fully determining to deliver the Law of the Land concerning all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Kingdom not only in the Inferior Courts of Ordinaries but in that great Court of the High Commission The Common Law of England speaking to all those Courts in the language of the supreme Lawgiver Hither shall you pass and no further and here shall you stay your proud waves But I considered the Title of my Statute was Circumspectè agatis which put me in mind of the saying of an excellent Historian That a man might follow Truth so neer the Heels that it might at last dash out his Teeth I do not say this was any Argument to me of parting with so good a Statute for it had savoured of Fear and base Affection Et viro cordato indigno The only reason why I waved those two former Statutes and resolved upon this Law I have now chosen was my respects to the Students of this Society for whose benefit I had chiefly destinated these my poor labours by reading upon such a Law as was larger in extent comprehending in it self the two former more frequent in our books and in Westminster Hall and of better learning and use Et hic Baculum fixi I never wavered more But finding the whole little for words but a Volume for Learning and matter I was forced to confine my thoughts only to the seventh Chapter of this Statute and although I had not the happiness to have the help of other mens labours upon this Law as not knowing it was ever Read on before yet I have adventured to Read upon it choosing rather to fall alone where I might happily find either your pardon or pity then through the arms of a Guide where I could expect neither And because I talk of falling I have no other course then to chuse such a Supporter as will never fail me and that is your love which is of such a Composition that where it finds out desert it can make it like the Philosophers Stone it can turn a base Mettal into perfect Gold This I earnestly seek for and hope to find at all your hands Et sub hac spe ductus rem aggredior And come to my Statute After which I Expounded my whole Statute being an ancient Law according as all ancient Readers were wont to do being nine Chapters in the Printed Statute but are twelve Chapters in the part Read consisting upon Petitions of the Lords and Commons to the King and his Answers thereupon whose Answers made the Law Out of which Petitions and Answers entred in the Parliament Roll the Judges at the end of the Parliament did in form of Law frame an Act of Parliament which was Proclaimed and published and afterward Printed when Printing came in use which was about the time of H. 6. And this was the manner of Parliaments in E. 3 time and long before After I had Expounded my whole Statute according to the old manner I thereof made Ten divisions according to the then manner of Readers upon every division put Ten Cases as the Historian truly relates who goeth on and saith That my first Case was this Whether or no it be a good Act of Parliament without the Lords Spiritual Here is some mistake for this was not my first Case for my first Case upon my first division consisted of fourteen points but this was the first point of my first Case and it was thus Whether an Act of Parliament may pass and be good by the Assent of the King his temporal Lords and Commons all the Spiritual being absent or if present wholly disassenting And I held it might And here a man would wonder that by a Clergy man especially so clear a point as the Law makes this to be should be brought into question when I had so great a Champion on my side as that Famous Learned and Pious man Bishop Jewell in the defence of his Apology against Dr. Harding who with the rest of the Jesuits held the Statute of 1 Eliz. for Uniformity in Religion to be no act of Parliament because no Bishop or Spiritual Lord assented to that Act but it then passed only by the assent of the Queen the Temporal Lords and Commons Bishop Jewel stoutly maintains it to be a good Act and gives divers Reasons and Authorities for the same which in my Argument of this point herein after expressed I shall cite at large And I thought it a most needful point to be known to the Students of Law when as the establishment of the Reformed Religion of the Church of England lay at the stake upon it for I read it only for the Middle Temple Hall not for Lambeth and could not imagine that any Charon could have been found that would have Ferryed it over the water The Historian goeth on and saith the second Case thus If any benificed Clerk was capable of Temporal Jurisdiction at the making of that Law This was not a Case but an other point of my first Case upon the first division it was thus Whether a Benificed Clerk may by my Statute exercise Civil Jurisdiction and be a Justice of Peace I put not this Case of a Bishop at all as being of a higher Sphear then a Clark but only of a benificed Clerk A needfull point to be known to young Students to whom alone I intended my Reading For at the time of making my Statute there was not in England a Beneficed Clerk a Justice of Peace but yet at the time of my Reading there were never more In the Argument of which points I did not at all as I shall hereafter make appear speak against their being Justices of Peace for that they might be so by Law by virtue of the Kings Commission Only by way of Caution in that they might refuse in respect of their Orders and I only declared how the Law of the Land and the Law of the Church stood heretofore in that point and that according to the rule of our Saviour Ab initio non fuit sic The Historian goeth on and saith His Third Case thus Whether a Bishop without calling a Synod hath power as Diocesan to convict an Heretick That which I put was the fourth Point of my third Case upon the third division and it was this Whether a Clerk that is an Heretick may at this day be convicted and condemned for Heresie by his own Ordinary alone And I thought he could not This was a most needful point to be known to the Students of Law by reason of the obscurity of the Law in it not only in respect of the definition of Heresie and what it shall be said to be wherein the Law was dark but likewise how a Heretick should be convicted And the Statutes concerning Heresie being repealed by King Edw. 6. and revived again by Q. Mary and afterwards all of them repealed again by Q. Elizabeth But for none of these was I silenced but upon another point upon touching the Jurisdiction
Conversation shall teach me to do it Opere habent opera suam linguam And though you have by these favours to me made me your Companion in Company in Conference and now in Council yet my Love my Duty my Thanks shall make me a Servant to you and to this whole Society for ever After this Speech I had thanks from them all Seriatim and was made and confirmed a Bencher And now having finished this Narrative I shall according to my promise publish all my Arguments at large touching those four Points mentioned before in the Narrative The Readers Arguments upon the four Points mentioned before in his Vindication POINT I. WHether an Act of Parliament may pass and be good by the Assent of the King his Temporal Lords and Commons and all the Spiritual Lords being absent or if present wholly disassenting And I hold it may A Jove principium This is a Point which mainly concerns our Religion established by the Act of 1 Eliz. which passed by the assent of that Queen her Temporal Lords and Commons all the Spiritual Lords disagreeing which if no good Act then is not our Religion confirmed by Parliament This Point I framed from the opinion of as learned a Bishop as ever this Nation enjoyed since the hour it enjoyed him I mean Bishop Jewel in the defence of his Apology against Dr. Harding lib. 6. c. 2. divis 1. where the said Act of 1 Eliz. for the Uniformity of Prayer and Sacraments is denyed to be a good Act for want of the concurrence of the Bishops The Bishop affirms it to be a good Act and his words are these Verbatim Where you would seem to say That the Parliament holden in the first year of the Q. Majesties Raign was no Parliament for that the Bishops wilfully refused to agree to the godly Laws there concluded you seem therein to bewray some want of skill The wise and learned could have told you That in the Parliament of England matters have evermore used to pass not of necessity by the special consent of the Bishops and Archbishops as if without them no Statute might lawfully be Enacted but only by the more part of Voices yea although all the Archbishops and Bishops were never so earnestly bent against it And Statutes so passing in Parliament only by the Voices of the Lords Temporal without the consent and agreement of the Lords Spiritual have nevertheless alwayes been confirmed and ratified by the Royal assent of the Prince and have been Enacted and published under the names of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Read the Statutes of King Edw. the First there you shall find that a Parliament solemnly holden by him at St. Edmondsbury the Archbishops and Bishops were shut forth and yet the Parliament held good and wholesome Laws were there enacted the departing or absence or malice of the Lords Spiritual notwithstanding In the Records thereof it is written thus Habito Rex cum suis Baronibus Parliamento Clero excluso Statutum est c. Likewise in Provisione de Martona in the time of King H. 3. where matters were moved of Bastardy touching the Legitimation of Bastards born before Marriage the Statute past wholly with the Lords Temporal whether the Lords Spiritual would or no yea and that against the express Acts and decrees of the Church of Rome The like hereof as I am informed may be found Anno 11 R. 2. cap. 3. Howbeit in these Cases I walk somwhat without my Compass Touching the Judgment hereof I refer my self wholly to the Learned Thus far goeth that famous Bishop This Opinion of the Bishop I shall confirm by considering the Law in two Points Point 1. Whether an Act of Parliament may pass by the Temporal Lords onely the Spiritual Lords being all present but disagreeing ad disassenting to the Act And this was the very Case in passing of that Act of 1 Eliz. For in the Journal of that Parliament it is said That all those matters which in that Parliament concerning the Church Service and Sacrament the Bills passed dissentientibus Episcopis with a particular enumeration of their names which dissented as likewise two Orations are recorded in the Journal to be made by Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester and Dr. Fecknam Abbot of Westminster against that Act Now that this was a good Act of Parliament though all the Bishops disagreed it is manifest by the course of all Parliaments for the Bishops sit in Parliament not as they are Spiritual men but by reason of their Temporal Baronies annexed to their Dignities Nonratione Nobilitatis as Stamford speaks Pl. Coron fol. 153. sed ratione Officit And therefore if the voices of the greater number of temporal Lords exceed theirs the Act shall pass as the Act of the whole Lords House and their voices shall be involved in the greater number of the Temporal Lords and so shall be the Act of all the Lords as well Temporal as Spiritual Andso is the Book of 11 H. 7. fol. 27. Bro. Parl. 107. And so is the Act-Roll of 1 Eliz. Ex assensu omnium Dominorum tam Spiritualium quam Temporalium And so is likewise the Printed Act and so it ought to be This will better appear by considering the divers forms of Penning of Statutes from the time of Magna Charta to this day 1. Rex statuit as Magna Charta and other old Statutes 2. Statuimus Ordinavimus as 27 E. 1. Stat. de Finibus And both these forms are good for in them both are implied the Lords and Commons 3. Be it enacted by the King with the assent of the Lords and Commons according to the Book in 11 H. 7. 4. But the best form of all is Be it enacted by the Authority of Parliament And so are the Books of 7 H. 7. fol. 14. Bro. Parl. 76. and Crompton jurisdict. of Court f. 12. The proofs of this Point will further appear in handling the second Point which I now come to Point 2. Whether an Act of Parliament may pass all the Spiritual Lords absenting themselves from the House of Peers And I think it may That this may not seem strange I will back it by Authority in Law by Example and Reasons 1. For Authority in Law It is the resolution of all the Judges of England 7 H. 8. 184. Kelwayes Reports in these words Nostre Sur l'Roy port assets bien tener son Parliament per luy ses Surs temporall Commons tout sans l'Spirituall Surs i. e. Our Lord the King may well enough hold his Parliament by himself his Lords temporal and Commons without the spiritual Lords at all According to this resolution there are many Examples The Parliament summoned at Edmonds-Bury which the Bishop mentioneth was a good Parliament and yet all the Prelates were excluded and upon very great Reasons which is not mentioned by the Bishop That K. E. 1. being exercised in martial affairs levied a great sum of money of Laity and
of the High Commission my fourth division which I shall after likewise mention and set down the Argument of it at large which puts me upon that Narrative of my silencing which I shall as briefly as I can perform and then conclude I Read three Lectures three several dayes being the 25. the 27. and the 29. of March without any interruption and with the approbation of the Students to whom I Read But on Saturday following being the 30 of March the Lord Keeper Finch sent to speak with me and in a very friendly manner told me what reports there were abroad touching the two former points above mentioned which I then related to him what they were and how consonant to Law for the manifestation whereof I told him I would give him the Arguments of both those points and attest them under my hand And presently went to my Chamber and brought him my Arguments to which I set my hand which after he had read he spake to me to this effect Mr. Reader I see you have been misreported and have had wrong and seeing you have dealt so freely and fairly with me I will do you right to the King and Council To whom that day he shewed the Notes I gave him which were examined by them and approved And that afternoon towards night the Lord Keeper sent for me again and told me That my Opinion concerning those two points were approved of by the King and Councel only his Majesty desired That I would declare my Opinion in one Question which was this Quest What if the King and Spiritual Lords with the Commons did pass an Act all the Temporal Lords disassenting or not being there whether this be a good Act of Parliament Answ. I told him That it was and the Votes of the Temporal Lords were included in the Votes of the Spiritual Why then Mr. Reader said he you have given full satisfaction And I am commanded to tell you That you may go on in your Reading Whereupon I went home and prepared to read on Monday following upon the fifth Case of my fourth Division But this Case was likewise carried to the Archbishop in which there was this Point wherein I held That a Beneficed Clark Imprisoned Deprived and Excommunicated by the High Commission for enormous offences not naming the particular offence that this Clark notwithstanding was such a possessor of a Church as might Plead Counter-plead and Defend his Right within my Law This kind of learning being not within the Conusance of the Archbishop was so heightned to him by my misreporter that the same afternoon the King sitting in Council my Case was brought by the Archbishop to the Council Board and that point found in it and much complained of The Earl of Manchester being there and formerly a Reader of the Middle Temple and knows that it was the manner of Readers to lay the points of their Case so close that what seemed strange to the hearers when the Readers came to argue he made those things so clear that usually the Reader came off well and then told the King That he thought I grounded my point upon a Case in Law in the 5 Report fol. 57 where one Spewit brought a Q. Imp. against the Bishop of Exceter for refusing his Clerk to which the Bishop pleaded that he was Schismaticus inveteratus not naming the particular Schism this was held by the Judges no good Plea And thereupon Judgment was given against the Bishop for the Plaintiff who thereupon had his Clerk admitted And because Readers were accountable to their Governours the Masters of the Bench and if they did amiss would severely punish them he advised that no such thing might be done to a Reader as to silence him from Reading and thereby make a great noise and disturbance but to let him go on and if he did amiss then to think of punishing him afterward and to this the King and Council assented But the Archbishop fearing I would fall foul upon the High Commission which I never intended but in as fair and good terms as I could deliver the Law as will appear by my Argument of that point which I have likewise hereunto annexed as I have done the rest made it his most earnest suit to the King That I might be suspended from Reading who at the rising of the Board willed my Lord Keeper to tell me from him That I should desist which the Lord Keeper did the same day But withal advising me as from himself to go to the Archbishop and give him satisfaction After this Speech with the Lord Keeper I returned home and acquainted my Masters of the Bench with the Kings pleasure who the next morning went to the Lord Keeper who confirming the same I was by them advised to desist from Reading And whereas the Historian saith That after the Reader had been twice at Lambeth without admittance the third time he spake with the Archbishop Herein it a great mistake and not without some wrong both to the Archbishop and me which I shall thus make appear Readers of Law during the time of their Reading do hold up the ancient honour and dignity of a Reader on whom for that time is devolved the Government of the House They have four Cubbard men ancient Barresters of the House to attend them in their Reading and four Stewards to attend them in their Feasting for the Inviting their Guests of Noble Ranck and ten or twelve men of his own to attend his person In the maintenance of which dignity on Tuesday the fourth of March the natural course of my Reading not ending till Friday following I sent two of my men to the Archbishop to know his pleasure when I should wait on him he sent me word by Mr. Dell his Secretary on Thursday the 6 of March that he did appoint eight a Clock in the morning according to which hour I took with me Mr. Rog. Pepys late Chief Justice in Ireland the next Summer Reader and other my Cubbard men with my Servants and went with them in a Barge to Lambeth And so far was the Archbishop from making me dance attendance that as soon as the Archbishop had notice I was come he presently came out of his Chamber with his Hat off and met me in the great Chamber there and walked with me in that posture from thence almost to Lambeth Stairs The first Question he asked me was this Quest Mr. Reader Had you nothing else to do but to Read against the Clergy Answ. I answered My Lord my Statute was pro Clero and I read not at all against them but for them Well saith the Archbishop you shall answer it in the High Commission Court My answer was this That I knew the utmost power and Jurisdiction of that Court by Law and that I had neither spake or done any thing that that Court had Jurisdiction to punish Quest But had you no other time saith he to do it but in such a time Answ. My
therefore I do conclude That the Law of Fining and Imprisoning was never given to any Clergy-man by any Spiritual Law of this Realm and used at the time of the Statute of 1 Eliz. was made of which I will speak of anon Reas. 2. The second Reason is taken out of Dr. and Student lib. 2. cap. 29. which is of singular Authority in this Case he being as well an excellent Canonist as a Common Lawyer Where he puts the Case That if the Church should decree that an Heretick should forfeit his Goods that Decree were void because the Goods of men be Temporal and belongs to the Kings Courts And I think saith he that the Ordinary could not have set a Fine upon an Heretick until it was so ordained by the Statute of 2 H. 4. c. 15. Whence I infer That if an Ecclesiastical Court cannot Fine by their Law A fortiori it cannot Imprison Now that the High Commission Court is a meer Ecclesiastical Court it appears by the form of the Prohibitions directed to them by which it is called Curia Christianitatis Commissionariorum Dom. Regis in Causis Ecclesiasticis Cok. Entries f. 465. We must therefore enquire what the Law was of Fining and Imprisoning at the Common Law by the High Commission at the time of the making of the Statute of 1 Eliz For no Law or Statute since that Act hath given them that power And I find but two Cases in all my reading and study in it wherein the High Commission have power to Fine and Imprison 1. The one is by the Statute of 2 H. 4. cap. 15. 2. The other is by the Statute of 1 H. 7. cap. 4. By the Statute of 2 H. 4. every Bishop might Fine and Imprison in his Diocess for Lollardy then counted Heresie and Schism which is now repealed by the Statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 1. and therefore I will speak no more of it The other is the Statute of 1 H. 7. which is still in force by which Clerks only and not Lay-men convicted before their Ordinaries of Adultery Fornication and Incest or other fleshly incontinency shall be by them committed to Prison and that no Bishop shall be chargeable by Action of false Imprisonment for such commitment Wherein this plainly appears That an Action of false Imprisonment had lain at the Common Law for imprisonment by the Ecclesiastical Court though it had been of a Clergy-man only who oweth subjection to his Ordinary Out of these two Cases I know no Law for Fining and Imprisoning by the High Commission And of this opinion were all the Judges of the Common-Pleas delivered under all their hands to King James in answer to the Lord Hubbarts Argument for the High Commission wherein he spake as much for their Jurisdiction as could possibly be spoken by man There are three strong Objections against me which being answered will make my opinion more clear Obj. 1. The Kings Commission by his Letters Patents which reckons up all Ecclesiastical Causes gives power to fine and imprison without restriction Answ. 1. This I deny for I have read the Commission over and over It is 17 Decemb. 9 Car. 1 pars in dorso num 5. in the Rolls it is directed to many temporal Lords To all the Bishops To all the Judges then in being except Judge Crook I have seen the docket under the attor. Gen. Noyes hand with the large additions which never any High Commission had before And yet where it speaks of punishment for crimes it hath such restrictive words as these viz. By lawfull ways and means according to the tenor of the Laws according to the Statutes aforesaid c. Answ. 2. But admitting there were none of these restrictions by the Commission yet the Law of the Land gives this exposition to all the Kings Letters Patents That if they be contrary to the Laws of the Land the Letters Patents are void And therefore the express Book is 8 H. 6. 19. That Letters Patents contra legem justitiam are void And agreeable to this are the Books 11 H. 4. fol. 73. 7 H. 6. 27. 1 H. 7 23. 3 H. 7. 15 20. 1 E. 4. 11. 18 E. 4. 7. 10 H. 7 Cromp. Jur. f. 13 c. Upon this Maxime in Law it directs Potest quod de Jure potest Now Fining and Imprisoning being though so penal to the Subject as by the great Charter of Liberties c. 29 provided to be per legem terrae which is the Common Law and therefore all the Commissions of the King which give power to Fine and Imprison are ever backed with some Maxime of Law or Act of Parliament to warrant them as the Commission of Sewers which gives power to Fine and Imprison is by the Stat. of 23 H. 8 c. 5 The Commission of Banckrupts which gives power to Fine and Imprison is by the Statutes of 13 Eliz. c. 7. 1 Jac. c. 15. 21 Jac. So are the Commissions of Oyre and Terminer and of the Peace too long to remember For if it should be otherwise the liberty of the Subject would soon be destroyed in which the Prerogative of the King chiefly consisteth according to the Kings own Declaration in his answer to the Petition of Right 3 Car. Obj. 2. The High Commssion is an Ecclesiastical Court where the Civilians are only admitted to be Pleaders and in their Law it is a Rule Quicquid placuit Principi Legis vigorem habet And it is true There is such a Rule in their Law upon the misunderstanding whereof Tho. Harrison Clerk who at Common Pleas Bar called Judge Hutton Traytor seems to excuse himself at his Arraignment in the Kings Bench saying The King when he saw cause might by his absolute power dispose of our goods c. and we ought not to defend our selves by Law and so said he was the opinion of the best Orthodox divines in the Kingdome Answ. To which I answer That that Law hath no such sense but the quite contrary and that appears by Bracton an excellent Civilian and Chief Justice of England lib. 2 c. 9 and Stamf. pl. Cor. fol 99 100 Nihil Rex potest cum sit Dei Minister Vicarius quam quod de jure potest Nec obstat id quod dicitur Quod Principi placuit legis vigorem habet Quia sequitur in fine legis Regiae quae de imperio ejus lataest Non quicquid de voluntate Regis est praesumptunt sed quicquid Magnatum suorum concilio habita super hoc deliberatione tractatu rectè fuerit definitum And with Bracton agrees Vlpian a learned Civilian And therefore I will conclude this Objection with King James in a Parliament Speech of his 1609. They that shall perswade Kings not to bound themselves within the limits of their own Laws are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Commonwealth Object 3. The third Objection is That there are many Presidents of Fining and Imprisoning by the High Commission besides
those Cases of Heresie Schism and Incontinency Answ. 1. To which I answer first for 40 years the Law of the High Commission was not known to the Subject by reason the Letters Patents were not inrolled The first Inrollment of them was done in Chancellor Egertons time and by his command Answ. 2. it may be true that Fines were imposed by the High Commission for Adultery Fornication Usury c. But it appears upon search that in all Q. Elizabeths time none of these Fines were levyed upon any Judicial process out of the Exchequer Answ. 3. Many Writs of Habeas Corpus have been granted out of the Kings Courts out of those Cases of Heresie and Incontinency As Mic. 9 10 Eliz. Rot. 1556 Thomas Lee an Atturney of that Court was Imprisoned for hearing Mass a great Crime by the High Commission and delivered by Habeas Corpus by the Lord Dyer and the other Judges then living and present at the making of the Act because they had not authority to imprison For to what purpose was the Statute of 23 Eliz. c. 1 made for Fining and Imprisoning those that heard Mass and for 20. l. a month for absence from Church if the High Commission had power to Fine or Imprison in either of those cases So Mic. 18 19 Eliz. C. B. one Hinde was imprisoned by the High Commission for refusing to answer Articles upon Usury and delivered by Habeas Corpus by my Lord Dyer and the rest because that Court had no Jurisdiction in that Case so to do both which Cases are reported in the first Edition of my Lord Dyer though left out in the second Edition The like president of hearing Mass was Trin. 7 Jac. in Banco Regis in Warringtons Case Mic. 42 Eliz. Simpsons Case imprisoned by the High Commission for Adultery but resolved by the Judges That the High Commission could not imprison a Lay-man for Adultery but only proceed to Ecclesiastical Censure The like for Adultery was Pas. 8 Jac. Meltons Case 12 Jac. B. R. Bradstons Case adjudged that the High Commission could not by the Statute of 1 Eliz. upon orders for Alimony between husband and wife Fine and Imprison men 11 Jac. the like for Alimony in one Brocks Case a Herald at Armes I could vouch many more Presidents but these are sufficient I come therefore shortly to the third and fourth questions Quest 3. Whether the H. Commission ought not in their sentence to have expressed the particular offences and not to say in general enormous offences Ans. I think they ought or else their sentence is void And the reason is because it hath been resolved in that famous Case 3 Car. in the Habeas Corpus by Sr. Edmund Hampden and upon further debate in Parliament upon the Petition of Right that a general Cause is no Cause for an Imprisonment For it is requisite when men are fined deprived imprisoned and cast out of their Free-holds that the Judges of the Realm who have Conusans of such punishments should be certified of the particular cause that they may consult with Divines whether the offences be enormous or no And so is the resolution of the Judges in 5 rep. Specots Case f. 58. The general sentences of the Ecclesiastical Judges have in all ages been found fault with In 25 H. 8 c. 14. The Commons complained in Parliament That men were condemned upon the Stat. of 2 H. 4 c. 15 to be burnt for Heresie in general and not what Heresie and so was the Writ De Heretico comburendo without expression of any particular Heresie which was held to be a cruel and an unjust Law and therefore repealed by the said Act of 25 H. 8. l 5 Jac. Fullers Case of Grayes Inne who was imprisoned by the High Commission for Schism in general without saying what Schism and resolved upon the return in the Habeas Corpus that it was void and therefore they made a special return that he said The proceedings in the High Commission were Papistical The like Mic. 3. Jac. B. R. Berryes Case upon a Habeas Corpus the return was that he was committed by the H. Commission for certain causes Ecclesiastical This was adjudged to be naught and too general and then they make a second return That he was Committed for giving sawcy speeches to Dr. Newman which was likewise adjudged void as too general But our very question with which I will conclude was Mr. George Huntleys Case a Kentish Minister who was Fined Imprisoned and Deprived by the H. Commission for refusing to Preach a Visitation Sermon upon the command of the Archdeacon and the sentence was for grievous and enormous offences And upon an Ejectione firme brought by the said Huntley against Austin in the Kings Bench for his Parsonage All the Judges there upon a solemn debate and in my hearing adjudged the sentence to be void for the generality and incertainty Quest 4. Whether the Judges of the Realm or the Ecclesiastical Judges have the power and authority of Expounding enormous offences within the Stat. of 1 Eliz. c. 1. Ans. And I think it clearly belongs to the Temporal Judges as clearly as the Exposition of Texts of Scripture belong to Clergy-men as the now Attorney General told Harrison at his Inditement 13 Car. in the Kings Bench for calling Judge Hutton Traytor It is very true the Civilians grant this power to the Kings Judges for Expounding Statutes concerning Temporal things but deny it concerning Spiritual things This thing Dr. Ridley in his View of Civil and Ecclesiastical Law a book much cryed up amongst them takes upon him to prove but fails in it For the truth is only the Judges of the Common Law have this power And to prove it is to prove a Principle For from the beginning of Magna Charta to the end all the Statutes and Laws concerning the Clergy are expounded by the Judges Nay in 10 H. 7. f. 17. in the matter of Heresie the highest Ecclesiastical Cause the Judges do adjudge That the saying a man may pay his Tythes to other than his own Vicar contrary to the Decree of the Church by the Council of Lateran was not Heresie And therefore the imprisonment of the party for saying so was against Law So the Judges 2 R. 3. decided a point of the Civil Law by the Common Law And in the Parliament of 3 Car. in the Petition of Right concerning Ecclesiastical Liberty as well as Temporal it is acknowledged by the King That the Exposition of the Laws and Statutes of the Realm belongeth to the Kings Judges and to none else FINIS Nihil veritas crubescit nisi solummodò abscondi Julian Vid. Stat. of Carliel 25 E. 1 and Cawdryes Case 5. Rep. William Sanderson Esq. Part of the Speech Sir W. Raleigh Narrative Part of the Readers Speech in the Parliament Chamber in the Middle Temple May 15 following * Judge Nicoili Chief Birron Sanders Judge Morgan Judge Harvey An. Dom. 1296 Anno Dom. 1273. Stat de Marton cap. 9. 24 Ed. 1. Lamb Pâ—â—amb of Kent fol. 276. Chartim Stefhen Langhton Tem. Johan R. Const'tut Othobon Dr. Cosens Launcellot Vide Stat. 24 H. 8. c. 12. B. R. About 7 Car. Sir Jo. Banks