Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	liberty_n	6,707	5	6.5575	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60883	The security of English-mens lives, or, The trust, power, and duty of the grand jurys of England explaining according to the fundamentals of the English government, and the declarations of the same made in Parliament by many statutes / published for the prevention of popish designs against the lives of many Protestant lords and commoners who stand firm to the religion and ancient government of England.	Somers, John Somers, Baron, 1651-1716.	1681 (1681)	Wing S4643; ESTC R33648	56,152	169

THE SECURITY OF English-Mens Lives OR THE TRUST POWER and DUTY OF THE Grand Iurys OF ENGLAND Explained according to the Fundamentals of the English Government and the Declarations of the same made in Parliament by many Statutes Published for the Prevention of Popish Designs against the Lives of many Protestant Lords and Commoners who stand firm to the Religion and ancient Government of England LONDON Printed for T. Mitchel 1681. THE Principal Ends of all Civil Government and of Humane Society were the Security of Mens Lives Liberties and Properties mutual Assistance and Help each unto other and Provision for their common Benefit and Advantage and wherethe Fundamental Laws and Constitution of any Government have been wisely adapted unto those Ends such Countries ane Kingdoms have increased in Virtue Prowess Wealth and Happiness whil'st others through the want of such excellent Constitutions or neglect of preserving them have been a Prey to the Pride Lust and Cruelty of the most Potent and the People have had no Assurance of Estates Liberties or Lives but from their Grace and Pleasure They have been many times forced to welterin each others Blood in their Masters quarrel for Dominion and at best they 〈◊〉 ●erved like Beasts of Burden and 〈…〉 ntinual base subserviency to their 〈…〉 ers Vices have lost all sense of 〈◊〉 Religion Virtue and Manhood Our Ancestors have been famous in ●●eir Generations for Wisdom Piety 〈…〉 d courage in forming and preserving ● Body of Laws to secure themselves and their Posterities from Slavery and Oppression and to maintain their Native Freedoms to be subject only to the Laws made by their own Consent in their general Assemblies and to be put in Execution chiefly by themselves their Officers and Assistants to be guarded and defended from all Violence and Force by their own Arms kept in their own hands and used at their own charge under their Princes Conduct entrusting nevertheless an ample Power to their Kings and other Magistrates that they may may do all the Good and enjoy all the Happiness that the largest Soul of man can honestly wish and carefully providing such means of correcting and punishing their Ministers and Councillors if they transgressed the Laws that they might not dare to abuse or oppress the People or design against their Freedom or Welfare This Body of Laws our Ancestors always esteemed the best Inheritance they could leave to their Posterities well knowing that these were the sacred Fence of their Lives Liberties and Estates and an unquestionable Title whereby they might call what they had their own or say they were their own Men The inestimable value of this Inheritance moved our Progenitors with great resolution bravely from Age to Age to defend it and it now falls to our Lot to preserve it against the Dark Contrivances of a Popish Faction who would by Frauds Sham-Plots and Infamous Perjuries deprive us of our Birth-rights and turn the points of our Swords our Laws into our own Bowels they have impudently scandalized our Parliaments with Designs to overturn the Monarchy because they would have excluded a Popish Successor and provided for the Security of the Religion and Lives of all Protestants They have caused Lords and Commoners to be for a long time kept in Prisons and suborned Witnesses to swear matters of Treason against them endeavouring thereby not only to cut off some who had eminently appeared in Parliament for our antient Laws but through them to blast the Repute of Parliaments themselves and to lessen the Peoples Confidence in those great Bulwarks of their Religion and Government The present purpose is to shew how well our Worthy fore-Fathers have provided in our Law for the safety of our Lives not only against all attempts of open Violence by the severe punishment of Robbers Murtherers and the like but the secret poysonous Arrows that flie in the dark to destroy the Innocent by false Accusation and Perjuries Our Law-makers foresaw both their dangers from the Malice and Passion that might cause some of private condition to accuse others falsly in the Courts of Justice and the great hazards of Worthy and Eminent Mens Lives from the Malice Emulation and Ill Designs of corrupt Ministers of State or otherwise potent who might commit the most odious of Murders in the form and course of Justice either by corrupting of Judges as dependant upon them for their Honour and great Revenue or by Bribing and Hiring men of depraved Principles and desperate Fortunes to swear falsly against them doubtless they had heard the Scriptures and observed that the great men of the Jews sought out many to swear Treason and Blasphemy against Jesus Chr●●● They had heard of Ahab's Courtiers and Judges who in the Course a●● Form of Justice by false Witnesses 〈…〉 thered Naboth because he would nosubmit his Properly to an Arbi●rary Power Neither were they ignora●● of the Antient Roman Histor●es 〈◊〉 the pestilent false Accusers that aboun●ed in the Reign of some of those Emperours under whom the greatest of crimes was to be virtuous Therefore as became good Legislators they made as prudent Provision as perhaps any Country in the World enjoys for equal and impartial Administration of Justice in all the concerns of the Peoples Lives that every man whether Lord or Commoner might be in safety whilst they lived in due Obedience to the Laws For this purpose it is made a Fundamental in our Government that unless it be by Parliament See Ld Cookes Instit 3d part p. 40. no mans Life shall be touched for any crime whatsoever save by the Judgment of at least 24 men that is 12 or more See Mag. Chart. Cooke 's 2 part of Instit p. 50 51. to find the Bill of Indictment whether he be Peer of the Realm or Commoner and 12 Peers or above if a Lord if not 12 Commoners to give the Judgment upon the general Issue of not guilty joyned of these 24 the first 12 are called the Grand Inquest or the Grand Jury for the extent of their power and in regard that their number must be more than 12 sometimes 23 or 25 never were less than 13 Twelve whereof at least must agree to every Indictment or else 't is no legal Verdict If 11 of 21 or of 13 should agree to find a Bill of Indictment it were no Verdict The other Twelve in Commoners Cases are called the Petit-Jury and their number is ever Twelve but the Jury for a Peer of the Realm may be more in number though of like Authority The Office and Power of these Juries is Judicial they only are the Judges from whose Sentence the Indicted are to expect Life or Death upon their Integrity and Understanding the Lives of all that are brought into Judgment do ultimately depend from their Verdict there lies no Appeal by finding Guilty or not Guilty they do complicately Resolve both Law and Fact As it hath been the Law so it hath allways been the Custom and Practice of

know from the Prosecutor to what they must answer and have agreed and acquainted each other with the tales they will tell and have resolved to be careful that all their answers to cross Interrogatories may be conformable to their first stories And if these relate only to words spoken at several times in private to distinct Witnesses in such a case Evidence if given in open Court may seem to be very strong against the person accused though there be nothing of truth in it But if such Witnesses were privately and separately examined by the Grand Inquest as the Law requires and were to answer only such questions as they thought fit and in such order as was best in their judgments and most natural to find out the Truth of the Accusation so that the Witnesses could not guess what they should be asked first or last nor one conjecture what the other had said which they are certain of when they know beforehand what the Prosecutor will ask in Court of every of them and what they have resolved to answer if the Inquest should put them out of their Road and then compare all their several answers together they might possibly discern marks enough of falshood to shew that their Testimonies ought not to be depended upon where life is in question By what is now said the reasonableness of this Institution of Secrecy may be discerned in respect to the discovery of Truth and the protection of the Innocent from malicious Combinations and Perjuries Yet the same Secrecy of the Kings Council is no less necessary to reserve the guilty for punishment when the Evidence against any party accused is not manifest and full it may be kept without prejudice under Secrecy until further Enquiry and if sufficient proof can afterwards be made of the Offence an Indictment may be found by a Grand Inquest and the party brought to answer it But when the Examinations are in open Court or the Kings Councils any other way divulged and the Evidence is weak and less than the Law requires 't is not probable that it will be more or stronger and should an Indictment be found and the party tried by a Petit Jury whilst the Evidence is not full they must and ought to acquit him and then the further prosecution for the same Offence is for ever barred though his guilt should afterward be manifest and confessed by himself From hence may certainly be concluded that Secrecy in the Examinations and Enquiries of Gr. Juries is in all respects for the Interest and advantage of the King If he be concerned to have secret Treasons Felonies and all other enormities brought to light and that none of the Offenders should escape Justice if the gain of their Forfeitures be thought his interest which God forbid then the first notices of all dangerous crimes and wicked confederacies ought to be secretly and prudently pursued and searcht into by the Grand Inquest The accusers and Witnesses ought not to publish in a Court before a multitude what they pretend to know in such cases until the discretion of so many honest men of the neighbourhood hath first determined whether their testimony will amount to so good and full Evidence that it may be made publick with safety to the King and People in order to Justice Else they are obliged by Oath to lock up in their own breasts all the circumstances and presumptions of crimes until they or such as shall succeed in the same trust shall have discovered as they believe Evidence enough to convict the accused and then and not before they are to accuse the party upon Record by finding the Bills as it 's usually called But when Bills are offered without fatisfactory Evidence and they neither know nor can learn any more they ought for the King's sake to indorse Ignoramus upon them least his Honour and Justice be stained by causing or permitting such prosecution of his People in his own name and at his suit as shall appear upon their Trial and Acquittal to have been frivolous or else malicious designs upon their Lives and Fortunes If it should be said that whatsoever reasons there are for this Oath of Secrecy yet it cannot deprive the King of the benefit of having the Evidence made publick if he desires it and that the Grand Jury do not break their Oaths when the King or the Prosecutor for him will have it so 'T is not hard to shew that such Notions have no foundation in Law or Reason and seem to come from men who have not well studied the first principles of the English Government or of true Religion Whosoever hath learnt that the Kings of England were ordained for the good Government of the Kingdom in the Execution of the Laws must needs know that the King cannot lawfully seek any other benefit in judicial proceedings than that common Right and Justice be done to the People according to their Laws and Customs Their Safety and Prosperity are to be the objects of His continual Care and Study that being highest concern The greatness and Honour of a Prince consists in the Virtue Multitude Wealth and Prowess of his People and his greatest Glory is by the excellence of his Government so to have encouraged Virtue and Piety that few or no Criminals are to be found in his Dominions Those who have made this their principal aim have in some places so well succeeded as to introduce such a Discipline and rectitude of manners as rendred every man a Law unto himself As it is reported in the History of Peru Gar. de la Veg. Hist de los Incas that though the Laws were so severe as to make very small Crimes capital yet it often fell out that not one man was put to Death in a year within the whole compass of that vast Empire The King 's only benefits in finding out and punishing Offenders by Courts of Justice are the preservation and Support of the Government the protection of the Innocent revenging their wrongs and preventing further mischiefs by the terrors of exemplary punishments The King is the head of Justice in the esteem of our Laws and the whole Kingdom is to expect right to be done them in his several Courts instituted by Law for that purpose Therefore Writs issue out in his name in all cases where relief is sought by the Subjects and the wrongs done to the Lives or Limbs of the People are said to be done against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity reckoning it a dishonour to him and his Government that Subjects should not whilst they live within the Law enjoy Peace and Security It ought to be taken for a scandal upon the King when he is represented in a Court of Justice as if he were partially concerned or rather inclined to desire that a party accused should be found guilty than that he should be declared innocent if he be so in Truth Doubtless the King ought to wish in all Enquiries

part fol. 33. the same be also void and holden for none for ever See also the Statute of Westm 2d cap. 38. and Artic●● super Cortas ch 9. So careful have our Parliaments been that the Power of Grand Inquests might be placed in the hands of good and worthy men that if one man of a Grand Inquest though they be Twenty Three or more should not be Liber Legalis Homo or such as the Law requires and duly returned without denomination to the Sheriff all the Indictments found by such a Grand Jury and the proceedings upon them are void and null So it was adjudged in Scarlet 's case I know too well that the Wisdom and Care of our Ancestors in this Institution of Grand Juries hath not been of late considered as it ought nor the Laws concerning them duly observed nor have the Gentlemen and other men of Estates in the several Counties discerned how insensibly their legal Power and Jurisdiction in their Grand and Petit Juries is decayed and much of the means to preserve their own Lives and Interests taken out of their hands 'T is a wonder that they were not more awakened with the attempt of the late Ed. Ch. Justice K. who would have usurped a Lordly Dictatorian power over the Grand Jury of Somersetshire and commanded them to sind a Bill of Indictment for murther for which they saw no Evidence and upon their refusal he not only threatned the Jury but assumed to himself an Arbitrary Power to sine them Here was a bold Battery made upon the ancient Fence of our Reputations and Lives If that Justice's Will had passed for Law all the Gentlemen of the Grand Juries must have been the basest Vassals to the Judges and have been penally obliged Jurare in Verba Magistri to have sworn to the Directions or Dictates of the Judges But thanks be to God the late long Parliament though filled with Pensioners could not bear such a bold Invasion of the English Liberty but upon the Complaint of one Sir Hugh Windham Foreman of the said Jury and a Member of that Parliament the Commons brought the then Chief Justcie to their Bar to acknowledge his fault whereupon the Prosecution ceased The Trust and Power of Grand Juries is and ought to be accounted amongst the greatest and of most concern next to the Legislative The justice of the whole Kingdom in criminal Cases almost wholly depending upon their Ability and Integrity in the due Execution of their Office Besides the Concernments of all Commoners the Honour Reputation Estates and Lives of all the Nobility of England are so far submitted to their Censure that they may bring them into question for Treason or Felony at their Discretion Their Verdict must be entred upon Record against the greatest Lords and process must legally go out against them thereupon to imprison them if they can be taken or to outlaw them as the Statutes direct and if any Peer of the Realm though innocent should justly fear a Conspiracy against his Life and think fit to withdraw the direction of the Statutes in proceeding to the Outlawry being rightly pursued he could never reverse the Outlawry as the Law now stands save by Pardon or Act of Parliament Hence it appears that in case a Grand Jury should be drawn to Indict a Noble Peer unjustly either by means of their own weakness or partiality or a blind submission to the Direction or Opinion of Judges One such failure of a Jury may occasion the Ruine of any of the best or greatest Families in England I mention this extent of the Grand Juries Power over all the Nobility only to shew their joint Interest and Concern with the Commons of England in this ancient Institution The Grand Juries are trusted to be the principal means of preserving the Peace of the whole Kingdom by the terrour of executing the penal Laws against Offenders by their Wisdom Diligence and Faithfulness in making due Inquiries after all Breaches of the Peace and bringing every one to answer for his crime at the peril of his Life Limb and Estate that every man who lives within the Law may sleep securely in his own House 'T is committed to their Charge and Trust to take care of bringing Capital Offenders to pay their Lives to Justice and lesser Criminals to other punishments according to their several demerits The Courts or Judges or Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and of Gaol Delivery are to receive only from the Grand Inquest all Capital matters whatsoever to be put in Issue tried and judged before them by the Petit Juries The whole Stream of Justice in such cases either runs freely or is stopped and disturbed as the Grand Inquests do their Duties either faithfully and prudently or neglect or omit them And as one part of their Duty is to Indict Offenders so another part is to protect the Innocent in their Reputations Lives and Interests from false Accusers and malicious Conspirators They are to search out the Truth of such Informations as come before them and to reject the Indictment if it be not sufficiently proved and farther if they have reasonable suspicion of Malice or wicked Designs against any mans Life or Estate by such as offer a Bill of Indictment the Laws of God and of the Kingdom bind them to use all possible means to discover the Villany and if it appear to them whereof they are the legal Judges to be a Conspiracy or malicious Combination against the Accused they are bound by the highest Obligations upon Men and Christians not only to reject such a Bill of Indictment but to Indict forth with all the Conspirators with their Abettors and Associates Doubtless there hath been Pride and Covetousness Malice and desire of Revenge in all Ages from whence have sprung false Accusations and Conspiracies but no Age before us ever hatched such Villanies as our Popish Faction have contrived against our Religion Lives and Liberties No History assords an Example of such Forgeries Perjuries Subornations and Combinations of infamous Wretches as have been lately discovered amongst them to defame Loyal Innocent Protestants and to shed their guiltless Blood in the Form and Course of Justice and to make the Kings most faithful Subjects appear to be the vilest Traitors unto him In this our miserable State Grand Juries are our only Security in as much as our Lives cannot be drawn into jeoperdy by all the malicious crasts of the Devil unless such a number of our honest Country Men shall be satisfied in the truth of the Accusations For prevention of such Plotters of wickedness as now abound was that Statute made in the 42 of E. 3.3 See the Stat. 42 E. 3.3 in these words To eschew the mischiefs and damage done to divers of the Commons by False Accusers which oftentimes have made the Accusations more for Revenge and singular Benefit than for the profit of the King or of his People which accused persons some have been taken and