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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	parliament_n	power_n	1,452	5	5.0027	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49526	The answer of the chancellor, masters and scholars of the Vniversity of Oxford, to the petition, articles of grievance, and reasons of the city of Oxon presented to the honorable committee for regulating the University of Oxford the 24. of July, 1649.	University of Oxford.; Langbaine, Gerard, 1656-1692.	1649 (1649)	Wing L363; ESTC R19608	22,313	47

University for many years now lat● past have suffered g●●●t w●on●s diminu●ions of their just ancient 〈◊〉 by the P●titioner● who h●ve ta●●n upon them 〈◊〉 ●●●●ossesse them of some ●f them before com 〈◊〉 of oth●rs while ●●eir complaint is yet de●● 〈◊〉 We answer and say That the University neither hath exercised nor does challenge the exercise of any Arbitr●ry power or jurisdoction over the Cittizens But onely such just Power as they are by Law and Custome confirmed by Act of Parliament warranted unto Concerning Port-mead 1. We answer and deny that the Petitioners have the inheritance of the said Meadow but only a right of Common and that divers Colleges in the University and their Tenants and other men are as we conceive equally interessed● with the Petitioners in a right of Common in that Meadow 2. That the number of poore People both now and heretofore abounding in the Citty is very much occasioned by the Petitioners illegall erecting of multitudes of Cottages upon the Towne wall and Ditch which they rent out to such poore people thereby much enhance their own Revenues to the prejudice and impoverishing of the University by whose Free and charitable Contributions those poore are exceedingly relieved and mainteined 3. That if all the Charitable donations given to mainteine the Poore of Oxford by severall Members of the University were rightly imployed by the Petitioners to that end for which they were given they could not want a convenient stock wherewithall to set them on worke as we conceive 4. That the improvement desired by the inclosure of Portmead would not be only to the prejudice of the right of severall Colledges and their Tenants in respect of their said right of Common therein but to the generall impoverishment of the Poore inhabitants of the Citty who claime and use a like right of Common in the said ground which hath beene and is a great support to them and therefore when the like designe of enclosure hath heretofore been attempted by the richer Cittizens it has been mainely opposed and hindred by the Poore inhabitants of Oxon and so we conceive they doe oppose it at present And it is to be considered that the Piece of ground which they desire to enclose containes by estimation eight hundred Acres of rich Meadow 5. If the Citty have the inheritance of Port-meadow that it shal be thought fit to give way to such an inclosure as is desired for the ends by them proposed the Vniversitie will not oppose so as their interest in the disposing and the right of the Colleges and their respective Tenants be preserved or a valuable consideration given them in recompence of their said Common in the said Meadow To the first Article of the Citties pretended Grievances 1. WE answer and say That the Vniversity hath time out of minde and are warranted so to doe by divers Charters confirmed by Act of Parliament exercised Power and Iurisdiction in all Causes m●ntioned in this Article● whereof or wherein a Priviledg●d person is one party 2. We doe claime Allowa●ce of our Priviledge for such Persons justly p●ivile●ged as the Chancellour shall under the Common seale certifie to any Court to be so privil●dged we have had it without the formalitie or charge of long pleading paying only a fee for the allowance of the Certificat 3. We have ever proceeded according to the course of the Civill Lawes and after witnesses have been openly produced in Court and sworne their examinations are taken in writing by the Judge and Register then published that all parties may have Copies of them according to the course of the Civill Law the High Court of Chancery and the Admiralty 4. We doe not proceed in an Ecclesiastical way but in Causes Ecclesiasticall 5. Sometimes heretofore we have used the censure of Excommunication against our own Members at the instance and for the benefit of the Cittizens but not so these fifteen or sixteen yeares and that course being now in effect abolished by Act of Parliament it cannot be matter of present or future Grievance to the Petitioners 6. We do● use Summons or Citations at first before we grant out an Arrest against persons of quality and such as are likely to abide and continue within the jurisdiction But against Strangers that have no abiding there and against such as are like to ●ly we doe grant Arrests without any previous Citation 7. That our Sentences are as the Petitioners untruly suggest meerly arbitra●y and grounded upon no Law but at the will of the I●dge we deny● For in his Sentences the Judge followes the Justice and Equity of the Civill Law and Common Law and the Statutes of the Land against which he cannot nor does not judge 8. If the Judge be thought to have judged erroniously or unjustly Writs of Error are not brought to our Court b●cause the manner of proceedings there are not as at the Common Law but the party grieved may either appeale or complaine of a nullity and have redresse And if it be appealed in the Vniversity there are there appointed yearely fower or ●ive Doctors and some Masters from the Congregation and Convocation to heare the complaint from their judgements there lies an Appeale to the Supream Power in Chancery where the Juges of the Land other learned Lawyers both Common and Civill have usually been nominated Judges Delegates as in the Admiralty and Prerogative Court To the Third The Vniversity does claime the Night-walke and by Custome confirmed by Act of Parliament hath exercised the same time beyond the memory of man and that if any man be found by the Proctors abroad in the night without a reasonable cause by the same Custome he is liable to pay forty shillings for his Noctivagation this extends as well to Townsmen as Schollers or Strangers But for barely being abroad about a mans owne private or any other publique occasions such as are specified in this Article we absolutely deny 2. We further affirme that if any man be taken in the Night he may put in Bayle and shew a reasonable cause of such his being abroad the next day or as soone as he can and upon his so doing he is to be dismissed without any payment 3. If any P●octor have at any time tran●gressed the just bounds of their power the Vniversity does not avow them in it the party greived may take his course against him To the Fourth The Vniversity time out of minde hath used the sole power of admitting or Licensing Common Brewers To the Fifth The Vniversity never did challenge or exercise any such power as is mentioned in this Article To the Sixth The Vniversity doth not take upon them to Dis-common any man at pleasure but only upon very great cause and wrong to the Vniversity after monition and due proceedings and that by common consent in Convocation To the Seaventh The Vniver●ity by severall Charters confirmed by Act of Parliament does require an Oath

expressed the least reluctancy against it As for such disorderly walkers who are of a contrary disposition it is used only to reduce them to civility and the Proctors exercise the like power over them which the Constables and Magistrates in other places are allowed by the Lawes of the land to preserve the quiet of the place and to punish the misdemeanors of such as are disorderly 2. W● doe not know that any Proctors ever exercised such power over the Publike Magistrates of the Citty in the due execution of their offices as is charged in this Article Or if any did the parties grieved might have their remedy against them● the Vniversity does not claime any such power 3. We answer and deny That the Citty have any such ancient Charters concerning five Aldermen and eight Assistants of the Citty as is pretended in this Article 4. We likewise deny that in the case of Noctivagation the Proctors are any iudges at all but only Relators of the Offendors nor are they to have the forty shillings but only the halfe in case of legall conviction as in all other cases of mulcts 5. As for what the Petitioners have proposed as an expedient in this point That the Towne Officer ● may have as much power over us as the Vniversity Officers over them we conceive it would be neither just nor safe for them to endeavour or us to consent to the divideing that power with them which by Law and practice is wholly ours and which is so absolutely necessary to the well governing of the Vniversity Besides we conceive That if both parties should walke in the Night it would breed occasion of quarrells and tumults if not blood-shed And how little cause the Petitioners have to complaine of Tyranny in the exe●cise of this power wee d●re appeale to the consciences of the best and gravest Cittizens● whether they h●ve not enjoyed both quiet profit by the vigilant care of the Proctors in the Night watch To the knowledge of such oth●●s of their Body whose disorders made them justly obnoxious to that power whether they have not usually been much more favo●ably dealt with then the members of our own Body● Lastly To the Testimony of many other civill Gentlemen both of our owne and forraigne Nations who in times of peace did use to come and so●ourne in Oxford whether they did conceive it any Greivance to them to be subject to this and other rules of government of the University which the Petitioners are pleased to traduce as arbitrary and Tyrannicall III. To the Reasons of the Third Greivance We answer 1. That the University having the undoubted Assize of Bread and Beere and the Oath for the observing that Assize being a necessary consequent depending on it the right and c●stome of admitting and Licenceing of common Brewers Bakers in Oxon is not only ancient but for the fitnesse thereof hath also received and had confirmation by Act of Parliament Neither is it without examples of like nature in the Book-cases where time hath indulged the like custome to persons of qualitie in other places And this particular right of the Vniversity hath not many yeares since been declared by the free and voluntary acknowledgment of the Brewers of Oxon themselves as in due time will be shewed in writing 2. As for the Fees of such Licences or admissions we answer They have been anciently paid to severall Officers of the Vniversity for their paines about that businesse are as we conceive in themselves but moderate farre short of such Fees as are required by the Citty and their members in other like cases But the Vniversity claimeth no Fee to their Body for any such Grant or Licence 3. We further conceive it is not improper for the University to have this right which in all probability would be worse practised and with greater prejudice to the publique if exercised by the Citty whose chiefe Magistrates are for the most part men of the same Trades who by severall Acts of Parliament are prohibited from entermedling with the Assizing and Correction of victuals or the defaults therein IIII. To the Reasons of the fowerth Grievance We answer 1. The University never challengeth nor did any Vicechancellor ever exercise any such power of pulling downe or abating Townesmen houses 2. As to the two instances we say Those houses were both erected by the Citty and those who derive from their Title with ●such prejudice to the common passages adjoyning that they were presented at the Lee● as Nusances whereupon they were ordered to be abated viz. so much of the first of them as might enlarge the passage at Smithgate which had been obstructed by that encroachment to the conveniency of a Coach or Cart-way and what was done by the Vicechancellor herein was upon the request of the Citty expressed in their letters to the Lords of the Privy Councell the 17. of Aprill 1634. by whose Order thereupon made the oversight of doing thereof was referred to the then Vicechancellor as intrusted with the Care and Custody of the Streets there The second totally to be demolished as being most notoriously disliked and complained of by the whole Countrey and all passengers to whose great danger it was in their travell over East Bridge whereupon it was newly erected Upon the doing thereof the Lords then directed that convenient recompence should be made to the Owners of those houses by those that did abate thē which was in truth the Citty themselves and not the University or Vicechancellor V. To the Reasons of the Fift Greivance We answer 1. That the matter here intimated by the Petitioners for it beares not any direct charge of Discommuning is an ancient Priviledge of the University albeit rarely practised and not but upon great provo●ation to which the University ha's recourse as to their last refuge against the professed Adversaries of the publique rights peace and good goverment thereof and that only by their joynt and generall consent in Convocation wherein wee conceive our proceedings justifiable 1. For that of common right trading is free for all persons where with whom they please and the same measure we doe herein mete to the Cittizens they may and we are content if they see just cause they shall mete to us againe 2. For that the Petitioners doe the like themselves not only towards the University Priviledged persons but even to members of their own Body 2. We further answer That this practice of the University cannot in congruity be construed as tending to a Monopoly of Trading in the intentions of those that use it who are neither so ignorant of their own interest nor so much enemies to it as to desire any thing more then an universall Freedome of Trade which as it is most consonant to the native liberty of every Free man and to the Common Law of the Land so would it be more beneficiall to Scollers then any other persons they living wholy upon the penny buying