England by Inheritance And their mutual Rancors and Displeasures with the grand Contests of them and their Parties to procure the Statutes of Articuli super Chartas de Tallagio non Concedendo were not healed without the Aids and Subsidies of his People The mis-government and mis-leading of King Edward the Second by his several Favorites Peirce Gaveston and the Spencers did not hinder him from the Supplies of his People King Edward the Third after a fifteenth of the Temporalty a twentieth part of the Goods of the Cities and Burroughs and a tenth of the Clergy granted unto him by Parliament in the Eighth year of his Reign having consumed much Treasure in his Wars made for the Kingdom of France which he claimed as his Inheritance wherein the English Nation more than for the Grandeur and Honour of their Prince were not much concerned but were jealous until an Act or Declaration of the King in Parliament was procured to the contrary that the Conquest of France might have caused England to have been afterwards dependant upon that greater Crown and Kingdom was notwithstanding the seizure and taking into his hands the Goods and Estates of three Orders of Monks viz. The Lombards Cluniacks and Cistertians and all the Treasure committed to the Custody of the Churches through England for the Holy War forced to revoke divers Assignations made for Payment of Moneys though he had received Three Millions of Crowns of Gold for the Ransom of John King of France whom his Son the Black Prince had taken Prisoner and was not put to lose any of his Honour Friends Estate or Interest for want of the necessary Assistance of his Subjects who for the maintenance of those and other his Wars were howsoever well content to give him half of the Laieties Wool and a whole of the Clergies and at another time the ninth Sheaf the ninth Fleece and ninth Lamb for two years and after many other Taxes and Aids granted in several Parliaments of his Reign and a Commission sent into every Shire to enquire of the value of every man's Estate The Treasure of the Nation being much exhausted found the People so willing to undergo that and other Burdens which those successful Wars had brought upon them as the Ladies and Gentlewomen did willingly Sacrifice their Jewels to the Payment of his Souldiers That Unfortunate Prince Richard the Second his Grandchild tossed and perplexed with the Greatness Ambition and Factions of his Uncles and the subtil underminings of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the most powerful of them fatally continued and pursued by Henry of Bullingbrook his Son Duke of Hereford was not in all those his Distresses so unhappy but that although the Commons in Parliament had by their Petitions unto him complained That for want of good Redress about his Person and in his Houshold and Courts the Commons were daily pilled and nothing defended against the Enemy and that it would shortly undo him and the whole Estate yet they were so mindful of their Soveraign and themselves as they not only afforded him very great Aids and Assistances but in the Fourteenth year of his Reign the Lords and Commons in Parliament did Pray That The Prerogative of the King and his Crown might be kept and all things done or attempted to the contrary might be redressed and that he might be as free as any of his Royal Progenitors were And in the Fifteenth year of his Reign did in Parliament require him That He would as largely enjoy his Prerogative as any of his Progenitors notwithstanding any Statute and namely the Statute of Gloucester in the time of King Edward the Third the which Statute they utterly repealed out of their tender affection to the King King Henry the Fourth Fifth and Sixth although well understood to have been Kings de facto not de jure for so not seldom have been the Pleadings at the Law of their Acts of Parliament and although the later of those Kings being Crowned King of France in his Infancy and in Possession of that Kingdom was by his Meek and Pious rather than Prudent Government a great part of the Cause of the Bloody Contests betwixt the Two Houses of York and Lancaster which ruined very many of the Nobility and Gentry by taking their several Parties and were by their Discords the loss of all the Kingdom of France but Calice And that Richard Duke of York had in Parliament so claimed and wrestled for the Crown as he was declared Protector of the Kingdom of England enjoyed notwithstanding the care and good will of their Subjects upon all occasions either at home or abroad in times of Peace or War by their Contributions of Subsidies King Edward the Fourth in the brunt and hottest of the long continued bloody Contentions of the two great Houses and Families of York and Lancaster after nine Battels won by himself attested by his Surcoat of Arms which he wore therein hung up as a Trophy in the Cathedral Church of St. George at Windsor and his many struglings with King Henry the Sixth and his Party in losing and gaining the Crown again War with France and compelling the crafty Lewis the 11 th the King thereof to demand a Peace and consent to pay him 75000 Crowns towards his War Expences and a Tribute of 50000 Crowns yearly during the life of King Edward notwithstanding that he had in the second year of his Reign sate in a Michaelmas Term three days together in his Court of Kings Bench and gathered great Sums of Money of the People of England by his Privy Seal towards his Wars with the Scots and in the Seventh year of his Reign resumed by Act of Parliament all the Grants which he had made since he took Possession of the Realm raised great Sums of Money by Benevolences and Penal Laws had in the Eighth year of his Reign granted him by Act of Parliament two fifteens and a Demy and in the Thirteenth year of his Reign a Subsidy towards his Wars with France when the Actions Courage and Wisdom of Parliaments were so incertain as there was in the space of half a year one Parliament Proclaiming King Edward an Usurper and King Henry a Lawful King and another Proclaiming King Edward a Lawful King and King Henry an Usurper King Henry the Seventh although that he sometimes declared That he held the Crown as won in Battel by Conquest of King Richard the Third and at other times by his better Title from the House of York and his Marriage with the Lady Elizabeth the Daughter of King Edward the Fourth and avaritiously took all the ways possible for the enriching of his Treasury had divers great Aids and Subsidies granted unto him by Parliament King Henry the Eighth notwithstanding that he had after many great Subsidies and Aids both as to the Money and manner of Collecting it granted unto him his Heirs and Successors by several Parliaments and the first Fruits and Tenths of
have any part or profit thereof There shall be no disturbance of free Elections by face of Arms Malice or otherwise By the Statute called Articuli Super Chartas made in the 28 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King There shall be chosen in every Shire by the Commonalty of the same Shire Three substantial men Knights or other lawful wise and well-disposed Persons who shall be Justices Sworn and Assigned by the Kings Letters Patents under the great Seal to hear and determine where before no remedy was at the Common Law such plaints as shall be made upon all those that do Commit or Offend against any point contained in the great Charter or Charter of the Forrest which were ordained to be proclaimed at four several quarters of the year in full County in every year in every County and to hear the Plaints as well within the Franchises as without and from day to day without allowing any the delays which be allowed by the Common Law and to punish by Imprisonment Ransom or Amercement according to the Trespass No Common Pleas shall be holden in the Exchequer contrary to the form of the great Charter the Marshal of the King's House shall not hold Plea of Free-hold Debt Covenant or Contract made betwixt the King's People but only of Trespasses done within the Verge and Contracts made by one Servant of the house with another The Chancellor and Justices of the King's Bench shall follow the King so that he may at all times have near unto him some that be Learned in the Laws which be able duly to order all such matters as shall come unto the Court at all times when need shall require No Writ that toucheth the Common Law shall go forth under any of the Petit Seals By an Act of Parliament made in the 34 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King Nothing shall be purveyed to the King without the Owners assent By an Act of Parliament made in the Reign of the said King No Tallage or Aids shall be taken or levyed by the King or his Heirs within the Realm without the good will and assent of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Edward the Third Aids granted to the King shall be taxed after the old manner By an Act of Parliament made in the second year of the Reign of the aforesaid King No Commandment under the King's Seal shall disturb or delay Justice No Bishops Temporalty shall be seized without good Cause Justices of Assize shall in their Sessions enquire of the Demeanour of Sheriffs Escheators Bailiffs and other Officers and punish the Offenders No Person shall be pardoned for an Utlary after Judgment without Agreement with the Plaintiff or Outlawed before Judgment until he do yield his Body to Prison By an Act of Parliament made in the 14 th year of the said King It was assented established and order'd that Delays and Errors in Judgments in other Courts shall be Redressed in Parliament by a Prelate 2 Earls and 2 Barons who by good advice of the Chancellor Treasurer and Justices of the one Bench and the other and of the King's Council as they shall think convenient shall proceed to make a good accord and Judgment And that the Chancellor Treasurer Keeper of the Privy Seal Justices of the one Bench and the other Chancellor and Barons of the Exchequer and Justices assigned and all that shall intermeddle in the said places under them shall by the advice of the said Arch-Bishop Earls and Barons make an Oath well and truly to serve the King and his People and by the advice of the said Prelate Earls and Barons to increase or diminish when need shall be the number of the said Ministers and from time to time when Officers shall be newly put in cause them to be sworn in like manner A Declaration by Act of Parliament made in the 25 th year of the said King's Reign What Offences shall be adjudged Treason and if any other Case supposed Treason not therein specified shall happen before any Justices they shall tarry without going to Judgment of the Person until the Cause be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be Judged Treason or other Felony By an Act of Parliament made in the same year No person shall be compelled to make any Loans to the King or charged with any benevolence None shall be Condemned upon Suggestion Imprisoned nor put out of his Free-hold nor his Franchises without Presentment but by the Law of the Land or by Process made by Writ Original at the Common Law nor that none shall be sent out of the Franchise or Free-hold unless he be duly brought to answer and fore-judged by Course of the Law and any thing done to the contrary shall be holden for none By an Act of Parliament made in the 5 th year of the Reign of King Richard the Second None shall enter into Lands where it is not lawful or with force under the pain of Imprisonment and Ransom at the King 's Will. A Penalty is to be inflicted upon a Clerk of the Exchequer which maketh out Process for a Debt discharged By the Statutes of the Fifth and Fifteenth of King Richard the Second where Lands or Tenements are entred and deteined by force the next Justice of the Peace is Impow'red to view the force and by the Power of the Sheriff and County to remove it and Imprison the Offenders and by the Statute of 8 th of H. 6. whether it be entred by force or it be continued and not entred by force may by a Jury impannel'd and their Verdict if the Deteiner hath not been Three years before in quiet possession reseise the said Lands and Tenements and put the party ejected into his former possession A man Impleaded in the Exchequer shall be received by himself or any other to plead his Discharge By an Act of Parliament made in the 12 th year of the aforesaid King The Chancellor Treasurer Keeper of the Privy Seal Steward of the King's House the King's Chamberlain Clerk of the Rolls Justices of the one Bench and the other Barons of the Exchequer and all that shall be called to ordain or make Justices of Peace Sheriffs Escheators Customers Comptrollers or any other Officer or Minister of the King shall be firmly sworn that they shall not make Justices of Peace Sheriffs Escheators Customers Comptroller or any other Officer or Minister of the King for any gift or brocage favour or affection By an Act of Parliament made in the 13 th year of the said King's Reign He that will that Swear he oweth nothing to the King shall be discharged no Bonds or Recognizances shall be taken for the King's Debts By an Act of Parliament made in
Michaelmas Term by a Select Grand Jury of the County of Middlesex cause an enquiry to be made although it were to be wished it might be after the antient manner by Articles delivered unto them in Writing to be distinctly answered unto Offences committed against the King and his Crown and Dignity of all Confederacies Champerties Maintenance Trespasses Extortions and Grievances done to the King's Subjects by any Arch-Bishops Bishops Dukes Earls Barons Servants Officers Coroners and Ministers of the King or by any other whatsoever of breach of the Peace denying of Bail on those who ought to be Bailed and of all manner of Oppressions and Grievances of the People When the numerous Justices of Peace in every County being as too many of them Baronets Serjeants and Men of Law Knights Elquires and Gentlemen of good Quality Families Estates and Education are Sworn and imployed not only to be Guardians and Conservators of the Peace of the King and his People to suppress Felonies Riots and the lower and most Common sort of Exorbitancies and Misdemeanors but to take Care of the Execution of many Laws and Statutes committed to their Trust and with the Method and Order appointed by our Laws and Ancient and reasonable Customs of presenting an Inquiry of Grievances by our many Court-Leets Sheriffs Tournes and County Courts Subordinate one under the other to the Superiour Courts of Westminster and they unto their Supream Authority the King It will be the Peoples own fault and neglect of their own Concernments if any Grievances or Oppression pass undiscernable uncomplained of or unpunished or if any Arbitrary Power or Extravagances do invade or break in upon the Nation who by the fence and care of our Laws and many times Confirmed Liberties which for more than 500 years last past have been building repairing and polishing to a perfection more than the Hebrew Greek or Roman Laws did ever attain unto the Laws which God himself made for that peculiar people only excepted And may if by our Sins and Provocations of God Almighty the Inspector of our unparallel'd Misdeeds and Punisher of them when his wrath shall be kindled and have no longer patience the Walls of our Happiness shall not be demolished our Liberties put to the Sword and our Laws led into Captivity be as safe as Humane Prudence and Laws can possibly make them More especially when our Courts of Justice at Westminster-Hall are governed by Judges and Men of great Wisdom and Integrity Sworn to observe the Laws and Judge according to their Direction and our Lawyers at the Bars freely permitted with fitting reference rightly to inform and plead their Clients Cases And the King 's high Court of Chancery the Officina Justiriae under the Teste me ipso of the Watchman under God of our Israel Superintending over them giveth Writs remedial to all that ask for them with helps for extraordinary Emergencies or to allay the Severity of Laws and makes it its business to punish and forbid Frauds and Oppressions The Masters of Chancery Annually stipended by the King formare Brevia originalia remedialia and to be Assistants subordinately to that High and Honourable Court in matters of Accompt and References The Rule of Chancery being ever since the Statute of Westm ' the second made in the 13 th year of the Reign of King Edward the First quod nullus recedat à Cancellaria sine remedio Concordent Clerici and the Officers and Clerks of the Chancery thereunto appointed are from time to time to do their utmost endeavours to provide Remedies for all that Complain Nè Justitia deficeret Conquerentibus And as to lesser Matters of Complaints and often Emergencies Pensioneth by good yearly Salaries 4 Learned and venerable Men of worth called Masters of Requests or Supplicationum libellorum who by turns and courses each Master being deputed to his Month have their audience Twice or oftener in that Time of the King to give Answers to their Petitions And the King in matters wherein any of his Rights and what appertaineth unto him are concerned gives his People leave by Petition or monstrans du droit Traverses oustre les mames c. to obtain what they can prove to be due unto them and where any of his Letters Patents are grievous and against the Law suffers them to be repealed by Writs of Scire facias brought against the Patentees And if any of the People should be so unhappy in the Intrigues or Difficulties of their Cases as they cannot be relieved by any of those provided Remedies from any supposed Arbitrary Power of their Prince or any Illegal oppressing Actions of one Subject against another they have the Liberty of Appeals from the Inferior Courts of Justice to the Superior and in Matters concerning breach of the Peace and of Misdemeanors within the Cognisance of the Justices of Peace may appeal from them to the Justices of Assize and from them to the King and his Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and if not by any of those ways to be relieved are in Cases not concerning Free-hold not debarred their Appeals to the King and his Privy Council where they are the King himself being very often present judiciously and deliberately heard upon all the Pleas and Arguments which the Councel Learned in the Law on both sides can make one against the other And Remedies also against all the Assaults of Grievances are not difficult to be come at in the Ecclesiastical Courts and Courts of Admiralty where when the Subjects Complaints cannot be remedied they do easily obtain the King's Commission of Delegates to other Judges and if that do not answer their Expectations may have a Commission of Adjuncts to other Judges to be added unto them And in these or other Courts where the Potency of the one part and the Poverty of the other hath disabled the weaker from attending the formalities of Justice or croud of many other Causes he may have a Commission ob lites dirimendas granted by the King out of his High Court of Chancery to some good and wise men to endeavor as much as they can a more speedy Remedy The Dermier Resort last Appeal ultimum refugium of the People in their seeking for Justice being so necessarily Inherent in the Crown as none but they that wear it can justly claim any Right unto it but have always been enjoyed not only by our British Saxon and Danish Kings before the Norman Conquest but all our Kings which Succeeded them And if there they find no help are like enough if therebe cause of Justice in their Complaints not to fail of Relief by Petition to the King when he is assisted with the advice of his Lords and Commons in Parliament All which with many other Laws and reasonable Customs Priviledges and Liberties like so many Cittadels Block-houses Out-works and Strong Castles and Forts which divers of our ancient and reasonable Customs and Acts of Parliament
therefore if they would but once resolve to be more obedient seek and embrace Peace and Humility more than they do and follow the Council of the Apostle St. Paul to abstain from those that make Divisions And not take every thing that they do hear from foolish lying or malitious Tongues rackets and rebounds to be a certainty of Truth when there is nothing at all to support it unless they will acknowledge that their understanding memories and senses are by the vain and incertain Imaginations of Fears and groundless Jealousies misguided and led into a Frenzy or otherwise that they would under those Pretences hide and cover their very wicked Designs until they can be effected and seduce as many as they can into their Party to help to go through with it might acquiesce in the Opinions Duty Allegiance Understanding Reason and Sense of many Counties Cities and Boroughs of this Kingdom who upon the reading of his Majestie 's Declaration shewing the Reasons and Causes of his Dissolving the last Parliament and His Majestie 's firm and fixed resolution to maintain the Religion and Monarchical Government of this Kingdom now by Law established have by their many several Addresses made their dutiful acknowledgments for His Majestie 's Grace and Favour therein and the happy Government Peace and Plenty wherein they have lived since His Majestie 's happy Restauration humbly offering to defend the Rights and Prerogative of his Crown with their Lives and Estates and concurring with them therein Believe that when they have tired themselves with their feaverish Dreams and Fancies and are awake and shall come to themselves they will upon a more knowing and sober inquest readily find that there are more Dangers and Mischiefs like to happen by Atheists Debauchees and Latitudinarians not a few of the Sectaries and no small number of the wild headed Opinion-Mongers whose giddy Notions makes every thing that tends to their Interest or Conveniency to be Religion enough and are so near Neighbours to Popery as if not speedily prevented are like to gulf into it than there is of any Inundation of Arbitrary Power or of the Common sort of Unjesuited Popery and that Popery it self would much abate if the Atheists Latitudinarians and Debauchees and the daily Quarrellers with our Church and State Government would better regulate their Brains and not make themselves so much as they have done the Seminary Seed-Plot and Nursery of it And it may be a wonder beyond the Seven Wonders of England and more than an hundred added thereunto That by a strange Effascination so great a part of the Nation after that they might well have understood his just and happy Government all the time of his Reign had most wickedly Rebelled against His late Majesty their Soveraign vanquish'd and procured him in the hopes of Peace to deliver up unto them the remainders of his Strength and Garrisons Viz. Oxford Newark Worcester and Wallingford Imprisoned notwithstanding and hunted him to Death and brought him upon a Scaffold before his own House or Palace at White-hall to be barbarously Murthered Where he declared to the Soldiers Army Officers and Spectators after he had received the blessed Sacrament Administred unto him by the Pious and Reverend Dr. Juxon Bishop of London and performed his other Devotions Preparatory to a near approaching Death in his dying and last words which ought to be believed by all that had any thing of Humanity or were ever but Christ'ned That as to his Religion He died a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England and found it left him by his Father That he desired the Peoples Liberty and Freedom as much as any body whosoever but he must tell them that their Liberty and Freedom consists in having of Government those Laws by which their Lives and their Goods may be most their own It is not for having share in Government that is nothing pertaining to them A Subject and a Soveraign are clear different things and therefore until they do that I mean that you do put the People in that Liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves It was for this that now I am come here if I would have given way to an Arbitrary way for to have all Laws changed according to the Power of the Sword I needed not to have come here And therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the Martyr of the People That in stead of a never enough to be repeated Repentance with as much satisfaction as was possible to make it available not by sowing the Seeds of another Rebellion they should be so Sottish which is more than a Frenzy or Lunacy which sometimes alloweth Intervals of understanding of c 〈…〉 g again unto themselves as not only to continue those Fears and Jealousies but to hatch new and greater Additions unto them which in most of the seduced Multitude can have no other Ground or Foundation than their Ignorance Folly and Illusion and in the lesser number of that Party their Villany Treason and a Propensity to Act ever again a second Rebellion to support them Can they read or hear that the Turks or Mahometans in their ignorance do no sooner find the least piece of Paper or any other thing with any writing upon it but fearing that it may be some note or discovery of their Sins which might be carried to God Almighty or their great Prophet Mahomet do make as Besâ—equius relateth all the hast they can to burn or destroy it And at the same time write and hire to write print publish and permit to be Cryed and Sold in the Streets Pamphlets and Books to justifie as much as they can their Perjuries Sedition Treason Rebellion and the Murther of His Majestie 's Royal Father with all manner of Invectives against the Government of Church and State do they read or hear that Athâ—ns once the glory of Learning and Wisdom is by her variety of Humours and change of Government do what the Sage Solon could now become a poor â—iâ—â—er Town under the Ottoman's boundless Arbitrary Power and Slavery and that the stout hearted Spartans without their Ephori or King-Comptrollers are now under as sad and slavish a condition and yet persist in their restless murmurings Or can they find any Reason or Justice or so much as a colour of either of them to charge an Arbitrary Power or faults of Government upon their King or Soveraign when they will so little obey his Laws and Statutes as they do all they can to contemn over-turn trample upon and change them from better to worse from the best of Monarchies to the worst of Anarchies When their King can do no more than make or ordain good and wholesom Laws which with our former Laws are as Sir Edward Coke hath said the Quintessence or best of all Laws in the World and his Subjects will not obey them or the directions and care of his
Bohemia and that by the designed Marriage of His late Majesty with the Infanta of Spain he endeavoured all he could to allay and quench the Fire which the Wars about that and the Palatinate had kindled in Germany and had put too many of our English into an humour and fit of Zeal to desire the propagating of the Protestant Religion by the Sword no such Fears or Jealousies had gained a Possession in the Minds of some unquiet People who were in Duty as well as Reason to have acquiesced in the Constancy and Care of that Religious King for the preservation of the Protestant Religion Nor escape your Observation that the benefits of the Marriage with the Infanta of Spain being not well understood and the misapprehension of a Toleration of Popery to ensue thereupon multiplying the supposed Dangers Having induced the House of Commons in Parliament in the Nineteenth year of his Reign to Petition that peaceable Prince that the time was come that Janus Temple must be opened and the Voice of Bellona not of the Turtle must be heard and therefore they thought it their Duty not only to provide for the present supply of the War but to take Care for the securing of their Peace at home which the dangerous Increase and Insolency of Popish Recusants apparently visibly and sensibly did lead them unto And yet in the same Petition did acknowledge That they did not assume to themselves any Power to determine of any part thereof nor intended to incroach or intrude upon the sacred bounds of his Royal Authority to whom and to whom only they acknowledged it did belong to resolve of Peace and War and the Marriage of the most Noble Prince his Son Unto which he did Answer That his Son in Law 's unjust Usurpation of the Crown of Bohemia from the Emperor had given the Pope and all that Party too fair a ground and opened them too wide a gate for curbing and oppressing of many Thousands of the Protestant Religion in divers parts of Christendom that the Palatines accepting of the Crown of Bohemia had no reference to the Cause of Religion and therefore would not have the Parliament to couple the War of the Palatinate with the Cause of Religion and that the beginning of that miserable War which had set all Christendom on fire was not for Religion but only caused by his Son-in-Law's hasty resolution following evil Counsel to take to himself the Crown of Bohemia and in the last year of his Reign in a Speech to the Parliament wished that it might be written in marble and remain to Posterity as a mark upon him when he should swerve from his Religion And certainly he must be much an Infidel and a great Master in the Phantasticks and School of Opinionastrete that will not believe King Charles the First his Son to have been a great Assertor of it when in the fourth year of his Reign in a Speech to the Parliament he declared That he was and ever should be as careful of Religion and as forward as they could desire and would use all means for the maintenance and propagation of that Religion wherein he had lived and did resolve to die And in the Head of his Army and very great Distresses afterwards profess by the taking of the blessed Sacrament to maintain it and took so great a Care of it as a Popish Book could not peep into England but he speedily appointed some of his Chaplains or some other Learned Man of the Church of England to Print and Publish an Answer unto it made many of his Coins of Silver to Proclaim his resolution to Defend the Protestant Religion Laws Privileges of Parliament and the Liberties of the People and died a Martyr because he would not deliver up his Subjects to a perpetual slavery of a never to be shaken off Arbitrary Power And His Majesty that now is being the Son and Heir of his Constancy in the Protestant Religion hath been so much of that fixed and unalterable Resolution as the Love of a Mother and all those Obligations that a filial Obedience had put upon him could not disswade him from enforcing the Duke of Gloucester his younger Brother out of her Tuition and Intention to breed him up in the Popish Religion and the Syren Charms of Militiere in his Book purposely Dedicated unto him to make him averse to that Religion whose Pseudo-Professors had murdered his Father and been the Cause of those very many Miseries Affronts Ill Usages Wants and Reproaches which he and his Royal Brothers endured in the Twelve years longsome time of his Distresses could never perswade him to accept of a strong and powerful Aid of Catholick Princes for his Re-establishment in his Kingdoms nor incline him to do that to save Three Kingdoms which his Grandfather by the Mother-side the Great Henry of France by reconciling himself to the Church of Rome did to save only one when his Sufferings outwent and far surmounted any which his Grandfather had endured But if any would have our Laws the severest of which was Enacted in the Conspiracy and feared evil Consequences of the Gun-Powder Treason to be put so much in execution as to forfeit and take away two parts of three the whole in three parts to be equally divided of the real Estates of those who have Lands and Subject those that have no Lands to great Forfeitures and Penalties and incapacitate all to bear any Office in the Kingdom They are to consider that it will be as hard as unequal for their King and Common Parent as well as ours to allow a Liberty and Connivance to those that are of worse Principles or at least as dangerous as the Papists fought and were active in our last Wars and Miseries against His Majesty and His Royal Father and all that were their Loyal and Obedient Subjects and deny it to those that fought were Sequestred Plundered and Suffered for them that all the Protestants in the World are not in England and that amongst those in England there are too many the more is the pity who have so rent and divided themselves from the Church of England and do so much and so often vary in their Judgments Practice and Opinions as they appear rather to be no Protestants or very little embracing the Profession and Interest thereof that our Incomparable and Prudent Queen Elizabeth could never have maintained and supported so much as she did the Protestant Religion as well Lutheran as Calvinist in the Parts beyond the Seas and that of the purer and better reformed Religion of the English Church at home by her Aids Embassies Leagues and Intercessions if she had not requited the Catholick Princes with the like Indulgence and usage to any of her Subjects that were of the Romish Religion and that neither the Rebellions of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland for the advance of Popery many several Attempts to take away her Life and Plots to Dethrone her could ever
perswade her or her Learned Successor notwithstanding the Horrid design of the Gunpowder Treason against him and his Posterity and the wiser as they should be and better part of his Subjects Assembled in Parliament to be more than prudentially rigorous to that Party whose Friends in other Countries might retalliate any Severity used to theirs And although she made some fierce and smart Laws to affright those that called themselves Catholicks for principles inconsistent with the Safety of her Soveraignty and its Government which in all these Acts of Parliament appeared to be more against the Emissaries from Rome which came to Seduce and lead them into such dangerous Errors than to forbid any thing that was Innocent in the private Devotions religious and practical part of it that Great Queen and King well understanding that they could not by any Rules of State Justice or Modesty of which Princes when there is not so great Inequality as to give them an absolute Dominion over one another are usually very tender require any Ease or Liberties for Protestants living under other Princes and their Laws when they can neither promise or perform Mutualities or Reciprocations And therefore the Learned King James when the House of Commons in Parliament had Petitioned him to give some stop to the growth of Popery one Cause whereof they assigned to be the Interposition of Foreign Princes Embassadors and Agents in favour of Papists Answered That they might rest secure that he would never be weary to do all he could for the Propagation of the Protestant Religion and Suppression of Popery but the manner and form they were to remit to his Care and Providence who could best consider of times and seasons but his Care of Religion must be such as on the one part he must not by the hot Persecution of our Recusants at home irritate Foreign Princes of a contrary Religion and teach them a way to plague the Protestants in their Dominions with whom he daily interceeded and at that time principally for ease to them of our Profession that live under them And in the 21 th year of his Reign in a Speech which he made in Parliament declared to the Lords and Commons That it was true that at times for Reasons best known to himself he did not so fully put Laws in Execution against Recusants but did wink and connive at some things which might have hindred more weighty Affairs But he did never in all his Treaties agree to any thing to the overthrow and dissolution of those Laws but had in all a chief care of the preservation of that truth which he ever professed for as it was a good Horseman's part not always to use his Spurs and keep strait the Reins but sometime to suffer the Reins to be more remiss So it was the part of a Wise King and his Age and Experience in Government had informed him sometimes to quicken the Laws with Executions and at other times upon just Occasions to be more remiss But as God shall Judge him he never thought or meant nor ever in any word expressed any thing that savoured of it and prayed them to root out Jealousies which were the greatest Weeds in their Garden For certainly to Consiseate two parts of three of a Papist's Lands or disinherit the next Heir if bred up in that Religion can never amount to the avail of Protestants in Transilvania Hungary Bohemia Silesia Moravia Poland Upper or Lower Austria Piedmont Flanders Brabant and the rest of the Belgick Provinces nor under those which were United and Confederate the Hause-Towns Bearne and some other of the Cantons of Switzerland and the bad enough already used Multitudes of Huguenots in France Nor can the Persecution or destroying of the greater part of the Protestants beyond the Seas to gratifie the humerous pretences and causeless fears of the more Imprudent and lesser part of the Protestants of England be by any rule of right reason adjudged to be for the Protestant Interest And upon the like advice and reason may our fears of any Invasion upon our Properties and just Rights disappear and vanish as soon as they shall with any eye of Judgment be but looked upon nor will ever be able to endure the touchstone of Truth when our Liberties are so Impregnable and fortified by very many of our good Laws and Liberties and by our Magna Charta and Charters de Foresta more than Thirty times confirmed by Acts of Parliament for those great Charters were never singly or by themselves so many times confirmed by Acts of Parliament When by that excellent Law and Charter freely granted in the Ninth year of the Reign of King Hen. 3. No Freeman may be taken or Imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold Liberties or free Customs be Outlawed or Exiled or in any manner destroyed but by the lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land no man shall be amerced for a small fault or if for a greater saving to him his Contenement and a Merchant saving to him his Merchandize Earls and Barons shall not be amerced but by their Peers the King will not sell deny or defer any Man either Justice or Right No Man of the Church shall be amerced after the quantity of his Spiritual benefit but after the quantity of his Lay-tenement and the quantity of his Offence and a Villain shall not be amerced but saving his Wainage and that all things done to the contrary shall be void Sureties or Pledges shall not be Charged for any Debts of the King if the Debtor hath Goods and Chattels to pay the Debt and is ready to pay None shall be Distreined for more Service than is due Common Pleas shall not follow the King 's Court. Those that do commit Redisseisin shall be Imprisoned and not delivered without special Commandment of the King and shall make Fine to the King for the Trespass By an Act of Parliament made in the Third year of King Edward the First none shall be attached by any occasion nor fore-judged of life or limb nor his Lands Tenements Goods or Chattels seised into the King's hands against the form of the Great Charter and the Law of the Land No City Burrough or Town nor any Man shall be amerced without reasonable Cause and according to the quantity of his Trespass that is to say every Freeman saving his Free-hold and Merchant saving his Merchandize a Villain saving his Gainure and that by his or their Peers By an Act of Parliament made in the 25th year of his Reign The King will take no Aids or Prizes but by the Common consent of the Realm saving the ancient Aids and Prizes due and accustomed Aids and Taxes granted to the King shall not be taken for a Custom No Officer of the King by themselves or any other shall maintain Pleas Suits or Matters hanging in the King's Court for Lands Tenements or other things to
have in the making of other Laws from time to time been careful upon all occasions to erect and build to help to guard and protect their Liberties Rights and Priviledges together with the very great care which the Judges restraining all non obstantes of Acts of Parliament and Regal Dispensations unto what the Law allows or to the King 's particular Concernments do take in all their Judgments and Decisions Expositions Applications and Interpretations of Laws to assist and support the just Rights and Proprieties of the Subjects in their Lands and Estates and not in the least to prejudice them in their Common Assurances by Fines and Common Recoveries The Severity used by divers of our Kings in the Punishment of Briberies Extortions or Byassed and Illegal flattering Opinions of Judges The Oaths of the Lords and others of the King 's Privy Council who are usually the Greatest Noble and most concerned Men of Estate and Interest of the Nation Oath of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England well and truly to serve the King and his People and to do right to all manner of People according to the Law and Usages of the Realm Oaths of the Judges to do equal Law and execution of Right to all the King's Subjects rich and poor without having regard to any Person to deny no man Common Right by the King's Letters nor none other Mans nor for none other Cause Oaths of the King's Serjeants at Law well and truly to serve him and his People and as duly and hastily speed such Matters as any Man shall have against the King in the Law as they may lawfully do without delay or tarrying the Party for his lawful Process The Oaths of other Serjeants at Law well and truly to serve the King and his People and truly Counsel them Oaths of the Justices of Peace to do equal right to the Poor as to the Rich after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and Statutes thereof made Oaths of the Sheriffs to do right to Poor as well as Rich in all that belongeth to their Office to disturb no Man's Right nor to do wrong to any Man And the Oaths of the Escheators Clerks of the Chancery and Coroners with the Oaths of the Officers of Courts Under-Sheriffs and Bailiffs well and to execute Justice All which several Degrees of Men in the Nation would be as unwilling as any others to have the Lives Liberties and Estates of themselves and their Posterities or dearest Relations sacrificed to a lawless and unlimitted Power of their Kings and Princes And the Oaths of our Kings at their several Coronations to conserve the Liberties of the People and observe all the good Laws made by their Royal Progenitors and Predecessors with the Impossibility that ever the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled will consent to the abrogating of any of the aforesaid Laws and reasonable Customs be felones de se or deliver up themselves and their Posterities to the absolute Will and Pleasure of their Succeeding Kings and Princes may abundantly evidence how safely and securely the Property and Liberties of the People until Rebellion foolishly fancied Fears and Jealousies with their Discords distrust and plundering of one another shall put them under such another yoke as Oliver Cromwell had cheated them into may rest and are like inviolably to continue for ever protected against any the Incroachments of Arbitrary Power whilst they live under their King 's ancient Government Of which His late Majesty was so careful and so willing to dislodge all manner of Jealousies out of the Minds of his Subjects as he did in the Third year of his Reign give his Royal Assent as they call'd it unto their Petition of Right and made it an Act of Parliament wherein he not only Confirmed their Magna Charta and Charta Forestoe but the Act of Parliament assented unto by King Edward the First De Tallagio non Concedendo The Act of Parliament made in the First year of the Reign of King Edward the Third cap. 6. The Act of Parliament made in the 25 th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King That no Man should be compelled to make any Loans to the King against his will The Statutes of the 28 E. 3. ca. 3. 37 E. 3. ca. 18. 38 E. 3. ca. 9. 42 E. 3. ca. 3. 11 R. 2. ca. 9. 17 R. 2. ca. 6. and 1 R. 3. ca. 2. Charged all his Officers and Ministers to serve him according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as they tendered the Honour of his Majesty and the Prosperity of the Kingdom Banished as he hoped for ever all their Fears of the Infringing of their Liberties and given cause of Content to them and that Parliament to such a satiety such a fulness and nè plus ultra as unless they would have been Consortes Imperii and require to have a share in his Regality and Government there was no more to be asked or requested of him or granted by him Imprisoned shortly after in the Tower of London John Earl of Clare and the greatly Learned Selden for but having Copies in their Custody of some Florentine and Foreign Laws and Customs proposed by Sir Robert Dudley a Titular Duke of Tuscany to be imitated by him here in England as a means to raise Money by Impositions laid upon the People and caused his Attorney General to exhibit a Bill against them in the Star-Chamber for Disquieting his Subjects with Fears and Jealousies And was so ready from time to time to Condescend to their Infirmities and give Satisfaction to them in all their Concerns and Scruples as he suffered those two great Cases of the Habeas Corpus and the Ship Money wherein his necessary Prerogative for the good of himself and his People was not a little concerned to be publickly and solemnly argued in the Course and Method of the Laws in foro Contradictorio before the Judges and shewed no displeasure afterwards but much kindness unto Justice Hutton and Justice Croke who in the Case of the Ship Money had in their Arguments and Opinions delivered thereupon against him in the Exchequer Chamber dissented from all the rest and greater number of the Judges And His now Royal Majesty treading the good old Paths of Queen Elizabeth his Grandfather King James and his Royal Father doth in all Matters of difficulty in the absence of Parliaments where the Laws and Justice of the Nation are likely to be more than ordinarily concerned consult and advise with the Judges hath not long ago Superseded one of them for some harsh usage and discontent given to the Countrey in his Circuits and takes all the care he can to choose and make Judges and his Learned Council at the Law out of the most able honest experienced and eminent practisers of it and hath but lately in several of his Speeches in Parliament declared and promised that he would give his consent unto any good Laws
Grandfather King Henry the Seventh the happy Uniter of the White and Red Roses having by a Provident Care made such a Choice of Wise and ValiantSea and Land Commanders Sage Counsellors and Ministers of State and Judges of the Law as no Prince of her Age or Time could equal did by a constant encouraging and imploying no other than those who made it not their only Business to seek their own Profits but were as fixt to her as she was to them by whom and her own careful Conduct and Guidance she withstood all the Assaults of Rome and Spain and the Machinations which their Jesuits could Plot or Promote against her and her most excellent steddy Monarchical Government weather'd out the Storms and Rebellions raised up against her with no single or few Attempts to take away her Life supported her Allies and was a Bulwark impregnable not only to the more refined Protestant Religion which she had planted and defended here in England but to those different Forms elected or set up by Luther and Calvin and the Huguenots in the Foreign and other Parts of Christendom was in her glorious and ever to be imitated happy Reign as she made her Subjects as happy as her self in the Councils Love Duty and Allegiance of her Parliament and assistance of her People for their own as well as her Preservation and Good who although they were by her limitted not to meddle with Church or State Government forbid and sharply reproved for medling with the Successors had some of their several Members as Mr. Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley Prohibited to sit in the House of Commons and afterwards Committed Prisoners to the Tower of London sent for Sir Edward Coke their Speaker and charged him to deliver her Message to the House which he did not omit to do That It was in her Power to Call Prorogue Adjourn Dissolve or Determine Parliaments and to Assent or Dissent And in one of the said Parliaments refused her consent to 48 Bills which had passed in both Houses informed the House of Commons That she misliked their Irreverence towards her Privy Councellors Members of that House who were not to be accompted as Common Knights and Burgesses that are Councellors but during the Parliament whereas the others were standing Councellors and for their Wisdom and great Service were call'd to the Council of State Blamed some that seem'd to make their Necessities more than they were forgetting the urgent Necessities of the Time and Dangers would not have her People feared with Reports and speaking to them that she heard that upon the last Attempt of the Spaniard some had abandoned their Towns fled higher into the Countrey and left all Naked said I swear unto you By God if I knew those Persons or any that shall do so hereafter I will make them know and feel what it is to be so fearful in so urgent a Cause And when the Commons had Petition'd unto her against some grievances of her Purveyances and Court of Exchequer answer'd That she had given some Order to the Lord Steward for the redress of the Purveyances That she had as much Skill and Power to rule and govern her own House as any of her Subjects whatsoever to rule and govern theirs without the help of their Neighbours and would shortly take further order therein by the advice of her Judges and Learned Council Commanded the Speaker of the House of Commons That if any Bills should be there exhibited touching the Succession Matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical he should not receive them Which several Speeches Directions and Messages of her Majesty with many others in all the time of her Parliaments and long and happy Reign were well esteemed of whose Birth-Day for now almost Fourscore years last past in London and many other Places of England hath upon every 17 th day of November by Legacies of Annual Commemorative Sermons and Ringing of Bells been Celebrated and was so happy in the Duty Allegiance and Obedience of her Parliaments As a Prudent very Eminent Learned Member of the House of Commons said That before he would speak or give any consent to a Case that should debase her Soveraignty or Abridge it I would wish my Tongue cut out of my Head Anno 43. of her Reign A Bill being brought into the House of Commons for Explanation of the Common Law concerning the Queens Letters Patents and certain Monopolies Mr. Spicer a Burgess of Warwick said That that Bill might touch the Prerogative Royal which was as he had Learned so transcendent as the eye of the Subject may not aspire thereunto and therefore be it far from him that the State and Prerogative of the Prince should be Tyedly him or any other Subject Mr. Francis Bacon after Lord Chancellor said That for the Prerogative Royal of the Prince for his part he ever allowed it and is such as he hoped should never be discussed And said Mr. Speaker pointing to the Bill This is no stranger in this place but a stranger in this Vestment The Use hath been ever by Petition to humble our selves to her Majesty and by Petition to desire to have the Grievances redressed especially when the remedy touchethiher in Right or Prerogative I say and I say again That we ought not to deal or meddle with or judge of her Majesties Prerogative I wish every man therefore to be careful of this point Mr. Lawrence Hyde said I do owe a Duty to God and Loyalty to my Prince I made it and I think I understand it far be it from this heart of mine to write any thing in Prejudice or Derogation of her Majesties Prerogative Royal and the State Mr. Serjeant Harris moved That the Queen might be Petitioned by the House in all Humility Mr. Francis Moore afterwards Serjeant Francis Moore said He did know the Queens Prerogative was a thing curious to be dealt with Sir Robert Wroth a Member of that House did in his own particular offer 100 l. per Annum to the Wars Upon a Debate of Monopolies the Queen understanding that a List of such as she had granted had been brought into the House sent for their Speaker and declared unto him That for any Patents granted by her whereby any of her Subjects might be oppressed she would take present order for Reformation thereof her Kingly Prerogative was tender and therefore desired them not to speak or doubt of her Reformation but that some should be repealed others suspended and none put in Execution but such as by a Trial at Law should appear to be for the good of the People which being reported by him to the House filled them with unspeakable Joy Mr. Wingfield wept and said His heart was not able to conceive or his tongue express the Jov that he had in that Message And thereupon Mr. Secretary Cevill said That there was no reason that all should be revoked for the Queen meant not to be swept out of her Prerogative And