Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n good_a great_a people_n 3,792 5 4.4298 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A91291 A summary collection of the principal fundamental rights, liberties, proprieties of all English freemen; both in their persons, estates, and elections; and of the memorable votes, resolutions, and Acts of Parliament, for their vindication and corroboration, in the late Parliaments of 3 & 17 of King Charles; collected out of their Journals, and printed Ordinances. Most necessary to be known, considered, re-established (in this present juncture of publick affairs) with all possible old and new securities; against past, present, and future publick violations, under-minings, by force or fraud, for the much-desired healing of the manifold large mortal wounds in these chief vital parts, and repairing the various destructive subversive breaches in these prime foundations of our English state fabrick; without which no effectual present or future healing, union, peace, or settlement can possibly be expected, or established in our distracted nations. / By William Prynne of Swainswick Esq; a bencher of Lincolns Inne. Prynne, William, 1600-1669. 1656 (1656) Wing P4095; Thomason E892_3; ESTC R206517 46,699 73

There are 4 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

both by the Parliament and Army and so many years bloudy Wars for defence of the Rights and Privileges of Parliament I shall therefore close up this particular with the memorable words of Lords and Commons forenamed Remonstrances which I desire all Swordmen the whole Nation and those especially who were then Members to take special notice of l This Privilege of the Members se●●usion from the House and arrests fore mentioned is so clear and essential a Privilege of Parliament that the whole Freedome of Parliament depends upon it For who sees not that by this means under false pretences of Crimes and Accusations such and so many Members of both or either House may be taken out of it at any time by any persons to serve a torn and to make a major part of whom they will at pleasure And therefore as the Freedom of the Parliament dependeth in a great part upon this Privilege and the Freedome of this Nation upon the Freedome of Parliaments We have good cause to believe that the People of England knowing that their Lives and Fortunes are bound up in this Bundle will venture their Lives and Fortunes in this Quarrel Accursed and for ever execrated then let all those Sword-men and Innovators be who by any Matchiavilian Policies Engines or Instruments whatsoever shall endeavour to deprive the Parliaments and People of England of this their antient essential Privilege and Freedoms or necessitate them once again to venture their Lives or Fortunes in this quarrel to maintain or regain the same by a New war or insurrection against the Imprisoners or Secluders of any of their duly elected and best respected publick Trustees out of our Parliaments in time to come as they have oft times done for some years by-past to the subversion of Parliaments and Peoples general affront and discontent To prevent which danger I could heartily wish that a free Legal English Parliament might be duly summoned either by the Peers of the Realm or by the Freeholders Freemen and Burgesses of every County City and Borough in their default according to the late Act for triennial Parliaments yet in force to which many in present power were assenting to redress all high violations of our Parliaments just Rights and Privileges and prevent the like for the future reform all publick Grievances remove all unrighteous oppressions compose our manifold sad Divisions Schismes Fractions both in Church and State and settle our three distracted Kingdoms in such unity peace prosperity after all our destructive wars as all good men long pray for and none but Traytors or professed Enemies to our Tranquillity and Welfare can or dare oppose 15. The whole House of Commons m impeached and the Lords House judicially sentenced D● Manwaring then a Member of the Convocation for preaching before the King and publishing in print in two Sermons intituled Religion and Allegiance contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and propriety of the Subject 1. That the King is not bouud to keep and observe the good Laws and customes of the Realm concerning the Rights and Liberties of the Subject who undoubtedly inherit this Right and Liberty not to be compelled to contribute any tax tallage aid or to make any loans not set or imposed by common consent by Act of Parliament And that his Royal will and command in imposing Loans Taxes and other Aids without Common consent in Parliament doth so far bind the conscience of the Subje●● of this Realm that they cannot refuse the same without peril of damnation 2. That those his Majesties Subjects who refused the Loan imposed on them did therein offend against the Law of God against his Majesties supream Authority and by so doing became guilty of impiety disloyalty rebellion disobedience and lyable to many other Taxes and censures 3. That authority of Parliament is not necessary for raising of Aids and Subsidies That the slow proceedings of such Assemblies are not fit for the supply of the urgent necessities of the State but rather apt to produce sundry Impediments to the just designs of Princes and to give them occasion of displeasure or discontent For which Sermons and positions the Lords House adjudged 1. That this Dr. Manwaring notwithstanding his humble Petitions and craving pardon for these offences shall be imprisoned during the pleasure of the House 2. That he be fined 1000 l. to the King 3. That he shall make such a submission and acknowledgement of his offences as shall be set down by a Committe in writing both at the Lords Bar and in the House of Commons which he accordingly made 4. That he shall be suspended for the time of three years from the exercise of the Ministry 5. That he shall be for ever disabled to preach at the Court hereafter 6. That he shall be disabled hereafter to have any Ecclesiastical dignity or secular Office 7. That the same Book is worthy to be burnt and that for the better effecting thereof his Majesty may be moved to grant a Proclamation to call in the said Books that they may be burnt accordingly in London and both Universities and for inhibiting the printing hereof upon a great penal●y Which was done accordingly Whether some late Court-Chaplaint or Parasites have not incurred the like offences and demerit not as severe a censure as he for some Sermons and printed Pamphlets * Instruments of like nature is worthy the consideration of the next publike Assembly and future English Parliaments XV The n House of Commons sent for and committed Mr. Laughton and Mr John Trelawny to the Tower and Sir William Wray and Mr. Edward Trelawny to the Sergeant at Arms during the Houses pleasure and ordered them to make a Recognition of their offences at the Assises in Cornwal for interrupting the freedomes of Elections in that County For that some of them being Deputy Lieutenants and others of them Justices of Peace of the County of Cornwal writ Letters to this effect Whereas the safety of the Realm depends upon the Parliament we the Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices to whose care the County is committed finding A. and B. fit persons have desired them to stand to be Knights whereof we give you notice and advising Sir John Eliot and Mr. Cariton to desist that they wished them not to be chosen and menacing them in this manner but if you go on we will oppose you by all means lest his Majesty suspect our fidelity since you know how gracious you are to his Majesty and how many waies he hath expressed his displeasure against you And his Majesty will conceive your Election to be an affront to his service and so we shall draw the displeasure of the King on us Our hope is that you out of conscience and loyalty will not seek this place and we let you know that if you do we will oppose you all we can c. And writing Letters to others of the County to this effect Whereas unquiet Spirits seek their own ends
if not now established by a New Law inabling them still to tax and poll us at their pleasures without any future Parliaments or redresse 4. For the free course of the Common Law Right and Justice according to Magna Charta c. 29. We will deny nor deferre to no man Iustice or Right It was never so much obstructed in any age by any persons as by these new Reform does of our Laws Witness their unparalleld late Whitehall Ordinances touching their illegal Excises which not only indempnifie all Excisemen and their Assistants against all actions k 4 Decemb. 17 March 1653. May 4. 1654 c. to be brought against them or other molestations by all parties grieved but expresly requiring injoyning all Courts of Iustice of this Commonwealth and all Judges and Iustices of the same Sheriffs Counsellors Attornies Sollicitors and all other persons to conform themselves accordingly Without any opposition or dispute whatsoever So that now no Court of Justice or Judge must or can right nor any Lawyer Attorney Sollicitor or other person plead argue or prosecute any sute at Law against any illegal Excise Tax or Imposition though never so unjust and oppressive nor against any Levier of them or imprisoner of refusers of them under pain of being dis-Iudged like Thorp Nudigate and Rolls of late or being committed to the Tower as Mr. Maynard Twisden and Wadham Windham were for arguing Coni●s case against these Whitehall Ordinances A slavery worse than that of the l l See my second Demurrer to the Jews Remitter into England English Iews of old To omit all former inforcements of well affected plundered persons and others to release their Actions Judgements Executions against Cavaliers Souldiers and others and to pay them dammages and costs of ●ute besides to their undoings by their Councils of War and Committees of Indemnity of which there are hundreds of sad Presidents I shall only touch their new Major Generals Captains Lieutenants and others late Abuses of this kind in sending for Lawyers Attornies Sollicitors Parties by Souldiers and other Messengers and forcing them by menaces terror and threatned imprisonments to release their Actions Iudgements Executions and to referre all sutes depending in Courts of Equity or Iustice to their own hearing and determination Their examining controlling reversing Orders Iudgements Decrees made not only by Iudges Iustices and others in Courts of Law and Equity but even by Committees of Parliament and the Commons House it self their sending for some persons in Custody who refused to attend them upon references and others sundry miles and making them dance attendance on them from day to day upon bare Petitions and false suggestious of clamorous persons after several Iudgements Decrees in Courts of Iustice Equity Parliaments and former references by the late King seconded with many years quiet enjoyment for lands recovered against them to their intollerable expence and vexation A preparative to ingrosse all Law and Iustice for the future into their own hands alone and suppresse all Courts of Iustice Iudges as dull and uselesse tools as some of late have stiled them And are not these far heavier sadder Grievances abuses worthy redresse than any these Reformers complain of in our Laws or Lawyers If our Sword-men imagin their Victorious Successes will still bear them out in all these their illegal extravagances against all Laws Tribunals both of God and Men let them remember that * * T●og●s Pom●etus Justin Hist. l. 1. Hero●io●us l. 1. ● Diodorus Siculus lib 2. Cyrus King of Persia after his victorious conquests of Astyages Croesus all Asia and the East with a great part of Scythia and 30 years reign with continual and admirable Successe was at last after a great victory over the Scythians sodenly surprised and slain by Thomyris Queen of Scythia and his whole old victorious Army of two hundred thousand Persians put every man to the sword not one of them escaping to bring back tydings of this their admirable universal overthrow and slaughter After which his head was cut off by the Queens command and thrown into a Vessel filled with mans bloud with this exprobation of his cruelty Satia te sanguine quem sitisti cujusque insatiabilis temper fuisti That * * Paterculus Hist. l. 2. 3. Plutarch in his Life Pompey the Great that glorious and famous Roman after his Conquests of and 3. publike Triumphs decreed him by the Roman Senate over Europe Asia and Africa the whole known World in that age which he had subdued was yet at last conquered by Iulius Caesar his Corrival and forced to fly into Egypt there taken and beheaded by a slave and his carkass lef unburied on the sands as a prey to the birds and beasts so that he who formerly wanted earth for him to conquer now wanted earth to bury him such was the vicissitude of his fortune as Paterculus observes And not long after this Great Conquerour * * Suetonius Plutarch Futropius G●rimston and o●hers in his L●fe Caesar was sodenly stabbed to death in the Senate House by his own Friends in whom he most confided for his ambitious Tyrannical usurpations over the Senate and people Enough to make all other usurping oppressing Swordmen tremble not half so great Conquerors as either of these three notwithstanding all their former successes which should rather humble and make them more just righteous towards the people for whose Lawes and Liberties they pretended they only fought against arbitrary Tyranny Impositions and Rapine than more arbitrary insolent exorbitant oppressive than those they fought against and suppressed and that upon the consideration of 2 Chron. cap. 10. 2 Kings 14. 8. to 15. Mich. 2. 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10. Ierem. 34. 8. to 22. and Rom. 11. 17. to 22. which I desire them seriously to peruse and meditate upon at their leisures To these forenamed 4. Generals I might add their New Voluminous Whitehall folio Edicts Ordinances repealing altering our former Laws and Statutes in many particulars imposing new Taxes payments forfeitures imprisonments fines penalties on the people aad such as shall infringe them Their converting all Prizes taken by their Men of War to private Vses and their publike Treasury without repairing or satisfying our Merchants Losses by Pyracies and Wars in the first place by whose Customs and for whose Safety they are principally maintained and whose damages should be therefore in justice conscience first repaired Major Generals and their Deputies suppressing of Innes Taverns Alehouses like absolute Justices without any legal Authority and then setting them up again soon after through the mediation of Friends or mony Their riding in circuit with those who are their Iudges to overawe and controll them their open abetting and countenancing of causes their great destruction of the timber of the Nation against sundry Statutes their building of new stately Houses Gardens c. upon the peoples and the publick stock the sharing of the publike Lands and Revenues
wherewith your Majesty is trusted for the Protection Safety and Happinesse of your People The Commons after a long and full Debate resolved That this Saving ought to be rejected and by no means to be added to this Petition though very Specious in shew and words for that it would be destructive to the whole Petition and would leave the Subjects in farre worse condition than it found them For whereas the Petition recites That by the Great Charter and other Laws and Statutes of this Land No Loan Tax Tallage or other Charge ought to be imposed on the Subjects or levyed without common consent by Act of Parliament Nor any Freeman of this Realm imprisoned without cause shewed Nor any compelled to receive Souldiers or Mariners into their Houses against their wills Nor any man adjudged to death by Martial Law in times of Peace but only by the lawful trial of his Peers according to the established Lawes and Custom of the Realm This addition would make the Sense and Construction thereof to be That the King by his Ordinary power and Prerogative could impose no Loan Tax Tallage or other things upon his Subjects without their common consent by Act of Parliament Nor imprison any Freeman without cause shewed Nor billet any Souldiers or Mariners in mens Houses against their wills Nor condemn nor execute any Subject by Martial Law But yet by his Soveraign power wherewith he is intrusted for the Protection Safety and Happinesse of his people here left intirely to him he may when he saw cause and necessity impose what Loans Taxes Impositions and Charges he pleased on his people without common consent and Act of Parliament imprison them without cause shewed quarter Mariners and Souldiers in their houses against their wills and condemn execute them by Martial Law upon this pretext that it was for the Protection Safety and Happinesse of his people in general All which himself and his Council not the Judges and our Laws must determine And so this Addition if admitted would quite overturn the Petition it self the Great Charter and all other Acts recited in it and give an intimation to Posterity as if it were the opinion of the Lords and Commons in this Parliament that there is a trust reposed in the King upon some emergent cases and necessities to lay aside as well the Common Law as the Great Charter and other Statutes which declare and ratifie the Subjects Liberty and Property by his Soveraign power And so by consequence to enable him to alter the whole frame and fabrick of the Commonwealth and dissolve that Government whereby this Kingdom hath flourished for so many year under his Majesties most royal Predecessors Whereas in truth there is in the King no Soveraign Power or Prerogative royal to enable him to dispute with or take from his Subjects that Birthright and Inheritance which they have in their Liberties by virtue of the Common Law and these Statutes which are meerly positive and declarative conferring or confirming ipso facto an inherent Right and Interest of Liberty and Freedom in the Subjects of this Realm as a Birthright and Inheritance des●ended to them from their Auncestors and descendible to their Heirs and Posterity But the Soveraign power wherewith he is intrusted is only for the protection safety and happinesse of his people in preserving this their inherent Birthright and Inheritance of Liberty and Freedom and those Lawes and Statutes which ratifie and declare them Upon these and other reasons alleged by the Commons the Lords after three large Conferences agreed fully with the Commons and rejected this destructive Addition to the Petition of Right which the Lords and Commons in their * Declaration touching the Commission of Array January 16. 1642. to which many now in power were parties recite insist on and corroborated in Parliament as an undoubted truth If then the King by his absolute Soveraign power wherewith he was intrusted could upon no emergent occasion or necessity whatsoever violate elude evade subvert all or any of these fundamental Laws Liberties Rights and Inheritances of the Subject by the joynt unanimous resolution of the Lords and Commons in these two Parliaments of King Charles much lesse then may any other Person or Persons or new Powers do it who condemned him for a Tyrant and suppressed Kingship as tyrannical over-burdensome dangerous to the peoples Liberties Safety Prosperity upon any real or pretended Necessity or Emergency whatsoever Much lesse may any true English Parliament permit or enable them upon any pretence to do it in the least degree to the prejudice of Posterity after so many publick Parliamentary and Military conflicts for these Laws and Liberties The rather because that our Noble Ancestors would admit no Saving or Addition to the Great Charter or any Statutes for its confirmation that might any wayes impeach their Liberties Rights or Proprieties And when King Edward the 1. in the 28 year of his reign upon the Petition of the Lords and Commons granted a New Confirmation of their Charters and in the * close thereof added this Clause Salvo jure Coronae Regis That the right and prerogative of his Crown should be saved to him in all things Which the Lords most insisted on to justify the forementioned rejected Addition to the Petition of Right when it came to be proclamed in London the people hearing this Clause at the end thereof added by the King fell into execration for that Addition and the great Earls who went away ●atisfied out of Parliament hearing thereof went to the King and complained thereof who promised to redress it as Mr. Selden then informed the Commons house out of a Leiger Book of that year in the publike Library of the Vniversity of Cambridge Whereupon in the Statute Do Tallagio non concedendo 34 E. 1. the King to please his discontented Lords and Commons not only granted That no Tallage or Ayd should be taken or levied by us or our heirs in our Realm without the good will and assent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land c. 1. But likewise added c. 4. We will and grant for us and our Heirs That all Clerks and Lay-men of our Land shall have their Laws Liberties and Free Customes as they have used to have the same at any time when they had them best And if any Statutes have been made by us or our Ancestors or any Customs brought in contrary to them We will and grant That such manner of Statutes and Customs shall be void and frustrate for evermore Yea King Edward the 3. in pursuance thereof in the Parliament of 4● E. 3. c. 1. assented and accorded That the Great Charter and Charter of the Forest be holden and kept in all points And if any Statute he made to the contrary that shall he holden for none And c. 3 It is assented and accorded for the good Government of the Commons that no man be put to answer without
Oath not warranted by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm administred unto them and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and to give attendance before your Privy Counsel at London and in other places and others of them have been therefore imprisoned confined and certain otherways molested and disquieted And divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several Counties by Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Commissioners for Musters Justices of Peace and others by command or direction from your Majesty or your Privy Counsel against the Laws and free Customs of the Realm And whereas also by the Statute called the Great Charter of the Liberties of England it is declared and enacted That no Free-man may be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his Freehold or Liberties or free Customs or be outlawed or exiled or in any manner destroyed nor passed upon nor condemned but by the lawfull Iudgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And in the 28 year of King Edward the 3. it was enacted and declared by an Authority of Parliament that no man of what State or condition soever shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements nor taken nor imprisoued nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law Neverthelesse against the Tenor of the said Statutes and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realm to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your Majesties writs of Habeas Corpus there to undergo and receive as the Court should order and the Keepers commanded to certifie the causes of their deteiner no cause was certified but that they were deteined by your Majesties special command signified by the Lords of your Privy Council And yet were returned back to several Prisons without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to Law And whereas of late great companies of Souldiers and Mariners have been dispersed into divers Counties of the Realm and the Inhabitants against their Wills have been compelled to receive them into their Houses and there to suffer them to sojourn against the Laws and Customes of this Realm to the great Grievance and Vexation of the people And whereas also by authority of Parliament in the 25 year of King Edward the third it was declared and enacted That no man should be forejudged of life or limbs against the form of the Great Charer And by other the Laws and Statutes of this Realm No man ought to be adjudged to death but by the Laws established in this your Realm either by the Customes of the same Realm or by Act of Parliament And whereas no Offender of what kind soever is exempted from the proceedings to to be used and punishments to be infflicted by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm Neverthelesse of late time divers Commissions under your Majesties Great Seal have issued forth by which certain Persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners with Power and Authority to proceed within the Land according to the custome of Martial Law against such Souldiers or Sea-men or other dissolute Persons joining with them as should commit any Murther Robbery Felony Mutiny or other Outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever and by such Summary Caurse and Orders as is agreeable to Martial Law and as is used in Armies in time of Wars to proceed to the Trials and condemnation of such Offenders and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the Law Martial By pretext whereof some of your Majesties Subjects have been by some of your Majesties Commissioners put to death when and where if by the Laws and Statutes of the Land they had deserved death by the same Laws and Statutes also they might and by no other ought to be judged and executed And also sundry grievous Offenders by colour thereof claiming an exemption have escaped the punishments due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm by reason that divers of your Officers and Ministers of Justice have unjustly refused or forborn to proceed against such Offenders according to the same Laws and Statutes upon pretence that the said Offenders were punishable only by Martial Law and by Authority of such Commissions as aforesaid Which Commissions and all other of like nature extended to any except Souldiers or Mariners or to be executed in time of Peace or when or where your Majesties Army is not on foot are wholly and directly contrary to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent Majesty that none hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift Loan Benevolence Tax or such like charge without common consent by Act of Parliament And that none be called to make answer or take such Oath or to give attendance or be confined or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same or for resusal thereof And that no Freeman in any such manner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or deteined And that your Majesty would be pleased to remove the said Souldiers and Mariners and that your People may not be so burthened in time to come And that the aforesaid Commission for proceeding by Martial Law may be revoked and ●nulled And that hereafter no Commission of like nature may issue forth to any Person or Persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid lest by colour of them any of your Majesties Subjects be destroyed or put to death contrary to the Laws and franchises of the Land All which they humbly pray of your most excellent Majesty as their Rights of Liberties according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare that the awards doings and proceedings to the prejudice of your People in any of the premises shall not be drawn hereafter in consequence or example And that your Majesty would also be graciously pleased for the futher comfort and safety of your People to declare your Royal Will and pleasure That in the things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serve you according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as they tender the honor of your Majesty and the Prosperitie of this Kingdome To which Petition King Charles at last gave this full and satisfactory Answer Soit droit fait come il est desire par le Petition that is Let All Right be done as it is desired by the Petition To the unspekaable joy of this Parliament and all his Subjects Adding withall thereunto I assure you my Maxim is That the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties The benefit of which most excellent Law Petition and of all the precedent Parliamentary Votes Lawes with the present repealing and vacating all Acts Votes Orders Ordinances Declarations Resolutions