Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	day_n	parliament_n	session_n	3,425	5	10.6408	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56219	A true and perfect narrative of what was acted, spoken by Mr. Prynne, other formerly and freshly secluded members, the army-officers, and some now sitting in the lobby, house, elsewhere, the 7th. and 9th. of May last ... by William Prynne, Esq. ...	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing P4112; ESTC R19484	104,478	113

the whole Parliment to remain in the hands of certain Persons which themselves approved of who exceeded their Commission and acted generally as a Parliment And if this was a grand derogation of the state of the Parliament a great damage to the whole Realm and pernitious example for posterity for which in the very next Parliament they impeached deposed him and nulled all these proceedings for ever Then questionless their former sitting acting in the Commons House from December 7 1648. till Apr. 20. 1653. and now again without yea against the consents Votes of the Parliament 3 Estates secluded Members their repealing altering the very Acts Ordinances of the Lords and Commons concerning the Treaty with the King and sundry others their nulling the Act for Trienial Parliments the continuance sitting of the Lords in this Parlament their declaring themselves alone to be the Parliament of England beheading the King himself their dis-inheriting the whole House of Lords and their Heirs for ever of their Parliamentary Session Judicature Privileges as much as in them lyeth and thousands more of their real and personal Estates their forcible secluding securing the greatest part of their Felow-Members then and now again by the Armies power and sitting under their force which by their own Declaration of August 6 and the Armies in pursuit thereof August 8. the Speakers Letter Iuly 29. 1648. yea Sir Arthur Haslerigges own Speech and others of them the very two last dayes they sate in the last Convention nulls all they voted or ordered must needs be a more execrable transcendent crime by thousands of degreees a greater derogation to the state of the Parliament and its Privileges of more fatal consequence to the whole Kingdom and of far more pernicious example than this Act of his eternally to be exploded declared null void to all intents in it self and demeriting the Highest censures that the Justice of Parliament can inflict being a more superlative Treason and High Misdemeanour than this Kings or Canterburies impeached by the whole House of Commons and many of them thus acting sitting That to preserve himself from being questioned for his Trayterous courses he hath laboured to subvert the rights of Parliaments and the antient course of Parliamentary proceedings this being the last Article of his impeachment for which amongst others he lost his head Which Presidents Mr. Prynne would have pressed them viva voce seriously to consider at which they must needs stand mute and astonished not having one syllable to reply 4ly He would have propounded That when all the Members met together They should in the first place debate this point whether the old Parliament were not actually dissolved in point of Law by their beheading the King notwithstanding the Statute of 17 Caroli c. 7 which though themselves by their former and present sitting by pretext thereof the Army-Officers heretofore and now again deny and many secluded Members hold still to be in being yet for his own opinion he held and had published it to be dissolved notwithstanding this Act and to be Casus omissus out of it which he was ready to maintain against all Opponents by these reasons 1. Because it hath been frequently resolved by Parliaments themselves the Reverend Judges and our Law-books as 1 H 4 rot Parl. n. 1 2 3 1 H. 5. Rot. Parl. n. 16.4 E. 4. f. 44. Cooks 4. Instit. p. 44. by King Charles own Declaration 13 Iunii 3 Caroli and his Judges and Counsel then that the deposition and death of the King doth actually dissolve the Parliament and that the new King cannot hold and continue the old Parliament sitting or prorogued at his Ancestors death the Parliament of 22 R 2. being dissolved by his resignation of his Crown and the Parliaments of 14 H. 4. 24. Iacobi by the deaths of these two Kings and by like reason the last Parliament of 16 Caroli by his violent death 2ly Because the Parliament is no standing Court sitting at certain seasons by positive Laws but summoned constituted by the Kings writs of summons and royal Prerogative when and where he pleaseth and adjourned prorogued dissolved by his writ alone in point of Law and practise in all ages at his pleasure sitting sometimes longer sometimes shorter and sometimes prorogued to another day place or countermanded after summons upon just occasions as the Parliament Clause Rolls the Act of 16 Caroli c. 1. and other Statutes resolve Now all writs of summons being actually abated by the Kings death which made them as well as all Commissions Patents of all Judges Justices Sheriffs whatsoever and other writs informations in the Kings name and behalf as the Statute of E. 6. c. 7. Cooks 7 Report f. 29 30. Crookes 1 Part. p 1 2.10.11.97.98 and other Lawbooks collected by Asb Discontinuance de Pr●ces 16. and Reattachment 7. determine The writs of summons and likewise of Parliament must needs abate likewise And the Lords being made Judges and the Commons Members of that particular Parliament only by the Kings writ his death must determine their Parliamentary Judicature or Authority sitting during the Kings pleasure as well as the Judges Justices Sheriffs Patents and all other Commissions whatsoever 3ly Because every Parliament heretofore in the reign of K. Charls by the very recitals of the Writs is called 1. In the name and by the authori●y only of the King regnant in his natural capacity accompanied with his politick by his Christian name Carolus Dei gratia Rex c. expressed in it not generally by the Office King but Carolus Rex 2ly It recites it to be called De a●isamento Consilii nostri 3ly It stiles it quoddam Parliamentum nostrum 4ly That the occasion of calling it was about certain arduous businesses Nos et defensionem Regni nostri Iura coronae nostrae c. in many antient writs contingentibus 5ly That his intention in calling it is Quia cum Praelatis Magnatibus et Proceribus dicti regni nostri or nostris Colloquium habere volumus et Tractatum 6ly It summons them thus Vobis mandamus c. quod personaliter intersitis Nobiscum or ad Nos such a day and place Nobiscom et cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus et proceribus praedictis tractaturi vestrumque Consilium impensuri super negotiis antedictis 7ly The Knights Citizens Burgesses and Barons of ports in the Commons House are summoned to doe and consent to those things which shall happen by Gods favour to be then ordained De Communi Consilio supe● Negotiis antedictis in sundry Writs stiled by the King Negotia Nostra Negotiorum nostrorum c which clause is thus explained in Claus 36 E. 3. d. 16. cl 37 ● 3 d. 22 cl 38 E. 3. d. 3. cl 39 E 3. d. 2. cl 42 E. 3 d. 22. cl 47 E. 3. d. 29. ad consentiendum biis quae per Nos ac dictos Magnates et Proceres or●inati contigerit

dissipated House of Commons elected impowred only by the Army not People to act what they prescribe to extirpate King Lords Monarchy Magistracy Ministry Laws Liberties Properties and reduce them all under Jesuitisme at first and our forein Enemies Vassallage in conclusion Mr. Prynne then being most clearly convinced thereof by what he formerly published as a Member in his Speech and Memento and since in his Epistle to a New Discovery of Free State tyranny his Ius Patronatus his historical and legal Vindication of the fundamental Laws Liberties Rights Properties of all English Freemen A new Discovery of Romish Emissaries his Quakers unmasked and in his Republicans Good Old Cause truly and fully anatomised wherin he infallibly demonstrates their converting of our late English Monarchy into a new Common-wealth or elective Protectorship to be the antient projected moddles of Father Parsons and other Jesuites and Tho. Campanella the Italian Frier specially recommended by them to the pursuite of the King of Spain who prosecuted it all he could to promote his universal Monarchy and so much rejoyced at it that he was the first foreign King who presently sent an extraordinary Ambassador to congratulate the accomplishment applaud the constitution of enter into a League of Friendship with it whose flattering panygerick in his Great Catholique Kings name in prayse thereof and what an honour it was to them that he was the first forein Prince that owned them for a Common wealth made the Commons House so intoxicated that they gratified him in all his requests and pursued all his designs only to ruine us and the Netherlands layd down by Campanella De Monarchia Hispanica c. 25 27. by furnishing him with many thousands of Irish forces quarrelling with the Hollanders maintaining above three years bloody wars with them with infinite losse and expence to both Nations taking the French Kings Fleet provisions merely designed for the reliefe of Dunkirk whereby he presently regained it to our prejudice And on the other hand Cardinall Richlieu of France the great Incendiary of Christendome and fomenter of all our Domestick wars in his life the French King and Mazarine by his instructions in writing after his death vigorously pursued this very design His instructions to this purpose recorded by Conte de Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato an excellent Italian Historian are very memorable who relates That Cardinal Richelieu Anno 1642. after he had involved the King Parliament and Ireland in a bloody Civil war being near his death delivered these politick instructions for the King his Master to pursue for carrying on his designs in relation to England with successe That above all other things he should endeavour to keep the Government of Great Britain divided and dis-united by ayding the weaker party that the other might not make it self too powerfull By causing the three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland to be divided either by nominating other Kings elective of another family accomplished by erecting an elective Protector or by moulding them into a Common-wealth as our Republicans have formerly and now done again Yet with this caution That when they are reduced into a Common-wealth so to order the matter That it may not be united into one but divided How punctually Cardinal Mazarine prosecuted these instructions ever since and accomplished them at last the Letters taken in the Lord Digbyes Cabinet printed by the Parliaments order 1646. and O. Cromwels late intimate correspondency with Mazarine discover And how much the Iesuites and Catholicks in France in November 1648. approved applauded the turning of our hereditary Monarchy which they irreconcilably hated envyed as well as the late King and turning the Old Parliament into a new Republican Representative and that all their hopes to effect it were in the Army to whom they wished all prosperity therein you may read in a Letter sent from thence by the Armies Agent to a fitting Republican Member soon after published by Mr. Prynne who got the original Mr. Prynne knowing all this and clearly discovering a fresh combination between the Sectaries Republican Anabaptistical Iesuitical levelling party to pursue their designs afresh and accomplish what they formerly attempted in the short Mock-Parliament of their own election creation Anno 1653. and what was then passionately recommended to them by Iohn Canne the Anabaptist in his Voyce from the Temple dedicated to them as their Generation work which God and all his people then expected and required from them even to extirpate the Church Ministry of England Advowsons Glebes Tithes and demolish all Parish Churches as Antichristian to extirpate the Law root and branch under pretext of reforming and new-moulding it to sell all Corporation and College lands and set up a popular Anarchy or tyrannical Oligarchy among us under the disguise of the Old Dissolved Parliament sitting from 1648. till April 20. 1653. after six years violent ejection of them with highest scorn and reproach yet now invited by them to sit again to effect these Romish designs to our utter Confusion but secluding all those who were like to obstruct or defeat them Upon this consideration Mr. Prynne as a secluded Member of the old Parliamemt wherein he detected oppugned all these Treasonable Designs heretofore and since its dissolution by the Kings beheading held it his bounden duty to prevent defeat them now and nip them in the bud whereupon so soon as those now sitting entred the House he assayed to go into it with as many old secluded Members as he could there being 80 of them in London For although his judgement be that this Parliament is quite dissolved by the Kings beheading as he oft declared in print yet since the Army Officers and those now sitting with sundry others pretend it still in being and under that pretext alone have acted all their publick Tragedies and Innovations he conceived himself bound in Conscience upon their Concessions to endeavour to prevent these mischiefs and do all Publick good he might with better warrant and reason than most Ministers Lawyers Justices Magistrates Members of late Parliaments as they style them have prayed for complyed with acted in under those late Governors Governments mock Parliaments as he is confident some now sitting among them in this new Convention believe it dissolved and yet go in only to prevent and allay those mischiefs which others violently pursue which their own Consciences and our laws resolve them without scruple to be utterly illegal whereas this old Parliament whereof he was a Member was most legallie summoned and convened beyond dispute and hath the colour of a legal Act of Parliament for its continuance which those since have wanted of which Act the greatest part of those now sitting taking advantage notwithstanding their new Instruments Declarations Petitions Advises Addresses and Sessions in other new Parliaments since and it being a great dispute now among most secluded Members whether that Parliament was not yet alive though

and protesting engaging against them both as no Members of it Neither can they pursue any one of those ends for which this Parliament was continued Therefore they are doubtlesse beyond dispute no Parliament at all within the words or intention thereof their own Consciences Reason being Judges whatever they pretend nor yet by their own Republican principles a free and equal Representative of the people 6 ly By the Law and Custom of all Nations Nature Reason Justice Equitie the laws of England and of all publick or private Ecclesiastical Civil or Militarie Councils or Corporations the Majority of persons Members Voyces Votes are alwayes reputed the Parliament Council Synod Corporation and do yea ought of right to bind the lesser part as well in making Laws Ordinances as Elections and all else that concerns the publick Yea the General and General Counsel of the Army-Officers in their Petition to those and others now sitting in Parliament and draught of an Agreement of the people for a secure and present peace framed prepared and presented to them to be established and subscribed by the people Ianuary 20. 1649. not onlie subscribed thereto but proposed That 150 Members at least be alwayes present in each sitting of the Representative at the passing of any Law or doing of any Act whereby the People are to be bound saving that the Number of sixty may make the House for Debates or Resolutions that are preparatory thereunto Therefore the 42 Members secretlie skipping into the House secluding the rest May 7 9. being not the 10th part of the Members of the old Parl. now surviving by all Nations Laws Consents can be no Parliament nor House of Commons within this Act nor pass anie thing to bind the Majoritie of the Members or people in anie kind whatsoever what ever anie imprudent illiterate shameless namelesse Scriblers or themselves against their own Reasons Consciences Iudgements principles resolutions pretend to the contrarie but dare not once affirm in good earnest It being a received Maxime in all Ages Populi minor pars Populum non obligit 6 ly It is a rule our Lawbooks That all Statutes ought to be interpreted according to Reason and the true mind meaning intention of those that made them but it is most certain That it is against all reason and the true intents minds meaning of the Makers of this law to make a Parliament without a King or House of Lords or Majoritie of the Commons House Or that all or anie of them when they made this Act did ever dream of such a Iuncto as this now sitting Or to seclude themselves and resign up their own interests freedoms privileges right of sitting in Parliament with them to constitute them the onlie Parliament of England as everie line syllable throughout the Act demonstrates Therefore they neither are nor can be a Parliament within it neither can the Bedlam Turkish Bruitish unreasonable Argument of the longest Sword or Armie-logick nor the petitions addresses of any Crack-brain'd Sectaries and vulgar Rabble of inconfiderable illiterate people nor the presence of anie Lawyers sitting with or acting under them as a Parliament to their own and their Professions dishonour make them so in their own or any Wisemens or Iudicious honest Lawyers Iudgement whatsoever And therefore out of Conscience shame justice prudence and real Christianitie have they anie left they must needs disclaim themselves to be a Parliament and no longer abuse the Nation or others under their disguise All whith Mr. Prynne if admitted would viva Voce have pressed home upon them but being forcibly secluded by their Gards because unable to answer or contradict his Law or Reason he now tenders to their view and the Judgement Resolution of the whole English Nation to whom he appeals with this publick Protestation That if they will freely call in all the surviving Members of the Lords and Commons House sitting till December 1648. without secluding anie by force or new unparliamentarie Impositions or seclusive Engagements which they have no power to impose If they upon a free and full debate shall resolve the old parliament to be still in being and not actually dissolved by the Kings beheading notwithstanding his premised Reasons to the contrarie He will then submit his private Iudgement to their Majority of Voyces in this as well as in all other Parliamentary debates and contribute his best assistance and advice as a Fellow-Member to heal the manifold breaches prevent the approaching ruines of our indangered Church Realms Parliaments Laws Liberties Peace and establish them upon better foundations than those now sitting to promote their own and the Armies interests rather than the peoples or Nations are ever likely to lay Who if they can prove themselves a true and lawfull English Parliament within this Act without either King or House of Lords or this their clandestine forcible entry into and seclusion of their Fellow-Members out of the Honse and Actings in it to be lawfull equitable righteous honorable parliamentarie Christian and such as well becomes either Saints Members or true good Englishmen by anie Records Parliament Rolls Acts Presidents of like kind in former Ages Law-books Customes Common or Civil-law Scripture Divinitie Reason Ethicks Policks except Machiavils and the sole Argument of the longest Sword the most bruitish unjust unchristian Turkish of all others Mr. Prynne will then publicklie declare them to be that in truth which as yet he neither can nor dares to acknowledge them to be so much as in appellation either a Member of the Old Parliament a Covenanter a Protester a Lawyer a Scholar a Man an Englishman or a Christian. And hopes that upon the perusal hereof they will as much disown themselves to be the Parliament within this Act or anie lawfull Parliament of England even in their Judgments consciences much more in actings for the premised Reasons as he or anie other secluded Members do not out of anie spirit of contradiction but Conscience and common dutie to themselves and their native Country That which principallie elevated yea inflamed Mr. Prynnes zeal both now and heretofore with all his might to oppose all late publick Innovations changes of our antient Government Parliaments Laws was this sad and serious consideration which he shall with all earnest importunitie intreat advise all Army Officers Souldiers sitting or secluded Members of the Lords or Commons House with all well-affected persons to the safetie settlement of our Religion Church State throughout our three Nations most seriouslie to lay to heart and engrave upon their Spirits not to read it as they do News-books only to talk of them for a day or two but as they read the evidences of their Inheritances whereby they hold all their earthlie yea heavenly possessions that they may remember act according to it all their lives That William Watson a secular Priest of Rome in his Dialogue between a Secular Priest and a Lay Gentleman printed at Rhemes 1601. in his

originally was and for whose service it was created as these memorable particulars evidence 1. They did quite set aside all those 5. against●esuites ●esuites Seminary Priests Popish Recusants and the exercise of any t●eir Romish Superstitions in any place within our Realms which the secluded Members and Army-Officers too at first eagerly pursued and the King in the Treaty of the Isle of VVight assented to at the first without any scruple For which the Iesuites in France at a general Meeting there presently resolved to bring him to Iustice and take off his Head by the power of their Friends in the Army as the King himself was certified by an express from thence and wished to provide against it but two dayes before his removal by the Army from the Isle of VVight in order to his execution 2ly They totally set aside and repealed by express Votes and printed Knacks the very Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance as unlawfull Oaths which themselves took and ought to take before they sate or could sit as Members in the Commons House by the Statutes of 5 El. c. 2. 7 Iac. c. 6. which Oaths were specially made by the great wisedom care and piety of our Protestant Parliaments purposely to detect the persons and prevent the plots conspiracies Assasinations Treasons Vsurpations and new Gun-powder plots of the Romish Iesuites popish Priests Papists and their Instruments against the Lives Crowns Prerogatives of our Protestant Kings Princes their Royal posterity Realms Parliaments our protestant Church and Religion as the Statutes of 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 3 Iac. c. 4. 7 Iac. c. 6. and other Acts with King Iames his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance and sundry learned Treatises in defence of these Oaths declare at large Which Oaths were refused opposed only by the most Iesuited and desperate Papists at home and abroad but approved by the moderatest and loyallest Priests and Lay-Papists who writ in justification of them and repealed to their greatest joy and advantage by our Jesuitized zealous Republicans 3ly They discharged absolved themselves and all other Members Subjects Officers who had taken these Oaths as most had frequently done from the future Observation of them and of their Solemn Protestation Vow League National Covenant made in pursuance of them contrary to this expresse Clause in the Oath of Allegiance I do believe and in Conscience am resolved That neither the Pope nor any Person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully administred to me and do renounce all Pardons and Dispensations to the contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to the expresse words by me spoken and plain and common sense of the said words without any equivocation or mental reservation And I do make this recognition and acknowledgement Heartily Willingly and Truly upon the Faith of a Christian. Yet these faithlesse Republicans who took this Oath as Members and several times else upon other occasions thus atheistically like so many absolute Popes against all Laws of Nations Nature absolved themselves and all others from it and set it with the Oath of Supremacy Covenant Protestation quite aside like old Almanacks out of date 4ly Not content herewith they imposed a new Engagement diametrically contrary to these Oaths the Protestation Vow Solemn League and Covenant which every one must subscribe with his hand To be true and faithfull to their New Common-wealth as established by them without a King or House of Lords putting all English Freemen whatsoever into a New praemunire upon a bare suggestion only before proof or conviction and disabling them to sue in any Court of their Republick or to receive or enjoy any degree office augmentation or preferment whatsoever Spiritual Ecclesiastical Civil or Military or sit as Members then and now again unless they would publickly subscribe it Which Engagement thousands of our Godly protestant Ministers Gentry Freemen refusing to subscribe were thereupon barred of their Actions Executions Iudgements to recover their just Debts Rights Inheritances Goods Offices denyed their degrees of Learning ejected out of their Benefices Headships Fellowships Vice-Chancelorships Augmentations Offices Freeholds Callings against all rules of Law Conscience Iustice Equity Religion the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the Land their Native Birth-Rights after all their Conte●●s Wats Contributions Prayers Fasts endeavours for their defence And all by these Free-State-Men A Tyranny Treachery Perjury Apostacy transcending any since the Creation yet most eagerly pursued by them all their Reign to the utter ruine of many consciencious honest Protestants and great rejoycing of all Iesuites and Popish Enemies both at home and abroad 5ly The very first Act of Iustice they did by the first Commission of the peace they passed under their New Republican Great Seal for Middlesex at the first Sessions held under them at Hix-hall Febr. 1628. was the enlarging of a dangerous Iesuite and another old seducing Papist formerly imprisoned in the New prison the only Acts done in this first Session as those present then informed Mr. Prynne with much regret Which was seconded with the subsequent enlargement of other Iesuites Priests Papists elsewhere imprisoned whereas on the contrary they shut up Sir William Waller Sir Will. Lewes Sir Iohn Clotwo●thy Major General Brown Comissary Cop●y Mr. Prynne Mr. Clement Walker close prisoners in sundry remote Castles divers years together without any cause expressed and Mr. Gewen with other Members several Monthes and sundry Godly Ministers Protestants of all sorts throughout the Land as well Paliamenteers as former Cavaliers yea beheaded Mr. Love an eminent Protestant Minister and other Protestants but not one Papist in their illegal High-Courts of Justice erected by them against all our Laws whiles these Romish Locusts were thus enlarged unprosecuted and had free liberty to wander up and down our three Nations and act what they pleased to work out Kingdoms Churches and Religions ruine 6ly The first who publikely owned them for a Common-wealth congratulated this their glorious change atchievement and ent●ed into a League with them was the most Catholick K. of Spain the Popes Iesuites chief Patron and Propagator of their Catholick Faith and designs whose interests they prosecuted during all their Republican domination 7ly They entted into a bloodie invasive war against their Brethren of Scotland onlie for owning their rightfull Soveraign King CHARLES after his Fathers beheading according to their Laws Oathes Duties and Solemn League and Covenant invaded their Country without any provocaion slew many thousands of them with furie and cruelty in the Field starved destroyed hundreds of them taken prisoners by them and sold others of them into forein plantations for Slaves imprisoned sequestred banished most of their zealous Godly Protestant Ministers Nobles Gentry took all their Cities Castles Forts Amunition Arms conquered inthralled their whole Kingdom put