may be supposed partiall and interessed Yet even in the subject matter of these Memoranda he is not unversed if not more particularly yet as comprehended in that generality of Learning and Knowledge whereto he hath from his younger yeares been habituated to at the feet of such a States-man as was his most accomplished Father and such Instructors as he by his especial and most discerning choice appointed him and all this perfected up by most advantagious acquisition by travel and residence in forraign parts amongst those who are justly ranked in the number of the most Civil Learned and Wise in Europe and so consequently in the Universe and so need not mine or others instruction herein more then others not professed Lawyers But all that is comprised in this Model both in the Memoranda's and the Notes somewhat grounded upon some yeares experience I have had and tending as before at least in my well-meaning opinion to the publick good solely is so most humbly offered to consideration if by those in Authority it be thought fit He is I conceive very fit to further and advance this both in consideration of his abilities and his being impowred as others of his noble rank and quality in the Supreme Judicatory of this Kingdom and by his own Genius and propensity willing and desirous to effect any thing ayming that way as less cannot be expected from the Son of such a Father and Husband of such a wife his most noble and most vertuous Lady a pair in respect of the mutual parity of their most intense conjugal affection and parentizing love to Loyalty Justice and Honour hereditary vertues flowing in their veines from their most Noble Loyally Gloriously Acting and Suffering Parents not easily parallel'd and therefore I have not so much Dedicated this to him as supplicated his effectual adminicular hand hereto Upon the whole matter as touching my self this Modell as also if not more especially the Notes subjoyn'd I having had no small share of Sufferings in the time of exilement of Monarch and Monarchy and so consequently of joy and gladness in the happy Restauration of both in my due gratitude and obligation both by tie of natural duty and of God and Mans Laws have made it part of my study to endeavour to contribute my well-meaning mite to the publick good and the prevention of such miseries for the future as too lately we have had too sad experience of Instances might be given of many that have published their endeavours heretofore to such publick ends which have not proved ineffectual and more especially Mr. Spencer touching the State of Ireland in Queen Elizabeths time If in any measure never so remote they may any whit help to attain to that end they aime at I shall be glad of it and with that true candour submissively offering them alwayes protesting as I now do that if there be any thing herein contrary to Gods word directly or indirectly or to His Majesties Prerogative or the known Laws of the Land Ecclesiastical or Temporal or the politick Government either in Church or State or which may give just offence I do hereby absolutely retract it as no wayes by me intended or thought of wishing this small taste may stir up others more able to make a further and better progress in this kind Anno 13. CAROLI II. Regis An Act for explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the seventeenth year of the late King Charles entituled An Act for repeal of a branch of a Statute primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical WHereas in an Act of Parliament made in the seventéenth year of the late King Charles entituled An Act for repeal of a branch of a Statute primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical it is amongst other things enacted That no Archbishop Bishop nor Vicar General nor any Chancellor nor Commissary of any Archbishop Bishop or Vicar General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iudge Officer or Minister of Iustice nor any other person or persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Iurisdiction by any Grant License or Commission of the Kings Majesty his Heirs or Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the first day of August which then shall be in the year of our Lord God One thousand six hundred for y one award impose or inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other corporal punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanour Crime Offence matter or thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognisance or Iurisdiction whereupon some doubt hath béen made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and Procéedings in Causes Ecclesiastical were taken away whereby the ordinary course of Iustice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath béen obstructed Be it therefore declared and Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Archbishops Bishops or any other person or persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them exercising Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction may procéed determine sentence execute and exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and all Censures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before the making of the Act before recited in all causes and matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this Realm in as ample manner and form as they did and might lawfully have done before the making of the said Act. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that the afore recited Act of decimo septimo Caroli and all the matters and clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new erection of some such like Court by Commission shall be and is hereby repealed to all intents and purposes whatsoever Any thing clause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided alwayes and it is hereby enacted That neither this Act nor any thing herein contained shall extend or be constâ—ued to revive or give force to the said branch of the said Statute made in the said first year of the Reign of the said late Quéen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act of Parliament made in the said seventéenth year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said branch of the said Statute made in the said first year of the Reign of the said Quéen Elizabeth shall stand and be repealed in such sort as if this Act had never been made Provided also and it is hereby further enacted that it shall not be lawful for any Archbishop Bishop Vicar General Chancellor
and pretending to I know not what heavenly Revelations and counterfeiting an extraordinary calling insinuated himself into the acquaintance of severall Divines that with inflamed zeal labour'd to bring in the Presbyteriall Discipline of the Church of Geneva into the Church of England amongst whom was one Wigginton a Minister and if ever any an haire-brain'd one and a contemâ—er of Magistrates Then he goes on and relates Hacketts and his Complices most horrid and ridiculous madness such as had not such a worthy Author and others related it we might now doubt of the truth of it as the next Age will probably do of our Modern Fanaticks late pranks there he relates his fearful blasphemous speeches as he expired and was turn'd off the Gallowes upon whom that pious and Learned Author gives this grave censure Ita hostis humani gencris dementat quos sanctitatem simulare ad solrietatem nolle sapere deprehendit Thus the enemy of Mankinde infatuates those whom he perceives to be counterfeitors of holiness and will not be wise with sobriety And then after a line or two upon Arthington and Coppinger two of Hacketts Complices he goes on thus Nec hii soli sed etiam alii qui receptam in Ecclesia Anglicana Doctrinam Episcoporum vocationem damnando Praesules contumeliosè calumniando hactenus frustra impugnarant Nunc pertractis in eorum partes nonullis juris Anglici peritis in corum Jurisdictionem delegatam à Regina in Ecclesiasticis causis authoritatem ut prorsus injustam linguas calamos strinxerunt declamando ubique etiam libris publicatis homines contra Regni leges in Foris Ecclesiasticis indignè opprimi Reginam ejusmodi authoritatem ex jure non posse delegare nec alios exercere delegatam Fora illa non posse a reo Jusjurandum Ex Officio exigere cum Nemo seipsum accusare teneatur Jusjurandum illud homines ad sui condemnationem cum ignominiosa confusione vel in spontaneum perjurium cum animarum exitio praecipitare Praeterea de aliis quam matrimonialibus causis non debere cognoscere ex hujusmodi Veteri Rescripto Mandamus Vice-Comiti Comitatuum nostrorum S. N. c. quod non permittat quod aliqui in Balliva sua in aliquibus locis conveniant ad aliquas Recognitiones per sacramenta sua faciendas nisi in causis Matrimonialibus Testamentariis Contra Juris Ecclesiastici Professores Regiam in Ecclesiasticis authoritatem propugnarunt utique Parlamentariâ Authoritate in Regina investitam Hanc oppugnare nihil aliud esse quam in Majestatem irruere Sacro Sanctae Praerogativae violato obsequii juramento insultare Fora Ecclesiastica de aliis quam Matrimonialibus Testamentariis posse cognoscere ex statuto Circumspecte agatis Articulis Cleri sub Edvardo Primo docuerunt Rescriptum sive legem illam prolatam suspectam esse quia temporis est incerti variae Lectionis Alibi enim legi Ad recognitiones vel sacramenta praestanda Recognitionem item facere non significare testimonium perhibere vel respondere in jure sed debitum agnoscere fateri vel placita de Catalogis vel debitis tenere Juramentum ex officio in foris illis ut in aliis ex omni memoria fuisse exactum ad simoniam adulterium alia tenebrarum opera rimanda praesertim cum Insinuatio ut loquuntur fuerit clamosa Et quamvis nemo teneatur seipsum prodere tamen per famam proditum teneri ostendere utrum possit suam innocentiam defendere seipsum purgare quandoquidem poenitentia imposita non sit poena sed medicina ad peccatores curandos alios à peccato deterrendos scandalum tollendum juxta illud in Sacris Literis Pro anima tua ne confundaris dicere verum Est enim confusio adducens peccatum confusio adducens gloriam gratiam Sed quid de hiis immoror quum dissertationes Richardi Cosini Legum Doctoris Johannis Morrisii Lanceloti Andrewes eruditae hac de re utrinque praestent Regina haud ignara suam authoritatem per Episcoporum latera in hoc negotio peti adversantium impetus tacite infregit Ecclesiasticam Jurisdictionem illaesam conservavit That is Not onely these speaking of Hackett and his Complices but others also who had hitherto though in vain impugned the received Discipline of the Church of England by condemning the calling of Bishops and contumeliously slandering the Praelates having now drawn into their party some Common-Lawyers sharpned both their Tongues and Pens against their Jurisdiction and the Authority which the Queen delegated in Ecclesiasticall Causes as altogether unjust declaiming every where even in Books published that men were unworthily oppressed in the Ecclesiasticall Courts contrary to the Lawes of the Kingdom That the Queen could not by Law delegate such kinde of Authority nor others to whom it was delegated could exercise it That these Courts could not require the Oath ex officio from the defendent party when as no man is bound to accuse himself That Oath precipitates men to condemn themselves with ignominious confusion or into wilful perjury to the destruction of their Souls Besides they ought not to hold cognizance of any other causes then Matrimoniall and Testamentary according to that old Mandate or Rescript We command our Sheriff of our Counties of S. N. c. that they suffer not any in their Balive to come together in any places to make any Recognizances upon their Oaths but in Matrimoniall and Testamentary causes On the other side the Professors of the Ecclesiasticall Lawes maintain'd the Royall Authority in Causes Ecclesiasticall as vested in the Queen by Authority of Parliament To oppose this was nothing else then to offer violence to Royall Majesty and violating the Oath of obedience to insult over the Sacred Prerogative Royall The Ecclesiasticall Courts may hold cognizance of other Causes then Matrimoniall and Testamentary by the Statute of Circumspecte agatis and Articuli Cleri in the time of Edward the first as they made it appeare That Rescript or Law which they produc'd was suspected because it was incertain for the time and is variously read Elsewhere I have read it To perform Recognisances and Oaths and to make recognition or recognizance doth not signifie to give testimony or to answer in Law but to acknowledge and confesse a debt or to hold plea of Inventaries or Debts That the Oath ex officio hath time out of mind been given in these Courts as in others to sift out Simonie Adultery and other works of darkness especially when the Insinuation as they call it becomes loude And though no man is bound to betray himself yet being betrayed by fame he is bound to shew himself whether he can defend his innocence and purge himself seeing the penance enjoyned is not a punishment but a medicine to cure sinners and to deter others from sinning and to take away scandall according to that in
might not have done before the year of our Lord 1639. or to abridge or diminish the Kings Majestics Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters or affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the year 1640. I say upon these words some are ready mistaking questionless the words and meaning of that Act to renew that old exploded Opinion or rather groundless Fancy That a several Royal assent to the executing of every particular Canon is required Hereto Doctor Cosin answers That admitting this were true then all the other opinions of those that oppugn the ordinary Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical stand in no stead and might be spared because this would cut off all at once For none that exercise ordinary Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical have it in particularity which by the oppugners seems to be meant otherwise then by permission of Law to every of their proceedings and impossible were it by reason of the infinity of it and troublesomness to procure such particular assent to the execution of every Canon His Majesties Delegates when Appeals are made to His Majesty in Chancery would signifie nothing could not exercise the power to them delegated by reason of the want of such particular assent and it is a gross absurdity to grant as even the Oppugners and Innovators do That Testamentary and Matrimonial causes are of Ecclesiastical cognizance to say nothing of the rest of Ecclesiastical causes and yet cannot by reason of this want be dispatched nor can be dealt in by any other authority according to any Law in force This would speak a defect in the publick Government that the Subject should have a right but no likely or ready mean to come by it and great offences by Law punishable and yet no man sufficiently authorized to execute these Laws Since the abrogation of Papal pretended Supremacy when the ancient rights of the Kings of England of being Supreme Governors over all persons within their Dominions as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal and that no forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction power superiority preeminence or authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm and so forth as in the Act and the Oath Since these rights were as it were ex postliminio restored and declared to have been as they ever ought to have been in the Kings of England many Laws have been made in several Parliaments for the strengthning of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the more effectual execution thereof and some of the Ecclesiastical Laws were enlarged astered and explained * 25 H. 8.19 The Statutes for Delegates upon Appeals †27 H 8 130. 32 H 8.7 Not long after two Statutes for assistance of ordinary Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and for the speedier recovery of Tithes in Courts Ecclesiastical * 34 35 H. 8 19. The like for the recovery of Pensions Procurations c. †1 Ed. 6. c. 2. In the time of Edw. 6. in a Statute since repealed by Queen Mary a great number of particular causes of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical are there by the way rehearsed that Ordinaries and other Ecclesiastical Judges might and did then put in execution So 1 Mar. c. 3. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5 Eliz c. 23. 9. That Perjury or Subornation in a Court Ecclesiastical shall and may be punished by such usual and ordinary Laws as heretofore have been and yet are used and frequented in the said Ecclesiastical Courts Which proveth the usual practice of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical hitherto used without any special assent to be lawful So 13 Eliz. c. 4. c. 10. and many more in the same Queens time and King James and King Charles the First that blessed King and Martyr I say many are the Laws that have been made for the strengthning of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the more effectual execution of it and some of these Laws were enlarged altered and explained But never was there any Law Custom or Act of Parliament that required a several Royal assent to the executing of every particular Canon Many are the reasons which Dr. Cosens gives in the first Chapter of his Apology against that particular Assent wherein he shews his great candor and ingenuity and desire to give abundant satisfaction to all Opponents though never so unreasonable that were it not as clear as the Noon-tide light that no such particular assent is needful some might think that he fear'd his cause and be ready to say that Defensio nimis operosa reatum quasi arguit But touching the validity of the Ecclesiastical Laws there needs I conceive no more be said then what is expressed in that Act of Parliament 25 H. 8.19 the Ecclesiastical Laws that were in use and practice before that Statute are thereby established thus Provided that such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synods Provincial being already made which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royal shall now still be used and executed as they were before the making of this Act untill such time as they be viewed c. by the 32. persons mentioned in that Act which is not yet done The Ecclesiastical Laws which have been made since that Act and all that ever hereafter shall be made so long as that Statute stands in force the requisites in that Act being observ'd are thereby I conceive confirmed or to be confirmed The Submission and Petition of the Clergy mentioned in that Act is That they would not enact or put in ure any new Canons c. in their Convocation without the Kings Royal assent and authority in that behalf There it is said That the Convocation in the time coming shall alwayes be assembled by authority of the Kings Writ and that the Clergy must have the Kings most Royal assent and licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial and Synodal else they may not enact promulge or constitute any such Canons c. And this course hath ever since been observed Every Convocation called by His Majesties Writ and the Clergy had especial license from His Majesty to enact such Canons c. and to execute them The Provision following being observed which is this Provided that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution in this Realm by authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be contrariant or repugnant to tho Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm any thing contained in that Act to the contrary thereof notwithstanding If any be put in execution contrary to this Proviso and contrary to any after-Acts of Parliament whereby His Majesty hath further power acknowledged in causes Ecclesiastical then 't is illegal but that is much sooner alledged than proved The particular Ecclesiastical Laws in force have by Dr. Cosens and others been sufficiently demonstrated I humbly conceive In case any Jurisdiction
given their Suffrage or Vote Negatively or Affirmatively upon the cause when it was to be reported though they have not heard the whole cause and sometimes but a small part of it Great numerous bodies being sometimes too ready to divide into parties and factions as hath been seen too often in that long-Long-Parliament and so consequently endeavouring to heighten their own side have taken hold of and created all occasions and advantages that might further it Oftentimes the Younger tyring and wearying out the Elder or more incurious Members by long Speeches and continuing the sitting of the House long and late in the night till it was grown thin and by the departure out of it of so many of the more Aged and less sedulous Members that the remaining party according to the destined and strongly preoperated design grew prevalent To instance no more and happy had it been for these miserable Kingdoms that it never could have been instanced that fatal great Declaration or as the late blessed King and Martyr called it the Appeal to the People hammer'd out that way by wearying out so many of the Members by sitting so long even all or the greatest part of the night may witnesse this to all posterity Which gave occasion to some to call it a Nocturnal Parliament but very appositely did Sir Benjamin Rudyard one of those ancient Members that was so wearied out when one asked him what he thought of that Vote so carried for that Declaration so late in the night or rather in the next morning answered that it looked like the verdict of a starved Jury Many other indirect wayes to call them no worse were used by interessed parties in that Long Parliament to compass their ends much by surprises when too many Members either wearied out as before or else gone out ither upon their pleasure or private concernments or thereupon absenting themselves from the House then the House being thin'd according to their desires they easily gained the major part of the suffrages or else clap'd in early into the House whilest the negligent party were in bed or absent upon their private business neglecting the publick to which they were called and so carried it and by such like wayes contrived and effected their laboured ends perhaps by their engines so laid to draw away many whose company they would gladly have been rid of out of the House and to keep them out when so absent or to hinder them from coming in at all Such may not improperly be called Parliament Decoyes or rather as in that Long Parliament when some of the Members impeached eleven of their number upon one of them in the charge against him they fixed the stigma of the Parliament-driver and when it made for them imputed it to him for a crime It would be voluminous to reckon up the several species of the sinister artifices and gins which were then dexterously us'd in that Long Parliament to promote unrighteous ends very often by tumults which were at the best of some factious persons by clamours and menaces as it were to force away such Members as they knew would oppose their designs By Petitions too which were but a kind of Tumults too in another dress and most shamefully carried on and gained many times whether we consider the inconsiderableness of the Petitioners Oyster-women Barbers School-boyes as in some Petitions against Bishops if not others as much if not more contemptible or whether we consider the number of the Petitioners many subscribing them that knew nothing of the contents of the Petition if not sometimes giving power with a strange implicite faith to cerrain men of their Faction to set to their hands to what Petitions soever their party should frame the Petitions perhaps framed in London and never sent into the Country but thousands of hands sent up in Schedules to be put to whatsoever the framers should please if not also which is much the same some Petitions sent up out of far distant remote parts from London with very many hands subscribed and the Petitions after they were come up to London altered and yet the same hands continued or set to it Insomuch as in the time of that Long Parliament it was at least once observed that some Petitions or a Petition with some thousands of hands subscribed and coming from some parts remote from London and brought into the House of Commons and there read in the morning took notice being mentioned in the body of the Petition of some passages of words spoken in the House the foregoing evening whereupon one merrily asked What notable Mercury had that last night gone from London into those remote parts and got so many hands in a nights time and brought them back thither that morning This did almost put some to the blush if that had been possible happy could it have suffundere sanguinem ruborem the want whereof did effundere sanguinem cruorem So common was this stratagem of Petitioning grown that it gave occasion to some Satyrist to paste up that Distich upon one of the Back-doors leading to the Lords House viz. Bellua multorum capitum â—…pulus suit olim At nunc multarum bellua fit manuum It was long before the Romans would publish a Law against Parricide and such unnatural and horrid crimes and the Historian gives the reason Ne dum prohibent jubent and haply that reason may well forbid me and others from too much enumerating the unjust subtilties and deceitful wayes of this kind and rather were it to be wished that if possible they were buried in perpetual oblivion and no Topicks were left of them except as Land-marks to avoid and detest them For which ends to good purpose perhaps it might be time well spent to ruminate upon the Journals of the Long Parliament with their Declarations Ordinances and Remonstrances and His Majesties Declarations answering and confuting them especially that of Aug. 12. 1642. For reformation of such obliquities of tireing out the Members and surprising of them in a thin House for as to that way of Petitions and Tumults 't is to be hoped it will not be attempted again Some wished this might have been remedied if thought fit by fixing a competent time for so many hours of the day to sit in not to be exceeded but by consent of the major part of the Houses to be constituted as hereafter followeth A competent number of Parliament-men to be at every debate That no Vote should have been passed in either House without a matter of two parts of three or more as should be agreed upon of the House heard the matter fully debated and that no matter to be debated should be propounded till such a number had been visibly present in the House which might at the first sight have been easily discerned if the seats in the House had been so particularly disposed that without telling their particular number by the Clerks or any other it might have been known which might have been