Chamber High Commission and other Arbitrary Courts and the exorbitant Power of the Councel Table all which we have seen since experimentally verified in every particular in the highest d●gree notwithstanding this Declaration by some in late and present Power notwithstanding this Publication All which being seriously considered by us c. We do declare THAT OUR TRUE REAL INTENTIONS ARE OUR ENDEAVOR SHALL BE to settle Religion in the purity thereof * And can most of the 〈◊〉 monst●●ns 〈…〉 or present power 〈…〉 joy this 〈◊〉 truth or really And must not they be utterly asham●ed confounded before God and men when they consider how they have dissembled prev●ri●ated with God and men herein in each particular TO MAINTAIN THE ANCIENT FUNDAMENTAL GOVERNMENT OF THIS KINGDOM TO PRESERVE THE RIGHTS LIBERTIES In the b Walsingha● Stow Hollinshed Speed Grafton Baker An. 5. R. 2. John Stows Survay of London p. 89. 10 103. Mr. St. Iohns Argument at Law at Straffords Attainder p. 14 fifth year of King Richard the second the vulgar Rabble of people and Villains in Kent Essex Sussex Norfolk Cambridgeshire and other Countries under the Conduct of Wat Tyler Jack Straw and other Rebels assembling together in great multitudes resolved by force and violence to abrogate the Law of villenage with all other Lawes they disliked formerly settled to burn all the Records kill and behead all the Judges Justices and men of Law of all sorts which they could get into their hands to burn and destroy the Innes of Court as they did then the new Temple where the apprentices of the Law lodged burning their Monuments and Records of Law there found to alter the tenures of Lands to devise new Laws of their own by which the Subjects should be governed to change the ancient Hereditary Monarchicall Government of the Realm and to elect pettie elective Tyrannies and Kingdoms to themselves in every Shire a project eagerly prosecuted by some Anarchicall Anabaptists and Jesuites Levellers very lately and though withall they intended to destroy the King at last and all the Nobles too when they had gotten sufficient power yet at first to cloak their intentions for the present they took an Oath of all they met Quod Regi communibus fidelitatem servarent that they should keep Allegeance and faith to the King and Commons this their resolution and attempt thus to alter and subvert the Laws and Government upon full debate in the Parliament of 5 R. 2. n. 30 31. was declared to be HIGH TREASON against the King and against the Law for which divers of the chief actours in this Treasonable Design were condemned and executed as Traitors in severall places and the rest enforced to a publick submission and then pardoned 2. In the a Stow Holinshed Sp●ed Graften Baker in XI 21. R. 2. and 1. H. 4. Satutes at large 11. and 21 R. 2. 1. H. 4 M. St. ●ohns Speech concerning the shipmony Judges p. 28. to 37. And Argument at Law at Straffords Attainder Parliament XL. R. 2. as appears by the Parliament Rolls and printed Statutes at large three Prive Councellours the Archbishop of York the Duke of Ireland and Earl of Suffolk the Bishop of Exeter the Kings Confessour five Knights six Judges whereof Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice was one Blake of the Kings Councel at Law Vsk and others were impeached and condemned of High Treason some of them executed as Traytors the rest banished their Lands and goods forfeited and none to endevour to procure their pardon under pain of Felony for endeavouring to overthrow a Commission for the good of the Kingdome and contrary to an Act of Parliament of force of arms and Opinions in Law delivered to the King tending to subvert the Laws and Statutes of the Realm overthrow the Power Priviledges and proceedings of Parliament and betray not all the house of Lords but only some of the Lords of Parliament which Judgement being afterwards reversed in the forced and packed Parliament of 21. R. 2. was reconfirmed in the Parliament of 1 H. 4. c. 3. 4 5. and the Parliament of 21. R. 2. totally repealed and adnulled for ever and hath so continued 3. In the a Mr. St. John at Law against Straffords Attainder p. 13. 14 17. Parliament of 17 R. 2. n. 20. and Pas 17. R. 2. B. RS. Ror 16. Sir Thomas Talbot was accused and found guilty of High Treason for conspiring

at Aiciston Hill in Oxfordshire where they intended their first meeting b See the Journals of both Houses and Act for his Attainder Mr. Pyms Declaration upon the whole matter of the Charge of High Treason against him April the 12. 1641. M. St. Iohns Argument at Law at his Attainder and Diurnal Occurrences 9. To come nearer to our present times and case In the last Parliament of King Charls Anno 1640. 1641. The whole house of Commons impeached Thomas Earl of Strafford Lord Deputy of Ireland of High Treason amongst other Articles for this crime especially wherein all the other centred That he hath TREASONABLY ENDEVOURED by his Words Actions and Counsels to SUBVERT THE FUNDAMENTALL LAWS OF ENGLAND and IRELAND and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government This the whole Parliament declared and adjudged to be High Treason in and by their votes and a speciall Act of Parliament for his Attainder for which he was condemned and soon after executed on Tower Hill as a Traytour to the King and Kingdome May 22. 1641. c See the Commons and Lords Iournals his printed impeachment Mr. Pyms Speech thereat Canbuties Doom p. 25 26 2● 38 40 10. The whole House of Commons the same Parliament impeached William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury of HIGH TREASON in these very terms February 6. 1640. First That he hath trayterously endeavoured to subvert Fundamentall Lawes and Government of this Kingdome of England and instead thereof to introduce An Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government against Law See chap. 2. Proposition 1. and he to that end hath wickedly and TRAYTEROUSLY advised his Majesty that he might at his own will and pleasure L●vy and take money of his Subjects without their consent in Parliament and and this he affirmed was warrantable by the Law of God Secondly He hath for the better accomplishment of that his Trayterous design advised and procured Sermons and other Discourses to be preached printed and published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Lawes of this Kingdome have been denyed and absolute and unlimited Power over the persons and estates of his Majesties Subjects maintained and defended not onely in the King but in himself and other Bishops against the Law Thirdly He hath by Letters Messages Threats and promises and by divers other wayes to Judges and other Ministers of Justice interrupted perverted and at other times by means aforesaid hath endevoured to interrupt and pervert the course of Justice in his Majesties Courts at Westminster and other Courts TO THE SUBVERSION OF THE LAWS OF THIS KINGDOME whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects have been stopt in their just suits deprived of their lawfull Rights and subjected to his Tyrannical will to their ruine and destruction Fourthly That he hath trayterously endevoured to corrupt the other Courts of Justice by a vising and procuring his Majesty to sell places of Judicature and other offices CONTRARY TO THE LAWS and CUSTOMES in that behalf Fifthly He hath TRAYTEROUSLY caused a Book of Canons to be compiled and published without any lawfull warrant and Authority in that behalf in which pretended Canons many matters are contained contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamentall Laws and Statutes of this Realm to the Rights of Parliament to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence and to the establishing of a vast unlawfull presumptuous power in himself and his Successors c. Seventhly That he hath trayterously endevored to alter and subvert Gods true Religion BY LAW ESTABLISHED and instead thereof to set up Popish Religion and Idolatry And to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and Printed Books divers Popish Doctrines and opinions contrary to to the Articles of Religion ESTABLISHED BY LAW He hath urged and enjoyned divers Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies WITHOVT ANY WARRANT OF LAW and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by corporall punishments and imprisonments and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conform thereunto by Eccclesiasticall Censures Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation CONTRARY TO THE LAWS OF THIS KINGDOME 13. He did by his own authority and power contrary to Law procure sundry of his Majesties Subjects and enforced the Clergy of this Kingdome to contribute towards the maintenance of the war against the Scots That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Trayterous Courses he hath laboured to Subvert the Rights of Parliament and the ancient Course of Parliamentary Proceedings and by false and malicious slanders to incense his Majesty against Parliaments All which being proved against him at his Triall were after solemn Argum●nt by Mr. Samuel Brown in behalf of the Commons House proved and soon after adjudged to be High Treason at the Common Law by both Houses of Parliament and so declared in the Ordinance for his Attainder for which he was condemned and beheaded as a Traitor against the King Law and Kingdome on Tower hill January 10. 1644. 11. In the a See the Commons and Lords Journals Durnal Occurrences p. 15 16 19. 37. 191. to 264. and Mr. St. Iohns Speech at a conscience of both Houses of Parliament concerning shi●mony and these Judges Together with the Speeches of Mr. Hide Mr. Walker Mr. P●erpoint Mr. Denzill Hollis at their impeachments ●uly 16. 1641. aggravating their offences in Diurnall Occurrences and Speeches same Parliament December 21. Jan. 14. February 11. 1640. and July 6. 1641. Sir John Finch then Lord Keeper chief Justice Bramston Judge Berkly Judge Crawly Chief Baron Davenport Baron Weston and Baron Turnour were accused and impeached by the House of Commons by several Articles transmitted to the Lords OF HIGH TREASON for that they had Traitorously and wickedly endeavoured to subvert the Fundamentall Laws and est●blished Government of the Realm of ENGLAND and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government against Law which they had declared by Traiterous and wicked words opinions judgement and more especially in this their extrajudiciall opinion subscribed by them in the case of Ship-money viz. We are of opinion that when the good and safety of the Kingdome in generall is concerned and the whole kingdome in danger Your Majesty may by Writ under the Great Seal of England without consent in Parliament command all your Subjects of this your Kingdome See ch 2. Proposition 1. at their charge to provide and furnish such a number of Ships with Men Victuall and Ammunition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the Defence and safeguard of the Kingdome from such danger and perill And we are of opinion that in such case your Majesty is the sole Judge both of the danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided And likewise for arguing and giving iudgment accordingly in Master John Hempdens case in the Exchequer Chamber in the point of Ship money in Aprill 1638. which said Opinions

That the Votes upon the Petition and Agreement annexed and likewise the Votes upon this Petition be forthwith printed and published After which by a Speciall Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament 17 December 1647. No person whatsoever who had contrived plotted prosecuted or entred into that Engagement intituled The agreement of the people declared To be destructive to the being of Parliaments and Fundamentall Government of the Kingdome for one whole year was to be elected chosen or put into the office or Place of Lord Mayor or Alderman Sheriffe Deputy of a Ward or Common-Councel man of the City of London or to have a voice in the Election of any such Officer All these particulars with the Capitall Proceedings against White and others who somented this Agreement in the Army abundantly evidence the veriey of my foresaid Proposition and the extraordinary guilt of those Members and Souldiers who contrary to their own Votes Ordinances Proceedings and Censures of others have since prosecuted this the like or far worse Agreement to the destruction of our ancient Parliaments and their Priviledges and the fundamentall Government Laws and Liberty of our Nation which I wish they would now sadly lay to heart The third is the memorable Statutes of 3. Jacobi ch 1 2 4 and 5. Which relating the old Gunpowder Treason of the Jesuites and Papists and their infernal inhumane barbarous detestable plot to blow up the King Queen Prince Lords Commons and whole House of Peers with Gunpowder when they should have been assembled in Parliament in the upper House of Parliament upon the fifth of November in the year of our Lord 1605 do aggravate the hainousnesse and transcendency thereof by this circumstance That it was as some of the principall Conspirators thereof confessed purposely devised and concluded to be done in the said House That where sundry necessary and Religious Laws for Preservation of the Church and State were made which they falsely and slanderously term Cruel Laws enacted against them and their Religion Both Place and Persons should be all destroyed and blown up at once And by these dangerous consequences if it had not been miraculously prevented but taken effect That it would have turned to the utter ruine overthrow and Subversion Of the whole State and Common-Wealth of this flourishing and renowned Kingdom and Gods true Religion therein established by Law and of our Laws and Government For which horrid Treason they were all attainted and then executed as Traytors and some of their heads Quarters See Speeds History p. 1250 and Mr. John Vica●'s History of the Gunpowder Treason and the Arraignment of Traytors set up upon the Parliament House for terrour of others Even so let all other Traytors Conspirators against our Fundamental Laws Liberties Government Kings Parliaments and Religion treading presumptuously in their Jesuiticall footsteps a Judges 5. 31 perish O Lord but let all them who cordially love and strenuously maintain them against all Conspirators Traytors Underminers Invaders whatsoever be as the Sunne when he goeth forth in his might That the Land may have rest peace Settlement again for as many years at least as it had before our late innovations Warres Confusions by their restitution and establishment CHAP. II. HAving thus sufficiently proved That the Kingdome and Freemen of England have some ancient hereditary Rights Liberties Franchises Priviledges Customes properly called FVNDAMENTALL as likewise a Fundamentall Government no wayes to be altered undermined subverted directly or indirectly under the guilt and pain of High Treason in those who attempt it especially by Fraud Force or armed Power I shall in the second place present you in brief Propositions a Summary of the chiefest and most considerable of them which our prudent Ancestors in former ages and our latest reall Parliaments have both declared to be and eagerly contested for as Fundamentall and Essentiall to their very being and well being as a Free people Kingdome Republick unwilling to be enslaved under any yokes of Tyranny or arbitrary power that so the whole Nation may the more perspicuously know and discern them the more strenuously contend for them the more vigilantly watch against their violations underminings in any kind by any Powers or Pretences whatsoever and transmit perpetuate them intirely to their posterities as their best and chiefest inheritance I shall comprise the Summe and Substance of them all in these 9. Propositions beginning with the Subjects Property which hath been more frequently universally invaded assaulted undermined by our Kings and their evill instruments and thereupon more strenuously frequently and vigilantly maintained retained by our Nobles Parliaments and the people in all ages till of late years than any or all of the rest put together though every of them have been constantly defended maintained when impugned or incroached upon by our Ancestors and our selves 1. That no Tax Tallage Aid Subsidy Custome Contribution Loan Imposition Excise or other Assessement whatsoever for Defence of the Realm by Land or Sea or any other publick ordinary or extraordinary occasion may or ought to be imposed or levyed upon all or any of the Freemen of England by reason of any pretended or reall Danger Necessity or other pretext by the Kings of England or any other Powers but onely with and by their common consent and Grant in a free and lawfull Parliament duly summoned and elected Except onely such ancient legall Ayds as they are specially obliged to render by their Tenures Charters Contracts and the Common Law of England 2. That no Freeman of England ought to be arrested confined imprisoned in any private Castles or remote unusuall Prisons under Souldiers or other Guardians but onely in usuall or Common Gaols under sworn responsible Gaolers in the County where he lives or is apprehended and where his Friends may freely visit and relieve him with necessaries And that onely for some just and legall cause expressed in the Writ Warrant or Processe by which he is arrested or imprisoned which ought to be legally executed by known legal responsible sworn Officers of Justice not unknown military Officers Troopers or other illegall Catchpols That no such Freeman ought to be denied bail Mainprise or the benefit of an Habeas Corpus or any other Legal Writ for his enlargement when bailable or incumpernable by Law nor to be detained prisoner for any reall or pretended Crime not bailable by Law then untill the next Generall or Speciall Gaol-delivery held in the County where he is imprisoned where he ought to be legally tried and proceeded against or else enlarged by the Justices without deniall or delay of Right and Justice And that no such Freeman may or ought to be outlawed exiled condemned to any kind of corporall punishment losse of Life or Member or otherwise destroyed or passed upon but onely by due and lawfull Processe Indictment and the lawfull Triall Verdict and Judgement of his Peers according to the good old Law of the Land in some usuall Court of Publick Justice not by

and in new illegall Military or other Arbitrary Judicatories Committees or Courts of High Justice unknown to our Ancestors 3. That no Freeman of England unlesse it be by Speciall Grant and Act of Parliament may or ought to be compelled enforced pressed or arrayed to go forth of his own Countrey much lesse out of the Realm into forreign parts against his will in times of Warre or Peace or except he be specially obliged thereto by ancient Tenures and Charters save onely upon the sudden coming of strange enemies into the Realm and then he is to array himself onely in such sort as he is bound to do by the ancient Laws and Customes of the Kingdome still in force 4. That no Freeman of England may or ought to be disinherited disseised dispossessed or deprived of any inheritance Freehold Liberty Custome Franchise Chattle Goods whatsoever without his own Gift Grant or free Consent unlesse it be by lawfull Processe Triall and Judgement of his Peers or special Grant by act of Parliament 5. That the old received Government Lawes Statutes Customes Priviledges Courts of Justice legal Processe of the Kingdome and Crown ought not to be altered repealed suppressed nor any new form of Government Law Statute Ordinance Court of Judicature Writs or legal Proceedings instituted or imposed on all or any of the Free-men of England by any Person or Persons but onely in and by the Kingdomes free and full consent in a lawfull Parliament wherein the Legislative Power solely resides 6. That Parliaments ought to be duly summoned and held for the good and safety of the Kingdome every year or every three years at least or so often as there is just occasion That the Election of all Knights Citizens and Burgesses to sit and serve in Parliament and so of all oother Elective Officers ought to be free That all Members of Parliament hereditary or Elective ought to be present and there freely to speak and vote according to their judgements and Consciences without any over-awing Guards to terrifie them and none to be forced or secluded thence And that all Parliaments not thus duly summoned elected whilst held but unduly packed and all Acts of Parliament fraudulently and forcibly procured by indirect means ought to be nulled repealed as void and of dangerous president 7. That neither the Kings nor any Subjects of the Kingdome of England may or ought to be summoned before any Forreign Powers or Jurisdictions whatsoever out of the Realm or within the same for any manner of Right Inheritance Thing belonging to them or Offence done by them within the Realm 8. That all Subjects of the Realm are obliged by Allegiance and duty to defend their Lawfull Kings Persons Crowns the Laws Rights and Priviledges of the Realm and of Parliament against all Usurpers Traytors violence and Conspiracies And that no Subject of this Realm who according to his duty and Allegiance shall serve his King in his Warres for the just defence of him and the Land against Forreign enemies or Rebels shall lose or forfeit any thing for doing his true duty service and Allegiance to him therein but utterly discharged of all vexation trouble or losse 9. That no publick Warre by Land or Sea ought to be made or levied with or against any Forreign Nation or Publick Truce or League entred into with Forreign Realms or States to bind the Nation without their Common advice and consent in Parliament 10. That the ancient Honours Manors Lands Rents Revenues Inheritances Right and perquisites of the Crown of England originally settled thereon for the Ease Exemption of the people from all kind of Taxes payments whatsoever unlesse in cases of extraordinary necessity and for defraying all the constant ordinary expences of the Kingdome as the expences of the Kings houshold Court Officers Judges Embassadors Garisons Navy and the like ought not to be sold alienated given away or granted from it to the prejudice of the Crown and burdening of the people And that all Sales Alienations Gifts or Grants thereof to the empairing of the publick Revenue or prejudice of the Crown and people are void in Law and ought to be resumed and repealed by our Parliaments and Kings as they have frequently been in all former ages For the Readers fuller satisfaction in each of these propositions some of which I must shew here but briefly touch for brevity sake having elsewhere fully debated them in print I shall specially recommend unto him the perusall of such Tractates and Arguments formerly published wherein each of them hath been fully discussed which he may peruse at his best leasure The first of these Fundamentalls which I ●ntend principally to infist on is fully asserted debated confirmed by 13. H. 4. f. 14. By Fortescue Lord Chief Justice and Chancellour of England de laudibus Legum Angliae dedicated by him to King Henry the 6. f. 25. c. 36. f. 84. By a learned and necessary Argument against impositions in Parliament of 7. Jacobi by a late Reverend Judge printed at London 1641. By Mr. William Hakewell in his Liberty of the Subject against Impositions maintained in an Argument in the Parliament of 7. Jacobi printed at London 1641. By Judge Crooks and Judge Huttons Arguments concerning Shipmony both printed at London 1641. By the Case of Shipmony briefly discussed London 1640. by Mr. St. Johns Argument and Speech against Shipmony printed at London 1641. By Sir Edward Cook in his 1. Institutes p. 46. and 57. to 64. and 528. to 537. By the 1. and 2. Remonstrance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament against the Commission of Array Exact Collection p. 386. to 398. and 850. to 890. and by my own Humble Remonstrance against Shipmony London 1643. The fourth part of the Soveraign power of Parliaments and Kingdomes p. 14. to 26. and my Legall Vindications of the Liberties of England against Illegall Taxes c. London 1649. and by the Records and Statutes cited in the ensuing Chapter referring for the most part to the first Proposition The second third and fourth of them are largely debated and confirmed by a Conference desired by the Lords and had by a Committee of both Houses concerning the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject 3. Aprilis 4. Caroli printed at London 1642. By Sir Edward Cook in his Institutes on Magna Charta c. 29. p. 45. to 57. By the 1. and 2. Remonstrance of the Lords and Commons against the Commission of Array Exact Collection p. 386. c. 850. to 890. By Judge Crooks and Judge Huttons Arguments against Shipmony By Sir Robert Cotton his Posthuma p. 222. to 269. By my Breviate of the Prelates encroachments on the Kings Prerogative and Subjects Liberties p. 138. c. My new discovery of the Prelates tyranny p. 137. to 183. and some of the ensuing Statutes and Records The fifth and sixth of them are fully cleared and vindicated in and by the Prologues of all our Councils Statutes Laws before and since the Conquest By Sir Edward Cooks 4. Institutes ch 1. Mr. Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts Title High Court of Parliament My Soveraign power of Parliaments and Kingdomes p. 1 2 3 4. My Legal Vindication against illegal Taxes and pretended Acts of Parliament London 1649 Prynne the Member reconciled to Prynne the Barrester printed the same year My Historicall Collection of the ancient great Councils of the Parliaments of England London 1649. My Truth triumphing over Falshood Antiquity over Novelty London 1645. and some of the Records hereafter transcribed In this I shall be more sparing because so fully confirmed in these and other Treatises The seventh is ratified by Sir Edward Cooks 1. Institutes p. 97 98. 4. Institutes p. 89. and 5. Report Cawdries Case of the Kings Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Rastals Abridgement of Statutes Tit. Provisors Praemunire and Rome 11. H. 7. c. 1. and other Records and Statutes in the ensuing Chapter The eighth and ninth are fully debated in my Soveraign Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes Part. 2. p. 3. to 34. Part fourth p. 162. to 170. and touched in Sir Robert Cottons Posthuma p. 174. 179. How all and every of these Fundamentall Liberties Rights Franchises Lawes have been unparalelledly violated subverted in all and every particular of late years beyond all Presidents in the worst of former ages even by their greatest pretended Propugners their own printed Edicts Instruments Ordinances Papers together with their illegall oppressions Taxes Excises Imposts Rapines violences Proceedings of all kinds whereof I shall give a brief accompt in its due place will sufficiently evidence if compared with the premised propositions Which abundantly confirm the truth of our Saviours words John 10. 1. 10. and this rule of Johannis Angelius Wenderhagen Politicae Synopticae lib. 3. c. 9. sect 11. p. 310. Hinc Regulae loco notandum Quod omne Regnum Vi Armata acquisitum in Effectu Subditis Semper in durioris Servitutis conditiones arripiat licet à principio Ducedinem prurientibus spirare videatur Ideo cunctis hoc cavendum Nè temerè se duci patiantur FINIS

A SEASONABLE LEGALL AND HISTORICALL VINDICATION AND Chronologicall COLLECTION of the Good Old Fundamentall Liberties Franchises Rights Laws of all English Freemen their best Inheritance Birthright Security against Arbitrary Tyrannicall and Egyptian Burdens and of their strenuous Defence in all former Ages of late years most dangerously undermined and almost totally subverted under the specious Disguise of their Defence and future Establishment upon a Sure Basis their Pretended Greatest Propugners Wherein is Irrefragably evinced by Parliamentary Records Proofs Presidents That we have such Fundamentall Liberties Franchises Rights Laws That to attempt or effect the Subversion of all or any of them or of our Fundamentall Government by Fraud or Force is High Treason The principall of them summed up in 9 Propositions The chief printed Treatises asserting them specified A Chronologicall History of our Ancestors zeal vigilancy courage prudence in gaining regaining enlarging defending oft confirming and perpetuating them to posterity by Great Charters Statutes New Confirmations Excommunications Speciall Conservators Consultations Petitions Declarations Remonstrances Oaths Protestations Vows Leagues Covenants and likewise by their Arms when necessitated during all the Britons Saxons Danes Normans and English Kings Reigns till this present collected for present and future publick benefit With a Brief Touch of their late unparalelled Infringements and Subversions in every particular The Triall of all Malefactors by their Peers and Juries justified as the onely legal best most indifferent and all other late arbitrary Judicatories erected for their Triall exploded destructive both to our Fundamentall Laws and Liberties Collected recommended to the whole English Nation as the best Legacy he can leave them By William Prynne of Swainswick Esquire Psalm 11. 3. If the Foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do Psalm 82 5. They know not neither will they understand they walk on c. Dan. 7. 24 25 26. And another shall arise after the Kings c. London Printed for the Authour and are to be sold by Edward Thomas in Green Arbour 1654. A Seasonable Historical Legal VINDICATION AND CHRONOLOGICAL COLLECTION Of the good Old Fundamental Liberties Franchises Rights Laws of all English Freemen their best Inheritance Birth-right Security against Arbitrary Tyranny Egyptian Slavery and Burdens of late yeers most dangerously undermined oppugned and almost totally subverted under the specious feigned Disguise of their Defence Enlargement and future Establishment upon a sure Basis IT is an universal received Principle and experimental Truth beyond all contradiction That no natural structure no artificial Building no Civil or Ecclesiastical Corporation Realm Reipublike Government or Society of men no Art nor Science whatsoever can possibly be erected supported established preserved or continued in their being or well-being without FOUNDATIONS whereon as they were at first erected so they must necessarily still depend or else they will presently fall to utter ruine Hence it is to wave all Humane Authorities in so clear a Verity that in God's own sacred unerring a Jo● 17. 17. 2 Cor. 6. 7. Eph. 1. 13. Jam. 1. 18 Word of Truth we find frequent mention of the natural b 2 Sam. 22. 8 16. Jo● 38. 4 6. Psal 18. 15 102. 25. 104. 5. Prov. 8. 29 Isa 24. 18. 40. 21. 48. 13. 51. 13 16. ●er 31. 17. Zech. 12 1. Mica 1. 6. Jo● 17. 24. Ephes 4. 4. Heb. 1. 10. 4. 3. 9 26. 1 Pet. 1 20. FOUNDATIONS of the vast natural Fabrick of the Earth Heavens and World it self of the Artificial Material c 1 King 5. 17. 6. 37. 7. 9 10. Ez● 4. 13 6. 3. Psa 137 7. Ezek. 41. 8. Hag. 2. 8. Zech. 4 9 8. 9. Mat. 7. 26 27. Luke 6 48 49. FOUNDATIONS of the material Temple walls City of Gods own most famous city Jerusalem and of private houses of the Spiritual d Isa 28. 16. 54. 11. Psal 87. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 10 11 12. Heb. 11. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 6. Rev. 21. 14 19. FOUNDATION of the Spiritual Temple City Jerusalem and whole Church of God even Jesus Christ himself of the Doctrinal e 2 Tim 1. 19. Heb. 6 1 2. FOUNDATIONS and first Principles of Religion Christianity Salvation yea of the Political f Jer. 50. 15. Micah 1. 6 7. Luke 6. 48 49. M●t. 7. 26 27. FOUNDATIONS of Kingdoms Reipublikes Churches Governments States which being once shaken undermined subverted razed or destroyed bring unavoidable ruine and desolation upon them Psal 11. 3. Psal 82. 5 6. Jer. 50. 17. 51. 15 16. Mic. 1. 6 7 9. even as we daily see Castles Walls Houses to fall instantly to the ground and become an heap of Confusion when their Foundations are blown up decayed or demolished Upon which consideration those Publike Laws which establish fence fortifie support the Fundamental Constitutions Rights Liberties Priviledges of any Nation Kingdom Reipublike essential to their being and subsistence as a free or happie people against the Invasions Underminings Encroachments of any Tyrants Usurpers O pressors or publike Enemies are usually stiled FUNDAMENTAL LAWS and have ever been reputed so sacred inviolable immutable in all ages upon any Pretences of Necessity or Publike Safety that most Nations and our own English Ancestors above others have freely chosen to hazard yea lose their Estates Lives in their just defence against such exorbitant Tyrannical Kings and other Powers who by force or policie have endeavoured to violate alter or subvert them rather then out of Cowardize S●tt●shness Carelesness or want of cordial love to the Publike to suffer the least infringement repeal or alteration of them to the inthralling of Themselves or their Posterities to the arbitrary Wills of such Domineering Tyrants and Usurping Powers Now because after all our Old and New many yeers bloody costly dangerous Contests and Wars for the maintenance of our Good Old Fundamental Liberties Laws Rights Priviledges against all secret or open underminers of them I clearly behold with grief of heart that there is a strange monstrous Generation of New TYRANNICAL STATE-HERETICKS sprung up among us who are grown so desperately impudent as not onely to write but publikely to assert in Print in a Lilb tryed and cast p. 39 40 142 to 148. 154. J. Canne's Voice from the Temple which perswades the subversion and abolishing of all former Laws especially for Tythes Ministers support Books printed by AUTHORITY even in Capitals in the very Title-page That the Free-men and People of England have no such unalterable Fundamental Laws and Liberties left them by their forefathers as our Ancestors heretofore contested for both in the Field and Parliament-House with William the Conqueror Henry the first King John Henry the third Edward 1 2 3. Richard the second with other Kings and Princes and our late Parliaments and Armies too with King James and King Charles That neither Magna Charta nor the Petition of Right nor the Laws for trying malefactors by Juries of their peers are

CHARTERS CONTAINED SHALL BE INFRINGED OR BROKEN We ratifying and approving these Gifts and Grants aforesaid CONFIRM and CORROBORATE ALL THE SAME FOR US AND OUR HEIRS PERPETUALLY and by these Pr●sents as the later Charters run do renew the same Willing and granting FOR US AND OUR HEIRS THAT THESE CHARTERS AND ALL AND SINGULAR THEIR ARTICLES FOR EVER SHALL BE STEDFASTLY FIRMLY AND INVIOLABLY OBSERVED Sir Edward Cook that reverend learned Judge and Professor of our Laws in his Preface to his second Institutes and p. 2. and 77. thereof wherein he comments on this Great Charter printed by two Orders of the House of Commons in Parliament dated 12 Maii 1641. and 30 Junit 1642. resolves in direct terms That the Great Charter was for the most part declaratory of the Principal Grounds of THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF ENGLAND That these words therein for us and our heirs for ever were added to avoid all scruples THAT THIS GREAT PARLIAMENTARY CHARTER MIGHT LIVE AND TAKE EFFECT IN ALL SUCCESSIONS OF AGES FOR EVER A clear Resolution that the principal Liberties Customs Laws contained in these Great Charters and ratified by them are both Fundamental perpetual and unalterable being since confirmed in all points by neer fourty several special Acts of Parliament in succeeding Parliaments and likewise by the Solemn Oathes of our Kings Nobles Judges Great Officers and of the People too all several times sworn to defend and maintain the same and by sundry Solemn Excommunications against the infringers or contemners of them in any kinde as I shall prove more fully in the third Chapter The second is the punctual Resolution of the whole Parliament of 1 Jacobi even in a Printed Act of Parliament chap. 2. and of King James himself in his Speech therein as is evident by this Prologue to that Act Whereas his most excellent Majestie hath been pleased out of his great wisdom and judgement not onely to represent unto us by his own prudent and Princely Speech on the first day of this Parliament how much he desired in regard of his inward and gracious affection to both the famous and ancient Realms of England and Scotland now united in Allegiance and by all subjection IN HIS ROYAL PERSON TO HIS MAJESTY AND HIS POSTERITY FOR EVER that by a speedy mature and sound Deliberation such a future Union might follow as should make perfect that mutual love and uniformity of Maners and Customs which Almighty God in his providence for the strength and safety of both Realms hath so far already begun in apparent sight of all the world but also hath vouchsafed to express many ways how far it is and EVER SHALL BE from his Royal and sincere care and affection to the Subjects of England TO ALTER OR INNOVATE THE FUNDAMENTAL AND ANCIENT LAWS PRIVILEDGES GOOD CUSTOMS OF THIS KINGDOM whereby not onely HIS ROYAL AUTHORITY but THE PEOPLES SECURITY OF LANDS LIVINGS and PRIVILEDGES both in General and Particular ARE PRESERVED AND MAINTAINED Nota. and BY THE ABOLISHING OR ALTERATION OF THE WHICH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE BUT THAT PRESENT CONFUSION WILL FALL UPON THE WHOLE STATE AND FRAME OF THIS KINGDOM c. In which memorable Clause these four things are observable 1. That the Kin●dom and People of England have Fundamental ancient good Laws Priviledges and Customs 2. That these are no ways to be altered or innovated and that it always hath been is and ever shall be far from the thoughts and intents of all good Kings Governours and Parliaments who bear a sincere care and affection to the Subjects of England to alter or innovate them 3. That by these ancient good Laws Priviledges and Customs not onely the Kings Regal authority but the Peoples Security of Lands Livings and Priviledges both in general and particular are preserved and maintained 4. That by the abolishing or altering of them it is impossible but that present confusion will fall upon the whole State and frame of this Kingdom Which I wish all Innovators and New Modellers of our Laws would now at last say seriously to heart and the whole Kingdom and English Nation sadly consider who have found it an Experimental truth of late yeers and no imaginary feigned Speculation The third is The Remonstrance of the whole House of Commons in Parliament delivered in writing to K. James in the Parliament of 7 Jac. anno 1610. which begins thus To the Kings most Excellent Majesty Most gracious Soveraign WHereas we your Majesties most humble Subjects the Commons assembled in Parliament See Prop. 1. 6. in chap. 2. have received first by Message and since by Speech from your Majestie a Command of restraint from debating in Parliament your Majesties Right of imposing upon your subjects goods exported out of or imported into this Realm yet allowing us to examine the grievance of these Impositions in regard of quantity time and other circumstances of disproportion thereto incident We your said humble Subjects nothing doubting but that your Majestie had no intent by that command to infringe THE ANCIENT AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE LIBERTY OF PARLIAMENT in point of exact discussing of all matters concerning them and their Possessions Goods and Rights whatsoever which yet we cannot but conceive to be done in effect by this command Do with all humble duty make this Remonstrance to your Majestie First We hold it an AN ANCIENT GENERAL and UNDOUBTED RIGHT OF PARLIAMENT to debate freely all matters which do properly concern the Suject and his Right or Estate which freedom of debate being once fore-closed Nota. THE ESSENCE OF THE LIBERTY OF PARLIAMENT IS WITHAL DISSOLVED Here the whole House of Commons in a special Remonstrance to King James printed and published by Order of a Committee of the House of Commons for licensing of book● dated 20 Maii 1641. 17 Caroli declare resolve vindicate and maintain One principal ancient Fundamental general undoubted Right of the Liberty of Parliament against the Kings intrenchment on it Of which should they be but once fore-closed the Essence of the Liberty of Parliament is withal dissolved And peradventure it may not be unworthy the most serious Disquisition of the next ensuing nominal or real Parliament to examine whether some Clauses and Restrictions in the 9 12 14 16 17 21 22 24 25 27 30 32 33 36 37 38 39 40 Articles or Strings of the New Instrument intituled The Government of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging as it was publikely declared at Westminster the 16 day of December 1653. c. do not as much nay far more intrench upon the ancient Fundamental General undoubted Right and Liberty of Parliament and Parliamentary free Debates to the dissolution of the Essential Liberty of all future Parliaments as this Command of King James did or as the Bishops late Canons imposed on the Clergie in and by the Convocation Anno 1640. ever did and this Clause in their c. Oath then made now imitated by

entituled The Government of the Commonwealth of England c. I remit to their most serious con●●derations to determine if ever they resolve to be English Freemen again or to imitate the wisdom prudence zeal courage and laudable examples of their worthy Ancestors from which they cannot now degenerate without the greatest Infamy and enslaving of themselves with their Posterities for ever to the arbitrary wills of pres●nt or future Usurpers on their Fundamental Rights and Libe●ties in an higher degree then ever in any precedent ●ges under the Greatest Conquerors or Kings after all their late costly bloudy Wars for their Defence against the Behe●ded King The fifth is A learned and necessary Argument made in the Commons House of Parliament Anno 7. Jacobi to prove That each Subject hath a Propriety in his Goods shewing also the extent of the Kings Prerogative in Impositions upon the Goods of Merchants exported or imported c. By a late learned Judg of this Kingdom printed at London by Richard Bishop 1641. and Ordered to be pub●ished in Print at a Committee appointed by the Honourable House of Commons for examination and Licensing of B●oks 20. Maii 1641. In which Parliamentary Argument p. 8 11 16. I finde these direct Passages That the New Im●ositions contained in the Boo● of Rates imposed on Merchandizes imported and exported by the K●ngs Prerogative and Letters Patents without consent in Parliament is against THE NATURAL FRAME AND CONSTITUTION OF THE POLICY OF THIS KINGDOME which is Jus Publicum Regn● AND SO SUBVERTETH THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF THE REALM and introduceth a new form of State and Government Can any man give me a reason why the King can only in Parliament make Lawes No man ever read any Law whereby it was so ordained and yet no man ever read that any King practised the contrary therefore IT IS THE ORIGINAL RIGHT OF THE KINGDOM Nota. AND THE VERY NATURAL CONSTITUTION OF OUR STATE AND POLICY being one of the highest Rights of Soveraign Power If the King alone out of Parliament may impose * And do not those do so 〈◊〉 as ●lay mont●ly 〈…〉 Customs and N●w-Impost on us daily out of Parliament and that for many moneths and years yet to come against the Letter of their own Instrument and Oath too HE ALTERETH THE LAW OF ENGLAND IN ONE OF THESE TWO MAIN FUNDAMENTAL POINTS He must either take the Subjects Goods from them without assent of the Party which is against the Law or else he must give his own Letters Patents the force of a Law to alter the property of the Subjects Goods which is also against the Law In this and sundry other Arguments touching the Right of Impositions in the Commons House of Parliament by the Members of it arguing against them it was frequently averred and at last voted and resolved by the House 7. Jacobi That such Impositions without consent in Parliament were AGAINST THE ORIGINAL FUNDAMENTAL LAWS AND PROPERTY OF THE SUBJECT and Original Right Frame and Constitution of the Kingdom as the Notes and Journals of that Parliament evidence An express Parliamentary resolution in point for what I here assert The sixth is 6. A Conference desired by the Lords and had by a Committee of both Houses concerning the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject 3. Aprilis 4. Caroli 1628. entred in the Parliament Journal of 4. Caroli and since printed at London 1642. In the Introduction to which Conference Sir Dudley Diggs by the Commons House Order used these expressions My good Lords whilest we the Commons out of our good affections were seeking for money we found I cannot say a Book of the Law but many A FUNDAMENTAL POINT THEREOF NEGLECTED AND BROKEN which hath occasioned our desire of this Conference Wherein I am first commanded to shew unto your Lordships in general That the Laws of England are grounded on Reason more antient then Books consisting much in unwritten Customs yet so full of Justice and true Equity that your most Honorable Predecessors and Ancestors propugned them with a NOLUMUS MUTARI and so ancient that from the Saxons daies notwithstanding the injuries and ruines of time they have continued in most parts the same c. Be pleased then to know THAT IT IS AN UNDOUBTED AND FUNDAMENTAL POINT OF THIS SO ANCIENT COMMON LAW OF ENGLAND THAT THE SUBJECT HATH A TRUE PROPERTY IN HIS GOODS AND POSSESSIONS which doth preserve as sacred that Meum and Tuum that is the Nurse of Industry and the Mother of Courage and without which there can be no Justice of which Meum and Tuum is the proper object Bu● the UNDOUBTED RIGHT OF FREE SUBJECTS hath lately not a little been invaded and prejudiced by Pressures the more grievous because they have been pursued by imprisonment contrary to the Franchises of this Land c. which the Commons House proved by many Statutes and Records in all Ages in that Conference to the full satisfaction of the Lords House since published in print The seventh is 7. The Vote of the a See Canterburies Doom p. 19. Diurnal Occurrences p. 13. whole House of Commons 16. December 1640. Nullo contradicente entred in their Journal and printed in Diurnal Occurrences p. 13. That the Canons made in the Convocation Anno 1640. ARE AGAINST THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE REALM the Property and Liberty of the Subject the Right of Parliament and contained divers things tending to Faction and Sedition The eighth Authority is 8. b Exact Collection c. p. 112 113. The Votes of both Houses of Parliament concerning the security of Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales 15. Martii 1641. Ordered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament to be forthwith printed and published as they were then by themselves and afterwards with other Votes and Orders Resolved upon the Question nemine contradicente That in case of extream danger and of his Majesties refusal the Ordinance agreed on by both Houses for the Militia doth oblige the people See Chap. 2. Proposition 3 7 and ought to be obeyed by THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THIS KINGDOM A very vain false absurd and delusory Vote if there be no such Law● as some now affirm The ninth punctual Authority is 9. a Exact Collection p. 850 854 887 888. A second Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament concerning the Commission of Array printed by their special Order of 12. Januarii 1642. Wherein are these observeable passages The main drift of the answer is to maintain That the King by the Common Law may grant such a Commission of Array as this is upon this ground because it 's for the defence of the Kingdom And that the power which he hath to grant it by the Common Law is not taken away by the Petition of Right or any former Statute but the King notwithstanding any of them may charge the Subjects for Defence of the Kingdom so as the charge imposed come not to

himself nor to his particular advantage These grounds thus laid extend not to the Commission of Array alone but to all other charges that his Majesty shall impose upon his Subjects upon pretence of Defence of the Kingdom for there is the same reason of Law for any other charge that is pretended for Defence as for this If his Majesty by the Common Law may charge his Subjects to finde Arms and other things in the Commission injoyned because they are for Defence of the Kingdom by the same reason of Law he may command his People to build Castles Forts and Bulworks and after to maintain them with Garrisons Arms and Victuals at their own charges And by the same reason he may compel his Subjects to finde Ships and furnish them with Men Ammunition and Victuals and to finde Souldiers pay coat and conduct-money provide victuals for Souldiers and all other things NECESSARY FOR AN * Do not the Army-Officers now enforce them to all this without a Parliament ARMY these things being as necessary for Defence as any thing that can be done in execution of this Commission And for that exposition of the Petition of Right and other Statutes therein noted if it should hold doth it not overthrow as well the Petition it self as all other Lawes that have been made for the Subjects benefit against Taxes and other Charges either in this or any other Parliament These Positions thus laid down and maintained DO SHAKE THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE KINGDOM THE ANCIENT BIRTH-RIGHT OF EVERY SUBJECT both for THE PROPERTY OF HIS GOODS AND LIBERTY OF HIS PERSON Nay they strike at the root of Parliaments What need his * These Expostulations reach to those at White-Hall now who presume to impose Taxes Customs Excises and make b●nding Laws which no Kings there ever did in like nature no● their Counc●ls in any Age. Majesty call Parliaments to provide for Defence of the Realm when himself may compel his Subjects to defend it without Parliaments If these grounds should hold what need the Subjects grant Subsidies in Parliament for Defence of the Kingdom in time of real danger if the King for defence at any times when he shall only conceive or pretend danger may impose Charges upon his Subjects without their consent in Parliament Upon that which hath been said in this and our former Declaration we doubt not but all indifferent men will be satisfied that this Commission of Array is full of danger and inconvenience to the Subjects of England AND AGAINST THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE LAND both for PROPERTY OF GOODS AND LIBERTY OF PERSON c. 2. As it is against THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE REALM so no Statute makes it good c. And the Lords and Commons do upon the whole matter here conclude that they are very much aggrieved that after so many Declarations and solemn Protestations made by his Majesty to rule by the known Laws of this Land his Majesty by advice of his ill Councellors should be perswaded to set such a Commission on foot which is so clearly contrary TO THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THIS LAND the Right of Property and Liberty of the Subject contrary to former Resolutions of Parliament and to the Petition of Right I am certain the generality of the Nation are now as much and more aggrieved that some who were Parties to this Declaration and others who have made as many or more Declarations and Protestations as his Majesty ever did to rule by the known Laws of the Land should since this far exceed his Majesty in the like or more exorbitances in the Militia Excises Taxes Impositions Imprisonments arbitrary extravagant proceedings and capital executions in new erected Courts of Injustice as diametrically contrary as the Kings Commissions of Array to the Fundamental Laws of the Land four times together so stiled and insided on as such in this one Declaration of both Houses the Right of Property of the Subject contrary to former Resolutions and the Petition of Right yea which is most abominable to their own Declarations Remonstrances Votes Protestations Vows Solemn Leagues and Covenants in Parliament to their own eternal Infamy as well as the peoples intolerable oppression and Slavery who thereupon may justly conclude and protest against them as both Houses did in the close of that Declaration against the Array viz * Exact Collection p. 888. And the Lords and Commons do and shall adhere to their former Votes and Resolutions That all those that are Actors in putting of this Commission of Array in execution shall be esteemed disturbers of the Peace of the Kingdome and the Properties and Liberties of the Subject The tenth evidence is 10. a A Collection of all 〈◊〉 Order● 〈…〉 and Declarations of Parliament p. 451 452 457 458. the Vote and Letter of both Houses of Parliament sent to his Majesty at Oxford 9. March 1643. in answer to his Majesties of the third of March wherein there is this passage We the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England c. have resolved with the concurrent advice and consent of the Commissioner● of Scotland to represent to your Majesty in all hum●●ity and plainness as followeth That this present Parliament convened according to the known and FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE KINGDOM the continuance whereof is established by a Law consented to by your Ma●esty is in effect denied to be a Parliament c. And hereupon we think our selves bound to let your Majesty know That since the * Yet forcibly dissolved by the Army and some new in Power against their Commissions Oaths Trusts Protestation Covenant and an Act of Parliament for their continuance who may do well to peruse this 〈◊〉 See Chap. 2. Proposition 6. 7. continuance of this Parliament is setled by a Law which as all other Laws of your Kingdom your Majesty is sworn to maintain as we are sworn to our Allegiance to your Majesty these Obligations being reciprocal we must in duty and accordingly are resolved with our lives and fortunes to defend and preserve the just Rights and full Power of this Parliament To which the Earl of Essex then General by both Houses direction in his Letter to the Earl of Forth Jan. 30. 1643. adds this Corollary My Lord the maintenance of the Parliament of England and the Priviledges thereof is that for which we are all resolved to spend our bloud as being THE FOUNDATION WHEREON ALL OUR LAWS and LIBERTIES ARE BUILT Which both the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their Declaration of 23. Martii 1643. touching their proceedings upon his Majesties Letter concerning a Treaty of Peace wherein this Earls former Letter is recited thus second The Parliament of England is the only Basis the chief Support and Pillar of our Laws and Liberties c. And if notwithstanding all these Obligations the King shall * How much more ●h●n if the Army o● Army-Officers shall do●● without question or exemplary

the death of the Dukes of Glocester Lancaster and other Peers who maintained the Commission confirmed by act of Parliament X. R. 2. and assembling people in a warlike manner in the County of Chester for the effecting of it in destruction of the Estates of the Realm and OF THE LAWES OF THE KINGDOME 4. In the 29. year of King Henry the sixth Jack Cade under a pretence to REFORM alter and abrogate some Laws Purveyances and extortions importable to the Commons wherupon he was called JOHN AMEND ALL drew a great multitude of Kentish people to Black Heath in a warlike manner to effect it in the Parliament of 29. H. 6. c. 1. this was adjudged High Treason in him and his Complices by act of Parliament and the Parliament of 31. H. 6. c. 1. made this memorable Act against him and his Imitators insucceeding ages worth serious perusall and consideration by all who tread in his footsteps and over-act him in his Treasons Whereas the most abominable Tyrant horrible odious and errant FALSE TRAITOR John Cade calling himself sometimes Mortimer sometime Captain of Kent which Name Fame Acts and Feats to be removed out of the speech and mind of every faithfull Christian man perpetually falsly and trayterously purposing and imagining the perpetual destruction of the KINGS PERSON and FINALL SVBVERSION OF THIS REALM taking upon him * And have not others of late assumed to themselves more Royal power than he resolved to be Treason by 21. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 15. ROYALL POWER and gathering to him the Kings people in great number BY FALSE SUBTIL IMAGINED LANGUAGE and seditiously made a stirring Rebellion and insurrection VNDER COLOVR OF JVSTICE FOR REFORMATION OF THE LAWS OF THE SAID KING robbing slaying spoiling a great part of his faithfull people Our said Soveraign Lord the King considering the premises with many other which were more odious to remember by advice and assent of the Lords spirituall and Temporall and at THE REQUEST OF THE COMMONS and by authority aforesaid hath ordained and established that the said John Cade shall be had named and declared A FALSE TRAYTOR to our said Soveraign Lord the King Nota. and that all His Tyranny Acts Facts false Opinions shall be voyded abated adnulled destroyed and put out of remembrance for ever And that all indictments in time coming in like case under power of Tyranny Rebellion and stirring had shall be of no regard nor effect but void in Law and all the Petitions * To wit by Cade and his confederates for the alteration of the Laws c. delivered to the said King in his last Parliament holden at Westminster the sixth day of November the 29. of his Reign against his mind by him not agreed shall be taken and put in oblivion out of remembrance undone voided adnulled and destroyed for ever as a thing purposed against God and his Conscience and against his Royall estate and preheminence and also DISHONOVRABLE andVNREASONABLE 5. In the a See Mr. St. Iohns Argument against Strafford p. 178. Halls Chronicle and Hollinshed 8 year of King Henry the 8. William Bell and Thomas Lacy in the County of Kent conspired with Thomas Cheyney the Hermite of the Queen of Fairies TO OVERTHROW THE LAWS AND CVSTOMES OF THE REALM for effecting whereof they with 200. more met together and concluded upon a cause or raising greater forces in Kent and the adjacent Shires this was adjudged high Treason and some of them executed as Traytors Moreover it b Cooks 3. institutes p. 9. 10. was resolved by all the Judges of in the reign of Henry 8. that an Insurrection against the Statute of Labourers or for the inhansing of Salaries and wages was TREASON a levying war against the King BECAUSE IT WAS GENERALLY AGAINST THE KINGS LAW and the offendors took upon them THe REFORMATION THEREOF which Subjects by gathering of power ought not to do a Cooks 4. Institutes ch 8. p. 89. to 96. 6. On December 1. in the 21. year of King Henry the 8. Sir Thomas Moore Lord Chancellour of England with 14. more Lords of the Privy Councel John Fitz-James Chief Justice of England and Sir Anthony Fitzherhert one of the Judges of the Common Pleas exhibited sundry Articles of impeachment to King Henry the 8. against Cardinall Wolsy That he had by divers and many sundry wayes and fashions committed High treason and NOTABLE GRIEVOUS OFFENCES misusing Altering and subverting the order of his Graces Lawes and otherwise contrary to his high Honour Prerogative Crown Estate and Dignity Royall to the inestimable great hinderance diminution and decay of the uniuersall Wealth of this his Graces Realm The Articles are 43. in number The 20 21 26 30 35 37 42 43. contain his illegall arbitrary practices and proceedings to the subversion of the due course and order of his Graces Lawes to the undoing of a great number of his loving people Whereupon they pray Please therefore your most excellent Majesty of your excellent goodnesse towards the Weal of this your Realm and Subjects of the same to see such order and direction upon the said Lord Cardinall As may be to terrible example of other to beware to offend your Grace and your Lawes hereafter And that he be so provided for that he never have any Power Jurisdiction or Authority hereafter to trouble vex or impoverish the Common wealth of this your Realm as he hoth done heretofore to the great hurt and dammage of every man almost High and low * See Speed Holished Grafton Stow Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. p. 378. 379. and Goodwin in his life time His poysoning himself prevented his judgement for these his Practises b M. St. Iohns Argument against Strafford 7. The Statute of 1. Marie c. 12. Enacts that if 12. or more shall endeavour By force to alter any of the Laws or Statutes of the Kingdome the offender shall from the time therein limited be adjudged ONELY AS A FELON whereas it was Treason before but this Act continuing but till the next Parliament and then expiring the offence remains Treason as before a Cook 3 Inst c. 1. 9 10. and M. St. Iohns Argument at Law against Strafford p. 15 16. 8. In the 39. of Queen Elisabeth divers in the County of Oxford consulted together to go from House to House in that County and from thence to London and other parts to excite them to take arms for the throwing down of inclosures throughout the Realm nothing more was prosecuted nor Assemblies made yet in Easter Term 39. Elisabeth it was resolved by all the judges of England who met about the case That this was High Treason and a levying Warre against the Queen because it was to throw down all inclosures throughout the Kingdome to which they could pretend no right and that the end of it was to OVERTHROW THE LAWS AND STATUTES for Inclosures Whereupon BRADSHAW and BURTON two of the principall offenders were condemned and executed

times more to T●oopers and Souldiers who forcibly levy their unlawfull Contributions and Excises and otherwise which altogether as is conceived amounts not to lesse than a million in five years space whereas now we pay above two Millions in Taxes Imposts Excises every year besides the infinite v●xations of the Subject by suits in Law binding them over attendance at the Councel Table taking them from their necessary imployments in making Sesses and Collections and imprisonment of their persons all now trebled to what then I say besides what is past to make our miseries compleat they have as much as in them is MADE THEM ENDLESSE as others since have done for by these Opinions they have put upon themselves and their Successors An impossibility of ever doing us right again an incapacity upon us of demanding it so long as they continue as the Compilers of the late Instrument with 42. Strings intitu●ed The Government of the Common-wealth of England c. Artic. 1 2 3 9 10 12 22 24 25 26 27 28. 31 32. 36 37 38 39. have done as far as they and much beyond them In that sore famine in the Land of Egypt when the inhabitants were reduced to the next doore to death for there they say why should we die for bread First they give their money next their flocks and Cattle last of all their persons and Lands for bread all became Pharaohs but by this Lex Regia there is a transaction made not onely of our persons but of our bread likewise wherewith our persons should be sustained that was for bread this of our bread For since these Opinions if we have any thing at all we are not at all beholding TO THE LAW FOR IT but are wholly cast UPON THE MERCY and GOODNESSE OF THE KING Again there the Egyptians themselves sold themselves and all they had to the King if ours had been so done if it had been so done by our own free consent in Parliament we had the lesse cause to complain But it was done against our wills and by those who were trusted and that upon Oath with the preservation of these things for us The Laws are our Forts and Bulwarks of Defence If the Captain of a Castle onely out of fear and Cowardice and not from any Compliance with the enemy surrender it This is TREAON as was adjudged in Parliament 1 R. 2. in the two Cases of Comines and Weston and in the Case of the Lord Gray for surrendering Barwick Castle to the Scots in Edward the thirds time though good defence had been made by him and that he had lost his eldest son in maintenance of the Siege and yet the losse of a Castle loseth not the Kingdome onely the place and adjacent parts with trouble to the whole But by the Opinions there is a Surrender made of all our Legal defence of Property that which hath been preacht is now judged that there is no Meum Tuum between the King and people besides that which concerns our Persons The Law is the Temple the Sanctuary whether Subjects ought to run for shelter and Refuge hereby it is become Templum fine numine as was the Temple built by the Romane Emperour who after he had built it put no gods into it We have the Letter of the Law still but not the sense we have the Fabrick of the Temple still but the Dii Tutelares are gone But this is not all the Case that is That the Law now ceaseth to aid and defend us in our Rights for then possession alone were a good Title if there were no Law to take it away Occupanti concederetur melior esset Possidentis conditio But this though too bad is not the worst for besides that which is Privitive in these Opinions there is somewhat positive For now the Law doth not onely not defend us but the Law it self by temporising Judges and Lawyers is made the Instrument of taking all away For whensoever his Majesty or his Successors shall be pleased to say that the good and safety of the Kingdome is concerned and that the whole Kingdome is in danger the when and how the same is to be prevented makes our persons and all we have liable to bare will and Pleasure By this means The Sanctuary is turned into a Shambles the Forts are sleighted that so they might neither do us good nor hurt But they are held against us by those who ought to have held them for us and the mouth of our own Can●n is turned upon our own selves and that by our own military Officers Souldiers and others since as well as the Ship money Judges then ' Thus far Mr. Oliver St. John by the Commons Order whose words I thought fit thus to transcribe at large because not onely most pertinent but seasonable for the present times wherein as in a Looking Glasse some pretended Judges and Grandees of these present and late past times may behold their own faces and deformities and the whole Nation their sad condition under them In the residue of that his Printed Speech he compares the Treason of the Shipmony Judges and of Sir Robert Tresylium and his Complices in XI R. 2. condemned and executed for Traytors by Judgement in Parliament for endevouring to subvert the lawes and statutes of the Realm by their illegall Opinions then delivered to King Richard at Nottingham Castle not out of conspiracy but for fear of death and corporall Torments wherewith they were menaced whose offence he there makes transcendent to theirs then in six particulars as those who please may there read at leisure being over large to transcribe I could here inform you that the Fundamentall laws of our Nation are the same in the Body politique of the Realm as the Arteries Nerves Veins are in and to the naturall Body the Bark to the tree the Foundation to the House and therefore the cutting of them asunder or their Subversion must of necessity kill destroy disjoyn and ruine the whole Realm at once therefore it must be Treason in the highest degree But I shall onely subjoyn here some materiall Passages in his Argument at Law concerning the Attainder of high Treason of Thomas Earl of Strafford before a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall April 29. 1641. soon after printed and published by Order of the Commons House wherein p. 8. he layes down this Position recited again p. 64. That Straffords Endeavouring To subvert the Fundamentall Laws and Government of England and Ireland and instead thereof to introduce a Tyrannicall Government against Law is Treason by the Common-Law That Treasons at the Common-Law are not taken away by the Statutes by 25. E. 3. 1. H. 4. c. 10. 1. Mar. c. 1. nor any of them The Authorities Judgements in and out of Parliament which he cites to prove it have been already mentioned with some others he omitted I shall therefore but transcribe his Reasons to evince it to be Treason super-added to those