Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	king_n	prince_n	1,915	5	5.6349	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30381	The life and death of Sir Matthew Hale, kt sometime Lord Chief Justice of His Majesties Court of Kings Bench. Written by Gilbert Burnett, D.D.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing B5827; ESTC R218702	56,548	244

sure never to provoke any in particular by censuring or reflecting on their Actions for many that have Conversed much with him have told me they never heard him once speak ill of any Person He was imployed in his practice by all the Kings party He was assigned Council to the Earl of Strafford and Arch Bishop Laud and afterwards to the Blessed King himself when brought to the infamous Pageantry of a Monk Tryal and offered to plead for him with all the Courage that so Glorious a Cause ought to have inspired him with but was not suffered to appear because the King refusing as he had good reason to submit to the Court it was pretended none could be admitted to speak for him He was also Council for the Duke of Hamilton the Earl of Holland and the Lord Capel His Plea for the former of these I have published in the Memoires of that Dukes life Afterwards also being Council for the Lord Craven he pleaded with that force of Argument that the then Attorney General threatned him for appearing against the Government to whom he answered he was Pleading in defence of those Laws which they declared they would maintain and preserve and he was doing his duty to his Client so that he was not to be daunted with Threatnings Upon all these occasions he had discharged himself with so much Learning Fidelity and Courage that he came to be generally imployed for all that Party Nor was he satisfied to appear for their just Defence in the way of his Profession but he also relieved them often in their Necessities which he did in a way that was no less Prudent than Charitable considering the dangers of that time for he did often deposite considerable Sums in the hands of a Worthy Gentleman of the Kings Party who knew their Necessities well and was to Distribute his Charity according to his own Discretion without either letting them know from whence it came or giving himself any Account to whom he had given it Cromwell seeing him possest of so much Practice and he being one of the Eminentest Men of the Law who was not at all affraid of doing his duty in those Critical times resolved to take him off from it and raise him to the Bench. Mr. Hale saw well enough the Snare laid for him and though he did not much consider the prejudice it would be to himself to Exchange the easie and safer profits he had by his Practice for a Iudges place in the Common-Pleas which he was required to accept of yet he did deliberate more on the Lawfulness of taking a Commission from Usurpers but having considered well of this he came to be of opinion that it being absolutely necessary to have Iustice and Property kept up at all times It was no Sin to take a Commission from Usurpers if he made no Declaration of his acknowledging their Authority which he never did He was much urged to Accept of it by some Eminent Men of his own Profession who were of the Kings Party as Sir Orlando Bridgeman and Sir Geoffery Palmer and was also satisfied concerning the lawfulness of it by the resolution of some famous Divines in particular Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Henchman who were afterwards promoted to the Sees of Canterbury and London To these were added the importunities of all his Friends who thought that in a time of so much Danger and Oppression it might be no small Security to the Nation to have a Man of his Integrity and Abilities on the Bench and the Usurpers themselves held him in that Estimation that they were glad to have him give a Countenance to their Courts and by promoting one that was known to have different Principles from them Affected the Reputation of Honouring and trusting men of Eminent Virtues of what perswasion soever they might be in relation to publick Matters But he had greater Scruples concerning the proceeding against Felons and putting offenders to Death by that Commission since he thought the Sword of Justice belonging only by right to the lawful Prince it seemed not warrantable to proceed to a Capital Sentence by an Authority derived from Usurpers yet at first he made distinction between common and ordinary Felonies and offences against the State for the last he would never meddle in them for he thought these might be often legal and warrantable Actions and that the putting Men to Death on that account was Murder but for the ordinary Felonies he at first was of opinion that it was as necessary even in times of Usurpation to Execute Justice in those cases as in the matters of property For after the King was Murthered he laid by all his Collections of the Pleas of the Crown and that they might not fall into ill hands he hid them behind the Wainscotting of his Study for he said there was no more occasion to use them till the King should be again restored to his Right and so upon his Majesties Restoration he took them out and went on in his design to perfect that great Work Yet for some time after he was made a Iudge when he went the Circuit he did sit on the Crown Side and Judged Criminals But having considered farther of it he came to think that it was at least better not to do it and so after the Second or Third Circuit he refused to sit any more on the Crown Side and told plainly the reason for in matters of Blood he was always to choose the safer Side And indeed he had so carried himself in some Tryals that they were not unwilling he should withdraw from medling farther in them of which I shall give some instances Not long after he was made a Iudge which was in the year 1653 when he went the Circuit a Tryal was brought before him at Lincoln concerning the Murther of one of the Townsmen who had been of the Kings Party and was Killed by a Souldier of the Garrison there He was in the Fields with a Fowling piece on his Shoulder which the Souldier seeing he came to him and said it was contrary to an Order which the Protector had made That none who had been of the Kings Party should carry Armes and so he would have forced it from him But as the other did not regard the Order so being stronger than the Souldier he threw him down and having beat him he left him The Souldier went into the Town and told one of his fellow Souldiers how he had been used and got him to go with him and lie in wait for the Man that he might be revenged on him They both watched his coming to Town and one of them went to him to demand his Gun which he refusing the Soldier struck at him and as they were strugling the other came behind and ran his Sword into his Body of which he presently died It was in the time of the Assizes so they were both Tried Against the one there was no Evidence of forethought Felony so he was only found

abroad not only for his Health but he thought it opened his Mind and enlarged his thoughts to have the Creation of God before his Eyes When he set himself to any Study he used to cast his design in a Scheme which he did with a great exactness of Method he took nothing on Trust but pursued his Enquires as far as they could go and as he was humble enough to confess his Ignorance and submit to Mysteries which he could not comprehend so he was not easily imposed on by any shews of Reason or the Bugbears of vulgar Opinions He brought all his Knowledge as much to scientifical Principles as he possibly could which made him neglect the Study of Tongues for the bent of his Mind lay another way Discoursing once of this to some they said they looked on the Common Law as a Study that could not be brought into a Scheme nor formed into a Rational Science by reason of the Indigestedness of it and the Multiplicity of the Cases in it which rendered it very heard to be understood or reduced into a Method But he said he was not of their mind and so quickly after he drew with his own hand a Scheme of the whole Order and Parts of it in a large sheet of Paper to the great Satisfaction of those to whom he sent it Upon this hint some pressed him to Compile a Body of the English Law It could hardly ever be done by a Man who knew it better and would with more Judgment and Industry have put it into Method But he said as it was a Great and Noble Design which would be of vast Advantage to the Nation so it was too much for a private Man to undertake It was not to be Entred upon but by the Command of a Prince and with the Communicated Endeavours of some of the most Eminent of the Profession He had great vivacity in his Fancy as may appear by his Inclination to Poetry and the lively Illustrations and many tender strains in his Contemplations But he look't on Eloquence and Wit as things to be used very chastly in serious Matters which should come under a severer Inquiry Therefore he was both when at the Bar and on the Bench a great Enemy to all Eloquence or Rhetorick in Pleading He said if the Iudge or Iury had a right understanding it signified nothing but a waste of Time and loss of words and if they were weak and easily wrought on it was a more decent way of corrupting them by bribing their Fancies and biassing their Affections And wondered much at that affectation of the French Lawyers in imitating the Roman Orators in their Pleadings For the Oratory of the Romans was occasioned by their popular Government and the Factions of the City so that those who intended to excell in the Pleading of Causes were trained up in the Schools of the Rhetors till they became ready and expert in that luscious way of Discourse It is true the Composures of such a Man as Tully was who mixed an extraordinary Quickness an exact Judgement and a just Decorum with his skill in Rhetorick do still entertain the Readers of them with great Pleasure But at the same time it must be acknowledged that there is not that chastity of Style that closeness of Reasoning nor that justness of Figures in his Orations that is in his other Writings So that a great deal was said by him rather because he knew it would be acceptable to his Auditors than that it was approved of by himself and all who read them will acknowledg they are better pleased with them as Essays of Wit and Style than as Pleadings by which such a Iudge as ours was would not be much wrought on And if there are such Grounds to censure the performances of the greatest Master in Eloquence we may easily infer what nauseous Discourses the other Orators made since in Oratory as well as in Poetry none can do Indifferently So our Iudge wondred to find the French that live under a Monarchy so fond of imitating that which was an ill Effect of the Popular Government of Rome He therefore pleaded himself always in few words and home to the Point And when he was a Iudge he held those that Pleaded before him to be the main Hinge of the Business and cut them short when they made Excursions about Circumstances of no Moment by which he saved much time and made the cheif Difficulties be well Stated and Cleared There was another Custom among the Romans which he as much admired as he despised their Rhethorick which was that the Iuris-Consults were the Men of the highest Quality who were bred to be capable of the cheif Imployment in the State and became the great Masters of their Law These gave their opinions of all Cases that were put to them freely judging it below them to take any present for it And indeed they were only the true Lawyers among them whose Resolutions were of that Authority that they made one Classis of those Materials out of which Trebonian compiled the Digests under Iustinian for the Orators or Causidici that Pleaded Causes knew little of the Law and only imployed their mercenary Tongues to work on the Affections of the People and Senate or the Pretors Even in most of Tullies Orations there is little of Law and that little which they might sprinkle in their Declamations they had not from their own Knowledg but the Resolution of some Iuris-Consult According to that famous Story of Servius Sulpitius who was a Celebrated Orator and being to receive the Resolution of one of those that were Learned in the Law was so Ignorant that he could not understand it Upon which the Iuris-Consult reproached him and said it was a shame for him that was a Nobleman a Senator and a Pleader of Causes to be thus Ignorant of Law This touched him so sensibly that he set about the Study of it and became one of the most Eminent Iuris-Consults that ever were at Rome Our Iudge thought it might become the greatness of a Prince to encourage such a sort of Men and of Studies in which none in the Age he lived in was equal to the great Selden who was truly in our English Law what the old Roman Iuris-Consults were in theirs But where a decent Eloquence was allowable Iudge Hale knew how to have excelled as much as any either in illustrating his Reasonings by proper and well pursued Similies or by such tender expressions as might work most on the Affections so that the present Lord Chancellor has often said of him since his Death that he was the Greatest Orator he had known for though his words came not fluently from him yet when they were out they were the most Significant and Expressive that the Matter could bear Of this sort there are many in his Contemplations made to quicken his own Devotion which have a Life in them becoming him that used them and a softness fit to melt even