He brings several undeniable Presidents and Instances In the 21 of R. 2. a Repeal of a former Sentence against the Spencers being Petitioned for in Parliament Rot. 55.56.21 R. 2. these Errors were assigned Because the Prelats Who are Peers of the Realm did not Assent to the Judgment and because it was made only by the Earls and Barons Peers of the Realm c. And because it was made against the Great Charter of England in which it is contained that no man shall be exiled or destroyed but by the Lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land By which it appears that the Judgment of that Parliament was That it was a Breach of the Magna Charta for the Temporal Lords to condemn a Peer without the Assent of the Bishops who are expresly declared to be Peers of the Realm Rot. 55. To be Peers in Parliament Rot. 56. and to be Peers of the Realm in Parliament Rot. 61. And all this too in the Case of Treason which is as a full Declaration of their Peerage as it is possible to make To the Second Position That they have a Right to Sit and Vote in Parliament in all Causes whatsoever even in Causa Sanguinis in Capital Cases which he proves by Reason and Presidents That by the Magna Charta a Law of the Highest value Confirmed by Thirty Acts of Parliament and with the most Solemn and dreadful Imprecations upon whosever of them or their Posterity should go about to violate it in any particular the Bishops have an equal Right with the Temporal Lords That they Sit in Parliament by the virtue of the same Writs of Summons that the other Barons do they are Summoned to Advise and Debate about the great and difficult Affairs of the Kingdom cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti Regni nostri Angliae colloquium habere tractatum Of all things indefinitely that shall be brought before them in that High and Honourable Court the Supream Judicature of the Nation and that there cannot be any Instance produced of a Writ of Summons with a Limitation or Restriction upon the Bishops excluding them from any matter of Debate Consultation Vote or Judicature belonging to the House of Lords The Temporal Barons also are Summoned indefinitely to Debate Handle and Consult with the Prelats in all things there to be done which would be impossible if in some of the most Important matters in point of Judicature the Lords the Bishops must be Totally Excluded That though the Constitution of Clarenden be urged as designed for a Limitation of the Bishops exercising Jurisdiction in the Case of Life or Mutilation of Members yet it is evident both from the Words and the occasion of that Law that they ought to be present for that this Constitution of Clarendon was made perfectly to oblige the Bishops to serve the King in the Capacity of their Temporal Baronies sicut caeteri Barones the Tenure being the same Et sicut Barones caeteri debent interesse Judiciis Curiae Regis cum Baronibus usque perveniatur in Judicio ad diminutionem Membrorum vel ad mortem the plain Sense of which words is that they ought to be present not only till such Causes of Life or Limb came before the rest of the Lords but at all preliminary Debates usque perveniatur not ad Judicium but in Judicio which supposes a Trial preceding till the Sentence came to be pronounced Now the occasion of this was the Papacy was then erecting their fifth Monarchy and indeavouring to set up an Independent Jurisdiction of the Church in all Kingdoms which the Kings very well perceiving were resolved to oppose and therefore to oblige them to this Service by vertue of the Tenures of their Temporal Baronies And this giving them a Concession to withdraw when the Sentence â—â—as pronounced was a particular favour of the King Thomas Becket a great Saint and Martyr in the Roman Calendar stoutly opposed this as an inchroachment upon the Liberties of the Church and indeed the Bishops who had all along the Saxon Government sate in the great Councils by virtue of their Spiritual Capacity there being then no Temporal Baronies they thought the Conquerors imposing this Tenure upon their Estates a very hard Servitude and Badge of Slavery to the Secular Power but that notwithstanding their Reluctancy this Salvo seemed a little to qualify the matter so that they did Vote in such Cases till the Sentence came to be pronounced appears from Petrus Blesensis who taxes them of Collusion for submitting to this Constitution of Clarendon Principes sacerdotum saith he Seniores Populi Pet. Blesen de Inst Epic. p. 454. licet non dictent Judicia Sanguinis eadem tamen tractant disputando disceptando de illis seque ideo imnunes à Culpa reputant quod Mortis aut truncation is membrorum judicium decernentes á pronuntiatione duntaxat Executione Penalis Sententiae se abstinent Although saith he they do not give Judgment in Cases of Blood yet do they handle treat and debate about them and think themselves innocent because in the determinations of Cases of Life and Limb they absent themselves at the pronouncing or execution of the Penal Sentence This Statute of Clarendon was made in February and in the October following the King Summons a Parliament to Northampton Fitz. Steph. vit Tho. Becket de Concil apud Clarendon Mss in Bibliotheca Cottoniana in which Becket in which Becket was for opposing this Constitution wasting the Kings Treasure and other Crimes accused of Treason in the Debate whereof the Bishops Sate with the other Barons and because the matter did not come to a Sentence of Death after great Debate between the other Lords the Bishops about pronouncing the Sentence the Bishop of Winchester did it But Becket making an Appeal to the Pope the Bishops being afraid of him they endeavoured to persuade the King to desist his further prosecution till that matter was determined But the King being resolute pressed them to their Duty notwithstanding Beckets Prohibition to them to the contrary from the obligation of the Statute of Clarendon to which they had Sworn Asserens quod non teneat haec ejus simplex Prohibitio contra hoc quod Clarendoniae factum initum fuerat affirming that this single Prohibition of Beckets could not bind them against what was done and agreed to at Clarendon From all which it is plain that in fact the Bishops did Debate and Vote in a Capital Case and were obliged by this Statute so to do and it was a Favour indulged them to be absent at the giving of the final Judgment or Sentence of Death or loss of Limbs In the 5. H. 4. The Earl of Northumberland was in Parliament Impeached of Treason Rot. Par. n. 17.5 H. 4. and after Examination of the whole matter he clearly acquitted himself of the charge upon which it is said in the Record Et
Army in the North he desired before he was Examined of his supposed Crime that he might have the Judgment of the House of Lords and the Resolution of the House of Commons Whether the Act of Pacification and Oblivion do not interpose and exempt him from being Questioned for the supposed Crime whether it be Civil or Criminal This he doth not plead as a Pardon which would imply a Crime which he is not guilty of but as his own Sense upon that Act. Hereupon the Act of Oblivion was read An Explanation of the Extent of the Act of Pacification and afterwards the Lords Commissioners that were present did averr That in their Treaty with the Scots Commissioners they never did intend the said Act should Extend further than to things past between the Two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in matters of Hostility and things thereunto belonging and not to things to come For further Debate hereof the House was adjourned into a Committee during pleasure and the House being Resumed it was Resolved upon the Question Nemine Contradicente That it belongs to the House of Peers by the Ancient Laws and Constitutions of this Kingdom to interpret Acts of Parliament The House of Lords the Interpreters of Acts of Parliament in time of Parliament in time of Parliament in any Cause that shall be brought before them And it is likewise Ordered That Mr. O Neal shall be Examined by the Deputed Lords appointed for that purpose notwithstanding his Allegation Upon Information given this day to the House Riot in the Forrest of Windsor That certain persons of Egham were apprehended by Order of this House for killing the King's Deer and committing Riots in the Forrest of Windsor and Egham Walk and being in the custody of the Messenger were Reskued out of his hands by violence by some of their Companions Hereupon it is Ordered That a Warrant be sent to the Sheriff of Surrey to assist the Messenger of this House for the apprehending the former Delinquents and of such persons that rescued them out of the Messengers hands and that they be brought before this House that they may receive punishment according to their deserts These passages may seem too trifling to be inserted into these Collections but I thought it absolutely necessary that by these Insolencies Posterity might see how cheap and contemptible the Actions of this Parliament had made the King in the esteem of the Common People and how unfit it is for Loyal Subjects to ask and for Princes sometimes to part with things which seem little or indifferent for such it may be might be the Regulation of the Forrests which yet it is evident was the Occasion of this Contemptuous Carriage of People of the lowest Rank towards him who ought to have been esteemed their Dread Sovereign by the highest But it was no wonder to see them follow the Example of their Superiors who committed daily Riots upon the King's Prerogative and Reputation But to proceed Lord Keeper Reports Conference about the Letters from Ireland The Lord Keeper reported the Conference with the Commons That he had acquainted them that their Lordships had agreed to six of the Instructions for the Committees in Scotland but the other being of great Consideration by reason of the pressing Affairs of Ireland they were forced to lay aside till a more convenient time 1 Then his Lordship reported That the House of Commons desires the Letter read this Day sent from the Lords of the Council in Ireland may be communicated to the City of London to let them see the truth of the Affairs of Ireland that so they may be the better stirred up and induced to lend Mony for the present supply of the business of Ireland and to this purpose the House of Commons will imploy some Members of their own Which Proposition this House agreed to 2 That in regard of the present urgent Occasions of Ireland the House of Commons thinks it fit the Six Thousand Men which both Houses resolved should be sent into Ireland out of England shall be increased to the Number of Ten Thousand Men and Two Thousand Horse Which the Lords also agreed to 3 That the House of Commons had voted to desire the Assistance of our Brethren of Scotland against Ireland for 10000 Men not presently to be sent but at such times and in such Manner as shall be agreed upon by Articles and Conditions of both Parliaments according to future Occasions Whereupon it was Resolved upon the Question c. That this House shall desire the Aid of our Brethren of Scotland for 1000 Scots for the present to be sent over into Ireland with an Intimation of a desire of 9000 more to make up 10000 Men if Occasion be according to such Articles as shall be agreed upon with the Parliament of England The same things were Voted in the Commons House only concerning the Scots some little difference viz. Resolved c. That this House doth incline to accept of the Offer of the Scots for sending of Ten Thousand Men into Ireland under such Conditions and upon such Cautions as shall be Honorable and Safe for this Kingdom Resolved c. That unless the Scots shall condescend to be commanded by the Government of English settled in Ireland that there is no intention that any should go at all The Dean of Ely Dr. Fuller Dean of Ely Bailed Dr. Fuller was upon his Petition this day Ordered to be Bailed and Colonel Fitz Williams who for Transporting several Men into France was in Custody was discharged of the Serjeant and Ordered to attend the House It will possibly by this time be expected that we should take a Trip over the Sea to see the Posture and Condition of that deplorable Nation of Ireland and the Progress of the Rebellion of which every day produced some of Job's amazed Messengers bringing ill Tidings one upon the neck of another And indeed not only every day but almost every hour produced fresh intelligence of the greatness of the Conspiracy and the inhumane Cruelty of the Rebels who Robbed Stripped and Barbarously Murdered the Protestants wherever they got them into their Power The Lord Blaney himself brought the account of the surprisal of his House Wife and Children by the Rebels in the County of Monaghan An advertisement came from Sir Arthur Tyringham of the taking of the Newry and the poor English who escaped the fury of the Rebels brought continual fresh Relations of the miserable Condition of the Province of Vlster where the Rebellion first took its rise It may well be imagined that the consternation at Dublin was extraordinary occasioned both by the true Accounts which daily arrived and the false Rumors which upon such occasions a general Fear and Amazement is wont to produce the City was weak and defenceless The sad Condition of Ireland at the time of the Rebellion and the Popish Party within it great and formidable and the Rebellion now
Strafford The House of Commons in their own Name and in the Name of the whole Commons of England have this day accused your Lordship to the Lords of the Higher House of Parliament of High Treason the Articles they will in a few dayes produce in the mean time they have Resolved That your Lordship shall be Committed into Safe Custody to the Gentleman Vsher and be Sequestred from the House till your Lordship shall clear your self of the Accusations that shall be laid against you Whereupon he was immediately taken into Custody by James Maxwell Usher of the Black Rod. And that the Commons might Disable him of the Testimony and Assistance of Sir George Radcliff his great Friend and Confident it was resolved to make him a Party and accuse him of High Treason and Confederacy with the Earl which was accordingly done as is more at large related before to which the Reader is referred only a Debate worth the Observation arose upon his being a Member of the Parliament in Ireland Whether he could without Breach of Priviledge be sent for Upon which it was Resolved as a thing out of all Doubt That in case of High Treason Priviledg of Parliament neither here nor there doth reach to Protect him Notwithstanding which when afterwards his Majestie accused the Lord Kimbolton and the Five Members of High Treason and Exhibited Articles against them they did not only protect them but arraigned that proceeding as the Highest Violation of the Priviledges of Parliament making it one of the main Foundations upon which they built the Justice of the succeeding Rebellion and their taking up Arms against his Majesty It was Ordered Wednesday Novemb. 18. That no Member of the House of Commons shall visit the Earl of Strafford during his restraint without Licence first obtained from the House And the same Order was taken in the House of Peers and all the time of his Imprisonment the Lieutenant of the Tower brought in a Weekly account of the Names of those persons who visited him and by whose Order Upon Munday Munday Nov. 23. Novemb. 23. Mr. Pym presented a draught of Articles to the House which being referred to the Committee who were to prepare a Charge against the Earl were by them reported and agreed to by the House and Mr. Pym ordered to go up with them to the Lords which upon Wednesday following he did accordingly Wednesday Nov. 25. and before their Lordships laid out his Talent of Speech-making upon that subject as follows The Articles being first tendred and Read which were these I. THat he the said Thomas Earl of Strafford Articles of Impeachment against the Earl of Strafford Nov. 25. hath Trayterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Realms of England and Ireland and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law which he hath declared by Trayterous Words Counsels and Actions and by giving his Majesty advice by force of Armes to compel his Loyal Subjects to submit thereunto 2. That he hath Trayterously assumed to himself Regal power over the Lives Liberties Persons Lands and Goods of his Majesties Subjects in England and Ireland and hath exercised the same Tyrannically to the subversion and undoing of many both of Peers and others of his Majesties Liege people 3. That the better to enrich and enable himself to go thorow with his Trayterous Designs he hath detained a great part of his Majesties Revenue without giving legal account and hath taken great Summes out of the Exchequer converting them to his own use when his Majesty was necessitated for his own urgent occasions and his Army had been a long time unpaid 4. That he hath Trayterously abused the power and authority of his Government to the encreasing countenancing and encouraging of Papists that so he might settle a mutual dependance and confidence betwixt himself and that Party and by their help prosecute and accomplish his malicious and tyrannical designs 5. That he hath maliciously endeavoured to stir up enmity and hostility between his Majesties Subjects of England and those of Scotland 6. That he hath Trayterously broken the great Trust reposed in him by his Majesty of Lieutenant General of his Army by wilfully betraying divers of his Majesties Subjects to death his Army to a dishonourable defeat by the Scots at Newborn and the Town of New-Castle into their hands to the end that by the effusion of blood by dishonour and so great a loss of New-Castle his Majesties Realm of England might be engaged in a National and Irreconciliable quarrel with the Scots 7. That to preserve himself from being questioned for those and other his Trayterous Courses he laboured to subvert the Right of Parliaments and the ancient course of Parliamentary Proceedings and by false and malicious slanders to incense his Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Counsels and Actions he hath Trayterously and contrary to his allegiance laboured to alienate the hearts of the Kings Liege people from his Majesty to set a division between them and to ruin and destroy his Majesties Kingdoms for which they impeach him of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity 8. And he the said Earl of Strafford was Lord Deputy of Ireland and Lieutenant General of the Army there viz. His most excellent Majesty for his Kingdoms both of England and Ireland and the Lord President of the North during the time that all and every the Crimes and Offences before set forth were done and committed and he the said Earl was Lieutenant General of all his Majesties Army in the North parts of England during the time that the Crimes and Offences in the fifth and sixth Articles set forth were done and committed 9. And the said Commons by protestations saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Earl and also of replying to the Answers that he the said Earl shall make unto the said Articles or to any of them and of offering proofes also of the premisses or any of them or any other impeachment or accusation that shall be exhibited by them as the cause shall according to the course of Parliaments require do pray that the said Earl may be put to answer for all and every the premisses that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon every of them had and used as it is agreeable to Law and Justice My Lords THese Articles have exprest the Character of a great and dangerous Treason Mr. Pym's Speech after the Reading the Articles against the Earl of Strafford Nov. 25. such a one as is advanced to the highest degree of Malice and of Mischief It is enlarged beyond the limits of any description or definition it is so hainous in it self as that it is capable of no aggravation a Treason against God betraying his Truth and Worship against the King obscuring the Glory and weakning the foundation
the ordinary Course and Courts of Justice declined 3. The proceedings in Civil Causes at Council-Board contrary to the Law and great Charter not limited to any certain time or season 4. That the Subject is in all the material parts thereof denied the benefit of the Princely Graces and more especially of the Statute of Limitations of 21 of Jac. granted by his Majesty in the Fourth Year of His Reign upon great Advice of the Councils of England and Ireland and for great Consideration and then published in all the Courts of Dublin and in all the Counties of this Kingdom in open Assizes whereby all Persons do take notice That contrary to His Majesties Pious Intentions His Subjects of this Land have not enjoyed the benefit of His Majesties Princely Promise thereby made 5. The extrajudicial avoiding of Letters Patents of Estates of a very great part of His Majesties Subjects under the Great Seal the Publick Faith of the King dom by private Opinions delivered at the Council-Board without Legal Evictions of their Estates contrary to Law and without President or Example of any former Age. 6. The Proclamation for the sole emption and uttering of Tobacco which is bought at very low Rates and uttered at high and excessive Rates by means whereof thousands of Families within this Kingdom and of His Majesties Subjects in several Islands and other parts of the West-Indies as your Petitioners are informed are destroyed and the most part of the Coin of this Kingdom is ingrossed into particular Hands insomuch that your Petitioners do conceive that the Profit arising and ingrossed thereby doth surmount His Majesties Revenue certain or casual within this Kingdom and yet his Majesty receiveth but very little profit by the same 7. The universal and unlawful encreasing of Monopolies to the advantage of a few the disprofit of His Majesty and impoverishment of His people 8. And the extream cruel Vsage of certain late Commissioners and other Stewards of the British Farmers and Inhabitants of the City and County of London-Derry by means whereof the worthy Plantation of that Country is almost destroyed and the Inhabitants are reduced to great Poverty and many of them forced to forsake the Country the same being the first and most useful Plantation in the large Province of Ulster to the great weakning of the Kingdom in this time of danger the said Plantation being the Principal Strength of those parts 9. The late Erection of the Court of High Commission for Causes Ecclesiastical in these necessitous Times the Proceedings of the said Court in many Causes without legal Warrant and yet so supported as Prohibitions have not been obtained though legally sought for And the excessive Fees exacted by the Ministers thereof and the encroaching of the same upon the Jurisdiction of other Ecclesiastical Courts of this Kingdom 10. The exorbitant Fees and pretended Customs exacted by the Clergy against the Law some of which have been formerly represented to your Lordship 11. The Petitioners do most heartily bemoan that His Majesties Service and Profit are much more impaired than advanced by the Grievances aforesaid and the Subsidies granted in the last Parliament having much encreased His Majesties Revenue by the buying of Grants and otherwise And that all His Majesties Debts then due in this Kingdom were satisfied out of the said Subsidies and yet his Majesty is of late as the Petitioners have been informed in the House of Commons become indebted in this Kingdom in great Sums And they do therefore humbly beseech That an exact Account may be sent to His Majesty how and in what manner His Treasure is issued 12. The Petitioners do humbly conceive just and great fears at a Proclamation published in this Kingdom in Anno Domini 1635. prohibiting men of Quality or Estates to depart this Kingdom into England without the Lord-Deputie's Licence whereby the Subjects of this Kingdom are hindred and interrupted from free access to address to His Sacred Majesty and Privy-Council of England to declare their just Grievances or to obtain Remedies for them in such sort as their Ancestors have done in all Ages since the Reign of King Henry the Second and great Fees exacted for every of the said Licences 13. That of late His Majesties Attorney-General hath exhibited Informations against many ancient Burroughs of this Kingdom into His Majesties Court of Exchequer to shew cause by what Warrant the said Burgesses who heretofore sent Burgesses to Parliament should send the Burgesses to the Parliament and thereupon for want of an Answer the said Priviledges of sending Burgesses was seized by the said Court which Proceedings were altogether Coram non Judice and contrary to the Laws and Priviledges of the House of Parliament and if way should be given thereunto would tend to the Subversion of Parliaments and by Consequence to the Ruin and Destruction of the Common-wealth And that the House of Commons hath hitherto in this present Parliament been deprived of the Advice and Counsel of many profitable and good Members by means thereof 14. By the Powerfulness of some Ministers of State in this Kingdom the Parliament in its Members and Actions hath not its natural Freedom 15. And lastly That the Gentry and Merchants and other His Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom are of late by the Grievances and Pressures before said and other the like brought very near to Ruin and Destruction And the Farmers of Customs Customers Waiters Searchers Clerks of Vnwarrantable Proceedings Pursevants and Goalers and sundry others very much enriched whereby and by the slow Redress of the Petitioners Grievances His Majesties most Faithful and Dutiful People of this Kingdom do conceive great fears that their readiness approved upon all occasions hath not been of late rightly represented to his Sacred Majesty For Remedy whereof the said Petitioners do humbly and of right beseech your Lordships That the said Grievances and Pressures may be speedily Redressed and if your Lordship shall not think fit to afford present Relief that your Lordship might admit a Select Committee of this House of Persons uninteressed in the benefit arising of the aforesaid Grievances to be licensed by your Lordship to repair to His Sacred Majesty in England for to pursue the same and to obtain fitting remedy for their aforesaid and other just Grievances and Oppressions and upon all just and Honourable Occasions they will without respect of particular Interest or Profit to be raised thereby most humbly and readily in Parliament extend their utmost endeavour to serve His Majesty and comply with His Royal and Princely Occasions and shall pray c. To this the Earl replyed that their Lordships might observe that it bore Date Feb. 22 1640. which was since his Impeachment and that it is followed by Faction and Confederacy and a strong Conspiracy against him as if he had time and opportunity he could make it appear And indeed the Complaints of the Irish Nation against him who had in all things endeavoured to promote and
might be determined according to Law and not by himself at his Will and Pleasure upon Paper-Petitions Thirdly Upon like occasion of Pressing the Laws and Statutes that he would make an Act of Council-Board in that Kingdom as Binding as an Act of Parliament Fourthly He made his Words good by his Actions Assumed and Exercised a Boundless and Lawless Jurisdiction over the Lives Persons and Estates of His Majesties Subjects procured Judgment of Death against a Peer of that Realm Commanded another to be Hanged this was accordingly Executed both in times of High Peace without any Process or Colour of Law Fifthly By Force of a long time he Seized the Yarn and Flax of the Subjects to the Starving and undoing of many thousands besides the Tobacco business and many Monopolies and Unlawful Taxes forced a New Oath not to dispute His Majesties Royal Commands determined Mens Estates at his own Will and Pleasure upon Paper-Petitions to himself forced Obedience to these not only by Fines and Imprisonment but likewise by the Army sessed Soldiers upon the Refusers in an Hostile manner Sixthly Was an Incendiary of the War between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland My Lords We shall leave it to your Lordships Judgments whether these words Counsels and Actions would not have been a sufficient Evidence to have Proved an Indictment drawn up against him as those before mentioned and many others are That they were spoken and done to the Intent to draw the King's heart from the People and the Affections of the People from the King that they might leave the King and afterwards rise up against him to the destruction of the King if so here is a Compassing of the King's Death within the Words of the Statute of 25th year of Edward the Third and that Warranted by many former Judgments My Lords I have now done with the Three Treasons within the Statute of the Twenty fifth of Edward the 3d. I proceed unto the 4th upon the Statute of the Eighteenth year of Henry the 6th Chapter the third in Ireland and I shall make bold to read the words to your Lordships That no Lord nor any other of what condition soever he be shall bring or lead Hoblers Kernes or Hooded Men nor any other People nor Horses to lye 〈◊〉 Horseback or on Foot upon the King's Subjects without their good wills and consent but upon their own Costs and without hurt doing to the Commons and if any so do he shall be adjudged as a Traytor 1. The Argument that hath been made concerning the Person that it extends not to the King and therefore not to him weighs nothing with your Lordships Rex non habet in Regno parem from the greatness of his Office to argue himself into the same inpossibility with His Sacred Majesty of being incapable of High-Treason it 's an Offence no Treason The words in the Statute No Lord nor any other of what condition soever he be include every Subject In Trinity Term in the Three and thirtieth year of Henry the Eighth in the King's-Bench Leonard Lord Gray having immediately before been Lord-Deputy of Ireland is Attainted of High-Treason and Judgment given against him for letting diverse Rebels out of the Castle of Dublin and discharging Irish Hostages and Pledges that had been given for securing the Peace for not punishing one that said That the King was an Heretick I have read the whole Record there 's not one thing laid to his Charge but was done by him as Lord Lieutenant He had the same Plea with my Lord of Strafford That these things were no adhering to the King's Enemies but were done for Reasons of State that he was not within those words of the Statute of the 25 of Edw. 3. himself being Lord-Lieutenant there Object It hath been said That the Soldiers sessed upon the Subjects by him were not such persons as are intended by that Statute Hoblers Kernes and Hooded Men those Rascally people Answ My Lords they were the names given to the Soldiery of those times Hoblers Horsemen the other the Foot But the words of the Statute go further Nor any other People neither Horse nor Foot His Lordship sessed upon them both Horse and Foot Object The Statute extends only to those that lead or bring Savil led them my Lord only gave the Warrant Answ To this I shall only say thus Plus peccat author quam Actor by the rule of the Law Agentes consentientes pari plectuntur poena if consent much more a Command to do it makes the Commander a Traytor If there be any Treason within this Statute my Lord of Strafford is Guilty It hath been therefore said That this Statute like Goliah's Sword hath been wrapt up in a Cloath and laid behind the door that it hath never been put in Execution My Lords if the Clerk of the Crown in Ireland hath certified your Lordships upon search of the Judgments of Attainders in Ireland he could not find that any man had been attainted upon this Statute your Lordships had had some ground to believe it Yet it 's only my Lord of Strafford's Affirmation besides your Lordships know that an Act of Parliament binds until it be repealed It hath been therefore said That this Statute is repealed by the Statute of the 8 Ed. 4. Cap. 1. and of the 10th of Hen. 7. Cap. 22. because by these two Statutes the English Statutes are brought into Ireland The Argument if I mistook it not stood thus That the Statute of the First of Henry the 4th the 10th Chap. saith That in no time to come Treason shall be adjudged otherwise then it was ordained by the Statute of the 25 E. 3. that the reason mentioned in the Eighteenth year of Henry the Sixth in the Irish Statute is not contained in the 25 Edw. 3. and therefore contrary to the Statute of the 1 Hen. 4. it must needs be void If this were Law then all the Statutes that made any new Treason after the First of Henry the 4th were void in the very Fabrick and at the time when they were made hence likewise it would follow that the Parliament now upon what occasion soever have no Power to make any thing Treason not declared to be so in the Statute 25 Edw. 3. This your Lordships easily see would make much for the Lord of Strafford's advantage but why the Law should be so your Lordships have only as yet heard an Affirmation of it no reason But some touch was given that the Statute of the Tenth year of Henry the Seventh in words makes all the Irish Statutes void which are contrary to the English The Answer to this is a denial that there are any such words in the Statute The Statute declares that the English Statutes shall be effectual and confirmed in Ireland and that all the Statutes made before-time to the contrary shall be revoked This repeals only the Irish Statutes of the Tenth year of Henry the Fourth and the Nine and twentieth
Members and Assistants of this House as they shall nominate may be Examined Whereupon it was Ordered That this House will joyn with the House of Commons in this Message Ordered That the same deputed Lords do take the Examination of Witnesses upon Oath in the Cause concerning the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as were deputed in the Earl of Strafford 's and the same Oath to be Administred and the same Course to be observed in the rest of the Particulars Ordered That the now Earl of Bedford shall be added to the Deputed Lords in his Father's room and Mr. Attorney General and Mr. Serjeant Glanvile are appointed to write down the Examinations This afternoon A standing Order of the House it being a considerable time before there were Forty Members to make a House it was Ordered That so soon as the House Sits and that the Serjeant comes to any Committee then Sitting to signifie to them that the House is Sitting that the Chair-man shall immediately come away to attend the Service of the House Ordered That the Committee for the Bishop of Bath and Wells sit to morrow in the Afternoon at Two of the Clock in the Dutchy Chamber The Case of one Mr. Smith a Minister Votes in the Case of Mr. Smith a suspended Minister formerly suspended by Sir John Lamb being reported to the House it was Resolved c. That Mr. Smith was illegally suspended by Sir John Lamb and that Sir John Lamb ought to give him reparation and satisfaction for his damages sustain'd by that Suspension Mr. Hide reports the Articles against Sir John Bramston Knight Mr. Hide Reports the Articles against Lord Chief Justice Bramston The Controversy between the Lord Major and Commonalty of London about Election of one Sheriff heard Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench All which being singly Voted together with the Title were ordered to be ingrossed in order to their being carried up to the Lords Upon the opening of the Cause between the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and the Commonalty of London concerning the Election of one of the Sheriffs which formerly hath been chosen by the Lord Mayor and presented to the Commonalty on Midsummer-day for their Confirmation and likewise the differences concerning the Nomination and Election of other Officers now in question between the said Lord Mayor and the Commonalty the Lord Mayor alledging the said Sheriff and Officers to be Nominated and Confirmed by him according to the constant practice of the said City for 300 years last past without any contradiction or gain-saying But the Commonalty alledging on the behalf of the Commons that they had interest in the said Nomination and Elections It was thereupon Ordered by the Lords in Parliament That the said Lord Mayor shall call a Common-Hall on Friday 2 July 1641. Which Common-Hall is to consist of the Masters and Wardens and Livery-men of the several Companies of London and no other And that the Commonalty are then to Assemble in a peaceable and quiet manner to settle and compose the Dfferences between the said Lord Mayor and themselves if they can if not then to make choice of Six discreet persons of the said Commonalty to treat and debate this business between them and settle and compose all differences among themselves between this and Friday come seven-night being the Ninth of July 1641. But in case the said Differences cannot be composed then the pleasure of the House is that the said Cause shall be heard in open House at the Bar on the said Ninth of July And that in the mean time the said Persons so chosen as aforesaid shall have free liberty by themselves their Council and others that they shall employ to View and Transcribe such and so much of the Charters of the said City Acts of Common Council Books of Entries of Elections and Accompts and all such other Acts and Records as shall or may concernt the said Causes in Question and that all Clerks and others in whose Custody the said Instruments are shall be assisting to the said Searchers And lastly that if the Cause shall come before the Lords in Parliament that then the said six Persons so chosen as aforesaid shall attend the same before their Lordships Thus Early did the Faction grasp at every thing of Power and Authority and the Common-Halls indeavouring to divert the Lord Mayor of his Priviledges was but a fore-runner that the House of Commons would do the same and set up the Popular Authority above that of their Soveraign Lord the King of whom the Lord Mayor was the immediate Representative Then the Earl of Bristol Reported to the House The Earl of Bristol's Report of the Scots Commissioners Answer about the staying the Kings Journey June 29. 1641. That the Lords Commissioners had met with the Commissioners of Scotland and delivered unto them the Paper concerning the time of his Majesties Journey into Scotland Which was read in haec verba Viz. His Majesty hath Commanded us to let you know That whereas he hath been Petitioned by both Houses of Parliament for some stay of his Journey to Scotland until the Armies be Disbanded and that divers other things for the Peace and Good of this Kingdom be setled And whereas his Majesty doth acknowledg himself ingaged by his Promise and by his Letters as likewise by his late Proclamation declaring his Resolution to be present at the Holding of the Parliament in Scotland at the day in the Proclamation limited his Majesty being desirous to give Satisfaction to the Parliaments of both Kingdoms hath Commanded Us to declare unto you the Desire of the Parliament of England and to Treat with you how his Going may be best Fitted and Accommodated to the Convenience of both Kingdoms and the Desire of both Parliaments Then was read the Scottish Commissioners Answer hereunto which follows We do with all Thankfulness acknowledg his Majesties Royal and Tender Care of Settling the Affairs of his Ancient and Native Kingdome of Scotland and the Constancy of his Resolution according to his Royal Promise and Proclamation to be present at the Day appointed Our Affection also toward the Settling of the Affairs of England and the Desires of the Houses of Parliament that his Majesties Journey to Scotland may be stayed for some time to that Effect do so far prevail with us that we shall deal most Earnestly with the Parliament of Scotland That they Adjourn their Meeting till the 5th of August or if they shall find that a new Adjournment of the Parliament after so many Prorogations be so prejudicial to the present Condition of the Affairs of that Kingdom that it cannot be granted We will Endeavour That they may in their Meetings be only Exercised in preparing Matters for the Parliament and that they determine nothing nor make any Act till the day Designed for his Majesties coming But withall we must signifie That the present Constitution of that Kingdom for want of Councel Session and other Courts of
a Conference by the Earl of Bath to the Commons THese are to signifie to this House That whereas He sent an Answer this day to both Houses concerning the Third Head lest there should be any mistake upon the word Slander His Majesty declares he did not mean all of either House of Parliament or any Members thereof Upon the Reading of the Petition of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury concerning his payment of Poll-mony It was Ordered Order of the Lords about the Arch-Bishops paying Poll-Money To be left to be paid according to the Act of Parliament The House for freer Debate was put into a Committee to consider of the Court of York and to give judgment herein and after much Debate the House was reassumed and it was Resolved upon the Question by the Major Part Resolves of the Lords concerning the Court at York That the Commission and Instructions whereby the President and Council of the North exercise a Jurisdiction is Illegal both in the Creation and Execution Resolved c. That this Commission and Instructions is unprofitable to His Majesty Resolved upon the Question Nemine Contradicente That this Commission and Instructions is inconvenient and grievous to His Majesties Subjects of those Parts Resolved upon the Question Nemine Contradicente That this House doth joyn with the House of Commons in beseeching His Majesty that the Present Commission and Instructions may be revoked and no such granted for the Future MEmorandum A Salvo for the Judges of the Court of York This House doth declare seeing the Commission and Instructions of the Court of York is Illegal in the Creation and Execution that the former Judges in the Court of York who have given Judgement and proceeded as they thought in their Consciences upon True and Legal Grounds shall not be liable to be Questioned but in case of Injustice and that none in that Case shall be barred of their Appeal And if it appear that there is a Necessity for the Ease of that Country to have a Court this House will advise with the House of Commons how one may be Established by Law for the Ease of those Parts And the Earl of Essex Earl of Bristol Viscount Say and Seal Bishop of Lincoln Lord Wharton Lord Kimbolton were appointed to prepare Heads for a Conference with the Commons concerning the aforesaid Particulars that so the Persons that were Judges and the Acts of that Court may have a Saving for them If humane Bodies and Minds are subject to the secret Influences of the Heavenly Bodies certainly England and the rest of the Brittish Dominions were at this time under the Aspects of some Violent and Malignant Configurations and there seemed to be an Universal Inclination in the People every where to Tumults Mutinies Violence and Injustice the Lords House was full of Complaints of the Disorders of this Nature throwing up Inclosures and disturbing the Possessions of others and that not singly but by Multitudes and with such Arms as Rusticks are wont to make Use of upon such Occasions of their Madness And of this the Lords were so sensible that they made this following Order WHereas daily Complaints are made unto this House of violent breaking into Possessions Order of the Lords concerning Violent and Tumultuous breaking into Possessions July 13. 1641. and Inclosures in Riotous and Tumultuous manner in several parts of this Kingdom without any due proceedings by Course of Law to warrant the same which hath been observed to have been more frequently done since this Parliament began then formerly it is thought fit and so Ordered by the Lords in Parliament That no Inclosure or Possession shall be Violently and in a Tumultuous manner disturbed or taken away from any man which was in Possession the first Day of this Parliament or before but by due Course and Form of Law and that such Possessions of all men shall continue and remain unto them as they were on the first Day of this Meeting of Parliament unless it have been or shall be by some Legal way of proceeding in some of His Majesties Courts of Law or Equity or by some Act or Order of the Parliament determined or ordered to the Contrary And in all such Cases where any such unlawful disturbance of the quiet Possession of any man hath happened or shall happen the High Sheriff of the County shall have Power by virtue of this Order together with two of the Justices of the Peace of the said County next or near to the place and such other or others as he or they shall think fit to take with him or them to repair unto the place where such Tumults happen to be and appease and quiet the Possession of the said Lands and Inclosures so disturbed as aforesaid and shall see to and cause that the Possession be continued unto the present Owners as aforesaid until by a Legal Course in some Court of Law or Equity or by order of Parliament it be determined or Ordered to the contrary The Lord Bishop of Lincoln Reported Report about the Officers of the Star-Chamber That the Lords Committees appointed to Consider of the Petition of the Officers of the Star-Chamber have fully heard their Cause and they are of Opinion and do not conceive of any fitter way of Relief for these Poor Officers the King's Servants then to remit them to the King's Mercy that His Majesty would be Graciously pleased to allow a Proportionable Relief for these Poor men out of such Fines as may accrue unto His Majesty in the High Court of Parliament to be apportioned by the Lords of the Committees or otherwise as their Lordships shall be pleased to approve thereof and Order it Upon Report this Day made unto the House by the Right Honourable the Lord Seymour that the difference between the Parishioners of St. Report about the Rioters at St. Thomas the Apostle's in pulling down the Rails Thomas the Apostle complained of to the Lords in Parliament was composed by his Lordship to whom the business was referred It is Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the High Court of Parliament Assembled that the said difference together with the Cause depending before their Lordships shall by virtue of this Order be fully ended and determined and Lastly that John Blackwell shall for himself others Petitioned against forthwith pay unto the Overseers of the Poor of that Parish upon sight hereof to the use of the said Poor the full Summ of ten Pounds of Lawful Money of England and hereof they are not to fail as they will answer to the contrary There being a Report spread abroad that His Majesty intended to send the Lord Digby abroad under some honourable Character Tuesday July 13. and as was said Ambassadour into France his Enemies in the House of Commons being extreamly nettled at it were resolved if possible to set a brand of Infamy upon his Lordship and therefore not content to have disgracefully Expelled him
Parliament Assembled not for any Doubt or Ambiguity which may be conceived or thought of for or concerning the Premisses nor of the ensuing Questions But for the manifestation and declaration of the Clear Truth and of the said Laws and Statutes already planted and for many Ages past settled in this Kingdom the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do therefore pray That the House of the Lords may be pleased to Command the Judges of this Kingdom forthwith to declare in Writing their Resolutions of and unto the ensuing Questions and subscribe to the same Quest 1. WHether the Subjects of this Kingdom be a Free People and to be Governed only by the Common Laws of England and Statutes of Force in this Kingdom 2. Whether the Judges of this Land do take the Oath of Judges And if so Whether under pretext of any Act of State Proclamation Writ Letter or Direction under the Great or Privy Seal or Privy Signet or Letter or other Commandment from the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy Justice Justices or other Governor or Governors of this Kingdom they may hinder stay or delay the Suit of any Subject or his Judgment or Execution thereupon If so in what Cases And whether if they do hinder stay or delay such Suit Judgment or Execution thereupon what Punishment did they incur for their deviation or transgression therein 3. Whether the Kings Majesties Privy Council either with the Chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom or without him or them be a Place of Judicature by the Common Laws and wherein Causes between Party and Party for Debts Trespasses Accompts Possessions or Title of Lands or any of them And which of them may be heard and determined and of what Civil Causes they have Jurisdiction and by what Law And of what Force is their Order or Decree in such Cases or any of them 4. The Like of the Chief Governor alone 5. Whether Grants of Monopolies be warranted by the Law and of what and in what Cases and how and where and by whom are the pretended Transgressors against such Grants punishable and whether by Fine Mutilation of Members Imprisonment Loss and Forfeiture of Goods or otherwise and which of them 6. In what Cases the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom and Council may punish by Fine Imprisonment Mutilation of Members Pillory or otherwise And whether they may Sentence any to such the same or the like punishment for infringing the Commands of or concerning any Proclamation of and concerning Monopolies and what punishment do they incur that Vote for them 7. Of what Force is an Act of State or Proclamation in this Kingdom to bind the Liberties Goods Possessions or Inheritance of the Natives thereof whether or any of them can alter the Common Law or the Infringers of them loose their Goods Chattels or Leases or forfeit the same by Infringing any such Act of State or Proclamation or both And what punishment do the sworn Judges of the Law that are Privy Councellors incur that Vote for such Act and Execution thereof 8. Are the Subjects of this Kingdom subject to the Martial Law And whether any man in time of Peace no Enemy being in the Field with Banners displayed can be Sentenced to death If so by whom and in what Cases If not What Punishments do they incur that in time of Peace execute Martial Law 9. Whether Voluntary Oaths taken freely before Arbitrators for Affirmance or Disaffirmance of any thing or for the true performance of any thing be punishable in the Castle-Chamber or any other Court and why and wherefore 10. Why and by what Law or by what Rule of Policy is it that none is admitted to Reducement of Fines or other Penalties in the Castle-Chamber or Council Table untill he confess the Offence for which he is Censured when as Revera he might be innocent thereof tho suborned Proofs or Circumstances might induce the Censure 11. Whether the Judges of the Kings-Bench or any other Judge of Gaol-Delivery or of any other Court and by what Law do or can deny Copies of Indictment of Felony or Treason to the Parties accused contrary to Law 12. What Power have the Barons of the Court of Exchequer to raise the Respite of Homage arbitrarily to what Rate they please to what Value they may raise it by what Law they may distinguish between the Respit of Homage upon the diversity of the true value of the Fees when as Escuage is the same for great and small Fees and are apportionable by Parliament 13. Whether it be Censurable in the Subjects of this Kingdom to repair into England to appeal to his Majesty for Redress of Injuries or other Lawful Occasions If so why and in what Condition of Persons and by what Law 14. Whether Deans or other Dignitaries of Cathedral Churches be properly and de Mero jure Donative by the King and not Elective or Collative If so Why and by what Law And whether the Confirmation of a Dean de Facto of the Bishops Grant be good or valid in Law or no If not by what Law 15. Whether the issuing of Quo Warranto's out of the Kings-Bench or Exchequer against Boroughs that antiently and recently sent Burgesses to the Parliament to shew Cause why they sent Burgesses to the Parliament be Legal If not what punishment ought to be inflicted upon those that are or have been the Occasioners Procurers and Judges of and in such Quo Warranto's 16. By what Law are Jurors that give Verdict according to their Conscience and are the sole Judges of the Fact Censured in the Castle-Chamber in great Fines and sometime Pillored with loss of Ears and bored through the Tongue and marked sometimes in the Forehead with an Hot Iron and other like Infamous Punishments 17. By what Law are men Censurable in the Castle-Chamber with the Mutilation of Members or any other Brand of Infamy and in what Cases and what punishment in each Case there is due without Respect to the quality of the Person or Persons 18. Whether in the Censure in the Castle-Chamber Regard be to be had to the words of the Great Charter viz. Salvo Contenemento c. 19. Whether if one that steals a Sheep or commits any other Felony and after flyeth the Course of Justice or lyeth in Woods or Mountains upon his keeping be a Traytor If not whether a Proclamation can make him so 20. Whether the Testimony or Evidence of Rebels Traytors Protected Thieves or other infamous Persons be good Evidence in Law to be pressed upon the Tryals of Men for their Lives or whether the Judge or Jurors ought to be Judge of the matter in Fact 21. By what Law are Fairs and Markets to be held in Capite when no other express Tenure is mentioned in his Majesties Letters Patents or Grants of the same Fairs and Markets Altho the Rent or Yearly Sum be reserved thereout 22. Whether it stands with the Integrity of the
therefore expect from his Majesty in a more larger and bountiful Manner then at other times A time of great Agitation and Action their State is ready by preparation to annoy us and ill and false Councils at home may quickly bring us to Ruin as we have weakness at home so we ought to decern the Actions abroad where great Provisions are made and a carelesness and improvidence herein when our Neighbours are so provided and have such great Fleets at Sea as will open a Way to suddain Ruin and Destruction before we can be prepared and therefore now the fittest time to move the King 6 The seventh and last Step is That this Alteration of Councils will bring great Advantages to the King in his own Designs In all our Actions our Prayers to God should be that his Name should be Glorified so our Petitions to his Majesty should bring Honor and Profit and Advantage to him by a discouragement to the Rebels a great part of their Confidence resting in the Evil Counsels at home as by the Examinations appeareth it will be a great Encouragement to the King 's good Subjects at home who hazzard their Lives and give Aid and Contribution to have things governed for the Publick Good it will make Men afraid to prefer Servants to the King that are ill Counsellors when they shall come to the Examination of the Parliament for many times Servants are preferred to Princes for advantage of Forreign States This will put an Answer into the King's Mouth against all Importunities that he is to prefer none but such as will be approved on by Parliament those that are Honorable and most Ingenious are aptest to be troubled in this kind and not to deny therefore the King may Answer he hath promised his Parliament not to admit of any but by Advice in Parliament this will Answer them all These are Domestick Advantages but it will also make us fitter to enter into Union and Treaty with Foreign Nations and States and to be made partakers of the Strength and Assistance of others It will fortifie us against the Designs of Foreign Princes there hath been common Council at Rome and in Spain to reduce us to Popery if good Counsel at Home we shall be the better prepared to preserve Peace and Union and better Respect from Abroad Lastly it will make us fit for any Noble Design Abroad Let us but turn the Tables and imagine this Speech spoken by some Loyal Gentleman against Mr. Pym and his Confederates and we shall find all those mischiefs and dangers from ill Counsels and Evil Counsellors the Alteration of Religion and Subversion of Laws the Encouragement of the Irish Rebellion the Impoverishment of the Nation the Loss of Liberty and Property the Ruin of the King and Kingdom to be the Natural Effects of their Consultations and Actions But in Order to accomplish their Wicked Designs the People must be affrighted with the danger of approaching Popery the present Government traduced with intentions of re-introducing it and the King must be Wounded through the Sides of the most Faithful of his Friends These were the Popular Arts by which after they had by repeated Flatteries Importunities and Promises obtained from the King those Fatal Concessions before mentioned they pursued their Design and by Arming those People whom they had deluded with the pretence of Religion and hurrying them on into Actual Rebellion they sought by Violence to obtain that which they could not do by Fraud and Flattery But to proceed After this an Order was read in the House of Lords made by the House of Commons Dated Nov. 9. 1641. That an Ordinance of Parliament may pass to engage the Honor Credit and Authority of both Houses of Parliament for the securing and repaying to the City the 50000 l. with Interest desired to be borrowed of them for the Occasions of Ireland and that a provisional Act shall pass with all Speed for repayment of the said Summ with Interest within six Months Next an Ordinance of Parliament was read concerning the Irish Affairs in haec verba viz. WHEREAS there is just Cause to conceive The Ordinance of Parliament prohibiting any Irish to pass out of England without License c. that diverse ill Affected Persons here being Natives or Inhabitants of Ireland do intend to pass over thither to joyn with the Rebels It is Ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament that no Irish Man shall pass out of any the Parts of this Kingdom to return into Ireland without special License of the Committees of both Houses for Irish Affairs or the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council or of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland It is further Ordered That no Arms Munition or Powder shall be transported without such License as is aforesaid It is likewise Ordeined by the said Lords and Commons That whereas upon the perusal of diverse Letters and other Intelligence here there is just Cause to suspect that diverse of his Majesties Subjects in Ireland had some Hand in the Conspiracy and Rebellions of the Irish That the Lord Lieutenant shall certifie from time to time during his Aboad in England into Ireland the Names of such suspected Persons and the the Grounds and Reasons of the Suspition and that thereupon the Lords Justices of Ireland and the rest of his Majesties Council there shall enter into Examination of the said Parties and shall have Power to commit them to Prison till the Truth may be fully discovered that so they may either be cleared if they be Innocent or if they be found Guilty they may be proceeded against according to the Laws And that this Ordinance of Parliament shall be a sufficient Warrant to the Lord Lieutenant Lords Justices and Council aforementioned The Lord Admiral then acquainted the House That he had Command and Directions from his Majesty to send some Ships for the Guuarding of the Irish Coasts and also some Ships to keep the Narrow Seas because his Majesty conceives that the Rebellion from Ireland is fomented from abroad and that they expect some Supply from Foreign Parts And his Lordship desires to have the Directions of the Parliament herein what to do Whereupon it was ordered to have a Conference with the Commons about it Divers Orders were read which were made by the House of Commons concerning the Irish Affairs to which they desired their Lordships concurrence that so they may be put in Execution That the Merchants Some Orders of the House of Commons concerning the Affairs of Ireland who have made the Proposition to their House of Transporting Spanish Money in specie into Ireland for the present Occasions of that Kingdom shall have Liberty to Transport so much only as the Lords and Commons in Parliament shall from time to time give them Order and Direction for paying it there as it passes by Proclamation and that all Sums so Transported shall be Registred in the Custom-House and that they shall bring Certificates
not to tender a thing called a Plea and Demurrer As also that the Commons conceive they ought to have been called in this Case for that they have desired it in both their Charges to be present at their Answer and that it was their Right to have been called Further They observe the long delay to the Commons for that they having charged these 13 Bishops long since for meer matter of Fact to be brought so late to Answer may introduce great inconveniencies in this particular and in the Consequences and is not Exampled by former Precedents That therefore upon these Grounds the Commons desire the Lords they may be admitted to make good their proof against these 13 Bishops and that they may be brought to Judgment It was this day Ordered by the Lords Tuesday Decemb. 7. Some Causes in Parliament determinable in no other Court That Forasmuch as the Cause between Smith and Busby in a Writ of Error decidable in no other Court but in Parliament in regard the Suit was Commenced by Original Writ and depending long before the Lords here it having been sundry days attended for Argument with Counsel And being it is a matter in Law the presence of the Judges is thought needful and so cannot be heard in the Term without prejudice to the several Courts of Westminster-Hall It is therefore Ordered by this House That the said Case shall be argued at this Bar on Thursday Sevennight next being the 16th of this Instant December and the Judges are desired to be present at the said Argument And further That the Parties of either side or their Council are to attend and come prepared for arguing and debating the Points in the said Case at their perils The following Commission to give Power to the English Commissioners of both Houses to Treat with the Scots Commissioners touching the Affairs of Ireland was read viz. CHARLES by the Grace of God The King's Commission to several Lords and Commons to treat with the Scots Commissioners concerning assistance for Ireland c. To Our right Trusty and right Well-beloved Cousin William Earl of Bedford and to Our right Trusty and right Well-beloved Cousin and Councellor Robert Earl of Leicester Lieutenant General and Governor General of Our Realm of Ireland as also to Our Trusty and right Well-beloved Edward Lord Howard of Escrick and likewise to Our Trusty and right Well-beloved Nathanael Fines Esq Sir William Armyn Baronet Sir Philip Stapleton Knight John Hampden Esq Greeting Know ye That We reposing assured Trust and Confidence in your approved Wisdoms Fidelities and great Abilities have Nominated Constituted and Appointed you to be our Commissioners and by these presents do give full Power and Authority unto you or any Three or more of you whereof the said Earl of Bedford Earl of Leicester or Lord Howard to be one to Treat and Consult with Our Right Trusty and Right Well beloved Cosins William Earl of Lothian and John Earl of Lindsay Our Commissioners of Our Scottish Nation of and concerning Our Irish Affairs for the quieting and suppressing of all Tumults Insurrections and Rebellions moved and raised in Our Realm of Ireland and settling Peace and Tranquillity therein according to such Instructions and Directions as you shall hereafter from time to time receive from Vs in that behalf Wherefore We Will Require and Command you or any three or more of you whereof the said Earl of Bedford Earl of Leicester and Lord Howard to be one forthwith with all diligence to attend the Execution of this Our Commission accordingly And whatsoever you shall do in this behalf according to the Tenor hereof this Our Commission shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge for the same Witness Our Self at Westminster the 7th day of December in the 17th Year of Our Reign c. The late Bishop of Lincoln now Archbishop of York Late Bishop of Lincoln now Archbishop of York Reports the Conference concerning the Bishops Impeached Reported the Conference with the Commons Yesterday concerning the Impeached Bishops which because it differs from the Heads Reported for that purpose by Mr. Glyn in the Commons Journal I thought it not amiss to insert His Grace Reported That Mr. Glyn said That the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons having lately received a Message from their Lordships that their Lordships had appointed this day to hear the Plea and Demurrer of the Bishops and that such of the House of Commons might be there as they thought fitting commanded him to deliver unto their Lordships these Particulars That the Canons and Constitutions in Question were voted by both Houses to contain Matters contrary to the King's Prerogative the Laws of the Land the Right of Parliament the Propriety and Liberty of the Subject and many matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence That thereupon the House of Commons to the intent to bring this Matter to Judgment brought up their Impeachment of the 13 Bishops 4th Augusti last which was read verbatim This was all that was acted 4o. Augusti But least this Impeachment might prove too general they brought up a second Charge or Impeachment 13 Augusti which was read in haec verba Whereas the Knights Citizens c. which to avoid Tautologies the Reader may see before in the Transactions of the 13 August By the bringing of this second Impeachment the House of Commons conceive they had satisfied two main Objections 1. That the Book of Canons and Constitutions was not particularly instanced upon in the first which now they punctually deliver with the Impeachment 2. That they had not before charged any thing in particular but now they did That all and every the said Canons and Constitutions and Grants of Benevolence c. were and are contrary c. as in the Vote And hereupon they desired the 13 Bishops might be put to their Answers and yet for all this Desire of the Commons 13. Augusti they had several times which spent almost a Quarter of a Year given them to answer in Their last and peremptory day was the 10th of November last and then they put in no Answer at all but a certain Writing which they are pleased to call a Plea and Demurrer Vpon notice hereof the House of Commons returned an Answer That whereas they had impeached 13 Bishops whereof one of them had pleaded Not Guilty and the rest had neither confessed nor denyed the Impeachment they desired a prefixed day to descend to Proofs and make good the Charge Soon after they received a Message from their Lordships That their Lordships had appointed this day to hear the Demurrer argued Hence it appears That notwithstanding divers daies are given to the Bishops to answer nothing is brought in but a Plea and Demurrer which was not to be admitted for two several Reasons 1. No Defence ought to be made to an Impeachment brought in by the Commons but in the presence of the Commons and it ought to be
attempt in their Petition and Protestation against the King and Parliament These Gentlemen with my self and others having the prosecution of that business and other Charges of great Crimes against them committed to our Trust did unanimously with one consent follow the same bringing to a period our Debates and Disputes concerning their Crimes what we conceived they were guilty of upon their several Charges and what guilty of for framing and preferring their Petition and Protestation to His Majesty that they were guilty of Misprison of Treason upon their former Accusations and guilty of High Treason upon this their last design And these our Votes and Conclusions grounded and warranted not only by the Common Laws of this Land but by divers Acts of Parliament and Presidents we presented to the whole House for Consideration and Confirmation of the same by general Vote with whom we again agreed by our publique Votes and thereupon they were Impeached and Committed This I conceive provoked their malice against us and was the principal cause of this their Plot in drawing an Accusation against us for the same Crime of Treason thereby to make us seem as vile as themselves and to take away our Votes at their Tryal And thus I have joyn'd together both the Cause and the Authors of this Accusation The Effects I conceive will be dangerous and cause great Trouble in these respects 1. In turning the Current of the Parliaments Proceedings against them upon us by which device they shall have further time to put in practice their Plots and bring to perfection their purposes against the Parliament 2. That being busily imployed concerning this business in their disputes about breach of Priviledg of Parliament in illegal accusing the Members thereof in drawing a Declaration to his Majesty concerning the same in appeasing him by shewing the sincerity and integrity of the Parliament toward his Majesty and other things pertinent thereunto this High Court may lay aside their Proceeding and avert their Purposes touching the Irish Affairs whereby the Rebellion there may increase and forraign Aid brought to them to the utter losing of that Kingdom 3. Many Fears and Troubles will arise in the Citizens concerning this Accusation of desperate and devillish Stratagems in agitation as well against them as the Parliament by disconsolate and disaffected persons to the Safety and Security thereof causing their continual Watching and Guarding by their Trained Bands which will be to them a great Charge and Molestation 4. It will incourage ill-affected and pernitious Cavaliers and Commanders about Court to attempt any mischief against both Houses of Parliament or particular Members thereof upon the least opportunity that shall be offered them thinking thereby they shall do the King good service which otherwise they dare not adventure to put in practise 5. And lastly It will provoke and stir up a dislike of these designs in the Hearts of all his Majesty's Subjects and disaffection to his Sacred Person cause great Uproars and Tumults of the Citizens yea and I fear a general Insurrection in the Kingdom if not suddainly prevented which God forbid And thus Master Speaker having nothing more to say concerning these Articles I humbly crave of this Honourable House That I may have Expedition in my Tryal upon the same and that all things done by this Wise Councel may tend to the Honour and Glory of Almighty God the Peace and Safety of His Sacred Majesty and all his Kingdoms A Message was this day brought up from the House of Commons by Sir John Hotham to desire a present free Conference Tuesday Jan. 4th if it may stand with their Lordships conveniency by a Committee of both Houses touching the safety of the King and Kingdom and the Privileges of both Houses of Parliament The Lord Keeper Reported the effect of the Conference which was To move the Lords again to joyn with them humbly to move his Majesty that the Guards at White-Hall may be discharged and to vindicate the Priviledges of Parliament and they do reiterate their desires of Yesterday upon these Reasons 1. The House of Commons have received fresh Informations that divers Gentlemen have made their Addresses to the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court and have dealt with them to come Armed to White-Hall when they shall be required yet they have not condescended thereto 2. The House of Commons have met with a scandalous Paper as was published abroad which contained Articles of High Treason against the Lord Kymbolton c. The House of Commons desires their Lordships would joyn with them to find out the Authors and to bring them to condign punishment for so high a breach of the Priviledges of Parliament But nothing at this time was Resolved of In the Commons House the Lord Faulkland reported the King's Answer to the Message of this House delivered to his Majesty last night That his Majesty asked them whether the House did expect an Answer They replied they had no more in Commission to say but only to deliver the Message The King asked them as private Persons what they thought of it They said they conceived the House did expect an Answer but his Majesty was informed the House was up so he said he would send an Answer this Morning as soon as this House was set but in the mean time he Commanded them to acquaint the House that the Serjeant at Arms did nothing but what he had directions from himself to do Mr. Whittaker Reported from a Committee at Guild Hall Mr. Toby Wood committed to Newgate That an Information was Exhibited upon Oath by one John Bricker against Mr. Toby Wood for Seditious and Treasonable Words whereupon he was committed to Newgate by Order of the Committee at Guild-Hall Also a Vote passed Sir Will. Killegrew a Delinquent That Sir William Killegrew be forthwith sent for as a Delinquent by the Sergeant at Arms attending on the House Then Mr. Smith Mr. Ellis Mr. Hill Mr. Brown and Sir Richard Vivian were appointed to go to the several Inns of Court Message to the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court and to acquaint them That this House hath taken notice of the Practice of some Gentlemen that have endeavoured to engage the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court to be in readiness upon all Occasions to come down to the Court if they should be required That this House hath sent for the Gentlemen that were with them as Delinquents and do believe that their Crime will prove to be of an high Nature And further to inform them That the Parliament is and will be upon all occasions as ready to defend his Majesties Person as any others and they are to inform them that the Cause of sending to them is not any diffidence they have in them but to advise them from any Practices that they shall be moved unto And that upon this occasion put the whole City into an uproar Message to the Common-Council It was Ordered That Alderman
of his Throne against the Common-wealth by destroying the principles of Safety and Prosperity Other Treasons are against the Rule of the Law this is against the being of the Law It is the Law that unites the King and his People and the Author of this Treason hath endeavoured to dissolve that Vnion even to break the mutual irreversal indissoluble band of Protection and Allegiance whereby they are and I hope ever will be bound together If this Treason had taken effect our Souls had been inthralled to the Spiritual Tyranny of Sathan our Consciences to the Ecclesiastical Tyranny of the Pope our Lives our Persons and Estates to the Civil Tyranny of an Arbitrary unlimited confused Government Treason in the least degree is an odious and a horrid Crime other Treasons are particular if a Fort be betrayed or an Army or any other Treasonable fact committed the Kingdom may out-live any of these this Treason would have dissolved the frame and being of the Common-wealth it is an Vniversal a Catholick Treason the venom and malignity of all other Treasons are abstracted digested sublimated into this The Law of this Kingdom makes the King to be the Fountain of Justice of Peace of Protection therefore we say the Kings Courts the Kings Judges the Kings Laws The Royal Power and Majesty shines upon us in every publick blessing and benefit we enjoy but the Author of this Treason would make him the Fountain of Injustice of Confusion of publick misery and calamity The Gentiles by the light of Nature had some obscure apprehensions of the Deity of which they made this expression that he was Deus optimus maximus and infinite goodness and an insinite greatness All Soveraign Princes have some Characters of Divinity imprinted on them they are set up in their Dominions to be Optimi Maximi that they should exercise a goodness proportionable to their greatness That Law term Laesa Majestas whereby they express that which we call Treason was never more thorowly fulfilled then now there cannot be a greater laesion or diminution of Majestie then to bereave a King of the glory of his goodness It is goodness My Lords that can produce not onely to his People but likewise to himself Honour and Happiness There are Principalities Thrones and Dominions amongst the Devils greatness enough but being uncapable of Goodness they are made uncapable both of Honour and Happiness The Lawes of this Kingdom have invested the Royal Crown with Power sufficient for the manifestation of his Goodness and of his Greatness if more be required it is like to have no other Effects but Poverty Weakness and Misery whereof of late we have had very woful Experience It is far from the Commons to desire any abridgment of those great Prerogatives which belong to the King they know that their own Liberty and Peace are preserved and secured by his Prerogative and they will alwayes be ready to Support and Supply his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes for the maintenance of his Just and Lawful Power This My Lords is in all our Thoughts in our Prayers and I hope will be so manifested in our Endeavours that if the Proceedings of this Parliament be not interrupted as others have been the King may within a few Moneths be put into a clear way of as much Greatness Plenty and Glory as any of his Royal Ancestors have enjoyed A King and his People make one Body the Inferiour Parts confer Nourishment and Strength the Superiour Sense and Motion If there be an interruption of this necessary intercourse of blood and spirits the whole Body must needs be subject to decay and distemper therefore Obstructions are first to be removed before Restoratives can be applyed This My Lord is the end of this Accusation whereby the Commons seek to remove this Person whom they conceive to have been a great cause of the Obstructions betwixt his Majesty and his People for the Effecting whereof they have Commanded me to desire your Lordships that their Proceedings against him may be put into as speedy a way of dispatch as the Courses of Parliament will allow First That he may be called to answer and they may have liberty to Reply That there may be a quick and secret examination of Witnesses and they may from time to time be acquainted with the Depositions that so when the Cause shall be ripe for Judgment they may collect the several Examinations and represent to your Lordships in one entire Body the state of the Proofs as now by me they have presented to your the state of the Charge Of which Mr. Pym having given an account to the House had the Thanks of the House returned for his well delivery of the Charge against the Earl of Strafford After this Impeachment was Read Earl of Strafford sent to the Tower the Earl was sent for to the House of Lords and acquainted with the Order of their Lordships for his Commitment to the Tower upon which occasion he made a most Moving and Eloquent Speech but I have not been able to retrieve it the Journal where it is Entred being according to an Act of Parliament after the Restauration of King Charles the Second wholly obliterated The Earl being thus Committed Friday Nov. 27. he Petitioned the Lords to have Counsel assigned him which was allowed and Mr. Richard Lane the Prince's Attorney Mr. Recorder of London Mr. Jo. Lightfoot Mr. Hugh Windham Serjeant Rolles Mr. Platt and Mr. Geo. Love were appointed to be his Counsel Upon the 30 of November a Conference was between a Committee of the Two Houses concerning the Examination of Witnesses and other things preparatory to the Trial of the Earl Monday Novemb. 30. where the Lords agreed That such Members of the House of Commons as they shall appoint shall be present at the Examination of Witnesses and the Lords who were appointed to take the Examination of the Witnesses were Earl of Bath Earl of Bedford Earl of Hartford Earl of Essex Lord Wharton Lord Kimbolton Lord Brook Lord Roberts Lord Savile Thursday Dec. 3. Committee to Examine Evidence an Oath of Secrecy administred Lord Viscount Say and Seal who were impowered to give an Oath to the Attendants Witnesses and the Commons who were to be present of Secresie till the publication of the Evidence The Commoners chosen by their House to be present at this Examination were Mr. Selden Mr. Dutton Mr. Crew Sir Peter Hayman Mr. Grimston Commons to be present at the Examination their Protestation Sir Henry Anderson Sir Nevil Pool Sir Tho. Barrington who were all required to declare That by their Duty they owe to this House they are obliged to keep all those Examinations secret who accordingly did every one make an open protestation that they would The Earl also Petitioned to be heard at the time of the preparatory Examinations but was denied Among the Rest of the Witnesses Examined against the Earl Sir David Fowles was one who at the same
afflicted Whereupon a demand was then made from his Majesty of 12 Subsidies for the release of Ship-money only and while the said Commons then assembled with expressions of great affection to his Majesty and his service were in debate and consideration of some supply before resolution by them made he the said Earl of Strafford with the help and assistance of the said Archbishop did procure his Majesty to dissolve the last Parliament upon the 5 day of May last and upon the same day the said Earl of Strafford did Treacherously Falsely and Maliciously endeavour to incense his Majesty against his loving and faithful Subjects who had been Members of the said House of Commons by telling his Majesty they had denied to supply him And afterward upon the same did Treacherously and Wickely Counsel and Advise his Majesty to this effect viz. That having tried the affections of his People he was loose and absolved from all rules of Government and was to do every thing that power would admit and that his Majesty had tried all ways and was refused and should be acquitted both of God and man and that he had an Army in Ireland meaning the Army above mentioned consisting of Papists his dependants as is aforesaid which he might imploy to reduce this Kingdom to obedience 24. That in the same month of May he the said Earl of Strafford Falsely Treacherously and Maliciously published and declared before others of his Majesties Privy-Councel that the Parliament of England had for saken the King and that in denying to supply the King they had given him the advantage to supply himself by other ways and divers other times he did Maliciously Wickedly and Falsely publish and declare that seeing the Parliament had refused to supply his Majesty in the ordinary and usual way the King might provide for the Kingdome in such ways as he should hold fit and that he was not to suffer himself to be mastered by the frowardness of the People And having so maliciously slandered the said House of Commons he did with the help and advice of the said Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Finch late Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England cause to be printed and published in his Majesties name a false and scandalous book entituled his Majesties Declaration of the causes that moved him to dissolve the last Parliament full of bitter and malicious invectives and false and scandalous aspersions against the said House of Commons 25. That not long after the dissolution of the said last Parliament viz. In the months of May and June He the Earl of Strafford did advise the King to go on rigorously in levying the Ship-money and did procure the Sheriffs of several Countries to be sent for for not levying the Ship-money divers of which were threatned by him to be sued in the Star-Chamber for not levying the same and divers of his Majesties loving Subjects were sent for and imprisoned by his advice about that and other illegal payments And a great loan of a hundred thousand pounds was demanded of the City of London and the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen and the Sheriffs of the said City were often sent for by his advice to the Councel Table to give an account of their proceedings in raising of Ship-money and furthering of that loan and were required to certifie the names of such Inhabitants of the said City as were fit to lend which they with much humility refusing to do he the said Earl of Strafford did use these or the like Speeches viz. That they deserved to be put to Fine and Ransome and that no good would be done with them till an example were made of them and they were laid by the heels and some of the Aldermen hanged up 26. That the said Earl of Strafford by his wicked Counsel having brought his Majesty into excessive charges without any just cause he did in the month of July last for the support of the said great charges counsel and approve two dangerous and wicked Projects viz. To seize upon the Bullion and the money in the Mint And to imbase his Majesties Coyn with the mixtures of Brass And accordingly he procured One hundred and thirty thousand pounds which was then in the Mint and belonging to divers Merchants Strangers and others to be seized on and stayed to his Majesties use And when divers Merchants of London owners of the said Bullion came to his house to let him understand the great mischief that course would produce here and in other parts what prejudice it would be to the Kingdome by discrediting the Mint and hindring the importation of Bullion he the said Earl told them That the City of London dealt undutifully and unthankfully with his Majesty and that they were more ready to help the Rebel than to help his Majesty and that if any hurt came to them they may thank themselves and that it was the course of other Princes to make use of such Moneys to serve their Occasions And when in the same Month of July the Officers of his Majesties Mint came to him and gave him divers reasons against the imbasing the said money he told them that the French King did use to send Commissaries of Horse with Commission to search into mens Estates and to peruse their accounts so that they may know what to levy of them by force which they did accordingly leavy and turning to the Lord Cottington then present said That this was a point worthy his Lordships consideration 27. That in or about the Month of August last he was made Lieutenant General of all his Majesties Forces in the Northern parts against the Scots and being at York did in the Month of September by his own authority and without any lawful warrant impose a Tax on his Majesties Subjects in the County of York of eight pence per diem for maintenance of every Soldier of the Trained bands of that County which Sums of Money he caused to be levied by force And to the end to compel his Majesties Subjects out of fear and Terrour to yield to the payment of the same He did declare that he would commit them that refused the payment thereof and the Soldiers should be satisfied out of their Estates and they that refused it were in very little better condition than of High-Treason 28. That in the Month of September and October last he the said Earl of Strafford being certified of the Scottish Army coming into the Kingdome and he the said Earl of Strafford being Lieutenant General of his Majesties Army did not provide to the defence of the Town of New-Castle as he ought to have done but suffered the same to be lost that so he might the more incense the English against the Scots And for the same wicked purpose and out of a malicious desire to ingage the Kings Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a National and Bloody War he did write to the Lord Conway the General of the Horse and under the
and Goodness My Lords they are the Beauty of the Soul they are the Perfection of all created Natures they are the Image and Character of God upon the Creatures This Beauty Evil Spirits and Evil Men have lost but yet there are none so wicked but they desire to march under the shew and shadow of it though they hate the reality of it This unhappy Earl now the Object of your Lordships Justice hath taken as much care hath used as much cunning to set a face and countenance of Honesty and Justice upon his Actions as he hath been negligent to observe the Rules of Honesty in the Performance of all these Actions My Lords it is the greatest baseness of Wickedness that it dares not look in his own Colours nor be seen in its natural Countenance But Virtue as it is amiable in all respects so the least is not this That it puts a Nobleness it puts a Bravery upon the Mind and lifts it above Hopes and Fears above Favour and Displeasure it makes it always uniform and constant to it self The Service Commanded me and my Colleagues here is to take off those Vizards of Truth and Vprightness which hath been sought to be put upon this Cause and to shew you his Actions and his Intentions in their own natural Blackness and Deformity My Lords He hath put on a Vizard of Truth in these words wherein he says That he should be in his Defence more careful to observe Truth than to gain Advantage to himself He says He would endure any thing rather than be saved by Falshood It was a noble and brave Expression if it were really true My Lords He hath likewise put on the Vizard of Goodness on his Actions when he desires to recite his Services in a great many Particulars as if they were Beneficial to the Common-wealth and State whereas we shall prove them Mischievous and Dangerous It is left upon me My Lords to take off these Vizards and Appearances of Truth and Goodness in that part of his Answer which is the Preamble And that I shall do with as much Faithfulness and Brevity as I can 1. The First thing My Lords that I shall observe in the Preamble is this That having recited all those great and honourable Offices which he hath done under his Majesty he is bold to affirm That he hath been Careful and Faithful in the Execution of them all My Lords If he might be his own Witness and his own Judge I doubt not but he would be Acquitted It is said in the Proverbs of the Adulterous Woman That she wipes her mouth and says she had done no Evil. Here is a wiping of the mouth here is a verbal expression of Honesty But My Lords the foulness and unjustness will never be wiped off neither from his Heart nor from his Actions I mean for the time past God may change him for the time to come That is the first thing I observe 2. My Lords In the second place out of his Apologetical Preamble I shall observe this He doth magnifie his own Endeavours in five particulars 1. That he hath Endeavoured the maintenance of Religion I may miss in words I shall not miss in sense 2. That he hath Endeavoured the Honour of the King 3. The Encrease of his Revenue 4. The Peace and Honour and Safety of the Kingdom 5. The Quiet and Peace of the People These are his five particulars and I shall give a short Answer to every one of them 1. For Religion My Lords we say and we shall prove that he hath been diligent indeed to favour Innovations to favour Superstitions to favour the Incroachments and Vsurpations of the Clergy But for Religion it never received any advantage by him nay a great deal of hurt 2. For the Honour of the King My Lords We say it is the Honour of the King that He is the Father of His People that He is the Fountain of Justice and it cannot stand with His Honour and Justice to have His Government Stain'd and Polluted with Tyranny and Oppression 3. For the Encrease of His Revenue It is true there may be some Addition of Sums but we say There is no Addition of Strength nor Wealth because in those parts where it hath been increased this Earl hath taken the greatest share himself And when he hath spoiled and ravined on the People he hath been content to yield up some part to the King that he might with more security enjoy the rest 4. For the Strength and Honour and Safety of the Kingdom My Lords In a time of Peace he hath let in upon us the Calamities of War Weakness Shame and Confusion 5. And for the Quiet of the Subjects he hath been an Incendiary he hath Armed us amongst our selves and made us weak and naked to all the World besides This is that I shall answer to the second Head of his Apology 3. The Third is this My Lords That by his means many good and wholesome Laws have been made since his Government in Ireland Truly My Lords if we should consider the particulars of these Laws some of them will not be found without great Exception But I shall make another Answer good Laws nay the best Laws are no advantage when Will is set above Law when the Laws have force to bind and restrain the Subject but no force to Relieve and Comfort him 4. He says in the Fourth place He was a means of calling a Parliament not long after he came to his Government My Lords Parliaments without Parliamentary Liberties are but a fair and plausible way into Bondage That Parliament had not the Liberties of a Parliament Sir Pierce Crosby for speaking against a Bill in the Commons House was sequestred from the Council-Table and Committed to Prison Sir John Clotworthy for the same Cause was threatned that he should lose a Lease that he had Mr. Barnewell and two other Gentlemen were threatned they should have Troops of Horse put upon them for speaking in the House Proxies by dozens were given by some of his Favourites And My Lords Parliaments coming in with these Circumstances they be Grievances Mischiefs and Miseries no works of Thanks or Honour 5. The Fifth is That he hath been a means to put off Monopolies and other Projects that would have been Grievous and Burdensome to the Subjects if he had hated the Injustice of a Monopoly or the Mischief of a Monopoly he would have hated it in himself he himself would have been no Monopolist Certainly My Lords It was not the love of Justice nor the Common Good that moved him And if he were moved by any thing else he had his Reward It may be it was because he would have no man gripe them in the Kingdom but himself his own Harvest-Crop would have been less if he had had sharers It may be it was because Monopolies hinder Trade he had the Customs and the benefit of the Customs would have been less when we know the
deposed positively the Words in the Charge The Lord Gorminstone also deposed that he heard the Earl speak those words at another time in open parliament Lord Gorminstone and that the Commissioners who drew the Instructions for the Government of Ireland were a Company of narrow hearted Commissioners The Lord Kilmallock deposed the same Sir Pierce Crosby deposed the same Lord Kilmallock Sir Pierce Crosby My Lord of Strafford after a quarter of an hours respite made his Defence That he had observed the Natives of Ireland have not been Prepitious to their Governours he instanced in Sir John Perrot on their Testimonies attainted of Treason in a legal Ordinary way who lost his Estate though not his Life and yet after it was confest there was little truth in the Accusation My Lord Faulkland had the same treatment being informed against by the same Witnesses Sir Pierce Crosby and Lord Mount-Norris and yet it appeared he had dealt as Honourably Justly and Nobly to his Vnderstanding as any man could do That it was impossible but in the way of Justice a Governour must give Offence to many which he intreated their Lordships to consider He said That though the words were spoken yet were they not Treason and had they been Treason yet by Proviso of Stat. of Ed. 6. the Information ought to be within 30 dayes He instanced in the Lord Cook in Calvin's Case 20 H. 6.8 Dyer 360. to prove that the Laws and Customs of Ireland are diverse from the Lawes of England That he should do Extreamly ill to the Honour of the English Nation and to the memory of divers of their Lordships Ancestors if he should not say and think that Ireland is a Conquered Nation He instanced in the Stat. 11 Eliz. where at the Attainder of Shan Oneal the samous Rebel it is said that all the Clergy were assembled in Armagh at the time of the Conquest That King Henry the Second is in the Statute called the first Conqueror of Ireland That all Histories acknowledg it That he spoke the Words to magnifie the King's Grace and Goodness and that there was then no offence taken at them For the other words That the King might do with them what he pleased let them relate to the Conquest and there is no Offence in them As to the words spoken to the Recorder of Dublin he did with the greatest assevetarion utterly deny the speaking of them Mr. Slingsby his Secretary averred the same and that the first words were so well taken that he was thereupon invited to the Mayor's House at a publique Entertainment To their Charters being void he said it was Evident they were so in point of Law as he was informed by the King's Council for their Non-performance of the Trust reposed in them appealing to my Lord of Cork that the reason of it was that most of the Aldermen were Recusants and would Plead their Charters against the Orders of the Board by which means many great disorders were continued The Managers Urged That this justified a part of the Charge that Charters were judged by the Board whereas the Council-Table hath no such Power The Earl replyed It was not to judg their validity but whether ill Vsage and Extortion were not practised under colour of them and that they were complained of as grievances in Parliament Lord Dillon which the Lord Dillon averred to be true To which the Earl added That he did it in favour of the Protestants who were by these Charters depressed by the Roman-Catholicks and that he looked upon this which was objected as a Crime as a service to the Protestant Religion He said it would perhaps be well known hereafter when he was in his Grave that his great fault was his great zeal to bring them to conform to the Church of England That notwithstanding this they still enjoy their Charters and for his saying Ireland was a conquered Nation it was upon the Occasion of pressing them to supply the Crown for that if the Kingdom of England should still be put to the Charge and the whole Expence rest on the Conqueror you might very well think you are so dealt with as never any other Conquered Nation had been adding There were Copies of his Speech that would justifie what he said and that the Speech was in Ireland That my Lord Ormond told him it was ill resented To which he answered Truly my Lord you are a conquer'd Nation but you see how I speak it and no otherwise The Lord Dillon averred Lord Ranulagh Sir George Wentworth that he stood under the Cloth of State but did not hear the words That they should expect Laws as from a Conqueror The Lord Ranulagh remembred the first words but not their last Sir George Wentworth said That he brought the Speech to the King and in that there was no such word The Managers then Urged That though this was not in that Speech yet some thing was then spoken though in a milder sence but it was spoken after upon Occasion of a Petition delivered by the Commons after they had given the King the Subsidies concerning their Laws To this Mr. Fitzgarret deposed That there was such a Petition Fitzgarret and that there was an answer given either at the Board or in full Parliament from the House of Lords but he does not remember any part of it but afterwards the Earl affirming it was at the Board and not in Parliament he said he conceived there were two Petitions one to the Council another to the Parliament about redress of Grievances but remembers not the Answer But the Lord Gorminstone spoke positively then Lord Gorminston That it was in Parliament upon the Occasion of that Petition wherein as my Lord Strafford observed he contradicted himself having before fixed it on the Speech in the beginning of the Parliament upon Petition of the Commons desiring the benefit of some Graces his Majesty had been pleased to confer on them The Lord Killmallock deposed it was in Parliament Lord Killmallock 3 or 4 dayes after the delivery of that Petition Then the Statute of 28 H. 6. King James's Instructions 1622 and a Proclamation upon them were read dated November 1. 1625. whereby it was Ordered That no private Causes should come before the Board but be referred to their proper Courts Then the 4th Article was read being concerning the Lord of Cork's being disseized of an Impropriation and saying Lord Ranulagh That an Act of State should be as binding as an Act of Parliament The Lord Ranulagh deposed That the Cases of the Church and Plantations were in the times of former Deputies Resolved at the Board and that he never knew any other Titles determined there But the further Disquisition was put off till the next day Upon Friday the Earl of Cork was Examined and deposed Friday Mar. 26. Earl of Cork That the Lord Deputy presented one Arthur Gwyn formerly Groom to the said Earl of Cork to a
greater for drawing others to joyn with him in it That the Oath injoyned in England seems to have followed the Precedent of Ireland that though Salmon mistakes the time he does not mistake the substance and that though my Lord Strafford 's Witnesses do not remember the Words about the Scots it is no impeachment of the Witnesses against him that do Concluding That this administring an Oath was assuming a Power above Regal for this is not penes Potestatem Ministri Mr. Maynard added That though the King injoyned him to administer an Oath yet not to punish the Refusers Upon Monday April 5. the Commons proceeded to the 20 21 22 Munday April 5. Artic. 20 21 22 23 24. 23 and 24 Articles but before they began the Lord High Steward informed them That upon my Lord's Petition the Earl of Northumberland had been Examined but being late could not be Cross Examined by the Commons Mr. Whitlock desired he might be reserved and some other Witnesses My Lord opposed Supplemental Evidence and desired he might Cross Examine my Lord of Canterbury They answered My Lord of Canterbury was Impeached but they did not intend to make use of his Evidence and the other Witnesses were such as were to speak vivâ voce instancing in Serjeant Glanvil Mr. Whitlock then begun to open the foresaid Articles in gross which the Earl desired the Lords might not be acquainting them his Memory could not serve him to make replyes if they inverted the Method That any other person in his Circumstances would think as long time as he had been favoured with to recollect and put his Notes in Order no more than necessary though a far abler man than himself Mr. Glyn said he never knew a Prisoner prescribe a Method especially in case of High Treason My Lord then desired he might have time till to morrow for his Answer which being offered with all humility for his Defence he hoped their Lordships might grant without Offence But he was over-ruled and they proceeded Mr. Whitlock proceeded in the Charge That he advised the King that the Scots Demands were a sufficient ground of War that they struck at the Root of Monarchy and were not only matters of Religion That he seized their Ships in Ireland procured the Parliament in Ireland to give assistance and supply for a War against Scotland That his design was the same against England That Sir George Ratcliff told Sir Robert King The King had 30000 men and 400000 l. in his Purse and his Sword by side and if he wants money who will pity him he may make peace when he will though that be the worst of Evils that if the Parliament did not supply him he might use his Prerogative and would be acquitted before God and Man if he took other Courses to supply himself and he would be ready to serve him in any other way that he advised the Dissolving of the Parliament and said that they having denied the King Supplies he might provide for the Kingdom by such wayes as he thought fit and not suffer himself to be mastered by the wilfulness or frowardness of his People That having tried all wayes he was to do all that Power would admit being absolved from all Rules of Government and acquitted before God and Man that he had an Army in Ireland which he might Employ to reduce his Kingdoms For proof Earl of Traquair the Earl of Traquair deposed That the Earl said that the Vnreasonable demands of Subjects in Parliament was a ground for the King to put himself into a posture of War and that at the Council-Board the Earl with the rest concluded That if the Commissioners from Scotland to whom the King had given leave to come up to represent their demands did not give good satisfaction touching them the Council would be assistant to his Majesty to put him into a posture of War to reduce them to their Obedience but who spoke first at the Board he remembers not After some debate about reading the Examinations of Witnesses not present Earl of Morton the Lord High Steward ruling it the Examination of the Earl of Morton was read he being sick That the Earl had said as before for the Ground of War and that the Examinate told his Majesty he had given the Scots leave to Petition in Parliament for Redress and without hearing their Reasons there was not sufficient Ground for War to which his Majesty said he spoke reason howbeit the Lord Strafford said there was ground enough for War Whence Mr. Whitlock observed That though he knew not the Reasons nor was versed in Republica aliena yet he repeats his advice That these Demands c. That the Scots Commissioners by his Majestie 's leave being on their way to give Reasons yet the Earl of Strafford said the demands were not matters of Religion but strook at the Root of Government and such as he thought were fit for his Majesty to punnish Sir Henry Vane deposes Sir Hen. Vane That after the breaking up of the Parliament some thing was proposed and he himself proposed a Defensive War the Earl of Strafford an Offensive The Earl of Northumberland's Examination read Earl of Northumberland was to the same Effect The Bishop of London Lord Treasurer of England Bishop of London deposed That among others my Lord Strafford gave advice That his Majesty should prepare himself to reduce them by Force his Majesty having acquainted them upon the Earl of Traquair 's Relation That some of their Demands were prejudicial to the Crown and which he could not grant That the War being at ancther meeting resolved upon whether Offensive or Defensive there were divers opinions but believes my Lord Strafford inclined to an Offensive War Nicholas Barnwell deposed Mr. Nicholas Barnwell That Sir Robert Loftus seized several Scotch Ships and Boats and that others hearing fled away and that Sir George Ratcliff was displeased with Sir Robert for making it publick by which means they Escaped Then the Lord Primate of Ireland's Examination was read Archbishop of Armagh That discoursing about levying of money the Earl of Strafford declared that he agreed with those of England who thought in Case of imminent necessity the King might make use of his Prerogative to Levy what he pleased adding That His Majesty was first to try his Parliament and if they supplied him not then he might make use of his Prerogative as he pleased himself The Lord Conway deposed Lord Conway That in private discourse about the 12 Subsidies the Lord Strafford said words to this Effect That the King had need and if the Parliament would not supply the King though he hoped they would the cause being just and lawful the King was justified before God and man if he sought means to help himself though it were against their Wills Sir Henry Vane deposed that the Lord Strafford said Sir Hen. Vane In case the Parliament did not succeed he would be
me would be content to have every word that falls in discourse betwixt man and man to be so severely interpreted I leave to every man's Breast what he finds in the closet of his own Heart and desire to be judged according to that My Lord went further and says I should say that the King was not to be mastered by the frowardness or disaffection of some particular men and conceives it be meant of the Parliament My Lords I say under favour these words are not within the Charge and therefore I am not to be accountable for them besides it is a single Testimony and by the proviso of that Statute cannot be made use of to the end and purpose for which they bring them My Lords the next Testimony offered for proving this Charge is the Testimony of my Lord of Newburg and he sayes That at the Council-Board or in the Gallery I did say that seeing the Parliament had not supplied the King His Majesty might take other courses for the defence of the Kingdom Truly My Lords under favour who doubts but he might for my part I see not where the offence is for another man to have said thus for if another man will not help me may not I therefore help my self under favour I conceive there is no great weight nor crime in these words but in these likewise he stands a single Testimony there is no man that joyns with him in it and there is this in the whole Cause concerning the words that I think there is not any one thing wherein two concurr The next Testimony is that of the Earl of Holland and he sayes That at the Council-Board I said The Parliament having denyed the King he had advantage to supply himself other wayes Truly My Lords I say still other wayes being lawful wayes and just wayes and such wayes as the goodness of the King can only walk in and in no other can he walk And therefore I conceive they be far from bringing it to sigh high a guilt as Treason and this likewise his Lordship expresses as the rest do singly on his own word as he conceives them and not on the particular word of any other person which is I say the case of every one that speaks in the business and therefore there being so great a difference in the Report and Conceiving of things it is very hard my words should be taken to my destruction when no Man agrees what they were My Lord of Northumberland is the next and he sayes I should say at a Committee for the Scotish affairs That in case of necessity and for Defence and Safety of the Kingdom every thing must be done for the Preservation of the King and his People And this is the Testimony of my Lord in that point if I take any thing short it is against my Will I give you my Notes as far as I have them and further I cannot remember them But my Lords I say this brings it to that which is indeed the great part of my Defence in this case There is another agreed in this too and it is Mr. Treasurer who sayes that in Argument for Offensive or Defensive War I should say That having tryed all ways and being refused the King might in extream necessity provide for the safety of himself and his People I say this brings it to that which is principally for my Defence that must qualifie if not absolutely free me from any blame and that is that which did proceed and follow after My Lords under favour I have heard some discourse of great weight and of great Authority and that is certain the Arguments that were used in the case of Ship-Money by those that Argued against the King in that Case say as much and will undertake if any man read those Arguments he shall find as much said there as I said at Council-Board for there you shall hear that there be certain Times and Seasons when Propriety ceases as in the case of Burning where a Man pulls down the next House to preserve the whole street from being set on fire In the case of building Forts on any man's Land where it is for the publique defence of the Kingdom in both these Cases Propriety doth cease nay he says that in War Inter Arma silent Leges Now my Lords these are as highly said as any thing you have heard by me and yet certainly is no subverting of the Fundamental Laws for all that and therefore if a man must be judged he must not be judged by pieces but by all together My Lords Whatsoever I said at Council-Board was led in by this Case what a King should do in case of a Forreign Invasion of an Enemy when the ordinary wayes and means of levying Money would not come in seasonably to prevent mischief for what a King may do in case of absolute necessity certainly in these cases the ordinary Rules do not take place as this was the Case that let in the Discourse so I most humbly beseech your Lordships for it is fully proved to remember what was the conclusion of that Discourse which was That after the present occasion provided for the King was obliged in Honour and Justice to vindicate and free the Liberty of the Subject from all prejudice and harm it might sustain in that extraordinary occasion and that this was to be done by a Parliament and no other way but a Parliament and the King and his People could never be happy till the Prerogative of the Crown and the Liberty of the Subject were so bounded and known that they might go hand in hand together mutually to the assistance of one another My Lords give me that which precedes and that which follows both being proved to be the Case in these words in the Charge I think considering these two I should be far from having committed any great crime or offence in saying these words But I say as I said before I shall be more wary for the time hereafter if it please God to give me that Grace and Life which I submit to him and shall readily and willingly resign to his good Will and pleasure I conceive therefore that as these words are accompanied they be not words that do amount to Treason and are so qualifiyed and so weakly proved that I trust they shall not stick with your Lordships The next words that I am charged withal in England be on the 25th Article and that is that I should say that the Aldermen that would not give in the names of the able men of the City deserved to be put to Fine and Ransome and that no good would be done with them till an example were made of them and they were laid by the heels and some of the Aldermen hanged up In the first part of the Article there is something concerning my advice for raising the Money but it is not proved that I did any thing therein but as others did and as in former years
are nothing at all on the matter Sir James Montgomery tells you a Tale not much Material nor Mr. Maxwell nor Sir John Clotworthy there is nothing at all in it concerning Treason Stewart's Sentence remains only to be answered in this Article for that I conceive it was justly and fairly given as I then conceived I was one of the rest and nothing was intended by that Decree but his Reformation and when he had pleased to have taken the Oath he might have been released of the Sentence and sent home again quietly The next is the 20th Article Wherein I am Charged to be a Provoker and Incendiary of a War against his Majesties Subjects of the Scotch Nation and that I should say of them They were Rebels and Traytors and being about to come into England that I should say I would root out of the Kingdom the Scotish Nation Root and Branch My Lords I shall need no more to say in this for my being an Incendiary I think by the Proof it hath been clearly made appear to your Lordships that I gave no Opinion but such as others did in the like Case It is proved by Lord Traquair and my Lord Treasurer and might have been proved by many more if it had been needful For the Words that I should say The Rooting out the Scots Root and Branch They are only testifi'd by one single Witness Salmon the School-Master swears it and no man else but he and I hope my Lords that when your Lordships do call to mind how he is Crost by his Fellow Witness John Loftus your Lordships will be satisfied he Swears I will persecute them to the Blood and root them out Root and Branch and I cannot tell what But John Loftus said indeed that I said I hope that such of the Scottish Nation as would not submit to the Ecclesiastical Government I would root out stock and branch a wonderful difference between these two But my Lords it was testified by Mr. Secretary Manwaring then present that I never spoke the one nor the other but as in my Answer I did truely and faithfully deliver it I said that unless they would take that Oath of Allegiance and secure the King of their Allegiance in that point I hope I should not see any of them stay in that Kingdom that refused it and there is no proof in the World but the School-Master and I hope your Lordships will not take him to be a good and valid proof to convince me in this Case being a person of no greater Quality and crossed by his fellow Witness For my self I do absolutely say I was so far from wishing ill to that Nation or any Dissension or Division between them that I never desired other in my heart and soul but a firm Peace through the King's Dominions My Counsels tended to that and if I might seem to begin in a contrary way yet the last resort was to bring all to quietness and so that it should be without Blood And I dare say there be them that heard me say it many a time in the King's Council That the King should be in nothing so much sparing and tender as to draw any Blood in that Quarrel I dare say many that heard it will justifie me in it And if your Lordships will give me leave I do think I have something that might procure your Lordships belief that it was so for at that time my Fortune though now by Misfortune it be mean enough was such as I needed not desire to shuffle the Cards and deal anew and especially when nothing was to be got but Blows and that I trust will be an Argument to your Lordships that nothing was desired by me so much as Peace and that under God's goodness and the protection and Benefit of His Majestie 's Scepter I might enjoy the little Estate my Ancestors left me for it is certainly true whatever the World may think to the contrary it is very little better from what my Father left me something it is and the most part of the Improvement of it was before I came to serve the King and yet I have had more from the King then I deserved in all kinds and all the whole service of my Life were it never so many years could not Merit nor deserve from him the Hundred part of what I had from His Favour My Lords Mr. Treasurer Vane says I was in the Argument for an Offensive and he for a Defensive War for a War both of us And I beseech your Lordships How should it be more Treasonable for me to be for an Offensive then for him to be for a Defensive War for a War there must be and the difference was not great and for a Councellor to deliver his Opinion and have that turned upon him as Capital to sweep from the World himself and his Posterity is a very hard Case to say no more of it The next Article is the 21th wherein I am Charged to be an Enemy to Parliaments a Breaker of Parliaments and did by that means sow ill Affections betwixt the King and His People My Lords This is more fully Charged in a Subsequent Article then this for this is but only for breaking of the last Parliament that I should advise it to be called with an intent to break it which is very unlikely for that nothing in the World could be of so happy effect to me as the success of that Meeting and yet I must destroy and disadvantage my self in that then which nothing could be of more advantage then the success of that Parliament The 22th Article is Answered already and the 23th likewise In the 24th Article comes in that of the Parliament more fully and there I am Charged Falsly and Treacherously and Malitiously to have declared before His Majesties Privy-Council That the Parliament of England had forsaken the King and given Him the Advantage to Supply Himself otherwayes and having so Malitrously Slandered the said House of Commons that I did with the Advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Finch Publish a False and Trayterous Book called His Majestie 's Declaration of the Causes of Dissolving the last Parliament c. This goes very heavy upon me in the World that I should be a breaker of Parliaments a Counsellor against Parliaments My Lords there is nothing proved of it and I hope I shall be cleared by your Lordships and these noble Gentlemen and all the World that I had no such thing in my heart For the Point of the Declaration I was at that time Sick in my Bed and could do nothing in it and therefore I trust I shall be acquitted as to that As to the Breaking of the Parliament or any ill-will to Parliaments I have ever honour'd them and far be it from me to wish that they may not be frequent for the good of the King and Kingdom but as oft as you shall have it urged and prest against me that I should
force if they could not be otherwise yet no breach appears no War was denounced there was no intention of a War but see what harboured in his Breast all the while The Fourth of December following my Lord Traquaire made his relation to the Council of the Scots proceedings and all this while there was no Demands brought by the Scots themselves nor reason of their Demands brought by others though they were not prepared yet you have heard his advice was for an offensive War and that the Demands were a just cause of the War And though he pretends he said no more than what the rest of the Lords of the Council concurred with him in I will joyn in issue with him in that and if some of your Lordships be not satisfied you have many Noble Lords among you from whom you may be satisfied that it is not so I am sure he proves it not It is true in the proposition of the Demands some of the Lords of the Council did say That these Demands hypothetically if the Scots did not give satisfaction by their Reasons were a just cause of War but not any Lord of the Council was of that opinion That the very Demands positively without hearing of the Reasons were a just cause of War but himself and I believe the Noble Lords of the Council their Consciences can tell them and I believe will deliver it to the rest of the Peers that I speak truth For the Offensive War he pretends a concurrence of the rest but it was disapproved many were for it upon these terms If they did not give Reasons and shew just cause for their Demands and many were against an Offensive War upon any terms and therefore herein he fixes that upon the Lords of the Council which he cannot make good All this while his intentions are discovered by a matter precedent but after the breach he discovers his anger further towards the Scottish Nation and makes it his design to incense the King to this War My Lords he is not at end yet for he confesses himself that he advised the King to call a Parliament and now I come to his work of merit but it was to his destruction and serves to prove this Article directly for to what purpose was this Parliament called Exitus acta probat it was no sooner set but within three Weeks a proposition is made for supply towards a War against the Scots who was the cause of calling the Parliament himself and therefore who was the cause of this Proposition but himself and so the calling of the Parliament is a concurring evidence of his being an Incendiary to put on the War and it shall appear anon absolutely that he was the occasion of it though he thinks there be no proof of it Did not he go over into Ireland and by his sollicitation there Subsidies were granted by the Parliament only to maintain this War and to shew their ingagement in it and who was the occasion of drawing them on I refer to your Lordships judgments by the circumstances precedent Your Lordships heard his good opinion of the Scots when he began to discourse with the Citizens touching Money and their affording of the King supply and seizing the Mint by giving them no better expositions than Rebels for saith he you are more forward to help the Rebels here than to pay the King his own I know not who he meant but certainly the Scots were in his thoughts so that from the beginning he incensed the War against them First he exclaimed against them during time of Peace He alledges in his Answer That things were found in such distraction that it was fit the Scots should be reduced by force he gave advice precipitately without hearing the reasons and not concurrent to the Council for an offensive War and putting all together I refer it to your Lordships judgment who is the Incendiary for how can it be proved more clearly unless it should appear under his Hand and Seal proved by two or three Witnesses Now My Lords how comes this to be his design here the Mystery comes to be unfolded Having thus incensed to the War and ingaged the King to the uttermost and having a Parliament now dissolved without supply he sets up an Idol of his own creation as a means to draw on his design and that was necessity necessity is it that must enforce the King what to do to levy Money to use his Prerogative to raise supplies upon His Subjects without their consent against their Will necessity must be his Argument and this War must be the occasion of that necessity and without that he cannot suggest to the King's ear or advise this necessity till this be brought to pass And now he hath brought it to pass he began in the One and twentieth Two and twentieth and Three and twentieth Article to perswade the King that Necessity hath surprized him by the Parliaments deserting of him that the Parliament had for saken the King in denying Supply and having tryed the affections of His People he was loose and absolved from all Rules of Government and had an Army in Ireland which he might employ to reduce this Kingdom That he spake these words to the King part is proved by two concurrent Witnesses that is that having tryed the affections of his People he was now loose and absolved from all Rules of Government which words are proved by two Witnesses of eminent quality that is my Lord of Northumberland and Sir Henry Vane and truly howsoever my Lord in his Speech pretends that the most material words are proved but by one Witness it seeming that he held it not a material charge that he counselled the King that he was absolved from all Rules of Government for my part if your Lordships be satisfied those words were proved I could willingly satisfy my own Conscience in it and make no great matter to quit the rest for I know not how he could express it in higher terms than that the King was absolved from all Rules of Government for then he might do what he would It is true the latter words touching the Irish Army are expresly proved but by one Witness Mr. Secretary Vane but are fortified again with such circumstances as make up more than one yea more than two other witnesses if your Lordships will have the Patience to have it represented as it is proved For howsoever it be slighted by him if your Lordships will call to mind the words of Sir George Ratcliffe his bosome Friend to whom he had contributed without question his advice in all causes the said Sir George Ratcliffe expressed it before and told some of his Friends supposing that he never should be called in question and that the power of my Lord of Strafford had been enough to protect any thing he had done and out of the abundance of the heart his mouth spake the King must now want no Money if he did no body would pity him
counterfeit Coin was Treason and Justice Stamford fol. 331. 44. is of opinion that this or the conspiring to counterfeit the Great Seal is Treason The Statute is If any shall counterfeit the Great Seal conspiring to do it by the Book is Treason if a man take the Broad Seal from one Patent and put it to another here is no counterfeiting it 's tantamount and therefore Treason as is adjudged in 2 Hen. 4. fol. 25. and by the opinion of Stamford If Machination or Plotting a War be not within that clause of the Statute of Levying of War yet is within the first of compassing the death of the King as that which necessarily tends to the destruction both of King and People upon whose safety and protection he is to engage himself That this is Treason hath been adjudged both after the Statutes of 1 Hen. 4. Cap. 10. and 1 Queen Mary so much insisted upon on the other side In the Third year of King Henry 4th one Balshal coming from London found one Bernard at Plough in the Parish of Osley in the County of Hertford Bernard asked Balshal what news he told him that the news was That Richard the Second was alive in Scotland which was false for he was dead and that by Midsummer next he would come into England Bernard asked him What were best to be done Balshal answered Get Men and go to King Richard In Michaelmas Term in the Third year of Hen. 4th in the Kings-Bench Rot. 4. This advice of War adjudged Treason In Queen Mary's time Sir Nicholas Throckmorton conspired with Sir Thomas Wyat to Levy War within this Realm for alteration in Religion he joyned not with him in the execution This conspiracy alone declared to be Treason by all the Judges this was after the Statute of Queen Mary so much insisted upon That Parliament ended in October this opinion was delivered the Easter Term following and is reported by Justice Dyer fol 98. It 's true Sir Thomas Wyat afterwards did Levy War Sir Nicholas Throckmorton he only conspired This adjudged Treason One Story in Queen Elizabeths time practised with Foreigners to Levy War within this Kingdom nothing done in pursuance of the practice The intent without any adhering to enemies of the Queen or other cause adjudged Treason and he executed thereupon It 's true my Lords that year 13 Eliz. by Act of Parliament it 's made Treason to intend the levying of War this Case was adjudged before the Parliament The Case was adjudged in Hillary Term the Parliament begun not till the April following This my Lords is a Case judged in point that the practising to Levy War though nothing be done in execution of it is Treason Object It may be objected That in these Cases Object the Conspiring being against the whole Kingdom included the Queen and was a Compassing Her destruction as well as of the Kingdoms here the advice was to the King Answ The Answer is first That the Warrant was unknown to His Majesty Answ that was a Machination of War against the People and Laws wherein His Majesties Person was engaged for protection Secondly That the advice was to his Majesty aggravates the Offence it was an Attempt which was the Offence it was an Attempt not only upon the Kingdom but upon the Sacred Person and His Office too himself was hostis patriae he would have made the Father of it so to Nothing more unnatural nor more dangerous than to offer the King Poyson to drink telling him that it is a Cordial is a passing of his death the Poyson was repelled there was an Antidote within the Malice of the giver beyond expression The perswading of Foreigners to invade the Kingdom hold no proportion with this Machination of War against the Law or Kingdom is against the King they cannot be severed My Lords If no actual War within the Statute if the Counselling of War if neither of these single Acts be Treason within the Statute The Commons in the next place have taken it into consideration what the addition of his other Words Counsels and Actions do operate in the Case and have conceived that with this Addition all being put together that he is brought within the Statute of 25 E. 3. The words of the Statute are If any Man shall Compass or Imagine the death of the King the words are not If any Man shall Plot or Counsel the Death of the King No my Lords they go further than to such things as are intended immediately directly and determinatively against the Life and Person of the King they are of a larger extent to compass is to do by Circuit to Consult or Practise another thing directly which being done may necessarily produce this effect However it be in the other Treasons within this Statute yet in this by the very words there is room left for constructions for necessary inferences and consequences What hath been the Judgment and Practice of former times concerning these words of compassing the Kings Death will appear to your Lordships by some Cases of Attainders upon these words One Owen Owen's Case of Sandwich in Kent in King James His time in the 13th year of His Reign at Sandwich in Kent spake these words That King James being Excommunicated by the Pope may be killed by any Man which killing is no Murther Being asked by those he spake to how he durst maintain so Bloody an Assertion Answered That the matter was not so heinous as was supposed for the King who is the Lesser is concluded by the Pope who is the Greater and as a Malefactor being Condemned before a Temporal Judge may be delivered over to be Executed So the King standing Convicted by the Popes Sentence of Excommunication may justly be slaughtered without fault for the Killing of the King is the Execution of the Popes Supream Sentence as the other is the Execution of the Law For this Judgment of High Treason was given against him and Execution done My Lords there is no clear intent appearing that Owen desired the thing should be done only Arguments that it might be done this is a Compassing there is a clear Endeavour to corrupt the Judgment to take off the Bonds of Conscience the greatest security of the Kings Life God forbid saith one of better Judgment then he that I should stretch out my hand against the Lords Anointed No saith he the Lord doth not forbid it you may for these Reasons lawfully kill the King He that denies the Title to the Crown and plots the means of setting it upon anothers head may do this without any direct or immediate desiring the death of Him that wears it yet this is Treason as was adjudged in the 10 of Hen. 7 in these of Burton and in the Duke of Norfolk's Case 13 Eliz. This is a compassing of His Death for there can no more be two Kings in one Kingdom then two Suns in the Firmament he that conceives a Title counts it worth venturing
Irish Statute or Custom Object But it will be said that Writs of Error are only upon failure of justice in Ireland and that suits cannot originally be commenced here for things done in Ireland because the Kings Writ runs not in Ireland Answ This might be a good Plea in the Kings-Bench and inferior Courts at Westminster-Hall the question is Whether it be so in Parliament The Kings Writ runs not within the County-Palatine of Chester and Durham nor within the Five Ports neither did it in Wales before the Union of Henry the 8th's time after the Laws of England were brought into Wales in King Edw. the 1. time Suits were not originally commenced at Westminster-Hall for things done in them yet this never excluded the Parliament-suits for Life Lands and Goods within these jurisdictions are determinable in Parliament as well as in any other parts of the Realm Ireland as appears by the Statute of the Thirtieth year of Henry 3. before-mentioned is united to the Crown of England By the Statute of the Eight and twentieth year of Hen. 6th in Ireland it is declared in these words That Ireland is the proper Dominion of England and united to the Crown of England which Crown of England is of it self and by it self wholly and intirely endowed with all Power and Authority sufficient to yield to the Subjects of the same full and plenary remedy in all Debates and Suits whatsoever By the Statute of the Three and twentieth year of Henry the 8th the first Chapter when the Kings of England first assumed the Title of King of Ireland it is there Enacted that Ireland still is to be held as a Crown annexed and united to the Crown of England So that by the same reason from this that the Kings Writs run not in Ireland it might as well be held that the Parliament cannot originally hold Plea of things done within the County-Palatine of Chester and Durham nor within the Five Ports and Wales Ireland is a part of the Realm of England as appears by those Statutes as well as any of them This is made good by constant practice in all the Parliament Rolls from the first to the last there are Receivers and Tryers of Petitions appointed for Ireland for the Irish to come so far with their Petitions for Justice and the Parliament not to have cognizance when from time to time they had in the beginning of the Parliament appointed Receivers and Tryers of them is a thing not to be presumed An Appeal in Ireland brought by William Lord Vesey against John Fitz-Thomas for Treasonable words there spoken before any Judgment given in Case there was removed into the Parliament in England and there the Defendant acquitted as appears in the Parliament Pleas of the Two and twentieth year of Edw. 1. The Suits for Lands Offices and Goods originally begun here are many and if question grew upon matter in Fact a Jury usually ordered to try it and the Verdict returned into the Parliament as in the Case of one Ballyben in the Parliament of the Five and thirtieth year of Edw. the 1. If a doubt arose upon a matter tryable by Record a Writ went to the Officers in whose custody the Record remained to certifie the Record as was in the Case of Robert Bagott the same Parliament of the Five and thirtieth year of Edw. the 1. where the Writ went to the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer Sometimes they gave Judgment here in Parliament and commanded the Judges there in Ireland to do execution as in the great Case of Partition between the Copartners of the Earl-Marshal in the Parliament of the Three and thirtieth of Edward the 1. Where the Writ was awarded to the Treasurer of Ireland My Lords The Laws of Ireland were introduced by the Parliament of England as appears by Three Acts of the Parliament before cited It is of higher Jurisdiction Dare Leges then to judge by them The Parliaments of England do bind in Ireland if Ireland be particularly mentioned as is resolved in the Book-Case of the First year of Henry the Seventh Cook 's Seventh Report Calvin's Case and by the Judges in Trinity-Term in the Three and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth The Statute of the Eighth year of Edward the 4th the first Chapter in Ireland recites That it was doubted amongst the Judges whether all the English Statutes though not naming Ireland were in force there if named no doubt From King Henry the 3d his time downwards to the Eighth year of Queen Elizabeth by which Statute it is made Felony to carry Sheep from Ireland beyond Seas in almost all these Kings Reigns there be Statutes made concerning Ireland The exercising of the Legislative Power there over their Lives and Estates is higher than of the Judicial in question until the 29th year of Edward the 3d erroneous Judgments given in Ireland were determinable no where but in England no not in the Parliament of Ireland as it appears in the close Rolls in the Tower in the 29th year of Edward the 3d. Memb. 12. Power to examine and reverse erroneous Judgments in the Parliaments of Ireland is granted from hence Writs of Error lye in the Parliament here upon erroneous Judgments after that time given in the Parliaments of Ireland as appears in the Parliament Rolls of the Eighth year of Henry the 6th N o 70. in the Case of the Prior of Lenthan It is true the Case is not determined there for it 's the last thing that came into the Parliament and could not be determined for want of time but no exception at all is taken to the Jurisdiction The Acts of Parliament made in Ireland have been confirmed in the Parliaments of England as appears by the close Rolls in the Tower in the Two and fortieth year of Edward the 3d. Memb. 20. Dorso where the Parliament in Ireland for the preservation of the Countrey from Irish who had almost destroyed it made an Act That all the Land-Owners that were English should reside upon their Lands or else they were to be forfeited this was here confirmed In the Parliament of the Fourth year of Henry the 5th Chap. 6. Acts of Parliament in Ireland are confirmed and some priviledges of the Peers in the Parliaments there are regulated Power to repeal Irish Statutes Power to confirm them cannot be by the Parliament here if it hath not cognizance of their Parliaments unless it be said that the Parliament may do it knows not what Garnsey and Jersey are under the Kings subjection but are not parcels of the Crown of England but of the Duchy of Normandy they are not governed by the Laws of England as Ireland is and yet Parliaments in England have usually held Plea of and determined all Causes concerning Lands or Goods In the Parliament in the 33 Edward 1. there be Placita de Insula Jersey And so in the Parliament 14 Edw. 2. and so for Normandy and Gascoigne and always as long as any part of
committit from the Lex talionis he that would not have had others to have a Law Why should he have any himself Why should not that be done to him that himself would have done to others It 's true we give Law to Hares and Deers because they be Beasts of Chase It was never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock Foxes and Wolves on the head as they can be found because these be Beasts of Prey The Warrener sets Traps for Polcats and other Vermine for preservation of the Warren Further my Lords most dangerous Diseases if not taken in time they kill Errors in great things as War and Marriage they allow no time for repentance it would have been too late to make a Law when there had been no Law My Lords for further Answer to this Objection he hath offended against a Law a Law within the endeavouring to subvert the Laws and Polity of the State wherein he lived which had so long and with such faithfulness protected his Ancestry Himself and his whole Family It was not Malum quia prohibitum it was Malum in se against the Dictates of the dullest Conscience against the Light of Nature they not having a Law were a Law to themselves Besides this he knew a Law without that the Parliament in Cases of this Nature had Potestatem vitae necis Nay he well knew that he offended the Promulged and Ordinary Rules of Law Crimes against Law have been Proved have been Confessed so that the Question is not De culpa sed de poena What degree of Punishment those Faults deserve We must differ from him in Opinion That twenty Felonies cannot make a Treason if it be meant of equality in the use of the Legislative Power for he that deserves death for one of these Felonies alone deserves a Death more painful and more Ignominious for all together Every Felony is punished with loss of Life Lands and Goods a Felony may be aggravated with those Circumstances as that the Parliament with good reason may add to the Circumstances of Punishment as was done in the Case of John Hall in the Parliament of the 1 H. 4. who for a Barbarous Murder committed upon the Duke of Glocester stifling him between two Feather-Beds at Calice was adjudged to be Hanged Drawn and Quartered Batteries by Law are only punishable by Fine and single Damages to the Party Wounded In the Parliament held in 1 H. 4. Cap. 6. one Savage committed a Battery upon one Chedder Servant to Sir John Brooke a Knight of the Parliament for Somersetshire It 's there Enacted that he shall pay double Damages and stand Convicted if he render not himself by such a time The manner of proceedings quickned and the penalty doubled the Circumstances were considered it concerned the Common-Wealth it was a Battery with Breach of Priviledge of Parliament This is made a perpetual Act no warning to the first Offender and in the Kings-Bench as appears by the Book-Case of 9 H. 4. the first leaf Double Damages were recovered My Lords in this of the Bill the Offence is High and General against the King and the Common-wealth against all and the best of all If every Felony be loss of Life Lands and Goods What is Misuser of the Legislative Power by Addition of Ignominy in the Death and Disposal of the Lands to the Crown the Publick Patrimony of the Kingdom But it was hoped that your Lordships had no more skill in the Art of killing Men then your worthy Ancestors My Lords this Appeal from your selves to your Ancestors we do admit of although we do not admit of that from your Lordships to the Peers of Ireland He hath Appealed to them your Lordships will be pleased to hear what Judgment they have already given in the case that is the several Attainders of Treason in Parliament after the Statute of 25 E. 3. for Treasons not mentioned nor within that Statute and those upon the first Offenders without warning given By the Statute of 25 E. 3. it 's Treason to levy War against the King Gomines and Weston afterwards in Parliament in the 1 R. 2. n. 38 39. adjudged Traytors for surrendring two several Castles in France only out of fear without any Compliance with the Enemy this not within the Statute of 25th E. 3. My Lords In the 3d year of Rich. 2d John Imperiall that came into England upon Letters of Safe Conduct as an Agent for the State of Genoa sitting in the evening before his door in Breadstreet as the words of the Records are Paulo ante ignitegium John Kirkby and another Citizen coming that way Casually Kirkby troad upon his Toe it being twilight this grew to a Quarrel and the Ambassador was slain Kirkby was Indicted of High-Treason the Indictment finds all this and that it was only done se defendendo and without malice The Judges it being out of the Statute 25 E. 3. could not proceed the Parliament declared it Treason and Judgment afterwards of High-Treason there 's nothing can bring this within the Statute of 25 E. 3. but it concerns the Honour of the Nation that the publick Faith should be strictly kept It might endanger the Traffique of the Kingdom they made not a Law first they made the first man an Example this is in the Parliament Roll 3 R. 2. Number 18. and Hillary-Term 3 R. 2. Rot. 31. in the Kings-Bench where Judgment is given against him In 11 R. 2. Tresilian and some others attainted of Treason for delivering Opinions in the Subversion of the Law and some others for plotting the like My Lords the Case hath upon another occasion been opened to your Lordships only this is observable that in the Parliament of the first year of Henry the Third where all Treasons are again reduced to the Statute of 25 E. 3. These Attainders were by a particular Act confirmed and made good that the memory thereof might be transmitted to succeeding Ages they stand good unto this day the offences there as here were the endeavouring the Subversion of the Laws My Lords after the 1 H. 4. Sir John Mortimer being committed to the Tower upon suspition of Treason brake Prison and made his escape This is no way within any Statute or any former Judgment at Common-Law for this that is for breaking the Prison only and no other cause in the Parliament held the second year of Henry the Sixth he was attainted of High-Treason by Bill My Lords Poysoning is only Murder yet one Richard Cooke having put Poyson into a Pot of Pottage in the Kitching of the Bishop of Rochester whereof two persons dyed he 's Attainted of Treason and it was Enacted that he should be Boyled to death by the Statute of 22 H. 8. c. 9. By the Statute of the 25. H. 8. Elizabeth Barton the Holy Maid of Kent for pretending Revelations from God That God was highly displeased with the King for being divorced from the Lady Catherine and that in
time rested under great deliberation at last in a time when a great part of the Peers were absent by reason of the tumults and many of those who were present protested against it the said Bill passed the House of Peers and at length His Majesty the late King CHARLES the I. of Glorious Memory granted a Commission for giving His Royal Assent thereunto which nevertheless was done by His said Majesty with exceeding great sorrow then and ever remembred by him with unexpressible grief of Heart and out of His Majesties great Piety he did publickly express it when His own Sacred Life was taken away by the most detestable Traytors that ever were For all which Causes be it Declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled That the Act Entituled An Act for the Attainder of Thomas Earl of Strafford of High-Treason and all and every Clause and Article and thing therein contained being obtained as aforesaid is now hereby Repealed Revoked and Reversed And to the end that Right be done to the Memory of the deceased Earl of Strafford aforesaid Be it further Enacted That all Records and Proceedings of Parliament relating to the said Attainder be wholly Cancell'd and taken off the File or otherwise Defaced and Obliterated to the intent the same may not be visible in after-ages or brought into example to the prejudice of any person whatsoever Provided That this Act shall not extend to the future questioning of any person or persons however concerned in this business or who had any hand in the Tumults or disorderly procuring the Act aforesaid Any thing herein contained to the contrary thereof notwithstanding May his and all the Innocent Blood that was shed after it for ever sleep and not like the Souls under the Altar call out Quousque Domine crying for Vengeance upon this Nation The Poets of the Age were not wanting to Embalm the Memory of so great a Mecaenas with Elegies and Epitaphs though such was the little Envy of his Enemies that they did not only suppress but punish the Printers and Publishers of them one Holmer being clapt up in the Gate-House by a Vote of the Commons for Printing Scandalous Verses upon the Earl of Strafford Among the rest Cleveland then great in Reputation bestowed these 2 Epitaphs upon this Noble Earl Epitaph upon the Earl of Strafford HEre lies Wise and Valiant Dust Huddled up 'twixt fit and just Strafford who was hurried hence 'Twixt Treason and Convenience He spent his time here in a Mist A Papist yet a Calvinist His Princes nearest Joy and Grief He had yet wanted all Relief The Prop and Ruin of the State The Peoples violent Love and Hate One in extremes lov'd and abhorr'd Riddles lye here And in a word Here lies Blood and let it lye Speechless still and never cry Epitaphium Thomae Comitis Straffordii c. EXurge Cinis tuumque solus qui potis es scribe Epitaphium Nequit Wentworthi non esse facundus vel Cinis Effare marmor quem cepisti comprehendere Macte exprimere Candidius meretur Vrna quam quod rubris Notatum est literis Eloquium Atlas Regiminis Monarchici hic jacet lassus Secunda Orbis Britannici Intelligentia Rex Politiae Prorex Hiberniae Straffordii Virtutum Comes Mens Jovis Mercurii ingenium lingua Apollinis Cui Anglia Hiberniam debuit seipsam Hibernia Sydus Aquilonicum quo sub rubicunda vespera occidente Nox simul dies visa est dextroque oculo flevit laevoque laetata est Anglia Theatrum Honoris itemque scena calamitosa Virtutis Actoribus morbo morte invidia Quae ternis animosa Regnis non vicit tamen Sed oppressit Sic inclinavit Heros non minus caput Belluae vel sic multorum Capitum Merces furoris Scotici praeter pecunias Erubuit ut tetegit securis Similem quippe nunquam degustavit vanguinem Monstrum narro fuit tam infensus legibus Vt prius legem quam nata foret violavit Hunc tamen non sustulit lex Verùm necessitas non habens legem Abi Viator Caetera memorabunt posteri Which for their sakes who understand not the Language I have thus Translated into English though not without loss to many of those Beauties and Graces which are so peculiar to the Latin as not to be expressed in our Language An Epitaph upon Thomas Earl of Strafford c. Rise Noble Dust Thou only canst unto thy self be just Write thine own Epitaph speak thy wonted sence Great Wentworth's Ashes can't want Eloquence Although his Innocence deserves an Elegy Whiter then Redstreak Marble can supply Yet weeping Marble tell Who does beneath thee dwell The Atlas of Monarchique State lies here The second Mover of Great Britains Sphere The King of Politiques Irelands Deputy And in a word Of Strafford and of Virtue the Illustrious Lord Does underneath this Marble breathless lye The mighty Jove did his great mind bestow and nimble Mercury his Wit Apollo on his Tongue did sit Ireland her self Englandto him did Irelandowe Bright Northern Star When in a Bloody Cloud he set Night and Day together met England did seem of her right Eye bereft To weep and laugh untowardly with what was left The Scene of Honour and the fatal Stage Of Virtuous and Distressed Innocence The Actors Envy and Three Kingdoms rage against them what Defence Opprest but yet not overcome he stood Vnconquered still and met the Rolling Flood Thus the Illustrious Hero bow'd For such he was at least He bow'd his Noble Head unto the Beast Of many Heads the Croud Into the Bargain thrown Of ready Money then paid down To Scottish Traytors to Invade the Crown The blushing Ax amazed stood It nere before had drunk such Blood A wonderous thing I tell Illustrious Strafford fell Obnoxious to the Law strange Crime Before the Law was made to punish him How Strafford dy'd then would you know Lawless Necessity gave the Fatal blow Pass on O Traveller wee 'd best Here leave him and Posterity to weep the Rest It will possibly be some satisfaction to the Curiosity of the Reader to see those Papers of Sir Henry Vane's which seem to have been of such considerable import as to have cast the Beam in the Fate of this great Person and indeed I had done it in its proper place had those Papers then come to my hands but however better late then not at all and if they contribute to the satisfaction of the Inquisitive they are to ow the Obligation as upon all occasions I shall do to the kindness of the Right Honourable Sir Francis North Late Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and now Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England who was pleased to furnish me with a Transcript of some Memoirs of the late Earl of Manchester's the Originals being written with the said Earls own
Necessity therefore to be used being lawful L. L. Ireland Commission of Array to be put in Execution They are to bring them to the Borders In reason of State you have power when they are there to use them at the King's Pay if any of the Lords can shew a better let them do it Town full of Nobility who will talk of it Obser he will make them smart for it Thus did Ambition and private Revenge disguise themselves under the popular pretence of publique Justice and tenderness for the safety of the Common-wealth The truth is Power and Greatness do always render the Great Ministers of State Criminals to Malice and Envy and of this I will give two remarkable Instances out of the above mentioned Memoirs of the Earl of Manchester When saith he The reason why the Marquess Hamilton and the Lord Cottington escaped the fury of the Faction strickt Scrutiny was made into the Councils and Actions of those who were in greatest Power and Credit with the King divers of the Privy-Council most of the Judges came under the Debate of a Capital or Criminal Impeachment and the very Order of Episcopacy with all its Hierarchy incurred the Odium of Superstitious Pride and Oppression But they who were looked upon as the principal Instruments of those Mischiefs which threatned the Ruine of the Three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland were the Archbishop of Canterbury the Earl of Strafford the Marquiss Hamilton and the Lord Cottington these were of the Juncto where all things of consequence and privacy had been consulted and resolved and these were designed first to be questioned But the Marquiss Hamilton seeing a dark Cloud gathering over his head thought it necessary to seek a timely Shelter and upon consultation with his Friends about the most probable way for preventing of the Clamour of the Commons which might prove a fatal Vote against him he was advised to improve his Interest in the Commissioners of Scotland for he had personally obliged some of them and the rest could not but acknowledge that he had Expressed a great care of his Nations happiness in all those imployments wherein he had been trusted by his Majesty for though he often shewed a great Aversion and activeness against them in their Cause and Quarrel yet in all their Extremities they found him a Friend intending their good He therefore pressed them to intercede for him which they did with earnest solicitations They likewise gave such Engagements for his future Compliance with the Parliaments Designs as he was not only Exempt from all fear of Accusation but he became a Confident in all their private Designs against others and employed his Credit with the King for the obtaining many and great concessions The Lord Cottington could not hope for so powerful an intercession neither durst he rely on his Innocency as Parliament-proof therefore he had recourse to that prudent if not subtle way by stripping himself of his Skin to save his life He knew the Mastership of the Wards was a place of that value and power as probably it might stop the Mouths of his greedy Enemies or else open the hearts of some towards him in a way of Protection and Friendship He therefore declared to the King his condition and propounded the making the Lord Viscount Say and Seal to be his Successor This proved a very successful policy for as soon as this was made known to those who were concerned in their hopes of his place all Criminal Aspersions were laid aside and he gained the advantage of a retired and quiet being Thus far the said Earl in his Memoirs who was no Stranger to the most private transactions of those persons and times The Fall of this lofty Cedar gave not only a general consternation to all the Kings Friends but the greatest encouragement imaginable to the whole Faction who could not dissemble their satisfaction at their having gained so important a point but that it boyled over at the Mouths of the less cautious and more warm of the Party insomuch that I have heard one who was inwardly acquainted among them affirm that one of them as I think Mr. Pym was heard to boast of their success in words to this effect Have we saith he speaking of the Kings passing the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford got him to part with Strafford then he can deny us nothing And certainly nothing could be of greater disadvantage to his Majesties Affairs then this sacrificing a Great Court Favourite to their Wills rather then to Law or Justice For the whole Nation knew how dear this Great Man was to his Master and the great struglings which the King made if possible to save him and the reluctancy with which he seemed to resign him rather to necessity then reason as it made the victory appear greater so it taught all others of the Kings Friends the greatness of their danger and the impossibility of stemming so strong a Torrent as had wrackt so brave a person as the Earl of Strafford Nor did they think it any disparagement when they saw the King himself stoop to such compliances for them also to bend their Necks And doubtless as nothing can more encourage the Servants and Ministers of any Prince in circumstances and difficulties of this nature than the courage and resolution of the Prince himself so nothing can depress their Spirits comparably to the fear of seeing themselves deserted and left to the Fury and Rage of their Enemies for adhering faithfully to and vigorously prosecuting the Interests of their Master And had his Majesty made use of his Royal Prerogative and refused to Pass the Fatal Bill it could not have happened worse to him then afterwards it did but it might have proved better because they were not then in a condition to Levy a Formal War against him as afterwards they did his Majesty having a very good Army in the North to have Opposed them and had the Earl saved his a Noble and Valiant General to have been at the head of them But to return to the Parliamentary Affairs the Tumults were grown so insolent that his Majesty being sensible of the danger of them sent a Message to the Lords about them Upon which the Lords desired a Conference with the Commons the heads of which the Lord Privy-Seal delivered as follows THat he was commanded from the King to declare to both Houses at a Conference Conference about the Tumults that the People do assemble in such unusual numbers that his Majesty fears the Council and the Peace of the Kingdom may be interrupted and therefore as a King that loves Peace takes care that all Proceedings in the Parliament may be in a fair temperate and peaceable manner It being now time of Parliament his Majesty will not of himself prescribe the way but expects that both Houses upon mutual Conference will advise such a course which may best preserve the quietness of the Kingdom That their
Lordships Yesterday morning finding a Multitude in the Palace-Yard did make an Order and declared it to Ten of the principal Persons of them in the open House of Parliament That the House of Commons being the Representative Body of the Commons of this Kingdom who had brought in the Bill against the Earl of Strafford their Lordships thought fit to let them know that their Lordships are going on to the final Conclusion of the great business concerning the Earl but are so compassed with Multitudes that their Lordships may be conceived not to be free unless these Companies of People be sent home whose flocking hither doth only hinder their Lordships from going on to conclude that great business And therefore their Lordships desire them to consider with their Lordships how this business of such Importance may be first expedited and not interrupted by the concourse of such numbers of People the business having no other hindrance but their Concourse about both Houses in this manner But the Commons had occasion for the Tumults and they were not to be discouraged and therefore instead of an Answer they at another Conference present them with the Protestation of which before Tuesday May the 4th Amidst all these concerns of greater Moment the Faction was still at leizure not only to affright their Enemies but to encourage their Friends For on the one side on Tuesday the 4th of May these Votes Passed in favour of John Lilburn the great and avowed Enemy of Episcopacy for which he had been Sentenced in the Star-Chamber and upon Mr. Rouse's reporting of his Case to the House Resolved c. Votes in favour of John Lilburn That the Sentence in the Star-Chamber given against John Lilburn is illegal and against the Liberty of the Subject and also bloody wicked cruel barbarous and tyrannical Resolved c. That Reparation ought to be given to Mr. John Lilburn for his Imprisonment suffering and loss susteined by that illegal Sentence And on the other side that they might bring the Bishops under the Popular Odium Mr. William Thomas in a long and studied Speech which was afterwards Printed and Published endeavoured to blacken the whole Order to that Degree that they might not appear fit to continue Members of Parliament or indeed fit to live for having got a tast of the Blood of Strafford they were now meditating how to make the Ax tast of the Blood of the Archbishop of Canterbury whom the Presbyterians and other Sectaries esteemed one of their greatest Enemies The Speech as I find it Printed is as follows I Have formerly spoken of the present Church Government Mr. William Thomas his Speech against Bishops May the 4th 1641. by Archbishops Bishops c. Declaring the corruption and unsoundness thereof and how far degenerate if not contrary to the pure Primitive Apostolical Institution also I have touched a little of the other parts as how unlawful it was for them to intermeddle in Temporal Affairs to use Civil Power or to Sit as Judges in any Court much less in the Court of Parliament where they pass Censure and Judgment not only of our Lives and Liberties but on the Estates and Inheritance and Blood as of us so of our posterity And as this is unlawful by the Divine Law so by the Canons of the Church yea of this Church and Acts of Parliament of this Realm whereof I shall further enlarge my self in my ensuing discourse so hath their Sitting there been prejudicial and obnoxious to Kings and Subjects Now I desire briefly to declare when and how the Bishops came to be Members in the Parliaments in the House of the Lords and by what means they continued their Sitting there because prescription is much insisted upon Although long usage as King James truly delivereth confirmeth no Right if unlawful originally or at convenient times interrupted And whereas it hath been demanded why the first of our Reasons viz. That it hindereth Ecclesiastical Vocation was not urged 600 years ago I answer there was then no cause for the first beginning of Parliaments was not 74 years after But if this had been delivered of the lawfulness and conveniency of their intermedling in Temporal Affairs I should have replyed that it hath been declared not only 600 but 1600 years ago and in each Century since But supposing and granting that it was meant of such Parliaments as were before the Conquest you shall find that above Six Hundred years ago the Prelates are charged by their intermedling in secular Affairs to neglect the Office of Episcopal Function For this we read Hollingshead the Clergy were altogether unlearned wanton and vitious for the Prelates altogether neglected the Office of Episcopal Function which was to tender the Affairs of the Church and to feed the Flock of Christ lived themselves Idle and Covetous addicted wholly to the Pomp of the World and voluptuous Life little caring for the Churches and Souls committed to their charge And if any saith Higden told them that their lives ought to be holy Rand. Higden Policron lib. 6. cap. 74. and their conversation without covetousness according to the sacred Prescript and virtuous example of their Elders they would scoffingly put them off with a Nunc aliud tempus alii pro tempore mores Thus saith he they plained the roughness of their doings with the smoothness of their Answers Briefly they were so loose and riotous saith Gervasius of Canterbury they fell so fast to commit wickedness Gervasius Dorobernensis as to be ignorant of sinful Crimes was then held to be a great Crime it self And the Clergy saith Malmesbury contenting themselves with trivial Literature William Malmsbury could scarcely hack and hew out the words of the Sacrament Robert was then Archbishop of Canterbury who instigated King Edward the Confessor against his Mother Queen Emma charging her with incontinency with Alwyn Bishop of Winchester observe how one Locust stings another William Malmsbury which she washt away and cleared her self of by a sharp Tryal of Fire Candentis Ferri being put according to the Law Ordalium to clear her self by passing Nine Plough-shares glowing red hot bare-footed and blind-folded which she did without hurt And as this Bishop had charged the Queen his Mother with incontinence so did he likewise the Queen his Wife Edith or Egith with Adultery but no less untruly and unjustly then malitiously and enviously as saith Malmesbury she being a Lady incomparable as for Beauty so for Virtue in whose Breast there was a School of all Liberal Sciences And the like testifies Ingulphus that had often Conference with her that as she was Beautiful and excellent well Learned so in her demeanor and whole course of Life a Virgin most Chast humble and unfeignedly holy mild modest faithful and innocent not ever hurtful to any And do we not read that about the Year 1040 that Bishop Alfred had his Hand deep in the Murder of Prince Alfred who having his Eyes
the Regiment of the Kingdom together with the King And now will any say No Bishop No King yet one word more before I part with these Bishops what Ground-work they laid and what means they used for the Ruine of King and Kingdom was it not their working upon the Impotence of a Womans will insinuating what indignity it was that a She-Daughter of France being promised to be a Queen was become no better than a waiting-woman living upon a Pension and so nourishing in her great Discontents perswaded her going to France which was the Matter and Embrion and as I may say the chief Cause of Common Destruction which after ensued God keep all good Princes from heark'ning or consenting to the pernicious Counsels of such pestilent Priests and prating Parasites To declare all their Disloyalties in Parliament and out would fill a large Volume But now Brevis esse laboro therefore I only say That as it was not for their Goodness but Greatness that they sate in Parliament so their sitting there did I think I may say almost evert Monarchy yea Regality with what face can they inculcate that Aspersion No Bishop no King Certainly by what I have already delivered and shall now declare in the Reigns of Succeeding Princes it will â—ppear quite contrary that where Lordly Bishops domineer and bear Rule and Sway neither Kings nor Kingdoms themselves or Subjects are secure Now to the Reign of King Edward the Third did not John Archbishop of Canterbury perswade and incite this King and the Parliament to a most dangerous War with France whereby the Death of Millions hath been occasioned To such Mischief do they use their Learning and Eloquent Orations in Parliament What Epiphanius delivered of Philosophers that they were In Re stultâ Sapientes so may we say of such Bishops that they are In malo publico facundi But to pass by particular Men and Actions I shall only deliver unto you some Notable Passages in Parliament Anno 1371. The Parliament did Petition the King to have them deprived of all Lay-Offices and Government they being commonly the Plotters and Contrivers of all Treasons Conspiracies and Rebellions the very Incendiaries Pests and Grievances both of the Church and State the chiefest Instruments to advance the Peoples usurped Authority though with Prejudice of the Kings which they never cordially affected and the Arch-Enemies of the Common-wealth through their private Oppression Covetousness Rebellion and Tyranny when they have been in Office as may appear by Antiquitates Ecclesioe Britannicae in the Lives of Anselm Becket Arundel c. Here we see that they never affected the Authority of Kings but rather were Scourges to their Sides and Thorns in their Eyes Now we come to R. 2. his Grandchild who Succeeded him R. 2. we read that when in Parliament in London the Layety had granted a Fifteenth on Condition that the Clergy would likewise give a Tenth and Half William le Courtney then Archbishop did stiffly oppose it alledging they ought to be free nor in any wise to be taxed by the Layety which Answer so offended the Lords and Commons Tho. Walsingham that with extream fury they besought the King to deprive them of their Temporalties alledging That it was an Alms-Deed and an Act of Charity thereby to humble them that was then delivered for an Alms-Deed and an Act of Charity which is now accounted Sacrilege and Cruelty The next that Succeeded him was H. 4. but an Usurper also H. 4. for at that time there were living of the House of York whose Right by the Title of Clarence was before his as Mortimer c. In opposition to his Claim and Right the Bishop of Carlisle made a most Eloquent Oration but to what purpose Hayward to perswade his dethroning now vested in the Regal Government and thereby to ingage the Kingdom in a Civil War which when his Oratory could not effect he laboured and so far prevailed that by his subtil insinuations and perswasions many Princes of the Blood Royal Joh. Stow ex Anonymo Hal. Cron. and other great Lords were drawn to a Conspiracy himself laying the Plot together with the Abbot of Westminster the Chief Wheels of all the Practice as moving the rest for the King's Death whereby he brought to the Block those Noble Peers and as his Pestilent Council had infected their Minds so was the Blood of them John Stow Annals Hall ex Walsingh and theirs tainted by this foul Treason but as I discommend his disloyal Actions so I no better approve the other flattering and Time-serving Bishops who did Plead the Right of the Title of the said King more Eloquently than Honestly more Rhetorically than Divinely for which their Expressions they were employed as Ambassadors to Foreign Parts to declare and justifie his Title and Right to the Scepter the Bishop of Hereford to Rome the Bishop of Durham to France the Bishop of Bangor to Germany and the Bishop of St. Asaph to Spain which Bishop of Asaph sate as Judge in that Parliament and pronounced the Sentence of Deposition against King Richard The Form as near as I remember was We John Bishop of St. Asaph John Abbot of Glastenbury Commissioners named by the House of Parliament Sitting in Place of Judgment c. Here you may note that the Bishop did pass Judgment of a great Inheritance no less than Two or Three Kingdoms and though not between two Brothers but Cozins yet did adjudge most wrongfully as was most apparent I note withal That the Title of Lord is not assumed by this King-deposing Bishop nor any other that I read of Now what he had judged in Parliament his Holy Brother of Canterbury must make good in Pulpit Fabian 1. Concor Hall ex Fab. delivering what unhappiness it was to a Kingdom to have it governed by such a Man Certainly a most dangerous Position to an Hereditary Monarchy I also note that this Arch-Bishop was Brother to the Earl of Arundel and at the same time the Arch-Bishop of York a near Kinsman to the Earl of Wiltshire and who durst then plead against the Right of the Bishops Sitting in Parliament In the same King's Reign Richard le Scroop the Arch-Bishop of York did in Parliament enter into Conspiracy with Thomas Mowbray Earl Marshal against the said King for which they were both beheaded And now in the said King's Reign in the Parliament of Coventry let me also tell you That in the said Parliament as in other both before and after a Bill was exhibited against the Temporalties of the Clergy who called that Parliament Parliamentum Indoctorum saying That the Commons were fit to enter Common with their Cattle having no more Reason then bruit Beasts This is Speed's delivery but I take it that he repeateth it as the Prelates Censure of the House of Commons But to him succeeded Henry the Fifth H. 5 in his time did not Henry Chichley in an Eloquent Oration in Parliament revive
it took air and so fired the Faction that they presently blew it up into a flaming Conspiracy against the Parliament some sparks of which flew into the City which was all in a hubbub by a false report that the Parliament-House was on fire a Plot there was to be that was certain but it seems they were mistaken in the Nature of it however for the present the House of Commons writ to the Army the Letter being directed to Sir John Conyers and Sir Jacob Ashley to look to their Charges and keep the Army in Good Order The Letter follows SIR The Speaker's Letter to Sir Jacob Ashley May 4. 1641. WEE have had Cause to doubt that some ill-affected persons have endeavoured to make a mis-understanding in the Army of the Intentions of the Parliament towards them To take away all mistaking in that kind the House of Commons have Commanded me to assure you That they have taken the Affairs of the Army into their Serious Care And though for the present their Monies have not come as they wished and as was due by reason of the many Distractions and other Impediments which this House could no wayes avoid yet they would have them rest assured that they shall not only have their full pay but the House will take their merits into their further Consideration in regard they take notice that notwithstanding their want and endeavours of those ill-affected persons they have not demeaned themselves otherwise then as men of Honor and well affected to the Commonwealth which this House takes in so good part that we have already found out a Way to get Money for a good part of their Pay and will take the most speedy Course we possibly may for the rest So I remain From my House at Charing-Cross the 4th of this present Month of May 1641. Your very Loving Friend c. Sir 'T is the Pleasure of the House that this Letter be communicated to the Army to the end their Intentions may be Clearly understood by them This day a Letter from the Scotish General Lesly to Sir John Lowther and the Gentlemen of Cumberland was produced and twice read in the House Wednesday May the 5th It was this day Ordered also Protestation ordered to be Printed and sent down into all Counties That the Protestation should be forthwith Printed and sent down into all Counties Corporations and Burroughs to all Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace and to intimate to them with what Willingness the Members of the House took it and as they justifie the taking it in themselves so they cannot but approve it in them that shall likewise take it And for the promoting of the taking of it these following Directions were Printed together with the said Protestation and dispersed throughout the Kingdom this was intended for a fatal Shibboleth to know the strength of the Faction and to be a Mark of Discrimination between their Friends and Enemies and was more particularly designed for a Snare for the Orthodox and Episcopal Clergy and that Clause in the Directions to return the Names of those who refused to Enter into this Confederacy against the Church made many timerous persons doubtless do an Action for the justifiableness whereof they had no great Assurance The Directions were these IT is thought fit that the Protestation which the Parliament lately made be taken by the City of London in the several Parish Churches Printed Directions for taking the Protestation in the afternoon of some Lords Day after Sermon before the Congregation be dissolved by all Masters of Families their Sons and Men-Servants in manner and from following viz. First That forthwith Notice of this Intention be given to the Minister Church-Wardens and some other meet persons of each Parish in London Liberties and adjacent Parishes and some of them to give notice to the rest of the Parishioners Secondly That the Minister be intreated to acquaint his Parish in his Sermon either Forenoon or Afternoon with the nature of the business more or less as he shall think fit for the better and more solemn taking of the said Protestation or if the Minister refuse it that some other be intreated to Preach that will promote the business or if neither of these may be had that some other convenient course be taken by some well affected to the business to stay the Parish and communicate the matter to them Thirdly That the Minister or Ministers of every Congregation first take it in his or their own person reading the said Protestation in so distinct a Voyce that all present may conveniently hear it and that all the Assembly present do make the same Protestation distinctly after this manner every man taking this Protestation into his hand I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God freely and heartily promise vow and protest the same which the leading person took naming the person Fourthly That there be a Register Book wherein every man taking this Vow or Protestation subscribe his Name with his own hand or mark and that the Names be taken of such as do refuse the same Fifthly That all the Parishioners abovesaid whether in Town or out of Town be earnestly requested to be present at their own Parish Church in the Afternoon of that Lords Day whereon it shall be taken that every man may take it in their own place and if any be necessarily absent that they may be desired to take it the next Lords Day after or so soon as may be with Conveniency Sixthly and lastly That all whom it doth not immediately concern be earnestly requested to depart It was further Ordered That all Members about Town be warned to appear at 8. of the Clock to morrow and non-appearance to be accounted a Contempt of the House upon which the House will proceed as against persons not worthy to Sit in the House and that none go out of the Town without special Leave from the House The Earl of Holland signified to the House of Lords Earl of Newport made Constable of the Tower That he was Commanded by his Majesty to let their Lordships know that he hath made the Earl of Newport Constable of the Tower of London They began also now to cast an oblique Aspect upon the Sword as hitherto they had done upon the Scepter and Royal Prerogative as appears by this following Vote and Order which was a necessary Preliminary Point to their wresting the Militia Forts and Castles from the King as afterwards they did for well they knew that without the power of the Sword they could never hope to mate the Scepter It was therefore Ordered That the respective Knights Order to Enquire into the Condition of the Forts c. and to take Account of the Militia and to arm the Countries Citizens and Burgesses give an Account of the state of the Shires Cities and Burroughs for which they serve for Arms and Ammunition Castles and Forts and of the Governors Lord Lieutenants
and Deputy-Lieutenants how affected to the Religion and to present their Names to the House and that where there is want that Arms and Ammunition may be supplyed By this Means they got a true account of all those who were their Friends and who their Enemies who were therefore to be displaced as disaffected to Religion and Popishly inclined as all those who were for Episcopacy were vogued to be and besides hereby they gave a General Alarm and Amazement to the Whole Nation to believe that those Fears and Jealousies with which they bewitched the People into Rebellion were grounded upon the foundations of Truth and real Danger which was the Occasion of this Inquiry into the state of the Militia Upon this a Message was sent to the Lords to acquaint them with a dangerous Conspiracy to seduce the Army against the Parliament and to increase the Fears and Jealousies among the People Message to the Lords about the Conspiracy to seduce the Army an Order was sent from the Commons to the Lord Mayor of London to take care of the City Guards The Message to the Lords was in haec verba Mr. Hollis who carried up the Message read it in these words Message about the Conspiracy of the Army That the House of Commons hath received such Information as doth give them just cause to suspect that there have been and still are secret practices to discontent the Army with the proceedings of Parliament and to ingage them in some Design of dangerous Consequence to the State and by some other mischievous ways to prevent the happy success and conclusion of this Parliament And because the timely discovery and prevention of these dangerous Plots doth so nearly concern the safety both of * Yet afterwards they did all that was possible to persuade the People that the King was in this Conspiracy King and Kingdom they desire your Lordships would be pleased to appoint a select Commitee to take the Examinations upon Oath of such persons and Interrogatories as shall be presented unto them by the Directions of the House of Commons and in the presence of such Members of that House as shall be thereunto appointed with Injunction of such Secrecy as a business of this nature doth require They have Ordered That such Members of their House as shall be thought fit shall upon notice be ready to be Examined and they desire your Lordships would be pleased to order the like for the Members and Assistants of your own House And further it is desired That your Lordships will forthwith send to his Majesty to beseech him in the Name of the Parliament upon this great and weighty occasion that no Servants of his Majesties of the Queen or Prince may depart the Kingdom or otherwise absent himself without leave from his Majesty with the humble advice of the Parliament until these Examinations be perfected Whereupon it was Ordered That this House will joyn with the House of Commons in all that they desire and these Lords following were Deputed to take the Examinations Earl of Bath Earl of Essex Earl of Warwick Earl of March Viscount Say and Seal Lord Wharton Lord Paget and Mr. Serjeant Glanvile and Mr. Attorney General to write and set down the Examinations There being never a Bishop in the Committee A Salvo for the Bishops a Memorandum was entered in the Journals MEmorandum Whereas none of the Lords the Bishops are joyned with the aforesaid deputed Lords it was declared by the House that it should be no prejudice to the Lords the Bishops This being done the Lord Great Chamberlain the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Dorset and the Earl of Newcastle were appointed to wait on his Majesty with the aforesaid request of the Parliament to which they brought this Answer THat his Majesty hath willingly granted it The Kings Answer concerning his Servants and gave a present Command to the Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Newcastle and the Earl of Dorset to give notice hereof to all under their Charge that none do depart the Kingdom without the King's License but to be forth-coming upon demand which accordingly they have already done After which the Oath of Secrecy was given to Serjeant Glanvile and Mr. Attorney in these words YOV shall Swear The Oath of Secrecy given by the Lords to Serjeant Glanvile and Mr. Attorney assistant to the Committee of Lords to Examine the Conspiracy The Persons accused That in your writing and setting down of the Examination of the Witnesses to be produced before the Lords deputed to take Examinations upon Interrogatories to be produced by the House of Commons concerning the English Army in the North and in all things concerning the same You shall well truly and faithfully behave your selves and not discover the same before the end of this Parliament or Publication granted or leave of this House first obtained The Persons Accused of this Design of seducing the Army against the Parliament were Sir John Suckling Mr. Henry Percy Brother to the Earl of Northumberland Mr. Henry Jermyn Colonel Goring Mr. William Davenant Captain Palmer Captain Billingsley and Sir Edward Wardourn and Warrants were issued out against them to bring them under the Examination of the House of Commons This day there passed little of Moment Thursday May 6. the Commons being taken up with Reading several Bills one for the security of the True Religion the Safety and Honour of his Majesties Person the just Rights of the Subject and the better discovering and punishment of Popish Recusants as also another Bill for Subsidies With which guilded baits they not only Angled for Popular Favour but also endeavoured to hide their Antimonarchical Designs against his Majesty by these specious pretences of endeavouring to study his Safety and Honour The House was this day informed That the Persons against whom the Warrants were Issued upon the Accusation of their endeavouring to seduce the Army were not to be found whereupon at a Conference it was desired that all the Ports might be stopped upon which the Lords made this Order Ordered The Order of the Lords for stopping the Ports That all the Ports of England shall be forthwith stopped until the pleasure of this House be further known and none to depart the Kingdom except Sir Thomas Roe and such as he will be answerable for who is to give in their names to this House And in particular stay is to be made of Henry Percy Esq Henry Jermyn Esq Sir John Suckling Knight William Davenant and Captain Billingsly that they depart not out of this Kingdom but are to be apprehended and safely conducted with all speed unto this House Directed To the Right Honourable Algernon Earl of Northumberland L. High Admiral of England To James Earl of March Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports To Jerom Earl of Portland Captain and Governour of the Isle of Wight To George Goring Esq Governour of Portsmouth After which Sir Philip Carteret Lieutenant
House of Commons was printed and dispersed all over England which when complained of though disclaimed by the House within doors yet was it never Counter-manded no Penalty inflicted upon the Printer Publishers or Spreaders of this Counterfeit Order nay they were not so much as once questioned for it By the Encouragement of this Order and the Countenance this Petitioning and Articling against the Clergy found from the Committee for Religion there were above 2000 Petitions Exhibited in a short time against them in which they were charged with the most horrid Crimes of Adultery Prophaneness Swearing Drunkenness and indeed what not Every accusation was not only received but Credited insomuch that few or none of the Loyal Clergy Escaped the lash Honesty and Learning being then as Mr. Selden said Sins enough in a Clergy-man And when ever the Reader shall hereafter meet with any of these Votes against the Clergy he is to look upon them rather as Marks of Honesty and honourable Scars of their Wounded Reputation then brands of ignominy or real Crimes for all their Sufferings proceeded only from their being guilty of Loyalty to their Sovereign Lord and King and Obedience to their Superiors and the Laws of the Church and of the State too as then it was Established But to pass forward this New Plot of seducing the Army with which not only London but the whole Nation rung again was of Extraordinary Service to them and from the Rumors which were spread of a French and Irish Army to be landed to joyn with the English Army the Phanatical Party took Occasion to provide themselves with Arms and Ammunition of which afterwards they made sufficient advantage when the Contest between the King and the Two Houses grew so high as to come to the fatal decision of the Sword A Letter was this day Ordered to be sent to the Army in order to the discovery of this Conspiracy against the Parliament and Mr. Speaker was ordered to send Copies of it under his hand to Sir John Conyers and Sir Jacob Ashley The Letter was thus penned SIR WHereas there have been just Causes of Jealousies that there have been some secret Attempts and Practices to infuse into the Army a mislike of this Parliament The Speaker's Letter to the Army to some dangerous intent and purpose against the State and that now the matter is grown unto a strong presumption upon further discoveries and by reason that some of those which were suspected to have been Active therein are fled upon the first stirring thereof before ever they were once named It hath pleased this House to declare That notwithstanding they intend to search into the bottom of this Conspiracy yet purposing to proceed Especially against the Principal Actors therein this House hath resolved whereunto the House of Peers hath likewise consented That for such of the Army as the Conspirators have endeavoured to work upon if they shall testifie their Fidelity to the State by a timely discovery of what they know and can testifie therein they shall not only be free from all punishment but also shall be Esteemed to have done that which is for the Service of the State in discovery of so dangerous a Plot against it And for such of the Army as are and shall be found no wayes tainted with this dangerous Design or knowing any thing thereof shall make such discovery as aforesaid as this House shall no wayes doubt of their Loyalty and Fidelity so it will have an Especial Care not only to satisfie all such Arrears as this House hath formerly promised to discharge but also give a fair Testimony of the Sense they have of their present and past Want And it is Ordered by this House That immediately after the receipt hereof you should communicate this their Declaration unto all the Officers and Members of the Army under your Command Your very Loving Friend c. It was this day also Agreed to a further Cessation of Arms for a Month longer Cessation prolonged for a Month from May 16. to begin from the 16. of May if the Treaty shall so long continue A Bill was read the first and second time for better levying and raising Mariners and Saylors and others Monday May the 10th for the defence of the Kingdom An Information was also given in Search for Arms at Lambeth or at least so pretended to render the Archbishop more Odious to the Populace and to Exasperate them against Him and the Rest of the Bishops that there were great Stores of Arms and Ammunition laid up at Lambeth in Order as was buzzed about among the Faction to promote some ill Designs against the Parliament whereupon Sir John Evelyn and Mr. Broxam were Ordered to go over to Lambeth to view what Arms were there and some others were appointed to search about the Parliament House lest any Plot should be secretly hid there or rather in truth to amuse the People by these strange Fears and Jealousies and keep them up in that Heat in which they were against the Government This Day were passed Money to be borrowed of the City upon Passing the Bill of Attainder and Bill for Parliament as before was observed the Fatal Bills for the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford and for the continuance of this Parliament upon which the Citizens and Burgesses for London were ordered to represent to the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen and Common Councel what past this day concerning the Bill of Attainder and the Bill for the Sitting of this present Parliament and to move for a present Answer to be given for the Sixscore thousand pounds promised to be lent by the City for the great Occasions of the Kingdom There goes a Story which I have heard confirmed for truth That a certain Witty Nobleman the next morning after the passing this Bill for the Continuance of this Parliament during their Pleasure coming to the King 's uprising Saluted him in this Familiar manner Good morrow fellow Subject Which though at present it did only a little surprize his Majesty yet afterwards he found that no less was by that ACT intended by the Faction who treated him as a Co-ordinate third Estate Mr. Message from the King concerning the Lord Cottington c. Treasurer Vane brings a Message from the King to the House to acquaint them That his Majesty had already given Directions to prepare a Patent to make my Lord of Salisbury Lord Lieutenant of Dorsetshire the Lord Cottington having offered to surrender his Patent and that the House may hereby see how ready his Majesty is to satisfie all their Just Requests being resolved to repose himself intirely upon the Affections of his People To which Message Mr. The Commons Answer Treasurer was Ordered barely to return the Thanks of the House whereas formerly upon far less Occasions more Dutiful Commons were ever wont to return their Answer with the Stile of His Majesties Gracious Message and these Men
released from their Imprisonment in the Tower but nothing was done upon it The Earl of Northumberland sent a Message to the Commons to let them know he had received a Letter from his Brother Mr. Henry Percy and that if they would send some of their House they should have an account of it Whereupon Mr. Hollis and some others were sent to his Lordship The Letter was in these words WHat with my own innocency Mr. Henry Percy 's Letter to the Earl of Northumberlan concernin the business of the Army and the violence I hear is against me I find my self much distracted I will not ask your Counsel because it may bring prejudice upon you but I will with all faithfulness and truth tell you what my part hath been that at least it may be cleared by you whatsoever becomes of me When there was 50000 l. designed by the Parliament for the English Army there was as I take it a sudden demand by the Scots at the same time of 25000 Pounds of which there was 15000 l. ready this they pressed with much necessity as the Parliament after an order made did think it fit for them to reduct 10000 l. out of the 50000 l. formerly granted upon which the Souldiers in our House were much Scandalized amongst which I was one and sitting by Wilmot and Ashburnham Wilmot stood up and told them if that the Scots would procure Money he doubted not but the Officers of the English Army might easily do the like but the first order was reversed notwithstanding and 10000 l. given to the Scots this was the cause of many discourses of dislike amongst us and came to this purpose that they were disobliged by the Parliament and not by the King this being said often to one another we did resolve that Wilmot Ashburnham Pollard Oneale and my self to make some expressions of serving the King in all things he would command us that were Honourable for him and us being likewise agreeing to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom that so far we would Live and Die with him this was agreed upon with us not having any Communication with others that I am coupled now withal and further by their joynt consent I was to tell his Majesty thus much from them but withal I was to order the matter so as the King might apprehend this as a great Service done unto him at this time when his Affairs were in so ill a condition they were most confident That they would engage the whole Army thus far but farther they would undertake nothing because they would neither infringe the Liberties of the Subjects nor destroy the Laws to which I and every one consented and having their Sense I drew the Heads up in a Paper to the which they all approved when I read it and then we did by an Oath promise one another to be constant and secret in all this and did all of us take that Oath together then I said Well Sirs I must now be informed what your particular desires are that so I may be the better able to serve you which they were pleased to do and so I did very faithfully serve them therein as far as I could this is the truth and all the truth upon my Soul In particular discourses after that we did fall upon the Petitioning to the King and Parliament for Moneys there being so great Arrears due to us and so much delays made in the procuring of them but that was never done 1. Concerning the Bishops Functions and Votes 2. The not Disbanding of the Irish Army until the Scots were Disbanded too 3. The endeavouring to settle his Majesties Revenue to that proportion as formerly And it was resolved by us all if the King should require our assistance in those things that as far as we could we might contribute thereunto without breaking the Laws of the Kingdom And in case the King should be denyed those things being put to them we would not fly from him all these persons did act and concur in this as well as I this being all imparted to the King by me from them I perceived he had been treated with by others concerning some things of our Army which agreed not with what was purposed by me but inclined a way more sharp and high not having limits either of Honour or Law I told the King he might be pleased to consider with himself which way it was fit for him to hearken unto for us we were resolved not to depart from our grounds we should not be displeased whosoever they were but the particular of the designs or the persons we desired not to know though it was no hard matter to guess at them In the end I believe the danger of the one the justice of the other made the King tell me he would leave all thoughts of other propositions but ours as things not practiceable but desired notwithstanding that Goring and Jermin who were acquainted with the other proceedings should be admitted amongst us I told him I thought the other Gentry would never consent to it but I would propose it which I did and we were all much against it but the King did press it so much as at the last it was consented unto and Goring and Jermin came to my Chamber there I was appointed to tell them after they had sworn to secrecy what we had proposed which I did But before I go into the debate of the way I must tell you Jermin and Goring were very earnest Suckling should be admitted which we did all decline and were desired by all our men to be resolute in it which I was and gave many reasons Whereupon Master Goring made answer he was engaged with Suckling his being employed in the Army but for his meeting with us they were contented to pass it by Then we took up again the ways which were proposed which took great debate and theirs differed from ours in violence and height which we all protested against and parted disagreeing totally yet remitted it to be spoken of by me and Jermin to the King which we both did And the King constant to his former resolutions told him these ways were all vain and foolish and would think of them no more I omit one thing of Mr. Goring he desired to know how the Chief Commanders were to be disposed of for if he had not a condition worthy of him he would not go along with us we made answer that no body thought of that we intended if we were sent down to go all in the same capacity we were in he did not like that by any means and by that did work so with Master Chidley that there was a Letter sent by some of the Commanders to make him Lieutenant General and when he had ordered this matter at London and Master Chidley had his instructions then did he go to Portsmouth pretending to be absent when this was aworking we all desired my Lords of Essex and Holland that if
more cause to do well and for doing well are more renowned for the most oppressive designs which we have suffered under the pretences of his Majesty have ever bin the good of his Subjects His is the sin that is to judge by the Laws and knows the Laws are to the contrary yet puts and confirms such thoughts in his Prince He that incites another to Arbitrary Government when his self-ends are thereby compassed hates him for taking that Power he perswaded him unto The Writs those Monsters of Necessity to provide Ships to prevent Imminent Danger that could not stay 40 dayes for the Calling of a Parliament were therefore to go out in September to have Ships ready in March This hath bin adjudged by your Lordships to be destructive to the Fundamental Laws of this Realm and to the Subjects right of Property and Liberty c. that I shall say but this concerning them That this Judge published them to be inseparable Flowers of the Crown And that we have lived to see for five years together imminent Danger and thus to be prevented This Judge did advise to such a Government as future Kings here might exercise the highest Tyranny and the Subjects want the benefit of restraints known to the most Slavish Eastern Nations where if their Prince do unjustly he hath hatred for it and the Dangers that follow that This Judge will have that hatred to go to our good Laws No such Bondage as when Laws of Freedom are mis-interpreted by Judges to make men Slaves What can be considered of in a Judge of Law to give his Opinion and Advice to his Prince how the Laws the mutual Covenants of Kings and Subjects are to be broken but that his intentions are to have his Prince do ill by making his evil Servants to study and to be pleaâ—â—d with their wicked designs because they see means to put them in execution by making them to perswade their Prince because in imminent Danger his Subjects Goods are at his Will that there is such danger when there is not and they only have some by-end of their own A Judge to deliver his Opinion That if the King should intend to give up his People to be destroyed by Forraign Forces for the Safety of the people in that imminent Danger once by the Law might take away the King there could be no greater Offence This Judge will have our Law to be what to him seems reason the reason limited to him to judge of is what the Common Law saith is so what a Statute hath so Enacted For him to judge this or that is Law else a mischief shall follow is at best for him but this because the Law in such a thing is imperfect therefore he will make a Law to supply it or because that the Law written in such particulars is against his reason therefore his reasons to be Laws then must follow as often as a Judge's Reason changes or Judges change our Laws change also Our Liberties are in our Laws where a Subject may read or hear read this is his this he may do and be safe and that thus the Judge ought to give Judgment he is free The Excessive growth of Courts of Reason Conscience came from great and cunning persons and though not the most sudden yet the most dangerous and sure ways to eat out our Laws our Liberties Unlimited power must be in some to make and repeal Laws to fit the dispositions of Times and Persons Nature placeth this in common consent onely and where all cannot conveniently meet instructeth them to give their consents to some they know or believe so well of as to be bound to what they agree on His Majesty your Lordships and the Commons are thus met in Parliament and so long as we are often reduced to this main Foundation our King and we shall prosper This Judge will not allow us our Knowledg or any Reason he will have our Minds our Souls Slaves A Grand-Jury-man gave his Fellows true Information they present an Innovation in the Church are threatned and reviled for it he that told this Truth is charged I shall use this Judge's own words to sin in that and that he made others forswear themselves This Judge sent him to the Common Goal where he is laid in Irons and all this because he and they durst meddle with Church-Matters He is forced to tear the Presentment in pieces in open Court Our Laws provide for the peace of our Consciences many Acts of Parliament are for it and the Trust by those Acts set to Juries this Judge well knew all this Your Lordships have heard what he did to the Jury at Hartford He would have us know no more Divinity then to obey what the Great of the Clergy directed no more Law than what he said was so Judges in former times but only such as were Examples of punishment as of injustice in cases of great and publick concernment forbare proceedings till the next Parliament This necessitated the Calling of Parliaments This Judge had as many such Causes before him as ever any had yet he never desired the Resolution of Parliament in any one for the ways he went the necessity was never to have a Parliament he would pull up that Root of our Safeties and Liberties which whilst we enjoy the Malice or Injustice of all other Courts and Persons can never ruine and when near to Ruin as most near of late this only sure Remedy will help us nothing can ruine a Parliament but it Self The Evils which we have suffered under they were committed by the Judges month June 1641. or by them ought to have been and might have been prevented This Judge assisted in causing the Miseries we suffered in the Star-Chamber and at the Councel-Table he denyed the known Rights which he ought to have granted us to stop our Grievances in the Ecclesiastical Courts he was the causer of our Sufferings in other Courts The best Lovers of their Laws and Liberties the most Honest suffer most by an unjust Judge they most oppose his Vices dishonest persons find such a Judge to fit their purposes the Judge finds them for his the bond of iniquity confederates them He that will do no wrong will suffer none which he can help the man that knows himself born free will do his utmost to live so and to leave Freedom to his Posterity were he in Slavery when by outward gesture thought to be most delighted were his mind then known there would be found vexation and his busie thoughts employed to redeem himself and his Posterity from Thraldom But to say Could this Judge intend to make himself and his own Posterity Slaves What he did was through errour of Judgment only No my Lords what his Ayms and Endeavours were is apparent To consider Man in the general we shall find in every Age he will be a Slave to some few that many may be Slaves to him he looks to himself only this he would do or
hear read I shall take leave according to Custome to say something of what I have collected from the Sense of that House concerning the Crimes therein contained Here the Charge was read containing his Extrajudicial Opinions subscribed and Judgment given for Ship-Money and afterward a declaration in his Charge at an Assize That Ship-Money was so inherent a Right in the Crown that it would not be in the Power of a Parliament to take it away MY Lords Not only my Wants but my Affections render me less fit for this Employment for though it has not been my happiness to have the Law a part of my Breeding there is no man Honours that Profession more or has a greater Reverence towards the grave Judges the Oracles thereof Out of Parliament all our Courts of Justice are governed or directed by them and when a Parliament is call'd if your Lordships were not assisted by them and the House of Commons by other Gentlemen of that Robe Experience tells us it might run a hazard of being styled Parliamentum indoctorum But as all Professions are obnoxious to the Malice of the Professours and by them most easily betrayed so my Lords these Articles have told you how these Brothers of the Coyf are become fratres in malo how these Sons of the Law have torn out the Bowels of their Mother But this Judge whose Charge you last heard in one Expression of his excells no less his Fellows then they have done the worst of their Predecessors in this Conspiracy against the Common-wealth Of the Judgment for Ship-Money and those Extrajudicial Opinions preceding the same wherein they are joyntly concerned you have already heard how unjust and pernicious a proceeding that was in so publick a Cause has been sufficiently expressed to your Lordships But this Man adding Despair to our Misery tells us from the Bench That Ship-Money was a Right so inherent in the Crown that it would not be in the power of an Act of Parliament to take it away Herein my Lords he did not only give as deep a Wound to the Common-wealth as any of the rest but dipt his dart in such a poyson that so far as in him lay it might never receive a cure As by those abortive Opinions subscribing to the Subversion of our Propriety before he heard what could be said for it he prevented his own so by this declaration of his he endeavours to prevent the Judgment of your Lordships too and to confine the power of a Parliament the only place where this Mischief might be redrest Sure he is more Wise and Learned than to believe himself in this Opinion or not to know how ridiculous it would appear to a Parliament and how dangerous to himself and therefore no doubt but by saying no Parliament could abolish this Judgment his meaning was That this Judgment had abolish't Parliaments This Imposition of Ship-Money springing from a pretended necessity was it not enough that it was now grown annual but he must intail it upon the State for ever at once making Necessity inherent to the Crown and slavery to the Subject Necessity which dissolving all Law is so much more prejudicial to his Majesty than to any of us by how much the Law has invested his Royal State with a greater power and ampler fortune for so undoubted a truth it has ever been that Kings as well as Subjects are involved in the confusion which necessity produces that the Heathen thought their Gods also obliged by the same Pareamus necessitati quam nec homines nec Dii superant This Judge then having in his Charge at the Assize declared the dissolution of the Law by this supposed Necessity with what Conscience could he at the same Assize proceed to condemn and punish men unless perhaps he meant the Law was still in force for our destruction and not for our preservation that it should have power to kill but none to protect us a thing no less horrid then if the Sun should burn without lighting us or the Earth serve only to bury and not to feed and nourish us But my Lords to demonstrate that this was a suppositious imposed necessity and such as they could remove when they pleased at the last Convention in Parliament a price was set upon it For Twelve Subsidies you shall reverse this Sentence It may be said that so much Money would have removed the present necessity but here was a Rate set upon future necessity For Twelve Subsidies you shall never suffer necessity again you shall for ever abolish that Judgment Here this mystery is revealed this visour of necessity is pulled off and now it appears that this Parliament of Judges had very frankly and bountifully presented his Majesty with Twelve Subsidies to be levyed on your Lordships and the Commons Certainly there is no Priviledg which more properly belongs to a Parliament then to open the Purse of the Subject and yet these Judges who are neither capable of Sitting among us in the House of Commons nor with your Lordships otherwise then as your assistants have not only assumed to themselves this priviledg of Parliament but presumed at once to make a Present to the Crown of all that either your Lordships or the Commons of England do or shall hereafter possess And because this man has had the boldness to put the power of Parliament in ballance with the Opinion of the Judges I shall entreat your Lordships to observe by way of comparison the solemn and safe proceeding of the one with the precipitate dispatch of the other In Parliament as your Lordships know well no new Law can pass or old be abrogated till it has been thrice read with your Lordships thrice in the Commons House and then it receives the Royal Assent so that 't is like Gold seven times purified whereas these Judges by this one Resolution of theirs would perswade his Majesty that by naming Necessity he might at once dissolve at least suspend the Great Charter 32 times confirmed by his Royal Progenitors the Petition of Right and all other Laws provided for the maintenance of the Right and Propriety of the Subject A strange Force my Lords in the sound of this word Necessity that like a Charm it should silence the Laws while we are despoyled of all we have for that but a part of our Goods was taken is owing to the Grace and Goodness of the King for so much as concerns these Judges we have no more left then they perhaps may deserve to have when your Lordships shall have passed Judgment upon them This for the neglect of their Oaths and betraying that Publick Trust which for the Conservation of our Laws was reposed in them Now for the cruelty and unmercifulness of this Judgment You may please to remember that in the Old Law they were forbid to seeth a Kid in his Mother's milk of which the received Interpretation is That we should not use that to the destruction of any Creature which was
Brothers and the Head of his House the Spanish King Adopts Ferdinand of Gratz for his Son so to prepare a way to make him the Successor of his Scepter Crown and Purple Then were the Sacred Dyets of the Empire the Ancient means to reconcile Differences and prevent Jealousies as often dissolved abortively as called insincerely Rumours were spread of Practices and Designs against the Protestant Princes and Cities And that those Rumours might not vanish in Smoak the Liberties of the Great and Ancient City of Strasburg were opprest The Protestant Princes seeing Materials and Engines on every side prepar'd for their Ruine were necessitated to meet at Heilburn and there to conclude an union amongst themselves This gave the Jesuits an assured hope of making Germany speedily miserable by a Calamitous War for not only the Pontifician Princes took the opportunity to settle a Catholique League as they call'd it amongst themselves But also the Elector of Saxony like a true Pseudo-Lutheran neither Protestant nor Papist shews as good an Affection to the Catholic League as the Evangelick Union The old Emperor Matthias begins now to act his part and the Jesuits spur on their ready Scholar Ferdinand of Gratz to ascend the bloody Theatre they had so long designed him Through the old Emperor's intercession abusing the Bohemian Protestants Credulity with sugared Flatteries and large Promises he is admitted to the Crown of that rich Kingdom which soon after made way for him unto the Crown of Hungary also The Jesuits and the Spaniards did now only want a fair occasion to begin a War in Germany The Emperour Matthias labours with the Protestant Princes to dissolve their Union which not taking effect the Bishop of Spiers is encouraged underhand to pick a Quarrel with the Prince Elector Palatine and to build a strong Fortress upon his neighbours Territories pretending he had right to that Plot of Ground upon which the said Fortress was raised But an higher Providence did not suffer this Spark to set Germany on Fire though it had been kindled at the Prince Elector's own door to affront and provoke him for he by an incredible celerity did cause the said Fortress to be demolished before the Enemy could fit and furnish it for his intended use which made him sit still and study for a new occasion which that it might not be long wanting the Liberties and Priviledges of the Protestants in Bohemia contrary to their new King Ferdinand's Oath were temerated and by that means in the year 1619 the greater part of the Estates of that Kingdom were necessitated after mature deliberation to abdicate him and to Elect Frederick Prince Elector Palatine for their King And thus are we arrived at that sad period of time upon which so many fatalities have ensued in which we may see evidently That the Prince Elector Palatine was not causally guilty of any part of that Ocean of Blood that hath been since spilt in Germany as the Pontifician side pretend he was The Scene was long before prepared by the Enemies of the Truth and the Kingdom of Bohemia was filled with Arms and Hostilities divers Months before his accepting of that Crown when himself laboured by an earnest mediation to have given a peaceable Issue to those bloody beginnings It was the Honour and Greatness of that Matchless Princess that he gained here and the considerable Succours they expected from hence that especially drew the Bohemians to that Choice It therefore concerns us now at length to provide that the Prince Elector himself and the other Princely Branches of that great Family being the second without question if not the first and most Ancient of the Empire extracted by their last match from the Royal Line of Great Britain should not under colour of their Father's accepting that Crown to which they now pretend no Title be for ever despoyled of their Ancient Inheritance and Electoral Dignity To which Calamity they had never been reduced had not the French King at that time forgotten the old Maxime of his Predecessors which was To keep even the Ballance of Germany to which also did most fatally concur the Duke of Bavaria's Ambition betraying his own Blood and the Duke of Saxony's taking Arms against the Evangelical Party By this means and the advancing of Spinola with the Spanish Army out of the Netherlands was not only the Kingdom of Bohemia lost in a few months but the Palatinate also excepting some few Places of strength invested by the Enemy and that poor people left to slaughter calamity and desolation The Correspondence of some ill Ministers of this State abroad with those of Forreign States here assisted by some fatal Instruments at home furthered all this mischief at the instant putting this State in hope of a match when Supplies should rather have been sent from hence to have preserved at least the Electoral Territories from an Invading Power It is true that the Spanish Match had been generally treated of some 5 or 6 years before this fatal Fire kindled in Germany being first set on foot by the Duke of Lerma under Philip of Austria late King of Spain But now it was effectually advanced and fortified with a conjoyned Treaty of accommodating the Palatine Cause without effusion of Blood This and much more appears in the Original Journal-Books of the Two Houses of Parliament in Anno 21 Jacobi Regis which I have so far perused as so short a time would give leave and though that matters are there set down at large especially in the Records out of the House of Peers yet I have abstracted it into so narrow a compass as may well sort with the little spare time of this House to hear it The Relation was first made at White-hall during that Parliament in the presence of the greater part of both the said Houses on Tuesday February 24. And it was afterwards reported upon Friday the 27th day of the same Month next ensuing in the Lords House by the then Lord Keeper and in the House of Commons by Sir Richard Weston at that time Chancellor of the Exchequer It is there at large set forth That His Majesty's Royal Father having had several fair promises from the Emperour Ferdinand the Second and the King of Spain of a peaceable Restitution of the Palatinate caused not only such considerable Forces as were then remaining in Germany under the Prince Elector's Ensignes to disband but procured also some Places of strength in the Palatinate it self to be Surrendred and Consigned over to the late Infanta of Spain But in the year 1622. our late Royal Sovereign King James upon his Ambassadors return from Bruxels having discovered the Emperors intentions to be full of insincerity and deceit wrote his Princely Letters bearing Date at Hampton-Court October 3. 1622. to the then and still Earl of Bristol His Majesty's Extraordinary Ambassadour in Spain to let him know That he now perceived little sincerity in all the Spanish King's promises for the peaceable Restitution
Conference about it The House of Lords was turned into a Committee to debate the 4th Head brought from the House of Commons concerning the Queens Majesty and the first Branch was agreed to The further Debate of the 10 Propositions by the Lords To the Second Article It was agreed to Joyn with the House of Commons to move the King That he will be pleased not to give his Consent to the same hereafter it being against the Laws of this Kingdome To the Third concerning the Colledg of Capuchins at Denmark-House agreed The 4th not now Resolved There was a Debate in the Commons House Thursday July 8. concerning the Forreign Ambassadors entertaining and sheltering Romish Priests and Jesuits Natives of his Majesties Dominions upon which it came to this Vote Resolved c. That this House doth declare That no Forreign Ambassador whatsoever ought to shelter or harbour any Popish Priest or Jesuit Vote against Forreign Ambassadors Entertaining Romish Priests Natives of the Kings Dominions that are Natives of the Kings Dominions under pretence of being their Servants or otherwise And the Committee for the 10 Propositions to his Majesty about his Journey are to present this Declaration to the Lords Committee appointed to meet them and to desire their Lordships to Joyn with this House to Petition his Majesty that this may accordingly be observed The Cessation was Voted to continue 14 dayes longer from Munday next Cessation prolonged The House then reassumed the Debate about Mr. Hollis and others Imprisoned and Fined 3 Car. and came to these Votes Further Votes about Mr. Hollis c. 3 Car. Resolved c. That Sir George Crook one of the Justices of the Kings Bench is not Guilty of the delay in granting the Habeas Corpus to Mr. Hollis c. Resolved c. That the continuance of Mr. Hollis c. 3 Car. in Prison by the then Judges of the Kings Bench for not putting in Sureties for the Good Behaviour was without Just or Legal Cause Resolved c. That the Exhibiting the Information against Mr Hollis Sir John Eliot and Mr. Valentine in the Kings Bench being Members of Parliament and for matters done in Parliament was a breach of Priviledge of Parliament Resolved c. That the Judgment given upon Nihil dicit against Mr. Hollis Sir John Eliot and Mr. Valentine and the Fines thereupon Imposed and their several Imprisonments thereupon was against the Law and the Priviledg of Parliament Resolved c. That the several proceedings against Mr. Hollis Sir John Eliot and Mr. Valentine by committing them and Prosecuting them in the Star-Chamber and the Kings Bench is a Grievance Resolved c. That Mr. Hollis Mr. Strode Mr. Valentine Mr. Long and the Heirs and Executors of Sir John Eliot Sir Miles Hobart and Mr. Peter Heyman respectively ought to have reparation for their respective Damages and Sufferings against the Lords and others of the Council by whose means they were apprehended and committed against the Council that put their Hands to the Information in the Star-Chamber and the Judges of the Kings Bench. Resolved c. That Mr. Laurence Whittacre being a Member of the Parliament 3 Car. and entring into the Chamber of Sir John Eliot being likewise a Member of that Parliament searching of his Trunk and Papers and Sealing of them is Guilty of the Breach of Priviledg of Parliament this being done before the dissolution of the Parliament Resolved c. That Mr. Laurence Whittacre being guilty of the Breach of the Priviledg of Parliament as aforesaid shall be sent forthwith to the Tower there to remain a Prisoner during the Pleasure of the House Whereupon Mr. Whittacre being called down Mr. Lau. Whittacre sent to the Tower for Breach of Privilege 3 Car. and kneeling at the Bar Mr. Speaker pronounced this Sentence against him Mr. Whittacre then desired permission of the House to speak for himself which being granted he said That he did freely confess the matter of Fact and that he should not endeavour to extenuate it by the Confusion of the times but that he had only this to plead in mitigation of the Sentence that it was an Error committed so long ago being now 13 years since and that he was commanded to do what he did by Warrant from the King himself and three and Twenty Privy Councellors But all this availed him nothing for he was immediately sent to the Tower Now for the Readers satisfaction and that he may have a clear understanding of this affair it will I think not be unacceptable to present him with these following Papers relating to this affair There were several Questions proposed to the three Chief Judges to which they gave these Answers Quere I. There solutions of the Three Chief Judges about matters in the Parliament 3 Car. WHether a Parliament Man offending the King Criminally or Contemptuously in the Parliament House and not then punished may not be punished out of Parliament Answer We conceive That if a Parliament Man exceeding the Priviledge of Parliament do Criminally or Contemptuously offend the King in the Parliament House and not there punished may be punished out of Parliament Quere II. Whether the King as he hath the power of Calling and Dissolving a Parliament have not also an absolute power to cause it to be Adjourned at his pleasure Answer We conceive That the King hath the Power of Commanding of Adjournments of Parliaments as well as of Calling Prorogueing and Dissolving of Parliaments But for the manner thereof or the more particular Answer to this and the next subsequent Question we refer our selves to the Precedents of both Houses Quere III. Whether if the King do Command an Adjournment to be made he hath not also power to Command all further proceedings in Parliament to cease at that time Quere IV. Whether it be not a high Contempt in a Member of the House contrary to the King 's express Commandment Contemptuously to oppose the Adjournment Answer The King 's express Commandment being signified for an Adjournment if any after that shall Tumultuously oppose it further or otherwise then the Priviledge of the House will Warrant This we conceive to be a great Contempt Quere V. Whether if a few Parliament-Men do Conspire together to stir up ill Affections in the People against the King and the Government and to leave the Parliament with such a loose and by words or writings put it in Execution and this not punished in Parliament it be an offence punishable out of Parliament Answer We conceive this Offence to be punishable out of Parliament Quere VI. Whether if some Parliament-Men shall Conspire together to publish Papers containing false and scandalous Rumors against the Lords of the Privy Council or any one or more of them not to the end to Question them in a Legal or Parliamentary way but to bring them into Hatred of the People and the Government into Contempt and to make Discord between the Lords
Our Ambassador to the Emperor and other Princes in the said Diet Assembled And to that purpose have given him full Power and Instructions to contribute all Our Authority to the Procurement and Setttlement of a good and blessed Peace by the reestablishment and restitution of the Possessions and Dignities of our said dear Sister Nephews and Electoral Family without which no Peace can either be honest or secure Hereby Exhorting and Desiring all other Kings Princes and States our Friends Allies and Confederates who shall either be present at the said Diet or shall have their Ambassadors or Deputies there that they will be assisting to the Justice of so good a Cause and to so great a Blessing as the restoring of Peace to the almost desolate Estate of Germany But because We may have just Cause to doubt by many Experiences of Our former Endeavours that the Issue and Fruit of this meeting may not be answerable to Our just Expectation but rather that it may produce contrary Effects to the prejudice of the Justice and Rights of Our said Nephews and their Family which God forbid we are hereby forced to protest against all Acts Sentences Conclusions or Determinations whatsoever which shall or may be had made or declared either in Confirmation of the Oppressions and Usurpations past or any Additions thereunto for the future as invalid and of no power or effect In which Case being contrary to Our desire and expectation We also further protest and declare that We will not abandon neither Our own nor the Publick Interest nor the Cause Rights and just Pretences of Our dear Sister and Nephews and other Princes and States involved within their Oppressions But that We will use and employ all such force and power wherewith God hath enabled Us both by Our own Arms and the help and assistance of all Our Allies and Friends to vindicate Our own Honour the Publick peace and redress of the Injuries Usurpations and Oppressions of Our said dearest Sister and Nephews and their Illustrious Family And hereby as we do profess to use all our endeavour and Power to promove a happy and desired Peace for the Consolation of the distressed Empire so We do appeal to Almighty God the Inspector of the Hearts of all Princes and to the World the Spectator of all Our just Actions that We will be innocent before God and the World of all the Evils that may ensue if these Our last Hopes shall be delayed or abused HIs Sacred Majesty of Great Britain being resolved in Case this his last Endeavor by his Extraordinary Ambassador sent to the Diet at Ratisbone for a friendly Accommodation of his Nephew the Prince Elector Palatines Affairs should prove fruitless to have his said Embassy without further loss of Time seconded by more powerful and effectual means went to His Parliament on the Fifth day of July last and there after the dispatch of some other Affairs presented the above written Manifesto with these Words I Take this occasion to present to both Houses That whereby I hope all the World shall see that there is a good Understanding between Me and My People It is concerning My Nephew the Prince Elector Palatine who having desired Me by the Advice of the King of Denmark to assist him in a Treaty for his Restauration at the Diet now held at Ratisbone by the Emperour I could not but send My Ambassador for that purpose though I much doubt that I shall not have so good an Issue of it as I wish The which My Nephew foreseeing hath desired Me for the better Countenancing of his Just Demands to make a Manifesto in My Name which is a thing of that Consequence that if I should do it alone without the Advice of My Parliament it would be of much less force Therefore I do here propose it unto you That by your Advice I may do it for that way I think it most fit to be published in My Name THe said Manifesto concerning the Restitution of the Electoral Palatine Family having been Seriously Considered by both Houses They togethe reame to his Majesty in the Banquetting-House on the Twelfth of July last where the Speaker delivered the said Houses their Opinion and Resolution in this manner YOur Majesty in your Royal Person was pleased to recommend this Manifesto touching the Palatine Cause to be read in full Parliament and to be advised of by both Houses Both the Houses have seriously considered of it and have commanded Me to present these their Humble Advices unto your Sacred Majesty which are expressed in this Declaration which hath passed the Votes of both the Houses and which I am commanded to read unto your Majesty Dei Mercurii 7 Julii 1641. Resolved upon the Question That this House doth approve of His Majesties Pious Intentions in the behalf of His Royal Sister and His Nephew the Prince Elector Palatine and the rest of the Princes of that Family and of the publishing this Manifesto to that purpose and that this House will be ready to give His Majesty such advice and assistance therein by Parliament as shall stand with the Honour of His Majesty and the interest and affections of this Kingdom if the present Treaty shall not succeed Die Sabbathi 10 Julii 1641. Resolved in like manner upon the Question by the House of Peers That they do concur in this Vote with the House of Commons I am likewise Commanded to present the humble desires of both the Houses of Parliament That Your Majesty will be pleased to recommend this Manifesto to the Parliament of Scotland to have the Concurrence of that Kingdom THus much was delivered by the Speaker of the House of Peers both Houses then attending His Majesty in the Banquetting-House at White-Hall To which His Majesty was graciously pleased to make them this Answer WE take very thankfully the Concurrent Advices of both the Houses of Parliament in so great and pious a Work declared in these Votes and Resolutions which you have read unto Us. We will also take care to recommend this Manifesto unto the Parliament in Scotland to have the Concurrence of that Kingdom which We doubt not but they will perform Mr. Treasurer reports in a Paper His Majesty's Answer to the Third of the Ten Heads presented in the Painted Chamber in haec verba MY Answer is That I know of none The Kings Answer to the 3d of the 10 Propositions about ill Counsellors the which Methinks should both satisfie and be believed I having granted all hitherto demanded by Parliament Nor do I expect that any should be so unadvised as by slander or otherwise to deter any that I trust to in my Publick Affairs from giving me Counsel especially since freedom of Speech is always demanded and never refused to Parliaments This Gracious Prince was so unwilling to disoblige even by any Casual Word that might bear a hard Construction that His Majesty immediately sent a Second Paper in these Words Which was delivered at
abound with Soldiers and such others as will be apt to be provoked to Tumults and Seditions especially in the time of the King's absence in Scotland III. That the House of Commons have received Information of great quantities of Treasure and Jewels Plate and Ready-mony packt up to be conveyed away with the Queen not only in such a proportion as the present occasions with due respect to Her Majesties honour may seem to require but a far greater quantity and that divers Papists and others under the pretence of Her Majesties Goods are like to convey great Sums of Mony and other Treasure beyond the Seas which will not only impoverish the State but may be employed to the somenting some mischievous attempts to the trouble of the publick Peace IV. hat as it will be a great dishonour to the State A pretty odd contradiction to the third Reason if her Majesty should not be Attended and Furnished suitably to her Quality so it will be a very heavy burden in this time of great Necessity and occasion of other publick Charges if she shall be provided in so Royal a manner as shall be fit for Her Majesty and the Honour of the King and Kingdom V. That because we understand by Sir Theodore Mayern that the chief cause of her Majesties Sickness and Distempers proceed from some discontent of her mind the House of Commons have thought good to declare That if any thing within the power of Parliament can give Her Majesty contentment they are so tender of her health both in due respect to His most Excellent Majesty and Her Self that they will be ready to further her satisfaction in all things so far as may stand with that Publick to which they are obliged VI. That the House of Commons conceive it will be some dishonour to this Nation if Her Majesty should at this unseasonable time go out of the Kingdom upon any Grief or Discontent received here and therefore they shall labour by all good means to take away and prevent all just occasion of Her Majesties trouble in such manner as may further Her Content and therein Her Health which will be a very great Joy and Comfort both to them and the rest of His Majesties loving Subjects to see All which they humbly recommend to Your Majesties Princely Wisdom beseeching Your Majesty that by Your allowance they may represent their humble desires at such time and with such number of both Houses as Her Majesty shall please to appoint Friday July 16. Six Lords and Twelve Commoners appointed to attend Her Majesty at Three of the Clock this Afternoon Mr. Hollis Reports the Conference with the Lords about what was to be offered to the Queen to put off her Journey which was as follows THe Lords and Commons taking notice of Your Majesties Intention to pass the Seas by reason of Your indisposition The Message spoken to the Queen about her Journey whereby the Kingdom will be deprived of Your Majesties presence and divers other great Inconveniences to the State may thereupon ensue which yesterday both Houses of Parliament did most humbly represent unto the King and withal Petitioned for this Access unto Your Majesty that so they might express unto Your Self their hearty sorrow for Your Majesties Sickness and most earnest desires to perform any Duty whereby they may be serviceable for the Recovery of Your Majesties Health And because they have been informed by Sir Theodore Mayern that this indisposition proceeds from some inward discontent of Mind the Lords and Commons have thought good to declare that if any thing within the Power of Parliament may give your Majesty contentment they are so tender of your Majesties Health both in due respect to His Majesty and Your Self that they will be ready to further your Majesties Satisfaction in all things so far as may stand with the Publick Trust to which they are obliged And besides they humbly conceive that it may be some dishonor to this Nation if your Majesty should in this unseasonable Time go out of the Kingdom upon any Grief or Discontent received here and therefore they shall labor by all good Means to take away and prevent all such just Occasions of your Majesties trouble in such manner as may farther your Majesties Contentment and therein your Health which will be a very great Comfort and Joy to themselves and the rest of His Majesties loving Subjects It was this day Ordered That Mr. Pym being sued for Tithe Wood Saturday July 17. Ordered to stop a Suit against Mr. Pym. shall have the Priviledge of Parliament and that Lewis Lushford and others the Solicitor and Attorney on the other side be hereby enjoyned to forbear to Prosecute or further to proceed in that Suit or any other that concerns the said Mr. Pym. Mr. Hollis Reports the Queen's Answer in haec verba I Give many Thanks to both Houses of Parliament The Queens Answer to the Lords and Commons for their great Care of my Health and their Affections to Me hoping I shall see the Effects of it Truely nothing but my Health could have made Me to resolve of this Journey and if I thought I could serve the King and this Kingdom with the hazzard of my Life I would do it and I hope you believe I have so much Interest in the Good of this Kingdom that I shall never wish any thing to the prejudice of it You will Pardon the imperfectness of my English I had rather have spoken in an other Language but I thought this would be most acceptable It was this Day in the House of Lords Ordered The Persons that pulled down the Railes in St. Saviors Church released That those Persons that were sentenced by the House for Violently breaking down the Railes in the Parish Church of St. Saviors Southwark shall upon their Petition to this House desiring their Lordships Favor and humbly acknowledging the Sentence of this House to be Just upon them their Misdemeanors in that Business be released out of their present Imprisonment for the same And in regard they are of that Poverty that they are not able to set up the Railes again at their own Charges this House doth remit that part of the Sentence A Message was brought from the House of Commons by Sir John Holland who presented three Bills which had passed that House 3 Bills brought up by Sir John Holland 1 for securing Protestant Religion c. 1 An Act for the Security of the true Religion which they desired Expedition of 2 An Act concerning the Limiting and bounding of Forrests 3 An Act for John Eggars Free-School at Acton in the County of Southampton And to desire a Conference by a Committee of both Houses at such time as their Lordships shall please touching the transmission of the Charge against Bishop Wren and concerning Inego Jones for pulling down St. Gregories Church Mr. Pym reports from the Committee for the 10 Propositions a Paper being a Message
said Propositions and Designs which said Propositions Designs and Consultations the said Henry Wilmot c. did not discover but consented to the same Resolved c. That the said Henry Wilmot William Ashburnham Hugh Pollard Sir John Berkley and Daniel Oneal being afterwards Lawfully Examined in Parliament upon their Oaths touching the Premisses did wholly deny the same and the said Sir John Berkley and Daniel Oneal being thereupon questioned did fly for the same The further Debate of this matter was put off until Wednesday at 8 of the Clock Munday July 26. Bill for Northern Counties passed the Lords Lord Majors Case about Electing one Sheriff c. heard The Earl of Bath Reported the Bill for securing of Mony to the Northern Counties c. And being put to the Question it was Resolved to pass The Petition of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and the Petition of the Commonalty of the said City were read and after Councel on both sides had had a full hearing concerning the Election of a Sheriff and other Officers the House of Lords taking the whole business into consideration Ordered That this Cause should be determined on Saturday morning next in case the Lord Mayor and the Commonalty did not agree and compose the matter in Question in the mean time This was a very perplexing Case at this time for the Parliament were about to borrow 40000 l. of the City to disband the Armies and if the Cause had been determined either way in probability it would have given a stop to that Affair but more especially if it had been decided in favour of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen who could not easily have raised that Sum without the Assistance of the most wealthy of the Commonalty The Lord Chamberlain signified to the House Letters about the Army That he had received divers Letters from the Lord General which he thought fit to acquaint the House with As a Letter desiring to know a certain day for disbanding of both Armies Likewise a Letter sent to the Lord General from the Gentlemen in the Bishoprick of Durham complaining of the burthen of the Soldiers there And also a List of the Number of the Five Regiments which are disbanded being 5817 Men All which being read the Lord Chamberlain had leave from this House to Communicate them to the House of Commons Tuesday July 27. Petition out of Oxfordshire against Bishops A Petition of the Ministers and People of Oxfordshire and Barkshire against Bishops was this day read in the Commons House and referred to the Committee for the Ministers Remonstrance A Message from the House of Commons by Sir John Culpeper 7 Bills brought up by Sir John Culpeper who brought up Seven Bills which had passed that House Viz. 1. An Act for the declaring unlawful and void the late proceedings touching Ship-mony and for vacating of all Records and Process concerning the same 2. An Act for the preventing of vexatious proceedings touching the Order of Knighthood 3. An Act for the free bringing in of Gun-Powder and Salt-Petre from forreign Parts and for the free making of Gun-Powder in this Realm 4. An Act to settle the Mannor of Belgraves and other Lands in the County of Leicester to and upon William Byerley Esq his Heirs and Assigns for and towards the payment of the Debts of William Davenport Esq Deceased 5. An Act to enable Sir Alexander Denton Knight to sell the Mannor of Barvard alias Barford St. Michael and other Lands in this present Act mentioned for the payment of his Debts and preferment of his younger Children 6. An Act for Alteration of the Estate and Tenure of some Lands within the Parish of Fulham in the County of Middlesex held of the Lord Bishop of London as of the Mannor of Fulham 7. An Act for the making of the Chappel of Hoole in the County of Lancaster a Parish Church and no part of the Parish of Crosston  l. s. d. Sir John Hotham Reports Report of the Charge of the Armies That to disband the Army requires 242619 11 03 Toward which there is paid 152119 11 03 Remains to be provided 90500 00 00 The Charge of the Garrisons 40000 00 00 Total 130500 00 00 When the Earl of Warwick hath Received and Paid the 50000 00 00 There will Remain due to the Scots 53000 00 00 Besides the Remainder of the Brotherly assistance 80000 00 00 Total due to the Scots 133000 00 00 The Engrossed Bill for Confirmation of His Majesties Letters Patents to the Town of Plymouth Plymonth Bill passed and for dividing the Parish and building a new Church there was read the Third time in the Lords House and being put to the Question it was Resolved to pass as a Law Then the Speaker signified Message from the King to the Lords about Commissions in his absence That His Majesty Commanded him to acquaint their Lordships that because he intends his Journey tawards Scotland upon Monday come Sevennight and in regard that in his absence heretofore he hath left behind him Two Commissions the one directed unto the Lords of the Privy Council for ordering of the Affairs of State and the issuing out of Proclamations upon Emergent Occasions and the other Authorising a Person of Honour to be Captain General for the levying of Forces on this side Trent if there should be any necessity for the safety of the Kingdom His Majesty now thinks it fit to issue out the like Commissions for the said Publick Services in his absence with some Variations and Omissions according to the Occasions and hath named the Lord Chamberlain to be Captain General on this side Trent but His Majesty would execute nothing therein until he had made the same known to both Houses of Parliament desiring their Concurrence and Assistance in all his great Affairs Further it was signified from His Majesty That the Spanish Ambassador did send a Writing unto His Majesty wherein he presseth His Majesty for some of the Irish Companies lately disbanded to be employed in the Service of the King of Spain and that His Majesty hath Commanded that the said Writing shall be Communicated to both Houses of Parliament and he desires their Advice therein Upon which a Conference was desired by the Lords at which the Lords declared their Resolution That they would do nothing in it till Three Points were cleared First That the Ambassadour should set down the particular number of Men he desires Secondly The time When. Thirdly The manner How and the Place from Whence he intends to Transport the Soldiers Mr. Hambden made a Report from the Earl of Pembroke Mr. Hambden Reports the Letter from the Queen of Bohemia That he had received Letters from the Queen of Bohemia wherein she gave humble thanks to the Parliament for their Regard and Consideration of her There was also another Letter read from the Earl of Holland to desire That both Armies might be disbanded together for
That as the Accusation was the effect of Malice and Revenge those Prosecutions proceeded from the same bitter Fountain 1. He hath Ex officio convented me before him Articles of Information a-against the Bishop of Bath and Wells by one Jomes a Minister in his Diocess for having two Sermons Preached in my Church on Michaelmas Day to the great disturbance and hinderance of the Sale of the Church-Ale as his Lordship pretended and further Examined me upon Oath whether I had not the said Sermons Preached for the same purpose and intent admonishing me for the future neither to Preach my self nor suffer any other to Preach in my Cure in the afternoon of either the Lords Day or Holy Days 2 I heard him say to his Register That whereas Information had been given concerning certain Ministers that they expounded upon the Catechism this Information was too narrow to catch them and therefore it should have run thus That they Catechised or expounded upon the Catechism Sermon-wise and then they would have been obnoxious tocensure 3 At the meeting to Elect Clerks of the Convocation he threatned to send forth Censures of the Church against all that would not pay in the Benevolence late granted in the late Synod within a Fortnight after the second Day of November last past And further at the said Election his Son gave eight single Voices two as Arch-Deacon of Bath two as Prebend of the Church of Wells two as Parson of Buckland St. Mary two as Vicas of Kingsbury and many others also there present gave as many double Voices as they had Benefices and Dignities against which one Mr. Roswel protested saying that it was Illegal The Bishop replyed that they gave in several capacities and thereupon commanded him silence saying that he was a Young man 4. That upon the meer Information of Mr. Humphrey Sydenham Rector of Buckington that in a certain Sermon Preached at the Visitation of the Arch-Deacon of Taunton I bespattered the Clergy The Bishop Summoned me before him down to Wells and there objected unto me that I had Preached a Scandalous Sermon wherein I had cast some aspersions on some of the Clergy Upon which charge I proffer'd to bring in an exact Copy of the Sermon I Preacht and to depose that I spake neither more nor less then was contained in the said Copy This the Bishop would not accept of saying that he would not have the Ministers who came to witness against me troubled with a Second Journey One of my Proctors desired time till the next Court Day for me to give in my answer the Bishop commanded him to hold his Peace and the other Proctor though he was retained by me and had received a Fee never opened his mouth pretending unto me that because the Bishop was so highly displeased with me he durst not appear on my behalf Being denyed time to give in my answer at the next Court Day I desired respit until the afternoon this also was denyed In fine contrary to the rules of their own Court he examined witnesses against me and proceeded to Censure me before he received my full answer he would not hear the answer which I could give to the Articles objected to me which I profer'd to give and which he had by Oath required me to give further by vertue of the Oath he administred unto me he questioned me not only concerning matters of outward fact but also concerning my most secret thoughts intentions and aims Moreover whereas the Witnesses confessed that I only said in the foresaid Sermon that some put the Scriptures into a Staged dress the Bishop persuaded them that that expression was equivalent with the Article objected that some mens Sermons were Stage-Plays and they by his persuasion swore down-right that I said some mens Sermons were Stage-Plays The Doctor made an Act and Order that I should make publick retractation which I refused to do and appeal'd unto the Arches But upon either the Bishops or M. Sydenham's Information my Proctor Hunt renounced my Appeal and Sir John Lamb dismissed the same cause without hearing unto the Bishop again 5. The Church-wardens of my Parish by order from the Bishop were enjoyned to turn the Communion-Table and place it Altar-wise c. Now they that they might neither displease the Bishop nor transgress against the Rubrick of the Liturgy made it an exact square Table that so notwithstanding the Bishops Order the Minister might still Officiate at the North-side of the Table M. Humphrey Sydenham Informed against this and upon Information the Bishop sent to view it and upon his view he certified the Bishop that it was like an Oyster-Table whereupon the Bishop ordered the Church-wardens to make a new one 6. Upon Mr. Humphrey Sydenham's Information that M. John Pym was a Parliamenteer the Bishop would not suffer me any longer to sojourn in his House although before such Information he gave me leave And when I demanded of some of his Servants the reason why his Lordship had thus changed his mind they told me that his Lordship was informed by M. Sydenham that M. Pym was a Puritan By which last Article it is evident the finger of Joab was in this matter and Mr. Pym in whose House this Informer Sojourned was a very great Master and it seems found an apt Scholar of this Nonconformist in the Art of blackning and nothing can be more plain then that because the Bishop had Prosecuted this Minister for his Non-conformity therefore out of Revenge he now persecuted the Bishop and in telling his own Story it is fairly to be presumed he puts the best Foot forward and does not Ex officio tell us his own real Guilt which was obstinate Non-Conformity and frequent railing against the Bishops and Church-Government the common Theams upon which these Persons who appeared so zealous for Preaching employed their Talent both in the Morning and Afternoon And this was the true reason why the Bishops of that time were against Lectures and Afternoon Sermons because they saw those Ministers who were most forward for them were wholly addicted to this way of abusing the Ordinance of Preaching to unsettle the Minds of the People and disturb the Publick Peace And wisely it was forseen could it have been as easily prevented for from the Pulpit were the first Seeds of Rebellion sown among the People from thence they were cultivated and improved into actual War against the King as the sequel of this History will shew This Day the Bill for taking the Protestation being read in the House of Lords The Bill for all Persons taking the Protestation thrown out of the House of Lords it was by their Lordships urged That though they approved of the taking of it by the Members of each House yet they did not of the General taking of it throughout the Kingdom Upon which the Bill was dimissed of which the Commons having Notice they presently laid it upon the Bishops and Popish Lords in the House
to give your Lordship many thanks not only for your great care daily exprest of the Army but for your no less vigilancy over the present distracted Estate of this Kingdom particularly for the account given by your Excellency to my Lord Chamberlain of the doubts conceived by your Lordship concerning it and we hope that if the causes of those doubts shall increase that your Excellency will likewise increase both your Vigilancy to discover and your Industry to inform us of all such proceedings as may concern us to be made acquainted with for the Publick Good I am likewise to acquaint your Excellency That to prevent all inconveniencies and dangers that may happen of which we find your Lordship to have already so quick and just a Sence both Houses have joyned to secure Hull as a place of great Importance especially by reason of the Magazine and upon which ill affected Persons may most readily have some design and in pursuance of that Resolution your Lordship will receive Orders from the House of Commons and I am to deliver your Lordship those of the House of Peers That your Lordship command the Major of Hull in the name of both Houses to use all possible care to secure the Town committed to his charge and not to suffer the Arms and Amunition in that Magazine to be disposed of without the Orders of both Houses I shall trouble your Lordship no further but only to desire your Excellency to continue your speed of Disbanding of the Army in the method already Ordered which till it be effected as we are confident it will be so soon as your Lordship can bring it to pass I am commanded to make a part of every Letter which I shall direct to your Excellency Your Excellencies Humble Servant Edward Littleton The time for the 13 Bishops to put in their Answer The Lords fell upon the Debate at what time the Bishops should put in their Answer and iâ— was Ordered That the Lords the Bishops that are Impeached by the House of Commons are to make their Answers thereunto on Thursday come Month being the 16th day of September nexi It was this day Ordered by the Commons 3000 l. Ordered for the Garrison of Portsmouth That Three Thousand Pound shall be paid by the Sheriff of Hampshire out of the Poll-Money to Colonel Goring for the Garrison of Portsmouth The Committee then reported the Case about the Pattent for Soap Monoply of Soap voted Illegal upon which it was Resolved c. That the Patent Indenture Decree and Process in the Star-Chamber about Soap-Boilers is Illegal The Commons having desired a Conference with the Lords Wednesday August 18. Report about putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence about putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence Mr. Hollis Reports that Conference The Lord Chamberlain told us his Majesty before his going had declared That he would appoint a General for the South Side of Trent and that his Majesty was pleased to nominate him and that since his Majesties going a Commission had been delivered unto him under the Great Seal He apprehended this too great a Burden and knew not what Exception had been taken to the Proceedings of the Lord Lieutenants and Deputy Lieutenants That by this Commission in case of Tumults and Commotions he is to raise Forces and Men for the securing the Person of the Queen the Prince and the rest of the Royal Family He offered these Difficulties That when these Forces were raised he knew not how to levy Money for the Payment of them and besides he is to take a Care if there were an Invasion from Abroad for which he was ill prepared having no Intelligence or Correspondency from Ambassadors Abroad or from the Fleet and so concluded with a desire of Advice from this House Orders concerning the Bishops to prepare for their Answer In order to their Preparation for giving in their Answer It was this day Ordered by the House of Lords That the Bishop of Rochester with one other of the Bishops may have free Access twice unto the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury to speak with him concerning their Answer to the Impeachment brought up against them from the House of Commons for making a Book of Canons c. and they are to speak with the said Archbishop of Canterbury about no other Business It was also Ordered That the Lords the Bishops may Access unto and have Copies of all such Acts and Records as are in any of his Majesties Courts of Justice and Publick Offices which may make for their Defence or Answers to the Impeachments brought against them from the House of Commons Upon what Ground Information or Suspicion it does not appear but it was this day Ordered That Mr. Justice Heyward shall have Power by virtue of this Order Order to search under the Parliament Houses to search before the next Meeting of Parliament at Roseby's House the Tavern and such other Houses and Vaults or Cellars as are under the Vpper House of Parliament that there be no Powder Arms or any other Ammunition as may endanger the Safety of the Houses of Parliament and hereof Account is to be given to this House The Lord Viscount Say and Seal reported the Conferences Yesterday with the House of Commons touching disarming Popish Recusants THat because divers former directions have been frustrated The Result of the Conserence about Disarming Recusants Aug. 18 1641. the House of Commons holds it necessary to add some extraordinary courses at this time for the disarming of Papists there being more then extraordinary cause of danger for effecting whereof It is propounded and desired That Commissioners or Committees may be forthwith sent into the Counties of most danger as Yorkshire Lancashire Cheshire Staffordshire Hampshire and Sussex Authorized by Ordinances of Parliament to see the Papists disarmed in those places That these Committees may examin where the defect hath been that former Orders have not been observed especially in Case of such Papists as are in Power and that they may have direction to give the Oath of Allegiance to such as are justly suspected of Popery That the Commons have informed that divers Recusants have been kept from Conviction by Priviledg of Parliament allowed in the Upper House whereupon it was delivered as the clear Opinion of the House of Commons That no Priviledg of Parliament is to be allowed in this Case of Conviction or Disarming of Recusants for which these Reasons are given 1 That no Priviledg is allowable in Case of the Peace betwixt Private Men much more in Case of the Peace of the Kingdom 2 That Priviledg cannot be Pleaded against an Indictment for any thing done out of Parliament because all Indictments are contra pacem Domini Regis 3 Priviledg of Parliament is granted in regard of the Service of the Common-wealth and is not to be used to the danger of the Common-wealth 4 That all Priviledg of Parliament is in the power
of Parliament and is a restraint to the proceedings of other inferior Courts but is no restraint to the proceedings of Parliament and therefore seeing it may without in justice be denied this being the Case of the Common-wealth they conceive it ought not to be granted Whereupon it is desired that their Lordships will declare that all Priviledges shall be void in case of the Conviction or Disarming of Recusants and that all their Certioraris out of the King's Bench to hinder the Conviction of Recusants may be Superseeded That this direction may extend to Lords as well as to other Common Persons there being more cause of fear from them in regard of their Power and Greatness then from others That if any Popish Recusant of Quality shall be found not to be Convicted that such Pesons be commanded forthwith to attend the Parliament The Opinion of the House of Commons is That Popish Recusants as this Case is may be Disarmed by the Common-Law being Persons justly to be suspected for some dangerous design and that where there is cause of fear this may be extended to such Persons as have Wives Recusants or Children or any but considerable number of Servants as may give good Cause of Suspitions That in ordinary Cases if there be a Combination to do any mischief to commit a Riot Rob a House or hurt any private Person the Justices of the Peace may take security to prevent such damages much more in the Case where the danger of the Common-wealth is to be prevented Divers Presidents were remembred for the Disarming of Lords of Parliament the Marquess of Winchester Lord Peter Lord Vaux Lord Arundel of Wardour and divers others Then after some Consideration of this Conference It is Ordered That this House doth joyn with the House of Commons to send Commissioners to Disarm Recusants according to Law for the other part of it their Lordships will take it into consideration Sir William Armyn brings this Answer to the Message to the Lords The Lords Answer about the Commissioners for Scotland concerning the Commissioners designed for Scotland That the Lords are of Opinion that the Commission and Instructions be presently prepared together with a Petition to his Majesty and that this be sent away with all Speed and in the mean time the Commissioners may be going their Journey and those Instructions and Commission may meet them on the Way if this House thinks fit Mr. Pym reports the Petition and Instructions to the Commissioners for Scotland To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of your Majesties Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament Most Gracious Sovereign YOur Majesties Absence at this time the Parliament sitting The Petition to the King concerning the Commissioners for Scotland doth not only afflict us with much Grief but hinders us in making such Provision for the Public Necessities and Dangers of the Kingdom as we desired to do for the Safety whereof We shall be often forced to resort to your Majesties Wisdom and Goodness Whereupon both Houses of Parliament have agreed to send William Earl of Bedford Edward Lord Howard Nathaniel Fiennes Esquire Sir William Armyn Baronet Sir Philip Stapleton Knight and John Hambden Esquire to attend your Majesty to convey to us your Majesties Commands and Directions and to present to your Majesty our Humble Petitions and Desires and likewise to see the Expediting of such Acts in the Parliament of Scotland and other Affairs as by the late Treaty or otherwise concern the Kingdom Wherefore our most Humble Suit to your Majesty is That you will be graciously pleased to admit the said William Earl of Bedford Edward Lord Howard Nathaniel Fiennes Sir William Armyn Sir Philip Stapleton and John Hambden Esquire to be your Majesties Commissioners for the dispatch of the Affairs aforementioned according to such Instructions as they have now received or shall from time to time receive from both Houses of Parliament with your Majesties Consent and Approbation The Instructions for the said Commissioners follow I. YOV shall take care that all those Acts that concern both Kingdoms of England and Scotland The Instructions for the Commissioners and are already agreed upon in the Treaty between the Commissioners of both Nations and which are Confirmed by an Act of Parliament passed in this present Session shall likewise be confirmed and ratified in the Parliament in Scotland and You shall take an authentique Exemplification thereof to bring home with you II. You are to take Care that the Commissions agreed upon in the same Treaty concerning the Trade of both Kingdoms and concerning the Publique Peace and Correspondency betwixt the Two Nations may be settled and dispatched accordingly III. You are to demand Satisfaction of such Debts as shall remain due to the Northern Counties of England for any Money or Provision taken up by the Scottish Army IV. You shall be Careful to clear the Proceedings of the Parliament of England towards the Scots if you find any false Reports or Imputations cast on those Proceedings by persons ill-affected to the Peace of both Kingdoms V. You shall upon all fit Occasions assure the Parliament of Scotland of the good Affections of his Majesties Subjects of the Parliament of England and all things which shall concern the Service of his Majesty and the Peace and Prosperity of both Nations VI. You shall be Careful to certify the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament from time to time of all Proceedings therein and of all Occurrences which shall concern the good of this Kingdom VII You shall put in Execution such further Instructions as you shall receive from the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament with his Majesties Approbation and Consent signified under his Royal Hand It was Ordered Mr. Nichols to go with the Petition c. 1000 l. advanced for the Charges of the Commissioners That Mr. Anthony Nichols a Member of this House shall go to his Majesty from this House with the Petition and Instructions It was likewise Ordered That a Thousand pounds shall be advanced by Sir Robert Pye Mr. Wheeler and the Treasurers of Money for Westminster for the Commissioners Charges and their Acquittance or any two of them to be a Discharge Sir Philip Stapleton and Mr. Hollis were also Ordered to attend Her Majesty Sir Ph. Stapleton and Mr. Hollis to attend the Q. before they go for Scotland to know what Commands her Majesty will lay upon the Members of this House that are to go to His Majesty in Scotland The Lord General as indeed any person moderately skilled in Martial Affairs would have done made some difficulty it seems of letting so powerful an Army though of our Dear Brethren of Scotland March through so Important a Pass as the Town of Barwick and upon this wrote to the Parliament concerning it Whereupon the Lord Keeper Littleton returned this Answer My Lord I Have received your Letter dated the 16th of this
of Winchester's House the Commons desired a Conference with the Lords about it which Conference was thus Reported by Mr. Pym. That the Earl of Warwick said That whereas this House had propounded the Disarming of Recusants their Lordships agreed with them in the matter but desired a free Conference concerning the manner but it was remembred by another Lord that the manner was likewise propounded which was to send down Commissioners into all Counties to see it done upon which the Lords desired of this House to consider what men to send down and they did fully agree to the manner This Day the Lord Keeper signified to the House A Message from the King about Soldiers for the Spanish Ambassador That His Majesty hath Commanded Mr. Nicholas the Clerk of the Council to let their Lordships know That His Majesty is so far now engaged to the Spanish Ambassador for four Regiments of Irish That His Majesty cannot go back now and that it was assured His Majesty before he went from London that both Houses were content only it wanted the formality of Voting whereupon His Majesty gave an absolute Order for the Levying and Transporting of those Men and reiterated His Majesties promises to the Ambassador wherefore His Majesty would have the Houses acquainted herewith that those Levies may not be stopt Which was afterwards at a Conference communicated to the House of Commons Monday August 23. Letters from the E. of Holland and Sir William Udal about disbanding A Letter from the Lord General the Earl of Holland was this Day Read informing the Lords That he had not been wanting in diligence to fulfil their Orders and Commands in Disbanding the Army and that it was an affliction to him that the best Service he was able to perform was not better accepted by their Lordships That he had done all that lay in his Power and that as soon as the Accounts for Billetting could be stated they should be discharged but till Money came to them they could not do it This was seconded by a Letter from Sir William Vdal informing That they can proceed no further in the Disbanding till there be a Supply of Money and that he hath not above 200 l. in his hands Tuesday August 24. Whereupon It was Ordered That the Gentlemen that serve for the City of London shall endeavour to Borrow 40000 l. of the City upon the Credit of the Two last Bills of 4 Subsidies and the Poll-Bill without which the Army cannot be Disbanded The Speaker of the House of Commons was likewise Ordered to write a Letter in the Name of the House to those Sheriffs who were thought deficient in gathering the Poll-Money to quicken them in the Collecting and sending of it to the Army The Copy of which Letter was thus SIR THE House of Commons did hope The Speakers Letter to the Sheriffs about the Poll Mony that in so great a time and so visible a Necessity of present Money no private person much less any Publique Officers would have been so slow in contributing their Assistance to the getting in of the Poll-Money but by the not coming in of this from the slow and slender coming of it from others together with more particular Informations this House is forced to believe that both Payers Assessors Collectors and Returners are in fault concerning it I am therefore Commanded to let you know from the House That as you tender your Own or the Publique Good you make all possible hast in returning such Money as you have ready and that you will make known to the Commissoners That if we be not by them prevented the House intends to make a review of the Assessments to the End that wherein the Assessors through partiality shall be found either to have left any uncharged whom the Act chargeth or to have charged any lower than they are charged by the Act those that shall be found faulty may incur both the ill Opinion and severe Punishment of Parliament as Contemners of the greatest Authority in a time of greatest Necessity and by that Contempt being Causes of the Armies less speedy Disbanding to the Danger as well as the unsupportable and unnecessary Expence of the Kingdom An Order was likewise drawn up and presented to the Lords at a Conference by Mr. Pym with the Reasons of it the Necessity of present Money for the several Counties therein mentioned to pay in their Poll-Money at York See the Order it self August 24. 1641. An Order of the Lords and Commons in Parliament The Order of both Houses for paying in the Poll-Mony at York to Expedite the Disbanding Aug. 24. 1641. concerning the more speedy Transportation of the Poll-Mony to York for Disbanding of His Majesties Army WHereas it is Enacted that the Sheriffs of the Counties and Cities hereafter named shall amongst others pay such Summs of money as they shall receive for Poll-money to the Treasurer in the Act named in the Chamberlains Office within the City of London Now forasmuch as their long delay and slow payment is very burthensom and dangerous to the Kingdom because the Kings Army in the North by this means remains un-disbanded to the insupportable Charge of the Common-wealth For the more speedy relief of the Kingdom the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled do hereby order and ordain that the several Sheriffs of Worcester Cambridge Huntington Leicester Northampton Rutland Warwick and of the Cities that are Counties within those Countries and every of them respectively shall forthwith on notice of this Order send such Monies now in their hands or shall come to his Hand or any of their Hands respectively or to the Hands of his Under-Sheriff or Deputy or to the Hands of any of their Under-Sheriffs or Deputies respectively under a sufficient Guard and Convoy to the City of York to pay the same to Sir William Vdall Knight Treasurer of His Majesties Army now there residing takeing his acquittance for the same which acquittance the said several Sheriffs respectively shall send to the Chamber of London and that the said Treasurer in the Act named shall accept of the same as if so much Money were paid in specie and shall deliver an Acquittance or Acquittances for the same which shall be as sufficient a discharge to the said several Sheriffs as if the Mony had been paid there And the said Treasurer of the Army is hereby required that he shall as speedily as he may after the receipt of any such Summs from any of the Sheriffs afore-mentioned send up to the said Treasurer of the Chamber of London present and distinct Certificates of the same It is further Ordered that the several Sheriffs of the Counties through which these Moneys do pass shall provide a sufficient Convoy to Guard the same through the several Counties and that the Sheriffs under whose charge the Money is shall have allowance for Transportation thereof in their several Accounts Lastly it is ordered that a strict account
this Parliament Assembled hath ordained ut sequitur in the Act. And these Acts made by the King the Lords Temporal and Commons only were upon the Clamorous complaints of the Commons about the giving of the Benefices of England to strangers and others who never were Resident upon the Benefices This Report being made the House took the same into Consideration and for the better debate of the Propositions the House was adjourned into a Committee during pleasure And the Question was Whether those Thirteen Bishops that stood Impeached of those Crimes by the House of Commons shall be suspended from their Votes in this House until they stand Recti in Curia After a long debate herein the House was resumed and it is Ordered That the further Consideration of the Propositions which came from the House of Commons and the Bill entituled an Act for disabling Persons in Holy Orders to Exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction shall be both deferred until the Tenth day of November next A Message was brought from the House of Commons by Arthur Goodwin Esquire to let their Lordships know That whereas at a Conference Yesterday touching the Bishops which were Impeached for making of Canons the House of Commons did tell their Lordships That they had a Witness a Member of their House Mr. Wheeler to prove that the said Bishops did Subscribe to those Canons he having seen the Register Book with their Names written with their own Hands all which he is now ready upon Oath to prove if their Lordships shall rest herein satisfied the Register Book being in a House which is visited with the Plague The Reader will see by these Arguments of Mr. Solicitor St. John the utmost Strength of the Reason which they had to exclude the Bishops from their Votes and Peerage Now in regard the same thing has been again moved and the Arguments revived by the Successors of the same Faction who still retain the old Principles and Kindness to the Lords the Bishops looking upon them as a kind of Supernumeraries in the House of Lords who may well be spared and not as in reality they are a third Estate to stop the Progress so far as I am able of such an Error dangerous to the very being and Fundamental Constitution of our Parliaments I here present the Reader with a short Abstract out of the Learned Piece writ upon this Subject Entituled The Grand Question concerning the Bishops Right to Vote in Parliament in Cases Capital Stated and Argued c. I confess I have not followed the Author's Method nor was it possible to do it without great Inconvenience his Book being an Answer to some Papers writ against the Peerage and Jurisdiction of Bishops c. But I hope I have not done him or the Subject any Injustice by making use of the Matter and accommodating it more to my purpose which is among such Infinite Plenty and Variety of Matter to study all the conciseness and brevity I can I have therefore reduced the Subject to these four Heads First That the Bishops are Pares Regni Peers of the Realm and Peers in Parliament Secondly That they have a Right to Sit and Vote in Parliament in all Causes whatsoever even in Causa Sanguinis in Capital Cases Thirdly That the Lords Spiritual the Bishops are a third Estate in Parliament Fourthly To answer such Objections as have been made against their Peerage and Jurisdiction Which Abstract follows First Position That the Bishops are Pares Regni Peers of the Realm An Abstract of the Grand Question about the Peerage and Jurisdiction of the Bishops in Parliament Marculph Form lib. 1. c. 25. and Peers in Parliament The Author Learnedly proves That as soon as ever Christianity was settled in these Northern Nations Bishops were admitted into all publick Councils and Courts of Judicature So he instances in France from the Testimony of Marculphus That the King Sate in Judgment unà cum Dominis Patribus nostris Episcopis together with the Lords and Fathers the Bishops and that the greater Causes were heard by the King himself or the Comes Palatii Episcopis proceribus Assidentibus the Bishops and Nobility being Assessors with him In Spain during the Gothick Race of Kings the greatest Affairs of State were managed by the greatest of the Clergy and Nobility Concil Tolet. 4. c. 75.5 c. 7.6 c. 17. passim albi as appears by the several Councils of Toledo and particularly in the 13 Council Cap. 2. A case of Impeachment of Treason was brought before them And yet from one of these Councils of Toledo it is that all the Dust hath been raised and the Canon Law objected urged against Bishops That they ought not to be present or concerned in Cases of Blood In Germany Goldastus Rer. Alem. An. To. 2. the first Laws that were published by Lotharius were composed 33 Bishops 34 Dukes 72 Counts besides the People being present and assisting Arumaeus de Comitiis n. 35. c. 4. n. 98. and Arumaeus a Protestant Lawyer informs us that the Bishops of Germany Sate in the Diet in a double Capacity as Bishops and Princes of the Empire which Constitution he applauds as prudent for the Administration of Justice Honourable and safe for Religion In Bohemia Goldast Bohem. lib. 5. cap. 1. the same Goldastus a Protestant too acquaints us that there were three Estates prelates Nobles and Commons till the time of Sigismund In Hungary Decret Ladisl p. 12. so soon as ever the Christian Religion prevailed and was settled the Laws were framed by the King with the Advice and Consent of Bishops Nobles Staravols Polon p. 263. Herbart Stat. Regni Pol. p. 262. and the whole Clergy and People In Poland the Constitution of the Government is composed of the Bishops Barons and Delegates who are called Nuncii terrestres who are Summoned to the Dyet by the King and that with the entrance of Christianity as the publick Religion the Bishops entred into the Senate and had the first Seat in that Court Adam Brem de Situ Dan. n. 85. Loccen Antiq. Sueco-goth c. 8. Jus aulicum Norvey c. 3. c. 36. In Norway Denmark and Sweden the same Constitution entred with the prevalency of Christian Religion viz. Bishops Nobles Knights and Deputies In England after the Conversion of the Saxons during the whole time of that Monarchy there is not in all our Records one Council wherein the Bishops had not a part From whence the Author strongly Argues that it would be a very unaccountable thing that we of all the Nations of the Christian World who profess to have the best Government and the best Reformed Religion should Exclude those from any share in that Government who were by all others admitted into it as soon as they admitted the Christian Religion to be the publick Profession of their Country That the Bishops since the coming in of the Norman Race were always Esteemed Peers of the Realm and Peers of Parliaments
auxi mesmes les Communes remercierment les seigneurs Espirituelx Temporelx de lour bon droiturell Jugment quils auoint fait come Piers du Parlement That the said Commons returned thanks to the Lords Temporal and Spiritual for the good and upright Judgment which they had made as Peers of Parliament In the 2 of H. 6 John Lord Talbot accused James Boteler Earl of Ormond Rot. Par. n. 9. 2 H. 6. in Parliament of sundry Treasons and the Record saith That De avisamento assensu Dominorum Spiritualium Temporalium ac Communitatis Regni Angliae in eodem Parliamento existent ' facta fuit quaedam Abolitio delationis nunciatonis Detectionis predict ' c. By the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of England there was made a certain abolition of the said Accusation Relation and Discovery From which Presidents it is evident that the Lords the Bishops did Sit and Debate Vote and Determin in Causes Capital as well as the other Temporal Lords The third Position is that they are a third Estate in Parliament Which is proved both by undeniable Reason and undoubted Presidents and Records That there are three Estates in the Parliament of England is a matter on all hands allowed But some Persons who would bring down the Soveraignty to a Coordinacy do affirm that the King is the third Estate the Lords making one and the Commons the other which dangerous Position as it doth submit the Monarchy to great hazzards so it gave occasion and colour to the taking away of the Peerage of the Bishops the third Estate notwithstanding their Exclusion being according to this principle left as Intire in the Lords House as it was upon the Exclusion of the Lord Abbots in the time of King Henry the Eighth Now that the King is not one of the three Estates and consequently that the Lords the Bishops must be so and were ever accounted so evidently appears by the Records of our Parliaments which are cited to this purpose as follows In the Parliament of 1. H. 4. By the Roll it appears that King Richard the Second appointed two Procurators to declare his Resignation of the Crown coram omnibus Statibus Regni before all the States of the Realm and one of the Articles against him was concerning his Impeachment of Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury coram Rege omnibus Statibus Regni before the King and all the Estates of the Realm And who all these Estates of the Realm were it most fully appears in that the Commissioners for the Sentence of this unfortunate Kings deposition are said to be appointed Per Pares Proceres Regni Anglia Spirituales Temporales ejusdem Regni Communitates omnes status ejusdem Regni representantes By the Peers and Nobility of the Kingdom of England Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of the same representing all the Estates of the said Realm So that First the Bishops are declared Peers of the Realm in Parliament Secondly The Estates of the Parliament are to represent all the Estates of the Kingdom Clergy Nobility and Commons Thirdly The three Estates in Parliament are the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons of the Realm In the Roll of Parliament Rot. Parl. 1. R. 3. 1. R. 3. it is Recorded That whereas before his Coronation certain Articles were delivered unto him in the name of the three Estates of the Realm that is to say of the Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and of the Commons by name c. Now forasmuch as neither the said three Estates neither the said Persons which in their name presented and delivered as it is aforesaid the said Roll unto our Soveraign Lord the King were Assembled in Form of Parliament divers doubts have been moved c. Now by the said three Estates Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same be ratified and Enrolled c. Upon which Record Mr. Prinn himself makes this Marginal Note The three Estates must concur to make a Parliament no one or two of them being a full or Real Parliament but all conjoyned In the 3. H. 6. it is said in the Record Prinn Abridgments of Records p. 710. 714. the three Estates Assembled in this present Parliament In the Explanation of the Duke of Bedford's Power as Protector It is said it was advised and appointed by the Authority of the King Assenting the three Estates of this Realm so that it is plain that the King was not then accounted one of them Rot. Par. 3. H. 6. n. 19. 6. H. 6. n. 24. In the 11. H. 6. The Duke of Bedford appeared in Parliament and declared the Reason of his coming coram Domino Rege tribus Statibus Regni before the King and the three Estates of the Realm 11. Hen. 6. n. 10. and n. 2. n. 2. N. 11. Domino Rege tribus Regni Statibus in presenti Parliamento Existentibus Our Lord the King and the three Estates in Parliament being present where the King is plainly distinct from the three Estates 11. H. 6. N. 2. The Lord Cromwell Lord Treasurer Exhibits a Petition in Parliament wherein he saith that the Estate and necessity of the King and of the Realm have been notified to the three Estates of the Land Assembled in Parliament In the Appendix to the Rolls of Parliament that Year the Duke of Bedford saith in his Petition to the King How that in your last Parliament yit lyked your Hyghness by yaduis of three Estates of yis Land to will me c. 23. H. 6. N. 11. Presente Domino Rege 23. H. 6. n. 11. tribus Statibus in presenti Parliamento Existentibus c. Our Lord the King being present and the three Estates in the present Parliament Assembled 28. H. 6. N. 9. Domino Rege 28. H. 6. n. 9. tribus Regni Statibus in pleno Parliamento comparentibus c. Our Lord the King and the three Estates in full Parliament appearing c. 1. H. 6. 1. H. 6. The Queen Dowager in her Petition mentioning the Ratification made in Parliament 9. H. 5. saith it was not only sworn by the King but by the three Estates of the Kingdom of England Cest assavoir Les Prelatz Nobles Grands per les Comuns de mesm le Royalm Dengleterre That is to say by the Prelats Nobles and Great Men and by the Commons of the said Realm of England And since the Reformation In the 8 of Eliz. 1. 8. Eliz. 1. The Bishops are in Parliament called one of the greatest States of this Realm From all which Instances it plainly appears First That there are three Estates in the Fundamental Constitution of every Parliament Secondly That there are three Estates besides the King and consequently that he cannot be one of the three Thirdly that the Lords Spiritual the Bishops are a Third Estate of the Realm in Parliament
grants and otherwise And that all His Majesties debts then due in this Kingdom were satisfied out of the said Subsidies and yet His Majesty is of late as the Petitioners have been informed in the House of Commons become indebted in this Kingdom in great Sums And they do therefore humbly beseech that an exact accompt may be sent to His Majesty how and in what manner his Treasure issued 12. The Petitioners do humbly conceive just and great fears at a Proclamation published in this Kingdom in Anno Domini 1635. Prohibiting Men of Quality or Estates to depart this Kingdom into England without the Lord Deputies License wherein the Subjects of this Kingdom are hindred and interrupted from free access to Address to His Sacred Majesty and Privy Council of England to declare their just Grievances or to obtain Remedies for them in such sort as their Ancestors have done in all Ages since the Reign of King Henry the Second and great Fees exacted for every of the said Licenses 13. That of late His Majesties late Attorney General hath exhibited Informations against many Boroughs of this Kingdom into His Majesty's Court of Exchequer to shew cause by what Warrant the said Burgesses who heretofore sent Burgesses to the Parliament should send the Burgesses to the Parliament and thereupon for want of an Answer the said Priviledges of sending Burgesses was seised by the said Court which proceedings were altogether Coram non Judice and contrary to the Laws and Priviledges of the House of Parliament and if way should be given thereunto would tend to the Subversion of Parliaments and by consequence to the ruine and destruction of the Common-wealth And that the House of Commons hath hitherto in this present Parliament been deprived of the Advice and Counsel of many profitable and good Members by means thereof 14. By the powerfulness of some Ministers of State in this Kingdom the Parliament in its Members and Actions hath not his natural Freedom 15. And lastly That the Gentry and Merchants and other His Majesty's Subjects of this Kingdom are of late by the Grievances and Pressures beforesaid and other the like brought very near to Ruine and Destruction And Farmers of Customs Customers Waiters Searchers Clerks of unwarrantable proceedings Pursivants and Goalers and sundry others very much enriched whereby and by the slow Redress of the Petitioners His Majesties most Faithful and Dutiful People of this Kingdom do conceive great fears that their readiness approved upon all occasions hath not been of late presented to his Sacred Majesty For remedy whereof the said Petitioners do humbly and of right beseech your Lordship that the said Grievances and Pressures may be speedily redressed and if your Lordship shall not think fit to afford present relief that your Lordship might admit a select Committee of this House of Persons uninteressed in the benefit arising of the aforesaid Grievances to be licensed by your Lordship to repair to his Sacred Majesty in England for to pursue the same and to obtain fitting remedy for their aforesaid and other just Grievances and Oppressions and upon all just and honourable occasions they will without respect of particular interest or profit to be raised thereby most humbly and readily in Parliament extend their uttermost endeavour to serve His Majesty and comply with his Royal and Princely occasions And shall pray c. Not long after the Lord Deputy Wendesford died Lord Deputy Wendesford dies viz. the Third of December following whereupon Robert Lord Dillon of Kilkenny-west and Sir William Parsons Knight and Baronet Master of the Court of Wards L. Dillon and Sir William Parsons made Lords Justices were Constituted Lords Justices of Ireland and were accordingly Sworn the 30th of December 1640. But the Lord Dillon whose Son had married the Earl of Strafford's Sister and who being a Person of great Parts and Abilities and passionately devoted to the Earl's Interests both by Alliance and Inclination was no way grateful to the Faction it was not long therefore before the King who in all things endeavoured to sweeten them by gratifying them in whatever they desired was prevailed with L. Dillon displaced and Sir John Borlase substituted in his room at the Importunities of the Irish Committees then at the Court to displace the Lord Dillon and appoint the aforesaid Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase to be Lords Justices of the Kingdom of Ireland These Gentlemen by His Majesties Command applied themselves to give such satisfaction to His Majesties Subjects of Ireland as in reason they could desire and among other things His Majesty was pleased to reduce the Subsidies from 40000 l. a Subsidy to 12000 a piece and all things seemed to be in a most quiet and peaceable Posture and Condition of Settlement But yet even then which seems much to confirm the Lord Macguire's Confession this Rebellion was upon the Anvil for about the latter end of the year 1640 the King received some advertisements of a Design then on Foot to raise some Commotions in Ireland whereupon the King whose care for the Security of his Kingdom and Protestant Subjects of Ireland was always awake caused Sir Henry Vane his Principal Secretary of Estate to advertise the Lords Justices Parsons and Borlase of it and to Command them to take care therein The Letter which I find in Dr. Borlase's History was delivered to the Lord Parsons and found after his Death in his Study by Sir James Barry Lord Baron of Santry and presented to His present Majesty and was in these Terms Right Honourable HIS Majesty hath Commanded me to acquaint your Lordships with an Advice given him from abroad Sir H. Vane's Letter to the Lords Justices concerning some Informations of danger in Ireland and confirm'd by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this Distemper'd Time and Conjuncture of Affairs deserves to be seriously consider'd and an especial care and watchfulness to be had therein which is That of late there have passed from Spain and the like may well have been from other Parts an unspeakable number of Irish Church-men for England and Ireland and some good old Soldiers under pretext of asking leave to raise Men for the King of Spain whereas it is observed among the Irish Friars there a whisper runs as if they expected a Rebellion in Ireland and particularly in Connaght Wherefore His Majesty thought fit to give your Lordships this notice that in your Wisdoms you might manage the same with that Dexterity and Secresie as to Discover and Prevent so pernicious a Design if any such there should be and to have a watchful Eye on the Proceedings and Actions of those who come thither from abroad on what pretext soever and so herewith I rest Your Lordships most Humble Servant Henry Vane White-Hall March the 16 th 1640. The preservation of this Letter appears very uncommon and looks as if Providence interessed in the Vindication of Oppressed Innocence had reserved it to clear the
Judge to take Four shillings per pound out of all Increases unto his Majesty upon Compositions on defective Titles by avoiding such Patents as the same Judge condemns in an Extrajudicial way This last Question is added by Order of the Lords House Copia Vera Ex. per Phill. Percivall The Answer and Declaration of the Judges unto the Questions Transmitted from the Honourable House of Commons unto the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled whereto they desired their Lordships to require the said Judges Answers in Writing forthwith 1. FIrst The Judges Answer to the Queries propounded by the Parliament The said Judges do in all Humbleness desire to represent unto your Lordships the great sense of Grief they apprehend out of their Fear that they are fallen from that good Opinion which they desire to retain with your Lordships and the said House of Commons in that notwithstanding their humble Petition and Reasons to the contrary exhibited in Writing and declared in this most Honourable House your Lordships have Over-ruled and often Commanded their Answers unto the said Questions Although they have informed your Lordships and still with assurance do aver That no Precedent in any Age can be shewn that any Judges before them were Required or Commanded to give Answer in Writing or otherwise unto such general or so many Questions in such a manner in Parliament or elsewhere unless in that time of King Rich. 2. which they humbly conceive is not to be drawn into Example And therefore they yet humbly Supplicate your Lordships so far to tender their Professions and Places and their Relation to his Majesties Service as to take into your serious Considerations the Reasons annex'd unto this their Answers before their Answers be answered or admitted among the Acts of this High Court And that if your Lordships in your Wisdomes shall after think fit to give any Copies of their Answers that for their Justification to the Present and Succeeding Times your Lordships will be pleased to require the Clerk of this most Honourable House That no Copy may be given of the said Answers without the said Reasons 2. Secondly The said Judges humbly desire your Lordships to be pleased to be informed That the words in His Majesties Writ by which they are Commanded to attend in Parliament are That the said Judges shall be present with the Lord Justices or other Chief Governor And your Lordships at the said Parliament called Pro ardus urgentibus Regni negotiis super dictis negotiis tractaturi Confilium suum impensuri And they desire your Lordships to take into your serious Considerations Whether any Advice may be required by your Lordships from them but concerning such particular matters as are in Treaty and Agitation and Judicially depending before your Lordships upon which your Lordships may give a Judgment Order or Sentence to be recorded among the Orders and Acts of this Honourable House And whether they may be Commanded by your Lordships to Subscribe their Hands unto any Opinion or Advice they shall give upon any matter in Debate before your Lordships there And whether your Lordships conceive any final Resolution upon the maâ—ters contained in the said Questions 3. Thirdly Although the said Questions are but 22 in number yet they say That they contain at least Fifty general Questions many of them of several matters and of several natures within the Resolution of which most of the greatest Affairs of this Kingdom both for Church and Common-wealth for late years may be included And therefore the said Judges do openly aforehand profess That if any particular that may have Relation to any of those Questions shall hereafter come Judicially before them and that either upon Argument or Debate which is the Sieve or Fan of Truth or Discovery of any general Inconveniences to King or Common-wealth in Time which is the Mother of Truth or by further Search or Information in any particular they shall see Cause or receive Satisfaction for it they will not be Concluded by any Answers they now give unto any of those general Questions but they will upon better Ground and Reason with their Predecessors the Judges in all Ages with Holy Fathers Councils and Parliaments retract and alter their Opinion according to their Conscience and Knowledge and the Matter and Circumstances of the Cause as it shall appear in Judgment before them it being most certain That no general Case may be so put but a Circumstance in the matter or manner may alter a Resolution concerning the same 4. Fourthly The succeeding Judges and Age notwithstanding any Answer given by the now Judges may be of another Opinion then the now Judges are without disparagement to themselves or the now Judges in regard that many particular Circumstances in many particular Cases may fall out that may alter the Reason of the Law in such Case which could not be included or foreseen in a general Question or Answer thereunto And therefore they desire your Lordships to consider of what use such Answers may be to the present or future Times 5. Fifthly Many of the said Questions as they are propounded as the said Judges humbly conceive do concern His Majesty in a high Degree in his Regal and Prerogative Power in this Government in his Revenue in the Jurisdictions of his Courts in his martial Affairs and in Ministers of State so that the said Judges considering their Oaths and the Duty which by their Places they owe unto His Majesty humbly may not with safety give Answer thereunto without special direction from His Majesty And therefore they still humbly pray your Lordships as formerly they did not to press any Answers from them untill His Majesties Princely pleasure therein be signified 6. Sixthly If the matters of those Questions which aim at some abuses of former Times were reduced into Bills they conceive it were the speedy way to have such a Reformation which might bind the present Times and Posterity And in such proceedings they ought and would most chearfully contribute their Opinions and best endeavours but in such a course as they apprehend it which points at punishment they have Reason to be sparing in giving any Opinion further then the Duty of their Places doth Command from them 7. Seventhly Although it may be conceived that the Answering of such and so many general Questions by the now Judges may contribute some help to the Reformation now so much desired yet no Man knoweth but this new Precedent in propounding such Questions to Judge in succeeding Times as the Judges and frame and Constitution of the Common-wealth may be may fall out to be most prejudicial to the State or Common-wealth 8. Eighthly Most of the matters of several of the said Questions are already by your Lordships and the said House of Commons Voted and represented unto His Majesty for Grievances and therefore no Opinions of the said Judges under favour are needful or to be required thereunto unless the same shall
Majesty's said Letters or the said Act of State and not otherwise The Commons not being satisfied with these Sober and Calm Resolutions of the Judges fell to Voting their own Sense and to make Declarations of the Law upon their former Queries as followeth Questions propounded in Parliament And Declarations of the Law thereupon in Parliament Quest 1. The Declaration of the Commons in Ireland upon the Queries propounded to the Judges WHether the Subjects of this Kingdom be a Free People and to be Governed only by the Common Laws of England and Statutes of Force in this Kingdom Declarat The Subjects of this his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland are a free People and to be Governed only according the Common Law of England and Statutes made and established by Parliament in this Kingdom of Ireland and according to the Lawful Customs used in the same 2. Quest Whether the Judges of this Land do take the Oath of Judges And if so Whether under pretext of any Act of State Proclamation Writ Letter or Direction under the Seal or Privy Seal Signet or Letter or other Commandment from the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy Justice Justices or other Chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom they may hinder stay or delay the Suit of any Subject or his Judgment or Execution thereupon If so in what Cases And whether if they do hinder stay or delay such Suit or Judgment or Execution thereupon what Punishment do they incur for their deviation and transgression therein Declarat That Judges in Ireland ought to take the Oath of the Justices or Judges declared and established in several Parliaments of Force in this Kingdom and the said Judges or any of them by Color or under Pretext of any Act of State or Proclamation or under Color or Protext of any Writ Letter or Direction under the Great Seal Privy Seal or Privy Signet from the King 's Most Excellent Majesty or by Color or Pretext of any Letter or Commandment from the Chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom ought not to hinder or delay the Suit of any Subject or his Judgment or Execution thereupon and if any Letters Writs or Commands come from his Majesty or from any other or for any other Cause to the Justices or to the other deputed to do the Law and right according to the Usage of the Realm in disturbance of the Law or of the Execution of the same or of Right to the Party the Justices and others aforesaid ought to proceed and hold their Courts and Processes where the Pleas and Matters be depending before them as if no such Letters Writs or Commandments were come to them And in case any Judge or Judges Justice or Justices be found in default therein he or they so found in default ought to incur and undergo due Punishment according to the Law and former Declarations and Provisions in Parliament in that Case made and of Force in this Kingdom or as shall be Ordered Adjudged or Declared in Parliament And the Barons of the Exchequer Justices of the Assize and Goal-delivery if they be found in default as aforesaid It is hereby declared That they ought to undergo the Punishment aforesaid 3. Quest Whether the Kings Majesties Privy Council either with the Chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom or without him or them be a Place of Judicature by the Commons Laws and wherein Causes between Party and Party for Debts Trespasses Accompts Possessions or Title of Lands or any of them or which of them may be heard and determined and of what Civil Causes they have Jurisdiction and by what Law And of what Force is their Order or Decree in such Cases or any of them Declarat The Council Table of this Realm either with the Chief Governor or Governors or without the Chief Governor or Governors is no Judicatory wherein any Action Real Personal Popular or Mixt or any Suit in the Nature of the said Actions or any of them can or ought to be Commenced Heard or Determined and all Proceedings at the Council Table in any Suit in the nature of any of the said Actions are void especially Causes particularly provided for by express Acts of Parliament of Force in this Kingdom only excepted 4. Quest The Like of the Chief Governor alone Declarat The Proceedings before the Chief Governor or Governors alone in any Action Real Personal Popular or Mixt or in any Suit in the Nature of any of the said Actions are Coram non Judice and void 5. Quest Whether Grants of Monopolies be warranted by the Law and of what and in what Cases and how and where and by whom are the pretended Transgressors against such Grants punishable and whether by Fine Mutilation of Members Imprisonment Loss and Forfeiture of Goods or otherwise and which of them Declarat All Grants of Monopolies are contrary to the Laws of this Realm and therefore void and no Subject of the said Realm ought to be Fined Imprisoned or otherwise Punished for exercising or using the Lawful Liberty of a Subject contrary to such Grants 6. Quest In what Cases the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom and Council may punish by Fine Imprisonment Mutilation of Members Pillory or otherwise And whether they may Sentence any to such the same or the like punishment for infringing the Commands of or concerning any Proclamation of and concerning Monopolies and what punishment do they incur that Vote for the same Declarat The Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governor or Governors and Council of this Realm or any of them ought not to imprison any of his Majesties Subjects but only in Cases where the Common Laws or Statutes of the Realm do inable and warrant them so to do and they ought not to Fine or to Consure any Subject in mutilation of Member standing on the Pillory or other shameful Punishment in any Case at the Council Table and no Subject ought to be Imprisoned Fined or otherwise Punished for Infringing any Commands or Proclamation for the support or Countenance of Monopolies and if in any Case any Person or Persons shall be committed by the Command or Warrant of the Chief Governor or Governors and Privy Council of this Realm or any of them That in every such Case every Person or Persons so Committed restrained of his or their Liberty or suffering Imprisonment upon Demand or Motion made by his or their Counsel or other imployed by him or them for that purpose unto the Judges of the Court of Kings-Bench or Common-Pleas in open Court shall without delay upon any Pretence whatsoever for the ordinary Fees usually paid for the same have forthwith granted unto him or them a Writ or Writs of Habeas Corpus to be directed generally unto all and every Sheriff Goaler Minister Officer or other Person in whose Custody the Party or Parties so Committed or Restrained shall be shall at the Return of the said Writ or Writs and
Declarat Deanries and other Ecclesiastical Dignities of this Realm are not de Mero Jure donative but some are Donative and some Elective and some are Collative according to their respective Foundations and the Confirmation of the Bishops Grant by a Dean de Facto having actually stallum in Choro et vocem in Capitulo together with the Chapter is good in Law 15. Quest Whether the issuing of Quo Warranto's out of the Kings-Bench or Exchequer against Boroughs that antiently and recently sent Burgesses to the Parliament to shew Cause why they sent Burgesses to the Parliament be Legal If not what punishment ought to be inflicted upon those that are or have been the Occasioners Procurers and Judges of and in such Quo Warranto's Declarat The Issuing of Quo Warranto's out of the Court of Kings-Bench Court of Exchequer or any Court against Boroughs that anciently or recently sent Burgesses to the Parliament to shew Cause why they sent Burgesses to Parliament and all the Proceedings thereupon are Coram non Judice Illegal and void and the Right of sending Burgesses to the Parliament is Questionable in Parliament only and the Occasioners Procurers and Judges in such Quo Warranto's and Proceedings are Punishable as in Parliament shall be thought consonant to Law and Justice 16. Quest By what Law are Jurors that give Verdict according to their Conscience and are the sole Judges of the Fact Censured in the Castle-Chamber in great Fines and sometimes Pillored with loss of Ears and bored through the Tongue and marked sometimes in the Forehead with an Hot Iron and other like Infamous Punishment Declarat Jurors are the sole Judges of the Matter in Fact and they ought not for giving their Verdict to be bound over to the Court of Castle-Chamber by the Judge or Judges before whom the Verdict was or shall be given 17. Quest By what Law are men Censurable in the Castle-Chamber with the Matilation of Members or any other Brand of Infamy and in what Cases and what punishment in each Case there is due without Respect to the Quality of the Person or Persons Declarat No Man ought to be Censured in the Castle-Chamber in the Mutilation of Members or any other Brand of Infamy otherwise or in other Cases then is expresly Limited by the Statutes of the Realm in such Case provided 18. Quest Whether in the Censure in the Castle-Chamber Regard be to be had to the words of the Great Charter viz. Salvo Contenemento c. Declarat In the Censures in the Castle-Chamber especial Regard ought to be had to the Words of the Great Charter viz. Salvo Contenemento c. 19. Quest Whether if one that steals a Sheep or commits any other Felony and after flyeth the Course of Justice or lyeth in Woods or Mountains upon his keeping be a Traytor If not whether a Proclamation can make him so Declarat A Felon who Flies the Course of Justice and lyeth in Woods Mountains or elsewhere upon his keeping is no Traitor and a Proclamation cannot make him a Traitor 20. Quest Whether the Testimony or Evidence of Rebels Traytors Protected Thieves or other infamous Persons be good Evidence in Law to be pressed upon the Tryals of Men for their Lives or whether the Judge or Jurors ought to be Judge of the matter Declarat The Testimony of Convicted or Protected Rebels Traitors or Felons is no sufficient Evidence in Law upon the Tryal of any Person for his Life and the Credit of the Testimony of Persons Accused or Impeached and not convicted of Felony or Treason ought to be left to the Jury who are sole Judges of the Truth and Validity of the said Testimony 21. Quest By what Law are Fairs and Markets to be held in Capite when no other express Tenure is mentioned in his Majesties Letters Patents or Grants of the same Fairs and Markets Altho the Rent or Tearly Sum be reserved thereout Declarat The King grants Lands to be held in Free and common Socage as of a Castle or Mannor by Letters Patents under the Great Seal and by the same Letters Patents or by other Letters Patents Grants a Fair and Market reserving a yearly Rent or Summ without expressing any Tenure as to the said Fair or Market the said Fair or Market is not held by Knights Service in Capite or otherwise in Capite I cannot omit one remarkable passage which I find mentioned in Dr. Borlase's Hist of Ireland p. 12. Borlase's History which seems plainly to evince that during this time when they appeared so Zealous for the Redressing of Publick Grievances and removing the obstructions of Justice therein following the very same steps with the Faction of the Parliament of England and Scotland they were at the same time complotting to shake off the Soveraignty of His Majesty by an open Rebellion as the Scots had done in Effect and the English Parliamentary Faction presently after did Which may teach Posterity hereafter to be very Cautious of such pretences and pretenders who through the sides of the prime Ministers of State endeavour to wound Majesty it self and to cover the Designs of Teason and Rebellion with the Popular Cloak of Reformation which were the very steps by which these Three Rebellions one upon the neck of another advanced themselves within the compass of little less then three Years The passage was this During the Summer Sessions which began the 11th of May 1641. Some of the chief Conspirators and among whom the Lord Macguire was one the most busie pretending a suspition That some of the Servants of the late Earl of Strafford to revenge his death to which it seems by this their own guilt acknowledged the Irish very instrumental intended some mischief to the Parliament moved the House and accordingly had Orders that the Lords Justices would let His Majesties Stores for Powder and Arms be searched lest any should be placed near the Parliament Houses which being granted and a diligent search being made but nothing found yet were they not satisfied but procured a new Order to the Lords Justices to be admitted to see the Stores of Powder and Arms placed in other Rooms in and about the Castle To whom the Lord Justice Borlase answered That those were the King 's precious Jewels and not to be shewed without especial Cause but withal assuring them upon his Honor that there was no Powder underneath either of the Houses of Parliament with which answer they were not more discontented then his Lordship seemed surprised with this repeated Order which raised such a sudden Emotion in his blood that he could not but often after reflect upon the reiterated importunity of the enquiry as aiming at something further then was at present discernable Which plainly appears to be to get a perfect knowledge both of the quantity of the martial Stores and the certain place where they were deposited that thereby their intended surprisal of them might be with more ease effected To Sum up what hath
That Mr. Hugh Benson shall be forthwith sent for as a Delinquent by the Serjeant at Arms attending on this House After which it was Ordered Captain of Hurst Castle Summoned That the Lord Gorge who is Governor of Hurst Castle be forthwith Summoned to appear here to give an Account why he suffered that Castle to go to decay A Complaint was exhibited by the Resident of Florence Resident of Florence complains of his House being broken c. against May and Newton two Persons imployed to apprehend Priests for violently contrary to the Law of Nations breaking open his Doors and taking and committing his Domestick Servants to Prison Whereupon it was Ordered That the said May and Newton be Summoned to give an Account of that Action and that the said Persons Imprisoned be set at Liberty the Resident passing his Word for their forth-coming Then certain Interrogatories to be administred to Owen O Connelly Interrogatories for the further Examination of Connelly were read as follows 1 What ground had you to Suspect that the Papists had any Design upon the State of Ireland 2 What have you heard any Priests or others say concerning the promoting of the Romish Religion 3 What Discourse have you had with Hugh Ogh Mac-Mohan concerning any such Design in Ireland 4 Have you heard of any Design in England or Scotland of the like Nature what is it you have heard Declare your whole Knowledg The Design of which Questions as plainly appears by the very Words of them were purposely to draw out something from him which might give color to the pretended Calumnies against the King or Queen or both of them as being some way or other concerned in promoting Popery and the Rebellion in Ireland as they had upon all Occasions insinuated the King to have been privy and Consenting to the Design of bringing up the Army and the Conspiracy in Scotland pretended against Hamilton Argyle and others And indeed the Faction laid hold upon all Occasions which were in the least capable of an Improvement to the Defamation of his Majesty and to rob him of the Affections of his People by whispering such Surmises as might beget and confirm those useful Fears and Jealousies of Popery and Arbitrary Power which were to be the Engines by which their wicked and mischievous Designs were to be effected and accomplished After this Sir Thomas Widdrington Reports further of the Conference The Report of the Conferrence about the Prince and Queen concerning the Prince and Queen That the Earl of Holland said he had according to the Commands of both Houses waited upon her Majesty and presented her with the Reasons of both Houses why they desired that the Prince should reside at Richmond 1. Because that he lost much opportunity in improving himself in his Learning and Study by being at Oatlands 2. Next though the Parliament doth not think her Majesty would intimate any thing to him concerning her Religion yet there were many about her which might prepare him with those impressions in his Religion which mightsit upon him many Years after 3. That in this time so full of danger for we hear of new Treasons every day that the Prince might be more Secure and yet his Lordship said he acquainted the Queen That it was not the Intentions of the Two Houses of Parliament that the Prince should not at all wait upon her Majesty but might come when her Majesty was desirous to see him but yet that his place of Residence might be at Richmond for otherwise his Governor could not take that Charge over Him as was required by the Parliament nor be answerable for such Servants as were about him His Lordship was pleased further to say That Her Majesty gave this Answer THat She gave the Parliament Thanks for their Care of her Son The Queens Answer the Occasion wherefore Her Majesty sent for him was to Celebrate the Birth-Day of one of his Sisters but that the Prince should be presently sent back to Richmond And Her Majesty said She did make no doubt but upon the King's Return the Parliament will Express the like Care both of the Kings Honor and Safety Mr. Whitlock further Reported That the Lord Chamberlain said at the Conference That he had taken care for a Guard That many of them complained of standing upon their Guard 24 Hours without Relief and some of the Captains neglect to come and that therefore Order should be taken therein A Message was brought from the House of Commons by Arthur Goodwin Esquire to let their Lordships know Wednesday Novemb. 3. A Message from the Commons about Phillips the Priest That he was Commanded to give their Lordships Thanks from the House of Commons for their Care and Honour of Religion in committing Robert Phillips the Priest unto the Tower desiring that he may not be released from his Imprisonment without they be made acquainted with it and that their Lordships would give Directions that none may speak with him at the Tower but in the presence of some of the Keepers Whereupon the Lords made an Order accordingly The Lord Privy Seal Reported The Report about Borrowing 50000 l. of the City That Yesterday the Committees of both Houses in the Name of the Parliament went to the City to propound the Borrowing of 50000 l. for the Irish Affairs He said They gave the City a full relation of the State and Condition of Ireland now is in it being the Case of Religion That they were much moved at the Relation and the Committees then told the Three Wants which the Council of Ireland desires to be speedily furnished with or else that Kingdom will be in danger to be lost which are Men Arms and Money His Lordship said the Committee told them the Parliament required nothing of them but the Loan of Money which should be Secured to them by Act of Parliament with advantage to themselves with Interest Vpon this the Major and Aldermen with the Common Council presently retired to consult among themselves till it was very late and so the Committees left them The next Morning the Recorder came to the Lords of the Councel at Whitehall and declared That he had Command from the Major and Aldermen and Common Council of the City to inform their Lordships first by way of Protestation That so great Sums of Money were drawn from them lately that they were hardly able to Supply this Occasion Yet such is their Zeal to this Cause that they will do their best Endeavours therein 2. He delivered by way of Plea from the City That Protections were so frequent that unless the Parliament did take some Course therein they shall not be able to do the Parliament that Service they desire in this kind because it decayes their Trading Mr. Recorder further declared That the City had formerly lent 50000 l. upon the Request of the Great Council at York which was due the 22d. of October last which yet is not paid
which way soever he shall approach Let us maintain both Pen and Pulpit Let no Ammonite perswade the Gileadite 1 Sam. 2. to fool out his right Eye unless we be willing to make a League with Destruction and to wink at Ruine whil'st it comes upon us Learning Sir it is invaluable the loss of Learning it is not in one Age recoverable You may have observed that there hath been a continual Spring a perpetual growth of Learning ever since it pleased God first to light Luther's Candle I might have said Wicklif's and justly so I do for even from that time unto this day and night and hour this light hath encreased and all this while our better cause hath gained by this light which doth convince our Miso-musists and doth evict that Learning and Religion by their mutual support are like Hypocrites Twyns they laugh and Mourn together But Sir notwithstanding all this so long encrease of learning there is Terra incognita a great Land of Learning not yet discovered our Adversaries are dayly Trading and we must not sit down and give over but must encourage and maintain and encrease the number of our painful Adventurers for the Golden Fleece and except the Fleece be of Gold you shall have no Adventurers Sir we all do look that our Cause should be defended if the Fee be poor the Plea will be but faint Our Cause is good our Defence is just let us take care that it be strong which for my part I do clearly and ingeniously profess I cannot expect should be performed by the Parish Minister no not so well as hitherto it hath been For from whom the more you do now expect of the Pulpit the less I am sure you must look for of the Pen. How shall we with one hundred Pound perhaps two hundred Pound per annum with a Family and with constant Preaching be able either in Purse for Charge or in leisure for time or in Art for skill to this so chargeable so different so difficult a work I speak it Mr. Speaker and Pardon my want of Modesty if I say I speak it not unknowingly Six hundred Pound is but a mean expence in Books and will advance but a moderate Library Pains and Learning must have a reward of Honour and Profit proportional and so long as our Adversaries will contend we must maintain the Charge or else lay down the Cause In Conclusion I do beseech you all with the fervour of an earnest heart a heart almost divided between hopes and fears never to suffer diversion or diminution of the Rents we have for Learning and Religion but beside the Pulpit let us be sure to maintain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal Militia of Theology whereby we may be alway ready and able even by strength of our own within our own happy Island at home 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stop the Mouth of all errors and heresies that can arise Never Sir never let it be said that sacred Learning for such is that I plead for shall in one essential half thereof be quite unprovided for in England Sir I have reason to be earnest in this I see I know great designs drawing another way and my fears are increased not cured by this Declaration Thus I have done and because I shall want Champions for true Religion Because I neither look for Cure of our Complaints from the common People nor do desire to be cured by them Because this House as under favour I conceive hath not recommended all the heads of this Remonstrance to the Committee which brought it in Because it is not true that the Bishops have Commanded Idolatry because I do not know any necessary good end and use of this Declaration but do fear a bad one And because we pass his Majesty and do remonstrate to the People I do here discharge my Vote with a clear Conscience and must say No to this strange Remonstrance This was the last Speech which this unfortunate Gentleman made in the House that I can meet with whom I cannot name without Compassion considering his great Parts and Abilities had they been rightly Informed and not over-born by the popular Torrent which though he at first helpt to swell above its Banks he was not able to Stem when he indeavoured to oppose it but was himself over-born and sunk by it And how dangerous a thing that great Privilege of Freedom of Speech was then in that House he remains a sad Example as will appear hereafter by their Treatment of him and by his own Postscript to the Collection of his Speeches which because it shews the Genius of those Persons and Times I think will not be amiss to present the Reader with in his own Words POSTSCRIPT THus have you a faithful and a clear exposure of my self in matter of Religion The Carriage of the Root and Branch Men to Sir Edward Deering both in what I have said and what I wish may be done Let the Candid and Ingenuous Reader judge me Such of the Prelatick Party as are in love with present pomp and power will be averse unto me because I pare so deep The Rooters the Anti-Prelatick party declaim against me because I will not take all away At last Midsummer a new Moon did take these men I did begin to find a different greeting a change of salutation Some expostulate others condemn some advise others would seem to condole all upon occasion of my Speech 21. June although I find not there or in any thing else that I have said any cause to make me the object either of their anger their counsel or their pity The plain truth as I touched before is that immediately upon my approach unto this Parliament some circumstances did concur to lead my language on upon the Archbishop not any personal passages God and my Soul do witness for me I have not such a temper But being Servitor for that Shire and in that Diocess where some of his hardship then fresh and new was brought by complaint unto me The accident of presenting that complaint did beget me almost as many new Friends as he had old Enemies and I know not what misconception did thereupon untruly entitle me an enemy to the very function of Episcopacy I never gave my Name in to take away both Root and Branch I love not the sound of a Curse so well If by the Rooters I have been so mistaken their credulity is not my crime And their foul language shall neither be my shame nor sorrow I will repeat some of their salutations 1. One tells me 1 A. G. That I would onely have new Bishops in room of old ones Cujus contrarium verum est 2. Another 2 W. P. That I have a Pope in my Belly 3. A Third 3 S. W. B. That he was never more sorry for any Speech in the House meaning that 21. June 4. Another 4 M. S. That strange things were said of me 5. A
Government and Ordering of the Troops as well upon Service as at other times 4. For the better Encouragement of Worthy Men to undertake the Service in hope of Advancement and that at this very Instant Men of Merit that have had better Commands would be unwilling to serve in a more Inferior Condition than they have already 5. Though it be said That in Ireland Regiments will seldom come to fight in a Body yet it may fall out otherwise and then the inconvenience might prove of greater Consequence then the Charge 6. In Holland whilest their Troops were all single yet for the time they were to render Service in the Field they formed Regiments of them which had their Colonels and Majors appointed for that time which though they had no certain Pay by those Places Yet they had other Advantages by Governments Commanderies Companies of Foot Quarters and such like things to better their Condition and at last the Prince of Orange found it more convenient to settle the said Commands to Colonels and Majors although it were to the greater Charge of the State 7. Finally The General Practice of all Nations as the Germans Swedes French c. which have tryed all manner of wayes have for greater conveniency certainly formed their Cavalry into Regiments and most of them also allow a Lieutenant Colonel to every Regiment The Earl of Warwick and the Lord Digby Reported to the House the King's Answer touching the Petition of both Houses for continuing the Guards Viz. I Did Command the Guards to be dismissed The King's Answer concerning the Guards because I knew no Cause the Parliament had of Fears but I perceived the Molestation that the keeping of them would bring upon those Subjects of mine which were to perform that Service besides the General Apprehensions and Jealousies which thereby might disquiet all My People and I do Expect that when the Parliament shall desire of Me any thing like this Extraordinary and that which appears of ill consequence that they will give me such particular Reasons as may satisfie My Judgment if they expect I should grant their Desire Yet I am so tender of the Parliaments Safety to secure them not only from real but even imaginary Dangers That I will Command my Lord of Dorset to appoint some of the Train-Bands only for a few dayes to wait on both Houses in which time if I shall be satisfied that there is Just Reason I will continue them and likewise take such a Curse for the Safety of My Own Person as shall be fit of which I doubt not but that they have as Tender a Care as of their own It was then Ordered That this Answer shall be communicated to the House of Commons at a Conference An Order was this day made to put off all private business till the first day of Hillary Term Private Business set aside by Order of the House of Lords and to be Printed and Published to prevent the Charge and Trouble which otherwise Petitioners who have Causes depending might be put to in attending the House of Lords This day William Shelden Esquire Monday Novemb. 29. The two Sheldens acquitted of Beal's Plot. and Edward Shelden his Brother who had been taken up by virtue of an Order of the 27th of Novemb. upon suspition about Beal's Information of the 108 men who were to Kill the Parliament-Men appearing before the Lords and nothing of Complaint being against them It was thought fit and so Ordered That they should be forthwith discharged of any further attendance and be freed from any further Restraint Then a Letter was read written to the Lord Chamberlain from the Earl of St. Albans dated the 14th of November 1641. from Ireland the Principal Contents whereof were these THat the Town of Gallaway in Ireland is well Fortified Letter from the E. of St. Albans in Ireland and in Command of Mr. Willoughby That the Province wherein his Lordship lives doth utterly mislike the proceedings of the Rebels That the County of Mayo is quiet That 2000 Rebels are out in Levain but 4 Towns stand out That it is a thing of Consequence that Brian O Rourk here in England should be secured as conceiving him to be a dangerous person in this time of Rebellion in Ireland if he should Escape That the whole Province of Munster is yet quiet And lastly his Lordship ended with a Protestation of his Faith and Loyalty to the Crown of England while he lives and will dye in the same and will imploy all his Strength and Endeavours to assist the King for the Suppression of the Rebels Whereupon the Lord Chamberlain was Ordered to return him the Thanks of the House and the Letter to be communicated to the House of Commons The Bill for securing Recusants with amendments as also the Order for securing to the City the two fifty thousand pounds were carried up to the Lords In the House of Commons they were very busie upon a new Bill for Tonnage and Poundage for the Reader is to take notice that the Bills before mentioned were but from two Months to two Months It was also Voted That the Lords should be desired to move the King that the Earl of Salisbury may be Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Pembroke Lord High Steward of His Majesties Houshold The Amendments and Alterations in the Bill concerning the securing of Popish Recusants Tuesday Novemb. 30. were this day read and it was in the Debate taken into consideration whether the first Clause should stand which was That the Persons of Recusants should be restrained as the Lords in Parliament should think fit or whether it should be altered according as the House of Commons desired which was That the Lords should have power to dispose of the Persons of Lords and the Commons of Commoners And in conclusion it was agreed upon That for the alterations of the Names of the Persons in the Bill and the places of Dwellings and the Alterations of time this House agrees and consents to but for the rest the House adheres to the former Clause in the Bill The Bill for Tonnage and Poundage brought up from the Commons by Mr. Solliciter was read three times Successively Bill for Tonnage and Poundage passed the Lords and upon the Question it was Resolved to pass as a Law Nemine Contradicente The Order for securing the Mony borrowed of the City was likewise read and assented to which was as follows THe Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled The Order for securing the Money borrowed of the City for the Northern expedition and Ireland having a due regard to the good Affections of the City of London expressed upon sundry Occasions by the advancing and lending of great Sums of Money for the service of this Common-wealth and particularly the Sum of 50000 l. for supplying the present Affairs in Ireland all which the said Lords and Commons do take in very good part and being resolved to make
a full and just satisfaction for the same do hereby declare That this said Sum of 50000 l. lent for the Irish Affairs and the Sum of 50000 l. more lent by the said City unto the Peers attending His Majesty in the Northern Parts before the beginning of this present Parliament and such other Sums lent by the said City unto this Parliament which are not yet paid or otherwise secured shall be fully satisfied and repaid unto the said City of London with Interest after the rate of 8 l. per cent for a Year out of such Moneys as are or shall be raised by Authority of Parliament and for that purpose will Exhibit a Bill and become humble Suiters to His Majesty that the same may be passed with all Expedition Provided always that this present Declaration shall not be in any wise prejudicial to any Members of the said House of Commons who have formerly lent any Sums of Money to this Parliament nor to the Northern Counties nor to any persons whatsoever to whom the Houses of Parliament or the House of Commons have formerly Ordered the Payment of any Sums of Mony nor to any security given to them before the making of this Declaration Mr. The Commons Reasons for the Continuance of Guards Pym presents from the Committee the Reasons of both Houses of Parliament for the continuance of a Guard viz. 1. The great numbers of disorderly suspicious and desperate Persons especially of the Irish Nation lurking in obscurâ—â— Allies and Victualling Houses in the Suburbs and other places near London and Westminster 2. The Jealousie conceived upon the discovery of the Design in Scotland for the surprising of the Persons of divers of the Nobility Members of the Parliament there which had been spoken of here some few days before it broke out not without some whispering intimation that the like was intended against divers Persons of both Houses which found more Credit by reason of the former attempts of bringing up the Army to disturb and inforce this Parliament 3. The Conspiracy in Ireland managed with so much secresie that but for the happy discovery at Dublin it had been Executed in all parts of the Kingdom upon one and the same day or soon after and that some of the chief Conspirators did profess that the like course was intended in England and Scotland which being found in some degree true in Scotland seemed the more probable likewise to be done in England 4. Divers Advertisements from beyond the Seas which came over about the same Time that there would be a great alteration in Religion in England in a few days and that the necks of both the Parliaments should be broken 5. Divers Examinations of dangerous Speeches of some of the Popish and discontented party in this Kingdom 6. The secret Meetings and Consultations of the Papists in several Parts their frequent Devotions for the prosperity of some great Design in hand These several Considerations do move the Parliament to desire a Guard under the Command of the Earl of Essex and they do conceive there is just Cause to apprehend that there is some wicked and mischievous practice to interrupt the peaceable proceedings of the Parliament still in hand for preventing whereof it is fit the Guards should be still continued under the same Command or such other as they should chuse But to have it under the Command of any other not chosen by themselves they can by no means consent to and will rather run any hazard then admit of a Precedent so dangerous both to this and to future Parliaments And they humbly leave it to His Majesty to consider whether it will not be fit to suffer his High Court of Parliament to enjoy that Priviledge of providing for their own safety which was never denied other inferior Courts And that he will be pleased graciously to believe that they cannot think themselves safe under any Guard of which they shall not be assured that it will be as faithful in defending His Majesties safety as their own whereof they shall always be more careful then of their own Among all these Reasons here is not one word of Beal the Taylors Discovery of the 108 Men which for 40 s. apiece were to do such strange things it seems by this time they found it an incredible Story and it is very probable that if the other grounds of their fears did not proceed from their own Quiver yet if they had Examined them they would have found them as frivolous as that or the Scotch Design against Hamilton and Arguile which upon the strictest Scrutiny would not afford more proof then to make a noise about the Streets of Plots against the Parliament the better to incite the unruly Multitude to Tumults and Insurrections which they now began to raise again to cry out No Bishops and with unheard of Insolence to affront His Majesty and whoever was Loyal But the King having Ordered them a Guard of the Trained Bands they were so displeased not at the thing for they had made use of them before but at His Majesties appointing them that it was Ordered in the House of Commons That the Guard should be dismissed and without giving His Majesty an Account or presenting him with the Reasons above recited the very same day Mr. Glyn and Mr. Wheeler were Ordered to require the High Constable of Westminster to provide a strong and sufficient Watch in their stead But to make a little flourish of Loyalty and tenderness for the King's Honour and Reputation it was this day Ordered That a Declaration be drawn for clearing His Majesties honour from false Reports cast upon him by the Rebels in Ireland and a Provision to be made Order for a Declaration to clear the Kings Honor from the Scandals of the Irish Rebels that there may be no Conclusion of that War to the prejudice of this Kingdom There might be malice even in this seeming kindness for whilst they pretended to vindicate His Majesties Honour they divulged the Scandal to the whole Nation and by their subsequent Actions and Declarations which within a little while after they published to improve the belief of that Scandal one would think they intended to prepare the way for it by this plausible pretence of a Vindication And most certainly they could intend him no real Reparation when themselves were this Day resolved to defame his Government from the very beginning of his Reign by that Scandalous Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom for this very Day Mr. Pym Sir Symon D'Ewes The Names of the Committee who were appointed to deliver the Remonstrance Sir Arthur Ingram Sir John Thyn Sir Henry Bellasis Lord Gray Sir Christopher Wray Lord Fairfax Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Richard Winn Sir John Corbet Sir Edward Deering and Sir Arthur Haslerig were Ordered to wait upon his Majesty what time he appoints with the Petition and Declaration and indeed all their Actions seemed to carry Fire in one Hand and
graciously pleased to concur with the humble desires of your People in a Parliamentary way for the preserving the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom from the malicious Designs of the Popish Party For depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament and abridging their immoderate Power Usurped over the Clergy and other your good Subjects which they have most perniciously abused to the hazard of Religion and great prejudice and oppression of the Laws of the Kingdom and just Liberty of your People For the taking away such oppressions in Religion Church-Government and Discipline as have been brought in and fomented by them For Uniting all such your Loyal Subjects together as joyn in the same fundamental truths against the Papists by removing some oppressions and unnecessary Ceremonies by which divers weak Consciences have been scrupled and seem to be divided from the rest for the due Execution of those good Laws which have been made for securing the Liberty of your Subjects 2. That your Majesty will likewise be pleased to remove from your Council all such as persist to favour and promote any of those Pressures and corruptions wherewith your People have been grieved and that for the future your Majesty will vouchsafe to employ such Persons in your great and publick Affairs and to take such to be near you in places of Trust as your Parliament may have cause to confide in that in your Princely Goodness to your People you will reject and refuse all mediation and solicitation to the contrary how powerful and near soever 3. That you will be pleased to forbear to alienate any of the forfeited and escheated Lands in Ireland which shall accrue to your Crown by reason of this Rebellion that out of them the Crown may be the better supported and some satisfaction made to your Subjects of this Kingdom for the great expences they are like to undergo this War Which humble desires of ours being graciously fulfilled by your Majesty we will by the blessing and favour of God most cheerfully undergo the hazard and expences of this War and apply our selves to such other courses and councils as may support your Royal Estate with Honour and Plenty at home with Power and Reputation abroad and by our Loyal Affections Obedience and Service lay a sure and lasting Foundation of the greatness and prosperity of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity in future times A Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom THE Commons in this present Parliament Assembled having with much earnestness and faithfulness of affection and zeal to the publick good of this Kingdom and his Majesties Honour and Service for the space of Twelve Months wrastled with the great dangers and fears the pressing miseries and calamities the â—arious distempers and disorders which had not only assaulted but even over-whelmed and extinguisht the Liberty Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom the comfort and hopes of all his Majesties good Subjects and exceedingly weakned and undermined the Foundation and strength of his own Royal Throne Do yet find an abounding Malignity and opposition in those Parties and Factions who have been the cause of those Evils and do still labour to cast Aspersions upon that which hath been done and to raise many difficulties for the hindrance of that which remains yet undone and to soment Jealousies betwixt the King and Parliament That so they may deprive him and his People of the fruit of his own gracious Intentions and their humble desires of procuring the publick Peace Safety and Happiness of the Realm For the preventing of those miserable effects which such malicious endeavours may produce We have thought good to declare 1. The Root and the growth of these mischievous Designs 2. The Maturity and Ripeness to which they have attained before the beginning of the Parliament 3. The effectual means which hath been used for the extirpations of those dangerous evils and the Progress which hath therein been made by his Majesties goodness and the Wisdom of the Parliament 4. The ways of obstruction and opposition by which that Progress hath been interrupted 5. The courses to be taken for the removing those Obstacles and for the accomplishing of our most dutiful and faithful intentions and endeavours of restoring and Establishing the Ancient Honour Greatness and Security of this Crown and Nation The Root of all this Mischief we find to be a Malignant and pernicious design of subverting the Fundamental Laws and Principles of Government upon which the Religion and Justice of this Kingdom are firmly Establisht The Actors and Promoters hereof have been 1. The Jesuited Papists who hate the Laws as the Obstacles of that change and Subversion of Religion which they so much long for 2. The Bishops and the corrupt part of the Clergy who cherish Formality and superstition as the natural effects and more probable supports of their own Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Vsurpation 3. Such Councellors and Courtiers as for private ends have engaged themselves to further the Interests of some Forraign Princes or States to the prejudice of his Majesty and the State at home The Common Principles by which they moulded and Governed all their particular Counsels and Actions were these First to maintain continual differences and discontents betwixt the King and the People upon Questions of Prerogative and Liberty that so they might have the advantage of siding with him and under the notions of Men addicted to his service gain to themselves and their Parties the place of greatest trust and power in the Kingdom A Second To suppress the Purity and Power of Religion and such as were best affected to it as being contrary to their own ends and the greatest impediment to that change which they thought to introduce A Third To conjoyn those Parties of the Kingdom which were most propitious to their own ends and to divide those who were most opposite which consisted in many particular Observations to cherish the Arminian part in those points wherein they agree with the Papists to multiply and enlarge the difference between the common Protestants and those whom they call Puritans to introduce and countenance such Opinions and Ceremonies as are fittest for Accommodation with Popery to encrease and maintain ignorance loosness and prophaneness in the People That of those three Parties Papists Arminians and Libertines they might compose a body fit to act such counsels and resolutions as were most conducible to their own ends A Fourth to diaffect the King to Parliaments by slanders and false imputations and by putting him upon other ways of supply which in shew and appearance were fuller of advantage then the ordinary course of Subsidies though in truth they brought more loss then gain both to the King and People and have caused the distractions under which we both suffer As in all compounded bodies the Operations are qualified according to the predominant Element So in this mixt party the Jesuited Councils being most active and prevailing may easily be discovered to have had the greatest
sway in all their determinations and if they be not prevented are likely to devour the rest or to turn them into their own nature In the beginning of his Majesties Reign the Party begun to revive and flourish again having been somewhat dampt by the breach with Spain in the last year of King James and by his Majesties Marriage with France the Interest and Counsels of that State being not so contrary to the good of Religion and the Prosperity of this Kingdom as those of Spain and the Papists of England having been ever more addicted to Spain then France yet they still retained a Purpose and Resolution to weaken the Protestant Parties in all Parts and even in France whereby to make way for the Change of Religion which they intended at Home The first Effect and Evidence of their Recovery and Strength was the dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford after there had been given two Subsidies to his Majesty and before they received Relief in any one Grievance many other more miserable Effects followed The loss of the Rochel Fleet by the help of our Shipping set forth and delivered over to the French in opposition to the Advice of Parliament which left that Town without Defence by Sea and made way not only to the loss of that important Place but likewise to the loss of all the Strength and Security of the Protestant Religion in France The diverting of his Majesties course of Wars from the West-Indies which was the most facile and hopeful way for this Kingdom to prevail against the Spaniard to an expenceful and unsuccessful Attempt upon Cales which was so ordered as if it had rather bin intended to make us weary of War then to prosper in it The precipitate breach with France by taking their Ships to a great value without making recompence to the English whose Goods were thereupon imbar'd and confiscate in that Kingdom The Peace with Spain without Consent of Parliament contrary to the promise of King James to both Houses whereby the Palatine Cause was deserted and left to Chargeable and Hopeless Treaties which for the most part were Managed by those who might justly be suspected to be no Friends to that Cause The charging of the Kingdom with Billeted Soldiers in all Parts of it and that Concomitant Design of German Horse that the Land might either submit with Fear or be inforced with Rigour to such Arbitrary Contributions as should be required of them The dissolving of the Parliament in the second Year of his Majesties Reign after a Declaration of their Intent to grant five Subsidies The exacting of the like proportion of five Subsidies after the Parliament dissolved by Commission of Loan and divers Gentlemen and others imprisoned for not yeilding to pay that Loan whereby many of them contracted such sicknesses as cost them their Lives Great Summs of Money required and raised by Privy Seals An unjust and pernicious attempt to extort great Payments from the Subject by way of Excise and a Commission issued under Seal to that purpose The Petition of Right which was granted in full Parliament blasted with an illegal Declaration to make it destructive to it self to the Power of Parliament to the Liberty of the Subject and to that purpose printed with it and the Petition made of no use but to shew the bold and presumptuous injustice of such Ministers as durst break the Laws and suppress the Liberties of the Kingdom after they had been so Solemnly and evidently declared Another Parliament dissolved 4 Car. the Privilege of Parliament broken by imprisoning divers Members of the House detaining them close Prisoners for many Months together without the Liberty of using Books Pen Ink or Paper denying them all the Comforts of Life all Means of preservation of Health not permitting their Wives to come unto them even in time of their Sickness And for the compleating of that Cruelty after Years spent in such miserable durance depriving them of the necessary means of Spiritual Consolation not suffering them to go abroad to enjoy God's Ordinances in God's House or God's Ministers to come to them to administer Comfort unto them in their private Chambers and to keep them still in this oppressed Condition not admitting them to be bailed according to Law yet vexing them with Informations in inferior Courts Sentencing and Fining some of them for Matters done in Parliament and Extorting the Payments of those Fines from them inforcing others to put in Security of good Behaviour before they could be released The Imprisonment of the rest which refused to be bound still continued which might have been perpetual if necessity had not the last year brought another Parliament to relieve them of whom one died by the cruelty and harshness of his Imprisonment which would admit of no relaxation notwithstanding the Imminent Danger of his Life did sufficiently appear by the Declaration of his Physician And his release or at least his refreshment was sought by many humble Petitions And his Blood still cryes either for Vengeance or Repentance of those Ministers of State who have at once obstructed the course both of his Majesties Justice and Mercy Upon the Dissolution of both these Parliaments untrue and scandalous Declarations Published to asperse their Proceedings and some of their Members unjustly to make them odious and colour the Violence which was used against them Proclamations set out to the same purpose and to the great dejecting of the hearts of the People forbidding them to speak of Parliaments After the Breach of Parliament in the fourth year of his Majesty Injustice Oppression and Violence broke in upon us without any restraint or moderation and yet the first project was the great Sums exacted thorough the whole Kingdom for default of Knighthood which seemed to have some colour and shadow of a Law yet if it be rightly examined by that obsolete Law which was pretended for it it would be found to be against all the Rules of Justice both in respect of the persons charged the proportion of the Fines demanded and the absurd and unreasonable manner of their Proceedings Tonnage and Poundage hath been received without colour or pretence of Law many other heavy impositions continued against Law and some so unreasonable that the sum of the Charge exceeds the value of the Goods The Book of Rates lately inhansed to a high proportion and such Merchants as would not submit to their Illegal and unreasonable Payments were vexed and oppressed above measure and the ordinary course of Justice the common Birth-right of the Subject of England wholly obstructed unto them And although all this was taken upon pretence of Guarding the Sea yet a new and unheard of Tax of Ship-money was devised upon the same pretence By both which there was charged upon the Subject near 700000 Pounds some years and yet the Merchants have been left so naked to the violence of the Turkish Pirates that many great Ships of value and thousands of his Majesties Subjects
so in all Courts of Justice in all manner of Pleadings Answering and Replying else abundance of mistakes would happen of all sides which the presence of the Parties might prevent As for Example in this particular Had the House of Commons been present there had not happened so many Jeofailes and Mistakes And because Demurrers arise ordinarily from the incertainty of the Charge the second Impeachment was of purpose brought in to avoid incertainties because the particulars omitted in the first were supplied in the second The Book was appended to the second but not to the first Impeachment but the second was not entred as it was delivered and so this Cause of so much Consequence hath been delayed 2. Because posito sed non concesso put the Case the Commons ought not to be called upon and to be present at other defences yet ought they to be in all defences made in this Case because they had conceptis verbis in precise words desired it which they did because this is a Fecit aut non fecit a meer matter of Fact and the Bishops ought to have clearly answered such a matter of Fact that the House of Commons might presently have descended to their Proofs according to the Old Law Est non est de omni re verum est That the House of Commons had Commanded him to put their Lordships in mind That long time given in Causes of this Nature produce great Inconveniences and that this kind of proceeding is not presidented in former Parliaments for this Course would keep all Causes from being Heard and Delinquents from being Questioned Super totam materiam he demanded in the Name of the House of Commons one of these 3 things to be granted 1. That the Demurrer might be rejected 2. That their Lordships would proceed to Judgment 3. Or at least that the House of Commons might be admitted to make their proof without further delay This being done the Councel for the Bishops were called in and heard the second Impeachment of the 13th of August last read and then the Councel desired some short day to consider what Answer the Bishops should make thereunto Hereupon it was Ordered That the 13 Bishops impeached shall put in their Answers to the aforesaid Impeachment on Saturday next or Resolve whether they will abide by their Plea and Demurrer In the House of Commons a Petition of several Officers of the late Army was read to remind the House of their promise concerning the Payment of their Arrears but nothing was done upon it The Bill for waving of Protections was also Reported and Ordered to be re-committed A Bill was also brought in for making Lord General of all the Forces within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales A Bill for a L. General and L. High Admiral read and rejected and Lord High Admiral of England and being read it was put to the Question for a second Reading thereupon the House divided with the Yea was 105 with the No 158 So that hopeful project was nipped in the Bud and passing in the Negative it was rejected An Information was given A trifling Information That a Barrel of Gun-Powder was gone to Dorchester for a Barrel of Soap And one would think that such a trifling matter which in all probability was a perfect mistake and had it been real could be of no great moment should not have been thought worth the notice of a House of Commons but every little thing that contributed to inhanse the Fears of the People was laid hold of to inflame their apprehension of Dangers and the care they took in these little inconsiderable Affairs did strangely Augment their Reputation in the esteem of the common People who looked upon them as the most diligent and vigilant Patriots that ever sate within those Walls whose Care was as great as their Intelligence was quick and universal and therefore to countenance and encourage Informations they despised none for even for this single Barrel of Powder Order to search at Dorchester for a Barrel of Powder sent down for a Battel of Soap an Order of the House of Commons was directed to the Justices of the Peace of Dorchester to make diligent search for a Barrel of Gun-Powder which the House of Commons was informed was sent down thither for for a Barrel of Soap and to send an account of the matter to the House The Lord Keeper acquainted the House Wednesday Decemb. 8. A Message from his Majesty to both Houses about the Scots Commissioners the request of the French Ambassador about certain condemned Priests That His Majesty had Commanded him to signifie to both Houses That it is His Majesties desire that both Houses would consider of and prepare the Instructions which the Commissioners of both Houses have for the treating with the Scots Commissioners touching the Occasions of Ireland and that the same be presented to His Majesty That His Majesty further Commanded him to let both Houses know That the French Ambassador hath presented a desire to His Majesty That Eight Priests Condemned this Week may not be put to Execution but Banished or Imprisoned in this time the rather for that it may concern the settling of the Affairs in Ireland which desire His Majesty promised should be Communicated to the Houses of Parliament for their advice therein Though nothing in the World was a plainer Demonstration of the tender Inclinations of this Excellent Prince which was so averse to whatever was Sanguinary and that there was a very substantial Reason in common Policy at this time to comply with the request of the Ambassador in regard it might be expected the Irish Rebels would Retalliate this Severity which though according to the Laws in force they would call Cruelty and the innocent Protestants who fell into their Power might feel the Effects of it yet was it mighty unpopular and his Enemies of the Faction who were most inexorable upon such occasions made very ill Use of it to insinuate the venomous Calumny into the minds of the People that he was a favourer of Popery and wholly managed by Popish Councils and that he had Espoused their Interests and from thence to augment the Dangers with which the Kingdom was threatned and therefore by Consequence how absolutely necessary it was that His Majesty should comply with the desires of the Faction and change his Evil Councellors and take such Persons into all places of Power or Trust as the Nation might confide in as may be observed from the Declaration and Petition lately presented to His Majesty at Hampton-Court However the Message was communicated to the Commons at a Conference and the Lord Keeper Reported it as follows That the House of Commons were careful not to lose any time in the business of Ireland therefore they have presented to their Lordships Consideration the Instructions which are to be given to the Commissioners of both Houses who are to Treat with the Scots Commissioners Which
Our Attorney and Sollicitor General and the rest of Our Learned Councel to proceed with all speed against such and their Abettors who either by writing or words have so boldly and maliciously violated the Laws disturbed the Peace of the Common-wealth and as much as in them lies shaken the very Foundation upon which that peace and happiness is Founded and Constituted And we doubt not but all Our Loving Subjects will be very sensible that this busie virulent demeanour is a fit Prologue to nothing but Confusion and if not very Seasonably punished and prevented will not only be a blemish to that wholsome accommodation We intend but an unspeakable Scandal and Imputation even upon the Profession and Religion of this Our Kingdom of England Concerning the Civil Liberties and Interest of Our Subjects We shall need to say the less having erected so many lasting Monuments of Our Princely and Fatherly Care of Our People in whose many excellent Laws passed by Vs this Parliament which in truth with very much Content to Our Self We conceive to be so large and ample that very many sober Men have very little left to wish for We understood well the Right and Pretences of Right We departed from in the consenting to the Bills of the Triennial Parliament for the continuance of this present Parliament and in the preamble to the Bill of Tunnage and Poundage the Matter of which having begot so many Disturbances in late Parliaments We were willing to remove that no Interest of Ours might hereafter break that Correspondence abundantly contenting Our Self with an Assurance which We still have that We should be repaired and supplied by a just proportion of Confidence Bounty and Obedience of Our People In the Bills for the taking away the High Commission and Star-Chamber Courts We believed We had given that real Satisfaction that all Jealousies and Apprehensions of Abitrary Pressures under the Civil or Ecclesiastical State would easily have been abandoned especially when they saw all possible Doubts secured by the Visitation of a Triennial Parliament These and others of no mean Consideration We had rather should be valued in the Hearts and Affections of Our People then in any mention of Our own not doubting but as We have taken all these Occasions to render their Condition most comfortable and happy so they will always in a grateful and dutiful relation be ready with equal tenderness and alacrity to advance Our Rights and preserve Our Honor upon which their own Security and Subsistence so much depends And We will be so careful that no particular shall be Presented unto Vs for the Compleating and Establishing that Security to which We will not with the same readiness contribute Our best Assistance If these Resolutions be the Effects of Our present Councels and We take God to witness that they are such and that all Our loving Subjects may confidently expect the benefit of them from Vs Certainly no ill Design upon the Publick can accompany such Resolution neither will there be greater Cause of suspition of any Persons preferred by Vs to degrees of Honor and Places of Trust and Imployment since this Parliament And We must confess That amongst Our Misfortunes We reckon it not the least That having not retained in Our Service nor protected any one Person against whom Our Parliament hath excepted during the whole sitting of it and having in all that time scarce vouchsafed to any Man an instance of Our Grace and Favor but to such who were under some eminent Character of Estimation among Our People there should so soon be any mis-understanding or jealousy of their Fidelity and Vprightness especially in a time when We take all Occasions to declare That We conceive Our Self only capable of being served by Honest Men and in honest Ways However if in Truth We have bin mistaken in such Our Election the Particular shall be no sooner discovered to Vs either by Our own Observation or other certain Information then We will leave them to publick Justice under the Marks of Our Displeasure If notwithstanding this any Malignant Party shall take Heart and be willing to Sacrifice the Peace and Happiness of their Country to their own sinister Ends and Ambitions under what pretence of Religion and Conscience soever If they shall endeavor to lessen Our Reputation and Interest and to weaken Our lawful Power and Authority with Our good Subjects if they shall go about by discountenancing the present Laws to loosen the Bonds of Government that all Disorder and Confusion may break in upon Vs We doubt not but God in his good time will discover them unto Vs and the wisdom and courage of Our High Court of Parliament joyn with Vs in their Suppression and Punishment Having now said all that We can to express the cleerness and uprightness of Our Intentions to Our People and done all We can to manifest those Intentions We cannot but confidently believe all Our good Subjects will acknowledg Our part to be fully performed both in Deeds past and present Resolutions to do whatsoever with Justice may be required of Vs and that their quiet and prosperity depends now wholly upon themselves and is in their own power by yielding all Obedience and due Reverence to the Law which is the Inheritance of every Subject and the only security he can have for his Life Liberty or Estate and the which being neglected or dis-esteemed under what specious shews soever a very great measure of Infelicity if not an irreparable confusion must without doubt fall upon them And We doubt not it will be the most acceptable Declaration a King can make to His Subjects that for Our part We are resolved not only duly to observe the Laws of Our Self but to maintain them against what opposition soever though with the hazard of Our being And Our hope is that not only the Loyalty and good Affections of all Our loving Subjects will concur with Vs in the constant preserving a good understanding between Vs and Our People but at this time their own and Our interest and compassion of the lamentable Condition of our poor Protestant Subjects in Ireland will invite them to a fair Intelligence and Vnity amongst themselves that so We may with one Heart intend the relieving and recovering that unhappy Kingdom where those barbarous Rebels practice such Inhumane and unheard of Outrages upon Our miserable People that no Christian Ear can hear without horror nor story parallel And as We look upon this as the greatest affliction it hath pleased God to lay upon Vs so Our unhappiness is increased in that by the Distempers at home so early Remedies have not bin applyed to those growing Evils as the Expectation and necessity there requires though for Our part as We did upon the first Notice acquaint Our Parliament of Scotland where We then were with that Rebellion requiring their Aid and Assistance and gave like speedy Intimation and Recommendation to Our Parliament here so since Our Return
Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament The Humble Petition of sundry Ministers intrusted to Sollicite the Petition and Remonstrance formerly Exhibited to this Honourable House and many of their Brethren Most Humbly Sheweth THat the Petitioners do most thankfully value The Petition of the Remonstrating Ministers Dec. 20. 1641. and heartily acknowledge the indefatigable Pains and Piety of this Honorable Assembly manifested in very many things of high Concernment for the Glory of God the Honor of the King the Purging of the Church and the Safety and Prosperity of this and the rest of His Majesties Kingdoms but more especially in procuring that publick Fast at your first Sitting which hath prevented many Mischiefs and drawn down many Blessings upon the Kingdom ever since in your Zeal and Courage for the True Religion professed among us against all Popish Idolatry and Superstitious Innovations expressed by your Religious Protestation and Vow * * And discountenancing the publick Liturgy and the most indispensible Duty of Praying to make room for this Seditious Preaching In countenancing the Sacred Ordinance of Preaching after long and deep contempt cast upon it by too many who had almost Exiled it from divers Parts of this Kingdom In incouraging painful and godly Ministers formerly set aside and now again profitably imployed in many Congregations greatly needing them In discountenancing bold and unmeet Men that without sufficient calling have presumptuously intruded into that Holy Office as also of all Vnworthy and Scandalous Ministers that have been Convented before you In accepting a former Petition and Remonstrance from the Petitioners taking the same into your grave Consideration and vigorously prosecuting some part thereof In freeing divers godly Ministers out of Prison and Exile and many others from heavy Censures unjustly inflicted In preventing the utter Ruin of the Petitioners and of many more by breaking that wicked Yoak of the late pernicious Oath and Canons justly branded by both Houses of Parliament and by taking away the late dreadful Tyranny of the High-Commission Court and other illegal heavy pressures of the rest of the Courts Ecclesiastical In your worthy Orders for removing of all Illegal Rites and Ceremonies superstitious and scandalous Images and Pictures and other Innovations out of all Churches and Chappels In your prudent happy and timely re-uniting without spilling of Christian Blood the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a firm and Religious Peace unhappily disturbed to the apparent endangering of both in your honourable endeavours to relieve and rescue our distressed Brethren in Ireland from the barbarous Outrages and Butcheries of the Popish Rebels there In your constant Vigilancy to discover and defeat the many desperate and devilish Conspiracies against the King Parliament and the Kingdom plotted by Papists and their Malignant adherents implacable Enemies to our Religion and Peace together with all your excellent Labours for Reforming and settling the Affairs of the Common-wealth whereof the Petitioners do also with others Enjoy the comfort and the large and blessed Hopes given to the Petitioners of your further indeavours for perfecting the Reformation of Religion and the Church according to the necessity thereof in a Way best becoming the Honour of such a Grave and Religious Body All of which do much Encourage them to pour out their Souls in all possible thankfulness to God for you and to put up more fervent Prayers publiquely and privately upon all occasions in your behalf at the Throne of Grace But so it is That whereas your Petitioners did in their former Petitions represent unto you divers unsufferable Grievances arising from sundry Invasions made upon the publick Doctrine of this Church from some mixtures and blemishes in the publick Worship of God by Law Established as well as from sundry gross Innovations and Superstitions iâ— Rites and Ceremonies without Law introduced from many Exorbitancies and unsupportable Vsurpations in Ecclesiastical Government and from the scandalous defect of Ministers maintenance in too many places All of which do yet remain in greatest part unremoved by reason of your many necessitated diversions from this great work for the preservation of the very Being of this Kingdom and by means hereof many distractions and disorders about matters of Religion and the Church have to the great scandal and grief of the Petitioners happen'd and are still continued which puts them upon a necessity of renewing their former Suit for redress of the aforesaid Evils and for removing whatever shall appear to your Wisdom to be the Root and Cause of them And whereas further the Petitioners and very many others in whose name and behalf they now humbly supplicate desirous in all things to submit to the Laws so far as possibly they may yet meerly out of tenderness and scruple of Conscience dare not continue as formerly they did the Vse and Exercise of some things as now they-stand injoyned not only because they have more seriously weighed the Nature and Scandal of them and that sundry Bishops and other grave Divines called to their assistance by Order of the House of Peers have as they are informed discovered divers particulars needing alteration in the Liturgy and the Vse thereof and that there is not as they humbly conceive at this day commonly extant any Book of Common Prayer without so many Variations Alterations and Additions as render it in many Parts another thing from that which was by Law Established but chiefly because you also have vouchsafed to be so far sensible of the Defects thereof and of the just Scruples of the Petitioners thereabout as to take the Reformation thereof under Consideration which they hoped would be some shelter against the strict pressing the Vse of it till your pleasure upon the full Debate thereof had been declared in a Parliamentary Way for that it seems most equal that the Consciences of Men should not be forced upon that which a Parliament it self holds needful to consider the Reformation of and give Order in till the same be accordingly done And the Petitioners having been comfortably assured of some ease therein do now to their great sorrow apprehend that the same things are anew reinforced which contrary to the blessed Inclination and Intention of His Gracious Majesty may occasion much trouble and vexation to sundry worthy and peaceable Ministers which the Petitioners have more cause to fear because sundry of their Brethren have since the beginning of this Parliament been Indicted upon the Statute of 1 Eliz. 2. And others threatned for bare omissions of some things complained of to this High Court and still depending before you whiles in divers places your Religious Orders necessarily made and published for removing of things illegal are not observed and in other places where superstitious Rites and Practices had by virtue thereof been laid aside the same are again called back and re-practised without any Check or Animadversion And because the Premisses are of extraordinary Consequence and cannot receive a perfect Cure
Soams Alderman Pennington and Mr. Venn do repair to the Common-Council of the City of London when they are sitting and to acquaint them with the Information this House received what Practices have been used to the Inns of Court and those other Informations of the like Nature that have been given to this House of the Preparations of Armed Men about White-Hall and those other Preparations at the Tower And to inform them in what danger the Parliament the Kingdom and the City is in It was also Ordered That Mr. Whittaker Sir Robert Pye and Mr. Pury do presently repair to the House of the Marquess de Neuf-ville and see if his House be furnished with Warlike Ammunition as the House is informed Memorandum Mr. Hollis Mr. Pym Sir Arthur Haslerigg Mr. The 5 Members appearance Entred in the Journal Hampden and Mr. Strode appeared to day according to the Injunction of the House And I find among the Prints of that time a Speech of Mr. Hampden's upon the occasion of his Impeachment which confirms this Memorandum which was as followeth Mr. Speaker IT is a true Saying of the Wise Man That all things happen alike to all Men Mr. Hampden's Speech in Vindication of himself against his Impeachment Jan. 4. 1641. as well to the good Man as to the bad There is no state or condition whatsoever either of Prosperity or Adversity but all sorts of Men are sharers in the same no man can be discerned truly by the outward appearance whether he be a good Subject either to his God his Prince or his Country until he be tryed by the Touchstone of Loyalty Give me leave I beseech you to parallel the Lives of either sort that we may in some measure discern Truth from Falshood and in speaking I shall similize their Lives 1. In Religion towards God 2. In Loyalty and due Subjection to their Soveraign in their Affection towards the Safety of their Country 1. Concerning Religion the best means to discern between the True and False Religion is by searching the Sacred Writings of the Old and New Testament which is of it self pure indited by the Spirit of God and written by Holy Men unspotted in their Lives and Conversations and by this Sacred Word may we prove whether our Religion be of God or no and by looking in this Glass we may discern whether we are in the Right Way or no. And looking into the same I find that by this Truth of God that there is but one God one Christ one Faith one Religion which is the Gospel of Christ and the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles In these two Testaments is contained all things necessary to Salvation if that our Religion doth hang upon this Doctrine and no other secondary Means then it is true to which comes nearest the Protestant Religion which we profess as I really and verily believe and consequently that Religion which joyneth with this Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles the Traditions and Inventions of Men Prayers to the Virgin Mary Angels Saints that are Used in the Exercise of their Religion strange and Superstitious Worshipping cringing bowing creeping to the Altar using Pictures Dirges and such like cannot be true but Erroneous nay devillish and all this is used and maintained in the Church of Rome as necessary as the Scripture to Salvation therefore is a false and Erroneous Church both in Doctrine and Discipline and all other Sects and Schisms that leans not only on the Scripture though never so contrary to the Church of Rome is a false worshipping of God and not the true Religion And thus much concerning Religion to discern the truth and falshood thereof 2 I come now Mr. Speaker to the second thing intimated unto you which was how to discern in a state between good Subjects and bad by their Loyalty and due Subjection to their Lawful Sovereign in which I shall under favour observe two things 1. Lawful Subjection to a King in his own Person and the Commands Edicts and Proclamations of the Prince and his Privy Council 2. Lawful Obedience to the Laws Statutes and Ordinances made Enacted by the King and the Lords with the Free Consent of his Great Council of State assembled in Parliament For the First To deny a willing and dutiful Obedience to a Lawful Soveraign and his Privy Council for as Cambden truly saith The Commands of the Lords Privy Councellors and the Edicts of the Prince is all one for they are inseparable the one never without the other either to defend his Royal Person and Kingdoms against the Enemies of the same either publique or private or to defend the Antient Priviledges and Prerogatives of the King pertaining and belonging of Right to his Royal Crown and the maintenance of his Honor and Dignity or to defend and maintain true Religion Established in the Land according to the truth of God is one sign of an Evil and Bad Subject Secondly To yield Obedience to the Commands of a King if against the true Religion against the Ancient and Fundamental Laws of the Land is another sign of an ill Subject Thirdly To resist the Lawful Power of the King to raise Insurrection against the King admit him adverse in his Religion to Conspire against his Sacred Person or any wayes to Rebel thô Commanding things against our Consciences in Exercising Religion or against the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject is an absolute sign of a Disaffected and Trayterous Subject And now having given the Signs of discerning Evil and Disloyal Subjects I shall only give you in a word or two the Signs of discerning which are Loyal and Good Subjects only by turning these Three Signs already shewed on the contrary side 1. He that willingly and chearfully endeavoureth himself to obey his Soveraign's Commands for the Defence of his own Person and Kingdoms for the Defence of True Religion for the Defence of the Laws of his Country is a Loyal and good Subject 2. To deny Obedience to a King commanding any thing against Gods true Worship and Religion against the Ancient and Fundamental Laws of the Land in endeavouring to perform the same is a good Subject 3. Not to resist the Lawful and Royal Power of the King to raise Sedition or Insurrection against his Person or to set Division between the King and his good Subjects by Rebellion although commanding things against Conscience in the Exercise of Religion or against the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject but patiently for the same to undergo his Prince's Displeasure whether it be to his Imprisonment Confiscation of Goods Banishment or any other Punishment whatsoever without Murmuring Grudging or Reviling against his Soveraign or his Proceedings but submitting willingly and chearfully himself and his Cause to Almighty God is the only sign of an Obedient and Loyal Subject I come now to the Second Means to know the difference between a good Subject and a bad by their Obedience to the Laws Statutes and Ordinances made
then the very Act which this Parliament obtained from the King that they should not be dissolved or prorogued by the King without their own Consent which was a plain Confession that till his Majesty had in this Particular by giving the Royal Assent to that fatal Bill limited the undoubted Power of his Prerogative it was an inherent Right annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that the King was the sole Judg of the Calling Continuance and Dissolution of Parliaments And though some Seditious Pens and particularly the Apostate Author of the Life of Julian the Apostate have taken great Pains to revive and furbish up this Opinion and to reflect upon his present Majesty as the Rebels of this Parliament did upon his Royal Father for breaking up of some Mutinous and Troublesome Parliaments in the beginning of his Reign which plainly shews them to be of the Temper of the ill Men of those ill times yet I think they ought to stay before they Preach this Doctrine to the People for a true Privilege of Parliament till they have got such another Act of Perpetuation in one Hand and a Sword to maintain it in the other which is the only Argument that at long run such Seditious People must have Recourse to and I hope it may be some time before such another Act will be obtained and longer before they can get the Power of the Sword to maintain it And certainly were there no other Inconveniences yet the dismal Effects which the continuance of this Parliament brought upon the King and Kingdom to the intire Ruin of the Government Laws Liberty and Property of the English Nation are sufficient to give all Loyal and Honest Subjects very terrible Apprehensions not only of the thing it self but that the Persons who revive and propagate such Opinions must have Designs to compass and effect the same Mischiefs over again which like an Inundation drowned the Kingdom in Blood by the Breach of this Bank of Royal Prerogative of the Kings being the sole Judg of the continuance and dissolving of Parliaments Mr. Glyn's Speech upon this Subject was as followeth Mr. Speaker WE sit now upon that grand business of the Breaches of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments which are so many and great Mr. Glyn's Speech about Breach of Priviledges Jan. 5. 1641. so carefully preserved and defended and having in former times severely punished the infringers thereof that I had thought and conceived that no Subject of what degree or dignity soever would either in their own persons or by misinforming his Majesty concerning the same would have presumed to have intrenched in the least measure upon the free Liberty Rights and very Beings of Parliaments or tending to the Breach thereof But Mr. Speaker I perceive the perverseness of divers persons in places of Authority that they dare not only presume to provoke his Majesty by their politick mis-informations but dare attempt of themselves to resist the lawful power both of the King and his high Court of Parliament Mr. Speaker These Men notwithstanding they apparently perceive that their wicked practices and malicious designs cannot take effect according to their expectation but are rejected and detected as well by his Sacred Majesty as his Lords and his whole Council dare venture to endeavour by casting aspersions and spreading abroad evil reports not only of the Members but of the Proceedings of the House of Commons against them and others of their Adherents and Favourits in their wicked and desperate Actions and Designs against their lawful Soveraign and his Liege People I conceive Mr. Speaker did these persons but remember the many Presidents yet extant of the just and deserved punishments inflicted by former Parliaments upon such Miscreants as witness the Arch-Bishop of York the Duke of Suffolk Chief Justice Belknap and the rest of that Conspiracy in the Reign of King Edward the Second they would have prejudged to themselves the like danger would follow upon them for their evil Actions Nay Mr. Speaker did these men but consider with themselves the just judgments of God that have immediately lighted upon the necks of such as have been the troublers of Kingdoms and Common-wealth whereof they have been Members as well recorded in Sacred Writ as of late times in this Kingdom yet still in fresh Memory they would have laid their hands upon their Mouths and hearts when they went about to speak or do any thing tending to the dishonour of Almighty God in innovating of his true Religion corrupting the sincere Doctrine and discipline of Christ and his Apostles as also any thing tending to the dishonour and perpetual destruction of his Royal Majesty however otherwise they may pretend the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the very being thereof but surely Mr. Speaker they are altogether benummed and stupified their Consciences dead and seared their Lives and Conversations altogether devoted to the works of darkness and impurity their desires altogether sensual carnal and devilish forgetting God kicking and spurring with maliciousness against all Piety and Godliness or else they would never have adventured to practice such things as it is too too manifest they have done Mr. Speaker I intend to be brief in that which I am to speak concerning the Breaches of the Priviledges of Parliament First To inform his Majesty of any Proceedings in the House of Commons upon any businesses whatsoever before they have concluded finished and made ready the same to present to his Majesty for his Royal Assent thereunto is a Breach of the Priviledges of Parliament Secondly To mis-inform his Majesty contrary to the Proceedings in Parliament thereby to incense and provoke him against the same is a Breach of Priviledge of Parliament Thirdly To cause or procure any Information or Accusation to be brought or preferred without the knowledge or consent of the Parliament into the House against any of the Members thereof is a Breach of Priviledge of Parliament Fourthly To apprehend any such Accused to imprison their persons to seize upon their Goods or Estates to prosecute and proceed against them to their Tryal and Judgment to Condemn or Execute them upon such Accusation without the consent or advice of the Parliament is a Breach of the Priviledges thereof Fifthly To endeavour to cast an evil opinion of such Members Accused into the hearts of his Majesties Loyal Subjects whereby they disaffecting them may be ready and willing to put in execution any Command or Warrant for their apprehension and imprisonment is a Breach of the Priviledges of Parliament Sixthly To come in open Parliament for any Officer or Serjeant to demand and arrest any such Member accused be it of high Treason or any other Crime whatsoever without the knowledge of the whole House is a Breach of the Priviledges of Parliament Seventhly to come to a Parliament sitting in free consultation assisted and guarded with Armed Men and with them be sitting the
rid three Stages more as before is mentioned in order to the Royal Assent The Petition of the Inhabitants of Bucks which was delivered to his Majesty at Windsor was in these Words To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of the County of Buckinghamshire Sheweth THat your Petitioners having by vertue of your Highness Writ chosen John Hampden Knight for our Shire Bucks Petition to the King concerning Hampden in whose Loyalty we his Countrymen and Neighbours have ever had good cause to confide However of late to our no less amazement then grief we find him with other Members of Parliament accused of Treason And having taken to our serious consideration the manner of their Impeachment we cannot but under your Majesties favour conceive that it doth so oppugne the Rights of Parliament to the maintenance whereof our Protestation binds us that we believe it is the malice which their zeal to your Majesties Service and the State hath contracted in the enemies to your Majesty the Church and Common-wealth hath occasioned this foul Accusation rather then any deserts of theirs who do likewise through their sides wound the Judgment and Care of us your Petitioners and others by whose choice they were presented to the House Your Petitioners therefore most humbly pray that Master Hampden and the rest that lye under the burden of that Accusation may enjoy the just Priviledges of Parliament And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. To which his Majesty returned this Answer Windsor 13 Jan. 1641. HIs Majesty being graciously pleased to let his Subjects understand his care not knowingly to violate in the least degree any of the Priviledges of Parliament hath therefore lately by a Message sent by the Lord Keeper signified That he is pleased because of the doubt that hath been raised of the manner to Wave his former proceedings against Master Hampden and the rest mentioned in this Petition concerning whom his Majesty intends to proceed in an unquestionable way And then his Majesty saith It will appear that he had so sufficient Grounds to question them as he might not in Justice to the Kingdom and honour to himself have forborn and yet his Majesty had much rather that the said Persons should prove Innocent then be found guilty However he cannot conceive that their Crimes can in any sort reflect upon those his good Subjects who elected them to serve in Parliament It is Incredible what Advantages the Faction made of this Action of his Majesties in going to the Commons House in Person it shocked even many of his best Friends to that degree that they knew not what Construction to make of it insomuch that the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council Men Many of which were Loyal Men yet in this Epidemical Petitioning time they were also seized with the Petitioning Disease for however warrantable modest Petitioning may be yet this sort of it was really the Effect of a distempered and crazy State and did extremely promote all the insuing Mischiefs and that State Calenture for which England was forced to bleed so severely The Petition together with his Majesties most excellent Answer were as follows To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of the Mayor Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London MAy it please your most excellent Majesty The Petition of the Lord Mayor c. of the City of London concerning the Kings going to the House of Commons the often expressions of your most gracious acceptance of the manifestation of the Petitioners duty and loyalty and the frequent Declarations of your Majesties great care of the good and welfare of this City and of the true Protestant Religion and of protecting and preserving the Persons and Priviledges of your great Councel assembled in the high Court of Parliament Each encouraged the Petitioners to represent the great Dangers Fears and Distractions wherein the City now is by reason of the prevailing progress of the bloudy Rebels in Ireland fomented and acted by the Papists and their Adherents and want of Aid to suppress them and the several intimations they have had both Forreign and at Home of the driving on of their Designs tending to the utter ruin of the Protestant Religion and of the Lives and Liberties of your Majesties loyal Subjects the Putting out of Persons of Honour and Trust from being Constable and Lieutenant of the Tower especially in these times and the Preparations there lately made the fortifying of Whitehall with men and Munition in an unusual manner Some of which men with provoking language and violence abused divers Citizens Passing by and the drawing divers swords and therewith wounding sundry other Citizens in Westminster-hall that were unarmed the late endeavours used to the Inns of Court the calling in divers Canonneers and other assistance into the Tower the late Discovery of divers Fire-works in the hands of a Papist and the mis-understanding betwixt your Majesty and Parliament by reason of misinformation as they humbly conceive Besides all which the Petitioners fears are exceedingly encreased by your Majesties late going into the House of Commons attended with a great multitude of armed men besides your ordinary Guard for the apprehending of divers Members of that House to the endangering of your Sacred person and of the persons and Priviledges of that Honourable Assembly The effects of all which Fears do tend not only to the overthrow of the whole Trade of this City and Kingdom which the Petitioners already feel in a deep measure but also threatens the utter ruine of the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of all your loyal Subjects The Petitioners therefore most humbly pray your Sacred Majesty That by the advice of your great Councel in Parliament the Protestants in Ireland may be speedily relieved The Tower put into the hands of persons of trust That by removal of doubtful and unknown persons from about White-hall and Westminster a known and approved Guard may be appointed for the safety of your Majesty and Parliament and that the Lord Mandevill and the five Members of the House of Commons lately accused may not be restrained of Liberty or proceeded against otherwise then according to the priviledges of Parliament And the Petitioners as in all duty bound shall pray for Your Majesties most long and happy Reign c. His Majesties Answer to the Petition of the Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councel of the City of London His Majesty having fully considered the matter of this Petition is graciously pleased to declare that being unalterably resolved to make good all his Expressions and Declarations of his care of this City Of the true Protestant Religion and of the privileges of Parliament His Majesty takes in good part the intimation given by the Petitioners of the fears and distractions wherein the City now seems to be And though He conceives He did on Wednesday at the Guild-hall satisfie most of those particulars is pleased to add this further Answer
Counsellors and Loyal Subjects The Lieutenant of the Tower being come Lieutenant of the Tower at the Bar as a Delinquent was brought to the Bar as a Delinquent and the Lord Keeper by direction of the House asked him Why he committed the high Contempt Yesterday in refusing to attend both Houses of Parliament according to the Order served upon him Hereupon he Answered That he was between His Majesties Commands and their Lordships Order but he understanding since that the King's Command is included in their Lordships Order and one in Effect he desired their Lordships Pardon for his not coming Yesterday protesting he did it not out of any Disobedience or Contempt of the Parliament This being done he withdrew and the Lords sent to the Commons to acquaint them That the Lieutenant of the Tower had been at the Bar and the Answer he gave And after some Attendance it was Ordered That the Lieutenant of the Tower shall be dismissed of his Attendance for the present until he have further Order to attend this House The Bishops were also this day Ordered to put in their Answers upon Monday next and this Order was sent to the House of Commons by Sir Robert Rich and Mr. Page to give them Notice to be present if they think fit The Attorney General was then heard what he could say to justifie himself The Attorney General justifies his proceedings against Kymbolton c. for charging the Lord Kymbolton and the five Members that it was a Parliamentary proceeding and no breach of Priviledges And first he said That for the matter of the Charge and the framing of the Articles he had nothing to do with them neither did His Majesty advise with him therein but the bringing of the Charge into this House which he did by His Majesties Command and only in Obedience thereunto And for the Legality of this proceeding he insisted upon and opened at large the whole proceeding of the King's Attorney in the Earl of Bristol's Case 1 2 Car. which being done The House appointed to take this business into further consideration to morrow The Lord Kymbolton upon His Majesties late Message concerning himself and the five Members moved That since His Majesty waved the former proceeding the House would become Suitors to His Majesty that he may be brought to as speedy a Tryal as may be that so he might not lye under this Accusation but be cleared or judged And truly he could in no sense be blamed for that especially considering that to be well assured of the favour of his Judges must needs give any Person a desire to come to a Tryal where he hopes to be acquitted and is in very little apprehension of a Sentence The Commons having desired liberty to Examine the Attorny General The Commons desire to examin the Attorney General upon certain Interrogatories he made it his humble Request to the House That he may be excused from answering to any Questions to discover what the King hath Committed to him as secret Council where by his Oath he is bound not to reveal but what concerns himself he would willingly and ingeniously Answer unto And it was the sense of the House That if Mr. Attorney at the Conference shall desire not to Answer to some Questions as may be asked him the House will take it into Consideration whether it be fit for him to Answer or not A Message was brought from the House of Commons by Mr. Whitlock That he was Commanded to present to their Lordships a Declaration for putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence which having passed the House of Commons they desired their Lordships to joyn with them therein that it may be dispersed through the Kingdom Which was read as followeth WHereas the Papists and other ill affected Persons within this Kingdom A horrid Calumniating Declaration to put the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence both before and since the Parliament by many Wicked and Traiterous Designs mentioned in a Remonstrance of the State of this Kingdom have Plotted and Laboured the Confusion of this State and Government the Subversion of the Ancient and Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and a division of the Body of this Common-wealth from the Head thereof to the End they might the better Effect their Devilish and Bloody purposes for the utter destruction of the True Reformed Religion and the Professors of the same and in further pursuance of their wicked indeavours have and daily do contrive all possible means to bring this Kingdom into the like miserable condition of that of Ireland as do clearly appear to the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament by sundry Informations and Examinations produced before them and the better to bring the same to pass here as they have already done in Ireland they secretly and cunningly work to raise disturbance in this Kingdom by high breaches of the Priviledges of Parliament plotting to have some of the Members thereof to be Accused of High Treason and some of them to be taken by Force out of the House of Commons and to that End resorting in great numbers in a Warlike manner to the very Doors of the said House Armed with Swords Pistols and other Weapons ready and intending to fall upon the said House and to have cut the Throats of the Members there as by divers Examinations clearly appears whereby this Parliament might have been Dissolved in Blood and Confusion the relief of the Protestants in Ireland prevenâ—ed and an evident and speedy way opened to the Ruin of us and our Religion here in this Kingdom but failing of their hopes therein through the great Mercy of God towards us nevertheless they still persist in their Wicked and Traiterous Courses Confederating themselves with Strangers and Instigating Foreign Princes to joyn their Councells and Forces and by Invasion from abroad and Intestine Wars here amongst our selves to wast the Wealth and Substance and Totally to Annihilate the True Protestant Religion and the whole Frame of Government in all his Majesties Dominions and building upon that Foundation great Numbers of Soldiers Papists and other dis-affected Persons to our Existence and Well-being have Inrolled themselves in a List under the Command of Persons fit for the Execution of their wicked Designs and have made great preparations of Arms Ammunition and Victuals in several Parts of the Kingdom where they have likewise had frequent Assemblies to consult how they might compass their detestable Machinations and through Malignant Counsels have prevailed so far as to have the Tower of London and other places of Eminent Strength and Trust to be put in the hands of such Persons as we have just cause to suspect will adhere to them and turn the Strength of the Kingdom against it self All which the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled as Watch-men trusted for the good and well-fare of the Kingdom Church and State having taken into their serious Consideration and Labouring by all fit
means to prevent this great and threat'ning danger to his Majesties Royal Person and to our Religion Lives Liberties and Fortunes have thought good to give a timely Advertisement thereof to all his Majesties Subjects of the Reformed Protestant Religion declaring hereby That they hold it necessary and adviseable that with all Expeditithey put themselves into a good posture of Defence to provide fit Arms and Ammunition and be ready upon all occasions to defend the several Counties from Domestick Insurrections and Foreign Invasions and that the Sheriffs Justices of Peace Majors and Head-Officers within their several Limits do take Care that their Magazines of Powder Arms and other Ammunition be compleatly furnished and that they cause strong Guards and Watches to be set in convenient places for the Securing themselves and for the apprehending of such Persons who they shall have just cause to suspect and if upon Examination any grounds of danger shall appear to give notice thereof unto the Parliament and that all Officers take special care that no Soldiers Arms or Ammunition be raised or levyed nor any Castles Forts or Magazines delivered up without his Majesties Authority signified by both Houses of Parliament This hopeful Declaration had the misfortune to become only an Abortive for when it came up to the House of Lords how prevalent soever the Faction was there yet they were ashamed to own that for a Child of Parliamentary Authority which carried so many notorious Falshoods and Calumnies most easie to be detected in the Front of it and yet this thing which was to be imposed upon the Nation for so great a Truth was compiled out of 3 or 4 Parcels of the same kind of Stuff but much Coarser which were drawn up by the Committees at Guild-Hall and Grocers-Hall and out of which the Committee for this Declaration were by the appointment of the House Ordered to frame it and they accordingly licked those Monstrous and Deformed Cubbs into this Bear which begins with the Papists but flies directly at the Throat of his Sacred Majesty the best Protestant in all his Dominions And this was one of the greatest Artifices of the Faction to Sail with this Side-wind as if they intended to fall furiously upon the Papists but then to make a sudden Tack and pour in all their Broad-sides of Calumnies Plots and Conspiracies upon the King himself and the Loyal and Orthodox Protestants whom under the Notion of Malignants Popishly-affected and Adherents to the Papists they still drew into the Designs which they said were laid against the Parliament Kingdom and the King himself against whom the Bolt of their Thunder was always directly levell'd though the Noise and Crack sounded nothing but Papist There are two or three Passages very remarkable that I cannot but turn them upon themselves For when they charge these Plotters and Papists that they had a Design To make a Division of the Body of this Common-wealth from the Head thereof they themselves it seems were in that Design afterwards putting that horrid Plot in Execution by cutting off not only in a Political but Literal Sense that Illustrious Head of their Sovereign both from his own and the Body of the Common-wealth And whereas afterwards they Charge this Malignant Party with a Design by intestine Wars here amongst our selves to wast the Wealth and Substance and Totally to Annihilate the True Protestant Religion and the whole frame of Government in all his Majesties Dominions There certainly never was in so few words so true a Character of their own subequent Actions and had they sitten for their Picture in Miniature to the fam'd Appelles who used to boast of his Art that he painted for Eternity it had been impossible for him to draw them more exactly to the life with his Pencil then in these words they have drawn themselves with their own Ink the blackness of which though intended for the King and the Loyal Party will with an Ex ore tuo stick to their Memories so long as there remain any Records of time and Posterity will easily discern who were the Plotters to Subvert the Government not by the Charge but the Execution and may from hence draw this serviceable Aphorism That no Persons are more likely to design against a Government or to bring the People into Slavery then such Subjects as Arraign their Sovereign with Designs of Erecting Arbitrary Power and introducing Popery Which were the two main Engines by which this Rebellious Faction undermined and overthrew the best Church and Government in the Christian World and rendred the Freest People of Europe the most Abject Slaves in Christendom to the Arbitrary Usurpations of their fellow Subjects and Servants in every thing that Men esteem valuable whether Life Liberty Fortune or Religion But whether the Lords would consent or not the materials out of which this Declaration was drawn being the results of several Debates of the Committee at Guild-Hall and Grocers-Hall got immediately into the Press and from that Mint of mischief flew like Lightning through the Nation to the intolerable Scandal of his Majesty And yet the very chief Aggravation of this Action of his Majesties of the Insolence of the Soldiers is by one of the News-writers of the Party and Times before mentioned taken off from the King and his Retinue Who he saith demeaned themselves Civilly though this Declaration takes no notice of that And in truth who considers how ill the Parliament had treated the Soldiers both during their being in Arms and after the Disbanding will not think it strange for such a sort of Men who have Mars predominant should be apt to vent their private Resentments against those Persons whom the King had Impeached of Treason and to whom they owed all their Sufferings But to put this to the King's Score was a Barbarous injustice which none but such Men as had shaken hands with all Respect as well as Loyalty to the King could be guilty of But see the Paper it self A Declaration of the House of Commons The Debates at Guild-hall and Grocers-hall Drawn into a Declaration concerning Breach of Priviledge c. Mr. Glyn Reports from Guild-hall Jan. 6th 1641. Touching a late Breach of their Priviledges And for the Vindication thereof and of divers Members of the said House WHereas the Chambers Studies and Trunks of Mr. Denzill Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr John Pym Master John Hampden and Mr. William Strode Esquires Members of the House of Commons upon Munday the third of this instant January by colour of His Majesties Warrant have been sealed up by Sir William Killigrew and Sir William Flemen and others which is not only against the Priviledge of Parliament but the common liberty of every Subject Which said Members afterwards the same day were under the like colour by Serjeant Francis one of His Majesties Serjeants at Arms contrary to all former Presidents demanded of the Speaker sitting in the House of Commons to be delivered unto him that
Published in all Market Towns in the Kingdom A Message was then brought up from the Commons Messa geconcerning the Prince and the Marquiss of Hertford by Sir Gilbert Gerrard to desire their Lordships To joyn with the House of Commons to injoyn the Marquiss of Hertford appointed by his Majesty to be Governor to the Prince as he will answer the Breach of that Trust that doth so immediately concern the present and future Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms forthwith to repair to the Prince and according to the Duty of his Place to take care of him and to give his Personal Attendance on his Highness and to be very watchful to prevent that he be not carried out of the Kingdom And the House of Commons do further declare and desires the Lords will do the like That whatsoever Person shall be advising or assistant to the conveying of the Prince out of the Kingdom or attend his Highness in his Journey shall be declared and reputed a Publick Enemy to the Protestant Religion and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms And that the Lords be likewise moved to joyn with the House of Commons in an humble Desire to his Majesty That he will not for any Cause whatsoever permit the Prince to be carried out of the Kingdom without the humble Advice and Consent of Parliament Thereupon It was Ordered That this House agrees with the House of Commons in all the aforesaid Particulars and will joyn with them in the whole as is desired And this Vote was drawn into an Order and the Marquiss of Hertford ordered to acquaint the King with it The Lord Marquiss of Hertford being in the House gave their Lordships this Account That when the King went to Hampton-Court he demanded the Prince of him and took him away with him in his Coach in the Afternoon and his Majesty commanded his Lordship to stay here his Lordship therefore desired this House would require no more of him then he is able to perform and as far as in him lay he would obey their Lordships Command to attend the Prince and if there be cause of Fear as the Parliament Apprehends he will give Advice thereof to the Parliament Then the Earl of Bath Reported Dutch Ambassador desired to order the States Ships to stay Ships at Dunkirk going for Ireland That he had been with the States Ambassador to desire him That he would give present Order to the States Ships that lie before Dunkirk and other Ports of Flanders for the staying of all Ships as are laden with Arms Ammunition or Provisions and bound for the Relief and Assistance of the Rebels of Ireland The Ambassador saith he had alrerdy received Intimation from the Committee of the House of Commons to this purpose and accordingly hath sent Order to their General Van Trompe but he desires he may have the desires of the Parliament in Writing that upon all Occasions he may know the better what to do therein A Message was brought up from the House of Commons to desire that their Lordships would proceed upon the Bill depending before them for taking away the Votes of the Bishops out of their House and dis-inabling all persons in Holy Orders for Exercising any Temporal Jurisdiction or Authority To which the answer was returned That the House will proceed therein with Convenient Expedition Declaration for putting the Kingdom into a posture of Defence rejected by the Lords After this the Declaration brought up Yesterday from the House of Commons concerning the putting of the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence was taken into Consideration and the House was adjourned into a Committee during Pleasure to debate the Preamble of it and after much Debate the House was resumed and the Question was put Whether that the Narrative in this Declaration shall be referred to a Committee to be so penned as that it may appear to be the Narrative onely of the House of Commons and thereupon to be so published But it was Resolved by the Major part Negatively Whereupon their Lordships resolved to have a Conference to morrow with the House of Commons to hear the Reasons that induced them to make this Narrative in this Declaration Then the Lord Keeper signified to the House That he had now received a Letter from the King with a Message which his Majesty hath commanded him to deliver presently to both Houses of Parliament The King's Letter was then read in these Words My Lord Keeper The King's Letter to the L. Keeper with a Message to both Houses Jan. 14. 1641. THis is to Command you to deliver that which is contained within this inclosed Paper as a Message from Me to both Houses and that instantly without delay And so I rest Windsor Jan. 14. 1641. Your Assured Friend Charles R. The Message was as followeth HIs Majesty being no less tender of the Privileges of Parliament and thinking himself no less concerned that they be not broken and that they be asserted and vindicated whensoever they are so then the Parliament it self hath thought fit to add to his last Message this Profession That in all his Proceedings against the Lord Kymbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerigg Mr. Pym Mr. Hampden and Mr. Strode he had never the least Intention of Violating the least Privilege of Parliament and in case any doubt of Privileges remain will be willing to clear that and assert those by any reasonable Way that His Parliament shall advise him to Vpon Confidence of which He no way doubts His Parliament will forthwith lay by all Jealousies and apply themselves to the Publick and Pressing Affairs and especially to those of Ireland wherein the Good of this Kingdom and the true Religion which shall ever be his Majesties first Care are so highly and so nearly concerned And his Majesty assures himself that his Care of their Privileges will increase their tenderness of his lawful Prerogative which are so necessary to the mutual Defence of each other and both which will be the Foundation of a perpetual perfect Intelligence between his Majesty and Parliament and of the Happyness and Prosperity of His People Hereupon he sent Justice Foster and Justice Mallet to desire a Conference with them concerning this Message from the King Thus did this Admirable Prince by continual and repeated endeavors seek to bring the differences between him and the Parliament to a happy composure but without any Effect for the Heads of the Faction whom he had accused and many others who were of the Confederacy were too well acquainted with their own Guilt to trust to a Fair and Legal Trial and could not think themselves in any condition of Security so long as the King was undevested of his Royal Authority and in a capacity by being possessed of the Sword of Power to turn the Sword of Law and Justice against such high Criminals as had been the contrivers and fomenters of all the Troubles and Disorders in the two Kingdoms In the
it Imboldned those to Enter into Actuall Rebellion who if any considerable Force had been sent to Suppress them would difficultly have Exposed themselves and their Posterity to Infamy and Ruin of which for their former Rebellions against the Crown of England their Nation was able to produce so many fatal Instances But all these unhappy Circumstances concurring the generality of the Nation of the Romish Religion became in a little time actually ingaged in the Rebellion and incouraged by their Multitudes and some little Successes they managed their Affairs with that Barbarous Cruelty and Inhumanity as will not only leave an Eternal Infamy upon the Actors but thereby they Treasured up such a stock of Divine Vengeance as afterwards fell upon their own Heads in the most remarkable Retaliations that any Ages had seen or almost any Nation felt But among all their Bloody Actions and Impolitick Policies their contributing to Murder the Reputation of the Best of Princes was certainly one of the greatest of their Crimes and for which they paid the dearest For by giving out such Reports as they did that they were the Queens Army and that they had a Party in England which would assist them the Faction of the two Houses whose Malice was Rampant against the King laid so much force upon these Calumnies that the King to vindicate his Reputation from the Popular Odium of these Reports was obliged to commit a great Power of the Irish Affairs and to intrust much of the War in the hands of the two Houses and to divest himself almost of all Power of shewing them Mercy or granting them Pardon And it is incredible how much Mischief these Reports did to his Majesties Affairs and what deep Impressions these Stories which were only little Artifices to countenance their Rebellion made in the minds of the Common People of England who at that time were prepared to receive without the least doubting whatever was pronounced by the Leaders of the Faction to be true And because it may caution Posterity against such fatal Credulity I will present the Reader with some Papers which have come to my Hands in searching among the wast Papers of the Clerks Office of the Commons House whereby he will be able to see with wonder that so great a Structure of Rebellion should be built upon so narrow a Foundation I know that Fame is a persect inverted Cone or Pyramid which from some small point still the higher it rises the wider it spreads The first Paper is a Letter under Sir Phelim O Neals own hand and the very Original Letter which was sent by the Person to whom it was Written as I suppose to some of the Scotish Nation and by them handed to the Commons House and was in these words Honoured Sir I Have appointed Captain Turlogh O Neale A Letter of Sir Phelim O Neils to Sir William Hamilton with his Forces to go down into your Parts to defend and maintain the Catholick Religion Wherefore I would intreat you if you give us no help as all other Catholicks in England and Ireland do to keep your self quiet at home and to send the said Forces your best advice you shall receive no hurt where I can do my self or you good and so with my Service unto your self and my Honoured Lady of Strabane unto whom I shall be ready to perform any Service In the Power of Phe. O Neill 23th November 1641. I am to be with the Forces of Evagh Monaghan and Cavan to meet our Conaght Lords at Dery very shortly Superscribed For his much Honoured and very Loving Friend Sir Will. Hamilton Knight these with my Service Pass From this one Parenthesis as all the Catholicks of England and Ireland do the Faction improved the Scandal not only to the Ruin of the Reputation of all the Papists in England but by virtue of those words and their Adherents Popishly Affected which always followed at the heels of the Papists they drew in the Bishops and Episcopal Clergy and all the Loyal Nobility and Gentry and Commoners of England into this Drag Net of Scandal and possessed the Vulgar especially of London with a most Unalterable belief that there was the same Design by the Prelates Papists and Evil Councellors of the King to act the same Cruelties against them as the Rebels had done against the miserable Protestants In Ireland and this was one of the greatest Arts by which they raised and supported the insuing Rebellion in which as they grew in strength and success they shook hands so far with all modesty and duty as to reproach even the King himself with these horrible Calumnies and Defamations This following Letter was also Intercepted going to France and brought to the House of Commons Corke this 20th of November Loving Brother A Letter from one Mr. Roche Intercepted going to France YOur last Letter I have received being very glad of your forwardness in your Studies you shall understand that our Mother and all our Friends are in good Health I doubt not but my Cousin James doth Supply your Wants if not certifie me thereof that I may see you Supplyed by another who very willingly will do it I hope your Brother Morris will be one of the first that will go that way and that shortly there be a great number of Irish Catholicks out in Ulster who have taken many Towns and Castles there and daily do increase in Men Their Cause of Rebellion as they say was for fear they should be Troubled for their Religion and to no other intent and if that they can have freely they will put up their Arms and refer themselves to the Parliament here if this they cannot have we are like to have a troublesom time in this Kingdom God send us Peace They call themselves the Queens Army they could never in so short a time have accomplish't what they have done if they had not some great ones to help them which is not discovered as yet God send us not less Liberty then we had and then we shall not need to complain Write to Dominick Coping Esq and give him thanks for the 40 s. ayear he was pleased to give you during your Study though as yet he gave me none yet certifie him of the receipt of so much by my Order and then I shall have it So having no more at this time but my Love to your self my Bedfellow and little Morris remember their Love to you and so I rest Your Loving Brother John Roche Directed A Monsieur Monsieur Jaques de la Roche Estudient Ibernois au College de Raiemes Solit donne A Paris See here the most horrible Scandals afterwards fixed upon the Queen and the King himself by the Calumniating Faction built upon the pitiful Foundation of an as they say and they call themselves the Queens Army and the conjectural Opinion of a private Person that the Rebels as he calls them had some great Ones to help them which the leading Men of
for though it cost him his life he that is in possession thinks it as well worth the keeping John Sparhank in King Henry the Fourth's time meeting two men upon the way amongst other talk said That the King was no rightful King but the Earl of March and that the Pope would grant Indulgencies to all that could assist the Earl's Title and that within half a year there would be no Liveries nor Cognizances of the King that the King had not kept promise with the People but had laid Taxes upon them In Easter-Term in the third year of Henry the Fourth in the Kings Bench Rot. 12. this adjudged Treason this denying the Title with Motives though not implyedly of Action against it adjudged Treason this is a compassing the Kings death How this was a compassing of the Kings Death is declared in the Reasons of the Judgment that the words were spoken with an intent to withdraw the affections of the people from the King and to excite them against him that in the end they might rise up against him in mortem destructionem of the King My Lords in this Judgment and others which I shall cite to your Lordships it appears that it is a compassing the Kings death by Words to endeavour to draw the Peoples hearts from the King to set discord between the King and them whereby the People should leave the King should rise up against him to the death and destruction of the King The Cases that I shall cite prove not only that it is Treason but what is sufficient Evidence to make this good Upon a Commission held the 18th year of Ed. 4. in Kent before the Marquess of Dorset and others an Indictment was preferred against John Awater of High-Treason in the Form before-mentioned for Words which are entred in the Indictment Sub hac forma That he had been servant to the Earl of Warwick that though he were dead the Earl of Oxford was alive and should have the Government of part of that Country That Edward whom you call King of England was a false Man and had by Art and Subtilty slain the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Clare his Brother without any cause who before had been both of them attainted of High-Treason My Lords This Indictment was Returned into the Kings-Bench in Trinity Term in the Eighteenth year of Edward the Fourth and in Easter-Term the Two and twentieth of Edward the Fourth he was outlawed by the stay of the outlawry so long as it seems the Judges had well advised before whether it were Treason or not At the same Session Thomas Heber was Indicted of Treason for these words That the last Parliament was the most simple and insufficient Parliament that ever had been in England That the King was gone to live in Kent because that for the present he had not the love of the Citizens of London nor should he have it for the future That if the Bishop of Bath and Wells were dead the Archbishop of Canterbury being Cardinal of England would immediately lose his head This Indictment was returned into the Kings-Bench in Trinity-Term in the 18th year of Edward the 4th afterwards there came a Privy-Seal to the Judge to respit the Proceedings which as it should seem was to the intent the Judges might advise of the Case for afterwards he is outlawed of High-Treason upon this Indictment These words are thought sufficient evidence to prove these several Indictments that they were spoken to withdraw the Peoples Affections from the King to excite them against him to cause Risings against him by the People in mortem destructionem of the King Your Lordships are pleased to consider That in all these Cases the Treason was for words only words by private Persons and in a more private manner but once spoken and no more only amongst the People to excite them against the King My Lords here are Words Counsels more then Words and Actions too not only to disaffect the people to the King but the King likewise towards the People not once but often not in private but in places most Publick not by a private person but by a Counsellor of State a Lord-Lieutenant a Lord-President a Lord-Deputy of Ireland 1. To His Majesty that the Parliament had denyed to supply Him a Slander upon all the Commons of England in their Affections to the King and Kingdom in refusing to yield timely supply for the necessities of the King and Kingdom 2. From thence that the King was loose and absolved from Rules of Government and was to do every thing that Power would admit My Lords more cannot be said they cannot be aggravated whatever I should say would be in Diminution 3. Thence you have an Army in Ireland you may employ to reduce this Kingdom To Counsel a King not to Love His People is very Unnatural it goes higher to hate them to Malice them in his heart the highest expressions of Malice to destroy them by War These Coals they were cast upon his Majesty they were blown they could not kindle in that Breast Thence my Lords having done the utmost to the King he goes to the people At York the Country being met together for Justice at the Open Assises upon the Bench he tells them speaking of the Justices of the Peace that they were all for Law nothing but Law but they should find that the Kings Little Finger should be heavier then the Loyns of the Law as they shall find My Lords Who speaks this to the People a Privy-Counsellor this must be either to traduce His Majesty to the People as spoken from him or from himself who was Lord-Lieutenant of the County and President intrusted with the Forces and Justice of those parts that he would Employ both this way Add my Lords to his Words there the Exercising of an Arbitrary and Vast Jurisdiction before he had so much as Instructions or Colour of Warrant Thence we carry him into Ireland there he Represented by his place the Sacred Person of his Majesty First There at Dublin the Principal City of that Kingdom whither the Subjects of that Country came for Justice in an Assembly of Peers and others of greatest Rank upon occasion of a Speech of the Recorder of that City touching their Franchises and Regal Rights he tells them That Ireland was a Conquered Nation and that the King might do with them what he pleased Secondly Not long after in the Parliament 10 Car. in the Chair of State in full Parliament again That they were a Conquer'd Nation and that they were to expect Laws as from a Conqueror before the King might do with them what he would now they were to expect it that he would put this Power of a Conqueror in Execution The Circumstances are very Considerable in full Parliament from himself in Cathedra to the Representative Body of the whole Kingdom The Occasion adds much when they desir'd the Benefit of the Laws and that their Causes and Suits
by the King with the whole consent of his Parliament And in this I observe a twofold Subjection in the particular Members thereof dissenting from the General Votes of the whole Parliament And 2ly the whole state of the Kingdom to a full Parliament First I confess If any particular Member of a Parliament although his Judgment and Vote be contrary do not willingly submit to the rest he is an ill Subject to the King and Country Secondly To resist the Ordinance of the whole State of the Kingdom either by stirring up a dislike in the Hearts of his Majesties Subjects of the Proceedings of the Parliament to endeavour by levying of Arms to compel the King and Parliament to make such Laws as seem best to them to deny the Power Authority and Priviledges of Parliament to cast Aspersions upon the same and Proceedings thereby inducing the King to think ill of the same and to be incensed against the same to procure the untimely Dissolution and Breaking off of the Parliament before all things be settled by the same for the Safety and Tranquillity both of King and State is an apparent sign of a Trayterous and Disloyal Subject against his King and Country And thus having troubled your Patience in shewing the difference between true Protestants and false Loyal Subjects and Traytors in a State or Kingdom and the means how to discern them I humbly desire my Actions may be compared with either both as I am a Subject Protestant and Native in this Country and as I am a Member of this present and happy Parliament and as I shall be found guilty upon these Articles Exhibited against my self and the other Gentlemen either a bad or a good Subject to my Gracious Soveraign and Native Country to receive such Sentence upon the same as by this Honourable House shall be conceived to agree with Law and Justice It is prodigious to see with what Confidence some Persons durst appeal to God and Man and certainly ex ore tuo may most truly be applied to this unhappy Gentleman who by his future Actions upon his own declared Principles proved himself to be that ill and disloyal Subject whom he doth here take such Pains to delineate nor is it less remarkable that as he was one of the first who was in Actual Hostility against the King so contrary to his own avowed Declaration here so was he one of the first who fell in that unnatural Rebellion receiving his mortal Wound in a Skirmish near Chinner in Bucks upon the same Turf where he had assembled the County to frame those Petitions which first led the Nation into Sedition and afterwards into down right Rebellion from whence Posterity may learn what little Credit is to be given to the deepest Protestations of Loyalty and Asseverations of Innocence of such Persons whose Guilt has driven to dispair of any other Security from the Punishment of their ill Actions but what is to be hoped from doing Worse and that the Professions of Loyalty in such Cases are but purely to palliate and hide their Guilt from the view of the World and to avoid the horrid Imputation of Treason a Crime which because it is naturally destructive of humane Society is universally the hatred of Mankind Mr. Brown who was one of those sent to the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court Reports from the Gentlemen of Lincolns-Inn That they went to the Court first upon a general Report that his Majesties Person was in danger This Afternoon his Majesty came in Person to the House of Commons and having Seated himself in the Speaker's Chair he spake as followeth Gentlemen I Am sorry for this occasion of coming unto you The King's Speech in the House of Commons concerning the five Members Jan. 4 1641. Yesterday I sent a Serjeant at Arms upon a very important occasion to apprehend some that by My Command were Accused of High Treason whereunto I did expect Obedience and not a Message And I must declare unto you here That albeit no King that ever was in England shall be more careful of your Priviledges to maintain them to the utmost of His Power then I shall be yet you must know that in Cases of Treason no Person hath a Priviledge And therefore I am come to know if any of those Persons that were Accused are here For I must tell you Gentlemen That so long as those Persons that I have Accused for no slight Crime but for Treason are here I cannot expect that this House can be in the right way that I do heartily wish it Therefore I am come to tell you that I must have them wheresoever I find them Well since I see all the Birds are flown I do expect from you that you shall send them unto Me as soon as they return hither But I assure you in the Word of a King I never did intend any force but shall proceed against them in a Legal and fair way for I never meant any other And now since I see I cannot do what I came for I think this no unfit occasion to repeat what I have said formerly That whatsoever I have done in favour and to the good of My Subjects I do mean to maintain it I will trouble you no more but tell you I do expect as soon as they do come to the House you will send them to Me otherwise I must take My Own course to find them So soon as his Majesty was gone the Faction in the House was all in a flame and after the heats were a little over it was Resolved upon the Question That this House shall Adjourn it self till to morrow at One of the Clock There was not any one Action of which the Faction made greater advantage then this of his Majesties coming to the House in Person to demand the five Members the Faction blew the whole Nation into a blaze with their Out-cries upon it and it did not escape odd Interpretations even from those who professed themselves his Friends It is but just therefore that we should hear his Justification which I cannot give the Reader better then from his own Incomparable Pen. Which therefore take as follows MY going to the House of Commons to demand Justice upon the five Members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon his Majesties going to the H. of Commons to demand the five Members was an Act which my Enemies loaded with all the Obloquies and Exasperations they could it filled indifferent Men with Jealousies and Fears yea and many of my Friends resented it as a Motion rising rather from Passion then Reason and not guided with such discretion as the touchiness of those times required But these Men knew not the just Motives and pregnant Grounds with which I thought my self so furnished that there needed nothing to such Evidence as I could have produced against those I charged save only a free and Legal Tryal which was all I desired Nor had I any Temptation of displeasure or revenge