Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A58205
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The Readers speech of the Middle-Temple, at the entrance into his reading, Febr. 29, 1663/4 upon the statute of Magna Charta, Cap. 29.
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Reader.
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1664
(1664)
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Wing R441; ESTC R24507
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10,926
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18
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their severe and arbitrary imprisonments and those without hearing or appeal and often inflicted at the will or their inferiour dependants in the Country which though I have too often felt yet as to what was so enforc'd by those persons that were own'd as the Supreme Authority admitting it legal I cannot rationally condemn for no Kingdom or State can stand long unshaken unlesse there be in the supreme Magistrate and Council a radical and inhaerent right by power not altogether regular to obviate plottings and surprize Otherwise while it stays the formalities of Law the conspiracy may grow lawlesse too strong to be prevented by it And though some that are innocent may suffer upon an undue suspition yet melius pereat unus quam unitas better is it that one innocently suffer a private and temporay mischief than that we run the hazard of a publick inconvenience With this that it subjects the disquition to the forms of Law when it may be safe and open and with this that it parts not this authority from the Soveraign and his Council and so see we it now executed and not unprosperously warranted by the Law of Nature self-preservation to which Lex terrae cannot be contrary Whereas in those other days every dependant acted his passion with this power and the trial we had was by a new red Court where the cull'd person were in a sort Parties Judge and Juries but no challenge no pares and I may swear they had none Justitia firmat solium which King James well understood when he publish'd That for a King of England to discountenance the Common Law was to desert his Crown all persons are presum'd to endeavour that which is for their advantage Certainly then the Prince is ill advis'd who ruines the Law which is his chief support If for no other cause yet for this we have no cause to fear However better were it to time out a temporary evil as we do showers in harvest than engage in that publick hazard which attends an undue remedy The Arms of Subjects even as best for them should be preces lachrymae and those at the end will prevail when it is grown to be the Genius of the people But Si non fecerit sufficit â—i ad poenam says Bracton quod Dominum habet ultorem He that has faith will stay Gods time for payment he that has none may take his own time and possibly be paid himself Every word in this Statute has its weight and I might aptly dissect it into as many parts as words For method I shall propose ten particulars and each of them an adaequate subject for a reading Within this Statute 1. Who is the Liber homo intended 2. What shall be an Imprisonment 3. What is a Disseisin of Franktenement 4. What is a Disseisin of Liberties 5. What is a Disseisin of free Customes 6. What is an Utlagury exile or destruction 7. What shall be said to be a passing or sitting upon a man 8. What shall be call'd a legal judgement of Peers 9. What it is that is call'd the Law of the Land 10. What shall be said to be a selling denying or deferring of Justice Upon these divisions I shall proceed as far as the time allotted me will permit however I shall contrive to give you somewhat of my conceptions upon every part and herein I shall beg your patience and attention and possibly may make you some amends by being brief and plain ERRATA Pag 3 line 17. read â—n Ibid line 24. for Hazard read Hazards Pag. 4. line 21. for o h … read others Ibid line â—… for Lords Spiâ—itual Lords Tempoâ—ral … d read a House of Lords and a House of FINIS ADVERTISEMENT More of this Subject may be read in a Discourse publish'd by the Reader before the Kings Return and Printed by us G. B. and T. C.
say They were somewhat too severe upon the Natives the better to make room for a new Plantation Dangelt an exaction not clear'd from the Crown he Releases The Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and Civil this King also sâ—ver'd for before his Reign the Bishop and the Earle or their Deputites sate jointly in the Counties determining spiritual Causes in the Forenoon and secular in the Afternoon according to the pattern of the Jewish Sanhedrim which was imitated by the Christians in times primitive The Apostles and Elders which were no other than Lay-Magistrates deciding all controversies among Christians who voluntary submitted to their judgment for this see the Glossary 315. Lambert 80. and Mr. Selden on Edmerus 166. and History of Tyths chap. 14. 'T is only to be wish't that he had distinguisht their Causes as he divided their Courts for that omission has occasion'd those justlings of Jurisdiction which have since hapned between the Ecclesiastical Courts and the Courts and Common Law But more violent was this Conflict till by a Canon of the Counsel of Clarendon it was decreed That Regis justiciarius mittet in curiam sanctae Ecclesiae ad videndum quo modo res ibi tractatur The ground of Prohibitions Mat. Paris An. 1164. This the Clergy endeavoured to qualifie by Petition in Parliament 5.1 Ed. 3. nu 83. But thereto the King answered that he could not depart with his right 4. Just 339. King William in this Act designed a more regular dispatch of Causes and indeed as Pictaviensis sayes he was a Prince of Courage Spectaculum delectabile simul terribile He was sayes Matthew Paris Subjectis humilis but Rebellibus inexorabilis and deserves a memory in our Chronicles more illustrious for though his Normans at his new establishment importun'd him to connive at some oppressions yet the Law held out in title And then may we interpret the mistakes of a Prince to be his necessity or at least but as a step out of the way to avoid the Dirt manifesting that he is but Man and not more priviledged from Infirmity than his Subjects Little of good fame a revenge which bad Princes after their deaths cannot provide against in Rufus his Son have we upon Record for then sayes Paris were their Malae consuetudines exactiones injstae And this appears by that great Charter of his succeeding Brother King Henry the First who sayes Hoveden those evil customs penitus abrogavit and restor'd to opprest England the Laws of good King Edward with those emendations which his Father had added by the Counsel of his Barons so Florentius and Malmsbury King Stephen by his Charter confirms the good Laws which King Henry his Uncle had before granted with those of good King Edward and enjoins sayes Roger Bacon in his Book De impedimentis scientiae That none of the Laws of Italy the Imperial Laws should be retain'd Henry the Second ratifies the same Charter He grants what his Grandfather King Henry had granted and remits what he had remitted King John disputes it with his Nobles but was prevaild with in the Seventeenth year of his Reign to contract those former general Charters into one Grand one and this sayes the Monck of St. Albons Ex parte maxima leges antiquas regni consuetudines cortinebat Paris 246. But King John being as the Moncks report him of an unsteddy spirit recalls his Charter when the Normans being ingrafted into the English Nobility and inheritable as they thought to the English freedom contest it with their Prince and pray in aid of Lewis the French Kings Son by whose powers King John being worsted he dyes being poysoned as is supposed in a Chalice He left his Heir of the Age of Eleven years whose innocence had contracted no malice and in whom concenter'd not only the title of the Norman but also of the Royal Saxon blood for he was Grandson to Maud the Empress Daughter and Heir of Henry the First by Maud the Daughter of Malcolm King of Scots and Margaret his Wife Sister and Heir of Edgar Atheling true Heir to the Confessor The English who naturally abhor wrong and without a strong byas are just loyal forthwith desert the Forreigner and adhere to the Royal Issue The French Prince affrighted at the fervour of that generous spirit submits to terms and departs the Land King Henry the Third the Infant is Crown'd and in the Ninth year of his Reign being the Twentieth of his Age upon payment of a Fifteen of all mens movables Cap. 37. in full Parliament he gives and grants this Magna Charta whereof my Statute is a Chapter Afterwards pretending Infancy he declares this Charter Null which revives the Barons War and issues streams of English blood Yet here give me leave to note what the French Comines gives for a Maxim That no Subject ever drew Sword against his Prince but though his design prevail'd he himself suffer'd in Life Estate or Conscience And of this gives evidence That Pardon for which the Lords Petition this King Henry in Kenelworth the same Castle where they had imprisoned him Dictum de Kenelworth H. 3. Yet the result in the long run was the re-establishment of this Charter in the Twenty fifth of his Reign and in the presence of his Son the brave King Edw. 1. Mag. ch 37. and with such direful Ceremonies as were then Authentick by way of cursing and execrations to the Infringers as may astonish the Reader if he peruses Matthew Paris An. 1253. And reflects as well on such as violate the Kings Prerogative as Intrenchers upon the Subjects liberty By some as ignorant as censorious our Laws are scandal'd as introduced by Conquest whereas in truth this Charter is purely declaratory of the old Saxon as aforesaid so concludes St German Fol. 12. And in those captious points of Tenures Wardships and Purveyance I can demonstrate footsteps thereof before King William though possibly by him and his Issue improved with the honour of Kinghthood and Knights service But were the quarrel at all a grievance we have now a Prince who derives his Pedigree not only from the Norman but more ancient and direct from the Royal Saxon Line as well by Queen Margaret Sister and Heir of Edgar in the Scotch Descent as from Maud her Daughter Queen to King Henry the First in the English And for those pretended Norman innovations of Tenures Wardships and Purveyance he has been pleased to unhatch these Royalties from his Crown upon the Petition of the Parliament which is a Court de Tesgrand honour justice de que nul doit imaginer chose dishâ—nourable as we are taught in Plo. 388. In whose wisdoms it becomes people to acquiesce as their own choice and Representatives or to renounce all Rule but their own Yet may it with all submission be aver'd Those Royalties might possibly have been so refin'd to the Saxon Model as would have given an ornament and lustre to the Crown yet no pressure to the Subject But