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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	law_n	prerogative_n	3,673	5	10.4433	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91269	The second part of A seasonable legal and historical vindication, and chronological collection of the good old fundamental liberties, franchises, rights, lawes, government of all English freemen; their best inheritance and onely security against all arbitrary tyranny and Ægyptian taxes. Wherein the extraordinary zeal, courage, care, vigilancy, civill, military and Parliamentary consultations, contests, to preserve, establish, perpetuate them to posterity, against all tyrants, usurpers, enemies, invaders, both under the ancient pagan and Christian Britons, Romans, Saxons. The laws and Parliamentall great councils of the Britons, Saxons. With some generall presidents, concerning the limited powers and prerogatives of our British and first Saxon kings; ... are chronologically epitomized, ... 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 2	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1655 (1655)	Wing P4072; Thomason E820_11; ESTC R203292	115,608	151

upon whom but the words imply that it was done by common consent of the Nobles in a Generall Council for their Common Preservation from Plunder not imposed or raised by the Kings Prerogative without their free consents in a General Council or Parliamentary Assembly for so it was assessed and levied in succeeding times Anno Dom. 983. The Danes infesting all the Parts of the Realm and the people not knowing where or how to resist them DECRETVM EST A VIRIS PRVDENTIBVS It was decreed by the Wise-men no doubt in a Generall Councill assembled for that end not by the Kings absolute Authority that they should be overcome with Money who could not be vanquished with the Sword Wherefore they satisfied the Covetousnesse of the Danes with the payment of ten thousand pounds Anno 991. A Tribute of 10000 l. was given them BY THE ADVICE OF SIRICIVS DUKE ETHELWARD AND OTHER NOBLES OF THE REALM that they should cease their frequent Rapines Burnings and Slaughters of men which they used about the Sea Coasts Anno 994. King Aethelred CONSILIO PROCERVM SVORVM by the Counsell of his Nobles no doubt in a Parliamentary Assembly gave them a pension of 16000 l. collected of all England that they should cease from the Rapines and Slaughters of innocent men And Anno 1002. the same King HABITO CONCILIO CVM REGNI SVI PRIMATIBVS utile duxit a Danis dextras accipere c. And CONSILIO PRIMATVM SVORVM by the Counsell of his Nobles or Chief men gave them 24000 l. and Anno 1007. CONSILIO PRIMATVM SVORVM BY THE COUNSEL OF HIS NOBLES he gave them 30000 l. gathered out of all England that they should desist from Rapines and hold a firm Peace with him Anno 1012. Duke Edric and ALL THE NOBLES OF ENGLAND OF BOTH ORDERS to wit the Lords Spirituall and Temporall were assembled together at London before Easter no doubt in a Great Council and continued there so long till the Tribute promised to the Danes should be paid which was 48000 l. All which is recorded in these expresse termes by Mathew Westminster Florentius Wigorniensis and Simeon Dunelmensis in their Chronicles and Histories of these respective years and by Polychronicon Fabian Holinshed Grafton Speed and other late Historians out of them So as this Tax or Tribute paid to the Danes was undoubtedly imposed and levied by common Consent in the Parliamentary Councils of those times not by the Kings own Power and Prerogative alone True it is King Suanus the Dane having conquered most of the Land exacted it from the people and levied it perforce against their wills for the payment of his Souldiers But the Inhabitants of St. Edmonds-bury refused to pay it Whereupon he threatned by force to spoile and destroy the Town but in the midst of his Jollity and Nobles he suddainly cryed out that he was struck through by St. Edmond with a Sword or Speare no man seeing the hand that smote him and so with great horrour and torment died three dayes after at The●ford as Hoveden Annal. pars prior Simeon Dunelmensis de Gestis Regum Angliae Anno 1014. col 170. Math. Westminster Anno 1014 p. 394. Ranulsus de Diceto Abbreviationes Chronicorum col 465. Johann Brompton Chron. col 892. Fabian part 6. c. 200 Polychronicon l. 6. c 16. Speed in his History l. 7 p. 420. with others relate A memorable Punishment for this his illegal Exaction and Oppression As for the Tax of Danegeld imposed on the People to wit 12 d. as some or 2 s as others to be annually paid out of every Hyde or Plowland throughout the Realm except the Lands of the Church and some others exempted from it by special Charters it was imposed by Authority and Acts of Generall Councils onely not by royall Prerogative for Defence of the Kingdome by Land and Sea against the Danes and other Enemies and Pirates as is evident by the Lawes of King Edward the Confessor cap. 12. The Black Book of the Eschequer l. 1. c. 11. Sir Henry Spelman and William Sonmer their respective Glossarium Tit. Danegeld p 200 201. Mr. ●elden his Mar● Cla●sum l 2 as I have irrefragably proved at large in My Humble Remonstrance against the Illegal Tax of Ship-mony p 19. to 25 to which I refer you for fuller satisfaction Anno 1051 this unsupportable Tax of Dane●el● was ●●leased for ever to the People of England by King Edward the Confessor 〈…〉 towards his oppressed People to wit in the 38. year from the time that Suanus King of the Danes commanded it to be yearly paid to his Army in the reign of King Ethelbert Father to this King Edward Which Abbot Ingulph in his History p 897. Iohn Brompton in his Chronicle col 938 9●3 Simeon Dun●lmensis De Gest Reg Angl col 184. Ailredus Abbas Rievalus de Vita miraculis Edwardi Confess col 383. Radulfus de Diceto Abbrev. Chron col 475 Henry de Knyghton de Eventibus Angl l 1 c. 9. col 2331. Mr Selden in his Marc Clausum l 2 Sir Henry Spelman in his G●ossary Title D●●eg●ld and others thus relate in Ingulphus words TRIBUTUM GRAVISSIMUM quod DANEGELD dicebatur OMNI ANGLIAE IN PERPETUUM RELAXAVIT DE TAM FERA EXACTIONE NE IOTA UNVM VOLVIT RETINERE re●oring to the People all the mony then collected and brought into his Bed-chamber by his Officers and there laid in heaps upon which this most holy King as some of these record saw a Devil dancing and triumphing with over much Ioy and calling it HIS MONY QUIA INJUSTE ADQUISITA EST DE SUBSTANTIA PAUPERUM because it was unjustly gotten out of the substance of the poor Subjects though by coulour of former Grants by common consent in Parliamentary Councils upon which occasion this good King forthwith rest● red all that was collected and perpetually released for the future this great and heavy Tribute which had continued near fourty years to the English-men for ever so that after that day it was no more gathered as Roger Hovedon Annal pars prior p 447. Hygden in his Polychron l 6. c 24. Capgrave Surius Ribadenicra Holinshed in the life of Edward the Confessor●Math Westm Simeon Dun●lm●nsis and Florent Wigorniensis An 1051. Grafton in his Chronicle p. 180. Speed in his History of Great Britain l 8. c 6 Sect 7 p 419. Fabian in his Chron part 6. c 210 p 282 with the other forementioned Authors joyntly attest By these four first Generall Taxes and publick charges thus imposed on the ancient Saxons and English onely by common grant and consent in the great Parliamentary generall Councils of the Realm both for the maintetenance of Gods Worship Ministers Religion Learning and defence of the Realm against forraign Enemies and Invasions the truth of the first fundamentall Proposition in the precedent Chapter is abundantly confirmed during all our Saxons Kings Reignes which I shall confirm in subsequent Sections by Presidents in all succeeding ages to

Iames was no King at all before his Coronation and that therefore they might by force of Arms lawfully surprise his person and Prince Henry his Son and imprison them in the Tower of London or Dover-Castle till they inforced them by duress to grant a free toleration of their Catholike Religion to remove some evil counsellors from about them and to grant them a free Pardon for this violence or else they would put some further Project in execution against them to their destruction But this Conspiricy being discovered The Traytors were apprehended arraigned condemned and Watson and Clerk two Iesuited Priests who had drawn them into this Conspiracy upon the aforesaid Pretext with some others executed as Traytors all the Iudges of England resolving that King Iames being right Heir to the Crown by descent was immediately upon the death of Queen Elizabeth actually possessed of the Crown and lawful King of England before any Proclamation or Coronation of him which are but Ceremonies as was formerly adjudged in the case of Queen Mary and Queen Iane 1 Mariae there being no Interregnum by the Law of England as is adjudged declared by Act of Parliament 1 Iac. c. 1. worthy serious perusal 8. By their horrid Gun-powder Treason Plot contrived fomented by Garnet Superiour of the English Iesuites Gerard Tesmond and other Iesuites who by their Apostolical Power did not onely commend but absolve from all sin the other Iesuited Popish Conspirators and Faux THE SOULDIER who were their instruments to effect it Yea the Iesuitical Priests were so Atheistical as that they usually concluded their Masses with Prayers for the good success of this Hellish plot which was suddenly with no less then 36 Barrels of Gunpowder placed in a secret Vault under the House of Lords to have blown up and destroyed at once King Iames himself the Queen Prince Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons assembled together in the Upper-House of Parliament upon the 5 of November Anno Dom. 1605. and then to have forcibly seised with armed men prepared for that purpose the persons of our late beheaded King then Duke of York and the Lady Elizabeth his Sister if absent from the Parliament and not there destroyed with the rest that so there might be none of the Royal Line left to inherit the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland to the utter overthrow and subversion of the whole Royal Family Parliament State and Government of this Realm Which unparallel'd inhumane bloody Plot being miraculously discovered prevented the very day before the execution in perpetual detestation of it and of the Iesuits and their traiterous Romish Religion which both contrived and approved it the 5 day of November by the Statute of 3 Iacobi ch 1. was enacted to be had IN PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE that ALL AGES TO COME might thereon meet together publickly throughout the whole Nation to render publick praises unto God for preventing this infernal Iesuitical Design and keep in memory THIS JOYFUL DAY OF DELIVERANCE for which special forms of publick Prayers and Thankesgivings were then appointed and that day ever since more or less annually observed till this present And it is worthy special observation that had this Plot taken effect it was agreed by the Iesuites and Popish Conspirators before-hand THAT THE IMPUTATION OF THIS TREASON SHOULD BE CAST UPON THE PURITANS TO MAKE THEM MORE ODIOUS as now they father all their Powder-Plots of this kinde which they have not onely laid but fully accomplished of late yeers against the King Prince Royal Posterity the Lords and Commons House our English●Parliaments and Government upon those Independents and Anabaptistical Sword-men reputed PURITANS who were in truth but their meer under Instruments to effect them When as they originally laid the Plots as is clear by Campanella's Book De Monarchia Hisp c. 25. and Cardinal Richelieu his Instructions at his death to the King of France And it is very observable that as Courtney the Jesuite Rector of the English Jesuits Colledge at Rome did in the yeer 1641. when the name of Independent was scarce heard of in England openly affirm to some English Gentlemen and a Reverend Minister of late in Cornwal from whom I had this Relation then and there feasted by the English Jesuites in their Colledge That they now at last after all their former Plots had miscarried they had found out a sure way to subvert and ruine the Church of England which was most formidable to them of all others BY THE INDEPENDENTS who immediately after infinitely increased supplanted the Prebyterians by degrees got the whole power of the Army and by it of the Kingdom into their hands and then subverted both the Parliament King and his Posterity So some Independent Ministers Sectaries and Anabaptists ever since 1648. have neglected the observation of the 5 of November as I am credibly informed and refused to render publick thanks to God for the deliverance thereon contrary to the Act for this very reason which some of them have rendred That they would not mock God in publick by praising him for delivering the late King Royal Posterity and House of Lords from destruction then by Jesuites and Papists whenas themselves have since destroyed and subverted them through Gods providence and repute it a special mercy and deliverance to the Nation from Tyranny and Bondage for which they have cause to bless the Lord Peforming that for the Jesuites and Powder-Traytors which themselves could not effect The Lord give them grace and hearts to consider how much they acted the Jesuites and promoted their very worst designes against us therein what infamy and scandal they have thereby drawn upon all zealous Professors of our Protestant Religion and what they will do in the end thereof 9. To omit all other forraign instances cited in Speculum Jesuiticum p. 124. to 130. where you may peruse them at leisure By their poysoning King James himself in conclusion as some of them have boasted 10. By the Popes Nuntio and Conclave of Jesuites Conspiracy at London Anno 1640. to poyson our late King Charles himself as they had poysoned his Father with a poysoned Indian Nut kept by the Jesuites and shewed often by Conne the Popes Nuncio to the Discoverer of that Plot or else to destroy him by the Scotish wars and troubles raised for that very end by the Jesuites in case he refused to grant them a universal liberty of exercising their Popish Religion throughout his Realms and Dominions and then to train up his Son under them in the Popish Religion To which not onely heretofore but now likewise they strenuously endeavour by all possible means to seduce him as appears more especially by Monsieur Militierre his late book dedicated to him for that purpose Surely all these premised instances compared together will sufficiently inform the world that the late unparellel'd capital Proceedings against our Protestant King Parliament Members Peers House and forced

HAVE COMPANIONS FOR TO HEAR AND DETERMINE IN PARLIAMENT ALL THE WRITS AND PLAINTS OF THE WRONGS OF THE KING OF THE QUEEN AND OF THEIR CHILDREN and especially of those OF WHOSE WRONGS ONE COULD NOT HAVE RIGHT OTHER WHERE And these Companions are now called Counts after the Latine word Comites every o●e of which had at first a Country delivered to him to guard and defend it from the Enemies which Country is now called a County and in Latine Comitatus and these Counties together with the Realm were turned into an Inheritance So Horne in his Mirrour of Justice in the reign of King Edward the first These English Saxons from the first Settlement of their K●●gdomes and Monarchies had no Soveraign Power at all t● make alter or repeal Lawes impose Taxes or alien their Crown Lands but onely by common consent in General Parliamentary Councils much lesse to imprison con●emn exile out-law any m●ns person or to deprive him of his Life Lands Goods Franchises against the Law without any Legall triall as these Subsequent Historicall Collections will at large demonstrate That they had no Power nor Authority to make alter or repeal any Lawes but onely by common advice and consent of their Nobles and Wise-men in their Great Parliamentary Councils of the Realm is evident by this passage of our Venerable Beda concerning Ethelbert King of Kent the first Christian Saxon King and Law-maker He about the year of Christ 605. Inter caetera bona quae genti suae consulendo conferebat etiam Decreta illi juxta exempla Romanorum CVM CONSILIO SAPIENTVM CONSTITVIT Quae conscripta Anglorum sermone hactenus habentur observantur ab ea In quibus primitus posuit qualiter id emendare deberet qui aliquid rerum vel Episcopi vel reliquorum ordinum furto aufernt volens scilicet tuitionem eis quos quorum doctrinam susceperat praesiare Malmesbury and Huntingdon write of him Quin etiam curam extendens in posteros LEGES PATRIO SERMONE TVLIT quibus bonis praemia decerneret improbis per remedia meliora occurreret NIHIL SVPER ALIQVO NEGOCIO INFVTVRVM RELINQVENS AMBIGVVM The first Law this Christian King ever made BY THE COUNCIL OF HIS WISE-MEN was for God his Church and Ministers to protect them and theirs from violence a Jove principium and the next for to Protect Great Councils and their Members from Injury thus recorded by Sir Henry Spelmau out of a famous ancient Manuscript called Textus Roffensis 1. Quicunque Res Dei vel Ecclesiae abstulerit duodecima componat solutione Episcopires undecima solutione Sacerdotis res nona solutione Diaconires sexta solutione Clerici res trina solutione Pax Ecclesiae violata duplici emendetur solutione Pax Monachi duplici etiam solutione 2. Si Rex populum suum convocaverit hos ILLIC quispiam injuria afficerit duplex esto emendatio praeterea 50. Solidos Regi pendito Let the forcers of Parliaments consider it To these I might subjoyn all the Ecclesiasticall and Civil Lawes Canons Constitutions of all our other Saxon Kings before the Normans reign recorded in Mr. Lambards Archaion and scatteringly mentioned in Beda Ingulfus William of Malmesbury Huntindon Mathew Westminster Florentius Wigorniensis Brompt Antiquitates Eccl. Britannicae Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour Mr. Fox Acts and Monuments with other Antiquaries and Historians all made altered amended repealed from time to time by common advice and consent in their Great Parliamentary Councils which because I have particularly insisted on in my Antiquity Triumphing over Novelty and Historicall Collection of the ancient Great Councils and Parliaments of England I shall forbear here to repeat at large being never yet denied by any and a truth beyond contradiction That our Saxon Kings from their original institution could not alienate or transferre to any other uses no not to endow Churches support Gods Worship or Ministers any of their Crown Lands Demesnes or Revenues without common consent of their Nobles and Prelates in their Great Parliamentary Councils is apparent by the three first Charters we read of granted by Ethelbert the first Christian Saxon King to the Church of Peter and Paul in Canterbnry Anno Dom. 605. Wherein the King CVM CONSENSV venerabilis Augustini Archiepiscopi AC PRINCIPVM MEORVM by the consent of Archbishop Augustine and his Princes first gave and granted a parcell of Land of his Right in the East part of the City of Canterbury to build a Church and Monastery to the honour of St. Peter and after that by a second Charter of the same date confirmed by his own the Arch-bishops and Nobles subscriptions thereto with the Sign of the Crosse he gave and granted other Lands in Langeport to God and his Church and after that by a third Charter Anno 610. he granted other Lands and Priviledges to it as a testimony of his gratitnde to God for his conversion from the Errour of false Gods to the worship of the onely true God adjuring and commanding in the name of the Lord God Almighty who is the just Judge of all things that the said Lands given to this Church by the said subscribed Charters should be perpetually confirmed so that it should not be lawfull for himself nor for any of his Successors Kings or Princes or for any Secular or Ecclesiasticall Dignity to defraud the Church of any part thereof And if any shall attempt to diminish or make void any thing of this Donation let him be at present separated from the holy Communion of the body and bloud of Christ and in the day of Judgement let him be separated from the fellowship of all the Saints The two first of his Charters and Donations to this Church were approved and confirmed in a Common Councill assembled by this King at Canterbury 5. January Anno 605. Omnium singulorum approbatione consensu BY THE APPROBATION AND CONSENT OF ALL AND EVERY OF THEM as you may read at large in Sir Henry Spelman and William Thorne This truth is further abundantly confirmed by the Charter of Immunities of Withraed King of Kent granted to the Churches under him Anno 700. The Charter of Ethelbald King of Mercia to the Church of Croyland An. 716. The Charter of King Ive of Lands and Priviledges to the Church of Glastonbury Anno 725. The Charter of King Offa of Lands and Priviledges to the Courch of St. Albanes Anno 794. The Charter of King Egfred to the same Church Anno 797. The Charter of Bertulph King of Mercia to the Abbot of Croyland made in the Parliamental Great Council of Biningdon Anno 850. and of Kingsbury Anno 851. a memorable president recorded at large by Abbot Ingulphus Hist p. 858. to 863. the Charter of King Aethelstan to the Abby of Malmesbury An. 930. The Charter of King Edmond to the Abbot of Glastonbury Anno 944. and of the same Edmund to the Abby of Hyde Anno 966. and to

COMMON-WEALTH lest perhaps he might infect others or by his example or command turn them from the faith And that the Kingdom of such an Heretick or Prince is to be bestowed at the pleasure of the Pope with whom the people UPON PAIN OF DAMNATION ARE TO TAKE PART AND FIGHT AGAINST THEIR SOVERAIGN Out of which detestable treasonable Conclusions most Treasons and Rebellions of late times have risen in the Christian World and the first smoke of the Gunpowder Treason too as Iohn Speed observes in his History of Great Britaine p. 1250. 2. That the Iesuites have frequently put these treasonable Seditious Antimonarchical Jesuitical damnable Doctrines into practice as well against some Popish as against Protestant King Queen Princes States which they manifest 1. By their poysoning Ione Queen of Navarre with a pair of deadly perfumed Gloves onely for favouring the Protestants in France Anno 1572. 2. By their suborning and animating Iames Clement a Dominical Frier to stab King Henry the 3 of France in the belly with a poysoned Knife whereof he presently died Anno 1589. for which they promised this Traytor a Saintship in heaven 3. By Cammoles the Jesuites publick justification of this Clement in a Sermon at Paris Anno 1593. wherein he not onely extolled him above all the Saints for his Treason against and murder of Henry the 3. but broke out likewise into this further Exclamation to the people We ought to have some Ehud whether it be A MONKE or A SOULDIER or a Varlet or at least a C●w-herd For it is necessary that at least we should have some Ehud This ONE THING ONELY YET REMAINS BEHINDE FOR THEN WE SHALL COMPOSE ALL OUR AFFAIRS VERY WELL AND AT LAST BRING THEM TO A DESIRED END Whereupon by the Jesuites instigation the same year 1593. one Peter Bariere undertook the assasination of King Henry the 4 of France which being prevented and he executed thereupon they suborned and enjoyned one of their own Jesuitical Disciples John Castle a youth of 19 yeers old to destroy this King who on the 27 of December 1594. intending to stab him to the heart missing his aim wounded him onely in the cheek and stroke out one of his Teeth for which Treasonable Act he was justified applauded as a renowned Saint and Martyr by the Jesuites in a printed Book or two published in commendation of this his undertaking Yea Alexander Hay a Jesuite privy to Castle 's villany used to say That if King Henry the 4. should pass by their Colledge which he built for them he would willingly cast himself out of his window headlong upon him so as he might break the King's neck though thereby he brake his own Yet was he punished onely with perpetual banishment After which Jesuitical conspiracies detected and prevented notwithstanding this King Henry before these two attempts to murder him had by their sollicitations renounced the Protestant Religion professed himself a zealous Romanist recalled the Iesuites formerly banished for the murther of Henry the 3. against his Parliament and Counsels advice reversed all the Decrees of Parliament against them razed the publick Pillar set up in Paris as a lasting Monument of their Treasons and Conspiracies built them a magnificent Colledge in Paris endowed it with a very large revenue entertained Pere Cotton one of their Society for his Confessor who revealed all his Secrets to the King of Spain bequeathed a large Legacy of Plate and Lands to their Society by his will and was extraordinary bountiful and favourable towards them yet these bloody ingrateful villains animated that desperate wretch Ravilliac to stab him to death in the open street in Paris Anno 1610. Albigni the Iesuite being privy to this murder before it was perpetrated 4. By their suborning instigating sundry bloody instruments one after another to murder William Prince of Orange prevented in their attempts by Gods providence till at last they procured one Balthasar Gerard to shoot him to death with a Pistol charged with three Bullets the Iesuites promising him no less then HEAVEN AND A CANONIZATION AMONG THE SAINTS AND MARTYRS for this bloody Treason as they did to Iames Clement before for murdering the French King 5. By their poysoning of Stephen Botzkay Prince of Transylvania for opposing their bloody persecutions 6. By their manifold bloody Plots and Attempts from time to time to depose murder stab poyson destroy our famous Protestant Queen Elizabeth by open Insurrections Rebellions Invasions Wars raised against her both in England and Ireland and by intestine clandestine Conjurations from which Gods ever-waking Providence did preserve her Amongst other Conspiracies that of Patrik Cullen an Irish Frier hired by the Iesuits and their Agents to kill the Queen is observable Holt the Iesuite who perswaded him to undertake the murdering of her told him that it was not onely Lawful by the Laws but THAT HE SHOULD MERIT GODS FAVOUR AND HEAVEN BY IT and thereupon gave him remission of all his sins and the Eucharist to encourage him in this Treason the chief ground whereof and of all their other Treasons against this Queen was thus openly expressed by Iaquis Francis for Cullens further encouragement THAT THE REALM OF ENGLAND THEN WAS AND WOULD BE SO WELL SETLED that unless Mistris Elizabeth so he termed his Dread Soveraign though but a base Landress Son were suddenly taken away ALL THE DEVILS IN HELL WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PREVAIL TO SHAKE AND OVETURN IT Which then it seems they principally endeavoured and oft times since attempted and have now at last effected by those who conceit they demerit the Title of Saints though not in a Romish Calender and no less then Heaven for shaking overturning and making it No Kingdom 7. By their Conspiracy against King Iames to deprive him of his Right to the Crown of England imprison or destroy his person raise Rebellion alter Religion and SUBVERT THE STATE AND GOVERNMENT by vertue of Pope Clement the 8. his Bull directed to Henry Garnet Superiour of the Iesuites in England whereby he commanded all the Archpriests Priests Popish Clergy Peers Nobles and Catholikes of England That after the death of Queen Elizabeth by the course of Nature or otherwise whosoever should lay claim or title to the Crown of England though never so directly or neerly interessed by descent should not be admitted unto the Throne unless he would first tolerate the Romish Religion and by his best endeavours promote the Catholick cause unto which by his Solemn and Sacred Oath he should religiously subscribe after the death of that miserable woman as he stiled Queen Elizabeth By vertue of which Bull the Iesuites after her decease disswaded the Romish-minded Subjects from yielding in any wise obedience to King Iames as their Soveraign and entred into a Treasonable Conspiracy with the Lord Cobham Lord Gray and others against him to imprison him for the ends aforesaid or destroy him pretending that King

against such detestable treasonable violences for the future destructive to all Parliaments if permitted or silently pretermitted without question censure righting of the imprisoned members or any provision to redresse it for the future Our prudent Ancestors were so carefull to prevent all violence force arms and armed men in or near any places where Parliaments were held to terrifie over Qaw or disturb their proceedings or members That in the Parliament of 7 E. 1. as you may read in Rastals Abridgement Armour 1. Provision was made by the King by common consent of the Prelates Earls and Barons by a geciall act That in all Parliaments Treaties and other Assemblies which should be made in the Realm of England FOR EVER every man shall come without Force and withour Armour well and Peaceably to the honour of the King and of the peace of him and of his Realm and they together with the Commonalty of the Realm upon solemne advise declared That it belonged to the King and his part it is by his Royal Signiory strictly to defend wearing of Armour and all other Force against his peace at all time when it shall please him especially at such times and in places where such Parliaments Treaties and Assemblies are held and to punish them which shall do contrary according to the Laws and usage of the Realm And hereunto they are bound to old the King as their Soveraign Lord at all seasons when need shall be Hereupon our Kings ever since this statute by virtue thereof and by the Law and Custome of the PARLIAMENT as Sr. Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes c. 1. p. 14. informs us did at the beginning of every Parliament make a speciall Proclamation prohibiting the bearing of arms or weapons in or neere the places where the Parliament sat under pain of forfeiting all they had Of which there are sundry presidents cited by St. Edward Cook in his Margin whereof I shall transcribe but one which he omits and that is 6. E. 3. Rot. Parliament n. 2. 3. Because that before these dayes at the Parliaments and Councels of our Lord the King Debates Riots and commotions have risen been moved for that people have come to the places where Parliaments have been summoned and Assembled Armed with privy cotes of plate spears swords long knives or daggers and other sort of arms by which the businesses of our Lord the King and his Realm have been impeached and the great men which have come thither by his Command have been affrighted Our Lord the King willing to provide remedy against such mischiefs defendeth that no man of what estate or condition soever he be upon pain of Forfeiting all that he may forfeit to the King shall be seen armed with a Coat of Male nor yet of plate nor with an Halberd nor with a speare nor sword nor long knife nor any other suspicious arms within the City of LONDON nor within the Suburbs thereof nor any place neer the said City nor yet within the Palace of WESTMINSTER or any place neere the said Palace by Land or Water under the foresaid pain except onely such of the kings men as he shall depute or by his command shall be deputed to keep the peace within the said places and also except the Kings servants according to the Sta●ute of Northampton And it is not the intention of our Lord the King that any Earle or Baron may not have his Lance brought to him in any place but onely in the Kings Presence and in the place of Councell The like Proclamations were made in the beginning of the Parliaments of 9. 13 17 18 20 25. Ed 3. and sundry others more necessary to be revived in all succeeding English Parliaments now then ever heretofore since the unpresidented forces upon the late Members of both Houses and the Parliament it self by the Army-Officers and souldiers raised to defend them from violence The Treasonablenesse and Transcendency whereof being at large related in my Epistle to the Reader before my Speech in Parliament 4 December 1648. I shall not here criminally presse or insist on but referre them thereunto However for the future security and freedome of our Parliaments from violence I must crave liberty to imform these Army Parliament-drivers forcers dissolves habituated to this trade That if the late Kings march to the House of Commons accompanied onely with some of his Pensioners and others armed with Pistols and Swords meerly to demand but five Members thereof to be delivered up to Justice particularly impeached by him of High-Treason some dayes before to wit That they had traterously endeavoured to Subvert the Fundamentall Laws and Government of this Kingdome To deprive the King of his Royall power To place over the subjects an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall power To Subvert the very Rights and being of Parliaments and by force and terrour to compell the Parliament to joyn with them in their designs for which end they had actually raised and countenanced Tumults against the King and Parliament Or if the Kings bare tampering with some Officers of his own Northern Army to draw a Petition from them to the Houses or march towards London from their quarters not to seise upon force or dissolve the Parliament or its Members but only to overaw them and impeach the freedome of their debates Votes touching Episcopacy Church-Government and the Kings Revenews were such high transcendent violations of the Priviledges and Freedome of Parliament and unsufferable injuries as both Houses of Parliament seperatly and joyntly proclaimed them to all the world in severall Declarations during his life Or such capitall crimes as those who condemned and executed him for a Traytor and Tyrant have published in the Declaration of 17. March 1648. touching the grounds of their proceedings against him and setling the Government in the way of a Free State without King or House of Lords since his beheading in these very words But above all the English Army was laboured by the King to be engaged against the English Parliament a thing of that strange impiety and unnaturalnesse for the King of England that nothing can answer it but his being a Forraigner neither could it have easily purchased belief but by his succeeding visible actions in full pursuance of the same as the Kings comming in Person to the House of Commons to seise the five Members whether he was followed with some hundreds of unworthy debauched persons armed with swords and pistols and other arms and they attending him at the door of the House ready to execute what the Leader should command them This they charged against the King as the highest of his unparralleld Offences for which they appeal to all the world of indifferent men to judge whether they had not sufficient cause to bring him to Justice Though neither he nor his followers then seised secured secluded injured any one Member when they thus went to the Commons House Yea presently retracted and offered all satisfaction that should

Representative body of the whole Kingdome since dissolved by the Army is a Faction of Malignant Schismaticall ambitious Persons whose DESIGNE IS AND ALWAYES HATH BEEN TO ALTER THE WHOLE FRAME OF GOVERNMENT BOTH OF CHURCH AND STATE AND TO SUBJECT BOTH KING AND PEOPLE TO THEIR OWN LAW●ESSE ●●BITRARY POWER AND GOVERNMENT and that they DESIGNE THE RUINE OF HIS MAJESTIES PERSON and OF MONARCHY IT SELF and consequently that they are TRAITORS ●nd all the Kingdome with them for 〈◊〉 act is the act of the whole Kingdome And whether their punishment and ruine may not also INVOLVE THE WHOLE KINGDOME IN CONCLUSION AND REDU●●● INTO THE CONDITION OF A CONQUERED NATION as some ARMY-OFFICERS and SOULDIERS openly averred we are now reduced to by and under them NO MAN CAN TELL BVT EXPERIENCE SHEWETH V● and now we finde it most true in the ARMY-OFFICERS COUNCELL SOULDIERS THAT SVCCESSE OFTEN DRAWS MEN NOT ONELY BEYOND THEIR PROFESSION but also many times beyond their first intentions Surely as the Armies and their Confederates late proceedings in relation to themselves though not unto the forced dismembred dissolved Parliament and secured Members have fully verified this charge in every particular then reputed most false and scandalous which I thus press upon their consciences at this time and so largely insist on not to defame or asperse them to the world but to vindicate the Innocency Integrity of the Majority and secluded Members of both Houses against the scandalous printed aspersions of Militiere and other Papists to preserve and justifie the Honour of our Reformed Religion and of the most zealous Professors thereof to restore re-establish if possible the Priviledges the Freedom of all Future Parliaments much impaired endangered by their heady violent Proceedings to convince them by what Jesuitical Popish old Court-Principles Counsels Practises they have hitherto been mis-guided and to reclaim them as much as in me lieth for the future from the like destructive Practises for the publick Safety Peace Settlement of our distracted Kingdoms and do most earnestly beseech them as they are English men Souldiers Christians seriously to repent of and lay to heart lest they perish eternally for them at last So the Army-Officers Souldiers Great Successes in all their Wars Designs and forcible Proceedings against the King Parliament Kingdom Government Laws and Liberties as it hath caused them not onely beyond their Professions but also beyond their first Intentions Commissions Protestations to forget that Gospel-Precept given to Souldiers Luke 3. 14. to advance themselves to a more absolute Soveraign arbitrary Power over them then ever any Kings of England claimed or pretended to as their late Proceedings Remonstrances and transcendent Instrument of the Government of the three Kingdoms manifest so it hath been the principal Ground whereby they have justified all their unpresidented forementioned Exho●bitances as lawful commendable Christian and that which hath struck such a stupyfying pannick fear such a stupendious cowardize baseness sottishness into the Generality of the Nobility Gentry Ministery and Commons of our late most heroick English Nation that there is scarce a man to be found throughout the Realm of any Eminency though we should seek after him like Diogenes with a Candle that dares freely open his mouth against the most irregular illegal violent destructive arbitrary Proceedings Usurpations Innovations Oppressions Taxes Projects to the shaking and utter subverting of our ancient Fundamental Laws Liberties Rights Properties Parliaments Parliamentary Priviledges Government and taking away of the very Lives of some and thereby endangering the Lives of all other English Freemen of all Degrees in mischristened High Courts of Justice Such a strange Charm is there in Success alone to metamorphise Men into meer temporizing slavish sordid sotts and beasts yea to cause not onely persons truly honourable but the very Devil himself and the worst of beasts to be wondred after applauded adored not onely as Saints but Gods We read Rev. 13. of a Monstrous deformed BEAST to whom the Dragon the Devil gave his Power Seat and Great Authority whereupon all the world wondred after the Beast and worshipped not onely the Dragon that gave him power but the Beast likewise saying Who is like unto the Beast WHO IS ABLE TO MAKE WAR WITH HIM And there was given unto him a Mouth speaking Great things and blasphemies and power was given him to continue and make war forty and two months And power was given unto him to make war with the SAINTS AND TO OVERCOME THEM and power was given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations And HEREUPON IT FOLLOWS all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the Lambes Book of Life And another Beast under him caused the earth and all that dwell therein to set up the Image of this Beast and to worship it and he caused all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive the mark of the Beast in their right hand and in their foreheads and none might buy or sell but he that had this mark and as many as would not worship this Beasts Image were ordered to be killed Yet this Blasphemous Beasts reign and power continued but twenty four Months Rev. 13. 5. This Beast in the height of his Power and Victories was by God himself threatned to go into captivity and be killed with the Sword as he had led others into captivity and killed them with the Sword ver 10. All his followers and worshippers shall soon after drink of the wine of Gods wrath and be tormented with fire and brimstone c. Rev. 14 9 10 11. The Saints at last shall get this victory over the Beast Rev. 15. 2. And the Beast himself notwithstanding all his former Victories Friends and great Armies was at last taken and his false Prophet with him and were both cast alive into a lake burning with fire and brimstone and all his Forces were slain with the Sword and the fowls were filled with their flesh Rev. 19. 19 20 21. From which Texts I have frequently silenced confounded some of our conquering Army-Officers and Souldiers whiles prisoner under them when they were vapouring of their Great Victories Successes and concluding from thence both their Saintship and the Goodness of their Actions saying oft-times like the Beasts followers here Who is able to make war with us And that with these genuine deductions from these Texts which they could not reply against worthy all Souldiers their saddest meditations 1. That God may nay oft-times doth give great power to the very worst and most blasphemous of all Men and Beasts that not only over one or two but many Tongues Nations as in this Text and Dan. 7. 3 to 29. c. 8. 4. to 27. 2. That such Beasts many times may and do not onely make war with but even overcome the very Saints themselves in battel as the Babylonians Assyrians and other ungodly Beasts did the Israelites Gods own Saints and People Psa

Prynne A Legall and Historicall Vindication of the Fundamentall Rights and Laws of England CHAP. III. I Have in the two precedent Chapters fully proved That the Kingdome and Freemen of England have some antient hereditary just Rights Liberties Franchises Laws and Customes properly called Fundamentall together with a Fundamentall Government no wayes to bealtered undermined subverted directly or indirectly to the publick prejudice underpain of high Treason in those who shall attempt it especially by fraud force or armed power and given you likewise the heads of the chiefest of them in X brief Propositions I shall now in the third place proceed in a Chronologicall way to present you with a large Historicall Catalogue of the severall Nationall Parliamentall Legall Martiall publick and private contests great Charters Lawes Statutes Votes Declarations Remonstrances Claimes Records Evidences Writs Oathes Vowes Protestations Covenants Excommunications Confirmations Judgments Resolutions and principall Authorities in all ages both under the antient Britons Saxons Danes Normans and English Kings till our present times plentifully undeniably evidencing declaring vindicating asserting establishing perpetuating these Fundamentall Hereditary Rights Liberties Priviledges Franchises Customes Lawes and abundantly manifesting the extraordinary zeal courage wisdome and vigilancie of our Ancestors to defend preserve and perpetuate them to posterity without the least violation or dimin●tion I shall begin with the highest Antiquities extant in our Histories pertinent to my Theame and so descend to those of punier times relating all of them for the most part except here and there where the identity of the subject matter and desire of brevity occasion me to vary somewhat from this intended method according to their Antiquity and Chronologicall series of time referring such particulars of them as relate to each of the forementioned X. Propositions in the second Chapter only with figures in the margin designing the severall Propositions unto which they have more immediate reference without reducing these Historicall Collections to distinct heads under every Proposition in order as I have proposed them which course would have interrupted my Chronologicall Method and caused a frequent repetition of sundry passages Charters Acts Oathes Records relating to severall of these Propositions for the most part not to one of them alone which I shall now avoid by affixing the number of single Proposition whereunto they refer in the margin eachwherewith the Reader may easily compare them with more delight and as much satisfaction as if I had marshalled them all in rank and file under those distinct Propositions whereunto they have relation As for those Historicall passages which contain the severall publick Parliamentall or Martiall contests of our Ancestors with their Kings and other invading Nations for their Liberties Rights Laws Customes and great Charters in the generall I have annexed no figures unto them every of them for the most part referring to all or most of these Propositions in grosse though not particularly specified in these contestations for them And because I intend for the better confirmation of our antient Fundamentall Liberties Priviledges Freedomes Rights Lawes Government and greater benefit of Posterity briefly to passe through the severall successive Reigns and Dominions of the Britons Romans Saxons Danes Normans as well as of our English Kings since the Conquest as we usually style it whereon I shall principally insist as of greatest nearest concernment to us of this generation I shall for order sake divide this Chapter into distinct Sections the rather because the largenesse of it may occasion the Stationer to publish it as he did the two first Chapters in severall parts as they shall be Printed the compleating of the whole requiring longer time in respect of my remotenesse from the Presse and the largenesse thereof then the present usefulnesse of each part and the longing desires of some Readers after it would willingly allow for its publication in one whole volume which every mans purse who desires it cannot so easily purchase in these necessitous times as it may do in parcels SECTION I. Concerning the Ancient Britons contests for their Liberties and Lawes against Tyrants and Invaders of their Fundamentall Government Rights and of their great Councels till the Romans Couquest IT is agreed by all our Historians that the Britons were the originall known Inhabitants of this Iland from whom it was stiled Britain but from what forrain Nations the Britons descended our Antiquaries differ in opinion our later writers herein dissenting from those of former ages with whom I must begin Most of our antient Historians and the whole famous Parliament held at Lincolne Anno 28 E. 1. in the learned Letter therein compiled and agreed to be sent by the King to Pope Boniface to prove the subjection and homage of the Kingdome and Kings of Scotland from time to time to the Kings of England Iure Dominii as Supreme Lords thereof by Historicall precedents in former ages collected out of all Histories and Records then extant unanimously record That the Britons originally descended from the Trojans that they arrived here in Britain about the dayes of Ely the Priest under Brute their first King who divided it at his death into three distinct parts and Kingdomes between his three Sons leaving that part thereof now called England then Loegria to Loerinus his eldest Son and his Heirs as an hereditary not elective Kingdome according to the custome of the Trojans Petebal enim Troana consuetudo ut dignitas Hereditatis primogenito perbeni●et as our Historians and that whole Parliament of 28 E. 1. resolve So that an Hereditary Kingdome and Monarchicall Government by Kings was the originall Fundamentall Government setled in this Iland by Brute and that as well in those parts thereof since called Scotland and Wales as England which all our Historians asserting this originall of the Britons unanimously attest with that answer which Diana gave unto Brute before his arrivall in Britain when she directed him to come and seat himself therein further evidenceth if we may give any credit hereunto Brute sub occasu Solis trans Gallica Regna Insula in Oceano est undique clausa mari Insula in Oceano est habitata Gigantibus olim Nunc deserta quidem Gentibus apta tuis Hanc pete namque tibi sedes erit illa perennis Hic fiet natis altera Troja tuis Hic de prole tua reges nascentur ipsis Totius terrae subditus orbis erit With this concurreth the more authentick testimony of Cornelius Tacitus The Britons heretofore were governed by Kings now they are divided by petty Princes into Parties and Factions with that of Pomponius Mela Britain bringeth forth Nations and Kings of Nations The very first act that made their first King Brute most famous before his arrivall in Britain was his delivering of 7000 Trojans his native Countrymen with their wives and children from their Servitude and Bondage under King Pandrasus and the Graecians whom he vanquished and took Prisoner in Battle

and thereby restored them to their lost Liberty After which Victory Brute major●● na●u convocavit assembling the Elders of the People in nature of a Parliament demanded their advice what he should do with Pandrasus and what things and conditions he should for their benefit demand of him which he would willingly grant being in their power Whereupon some advised him to demand a part of his Kingdome for them freely to inhabit others counselled rather to demand of him free liberty for them all to depart thence with accommodations for their voyage to seek another habitation elsewhere others advised to bring Pandrasus forth a●d to put him to death and seise upon his Realme in case he refused to grant their demands At last Mempritius a great Counsellor standing up said Regem interficere cupiditate Dominandi nefas mihi videtur cum omnibus licitum sit pro patria pugnade To slay a King out of a desire of reigning in his stead seemes a wickednesse unto me seeing it is lawfull to all men to fight for their Country this was the Divinity and Morality of the very Pagan Britons in that age Whereupon I rather advise that we should demand his eldest daughter from him as a Wife for our Captain Brute and a good sum of Gold and Silver with her for her dowry with Ships and all other necessaries for our jouruey and free license to transport our selves to some other Country because we can never hope to live peaceablely there seeing the Children and Nephewes of those which we have newly slain in these Warres would meditate revenge To the which Tota Multi●udo acquievit all the Multitude assented and Pandrasus to save his life and gain his inlargement willingly condescended to furnishing them with Ships and Provisions With which Brute and all his associates arriving at Totnes in Albion seating themselves there Brute from his name styled this Iland Britain and his Companions Britons destroying those few Gyants which formerly possessed it and then building a City which he styled Troy-Novant now London dedicavit eam civibus jure victuris deditque legem qua pacifice tractarentur In this History of our first British King Brute we have these 5. remarkable particulars 1. A Warre to shake off Slavery and recover publick Liberty 2. A kinde of Generall Parliamentary Councell summoned by Brute of all the Elders of the Britons to advise of Peace Warre and of their common safety and affaires 3. A resolution against killing even a Tyrannicall oppressing King taken in the field in Battle out of Covetousnesse to enjoy his Crown and Dominions as a most wicked act 4. A setling of an hereditary Kingly Government in this Isle upon the very first plantation of the Britons in it 5. Lawes made and given to the people whereby they might live peaceably without injury or oppression This Kingdome descended in lineall succession from Brute and his Posterity to Leir Son of King Bladud who reigning 60. years and having only three Daughters Consilio procerum Regni by the Counsell of the Nobles of the Realme assembled in Parliament gave two of his Daughters in marriage to the Dukes of Cornwall and Albania with one Moiety only of the Iland whiles he lived and the whole Monarchy of Britain after his death After this Porrex slaying his elder Brother Ferrex to get the Crown was slain by his own Mother and her maids for his Treason and Fratricide whereupon civill discord arising a long time the Kingdome thereby was subjected to five severall Kings who infested one another with mutuall slaughters till Dunwallo Molmutius succeeding his Father Clotho King of Cornwall in the Crown slaying the usurping Kings of Loegria Wales and Albania reigned alone over them about the time of Nehemiah After which he enacted certain Laws called Molmutine Laws which for many ages after were very famous and generally observed among the Britons yea used commended by the Saxons and English and inserted into Edward the Confessors Lawes being famous till William the Conquerours time What these Lawes were in particular in relation to the Liberty and Property of the Subject appeares not but the issue proves that they tended to publick peace and preservation of the Subjects persons and estates from violence For in his Reign after these Lawes published for confirmation whereof he built the Temple of Concord in Troynovant where he was afterwards buried Latronum mucrones cessabant Raptorum saevitiae obturabantur nec l●erat usquam qui violentiam alicui ingereret The swords of theeves ceased the cruelties of Plunderers and violent takers of mens Goods and possessions were prevented neither was there any to be found in any place who would offer violence to any man Moreover he ordained That the Temples of the Gods and Cities and the wayes leading to them and the Ploughs of Husbandmen should enjoy the priviledges of Sanctuaries so as every person who fled unto them through guilt or otherwise might depart quietly with leave and without arrest before his enemy After his death about 400. yeares before our Saviours Nativity his two Sons Brennus and Belinus by consent divided his Kingdome between them till Brennus the younger Son aspiring after the Monarchy of the whole Iland was vanquished and expelled by his Brother into France In which Warre Gurthlac King of Denmarke ayding Brennus was taken Prisoner by Belinus Qui convocavit omnes Regni proceres c. who called together all the Nobles of the Realme to Yorke consilio eorum tractaturus to debate by their Councell in nature of a Parliament what he should do with Gurthlac who proffered to submit himself with his Kingdome of Denmarke to him to pay him an annuall Tribute and to ratifie this agreement by his Oath and sureties for his inlargement and ransome Whereupon the Nobles Resolved that he should be enlarged upon this condition which was done accordingly Convocatis proceribus cum id judicatum fuisset assensum prebuerunt cuncti that he should be enlarged upon these conditions as the Marginall Authors record After which King Belinus obtaining the Government of the whole Iland Confirmed his Father Molmutines Laws commanding upright and stable Justice to be done throughout the Land and the wayes to the Temples to be marked out in all places with stones that they might not be ambiguous being priviledged from arrests and violence This King addicting himself constantly to Justice the people thereby became more wealthy in few years then ever they had been in former times After this Brennus arriving with an Army out of France to recover his right Belinus being ready to encounter him in a set Battaile their Mother mediated a Peace between them whereupon they lovingly embraced each other and going to Troinovant inito concilio quid agerent having there hold a Councell what they should do they Resolved to send a common Army to conquer France and other Forain parts which they put in execution Here we have matters of Warre

destroyed those of Northumberland and Lindesfa●ne horribly destroying the Churches of Christ with the Inhabitants at which time Duke Sigga who unworthily betrayed and slew his Soveraign King Alfwold of Northumberland worthily perished the whole Nation being first almost quite consumed with civill Warres and by these Pagan invaders whose Plague was farre more outragious and cruell than that of the Romans Picts Scots or Saxons Invasions and Depredations in former ages they most frequently invading and assailing the land on every side desiring not so much to obtain and rule over it as to spoile and destroy it with all things therein burning their houses carrying away their goods tossing their little children and murthering them on the top of their pikes ravishing their wives and daughters then carrying them away captives and putting all the men to the Sword which sad and frequent rumours from all parts struck such terrour into the hearts of King and people that their very hearts and hands failed and languished so that when they obtained any victory they had no joy nor hope of safety by it being presently encountred by new and greater swarmes of these Pagan Destroyers The cause of which sore Plague and Judgement he together with Mathew Westminster thus expresse In the Primitive Church of England Religion most brightly shined but in processe of time all vertue so withered and decayed in them VT GENTEM NVLLAM PRODITIONE ET NEQVITIA PAREM ESSE PERMITTERENT that they permitted no Nation to be equall to them IN TREASON AND WICKEDNESSE which most of all appeares in the History of the forecited Kings of Northumberland For men of every Order and Office DOLO ET PRODITIONE INSISTEBANT addicted themselves TO FRAUD AND TREASON in such sort as their impiety is formerly described in the Acts of their Kings Neither was any thing held disgraceful but Truth and Justice Nec honor nisi BELLA PLVS QVAM CIVILIA ET SANGVINIS INNOCENCIVM EFFVSIO causa dignissima caedis Innocentia Nor any thing reputed honourable but more than civill Warres and effusion of the bloud of Innocents and Innocency reputed a cause most worthy of death THEREFORE the Lord Almighty sent a most cruell Nation like swarmes of Bees who spared neither age nor sex to wit the Danes with the Gothes the Norwegians and the Sweeds the Vandals with the Prisons who from the beginning of King Edelwolfe to the coming of the Normans under King William wasted and made the fruitfull Land desolate for 230. yeares destroying it from Sea to Sea and from man to beast Which sore and dreadful long continued Judgement of God upon the Land for those crying sinnes now abounding amongst us as much almost as amongst the Northumberlanders and other Saxons then may cause us justly to fear the self same punishments or the like as they then incurred and the Britons before that under the bloudy Usurper Vortigenne unlesse we seriously repent and speedily reform them From these unparalleld prodigious Treasons Insurrections Regicides Rebellions of these Northumberlanders I conceive that infamous Proverb used by Maximilian the Emperor and frequent in Forraigne and other Writers first arose touching the English That the King of England was REX DIABOLORVM a King of Devils not of men or Saints SVBDICOS ENIM REGES EJICERE TRVCIDARE because the English especially the Northumberlanders so oft rebelled against expelled deposed and murdered their Kings beyond the Spaniards French and other Nations Which Proverb the late extravagant Proceedings of some Jesuitized pretended English Saints have now again revived out of the ashes of oblivion But I hope these sad recited old domestick Presidents will hereafter instruct both Kings Magistrates Parliaments and people to keep within those due bounds of Justice Righteousnesse Law Equity Loyalty Piety Conscience Prudence and Christian Moderation which the Lawes of God and the Land prescribe to both and the Council of Calchuth forecited long since prefixed them That the ancient English Saxon Kings at and from their primitive Establishment in this Realm had no power nor prerogative in them to impose any publike Taxes Imposts Tributes or Payments whatsoever on their people without their Common Consents and Grants in their Great Councils of the Realm for any spiritual or temporal use I shall evidence by the four first General publick Taxes that I meet with in the Histories of their times which I shall recite in Order according to their Antiquity though I shall therein somewhat swarve from my former Chronological Method in reciting some subsequent Lawes and confirmations relating to every of them for brevity sake out of their due order of time and coupling them with the original Lawes for and Grants of these general Charges and Taxes to which they have relation and then pursue my former method Henry Huntindon in the Prologue to his fifth Book of Histories p. 347. writes thus of those Saxons who first seised upon Britain by the Sword Saxones autem pro viribus paulatim terram Britanniae bello capiscentes captam obtinebant obtentam adificabant adificatam LEGIBVS REGEBANT not by arbitrary Regal power without or against all Law The first Taxes and Impositions ever laid under the Saxon Kings Government after they turned Christians upon the people of England were for the maintenance of Religion Learning Ministers Schollers long before we read of any Taxes imposed on them for the publick Defence of the Nation by Land or Sea all and every of which were granted imposed onely by common consent in their Great Councils before the Name of Parliament was used in this Island which being a French word came in after the Normans about Henry the third his reign without which Councils grant they could neither be justly charged nor levied on all or any Free-men of this Island by any civill or legall Right by those to whom they were granted and thereupon grew due by Law 1. The first General Tax or Imposition laid on and paid by the Saxon Subjects of this Land appearing in our Histories was that of Caericsceatae id est CENSVS ECCLESIAE in plain English Churchets or Church-Fees in nature of First-Fruits and Tythes The first Law whereby these Churchets Church-Fees or First-Fruits were imposed on the people and setled as an annuall duty on the Ministers paid onely before that time as voluntary Free-will Offrings to the Ministers of the Gospel by devout and liberal Christians was enacted by Ive King of the west Saxons in a Great Councill held under him Anno Dom. 692. Wherein by the exhortation advice and assent of Cenred his Father Heddes and Erkenwold his Bishops AND OF ALL THE ALDERMEN ELDERS AND WISE-MEN OF HIS REALM and a great Congregation of the Servants of God he established this Law among sundry others which none might abolish Cap. 4. De Censu Ecclesiae Cericsccata i.e. Vectigal or Census Ecclesiae reddita sint in Festo Sancti Ma●●tini Si quis hoc non compleat reus sit IX sol du●

decuplareddat ipsum Cericsceatum So one Coppy renders it out of the Saxon another thus Cyricsceata idest PRIMITIAE SEMINVM ad celebre divi Matini Festum redduntor qui tum non solverit qua raginta Solidis mulctator ipsas praeterea Primitias duodecies persolvito After which there is this second Law subjoyned Cap 62 De Cyricsceatis Primitias Seminum quisque ex eo dato domicilio in quo ipse natali die Domini c●mmoratur These Duties were afterwards enjoyned to be paid by the Lawes of King Adelstan Anno 928. c. 2. Volo ut Cyricsc●atha reddantur ad illum locum cuirecte pertinent c. By the Lawes of King Edmund made Anno 944. in a Great Synod at London AS WELL OF ECCLESIASTICAL AS SECULAR PERSONS summoned thither by the King c. 2. Decimas praecepimus omni Christiano super Christianitatem suam dare emendent Cyricsceattam id est Ecclesiae censum Si quis hoc dare noluerit excommunicatus sit By the Lawes of King Edgar Anno 965. c. 2 3. and the Lawes of King Aethelred made by him and his Wise-men apud Habam about the year of Christ 1012. Cap. 4. DE CONSVETVDINIBVS sanctae Dei Ecclesiae reddendis Praecipimus ut OMNIS HOMO super dilectionem Dei omnium sanctorum DET CYRISCEATTAM ET RECTAM DECIMAM SVAM sicut in DIEBVS ANTECESSORVM NOSTRORVM FECIT quando melius fecit hoc est sicut aratrum peragrabit DECIMAM ACRAM omnis consuetudo reddatur super amicitiam Dei ad Matrem Ecclesiam cui adjacet ET NEMO AVFERAT DEO QVOD AD DEVM PERTINET ET PRAEDECESSORES CONCESSERVNT By which Laws it seemes that these Cyricsceata or Church-Fees were of the same nature with Tythes if not Tythes in truth and the tenth acre or tenth part of all their Corn and arable Lands increase Tithes both in the Fathers Councils Writers of this and some former ages being usually stiled First-Fruits though most esteem them duties different from Tythes Which duty the people being backwards as it seems to pay King Kn●te by the advise and consent of his Wise-men in a Great Council Anno 1032. quickned the payment of them by this additionall Law increasing the first penalty by a superadded fine to the King Cyricsceata which the Latine Translation renders Seminum primiciae ad festum Divi Matini penduntor Si quis dare distulerit eas Episcopo undecies praestato ac Regi ducenos viginti Solidos persolvito Et dat omnis Cyricsceot ad matrem Ecclestam per omnes Liberas domus I find by the Surveyes and Records of our late Bishops Revenues That these Churchets of later times were certain small portions of Corn Hens Eggs and other Provisions paid by each House or Tenement according to the several values of them for the Maintenance and Provisions of the Ministers which were constantly rendred to our Bishops by their Tenants under the name of Cyricsceata or Churchets in divers Mannors till they were lately voted down This was the first kind of publick Tax imposed on the people for the Maintenance of the Ministry and that onely by common grant and consent in Common Councils of that age as were their annuall Tributes for Lights Parish Almes and their Soul-shot or Mortuaries at every mans decease first granted by common Consent in Parliamentary Councils which I shall but name 2. The second principle annuall Charge or Tribute imposed on and paid by the people under the Saxon Kings was Tythes of the annuall increase of their Lands and Goods for the maintenance of Gods Worship Ministers and Religion which though due by Gods Law and a Divine Right to Ministers as the first Law made for their due and true payment recites and I have lately proved at large in my Gospel-Plea c. yet they could not be legally imposed nor exacted from the people by the Ministers in foro humano without publick consent and grant Whereupon in the Generall Councill of Calchuth held in the year of our Lord 787 Cap. 17. Vt Decimae solvantur this Law was made In paying tithes as it is written in the Law of God Thou shalt bring the tenth part of all thy Corn and First Fruits into the House of the Lord thy God c. Wherefore likewise WE COMMAND with an obtestation that all men be carefull to render Tithes of all things they possesse BECAUSE IT IS THE PECULIAR PORTION OF THE LORD GOD c. Which Law being read in that publick Council by Gregory Bishop of Ostia before King Alfwoldus Arch-Bishop Eanbald and all the Bishops Abbots Senators Dukes and PEOPLE OF THE LAND they all assented to it and with all devotion of mind according to the uttermost of their power bound themselves by vow that by Gods supernall assistance they would observe it in all things ratifying it with the Sign of the Crosse and Subscription of their Names thereto according to the Custome of that age After which it was read before King Offa in the Councill of the Mer●ians and his Senators Jambertus Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops of the Realm with a loud voyce both in the Latine and Germane tongue that all might understand it who ALL WITH A UNANIMOUS VOYCE AND CHEARFUL MIND ASSENTED TO IT promised that they would by Gods Grace assisting them with A MOST READY WILL to the best of their power observe this and the rest of the Statutes there made in all things And then ratified them with the sign of the Crosse and subscription of their Names thereto It seemes very probable by this Clause in the Lawes of Edward the Confessor confirmed by William the Conquerour Cap. 9. Of Payment of Tithes of Cattel Bees and other things Ha●c enim beatus Augustinus praedicavit docuit Et haec CONCESSA SVNT A REGE ET BARONIBVS ET POPVLO That upon the preaching of Augustine first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Ethelbert King of Kent with his Barons and People assembled in a great Parliamentary Council after their Conversion by him to the Christian Faith granted Tithes of all things to him and their Ministers by a speciall Act or Law which if true must be about the year of our Lord 603. at least one hundred and eighty years before the Council of Calchuth But because I find no such speciall Law of his extant in any Author and this passage may be intended of Augustine Bishop of Hippo flourishing about the year of Christ 410. who hath sever all Homiles concerning the Due payment of Tithes as Hom. 48. inter Sermones 59. Sermo De Tempore 219 ad Fratres in Eremo Sermo 64. and in Psal 146. and because this clause may be as well intended of King Alfwold or King Offa and his Barons and People in the Council of Calchuth as of King Ethelbert and his Barons and People I have therefore begun with their Law for Tithes being