Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	law_n	sin_n	5,839	5	5.9889	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48310	Memoranda : touching the oath ex officio, pretended self-accusation, and canonical purgation together with some notes about the making of some new, and alteration and explanation of some old laws, all most humbly submitted to the consideration of this Parliament / by Edw. Lake ...	Lake, Edward, Sir, 1596 or 7-1674.	1662 (1662)	Wing L188; ESTC R14261	107,287	162

distributive justice to have that rightly performed it must be granted that all due and good means may be used to attain that end Qui dat finem dat media ad finem i F. de injur Peccata nocentium expedit esse nota Now when crimes cease to be secret but are by fame or by such wayes as is aforesaid so far discovered if there be as very often there is not no other way to discover them that so the evil and the scandal may be taken away but by putting the party to his oath thereby to clear himself if further due proof thereof cannot be made or by refusal of the oath to be taken pro confesso then it follows the evil and scandal must still remain and all the sad effects thereof to Church and State may be expected to follow Be the fame of a crime Adultery or the like never so pregnant that Town and countrey even the Kingdom ring of it though an Adulterer and Adulteresse have cohabited together a long time yet if they were not taken or seen in flagranti crimine or seen in bed together which is a violent presumption equivalent to a proof and the parties deny the fact some make it disputable whether or no any manner of punishment the fact being neither proved nor confessed can be laid upon the parties for this great scandal to the Church Some hold that by the words of this late Act that an innocent party upon whom a fame is unjustly raised and the beginning of it cannot be found as often hath happened yet though he offer to purge himself the Ecclesiastical Judge is not to tender or administer the oath to him though this seems otherwise because the oath is forbidden but onely in such cases whereby the person to whom the same is tendered or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or her self of any criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be lyable to any censure or punishment But in this case of voluntary offer to take the oath that reason of censure or punishment ceaseth Reg. juris Volenti non fit injuria neque dolus Such course by way of oath to find out the sin being forbidden how great an encouragement it may prove to commit such sins is obvious to the easiest judgment It was extreme to make Adultery punishable by death though that extreme be to be avoided the contrary too must be shunned If it be lawful at common Law as in a Wager at Law and many other cases as before touched to tender and administer such oaths and in such causes as need it not so much as these causes ordinarily do wherein before that late Act it was administred in Ecclesiastical courts then why not in Ecclesiastical courts Except it be said that the same course shall be taken to forbid it also at common Law which I suppose is not intended since Jury men as Dr. Cosens as before in that his Apology affirms had an oath given them to present their own and their fellows faults Now such in Ecclesiastical proceedings The inequality of the punishment as to the difference of Sex Indeed the permission of punishment as to one Sex the Man and the punishment to the weaker Sex the Woman who therefore deserves more commiseration that inequality I say cannot at best but seem strange For the man will alwayes probably except either by Gods grace he will glorifie him by confessing his fault or else as before be taken in flagranti crimine or with such violent presumption as before escape punishment though never so guilty It is peccatum concatenatum there must be two to act it In that sin the man without the woman or the woman without the man signifie no more then the letter q without an u following it to make it into to a syllable As for the man his crime is transiens leaves no vestigia behind it to discover him not so oftentimes in the woman the infallible indiciū of her fault her crimen manens appearing to every eye though she is no more guilty thereof then the man whom if she rightly name or accuse yet that works nothing against him except to keep the Bastard child as the reputed father thereof wherein not a few light women probably name not the right father so her single testimony serves to punish either the right or wrong father but not to take away the scandal or evil caused by the man that offended Our English Nation hath been accounted very friendly and favourable to the weaker Sex and very many are the privileges and honoraries we give them more then in other Nations for which in the opinion of generous minds we are accounted more honourable then others insomuch as some have said If there were a bridge 'twixt Dover and Callis all the women in the Continent would come into our Island But by this we may seem to hazard that honour In Simony Usury and many other crimes of Ecclesiastical cognisance be the fame circumstances suspicions and all other inducements never so strong yet this Oath being not to be administred the offender scapes neither the evil nor scandal is removed Bishops by the Statute 1 Eliz. 1. are to give the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy ex officio to others or whether it be ex officio or ad instantiam partis the matter is all one 't is forbidden to give it to any person whereby he may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or her self of any criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be lyable to any censure or punishment The refusal of this oath is penal and perhaps the person was so accused to the Bishop or there was a common fame thereof or other sufficient inducement to enquire thereof if the party refuse to take this oath thus tendered to him then is he by the Law lyable to Censure and punishment for it and I conceive it is not thought fit that such a person be he a Recusant of what kind soever should plead this Statute that this Oath should not be tendered to them By the Law all Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges when they give Institution into Benefices or give license to preach teach school serve Cures and in other cases are to give to the parties the Oath of Allegeance and Supremacy should these parties refuse to take these oaths it were penal to them When the Bishops make their Chancellors Commissaries Advocates Registers Proctors or the Deans and Chapters their Commissaries Officials or Auditores causarum or the Archdeacons their Officials or any other Ecclesiastical Officers whatsoever the same oaths are to be given them should these parties refuse to take these oaths it were penal to them So a greater part of the course of proceeding in Ecclesiastical Courts is taken away then perhaps many think of So in the Oath of Calumny and of Malice to be tendered in the proceedings in

tit ex●minat num 17 A suspected Jury to have received a letter from the Defenfendant were all examined upon their oaths * M. 35 H. 6.11 A Sheriff examined supposed to have made a false return † Brooke tit Ley-gager num 77. They have a custom in London allowed good by the Common Law to cause the Plaintiff to swear to the truth of his Declaration which if he do then the Defendant is condemned if the Plaintiff refuse he is barred 19 H. 6.43 The like Decisory Oath at Common Law which is peremptory to the Plaintiff and so is the Wager of Law ex parte defendentis 44 E. 3.41 In an Action of Detinue for a Chest sealed with certain Gold Silver c. the Defendant tender'd his Law that is his Oath Quod non detinet and the opinion of the Court was he should have it Dr. Cosens chap. 3. in the third part of his Apology writes thus The grand Jury as I take it have their oath given to enquire and present their own their fellows and others faults And Part 3. chap. 14. he sayes that at Assizes and Sessions Grand Juries are urged by oath to enquire and present Treasons Murthers and other Felonies breach of the Peace violation of sundry Laws and Statutes common Nusances c. Now if one of the Grand Jury being to be sworn would deny to take the Oath except he might have some certain offences usually given in charge left out and foreprised severally out of his Oath lest otherwise he should thereby be driven to accuse himself Or if one supposed most able to give evidence to the Coroners Inquest upon a murther committed should desire to be spared from telling his utmost knowledge thereof upon his oath lest thereby he be driven to accuse himself would the Judges spare them and not rather repute them to be guilty of these crimes for which they refuse to take oath and discover their knowledge And why not then other men should not upon crimes nothing so penal who refuse to take the oath to answer them be judged by any man to do it upon good ground and conscience 10 H. 6.7 If a Tithingman refuse to make Presentment the Steward of the court may amerce him 19 H 7. c. 14. Chief Constables and Bayliffs were to give evidences upon their oaths touching unlawful Retainers within the precinct of their Offices and upon concealment were to be punished And many more such Therefore hereupon may it not be concluded thus That whatsoever the Ecclesiastical Laws do allow and require being not contrary nor repugnant to the Prerogative Royal nor to the Laws Statutes and customs of this Realm that may be lawfully practised by Judges Ecclesiastical But this oath is such by reason that sundry Temporal courts by Law hold the like course and do not prohibite it in Courts Ecclesiastical so that not being so much as divers courses they cannot be contrariant or repugnant therefore these oaths were lawfully practised in courts Ecclesiastical or thus That which is justice and equity in one court cannot be unjust unequal or cruel in another court that is thereunto no lesse authorized than the first But such be these Oaths as appeareth by the practice of the aforementioned Temporal courts therefore they are lawful and equal also in Ecclesiastical courts CHAP. X. The inconvenience and hurt that probably may follow by the forbidding the ministring of an Oath Ex officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendered or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or her self of any criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be lyable to any censure or punishment Praise of the Civil Laws Civilians first and last and greatest Sufferers Amity 'twixt both Robes His Majesties and the Lord Chancellors favours to Civilians DOctor Cosens hath touched upon some of such inconveniences in general not much in particular sparsìm in that his Apology but not in any one distinct chapter Some of such as I have thought of I shall set down That Evil should be removed is often inculcated in holy Writ and that right and justice should be done in all causes as well criminal as civil publick and private all Laws sacred and prophane command this tending to the well-being even the being of all Kingdoms Commonwealths and Governments whatsoever as the contrary to the desolation and destruction thereof and of all commerce and humane society That in respect of the whole Church and Commonwealth punishments are most needful the sacred Writ shews it and gives many examples where for the sins of a few whole Armies and Societies have been punished Josh 7. Achans stealing of the accursed garment c. was a cause of the overthrow of Israel in battel 1 Sam. 4. So for the sin of Eli and his sons many thousands of the Israelites were slain by the Philistines 1 Kings 1.2 Salomon giving charge to kill Joab sayes Smite him that thou mayest take away the bloud which Joab shed causless from me and the house of my Father And for Jonas his disobedience the whole Ship was in danger to have perished The Heathen could say Justicia est Reipublicae basis Aristot Rhetor. T●…odor c. 14. Aristotle could say that punishment is a remedy to be used against faults and Cassiodor Remedium est contra peccatum accelerata correctio For all crimes and offences are but as so many Maladies and distempers in the body of the Commonwealth which if suffered to grow without the curb of Law will quickly like a Canker disperse either to the destruction or eminent danger of both So that the necessity of punishment and forcing justice to be done both in civil and criminal causes by the very ends unto which it is referred clearly appears a A●g inc● 〈◊〉 tract 7. Charitas non est sed languor ubi mali mores digna poena non castigantur b Idem ep 50 ad Bonifac. c. erro● dist 83. Error cui non resistitur approbatur c Cassiod l 3. u. c. epist 14. Malum cum perseveret augetur d C●cum Tanto de ceasu tudine Tanto sunt graviora peccata quanto diutiùs animam detinent illigatam Tully sayes e Cicer. pro M●… Impunitatis spes magna peccandi illecebra f C●…d A●d dist 45. Quae est ista misericordia quae bonitas um parcere omnes in discrimen adducere The very Light of Nature did teach even Heathen men thus g F. add Aquild I●a vulnerat Interest Reipublicae delicta puniri●… and h H. de fide pur l. 7. sect final Poenas ob malesicia solvi magna ratio suadet Now if upon such weighty reasons it be most needful that Justice be duly administred and crimes punished for in criminal matters the greatest care is to be had though no neglect neither to be in commutative and