instruction are by this meanes punished and through ignorance lye open to the seducements of popish and ill affected persons Wee therefore most humbly beseech your Majesty would be gratiously pleased that such depriued and silenced ministers may by licence or permissioÌ„ of the reverend fathers in their severall diocesses instruct and preach vnto their people in such parishes and places where they may be imployed so as they apply themselves in their Ministery to wholsome doctrine and exhortation and live quietly and peaceably in their callings and shall not by writing or preaching impugne thinges established by publick authority 3. Whereas likewise through pluralitie of benifices toleration of non recidencie in many who possess not the meanest livinges with cure of soules the people in diverse places want instruction and are ignorant easy to be seduced whereby the adversaries of out religioÌ„ gaine great advantage and although the pluralists and non-residents doe frame excuse of the smalnesse of some livinges and pretende the maintenance of learning yet we finde by experience that they coupling many of the greatest livings doe leave the least helpless the best as ill served supplied with preachers as the meanest And where pluralists heaping vp many livings into one hand doe by that meanes keep divers learned men froÌ„ maintenance to the discouragement of Students the hinderance of learning the non-residents for seeking or absenting themselves froÌ„ their pastorall charges doe leave the people as a prey vnto the popish Seducers It might therefore please your most excellent Majestie for remedy of these evils in the Church to provide that dispensatioÌ„s for plurality of benefices with cure of souls may be prohibited that toleration of non-residencie may be restrayned So shall true religion be better vpheld and the people more instructed in divine and civill duties 4. And for asmuch as excommunication is the heaviest censure for the most grievous offences which the Church doth reteine yet exercised and inflicted vpon an incredible number of the common people by the subordinate officers of the jurisdiction ecclesiasticall most coÌ„monly for very small causes grounded vpon the sole information of a base apparitour in which case the parties before they can be discharged are driven to excessive expence for matters of very small moment so that the richer break thorough more heynous offences and escape that censure by commutation of penance to the great scandall of the Church government in the abuse of so high a censure the contempt of the censure it selfe and grievance of your Majesties poore subjects Wherefore your Majesties dutifull commons most humbly beseech your highnes that some due and fit reformation may be had in the premisses Grievances To the Kinges most excellent Maiestie Most gracious Soveraigne your Majesties most humble commons assembled in Parliament being moved aswel out of their dutie and zeale to your Majestie as out of the sense of iust griefe wherewith your loving subiects are generally through the whole Realme at this tyme possessed because they perceive their coÌ„mon ancient right libertie to be much declined infringed in these late yeares Doe with all dutie humilitie present these our iust complaints thereof to your gracious viewe most instantly craving iustice therein and due redresse And although it be true that many of the particulars whereof we now complaine were in some use in the late Queenes time then not much impugned because the usage of them being then more moderate gave not so great occasion of offence and consequently not so much cause to inquire into the right and validitie of them Yet the right being now more throughly scanned by reason of the great mischiefs and inconvenienâ—es which the subiects have thereby sustained wee are very confident that your Maiestie wil be so farre from thinking it a point of honour or greatnes to continue any grievance vpon your people because you found them begun in some of your Predecessors times as you will rather hold it a work of great glorie to reforme them since your Maiestie knoweth well that neyther continuance of time nor errours of men can or ought to preiudice truth of iustice and that nothing can be more worthy of so worthy a King nor more answerable to the great wisdome and goodnes which abound in you then to understand the griefes redresse the wrongs of so loyall and well deserving a people In this confidence dread soveraigne we offer these grievances the particulars whereof are hereunder set downe to your gracious consideration and we offer them out of the greatest loyaltie and duetie that subjects can beare to their Prince Most humbly and instantly beseeching your Majestie aswell for justice sake more then which as we conceiue in these Petitions we doe not seek as also for the better assurance of the state and generall repose of your faithfull loving subjects and for testimonie of your gracious acceptation of their full affections declared aswell by their joyfull receiuing of your Majesty at your happy entrance into this kingdom which you have been often pleased with favour to remember as also by their extraordinarie contributions graunted since vnto you such as haue been never yeelded to any former Prince upon the like termes and occasions that we may receive to these our coÌ„plaints your most gracious answer which we caÌ„not doubt but wil be such as may be worthy of your princely selfe and will give satisfactioÌ„ great coÌ„fort to all your loyall and most dutifull loving subjects who doe and will ever pray for the happy preservation of your most royall Majestie THe policie and constitution of this your kingdome appropriates unto the Kings of this Realme with the assent of the Parliament as well the soveraigne power of making lawes as that of taxing or imposing upon the subjects goods or merchandizes Wherein they haue justly such a proprietie as may not without their consent be altered or changed This is the cause that the people of this Kingdome as they ever shewed themselues faithfull and loving to their Kings and ready to ayde them in all their just occasions with voluntarie contributions so have they been ever carefull to preserve their owne liberties and rights when any thing hath been done to prejudice or impeach the same And therefore when their Princes occasioned eyther by their warres or their over great bountie or by any other necessitie haue without consent of Parliament set impositions eyther within the land or upon coÌ„modities eyther exported or imported by the Merchants they have in open Parliament complained of it in that it was done without their consents And thereupon never failed to obteyne a speedie and full redresse without any claime made by the Kinges of any power or prerogative in that point And though the lawe of proprietie be originall and carefully preserved by the coÌ„mon lawes of this Realme which are as ancient as the kingdome it selfe yet these famous Kings for the better contentment and assurance
other cannot possibly be severed in debate of either we alledge that your Majesties prerogatives of that kynd coÌ„cerning directly the subjects right and interest wee dayly handled and discussed in all courts at Westminster and have been ever freely debated vpon all fit occasions but in this all former Parliaments without restraint Which being forbidden it is impossible for the subject either to know or mainteine his right propertie to his owne landes and goods though neuer so just and manifest It may further please your Most excellent Majesty to vnderstand that wee have no minde to impugne but a desire to informe ourselves of your highnes prerogative in that point which if ever is now most necessary to be knowne And though it were to no other purpose yet to satisfie the generality of your Majesties subjects who finding themselves much grieved by these new Imdositions do languish in much sorrow and discomfort These reasons dreade soveraigne being the proper reasons of Parliament do pleade for the vpholding of this our ancient right and liberty Howbeit seing it hath pleased your Majestie to insist vpon that judgement in the Exchequer as being direction sufficient for us without further examination upon great desire of leaving your Ma vnsatisfied in no one point of our intents and proceedings wâ— professe touching that judgement That we neither doe nor wil take upon us to reverse it but our desire is to know the reasoÌ„s whereupon the same was grounded And the rather for that a generall coÌ„ceipt is had that the reasons of that judgement may be exteÌ„ded much further even to the utter ruine of the ancient libertie of this kingdome and of the subjects right of propertie to haue landes and goods Therefore the judgement it self being the first and the last that ever was given in that kind for ought appearing unto us and being onely in one case and against one man it can binde in law no other then that person and is also reversable by writ of error graunted heretofore by act of Parliament And neither hee nor any other subject is debarred by it from trying his right in the same or like case in any of your Majesties Courts of record at Westminster Lastly wee nothing doubt but your intended proceeding in a full examination of the right nature measure of these new impositions if this restraint had not come betweene should have been so orderly and moderately caried so applied to the manifold necessitie of these tymes and given your Majesty so true a view of the state and right of your subjects that it would have been much to your Majesties content and satisfaction which wee most desire remoued all cause of feares and jealousies from the loyall hearts of your subjects which is as it ought to be our carefull indeavour Whereas contrarywise in that other way directed by your Majesty wee cannot safely proceed without concluding for ever the right of the subject which without due examination thereof wee may not doe We therefore your highnes loyall and dutifull commons not swerving from the approved steps of our ancestors most humbly and instantly beseech your gracious Majesty that without offence to the same we may according to the vndoubted right and libertie of Parliament proceed in our intended course of a full examination of these new impositions that so we may cheerefully pass on to your Majesties busines from which this stâ—p hath by diversion so long with held vs. And wee your Majesties most humble faithfull and loyall subiects shall ever according to our bounden dutie pray for your Majesties long and happie raigne over vs. Delivered by 20. of the lower howse of Parliament the 24. of May 1610 Petitions MOst gracious and dread soveraigne Sith it hath pleased Almightie God of his unspeakable goodnes mercie towards us to call your Majestie to the government of this kingdome and hath crowned you with supreme power aswell in the Church as in the coÌ„mon wealth for the advancement of his glorie the generall benefite of all the subjects of this land Weo doe with all humilitie present at the feet of your excellent Ma our selves and our desires full of confidence in the assurance of your religious minde and princely disposition That you wil be graciously pleased to give life and effect to these our petitions greatly tending as undoubtedly we conceive to the glorie of God the good of his Church safetie of your most royall person wherein we acknowledge our greatest happines to consist 1. Whereas good and provident lawes have beene made for the maintenance of Gods true religion safetie of your Majesties most royall person issue and estate against Iesuites seminarie Priests and popish recusants And although your Majestie by your godly learned and judicious writings have declared your princely christian zeale in the defence of the religion established have very lately to the comfort of your best affected subjects published to both howses of Parliament your princely will and pleasure that recusants should not be concealed but derected and convicted yet for that the lawes are not executed against the Priests who are the corrupters of the people in religion and loyaltie and many Recusants haue already compounded and as it is to be feared more and more except your Ma in your great wisdom preveÌ„t the same will coÌ„pound with those beg their penalties which maketh the lawes altogither fruitless or of litle or none effect the offenders to become bold obdurate and unconformable Your Majestie therefore would be pleased at the humble sute of your commons in this present Parliament assembled in the causes so highly concerning the glorie of God the preservation of true religion of your Majestie and state to suffer your highnes naturall clemencie to retire it self and to giue place unto justice and to lay your royall coÌ„mand upoÌ„ al your ministers of justice both ecclesiastical civil to see the lawes made against Iesuites seminarie Priests and Recusants of what kind and sect soever to be duely and exactly executed without dread or delay And that your Majestie would be pleased likwise to take into your owne hands the penalties due for recusancie and that the same be not converted to the priuate gaine of some to your infinite losse the imboldning of the Papists and decay of true religion 2. Whereas also divers painfull and learned Pastors that haue long traveiled in the work of the Ministerie with good fruit and blessing of their labours who were ever ready to perform the legal Subscription appointed by the Statute of 13. Elizab which onely concerneth the confession of the true Christian faith and doctrine of the Sacraments yet for not conforming in some points of ceremonies and refusing the subscription directed by the late Canons have been removed from their ecclesiasticall livings being their freehold and debarred from all meanes of maintenance to the great griefe of sundry your Majesties well affected subjects seing the whol people that want
of their loving subjects agreed that this old fundamentall right should be further declared and established by act of Parliament Wherein it is provided that no such charges should ever be layd upon the people without their coÌ„mon coÌ„sent as may appeare by sundry records of former times Wee therefore your Majesties most humble coÌ„mons assembled in Parliament following the example of this worthy care of our ancestors and out of a dutie of those for whome we serve finding that your Majestie without advise or consent of Parliament hath lately in time of peace set both greater impositions and farre more in number then any your noble ancestors did ever in time of warre have with all humilitie presumed to present this most iust and necessarie Petition unto your Ma That all impositions set without the assent of ParliameÌ„t may be quite abolished and taken away and that your Maiestie in imitatioÌ„ likewise of your noble Progenetors wil be pleased that a law may be made during this session of Parliament to declare that all Impositions set or to be set upoÌ„ your people their goods or merchandizes save onely by coÌ„mon consent in Parliament are and shal be void Wherein your Ma shal not onely give your subiects good satisfaction in point of their right but also bring exceeding ioy and comfort to them which now suffer partly through the abating of the price of native coÌ„modities partly through the raising of all forraign to the overthrow of Merchants and shipping the causing of a generall dearth decay of wealth among your people who wil be thereby no lesse discouraged then disabled to supply your Ma wheÌ„ occasion shal require it WHereas by the statute 1. Eliz cap. 1. intituled an Act restoring to the crown the auncient iurisdictioÌ„ over the state ecclesiasticall c. power was given to the Queene and her successors to constitute and make a Commission in cause ecclesiasticall the said Act is found to be inconvenient of dangerous extent in dâ—vers respects First for that it inableth the making of such a coÌ„mission as wel to any one subiect borne as to more Secondly for that whereas by the intention and wordes of the sayd statute ecclesiasticall iurisdiction is restored to the crown and highnes by that statute inabled to give only such power ecclesiasticall to the sayd coÌ„missioners yet under colour of some words in that statute whereby the CoÌ„missioners are authorised to execute their Commission according to the tenour and effect of your highnes letters patents And by letters patents grounded thereupon the sayd Commissioners doe fine and imprison and exercise other authoritie not belonging to the ecclesiasticall iurisdiction restored by that statute which we conceive to be a great wrong to the subiect And that those Commissioners might as well by colour of those words if they were so authorized by your highnes letters pateÌ„ts fine without stint and imprison without limitation of time as also according to will and discretion without any rules of law spirituall or temporall adiudge and impose utter confiscation of goods forfeiture of lands yea and the taking away of limme and of life it selfe this for any matter whatsoever perteyning to spirituall iurisdiction Which never was nor could be meant by the makers of that law Thirdly for that by the said statute the King and his successors may howsoever your Maiestie hath been pleased out of your gracious disposition otherwise to order make and direct such Comission into all the Counties and Dioceses yea into every parish of England and thereby all causes may be taken from ordinarie iurisdiction of Bishops Chancellors and Arch deacons and lay men solely be inabled to excommunicate exercise all other censures spiritual Fourthly for that every petty offence perteyning to spirituall iurisdiction is by colour of the sayd wordes and letters Patents grounded thereupon made subiect to excommunication and punishment by that strange and exorbitant power and commission whereby the least offenders not coÌ„mitting any thing of any enormous or high nature may be drawne from the most remote places of the kingdome to London or York which is very grievous and inconuenient Fifthly for that limit touching causes subject to this coÌ„mission being onely with these words viz. Such as perteine to spirituall or ecclesiasticall iurisdiction it is very hard to knowe what matters or offences are included in that number And the rather because it is unknown what ancient canons or lawes spirituall are in force what not from whence ariseth great incertaintie and occasion of contention And whereas upon the same statute a coÌ„mission ecclesiasticall is made Therein is grievance apprehended thus First for that thereby the same men have both spirituall and temporall jurisdiction and may both force the party by oath to accuse himselfe of an offence also inquire thereof by a jurie and lastly may inflict for the same offence at the same time and by one and the same sentence both a spirituall and temporall punishment Secondly whereas upon sentences of deprivation or other spirituall censures given by force of ordinarie jurisdiction an appeale lyeth for the partie grieved that is here excluded by expresse wordes of the coÌ„mission Also here is to be a tryall by iury yet no remedy by traverse nor attaint Neyther can a man haue any writ of errour though a Iudgement or sentence be given against him amounting to the taking away of all his goodes imprisoning him during life yea to the adiudging him in the case of Praemunire whereby his lands are forseyted and he out of the protection of the lawe Thirdly that whereas penal lawes and offences against the same cannot be determined in other courts or by other persons then by those trusted by Parliament with the execution thereof yet the execution of many such statutes diverse whereof were made since 1. Eliz. are coÌ„mended and coÌ„mitted to these CoÌ„missioners ecclesiasticall who are eyther to inflict the punishment conteyned in the statutes being premunire and of other high nature and so to inforce a man upon his own oath to accuse expose himself to these punishments or els to inflict other temporall punishment at their pleasure And yet besides and after that done the partie shal be subiect in the Courtes mentioned in the Acts to punishments by the same actes appointed and inflicted which we think very vnreasonable Fourthly that the coÌ„mission giveth authority to inforce men called into question to enter into recognisance not onely for appearance froÌ„ time to time but also for performance of whatsoever shal be by the coÌ„missioners ordered And also that it giveth power to enioyne parties defendant or accused to pay such fees to ministers of the court as by the coÌ„missioners shal be thought fit And touching the execution of the coÌ„mission it is found greivous these wayes among other First for that laymen are by the CoÌ„missioners punished for speaking otherwise then in iudiciall places and courses of the symonie and other misdemeanours of spirituall