they are to be condemned for such and to forfeit their estates Coke in Nevils case lib. 7. fol. 34. Ceux que sont countees ount office de graund trust confidence sont create pur 2. purposes 1. ad consulendum regi tempore pacis 2. ad defendendum regem patriam tempore belli Et pur c. antiquitie ad done eux 2. ensignes a resembler ceux deux duties car primeremt lour teste est adorn ove un capoe de honor coronet lour corps ove unrobe in resemblance de counsel secundmt ilz sout succinct ove un espee in resemblans q. ilz serr Foiall loyal a defender lour Prince pays Donques quant tiel person encout le dutie fine de son dignitie prist non solemt counsel mes armes auxi eneout le Roy a luy de destroyer et de c. est attaint per due course del ley per ceo il ad forfeit son dignitie per un condition tacite annexe al estate de dignitie i. e. They which are Earles have an office of great trust and confidence and are created for two purposes first to counsell the King in time of peace secondly to defend the King and their Country in time of war and for this cause Antiquity hath given them two ensignes to represent these two duties for first their head is adorned with a cap of honour and a coronet and their body with a robe in resemblance of counsell secondly they are girt with a sword in resemblance that they shall be faithfull and loyal to defend their prince and countrey when such a person then against his outy and end of his dignitie take not onely counsell but armes against the King to destroy him and be attainted thereof by due course of law He hath thereby forfeited his dignitie by a tacite condition annexed unto it Fourthly the Parliament is one of the Kings courts as is apparent both by our Statutes and law books 1. Iac. cap 1. Bracton lib. 2. cap. 16. Fieta lib 2. cap. 2. the two Houses therefore must derive all their authority from him for the King is a full sea of anthority from whom all power and jurisdiction by commissions writs letters pattents c. as through so many channells run into all his courts if the two houses have authority radically in themselves by fundamentall constitution or if they derive their authority from any other then the King the court is none of his Answer The Treatiser having made divers suppositions which he telleth the Reader are the lawes of the land or to use his own words the modell and platform of the English Monarchy out of the said suppositions frameth this answer It is his Parliament because an assembly of his subjects convocated by his writ to be his counsell to assist him in making lawes for him to govern by yet not his as his other courts are altogether deriving their whole authority from the fulnesse which is in him Reply Whereas he calls the Parliament an assembly of his subjects whereas he faith they make lawes for him to govern by and that there is a fulnesse of power in him he doth but complement with his Majesty his suppositions and principles agrees not with such expressions for if the two Houses derive not their authority from his Majesty but have it radically in themselves how is there a fulnesse of power in him if the jura Majestatis be divided amongst them he hath not a fulnesse but his share onely of power or how do they assist him to make lawes to govern by they assist not him alone but all the three estates are mutually assistant to one another in making lawes to govern jointly where their joint concurrence is necessary or to govern in their severall charges where they may act severally Or lastly how can they be called his subjects subjection is due to the three estates acting together or to either of them in their severall places and jurisdictions as well as to him for it is due to him in the administration of that power which belong to him alone so is it likewise to them by his principles in things within the verge and composse of their authority And yet all that he saith if it were consistent with reason is not sufficient to make the Parliament his Majesties court except it deriveth all authority and jurisdiction from him it is not enough that they are an assembly of his subjects for in divers forrain Nations Ecclesiastical persons are subjects to the princes they live under yet Ecclesiastical courts belong not to those Princes but to the Sea of Rome nor is it enough which he addeth that they are summoned by his writ for the Judges of divers courts but chiefly of courts Christian have sent out citations and summons in their own name as the King doth by writ and yet they are not the proprietaries of those courts nor yet is it sufficient that they are his Councell for his Counsellours make it not his Court but his Authority It is authority that constitutes a court and inables it to proceed judicially he which ownes that is owner and Master of the Court. Fiftly Parliaments as they are now established consisting of three estates the King the Lords and the Commons are but of late existence and therefore such a composition and mixture of the said estates as is pretended can not be by originall constitution It is granted that Parliaments otherwise are of a long continuance and may plead the prescription of many hundred years for although the word Parliament hath been introduced as is probable since the Norman conquest yet a convention of that nature was in use in the time of the Saxon Kings who did seldom make lawes without the counsell and assent of their wise men and this assembly was called in the Saxon language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Councell and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Synode It is granted also that the Commons were sometimes called to such consultations but that was a thing not necessary or frequent but rare aibitrary and contingent There were no certaine persons designed by law whose concurrence was required to constitute a Parliament but the King used the advice of those onely which he pleased to call unto himself which were alwayes such as he thought most able to counsell and direct him in the matters that were to be consulted of and whose assent was likely to adde most credit and estimation to the lawes that were to be divulged Sometimes he made lawes without the assent of others for offa King of the Mercians In vita Offae 2. as Matthew Paris relateth being at Rome ordained that every Houshoulder in all his dominions which were three and twenty Provinces or Shires that had above thirty penny-worth of goods in the field should every year pay a Penny to the maintenance of the English School that then florished at Rome which in those times was a great taxation His igitur auditis
THE Kings Supremacy ASSERTED OR A REMONSTRANCE OF The Kings Right AGAINST The PRETENDED PARLIAMENT By ROBERT SHERINGHAM M.A. and Fellow of Gunvill and Caius-Colledge in Cambridge C R HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Printed formerly in Holland and now Reprinted by W. Godbid and are to be sold by Richard Skelton and Richard Head at 〈…〉 TO HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE CHARLES II. By the Grace of God KING of England Scotland c. Defender Of the Faith Most Gracious and Dreadfull Soveraign THE Pretended Parliament of England having their Agents lately in the Low Countryes treating with the United Provinces about conditions of an offensive and defensive war my resolution was to have set out this Remonstrance in the Dutch tongue for the satisfaction of those Provinces but the treaty ended almost as soone as I began to actuate my resolution whereupon I altered my purpose and have now set it out in English for the satisfaction of your own Subjects hoping the truth being here clearly illustrated may have some effect upon their Consciences which cannot but have great sway over them in ordering and directing their Actions Experience teacheth that most men act lesse boldly and resolutley especially where their lives must be engaged when they act against their Conscience then when they are perswaded of the lawfullnesse and justice of their cause There hath been more blood spilt by civill war in your Majesties dominions within the space of ten years since those pernicious principles touching the Supremacy of the People and lawfulnesse of resistance have been instilled into mens mindes by some who fetched their doctrine from Hell to furnish the world with tragedies then formerly in an Hundred I conceive the nearest and readiest way to reform such un-christian practises is to reform the Conscience although I deny not but more sharp and violent remedies must also be applyed for some have lost all sense of Conscience whom your Majesty I hope assisted by the almighty providence of God shall reform by the Sword This is that which Religion calls for at your hands now oppressed by such a multitude and confused swarm of Sectaries that I should think it impossible for so many men of severall Religions to live together in unitie did not the Likenesse of their Nature and Manners reconcile their affections as much as their differences in Religion can alienate and estrange them And this is that which all your faithfull Subjects pray for who desire nothing more in this world then to see your Majesty seated in your Royall Throne and able to protect them from the insolencies of the Rebells who make their will their law disposing as freely of mens lives and fortunes as if they had created them and given them their Being It is a rule in Opticks when a dark body is greater then a light to which it is directly opposed it casteth a shadow in infinitum Such a shadow if the continent were capable of an infinite shadow will the dark body of the Rebells cast upon the Kingdome of England whilst it is interposed between your Majesty and your loyall Subjects depriving them both of your favourable Aspect and of your Light and Influence without which they can look for nothing but a continuation of their present miseries for should the Rebells prevaile and prosper in their designes what else can be expected but that which is wrested from others by Force and Violence should be maintained by Tyranny and Injustice But whilst they wade in blood to places of preferment and command the Lord shall overthrew them in the middest of their course as he overthrew the Aegyptians in the Red-sea I usurp not the name of a Prophet but I speak as one believing God to be a faithfull observer of his promises He will not always be deafe to the prayers and complaints of those that are oppressed but send them diliverance in his due time and supply your Majesty with all things necessary both to vindicate your own Rights and free your People from their oppression THE CONTENTS AN INTRODVCTION The beginning rayse and progresse of the Rebellion raysed by the pretended Parliament The Principles whereby they endevour to justifie their proceedings The Questions that shall be discussed THE FIRST QUESTION Whether the people and their Deputies in Parliament be Supreme and above the King or coordinate with him by the Lawes of the Land CHAP. I. The State of the Question explained CHAP. II. The Kings Supremacy in generall shewed by the Statutes of the Land CHAP. III. The Kings Supremacy in particular shewed by the Statutes of the Land CHAP. IV. The Kings Supremacy in generall shewed by the Common Law That the English Monarchy is susceptible of no alteration That fundamentall Laws ought not to be changed CHAP. V. The Kings Supremacy in particular shewed by the Common Law CHAP. VI. The Kings Supremacy both in generall and particular shewed by Reasons depending upon the Lawes and Customes of the Land CHAP. VII Divers objections made by the pretended House answered The Kings Supremacy shewed to be in his Person not in his Courts CHAP. VIII Divers generall objections made by the Authour of the treatise of Monarchy touching the limitation and mixture of the English Monarchy and coordination of the two Houses answered The nature of absolute limited and mixed Government explained CHAP. IX Divers generall objections taken from the testimony of his Majesty Bracton and Fortescue together with the Presidents of Edward the second and Richard the second answered CHAP. X. Objections made against the Kings Supremacy in particular by Mr. Bridge the Reverent Divines and Other answered AN INTRODUCTION The Beginning Rayse and Progresse of the Rebellion raised by the pretended Parliament The Principles whereby they endevour to justifie their proceedings The Questions that shall be discussed I Look upon the government of England if the Laws might be restored to their ancient dignity and authority as inferiour to none in the world Parliaments whilst the King and Parliament have acted in their several spheres not invaded the rights and priviledges of one another have alwayes been the surest means under God to unite their affections together and to prevent those dangers which by their mutual discord must of necessity have ruined both Some are so rash as to affirm that all Transactions Negotiations and accords between Kings and Subjects ought to be interdicted not onely depriving subjects of the light and favours which they should receive from their Prince but Princes also of many commodities which they may receive by capitulating with their subjects in Parliaments where the whole kingdome being present either in person or by representation may give the King and receive from him again such reciprocal testimonies of love that he may be assured his people seek nothing more then the preservation of his life honour and Royal dignity and they that their King endeavoureth no less to encrease and maintain the liberty riches and prosperity of his people And I am
chiefly to purge themselves from the murders and injustice which they have committed by the authority of the people whose supremacy they say is sufficient to warrant their proceedings At the first they denied not the supremacy of the King but as the keepers and guardians of it they raised an army against him by vertue of his own authority but having seised upon his person and imprisoned him it was then more conducible to their ends to avouch the supremacy of the people But whosoever have the title they exercise the power themselves and as before they rebelled against the King so now they murder and oppress the people by pretence of their own authority which as their Deputies in Parliament they intend to manage as long as they can finde means to defend and uphold their tyranny Now although this pretended Parliament are no more deputies of the people of England then the Bantiti are deputies of the people of Italy who if they had as great a power would soon have as great a right as these to govern under that pretence yet for the present we will suppose them such and examine onely their Principle by which they labour to support their cause that is the Supremacy of the People And first I will shew that the people and their deputies in Parliament are neither supreme nor coordinate with the King by the lawes of the land as some of them say secondly that they are not supreme by the laws of nature as others thirdly that the people never had in them any authority or jurisdiction at all which they could give or resume again upon occasion as they generally affirm And these particulars I intend to handle in three questions The first question shall be Whether the people and their deputies in Parliament be supreme and above the King or coordinate with him by the laws of the land The second Whether the people and their deputies in Parliament be supreme by the laws of nature and have alwayes reserved a juridical power of judging their magistrates whether their actions be just and of resuming authority in case they be not The third Whether authority be originally in the people and translated by them to Kings and other supreme magistrates or in the Kings and other supreme magistrates themselves immediately from God tanquam in primo subjecto creato as in the first created subject The KINGS Supremacy asserted The First QUESTION Whether the People and their Deputies in Parliament be supreme and above the King or coordinate with him by the Lawes of the Land CHAP. I. The state of the Question explained THE first Question that shall come into consideration is Whether the people and their Deputies in Parliament be supreme and above the King or coordinate with him by the Laws of the Land The pretended Parliamentarians affirm the two Houses to be coordinate with the King in the rights of Soveraignty for the Monarchy of England they say is a mixed Monarchy and this mixture is in the power and rights of Majesty themselves so that the King alone hath not full and plenary authority to perform all acts requisite to Government but there is in the Monarchy a concurrence of several powers belonging to several estates which being mixed together make up one whole and entire power and those several estates one supreme head of the Common-wealth And although some of them are so liberal as to allow the King a primity of share in this coordination yet others say that the superiority belongs to the two Houses the King being greater then any one of the Members of Parliament but lesse then the two houses collectively taken who in the legislative power which is one of the principal rights of Soveraignty have a greater Interest then He in whose breasts alone remaineth the final determination of Law for they deny the King to have a negative voice as if his sitting in Parliament were a ceremony and meer formality and not an act of Majesty and Jurisdiction This foundation as I think was first laid by the fuller Answerer but the Treatiser the Reverend Divines and divers others have added a superstructure to it of many fine and new inventions of their own which are not needful to be here related because they alter not the state of the Question for they all affirm the two Houses to be coordinate with the King in the rights of Soveraignty and the mixture of the English Monarchy to be in the power it self I will set down their assertions in the fuller Answerers own words Before we judge saith he of what a Parliament can do in England it will be needful to know what kind of Government this of England is we are therefore to know that England is not a simply subordinative and absolute but a coordinative and mixt Monarchy this mixture or coordination is in the very supremacy of power it self otherwise the Monarchy were not mixt all Monarchies have a mixture or composition of subordinate and under officers in them but here the Monarchy or highest power it self is compounded of three coordinate estates a King and two Honses of Parliament And again a little after he saith But you 'l say what is not the Parliament subordinate to the King Are they not all Subjects I answer the Parliament cannot be said properly to be a Subject because the King is a part and so he should be subject to himself no nor are the two Houses without him subjects every Member seorsim taken severally is a Subject but all collectim in their House are not In his Answer to Doctor Ferns Reply he addeth further Although every one and all the Members are Subjects the Houses cannot properly be said to be subject and coordinate too they are the two membra dividentia which must at no hand admit coincidence nay tho' all the Members as parts and put them together too are Subjects yet all the parts of a whole taken all together are not equal to the whole the order site relation union of the parts whence the formality of the whole results being still yet wanting These are the phantasies of the pretended Parliamentarians which are so grosse and contrary to Law that the fuller Answerer seems to me to have been in a dream when his head was first impregnated with such conceptions And although I cannot but acknowledge that both the liberty and safety of the Nation consists in Free-Parliaments yet I cannot forbear to declare the Truth in such a time as this wherein Parliaments are abolished and yet their Authority and Supremacy pretended to maintain Tyranny and Rebellion I say therefore in opposition to these phantasies first that the King alone is by the Lawes of the Land the only Supreme head and Governour of England and that the people and their Deputies in Parliament taken both collectim and seorsim as well collectively as severally are his Subjects and not coordinate with him there is no mixture at all in the rights of Soveraingty for in
respect of the power it self the Monarchy is absolute simple pure independent without profanation of outward mixture the King alone without further influence from the two Houses having ful power and authority to do or cause to be done all acts of Justice The King alone makes Laws by the asscent of the two Houses and if the two Houses are said at any time to make Lawes it is by a delegate power and authority communicated to them from him and not by any power and authority which they have radically in themselves Secondly I say that the King alone is not onely invested with all the rights of Soveraingty but hath them also so inseperably annexed to hs Royal person by the Lawes of the Land that they cannot be separated from him by any Act of Parliament by any civil constitution or pragmattical Sanction by any Law or Ordinance whatsoever but in case the King himself should improvidently by Act of Parliament agree to any thing tending to the diminution of his Royal Dignity it is then in the power of the Common-law to controul such a Statute to make voyd all such acts as tend to the degradation much more such as tend to the annihilation of Majesty Having thus opened the state of the Question I will now proceed to demonstrate the truth by Statutes by Common-Law and by reasons depending upon the laws and customes of the land CHAP. II. The Kings Supremacy in general shewed by the Statutes of the land I Could both from Saxon and divers other lawes and antiquities shew the Kings of England to have ruled more absolutely and to have anciently exercised a larger Jurisdiction then hath of later years been exercised or challenged by their Successors but because many immunities and priviledges have been granted to the Subjects since their times I will therefore confine my self to such statutes as have been made since the giving of the great Charter And to avoyd tediousnesse I will omit many statutes wherein the King is by both Houses collectively taken acknowledged to be supreme for they frequently in the statutes style him Our gracious Soveraign Lord the King Our dreadful Soveraign Lord the King I will likewise omit many others wherein they acknowledge themselves to be his Subjects and that when they were in their site relation order and union in which posture the fuller Answerer fancies them to be coordinate for such expressions run through divers statutes Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithful and obedient subjects the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled In their most humble wise shewen unto your Royal Majesty your loving subjects the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons of this present Parliament assembled I will only alledge such statutes as have been made on purpose to declare to whom Supremacy and all power and jurisdiction belong for there hath been divers acts of Parliament made to that end upon several occasions wherein the Kings Supremacy hath been acknowledged and confirmed unto him In the four and twenty year of Henry the eighth an Act was made that no Appeals should be used but within the Realm the Reason alledged in the Statute is because the King alone is the onely Supreme head of the Realm and is furnished with plenary and entire power to do all acts of justice Where by divers sundry old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and hath so been accepted in the world governed by one supreme head and King having the dignity and Royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same unto whom a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in tearms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty been bounden and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience he being also institute and furnished by the goodnesse and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary whole and entire power preheminence authority prerogative and jurisdiction to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk resiants or subjects within this his Realm This clear testimomy of the Kings Supremacy is thus eluded by the fuller Answerer saith he Answer what is meant by governed by one supreme head such a one as is able to do all acts of needful justice which the King in his natural capacity cannot do he cannot make a law it must therefore be understood in his full and intire politick capacity which takes in Law and Parliament nor can it be said that by those words a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees the Parliament is properly meant but the Kingdome at large Reply The sum of his Answer is this that in this Statute by the King not the King alone but the King and the two Houses of Parliament are to be understood and so although he would have the Kings power to be lesse yet to make him amends he will have his name to signifie more then it did before But this is nothing else but the evaporation of his own brain for if in any place the word King could signifie the King and the two Houses of Parliament yet in this it must of necessity signifie the King alone 35. H. 8. cap. 1. these words having the dignity and Royal estate of the Imperial Crown of the same can have reference to no other Besides in this Answer he contradicts his own Principles for if the two Houses be coordinate with the King and have power radically in themselves not derived from him they cannot be comprehended under his politick capacity Whereas he saith the King cannot make a Law and infer from thence that the King alone without taking in the two Houses hath not intire and plenary jurisdiction his inference is very infirm for it doth not diminish Majesty but redounds to the glory of it Argum. l. 8. c. de legibus to give lawes to the people by the counsel and assent of wisemen It hath been and is for the most part the practise in absolute Monarchies to make Lawes that shall bind posterity by general consent and agreement which yet doth not deprive the Monarch of his power or derogate any way from the plenitude and intirenesse thereof But I shall speak more of this when I come to answer their objections Whereas he saith that by a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees not the Parliament but the Kingdome at large is properly meant I know no man will contradict him yet I say the two Houses are comprehended under the Kingdome at large and are representative thereof in Parliament and representatives cannot be the head when the Kingdome at large whose Representatives they are is but the body And therefore here the fuller Answerer hath a little overshot himself for if by the body politick the Kingdome at large be understood then is the King major universis greater then all the people collectively taken by his
respect of Power and also in respect of the use and exercise of it In this kind of Government there are alwayes more Governours then one which are all Limited in the very essence and being of their power having none of them perfect absolute full and intire authority but onely their severall shares and proportion neither can they act in an arbitrary manner according to the full extent of that power which they have but have a certain rule set them by law The second is Limited in respect of the power alone In this kinde of Government as in the former there are alwayes more Governours then own which have all their Limited shares yet may all act arbitrarily either joyntly together or every one within the pale and limits of his own authority The third is Limited in respect of the exercise onely In this kind of Government the Governours are absolute in regard of power but circumscribed and Limited in the Acts of it As of absolute and limited so there are likewise three kinds of Mixed Government sutable to the other the first is Mixed both in respect of power and also in respect of the use and exercise of it In this kinde of Government there is a mixture of severall powers which compound and make up one perfect absolute full and intire power and also of severall persons and estates to whom the said powers do radically and fundamentally pertain which do jointly concurre in the administration and exercise of them The Second is Mixed in respect of the power alone In this kind of Government severall persons and estates are mixed together in the possession of power but one alone do exercise all the acts of Soveraigntie In this manner was the Roman Commonwealth governed by Sylla and by Dictators in the time of exigence and necessity The third is Mixed in respect of the exercise onely In this kind of Government severall persons and estates are Mixed in the exercise of power but one of the estates alone hath the dominion and propriety of it Now touching the Government of England I have shewed already that it is Monarchicall that the Monarchie is Absolute in respect of the power that the King alone hath perfect Absolute full and intire jurisdiction able if put in action to effectuate and bring to passe all the ends of Government and that all other persons of all estates and degrees whatsoever both Nobles and Commons move in their severall circuits and spheres of activity by virtuall emanation from him and not by force of any power authority or jurisdiction inherent in themselves And indeed all Monarchies are Absolute in this respect that is in respect of the power for when the limitation is in the essence and being of power Monarchie is destroyed not limited But yet the English Monarchie is Limited in respect of the use and exercise of power the King being obliged to govern according to the laws of the land which although they doe not diminish Majesty in essentialibus yet they do diversly qualifie and modificate it It is also Mixed in the same respect the King being obliged in some cases not to use his power without the assent and concurrence of the two other estates The pretended Parliamentarians on the other side deny the English Monarchie to be Absolute in any respect and affirm it to be Limited and Mixed as well in respect of the power it self as in respect of the use and exercise thereof the two Houses of Parliament being coordinate with the King not only in the administration of power but in the possession of it Yet they are not able to alledge one syllable of law to make good these strange novelties but strive by indirect inferences to decieve the people Howsoever I will bring their objections such as they are and answer them in order and first I will bring their objections whereby they indevour to prove their pretended limitation and then those whereby they endevour to prove their pretended mixture Object touching li ∣ mitation 1 I conceive and in my judgement perswaded saith the Treatiser that the Soveraignty of our Kings is radically and fundamentally limited and not only in the use and exercise of it and am perswaded so on these grounds and reasons First because the Kings Majesty himself who best knowes by his Councel the nature of his own power sayes that that the Law is the measure of his power Declar. from Newmarket Mart. 9. 1641. Which is as full a concession of the thing as words can expresse If it be the measure of it then his power is limited by it for the measure is the limits and bounds of the thing limited And in his answer to both the Houses concerning the Militia Speaking of the men named to him says If more power shall be thought fit to be granted to them then by law is in the crown it self his Majesty holds it reasonable that the same be by some law first vested in him with power to transfer it to those persons In which passage it is granted that the powers of the Crown are by law and that the King hath no more then are vested in him by law Object 2 Secondly because it is in the very constitution of it mixed as I shall afterwards make it appear then it is radically limited for as I shewed before every mixed Monarchy is limited though not on the contrary For the necessary connexion of the other power to it is one of the greatest limitations a subordiuation of causes doth not ever prove the supreme cause of limited virtue a coordination doth alwayes Object 3 Thirdly I prove it from the ancient ordinary and received Denominations For the Kings Majesty is called our Liege that is legal Soveraign and we his liege that is legal Subjects What do these names argue but that his Soveraignty and our Subjection is legall that is restrained by law Object 4 Fourthly had we no other proof yet that of prescription were sufficient in all ages beyond record the Lawes and customes of the Kingdome have been the rule of Government liberties have been stood upon and grants thereof with limitations of Royal power made and acknowledged by Magna Charta and other publick solemn acts and no obedience acknowleded to be due but that which is according to law nor claimed but under some pretext and title of law Object 5 Fifthly the very being of our Common and Statute lawes and our Kings acknowledging themselves bound to govern by them doth prove and prescribe them limited For those Lawes are not of their sole composure nor were they established by their sole authority but the concurrence of the other two estates so that to be confined to that which is not meerly their own is to be in a limited condition Reply Before I come to answer his objections out of his own mouth will I condemn him for if he be perswaded as he saith in his first objection that the King by his Councell knew the nature of
own confession In the first year of Queen Elizabeth another Act was made wherein she is declared supream head of the Realm in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal and an Oath injoyned to be taken by divers both Ecclesiastical and Lay persons wherein they were to acknowledge her supremacy and to promise faith and true Allegiance the Oath was this I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Queens Highnesse is the only supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highnesse dominions and countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal and that no forraign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction power superiority preheminence or authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forrain jurisdictions powers superiorities and authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the Queens Highnesse her Heirs and lawful successors and to my power shall assist and defend all jnrisdictions priviledges preheminences and authorities granted or belonging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united annexed to the imperial Crown of this Realm so help me God and the Contents of this Book Answer 1 They answer first That this Statute was made to exclude a forraign power and therefore all that can be collected out of it is that the Queen was above all forraigners but not above the People and their Deputies in Parliament Reply It is no matter wherefore the Statute was made the Queen is there positively declared to be the only supreme Governour of the Realm the words of a Statute whatsoever the end was are alwayes supposed to be true and are pleadable in their usual and Gramatical sense to all purposes But was the Oath framed onely to exclude a forraign power are they sure of that When God shall make inquisition for blood and call the Reverend Divines the fuller Answerer the Treatiser and the rest of their Complices to account for all the murders oppressions and injustice whereof they have been the Authors and Abettors by stirring up the people to Rebellion and teaching them lies they will be found to have broken the oath of Allegiance now his Majesties rights have been invaded by the pretended Parliament as well as if they had been invaded by a forreigner For the Statute was made as well to declare who was the Supream Governour of the Realm as to declare who was not The Pope challenged no Superiority over the Queen in Temporal matters and yet in the Oath the Queen is acknowledged the supreme Governour of the Realm as well in Temporal as in Ecclesiastical causes This had been very superfluous if it had been composed and given only to exclude the Pope and was neither true nor a fit expression if the two Houses had been coordinate with her neither had they sufficiently excluded a forraign power by this Act which they say was the only end was aimed at for the Pope claimed supreme jurisdiction over all in Ecclesiastical causes as well over the two houses as over the Queen yet in this act provision is made for none but the Queen by the title of the Statute all ancient jurisdictions are restored to the Crown but there is no restantation of dignity or jurisdiction to the people or to their substitutes in Parliament Answer 2 Secondly they answer That the Queen is declared to be supreme in respect of particular persons but not in respect of the people collectively taken or their Substitutes in Parliament Reply The Queen is declared in the oath to be supreme Governour of the Realm and the Realm includes the People collectively taken Besides supremacy cannot admit of that distinction for they that have any above them or coordinate with them are not supreme although they be greater then any one in particular Answer 3 Thirdly they answer That the Queens supremacy was to be understood in curia non in camera in her Courts and not in her private capacity Reply The Queen by communicating her authority to her courts did not part with it her self Mr. Lambert in his Discourse upon the high Courts of Justice almost at the end of his Book speaks punctually to this exception Thus have I saith he run along our Courts of all kinds and have said as I was able severally of these lay and mixed Courts of record deriving them from the Crown their Original and drawing by one and one as it were so many roses from the garland of the Prince leaving nevertheless the garland it self un-despoiled of that her soveraign vertue in the administration of justice or as Bracton saith well Rex habet ordinariam jurisdictionem omnia jura in manu sua quae nec ita delegari possunt quin ordinaria remaneant cum ipsc Rege And therefore whatsoever power is by him committed over unto other men the same nevertheless remaineth still in himself in so much as he may take knowledge of all causes unless they be felony treason or such other wherein because he is a party he cannot personally sit in judgment but must perform it by his delegates The Kings authority then is as well in his person in regard of his private as in his Courts in regard of his politique capacity and according to the Acts of Soveraignty and Majesty onely in his person for a delegate power can not be Supreme not but that it is the same authority whereby he acts himself in person and his judges in his courts but because it is not all the same authority but restrained in his Judges by commission writ or law In the first year of Edward the sixt an Act was made wherein the King is acknowledged to be the Supreme head of the Church and Realm and that all power and authority was derived from him Whereas the Archbishops and Bishops and other Spiritual persons in this Realm do use to make and send out their summons 1 E. 6. cap. 2. citations and other processe in their own names in such form and manner as was used in the time of the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome contrary to the form and order of the summons and process of the common law used in this Realm Seeing that all authority of jurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal is derived and deducted from the Kings Majesty as Supreme head of these Churches and Realms of England and Ireland and so justly acknowledged by the cleargy of the said Realms and that all courts Ecclesiastical within the said two Realms be kept by no other power or authority either forraine or within the Realm but by the authority of his most excellent Majesty Be it therefore further enacted c. Is it not evident from hence that the two houses of Parliament are subordinate to the King and that they have their power by derivation from him who is the fountain of all authority These