there is no such Miracle ensues from Episcopal Unction or Consecration neither do they shew any sign of Mission to Anoint as Samuel did but every man that is born hath a sign of Mission from God to Contract with that Prince under the protection of whose Sword he happens to be born to yield him Subjection for Protection and to concur with the whole Body of the other Subjects to present him with a Symbol or sign of the same with a Crown or Oil as here the men of Israel and Judah do to David 2. David anointed by his Parliament That the Anointing which gave David the Investiture of the Kingdoms was made by the Representative of the People in Parliament and not by the Priest for it is said That all the Tribes and all Israel and all the Elders which were a Senate or Parliament to treat for the People and make a League and Covenant with the King for it was impossible for him otherwise to treat with so great a multitude as all Israel had they not agreed to Elect a fit Representative for them therefore it is said The Elders anointed David and no mention made of the Priest neither had the Priest any Law of Moses to anoint Kings 3. That as there was no Crown sent David from Heaven for his Coronation whereby Pontifical men might pretend to have the disposing so there was no Oil sent thence for â—is Anointing but he received both from the People And surely the Mission of the Oil of Rhemes thence is as great a Fable as of the Crown of Nimrod or of the Image which fell from Jupiter neither did there need any Consecration of either for by the Customs of most Nations Crowns and Unctions were but civil Ceremonies of Honour given to the Parties which received them not only in Elections of Kings but almost in all other Solemnities as Military Triumphs Olympick and other Games yea even in their ordinary Feasts both of Aegyptians Greeks and Romans Habent Vnctae mollia serta Comae Ovid. Which shews both Crowning and Anointing of their Guests with Garlands or Crowns of Flowers and Unction with Oil of the Olive both which materials though more properly made by God than Crowns of Gold and Oils confected and Consecrated yet were esteemed but as civil Ceremonies and were a ministred by Lay-hands without a Priest And of this civil Festival Honour of Anointing used amongst the Jews as well as other Nations Christ is pleased to take notice Luke 7.36 My Head with Oil thou didst not anoint but this Woman hath anointed my Feet with Ointment And though both Coronation and Unction were but civil Ceremonies and of humane Institution where no Miracle testified a Divine yet is David called God's Anointed more truly than if he had been anointed by the Priest seeing God gave the Priest no Mission but yet himself turned the Hearts of the People by the civil signs of Coronation and Unction to acknowledg David for their Sovereign for which he himself giveth thanks and saith Psal 18.47 God subdueth the People under me 4. That David doth not make a League and Covenant with the High Priest but with his Parliament who were the Convention of Elders who anointed him 5. That though there had been long Civil Wars between Judah who followed David and Israel who followed Isbosheth the Son of Saul and Abner his General was dead and Isbosheth was dead and there remained with him Victorious and Veteran Armies yet neither Judah nor Israel anointed him till he had first made with them a League and Covenant 6. From hence may be discover'd the great Mystery of Iniquity whereby Popes have terrified Emperors and Kings as their Vassals to receive Crowns and Unctions from them which hath been only by persuading That none but Bishops could Crown or Anoint them the manifold mischiefs of which to Princes and People are too long here to be recited only whosoever will consider them will find it clear That Bishops who have pretended or may pretend to so dangerous a Tâ—nent as That none but they have Right to make Coronations and Unctions are no fit Judges of Successions to Crowns They assume in the Judgment of all matters concerning Marririage Filiation Aliment and Succession to be above Appeal to the Kings Courts It hath been already shewn that Bishops by assuming a Power Jure Divino without shewing a sign of Mission and by false translating Scripture and by corrupting and interdicting the Press exercise a Power superior or equal to the Legislative from which doth follow That such as are Legislators or assume or exercise such Power ought not to be Judges Delegate 1. Because Legislation Supream and Judgment Delegate are two distinct Offices and ought not to be confounded 2. Because it is Repugnant that a Legislator should be a Delegate to himself for in Presentia Majoris cessat potestas Minoris the lesser Power is lost in the greater 3. If wrong Judgment happen to be given there can be no appeal but to those who did the Wrong whereby they become Judges and Parties and Judg in their own Case 4 A Power Delegate to Judg without Appeal ceases to be a Delegate Power and is greater than the Legislative which Power that it is assumed by the Bishops in all Matrimonial Causes is the thing next to be shewn Of the abominable Judgment passed by the Common Law Judges in Kennes Case Coke lib. 7.42 whereby they gave away the Supremacy of the King's Courts to the Bishop and made them in all Causes Matrimonial subject to no Appeal Mich. 4. Jac. In the Court of Wards between Thomas Robertson and Elizabeth his Wife Plaintiff and Florence Lady Stallenge Defendant The Case was This Christopher Kenne Esq was seized of the Mannor of Kenne in the County of Sommerset holden by Knights Service in Capite and 37. H. 8. de facto married Elizabeth Stowell and had Issue Martha the Mother of Elizabeth one of the now Plaintiffs and after 1. 2. Ph. Mar. in the Court of Audience between the said Christopher Kenne Plaintiff and Elizabeth Stewell Defendant the Judg there gave a Sentence in these words Pretens ' tractat ' contract ' sponsalia Matrimonium quin verius Effigiem matrimonij inter Christopherum Kenne Elizabeth Stowell in Minore sua impubertatis aetate eorundem aut eorum alterius de fact ' habit ' contract ' celebrat ' fuisse esse eosdemque Christopherum Eliz. tam tempore contractus Solemnizationis dict' pretens ' matrimonij quam etiam continuo postea idem matrimonio pretens ' Solemnizationi ejusdem dissensisse contravenisse Reclamasse Reluctasse ac eo praetextu hujusmodi Pretens ' tractat ' sponsalia matrimonium de jure nullum nulla irritum irrita cassum cassa invalidum invalida minus efficax inefficacia fuisse esse viribusque juris caruisse carere carere debere Nec non Antedictos Christopherum Kenne
in the said Chancery-Orders Printed 1669. presumes to do in the Court of Conscience what was never heard of to be done in the Courts of Turks Infidels or the most Barbarous Judicatories in the World for he is not ashamed publickly to give License to Cursitors and their Clerks to commit Crimen Falsi which we call Forgery by Antedating Writs taking them out of Returns past or of a former Term by reason of which Forgery of Writs and Forgery of Returns Antedated Capiases Proclamations Exigends and Outlawries Antedated have been likewise Forged and Thousands of Poor men unjustly cast in Goals and miserably undone without any Summons or Hearing and these are likewise the damnable effects of the Chancellours Writs by which as by others the Plaintiffs so here the Defendants are destroyed without Hearing and certainly these Crimes of Antedating and Forgery of Judicial Acts though here Licensed by Orders of Chancellors and Protected by Courts by not Licensing Averments against them are by the Civil Law and Laws of Scotland and of many other Nations both of these and Instruments Death and even by our own the imbeselling of a Record by a Clerk and Counterfeiting of Fines is Felony and if the second time so is the Forgery of Deeds Writings and Court-Rolls and deservedly the Offender better deserving death than a Robber on a High-way and why any Crimes of this Nature should be publickly Licensed to the Ruin of all Truth and Justice by any Chancellour in his Chancery Orders is very strange the mischievous effects of which said Attachments on Affidavit and Antedating Writs and Forgery of Outlawries are notoriously known and not complained of here without good Cause and Testimony and some particular experience of my own to my loss who have as well as others suffer'd in an high degree by the false Affidavit of a Fellow who Subscribed and Swore it by a false name and not his own and likewise procured a Forged Outlawry antedated against me It belongs not to a Chancellour to be a Judg of Equity in England 5. It belongs not to the Chancellours Office to be a Judg of Equity or to make Orders Edicts Laws or Writs and thereby to Imprison the Persons and dispose of the Lands and Goods of the Subjects Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure Coke 4. part 82. saith That all Statutes which give Authority to the Chancellour to determin Offences in Chancery are to be intended only in the Ordinary Court there which proceeds in Latine and is Secundum Legem c. and not in any Extraordinary Court which proceeds in English Secundum Aequum bonum and 37. H. 6.14 27. H. 8.18 it is Resolved That the Court of Chancery Proceeding by English Bill is no Court of Record and therefore it cannot bind either the State of the Subjects Lands or the Property of his Goods or Chattels and therefore they there admit he may Imprison the Person Chancellour cannot bind the Subject's Goods not Persons which is not only a Non sequitur but a contrary conclusion follows on it for if he cannot bind the Subjects Goods à Fortiori he cannot bind his Person For the Life is more than Meat and the Body is more than Raiment Luke 12.23 And though those Common Law Judge of H. 6. and H. 8. so sordidly deliver'd the Subject Prisoner to the Chancellour so as they might keep his Lands and Goods to themselves yet had they no more Law or Right to do it than they had to deliver him Prisoner to the Turks or to send him to the Barbado's for the Subject is no Slave neither ought he to be given or sold for one without his own Assent by his Representative in Parliament and having so good a Protection against the Chancellours and Common Law Judges and the Orders and Writs of both as Magna Charta and the Petition of Right both for his Lands Goods and Person they ought to shew some greater Laws than their Writs and Orders of Courts or Forgeries of Clerks before they presume to invade either 6. There being no Law in England which ever Ordained a Chancellour to be a Judg of Equity or to make Edicts or Orders concerning the same he can pretend no Title thereto unless from the Laws of France and to that effect Polydor Virgil saith The Chancery came in with the Conquest to which though my Lord Coke saith Perperam Erravit because the Mirror saith The Constitutions of the ancient Kings were that every one should have out of the Chancery of the King a Writ Remedial for his Flaint without difficulty yet he himself seems to be in the Error and not Polydore for though the name of Chancellour and Chancery was before the Conquest and divers other Countries use the name of Chancellour as well as England yet the greatest part of the Writs came from Normandy and are mention'd in their Customary as who will peruse it shall find but as to the Writ of Subpoena Centum librarum and Arbitrary Power of the Chancellour and to be a Judg of Equity came first from the Conquest and was never used before nor did it belong to the Chancellour's Office either of England or Scotland that having other employment and more than a Chancellour could do though he never troubled himself with Judgment but left the same to the Judges to whom the King Delegated the cause by Writ and this the very name of Chancellour testifieth who was Originally no other than a Master of Requests to the Prince whom he served and on Petitions deliver'd to him by the Subjects if unfit to be Granted he strook cross lines over them like Cancelli or Lettices by which he Cancell'd them and thence had his name of the Canceller or Chancellour as Turn lib. 11. advers c. 25. and not according to that Fictitious Verse of his Power Hic est qui Leges Regni Cancellat iniquas For when was ever any Chancellour in England allowed to Cancel any Roll or Act of Parliament And when these Petitions for Justice were deliver'd by the People to this Master of Requests call'd the Canceller of such of them as were Evil such as were Just he Cancelld not but on behalf of the Petitioner Granted the Princes Rescript or Warrant to the Praeses Provinciae where the cause of Action arose or the Defendant lived for Actor Sequitur Forum Rei which Rescript or Warrant we now call a Writ containing in it self 1. A Questus est nobis a short recital of the Complaint 2. Si A. fecerit te securum a taking Security or Pledges of the Plaintiff de Prosequendo 3. A Summoneas or Summons of the Defendant to appear before the Prince himself or such Judges as he Delegated though out of the Province or County where he lived which was the Reason of taking Pledges of the Plaintiff because he made the Defendant appear many times Hundreds of Miles from his Home when he might in those days implead him before the President
humble compllment with my Body I thee worship a Divinity as Idolatrous as that of the rude Indians who first worship their Cotton-Idols and if their Prayers succeed not beat them What though the Jewish Scripture saith Gen. 3.16 Thy desire shall be to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee yet is this to be intended in acts Matrimonial not Magisterial And the Christian Scripture makes you requital and Eph. 5.28 Men are commanded to love their Wives as their own Bodies they must therefore first beat their own bodies or suffer their Wives to beat them before they beat theirs and you are made as great Rulers over the Husbands Bodies as they over yours 1 Cor. 7.4 And likewise also The Husband hath not power over his own Body but the Wife Ladies I pity you that Scripture has been so ill translated and ill expounded in all your concerns of marriage and the more in regard you have as bad dealing from the Expositors of the Law as the Gospel for Brook 12 H. 8. fo 4. says plainly Beaten by her Husband hath no Remedy That if a Man beat an Out-law a Traytor a Pagan his Villain or his Wife it is dispunishable because by the Law these persons can have no actions But I wish Ladies the next Law made for you may sort you with better company or farewell to England to be the Paradise of Women Husband suffers others to abuse and ravish her she hath no remedy 7. The Husband may not only be cruel to his Wife himself but command others to beat and abuse her and she hath no remedy yea if another Ravish her she hath no remedy to recover damage unless he will assent to joyn with her in the action as 8 H. 4. fo 21. A Woman was Prisoner in the Marshalsy and made a suggestion to the Court that the Marshal's man had ravish'd her in Prison Gascoigne commanded the Marshal to take his Man to his custody and his staff from him And the Court told the Woman that she alone could not bring the Appeal Sans Sons Baron but if her Husband would come and they two together prove the Rape the Ravisher should be hanged or otherwise not a Woman is in a sweet case if her Man is a Wittal and willing to make money of her Made a prey to all will seize her 8. This encourageth vile persons to rob the Noble and Rich of their Daughters and makes the City of London so insecure for young Ladies that few great fortunes escape from being betrayed to persons unworthy of them whereas if marriage changed not the propriety goods and right of the Woman to the Man but left the same as full in the right of the Woman and her self in as full ability and capacity to Purchase and Sue for her self as before she and her friends would be able to take some course to preserve her and her Estate and such Insidiators be discouraged where they saw their hopes of making a prey taken away 9. This gives the Husband if she dies and leaves Children power on a second Marriage to give her Goods to a Step-Mother and cast off her Children 10. It gains the Husband power to get as many Women with Child as he pleaseth and to maintain them and their Children with the Goods of the Lawful Wife Transubstantiation brings the same mischief to the Husband as to the Wife The Man again is as bad mischiefed by this Transubstantiation as the Woman 1. This gives power to steal and esloigne all her Husband's Substance and put it into the hands of his Enemies 2. It gains the Woman power where she is not able her self to hire unknown persons with her Husband's Goods to rob beat disseize the Husband and Esloigne his Goods from him 3. This gives her power to lay all her secret and unknown debts both true and feigned by her Confederates on her Husband and to undo him 4. Gives her power to commit as many Trespasses either with tongue or hand truly or by confederacy with her Complices making her Husband liable to pay the damage and undo him 5. It Gives her power to hire Adulterers with her Husband's Goods Whereas it is well known Men and Women of all estates and conditions if they have not been before a Priest in a Temple will live forty years together in one House and dare not rub beat or injure one another because they have liberty to sue for damage which benefit this sottish Sacrament of Priests and Lawyers gives not persons transubstantiated A Law would be thought very absurd and unjust which should Enact That no Man or Woman should sue one another in the Common-wealth what horrible wickednesses and villanies would be committed by the two Sexes one against onother but it is more unjust to make such a Law in Families and more unjust to make such a Law between Men and their Wives then in Families For in the Common-wealth such as are persecuted in one City can fly to another In Families such as like not one anothers company and are unmarried can be received and have protection in other Families But Men and their Wives are chained together and cannot avoid the injuries of one another and have no remedy unless they have the same liberty too for injury and propriety of their own as all other Subjects have and not compelled to live as Out-laws deprived of benefit of Law A Note taken at the King's-Bench of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton between a Man and his Wife Being a Puny I went as others did in a morning to Westminster to the King's-Bench to hear and see the Forms of proceeding Transubstantiation of a shoulder of Murton where amongst others a Counsellor moved at the Bar in arrest of Judgment and for Cause alledged That the Plaintiff in his Declaration complained against A. and B. his Wife that amongst other Goods they had taken Armum ovillum Anglice a shoulder of Mutton from him and converted the same to the use of the said A. and B. his Wife the ground of the exception against that part of the Declaration was because though the Wife eat her share of the Mutton with the Husband yet the same ought not to be said to be converted to the use of the Wife but only of the Husband the ratio rationis was because the Wife is one person with the Husband that is to say transubstantiated into him and she being transubstantiated the shoulder of Mutton which she eat must be likewise transubstantiated into him and so the shoulder of Mutton was converted wholly to his use and not to the use of the Wife And so some Precedents were cited for it and others contrary which profound piece of Popish Transubstantiation did so puzzle the Court that they would give no resolution then but would consider of it and settle a course in it which made me being not arrived beyond natural simplicity to think them all mad who
the colour and pretence of a former Contract made with another the which Contract divers times was but very slenderly proved and often but surmised by the malice of the party who desired to be dissolved from the Marriage which they liked not and to be coupled with another There was an Act made That all and every such Marriages as within the Church of England should be Contracted and Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with Bodily knowledge or fruit of Children or Child being had between the parties so married should be by Authority of the said Parliament Deémed Iudged and taken to be Lawful Good Iust and Indissolvable notwithstanding any pre-contract or pre-contracts of Matrimony not Consummate with Bodily knowledge which either of the Persons so married or both had made with any other Person or Persons before the time of Contracting of that Marriage which is Solemnized or Consummated or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as by the same Act more plainly may appear Since the time of which Act. although the same was Godly meant the unruliness of Men hath ungodlily abused the same and divers inconveniences intolerable in manner to Christian Ears and Eyes followed thereupon Women and Men breaking their own promises and faiths made by the one unto the other so set upon sensuality and pleasure that if after the Contract of Matrimony they might have whom they more favoured and desired they could be contented by lightness of their nature to over-turn all that they had done afore and not afraid in manner even from the very Church-door and Marriage Feast the Man to take another Spouse and the Spouse to take another Husband more for Bodily lust and carnal knowledge then for surety of faith truth or having God in their good remembrance contemning many times also the Commandment of the Ecclesiastical Iudge forbidding the parties having made the Contract to attempt or do any thing in prejudice of the same Be it therefore Enacted by the King's Highness The Lords Spiritual Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled That as concerning pre-contracts the said former Statute shall from the first day of May next coming cease be repealed and of no force or effect and be reduced to the estate and order of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm which immediately before the making of the said Statute in this case were used in this Realm So that from the said first day of May when any cause or contract of Marriage is pretended to have beén made it shall be lawful to the King 's Ecclesiastical Iudge of that place to hear and examine the said Cause And having the said Contract sufficiently and lawfully proved before him to give sentence for Matrimony commanding Solemnization Co-habitation Consummation and Tractation as it becometh Man and Wife to have with inflicting all such pains upon the disobedients and disturbers thereof as in times past before the said Statute the King 's Ecclesiastical Iudges by the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws ought and might have done if the said Statute had never been made Any Clause Article or Sentence in the said Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Of the Law making private Marriage or carnal knowledge between persons not prohibited by the Law of God to marry Fornication Private Marriage or carnal knowledge is of two sorts the one without publick Witness the other without any Witness at all and both by the Popish Laws because if permitted they would spoil their gains are prohibited and called clandestine Marriages The publick Witnesses are the Priest or Magistrate private Witnesses are any other Marriage without Witness nor clandestine not appointed by Law The Law of England makes all private Marriage and carnal knowledge without publick Witness Fornication The Law of Scotland in some cases relieves though there be a defect and no publick Witness of the Marriage by the Priest as appears in the before cited Author Craig Feud 269. If there appear private Witnesses of Men or Instruments but in all cases likewise where there are neither publick or private Witnesses they leave it to be Fornication That which I here affirm against both is Marriage without Witness not Fornication 1. That carnal knowledge between parties not prohibited by the Law of God to marry is not Fornication nor any other Crime though in the highest secrecy and without any Testimony of Men or Instruments whatsoever 2. That privacy of Marriage being not prohibited nor publication commanded by God all parties ought to have liberty of Conscience to use the one or the other according as suits best with their occasions As to the first there are these reasons That private Marriage without Witness is not Fornication nor any other Crime 1. There is no Law of God prohibiting private Marriage without Witness Where there is therefore no Law there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 2. It is before shewen That for any human Law to prohibit Marriage or Meat where not prohibited by the Law of God the same came from the Devil 1 Tim. cap. 4. v. 1 2 3. And that therefore the Law of the Pope and Council of Trent which nulls all Marriages except made before a Priest in a Temple and two Witnesses came from the Devil and the Priests of Priapus and Venus for filthy lucre to the Priests 3. Isa 45.7 It is said I create evil And Isa 5.20 It is said Wo unto them that call good evil and evil good That put darkness for light and light for darkness Here is therefore a curse pronounced against those who if God created not marriage without Witnesses evil of their own heads call it evil and where God created it to be in darkness and natural modesty of their own heads will have it by Torch-light and the whole Parish of Witnesses 4. All Fornication is Polyandry and Confusio seminum whereby the Child cannot know the Father nor the Father the Child but here is no such thing it is impossible therefore to be Fornication Liberty Conscience to marry with or without Witnesses As to the second Point which I am to maintain That privacy of Marriage without Witnesses being not prohibited by the Law of God nor publication commanded by the same no human power ought to presume to prohibit what Marriage God hath not prohibited but all persons ought to be left liberty of Conscience to marry publickly or privately with or without Witnesses as it suits best with their conveniences and occasions as is the use and practice in all other civil Contracts which men do with or without Witnesses as they think best and were never accused of sin if they had no Witnesses whereon to bring their Action only that Party is justly charged with sin who wilfully breaks his Contracts because there are no Witnesses but God to prove it against him Against these Positions I shall first answer the Objections and then shew further Reasons to confirm the same
them durst adventure seeing Bajezet was of a furious Nature and in his Anger dangerous to be spoken with to mediate in their behalf no not Alis Bassa Charadin Bassa's Son whom of all men he favour'd most There was at that time in the Court an Aethiopian Jester who under some Covert pleasant Jest would often times bolt out to the King in his greatest heat what his gravest Councellors durst not speak to him in secret This Jester Alis Bassa requested to devise some means to entreat the angry King in behalf of these Judges promising to give him what he would desire if he could appease the Kings displeasure The Aethiopian without fear undertook the matter and presently put on his Head a rich Hat all wrought over with Gold and accoutred in all other his Cloths suitably presented himself before the King with a great counterfeit Gravity whereat Bajazet marveling asked him the cause why he was so Gay I have a Request unto your Majesty said he and wish to find favour in your sight Bajazet more desirous than before to know the matter asked what his Request was If it stand with your pleasure said the Aethiopian I would fain go as your Ambassador to the Empeperor of Constantinople in hope whereof I have put my self in this readiness To what purpose wouldst thou go said Bajazet To crave of the Emperor some Forty or Fifty of his old grave Monks and Friers to bring with me hither to the Court. And what should they do here said Bajazet I would have them placed said the Jester in the rooms of the old doteing Judges whom you intend as I hear to put to death Why said Bajazet I can place others of my own People who are better in their rooms True said the Aethiopian for Gravity of Look and Countenance and so would the old Monks and Friers serve as well but not so learned in the Laws and Customs of your Kingdom as are those in your displeasure If they are Learned why do they then contrary to their Learning pervert Justice and take Bribes There is a good reason for that too said the Jester What reason said the King That can he that there standeth by tell better than I said the Jester pointing to Alis Bassa who forthwith commanded by Bajazet to give the reason with great Reverence first done shewed that those Judges so in displeasure were not conveniently provided for and were therefore enforced many times for their necessary maintenance to take Rewards where they could get them to the staying of the due course of Justice which Bajazet understanding to be true commanded Alis Bassa to appoint them convenient stipends for their maintenance and forthwith granted their Pardon Whereupon the Bassa set down Order That of every matter in Suit exceeding One Thousand Aspers the Judges should have Twenty Aspers which Fees they yet take to this day Whence may be Observed 1. That to place Judges in Courts to undergo the incessant labours of hearing multitudes of Causes and not to allow them honourable maintenance is the ready way to make men of ordinary Principles Freebooters and to take the Prey for themselves So the meanness of the Salary in Russia being but an Hundred Marks per Annum makes the Judges extream Extortious on the People 2. That those who buy either Judicial or Ministerial places in Judicatories must sell again and the sale of either is contrary to the Law of God and of infinite Damage to the Publick turning the weights of Justice to the false weights of Merchandize as says the Poet Ergo Judicium nihil est nisi publica Merces Quid faciunt leges ubi sola Pecunia Regnat 3. That the Basha when he was appointed to provide the Judges maintenance by stipend providing the same by Fees made them worse then before and gave them a pretence to take Bribes of the People under the name of Fees and there are none more corrupt Judges for Bribery than the Turks to this day and well they may if they take Fees Neither Judg nor Minister to take Fees but Salary It was the Ancient Law of England that none having any Office concerning the Administration of Justice should take any Fee or Reward of any Subject for the doing of his Office Coke 2. part 176. and by the Statute Westm 1. cap. 25. neither Judicial nor Ministerial Officer as Sheriff Escheator Coroner Bailiff Gaoler Clerk of the Market Aulnager nor other inferior Minister or Officer of the King whose Offices do any way concern the Administration or Execution of Justice or the common good of the Subject or the Kings Service but shall be paid of what they receive from the King on pain the Offender against this Act shall pay double Damages of the Plaintiff and shall be otherwise punish'd at the Will of the King Marrying for Fees contrary to the Laws of God and of the Land By which appears that the Episcopal Judging of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession for Fees and the granting of Licenses of Marriage by Bishops and taking of Fees by a Priest for Banns or Marriage of any Persons in a Temple or elsewhere is wicked abominable and contrary to the Laws of God and Fundamental Laws of the Land and they ought to be punish'd for doing the same and had not Bishops corrupted the true Doctrine of Gods Ordinance of Marriage to obtain Fees and other covetous and ambitious Ends Men had at this day Married according to the Moral Law of God and not the Ceremonial Laws of Priapus and Venus The Inconveniences which ensue Judges and Ministers taking Fees are 1. As Coke saith 2 part 210. When neither Judges or Ministers had any Fees then had they no colour to exact any thing of the Subject who knew they ought to take nothing at all of them they being maintained by Salary from the King but when some Acts of Parliament changing the Rules of the Common Law gave to the Ministers of the King Fees in some particular Cases to be taken of the Subject whereas before all their Office was done without taking now no Office at all is done without taking and a gap being once open'd there was after no bounds to the breach so it causeth Oppression 2. It causeth corruption of Justice for if a Judg take Fees it is from the Plaintiff and Defendant and he will sell Justice to him who gives him the greatest but if he take a Salary he takes it from the Publick and will be for the Publick good and not partial to the Parties 3. The Publick by giving the Salary and receiving the Fees increases the Publick Treasury for the vast Income of Fees far exceeding the Merits of the Judges and Officers it is just the overplus should be applied to discharge Publick Burdens and not to fill private Pockets and what was unequally shared amongst Officers ignorant and idle by way of Fees The English in Scotland turn'd all the Fees of Courts into
to make a Conventional Seizure Entry or Re-entry of or into Goods or Lands Pledged for Debt or Rent or made liable by any Covenant or Clause Irritant to forfeiture for non payment of the same before a Judgment Declaratory of the non payment and of the value of the Goods to be Distrained and Lands Seized for satisfaction of the same is as unjust and wicked as to take a Judicial Distress Pledg or Forfeiture before such Judgment pass'd The Laird of Sauchi Sued one of his Tenants to make him remove from his Tack or Lease the Defendant excepted That he had a Tack it was replied That the Tack was null and void because there was a Clause Irritant contained in it that if the Duty reserved were not paid the Tack should be null and void and that the Duty was not paid to which was duplied by the Defendant that this failure of payment was not yet declared by any Declaratory Sentence of a Judg. The Lords found that there ought to be a Declaratory Sentence of a Judg first Declaratory Sentence of Scotland before any removal of a Tenant ought to be though the Clause Irritant had been that the Tack should be null without any Declaratory Sentence 4th July 1628. 5. That no Bail ought to be Exacted before Contumacy or Judgment First If to Distrain dead Goods and Pledges of Cattle is prohibited before Judgment à Fortiori to Exact for Pledges or Sureties the living Bodies of men is prohibited Secondly It is manifest Christ intended to relieve the oppression of the Poor against the Rich and that none but the Rich are able to give Bail to Tolerate therefore the Rich because they can give Bail on every unjust Suit of theirs to Exact Bail of Poor men before Judgment who are not able to give it fills Prisons and destroys innumerable Innocent Poor and leaves their Blood to cry against those who Tolerate so great an Oppression as to make Necessity Contumacy and Punish the Poor for his Poverty No less abominable is the Practice of Attornies and Clerks with their Writs of Privilege who will command what Bail they please though the Poor man owe them not a farthing and he being once Arrested and not able to give Bail he must therefore Rot or Starve in Gaol or pay whatever the other will ask right or wrong The Chancery Clerks and Officers go a degree beyond these and will take no Bail but four Subsidy men and if they can but Arrest the pretended Debtor will keep him in hold too till he pleads Instanter what they will have to Ruin him These are the Prodigious Reliques of Popish Tyranny left in Protestant Courts of Law and Conscience and translated from Romish Ecclesiastical-Clerks to English Lay-Clerks It were more just these Privileged men had a Privilege granted to Rob on the High-way for there honest men would be able to defend themselves against them but with these two Privileges of theirs one that they will take whomsoever they please Prisoners and the other that they will be Sued no where but in their own Court makes it as difficult to deal with them as Turky Pyrats who will be Tried by none but their Fellows nor Sued any where but in Algier How little necessity there is of this horrible Oppression of Exaction of Pledges No Pledges Bail Outlawries required in Chancery Distresses Bail Penalties Forfeitures and Outlawries before Judgment doth easily appear from this that in the Chancery there is none of all these required and though the Defendants are Richer and the Causes of far greater value than those in Common Law Courts yet do the numerous Plaintiffs rather shun the Common Law Courts and throng thither choosing to Sue there than in the other and certainly if it be truly consider'd these Exactions of Bail and Outlawries and Suprizes of Debtors before warning do but necessitate them to flie from their Creditors and deceive them of what they would be ready to pay on a fair Demand or warning and liberty given to come to a just account with Security This cruel dealing therefore of the Creditor with his Debtor before Judgment tends not to his Profit but very much to his Loss as well as it doth of the Defendant and many times undoes them both 6. That no Arrest ought to be made before a Judgment though there is Contumacy This follows from what hath already been proved That a Plaintiff ought not to be Witness Judg or Executioner thereon in his own Case and therefore not of the Contumacy of his Brother Contumacy but if he is Contumacious the Plaintiff ought by his Witnesses to make Probation of those matters which are necessary to shew a Contumacy as 1. Oblatio Libelli 2. Productio Testium 3. His Refusal to answer and satisfie and thereon obtain a Sentence Declaratory of the Contumacy of the Defendant and a Capias to Arrest him All Arrests therefore before Judgment Pursuivants Tipstaves by Pursuivants Messengers of Arms Tipstaves Maces Sheriffs or any other are Reliques of Popery and contrary to the Law of God and of the Land and indeed are so far from having Right to Arrest before Judgment that they ought not so much as to Summon before an Oblatio Libelli and a Productio Testium 7. That though there is a Judgment yet Christ allows no Imprisonment of a Debtor not able to pay for Disability is no Contumacy and Poverty may more often fall on the Righteous than the Wicked The Scripture makes our Demeanour to the Poor in Prison in this Life of great concernment to our well or evil Being after Death as is said Matth. 25.34 Then shall the King say unto them on his Right hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me Then shall the Righteous answer him saying Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and cloathed thee Or when saw we thee sick or in Prison and came unto thee And the King shall answer and say unto them Verily I say unto you In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these â—y Brethren ye have done it unto me Then shall he say unto them on the Left hand Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye cloathed me not sick and in Prison and ye visited me not Then shall they also answer him saying Lord when saw
any Delays by Jeofails Repleaders Arrests of Judgment or Writs of Error another cause was that both Parties and Advocates took the Oath of Calumny that they believed their Allegiance just and true Illud juretur quod lis sibi justa videtur which Oath keeps their Allegiances clean from falsity that I never found so much as one Fiction in all their judicial Proceedings and if the same Oath were but taken here as there I believe there would not one Bill in Chancery or Declaration at Common Law come in for Twenty which now are thrust in by heaps many other causes there are which lessen the labour of a Judg and of the Suitors which for Brevity I omit all which shew the Prudence of that Noble Kingdom where the People enjoy so great Justice with so little Cost and Contention Lastly we could have done more Business than we did had we been set to Act as the Roman Judges every one single without Associates in a Court by himself and how great an Addition to the Publick Treasury as well as advantage to Justice the lessening the number of Judges and turning Fees to Salary will cause is already mention'd A Satyr against the Cruel Preposteration of Ecclesiastical and Temporal Courts in Judicial Proceedings contrary to the Precept of Christ Matth. 18.15 AND will you never learn the skill Which first Subpoena is or Bill Or foremost know with all your wit If Declaration is or writ Or which precede should in your Tale The Capias or Original You which is best who make a pause To Sentence first or hear the Cause With Execution who begin Before a Judgment or a Sin Who grinde and eat the Poor distrest With Tongue and Teeth of Romish Beast For Grace in Anglice's who curse The Rent was bad the Patch is worse Who have no Summons but Surprize Who have no Laws but Treacheries Do you not know there is a Cry Gone up against your Cruelty The Prince himself of Righteousness So foul Oppressions to suppress Descended hath on Earthly Globe And glorious Dy'd his Scarlet Robe In his own blood to keep the Peace And from your Dungeons to release Twelve Trumpets hear 12 Apostles whose Silver sound Doth from the East to West rebound Proclaim'd the Sacred Edict have And Penalty whence none can save Which lest to you should be in vain Ye Adders deaf hear it again If Thee thy Brother or thy Friend Or Enemy hap to offend See thou to warn him do not grudg Twice at the least without a Judg And the last time see thou no less Shew him than thy two Witnesses Or three to make the Fact appear If he shall doubt to him more clear Nor shalt thou him for any thing Unto the Seat of Judgment bring Untill he Litis Contestate Or shew a Contumacious hate That if thou canst thou may'st him prove Thus first at home to win by Love Let every Plaintiff thus his Suit Begin or be for ever mute No form of Strife shall be but this Our express will and pleasure is The Nations Bow and struck with Awe Adore the Justice of the Law And to the dread Tribunal run High as the Clouds bright as the Sun With loud Appeals and further will Upon this Statute draw their Bill Both of Indictment and Complaint And of these Crimes you thus attaint That against this Divinest Act More Fees and greater to exact The furious Plaintiff false or true While hot you bind him to pursue The slow Defendant wrong or right You Bail or Goal to make him fight And Fines on Concords heavy lay To make them your unhappy prey The Debtor travailing to find The Creditor with honest mind Your Outlawries ambush the way And will not suffer him to pay But in your Tolls you take him there And bind him like a filly Dear Or what doth make him as forlorn To death you hunt him with the Horn To make his Skin and Carcass yours You cheat both him and Creditors And while his Plaint each sadly tells You take the Fish and leave the Shells Thus Innocents you lay in Chains Before they know who 't is complains Or what 't is for nor shall they see 't Till all Extortion's paid by Sheet You lay Imbargues and Prizes take Before the War proclaimed you make And Right by Battle try and Wounds Mortal before the Trumpet sounds Your Hell-hounds hunt without a noise Your Snake not rattles but destroys There 's nothing true and nothing Sworn Till Justice is to pieces torn And you who cite not but infest us With your Excessus Manifestus And us torment with great unfitness Dr. Cousins writes in defence of suppressing the names of Witnesses Accusers Excommunication ipso facto without Citation Because you will not name the Witness Your Ipso Facto's make us wonder At Thunderbolts without a Thunder And Bodies Judg in Hell to cast Before the Judgment day is past And deathless Souls make pale and wan Because you Curse before you Ban. No Plea deceives the Judg on high What will you do stand mute or flie All rather or who most repents Burn Popish Forms and Presidents Is it not better then to turn To Flames than you your selves to burn Some way with speed appease his Ire Your pain proclaimed is Hell and Fire Of Summons to answer before a Copy given of what is required to be answer'd This is in Scotland provided for by Act of Parliament and no man is troubled to appear before any Judg to answer before by their Libell'd Summons a Copy is deliver'd to the Person or affixed at the Door of his dwelling House containing all the matters at large to which his answer is required and though the People of England are not yet so happy as to enjoy so great a Privilege on which those invaluable Treasures of their Liberty and Propriety depend yet every Attorny and Clerk of a Court hath it and is free from giving appearance before a Judg or being Arrested till a Copy of the Declaration first deliver'd him and Judgment pass'd against him Attor Ac. 28. The reason why these Lay-Clerks who are Successors in Courts to the old Romish Spiritual Clerk Monopolize this from the whole People only to themselves is Filthy Lucre For first if the Plaintiff were compell'd as he ought to be to make Oblatio Libelli to the Defendant by giving or sending a Copy of his Bill in Chancery or of his Declaration at Common Law to the Defendant at his dwelling House and so likewise the Defendant bound to return his Answer Sealed up directed to be left for the Plaintiff in such Court having Jurisdiction of the Cause as the Plaintiff desired within Fifteen Days after the Service of the Copy at the dwelling House to be by the Officer of the Court deliver'd Sealed to the Attorney of the Plaintiff when he demands the same and the like done on Reply Duply Triply and Quadruply and all Exceptions of Fact or Law Postulations and Motions of
he ought to be punish'd in One Hundred Pounds to the King and Imprisonment one Year without Bail and One Hundred Pounds more to the Knight injured thereby or to any other Person who in his default will Sue for the same and is contrary to the two said standing Acts of Parliament of greater consequence than Magna Charta or the Petition of Right themselves for if there is a Protestant Parliament no doubt they will make and we shall not want Protestant Laws but if once there get in a Papist Parliament both Protestant Laws Religion and Protestants themselves will be all destroyed And as the Sheriff Returns Fictions to Courts so do they send Fictions to him and it is hard for him to know when they speak true and when false as if a Venire Facias be sent him to Return 12 Jurors he must Return 24 which is double the number or he shall be Fined for as they write their words in the Venire by halves so do they as it seems their Meaning by halves yet the poor Sheriff is bound to understand them to his Cost then if they send him a Pone per Vadios Salvos plegios the Sheriff must Return no other Plegii to answer their Fiction than his own Fiction of Plegii John Den and Richard Fen or they will teach the Party to have a false Imprisonment against him Suits are removed when the Plaintiff hath been at all the Cost and trouble and is ready for a Trial on meer vexation and to delay on Suggestion or Fiction of a Cause without any Oath of Calumny Attachments and Arrest of Goods and Persons is used in the City without any Oblatio Libelli or Oath of Calumny on meer Fictions and Suggestions City Law 22. but very wrongfully for a Citizen hath as good Right to Magna Charta as he hath to the Charter of the City and under the name of being free of the City doth not lose the liberty of a Subject to be free from Arrest before Judgment Coke Vind. Law 26. says Abuses of Fictions to Arrest before Judgment This brings to my remembrance how a Gentleman was Arrested for 1500 l. the same day that he was to have been Married without any colourable cause of Action spitefully to hinder his Match and was not able to give Bail but the Party being Non-suit the Gentleman notwithstanding could recover as I remember no more than 7 s. 2 d. Cost yet he lost his Monies and indeed himself by it for I know it was the occasion of his utter Undoing and a man that is Cannibally given may devour the Credit of 500 men Arresting them for 5000 l. a piece never declare yet pay no Cost though Party Arrested had better have paid 500 l. and this is so usual that 't is commonly said I 'le bestow a Bill of Middlesex on such a man to stay him in Town that I may have his company into the Countrey when I go down And I my self was informed by a Sea-Captain who was a Sufferer in such an Arrest That there happen'd to be two Merchants in London each of which designed a Voyage to the same Port of Barbary whether he who could arrive first was assured he should to his great gain obtain the Prime of the Market to which purpose they both strove with all diligence possible which should be foremost at the Spring and it happen'd that he who had his Ship first ready had entertained this Captain of my acquaintance to command her for him and all being ready to set Sail the Captain would needs walk into the City to take his parting Cup and Farewell of his Friends where unexpectedly he was Arrested for 5000 l. though not owing a farthing and the same being a Choak-Bail-Sum he knew he should get none to be Surety for him and thereupon sent to his Merchant to inform him how he was boarded before he could get aboard who being much troubled that his Captain was taken by a Land Pyrat repaired to him and understanding from him that he did not owe the Party at whose Suit he was Arrested a farthing and knowing withal that it was done by the Spite of the other Merchant to stop his Ship from getting before him he gave Bail for his Captain and sent him immediately on the Voiage All which Mischiefs happen because there is no Law to compel to give a Copy of the Declaration and Oath of Calumny before Arrest by which all Fictions are prevented All the Judicial Transactions of Fines and Recoveries are Fictions Fictions of Fines and Recoveries so though we have fled from Land to Sea and back again from Sea to Land we know not where to find Rest for the Sole of our Foot from Fictions We are next come to another horrible cause of their Increase which is that no Averment or Probation to the contrary is admitted against the Sheriff or the Clerk nor the Returns or Records how Records which are nothing but the Scribling of Clerks in false Latine and Court-hand for their Fees come to be of higher Authority than the Scripture it self is strange for it was never denied except against Mahomets Alchoran but Averment and contrary Probation might be brought against the false Copying false Translating or false Printing of any word or Clause in the Scripture or it would be very difficult to overthrow Popery What greater reason is there of so many Forgeries of Clerks but that there is no Averment allowed against their Records nor contrary Probation whereby they may for Money insert what Fictions and Falsities they please Estopples are another mischievous cause and the denial of liberty of Travers as bad or worse than the other Turpia quid referam vanae mendacia Linguae I am weary and ashamed to recite so much reflecting so deeply on the Honourable and necessary Profession of the Law Pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli But all this may be easily taken away of Fictions and Falsities if so small a matter of Form were but alter'd as to give liberty to Traverse all is false and to cause the Plaintiffs and Defendants to give Copies of their Declarations and Pleas and to give their Oath of Calumny to them for I saw it by experience in Scotland which I must acknowledg and testifie to the Honour of their Form of Judicial Proceedings That I could never for the space of Six Years observe the least Fiction in the same which I can attribute to no other cause than the wise and just Act of Parliament concerning the Oath of Calumny Jac. 1. P. 9. C. 125. and the present Practice accordingly which Act being short I have transcribed That Advocates and Fore-speakers in Temporal Courts sall Sweare THrow the consent of the hail Parliament it is Statute and Ordained That Advocates and Fore-speakers in Temporal Courts and alswa the Parties that they plead for gif they be present in all Causes in the beginning or
the Servandes of the House or other famous Witnesse and sall execute their Offices and Charge and thereafter sall offer the Copie of the saidis Letters or Precept to ony of the Servands quhilk gif they refuse to do that they affix the samin upon the Èœett or Dure of the Persones Summoun'd and siklike gif they get na entress they first knockand at the Dure Sex Knockes they sall execute their Office before famous Witnesse at the said House and dwelling place and affix the Copie upon the Èœett or Dure thereof as said is quhilk sall be leiful and sufficient Summounding and delivering of the Copie and the Party and Officiar sall not be halden to give ony usher Copie bot at their awin pleasure And every Officiar in his Indorsation sall make mention of his awin Execution in manner fore said and the Partie at quhais instance the Letter or Precept is direct sall pay to the Officiar Executour the Expenses of the Copie affixed as said is and sall be taxed and given again to him the giving of the Decreet or Sentence gif he happenis to obteine And gif the Officiar heis foundin culpable in the Execution of his Office he sall be put in our Soveraine Lordis Prison and punished in his Person and Gudes at the Kingis Grace Will. Coke 4. part 99. saith The Common Pleas may in many cases proceed against their own Officers by Bill without Writ and why may not all the Subjects have the same Right as well as the Officers of the Common Pleas In London before the Mayor and Aldermen Debt and Personal Actions are determined by Bill without Writ City-Law 3. And so are Assises of Nusance ib. 4. and why may they not by Copy of the Bill be commenced better than by Writ over all the Kingdom The mischiefs of Original Writs from the Chancery Besides the Delays of Original Writs and Process by remoteness of Courts whither they are to be sent for and by the multiplications of Aliases and Pluries and the manifold dangers when gotten and executed to be again overthrown and nullified by Abatements for a multitude of frivolous Causes and Formalities and likewise for so many sorts of Variances as before mention'd of all which the Declaration might have been free if no Writ had preceded 1. It is excepted against Writs that Declarations are not amendable and it costs many times so much in amending the Misprision of Clerks in their Writs that the Plaintiff if he is not so poor as not to be able were better abate his own Writs and Declaration himself and pay Costs and buy Twenty new Writs than get one of the old amended 2. Writs Original are altogether useless except to get Money for nothing 3. They are saleable contrary to Magna Charta Nulli vendemus Justitiam and the Civil Law for Lege Julia tenetur repetundarum qui accepit aliquid ob Judicem delegatum dandum mutandum vel ob non dandum c. And what doth a Writ of Right a Justicies or any Original do besides but assign a Delegat Judg to hear the Cause in the Kings-Bench or Common-Pleas or Lords-Court or County-Court Then 't is contrary to Equity the Plaintiff should be compell'd to buy a Writ which is not only useless but pernicious to his Declaration and puts it in ten times more danger to be overthrown than if he might as he ought be permitted to use it without a Writ and the Plaintiff being to deliver a Copy of his Declaration Expensis Actoris to the Defendant 't is no reason he should be at any expence to pay Clerks for Writs impertinent 4. As to the Writ in Chancery of Subpaena Mischiefs of the Chancery Writ of Subpaena which is to be distinguished from the Writs to the Common Law Courts it is contrary to Magna Charta Nulli negabimus Justitiam for if a Poor man Sue a Noble-man there a Chancellour will deny a Poor man his terrible Writ which he uses to grant under a Hundred Pound Penalty in Terrorem Pauperum and he shall get no more of him if he do that at a greater price than the Writ would have cost but a poor begging Letter to the Noble-man to send his Answer to the Complaint against his Oppression which is no other than to bring into England the old Slavery of Rome whereby no Slaves were permitted to Sue their Lords before the Pretor or any other Judg were their Tyranny over them never so great and unjust What a wretched dishonour is it to Publick Justice which heretofore was blind to the Person that she turns now blind to the Cause and who heretofore carried the Sword in her hand Parcere Subjectis debellare superbus to have now lost her Sword and got a Crutch to become only a blind Beggar when she is to approach the Gates of Nobles neither is there any Law of God or man in England to justifie a Chancellour that he shall presume to use a different process of Concumacy against the Commons Chancellour hath no Power to Imprison Commons any more than Lords which he dares not use against the Lords for if it be not lawful for him to Issue Attachments or Commissions of Rebellion against the Lords or to imprison them then is it not lawful for him to Issue Attachments or Commissions of Rebellion against the Commons for both are equally Interested in Magna Charta and the Petition of Right not to be imprison'd without the lawful Judgment of their Peers and they being both Allies and Confederates by the said Acts to maintain the Commons Liberty The Liberty of the Commons is the Out-work which preserves the Liberty of the Lords if the Commons be Invaded though for the present such Invasion touch not the Lords yet when it hath destroyed the Liberty of the Commons the Lords will not be able to defend theirs when their Allies are lost The Liberty of the Commons is the Outwork which preserves the Liberty of the Lords the Liberty of the People is the Outwork which preserves the Liberty of the Parliament the Liberty of the Subjects is the Outwork which preserves the Safety of the King and as Solomon saith Prov. 20.28 Mercy and Truth preserve the King and if contrariorum contraria est ratio Cruelty and Fictions of Writs of Subpoena's in Chancery Latitats in Kings-Bench and Capiases without Summons in Common-Pleas wherewith they abuse the Kings name in false imprisonments of his Subjects without Crime or Cause destroys the prisonments of his Subjects without Crime or Cause destroys the Safety of the King himself and in a Case between the Duke of Lenox and the Lord Clifton M. 10. Jac. Though a Lord was not to be Committed for Contempt in a Poor mans Case yet in this Case between two Lords Chancellour Egerton said If Noble-men will commit Contempts they are to be Committed Now that the Imperial Power which hath been usurped by Chancellors to imprison the
or Sheriff or Lord of the Barony in his County unless he excepted Partiality or other just cause against him 4. A taking of Pledges of the Defendant to appear 5. To make Return of the Writ and left Writs should be Counterfeit the Chancellour was Keeper of the Seal and Sealed them It appears by the Lex Julia de repetundis Chancellour not to sell Writs and Copies of Bills and Answers that the Master of Requests or Canceller was not to take any Fees for these Writs for giving or not giving a Judg out of the Province or County where the Defendant lived for it was a great vexation and oppression of the People to be Summon'd out of the Provinces on malitious Suggestions without cause and our own Parliaments in England have often complained against the same oppression here by the Pope on whose Citations and false Suggestions without cause men were compell'd to give personal Appearances at Rome as many and as often as he pleased if any would but buy there of his Officers a Citation and to prevent this vexatious exaction of Appearances on Writs of men out of their own Counties besides the requiring of Pledges on all Common Law Writs and the enjoining of Pledges to be taken in the Chancery-Writ of Subpoena as in the Lex Julia so is it mention'd in Magna Charta Nulli vendentus nulli negabimus Justitiam vel Rectum which is intended of a Writ of Right and all other Writs whereby Right is obtained for if the Chancellour were not to take Fees and sell his Subpoena's and other Writs he would not so often by them make men Travail thorough Nine Shires to Westminster when they may have better Justice done at home in their own County on no other cause than Fictitious and Malitious Suggestions of the Plaintiff and that he may take a Fee for the same and he would Cancel according to his Office more Petitions and Bills than he would Grant but assoon as Chancellours took Fees for Writs which Sale of Right 't is likely as Polydore says came from the French then no Suit could be begun without Writ all were driven to Westminster Parties Witnesses and Juries unnecessarily and to no purpose but to inrich the Judicatories and undo the People in like manner the Plaintiffs and Defendants ought to give one another mutually Copies of their Bills Declarations and Pleas at the expenses of the Giver which is very small and easie to the Parties and not to be compell'd to buy them of the Chancery or Common Law Officers so the Chancellour had neither his Jurisdiction to Judg of Equity or his Sale of all the Judicial Parts of the same and of the Law with it from the Law of England but A-la-mode de France from the Conqueror till Magna Charta abolished his Tyranny by the Judgment of Peers and of his French Comtes by the 28. E. 1. cap. 8. by which Act that gallant King grants every County the free Election of their own Sheriff after which the Land was free from the Chancellours Troubling men out of their own Counties by his Subpoena's till H. 5. Conquer'd France by which as is usual in other Conquests some Touch of the Diseases and Vices of the Conquer'd will be return'd on the Conquerors and accordingly in the time of his Son H. 6. the Subpoena and a Chancellour with a Pretorian Jurisdiction pretended of Equity with Power of making Laws Edicts and Chancery-Orders and Forms of Writs and to Sentence above all Appeal all which Powers belonged to the Roman Pretor of which the French Chancellour was the Ape and Ours of the French and this pretended Pretorian Jurisdiction ever since hath grown so much A-la-mode partly by making Bishops Chancellors who pretended Supremacy in all matters of Conscience and had in their hands amongst the Superstitious the flaming Sword and Thunder-bolt of Excommunication partly by their Power overtopping and overawing the Common Law Judges and partly by flattering the People with doing Justice in the English Tongue which was very grateful to them and would be as grateful now in the Common Law Courts if they could get it the Chancellours contrary to the greatest Fundamental Laws and Acts of Parliaments of the English introduced on them a most lawless Arbitrary Power and Servility of a Foreign Nation to dispose of their Lands Goods Persons Liberty and Propriety at their pleasure And what is more have assumed like the old Romish Pretors the Power of making Laws Edicts Forms Writs Obligatory to the Subject's Persons Lands and Goods for Coke on the Question In what Text the Common Law is to be found saith In Forms of Writs and Forms of Entries in Courts of Records And Bracton saith Breve ad similitudinem Regulae Juris Formatum So who assumes the Power of making Writs Judicial Edicts Forms and Orders assumes the Legislative Power notwithstanding and above Acts of Parliament to dispose of the Subject's Liberty and Propriety at pleasure yet this have Chancellours done Forming divers Writs in the Register out of their own Heads Lamb. Archeion which always are Formed for the greatest Profit of the Clerks and Courts which make them and not of the People and Episcopal Chancellours have so far in time of Popery deceived Parliaments that Westm 2. cap. 24. gives the Clerks of the Chancery as good as Power to make what Writs they will and the pretence is insinuated by the Clerks De caetero non recedant querentes à cur ' Regis sine remedio or Ne Curia Regis desiceret in Justitia exhibenda whereas none who understands the least part of the Forms of Judicial Proceeding there is who doth not know that the Kings Court if he please may do far better Justice if all the new Writs made by Clerks and all the old Writs in the Register were made a Bonfire all together and none but Copies of Declaaations served without them then 't is possible to do with them which Del gation of Power to Clerks to make Writs must be void for the making of Forms of Writs Edicts or Orders is an Act of Legislation and to give Votes in Legislation is a Personal Office of Trust reposed by the People in their Representative Elected by them and by the known Law no Office of Trust can be Assigned Granted over or Delegated if the Parliament therefore please to enact themselves any Judicial Forms or Orders of Proceeding they ought to be obeyed as Laws but it would be a great injury to the People if they should Grant over the Office of Trust in them to a Chancellour and Clerks never Elected or Intrusted by the People Chancellour of England or Scotland no Pretor Let a French Chancellour be therefore what he will 't is clear no English Chancellour ought to be a Pretor Judg of Equity maker of Laws Edicts Forms or Orders of Judicial Proceeding nor any Chancellour of Scotland the full of the matters of both whose Offices though they may differ
do a Miracle in my Name that can lightly speak Evil of me For he that is not against us is on our part The Bishops Canon appears therefore clean contrary to the Example and Precept of Christ It is before mention'd how the Bodies of Dead Persons in their Graves are by some believed to be Revived and Tormented by the Devil and how Locusts Flies and Fishes have been struck with this Thunderbolt of Excommunication There is no Good man dare Torment or Destroy by the help of any Invisible Spirit nor will nor ought any good Magistrate suffer them without a Sign of Mission from God above the Power of his Temporal Sword for all Magicians and Witches would then Act their Mischiefs under pretence that they do it by the Spirit of God and that their Excommunication is the Curse of God If therefore any Malefice follow without a Sign of Mission whereby they had a Warrant to Curse the Magistrate Sign of Mission whereby they had a Warrant to Curse the Magistrate ought to punish them for Witchcraft or all Laws against Witchcraft must be Repealed and the Devil let loose by his Instruments the Witches to do what mischief he pleases and no Judg presume to punish a Witch if he only say What he did was done by the Spirit of God It is impossible to distinguish invisible Spirits or to trie the Spirit whether God or the Devil but by visible Sign if the hurt be done therefore by any Person by assistance of a Spirit unless he shew a Sign he ought by the standing Laws and Acts of Parliament to be punished for Witchcraft and if he pretend to have a Mission from the Spirit of God and hath none he ought to be punished for a Cheat. And under the same Dilemma fall the Authors and Executors of the before mention'd Canon prohibiting Ministers to cast out the Devil by Fasting and must be guilty either of Withcraft or a Cheat if they cannot shew a Sign of Mission to make such a prohibition and to give such a Licence as their Canon imports though they impute the same to the Ministers who Fast and Pray when they do not Excommunication makes all Sins equal Excommunication as it came from Pagans so it sets up again that old Pagan Doctrine of the Stoicks Omnia Peccata esse Equalia Excommunication for Two Pence There was a Poor man who used to go to Labor for Six-pence a Day he lived in a Parish where the Custom was The Clerk was to have a Penny every Year of every House-holder and being very Poor rather needing to receive Alms than to pay Rates he thought he might have been on that Cause excused whereby this Penny was neglected to be paid for two Years following which amounted to the Sum of Two Pence for which he was Sued in the Bishops Court and Excommunicated and he would often complain that he could not recover his Estate till he had given the Court Eighteen-pence See the Piety of an Excommunicator he would if he had had Power have sold the Poor mans Soul to the Devil for Two Pence if he could not get some Money to redeem it Excommunication Pardons all Sin for Money Excommunication is done to no other end than to drive them to buy Absolution which enticeth and encourageth all kind of Uncleanness and other Wickedness Excommunication sets up Idolatry Pope Gregory the Second Idolatry Excommunicated and Deposed the Greek Emperor Leo Isaurus because he made a Law against Images and Nick-named him Iconomachus or the Fighter with Images Excommunication and Power to Judg of Heresie returns all to Popery and Priest-riding Thus Excommunicators follow the Precedent of the old Pagan Priests of Mars whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Fire-bearers who having Solemnly performed their Rites and Ceremonies of Cursing Execration or Excommunication as Balak would have had Balaam to have done used before the Battel joined to cast Fire-brands between the two Enemy-Armies standing in Battel Array one against another and so stirred them up to fight but they themselves yet retired out of the medly and danger 1. This gives the Popish Priest that main Pillar of the Popish Empire the Jurisdiction of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession and the Arbitrary disposing of the same both in Kingdoms and Private Patrimonies 2. This gives him the Power of setting up Images as appears in the fore-cited Example of the Emperor Leo Isaurus Excommunicated and Deposed because he forbad Images 3. This gives him Power to Asassinate Kings of which are a multitude of Examples 4. This gives him a Power of Confiscating Kingdoms and Selling them to others 5. This gives him Power to Confiscate and Imprison Arbitrarily the Subjects by Excommunicato Capiendo's as is before declared 6. This gives him Power of taking from the People the free Election of their Parochial Ministers and imposing on them the Popish Sacrament of Orders and Ordination contrary to the Law of God 7. This gives him Power to compell Confession of Sins to be made to the Priest which ought only to be made to God the Magistrate and the Brother injured 8. This gives him Power to impose Penance and Corporal punishment which ought only to be done by the Magistrate 1. Because the Magistrate should else bear the Sword in vain 2. Because it is unjust the Magistrate should penance or punish once and the Priest punish again for the same Sin for Nemo debet bis puniri pro eodem delicio 9. This gives him Power of imposing what Commutation-Money and Arbitrary Fine he pleaseth which is a Subversion of all Propriety in Goods 10. This gives him Power to sell Absolutions and Pardons of Sins and compell the same to be taken from the Priest which ought only to be taken from God the Magistrate and the Brother injured for unumquod que dissolvitur eodem modo quo conflatum est none can pardon an Offence against a Law but a Legislator none can release a Trespas but the Party against whom the Trespass is committed 11. This not only gives him Power by Pardon to Null the Laws of God and Men and the Penalties of the same but to Enact Arbitrarily new Laws and Penalties contrary and Superior to the Law of God viz. Ceremonial Laws made by the Priest contrary and Superior to the Moral Law made by God 12. This Impowers him to Usurp the Throne of God himself in the Soul and Conscience of man wherein none ought to be Judg but God himself Excommunication without a Sign of Mission not Instituted by Christ but invented by Pagan Priests and Daemons That Christ never Judged nor Condemned any though he heard him Preach in Person and believed not appears by the Scripture Faith and Infidelity being rather unavoidable Passions than free Actions of the Soul it being not in humane Power to believe what the Conscience is not convinced of or not to believe that whereof it is convinced and that Christ never appointed so
and less Damage to himself and Subjects have prevented those Intestine Dissensions by not taking from them that Liberty of Conscience as to Faith and Form of Worship which he was compell'd at last to give them it being certain that the Bordering Turk by the Imprudence of divers of the Emperors in being blinded by the Romish Bishops and their own to violate the Liberty of Conscience of those Frontier Countries and thereby dividing and disuniting them against the Common Enemy he hath thereof taken great advantages to the great danger of the Emperors themselves the Empire and the rest of Christendom And how unfortunate were Episcopal Councils in our own Countrey in this point of Compulsion of the Conscience to their Faith Forms and Ceremonies tending to Episcopal and not the Regal Interest and how they thereby exposed his late Majesty a Valiant Wise and Pious King and his Three Kingdoms to an unnecessary War and the miserable loss ensued thereby is yet in Bleeding Memory What Wars have been in France by Compulsion of Conscience by Force and destroying it by Perfidious Treacheries of Episcopal Councils is likewise sadly known so that in all the Kingdoms of Christendom Bishops by this Compulsion to their Faith Forms and Ceremonies have one time or other raised Civil Wars and Dissensions dangerous or destructive to Princes and People and shared thereby the Spoils of both or what was a greater Prey got by our own made Sale of all the Estates of the Revenues of the Bishopricks fallen Twenty Years before they ever made a Sermon in their Church or Served at their Altar so though the Wars were by themselves occasion'd and kindled and were an universal loss to the People yet they lost nothing and gain'd all That Compulsion against Conscience causeth Wars doth likewise agree the Learned and Pious Doctor More who saith Denial of Liberty of Conscience brings upon Nations and Families Wars Bloodshed Subversion of Families Deposing Stabbing Poisoning of Princes perpetual Hatred and Enmity amongst men and all the Works and Actions of the Kindom of Darkness whereas if it were universally acknowledged that Liberty of Religion were the Right of Mankind all these mischiefs would be prevented the Prince could not pretend any Quarrel against the People nor the People against the Prince or against one another except for Civil Rights which are more plain and intelligible That Compulsion to Faith or Forms of Worship hath had the same Destructive Effects against the Eastern Emperors likewise which it hath had against the Western appears by the Example of Michael Palaeologus Emperor of Greece who fearing an Invasion from the Turks and other Foreigners from the East endeavour'd to strengthen himself from the Pope and by him with the Emperor and other Christian Kings from the West and by his Ambassadors to that end treated with Gregory the Tenth then Pope of Rome to Unite and Conform the Greek Church to the Latine and to acknowledg the Popes Supremacy over the Greeks and Liberty of Appeal from them to the Court of Rome which the Emperor offer'd and the Pope gladly accepted of but the People generally abhor'd these Proceedings of the Emperor and were so Tumultuous that the Emperor was fain to leave off the care of the Foreign Dangers to look to these greater at home and told the People to quiet them that this Alteration was made not out of any good liking he had to it but in respect of the dangerous Estate of things in that juncture of Time it behoved Prudence to admit the less Evil to avoid the greater for if by not granting the Latine Church what they would have they would take advantage of the Wars they had with their other Enemies and fall on them at the same time whereby they would attain more by force from them than would satisfie them by Treaty and not only by War become Lords of their Religion and Ceremonies but of all at once their Wives Children Estates and Lives at the will of the Conqueror therefore he required them to yield to necessity and not to compell him to use more Severe Remedies and not finding them pliable some he Imprison'd some Banish'd some Confiscated some pull'd out their Eyes some Tortur'd some Dismembred on which some outwardly Conformed but not in their hearts but the greater part fled some to Thrace some to Achaia some to Peloponesus and other Countries and the Emperor trusting to Foreign Forces whom he joined and this and his other Cruel Practices in denying his Subjects Liberty of Conscience seeing they were put to Fight only to confirm their own Slavery so discouraged the Greek Army that the Turks overthrew them and their Emperor and won the day by which they got their first Footing in Europe Whereby appears That as Compulsion to the Faith and Ceremonies of the Bishop of Rome and denial of Liberty of Conscience to the first Arrian Christians was the cause of the great Conquests of Mahomet who gave them Toleration in Asia which they could not have of the Roman Emperors so this denial of Liberty of Conscience by this Greek Emperor and his Compulsion of his Subjects to the Ceremonies of the Bishop of Rome was the first opening an Entrance to the Turk into Europe and after the losing of the Grecian Empire to him whence so many Fatal Miseries have ensued to Christendom By the Interruption of the Press I am compell'd to break off this Book abruptly