Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	case_n	civil_a	law_n	1,412	5	4.9298	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60122	The master of the Temple as bad a lawyer as the Dean of Pauls is a divine in a letter from a gentleman of the Temple, to his (quondam) tutor in Oxford, about the law part of Dr. Sherlock's modest examiniation of the Oxford decree.	Shower, Bartholomew, Sir, 1658-1701.	1696 (1696)	Wing S3656; ESTC R24536	8,391	30

every day answer their own Arguments This Practise is too often observable in the Discourses of Those who to shew their Reading endeavour to fetch Arguments from Professions in which they were never Educated or not sufficiently Studied Sir I must beg you not to construe this Reflection as general For it must be acknowledg'd that Your Gown doth afford many instances to the contrary and particularly the Universal Learning and apparent Sincerity of the great Bishop of Worcester is a notorious exception to these Remarks He must be own'd to have read more of our Law-Books than perhaps any man that is not a Lawyer and to have employ'd what he has read Knowingly and Fairly But as 't is plain our Dean has no pretence to the First Part of this Character so whether he has any to the Latter or not you are to judg upon what follows The Case is thus A Sermon is Preach'd at Oxford in which there is a Passage complain'd of as giving occasion of Offence The Vice-chancellor Convenes several Heads of Houses amongst which were more than six Doctors of Divinity They Judg Declare and Determine these Propositions that there are Three Infinite Distinct Minds and Substances in the Trinity and that the Three Persons in the Trinity are Three distinct Infinite Minds or Spirits and Three Individual Substances to be False Impious and Heretical dissonant and contrary to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and especially to the Doctrine of the Church of England publickly receiv'd Wherefore they do Command and publickly Enjoyn all and singular the Persons committed to their Care not to publish for the future any such Tenet in their Sermons or otherwise The Question now upon this Case is Whether the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses have been guilty of any Crime according to the Laws of this Realm either Ecclesiastical or Civil or by the Statutes of the University I say that the Negative is plain For first this is not a Judicial Proceeding in order to punish the Person who had publickly maintain'd these Propositions but a Declaration rather of their Opinion by way of Caution to the Members of the University under their Care The Wherefore in he Close doth plainly shew their honest and justifiable intent and design And no man can have the Forehead to assert that Twenty Men may not deny the Notion in Debate to be true with as much Freedom by our Law as Two or Three may affirm it Nay if it was their Judgment and Opinion as undoubtedly it was the Morals even of a Lawyer will assure the Dean that it was their Duty to declare so in order to prevent the Growth of the suppos'd Error or Heresy among those committed to their Charge The Judgment of Universities hath been Frequently and Legally declar'd upon Less Occasions even upon the Printing of Pamphlets tho out of their Precincts and by Persons not under their Care Their Power hath with Allowance been extended to forbid the Reading of Erroneous Treatises and how comes it to be a Crime in them then to Censure what is publickly Preach'd before them by One of their Own Members But suposing it to be a Judicial Proceeding yet their Statutes are their Warrant for it The plain words of which are Haeretici Schismatici quicunque alii minus recte de Fide Catholica Doctrina vel Disciplina Ecclesiae Anglicanae sentientes usque tam Conciones quam Libri quibus malesanae opiniones propagantur cohibeantur And this is intrusted Judicio Vicecancellarii assidentibus Ipsi Praefectis in Ordinario suo Conventu Thus runs the Statute de Authoritate Officio Vice-Cancellarii There is another Statute as to Sermons and that runs thus Siquis pro Concione aliqua intra Vniversitatem ejusve Praecinctum habita quicquam doctrinae vel disciplinae Ecclesiae Anglicanae publice receptae dissonum aut contrarium protuerit sive protulisse ab ipso Vice-Cancellario suspectus vel alio aliquo rationabilem suspicionis Causam afferentedelatus fuerit the Vicechancellor may thereupon proceed adhibito Consilio Sex aliorum S tae Theologiae Doctorum quorum Vnus sit S tae Theologiae Professor Regius si concioni interfuerit There is not a step they have taken in this Affair which is not according to the Power granted to 'em in these words And I wonder therefore what the Dean means by reproaching their Proceedings as Irregular and Vnstatutable There seems to be a Fate upon him in mis-understanding and mis-representing every thing that carries the Name of a Law for he deals just as skilfully and fairly with these Local Statutes as he does afterwards with those of the Realm If then these Statutes of theirs are valid they are an Ample Warrant for what they have done And Valid they are unless they are contrary to the express known Laws of the Realm which I shall prove 'em not to be immediately In the mean Time supposing there were an Error in their Proceedings it is but the Error of a Judge at most which is never Criminal by any Law in the World unless Corruption attend the Senrence where the Person and the subject Matter are within his Jurisdiction Now in both Respects That is the Case here 'T was a Member of the University that maintain'd the Proposition censur'd 't was in a Sermon preached before the University The subject matter of the Words relates not to the Temporal Government but merely to an Opinion in Religion to an Article of Faith And it must be agreed that Sermons before them and the Doctrines deliver'd in those Sermons are under their Cognisance Now supposing the Censure to be a Mistake no Man of sense but the Dean will pretend that this mistake is a Crime It only gives Cause of Appeal to some Superior Judge in Case the Constitution allows one as Ours both in Civil and Ecclesiastical matter doth in most Particulars There are but few Cases of any kind or Nature whatsoever where the Law hath impowr'd a Final Determination in the first Instance Even in Colledges and Universities there are Visitors and in most Cases Appeals from the first Order or Sentence Mankind doth so generally agree this to be reasonable in consideration of our obnoxiousness to Error that Appeals are deem'd Remedies approv'd by the Law of Nature and in this Divines Canonists Civilians and Common-Lawyers do all agree And if so with what Colour can the Dean insinuate that this Proceeding hath brought either the Persons concern'd of the University into any danger supping if contrary to the Laws of the Realm The next thing to be consider'd is whether any Law of the Realm doth controul or over-rule this matter The Dean says that such Declarations are not fit to be intrusted with any Body of Men less than a National Synod I shall not dispute about Convenience tho with submission to better Judgments Our Constitution can hardly admit of any Alteration but for the worse But the question is how the Law stands The Objection is

from the 1st of Eliz. Cap. 1. Upon which the Dean says We find the power to order determine or adjudge any matter or Cause to be Heresy restrain'd onely to such as heretofore have been determin'd order'd or adjudg'd to be Heresy by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first Four General Councils or by any other General Councel wherein the same was declar'd Heresy by the Express and plain Words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such as hereafter shall be order'd judg'd or determin'd to be Heresy by the High Court of Parliament of this Realm with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This is his Quotation Then he goes on thus And if the King could not grant a greater Authority than this to his High Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Affairs it is not likely that any other Body of Men have it And my Lord Coke says That this is a direction to others especially to Bishops in their adjudging Heresy 3 Instit pag. 40. And how they have obsery'd this Law in their Decree they had best consider To which I answer That were this Law in force and did it concern them yet for the Reasons above mention'd 't is no more than an Erroneous Judgment as we have seen many on the 25 E. 3. and revers'd with abhorrence and yet the Judges not deem'd offenders because they were not so Wise as their Superiors who were of another Opinion But his Emphafis lies on the last words They had best consider how they have observ'd that Law You Sir know best whether the Position be declar'd Heresy by any of those Councils But I 'm sure I know that there is no such Law in force and if there were yet it concerns not this matter First It no ways concerns this Procedure but only a Legal Process upon a Person for Heresy in order to his being condmn'd and deliver'd over to the Secular Power to be burn't In the next place it concerns only the High-Commissioners and none else it was not intended to oblige even the Bishop of a Diocese in his Ordinary Proceeding 'T is true Coke says That it may serve for a good Direction to Others more especially to a Diocesan being sole Judge in so weighty a Cause but he doth not say it obliges him nor can He or any body else pretend it does much less doth Coke say that it extends to a Vice-Chancellor's Government of the University with the Assistance of the Heads of Houses or Doctors of Divinity Neither Diocesans nor Universities are mention'd or intended as appears by the whole Contexture of the Act. But suppose the Act were Directory nay Compulsive upon a Diocesan which 't is not doth it follow that the Direction extends to Universities also The meaning of a Law is to be extended no further than the Words of it and not strain'd to take in Parallel-Cases and Remote Consequences Then consider the Reason of the thing May not the University be allow'd to censure a Member for Heretical Words tho they should not be such as contain'd Heresy condemnable by the Ordinary May they not caution against a Doctrine as Heretical for which the Ordinary cannot Sentence in order to Death The Punishment of Heresy at the Time when this Statute was in force was Fire Suppose the Bishop oblig'd by this Law now yet he could not punish such Heresy as was within it but upon a contumacious Adherence of the Offending Party to his Opinion Do's it follow from thence that the Vniversity may not Censure other Words which do not strictly come within the Statute as Impious and Heretical Nor reprimand one of her own Members for using ' em But this is a Debate upon Suppositions only and those utterly false For Coke himself tells us in the First words of the very Sentence quoted by the Dean that the Act extended only to the High-Commissioners which were appointed by the King in pursuance of it So that if the Dean had Printed the whole sentence as it lies in my Lord Coke he would not have been capable of raising so much as the shadow of an Argument from it How this agrees with the Common Rules of sincerity the Dean who understands how to reconcile every thing to every thing may please to tell us for I dare say no body else can However take it again as he would have it and let us see what follows Because this is a Direction to Bishops in their Dioceses whereas Coke only says It may serve for a good Direction to 'em in so weighty a Cause and so That 's not very fairly quoted neither because this is a Direction to the Ordinary therefore What! Therefore you had best consider how You have observ'd that Law which does not concern You O the Power of No-Logic and No-Law met together As he clips Coke's Opinion so he maims the very Paragraph of the Act of Parliament upon which he founds his imply'd Menace For as it lies in the Act it is a Restraint of the Power which the High-Commissioners were to have by Vertue of the King's Letters Patents and of that Act. The words are by Vertue of this Act and these he omits Now this Proviso implies that if the Proviso had not been added the General Purview had given them a greater Latitude and Power for otherwise the Proviso had been useless The General Purview giving a Power to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction it must be suppos'd that Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction might declare and punish other Heresys than what are mention'd in the Proviso and the Proviso's being restrain'd only to those Commissioners shews that the Law-Makers thought other Heresys might be declar'd and punish'd than what are there mention'd Tho they would not permit These Commissioners to declare any other But further If there be a Repeal of the Clause which enacts the High-Commission-Court as there is by the 17 Car. 1. Cap. 11. the Proviso in restraint of these Commissioners is and must be Repeal'd too This Natural Reason and Common sense might have taught the Dean without his resorting to the Temple Library or consulting his Men of Skill about the matter For either that power of Erecting an High-Commission-Court was in affirmance of the Common-Law or introductive of a New Law If the former as was Argu'd in the last Reign yet even then this proviso being restrain'd to such Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents by Vertue of that Act the same can never extend to other Ordinary Acts or Exercise of Jurisdiction without a special Commission because the words have so restrain'd it And if the Power of that Court were New and Created by that Act as all the Dean's Lawyers do and must contend then the Court being gone the Proviso in restraint of it is vanish't too So that at last here is no 1 Eliz. cap. 1. left for the Vniversity to consider and the Dean has dealt with Them as the World often has with Him has thrown away his Advice upon 'em to no purpose It is News to Me Sir and will be so to the World I believe what you tell me with regard to the Reprimand suppos'd to have been given lately to the Vniversity It has been talk'd very confidently of here in Town as a thing past Dispute and the Dean I assure you has taken Heart upon 't and according to his way defi'd all the World more than once from the Pulpit in the strength of it And 〈…〉 send me word That it does not at all 〈…〉 the Meeting of the Heads of Houses or of the Vniversity that any such Reprimand so much talk't of here has been sent And this you say I may depend upon as certain You surprize me Sir and I believe what I am going to say will as much surprise You. You tell me that it is taken for granted at Oxford that the Judges of England have given their Opinions in Prejudice of the Vniversicy and their Proceedings You may be aftured that this Report as loud and as largely spread as it is is scandalous and groundless You may be assur'd of it I say both from the known Law of the Realm and from the known Honour and Probity also of the Persons filling those Places For by our Law the Judges are not to give any Opinion out of Court upon any Matter that may possibly come before 'em in Judgment and if they do 't is an Irregularity in their Behaviour an Indecency seldom committed but never own'd For such Opinions being Extrajudicial are not upon their Oaths and are neither obligatory to themselves nor valu'd by others 'T is a Reproach upon the King to suppose their Opinion ask'd in this case Many of 'em I am sure when requested by Ministers upon greater occasions than this have refus'd to give it as in Justice and Honour it became 'em and would therefore if they should have been ask't upon this have certainly deny'd it Shipmony and Non-obstante's and Quo-warranto's had some such Preliminary Interrogatories about Opinions but Experience tells us that the Nation would not bear it Besides These Gentlemen now on the Bench are not quite so Dependent on the Crown as the Beneplacito Men were 'T is true they are bound to advise the King when requir'd But that cannot be concerning an Act already done by the Subject whether Lawful or Criminal For in these Cases the King hath his Serjeant his Attorny Sollicitor and other Counsel Learned in the Law to advise w●●● You may depend upon 't therefore that nothing of that Nature can have been done or attempted as peremptory as the Dean's Creatures have been upon 〈◊〉 ●ccasion So that upon the whole think you need not sneak to any Socinian Tritheist or Latitudinarian whatever upon the account of the evil Consequences that may attend your Conduct in this matter Fools and Cowards may blame you for having gone so far but with Wife and Honest Men your only Fault will be if you go no farther Sir I might enlarge upon the Powers and Priviledges of the Vniversity in respect of declaring Doctrines to be Erroneous and I could find Materials enough from good Histories Reports and Journals and those approv'd by Lawyers for that purpose But at present I think it enough to have answer'd the Dean till he shall be pleas'd to give further occasion by Writing about Law Points again I am Sir Your most humble Servant Feb. 3. 1695.