be a Peer os the Realm and his Blood enobled which otherwise would have descended from him to his Posterity and to this present Baron who is since enobled by a later Creation but takes nothing from that Ancestor So then it is clear that sitting in the House of Peers and having a parity of Vote and enjoying many of the same priviledges with the Peers doth not in true and proper speaking make the Bishops Peers no more than 21 R. 2. Sir Thomas Percy sitting with the Peers and Voting with them as Procurator for the Bishops was thereby a Peer His next Argument is That in several Rolls of Parliament they are expressly called Peers which cannot be denied nor doth that make them Peers if the essential parts of Peerage be wanting to them We know that denominations are many times taken up in a large and improper sense for some circumstances some similitudes something which is extraneous unto them yet wherein they agree with things of another nature And so Bishops having place and vote in the House of Peers and joyning with the Peers of the Realm sitting in Parliament in all things with equal power uno excepto saving only in cases of Blood it is no wonder if they are often stiled Peers of Parliament But the Precedents he cites are falsly recited both in the Case of Mautravers and that of Gomenitz and Weston as I have shewed before His third Argument is That they have judged as Peers upon Peers of Parliament But I deny that they judge there as Peers but as called to the Parliament to be Members of the House of Lords as Bannerets were formerly and many principal Gentlemen who were still Commoners and some Officers as the Warden of the Cinque-Ports who was no Peer sometimes and yet summoned up to the House of Lords and all these judged such Peers as were tryed in those Parliaments in which they sate However that Bishops are not Peers of the Realm and so consequently not properly and truly Peers of Parliament though often called so I think will be clearly made out First I must as I have formerly done insist upon the Great Charter which Sir Edward Cooke saith is declaratory of the Principal grounds of the Fundamental Laws of England and which the Statute made 25 E. 3. Confirmatio Chartarum will have to be observed as the Common Law and all Judgements given against it to be undone and holden for nought this Law is certainly to be obeyed and what is done in observance of this Law is most legal And it enjoyning every man to be tryed by his Peers and Bishops being tryed by a Jury of Commoners Commoners are their Peers and they are Peers to Commoners and not Peers of the Realm Peers per eminentiam as I may call them or else Magna Charta is broken and made a Law of no authority 2. To be a Peer of the Realm their Blood must be enobled and their Persons dignified nor can they otherwise be put into the same rank with those who are so which would make but an ill accouplement and they would never draw well together Now Bishops do not sit in Parliament ratione Nobilitatis but ratione Officii as Stamford saith in his Pleas of the Crown p. 153. En respect de lour possession se launcient Baronies anneres a lour dignitées In respect of their possessions viz. the ancient Baronies annexed to their dignities 3. If they were Peers and their Persons enobled their Wives would be noble and have the priviledges of Peeresses being Married or Widows for Husband and Wife are one person in Law but we know they have no such priviledge which shews their Husbands to be no Peers 4. If Bishops were Peers of the Realm and any of them questioned for a Capital Crime in Parliament time they could be tryed and judged only by the House of Peers and by no other Court of Judicature The Lords could not avoid the trying of them themselves indeed any but Peers they may refuse except it be upon an Impeachment by the House of Commons for then they must retain it and proceed in it but not otherwise except they see some great cause for it Pro bono Publico as it is 1 R. 2. when the Commons desired that no suit between Party and Party should be undertaken and determined by the Lords or the Officers of the Council but that the Common Law might have its course except it be in such a business and against so great a person as one cannot else hope to have right done in it The same is confirmed 1 H. 4. which I alledge to justifie the Judicature of the House of Lords upon those who are not their Peers upon special occasion But for trying of their Peers is a duty incumbent upon them which they must perform and any Peer who is questioned may challenge it as his right and it cannot be denied him And therefore 4 E. 3. when they had upon the Kings earnest pressing them Tryed and Condemned Sir Simon de Bereford Sir Iohn Mautravers and other Commoners they make a Protestation that they nor their Successors Ne seroient mes tenus ne charges a rendre Iugements sur autres que sur lur Piers Should not be bound nor charged to give Iudgement upon any but their Peers But we know that they have sometimes turned off Bishops to Inferiour Courts as appears by the Record of it in the Exchequer the same 4 E. 3. Stephen Gravesend Bishop of London was complained of in Parliament by one Iohn de Wymburne for saying That if Edward the Second was yet living as he was informed he was in Corf-Castle he would assist him with all his power to re-establish him in his Throne Sir Edward Cooke saith that by order of Parliament the matter was referred to be tryed in the Kings-bench but the Record saith that the Parliament referred it to the Kings Council and appointed him to appear before them at Woodstock upon Sunday fortnight after Easter and that they turned him over to the Kings-bench to be Tryed by the Chief Justice Scroope and his fellow Judges Whereas had this Bishop been then accounted a Peer of the Realm he must have been Tryed in Parliament the Parliament being once possessed of his Cause and they could not have referred him to any other Judicature So here you have four Essential parts of Peerage all of them wanting in Bishops and the want but of one Essential part is enough to destroy the whole He can be no Peer of the Realm who is at the Kings sute Capitally Tryed by a Jury of Commoners if Magna Charta be good Law which is our All as we are Free-men Secondly He who is not himself enobled cannot be a Peer in equal rank to one that is For all Peers are equally Peers as we may say Peerage doth not recipere magis minus The meanest Baron is as much a Peer as the greatest Duke else they were not Peers it would be
the Government of the Church by the Imperial Law but not that I put any stress upon it but meerly to circumscribe the Question and keeping it within limits by a Negative declaring what it was not and an Affirmative expressing what it was how Bishops in Parliament could not Judicially act in Capital Cases Therefore were it all so as this learned Gentleman seems to infer that in France Spain Germany and those Northern Kingdoms which he mentions that Bishops were joyned with the Civil Magistrates in ordering the Publick Affairs of those Nations and that they had a share not only in the Legislative but in the Judiciary part as he alledgeth two Authors to prove it to have been in France it would not be of any signification to decide our Controversie for what is this to us to regulate our Parliaments and to operate on our Laws But first for matter of Fact as to France to which I can speak a little having spent many years in that Kingdom and I have by way of discourse informed my self from the Ambassadour who is here from that Crown who doth assure me that the Judges whom they call Counsellors and not Judges as we do who are Clergy-men as many there are joyned with the others of the Laity never sit in that Chamber of Parliament which trys Capital Causes which they call the Tournelle I believe the same may be observed in those other Countries which our Author mentions and I do not see how it could be otherwise the severity of the Canon Law being so strict in the prohibition of it But as I said before the Primitive Christians had that veneration for the Clergy and especially for the Bishops that they were still joyned with the Civil Magistrate in ordering the affairs both in Church and State The matters of the Church they determined Judicially in Secular affairs whether Criminal or other only by way of Counsel if the Civil Magistrate to whose Province they belonged did not do his part I am sure it was so in England Brompton in his Chronicle recites the Laws of King Athelstane in this particular I cited his very words in the original in my former Letter I shall now repeat them very faithfully in English He saith It appertains of right to a Bishop to promote that which is right both concerning God and the World A little after he addeth He ought likewise diligently together with the Secular Judges to promote Peace and Concord And soon upon it he hath this passage The Bishop ought to be present in Judgement with the Secular Judges not to suffer any buds of wickedness to sprout if he can hinder it His Presence and his Counsel was rather a check upon the Judge than to determine any thing in Secular affairs Sir Henry Spelman is a little more particular in delivering unto us the nature of that mixt Court it is in his Glossary upon the word Comes The Earl he saith did preside in that County Court not alone but joyned with the Bishop he to deliver what was Gods Law the other what was Mans Law and that the one should help and counsel the other Especially the Bishop to do it to the Earl for it was lawful for him sometimes to reprove the other and to reduce him bring him into order if he went astray Then he tells us what the work of that Court was that it had cognizance but of petty matters That the Earl had not cognizance of great mens businesses for such matters are to be brought into the Kings Courts he only judges poor mens Causes Hence it is that by our Law Actions for Debts and Trespasscs are not to be commenced in the County Court if it be for above the value of 40s It seems that in ancient times it was but one Court but each Judge had his proper work the Ecclesiastical Judge to distribute and deliver to them what was Gods Law the Secular Judge Mans Law And so it continued till William the First 's time who first separated the two Courts as appears by his Charter to Bishop Remigius which Mr. Selden relates in his Comment upon Eadmerus p. 167. which he saith the King did Communi Concilio Archiepiscoporum suorum raeterorum Episcoporum Abbatum omnium Principum regni sui In a Common Council by the advice of his Arch bishops and the rest of the Bishops and Abbots and all the great men of the Kingdom The words are Wherefore I command you and enjoyn you by my Royal authority that no Bishop nor Arch deacon presume to hold Plea in the Hundred Court any more upon the Episcopal Laws nor bring any Cause that pertains to the rule of Souls before the Judgement of Secular persons but that whoever is questioned according to the Episcopal Laws for any misdemeanour or fault shall come to that place which the Bishop shall chuse and nominate for that purpose and there shall make answer for himself and not in the Hundred Court but shall according to the Canons and the Episcopal Laws do that which is just and right both to God and to his Bishop This was again confirmed 2 R. 2. and so the Courts came to be divided as they continue to this day But nothing can be concluded out of that large Enumeration of the Bishops being admitted in those ancient times to Publick Councils which was more for their Advice and Counsel and Direction than to act any thing at all Authoritatively and Juridically and least of all to have any vote to determine any thing in Cases of Blood which the Canon Law made a Noli me tangere to them I deny not but before there were Christian Magistrates even in the Apostles times the Ministers of the Gospel did many times interpose and reconcile differences and sutes which many times happened amongst believers as St. Paul saith Is there not a wise man among you no not one that shall be able to judge between his Brethren Nor doth he exclude the Bishops that they may not come in as one of those wise men Yet 1 Cor. 6. 4. he seems to exclude them For he saith If then ye have judgement of things pertaining to this life set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church Which doth seem to intimate as if he meant not the Bishops for sure they are not least esteemed But doth any man think that they were by this authorized to compel men to submit to their Judgement to punish or imprison or lay any corporal punishment upon them if they would not Indeed I cannot think so Nor do I find that St. Augustine was of that opinion the term he gives to those whom the Author of that Treatise will have to be Ecclesiastical Judges doth not imply so much rather the contrary methinks He calls them Cognitores which denotes rather one that took notice of such differences and would endeavour to compose them than a Judge to determine them which hath made me examine that passage more
from me and hath much more of reason and something though not much more of civility and fairness in the maintaining of it so as whether or no his reasons will convince me I know not but if they do I will certainly grant it for my Maxime is still Amicus Plato amicus Socrates sed magis amica Veritas The Writer of this Treatise intituled The Grand Question concerning the Bishops right to vote in Parliament in Cases Capital Stated and Argued doth state the Question right that is Whether the Bishops may be present and vote Judicially in Capital Cases which come to be judged in Parliament either in giving the Judgement it self or in resolving and determining any circumstance preparatory and leading to that Judgement Then he sets down some things granted on both sides as 1. That Bishops do sit in Parliament by vertue of their Baronies and are bound to serve the King there From this he infers they have a Right of Judicature which is not denied but the question is as he saith himself what this Judicature is 2 That they sit by the same kind of Writ that other Barons do Upon which he would infer that they are impowered and required to confer and treat of all the weighty affairs that shall be brought before them the King having not limited nor restrained the one more than the other But it follows not because all are called together by the same authority that therefore the same duty is incumbent upon all if there be a higher power that directs what every ones duty is to do when they are come together Now the King acts in a higher Sphere by the Law of the Land and the law and practice of Parliament which prohibits Bishops from meddling with judging of Capital Causes in Parliament nor did they ever do it but in one extravagant proceeding in 28 H. 6. where nothing was regular nor Parliamentary from the beginning to the end which I look upon as altogether insignificant to alter what is so setled by Law and constant Custome therefore the Kings Writ of Summons cannot dispence with that to make that lawful which in it self is unlawful as I have sufficiently proved it And I will now go a little further in it than I did before for hitherto I have only insisted upon the Law of Parliaments as a thing setled in Parliament by the Constituons of Clarendon in Henry the Second's time and the Protestation of the Bishops enrolled in Parliament by the King Lords and Commons 11 R. 2. but now I will deliver my opinion which I submit to better Judgements that they lye still under a Restraint by the Canon Law which by the Statute 25 H. 8. c. 12. which was repealed 1 and 2 Phil. and Mar. but revived 1 Eliz. is still of force where it is not repugnant to the Laws of the Realm which we are sure this branch of it restraining Bishops from judging Capitally is not so far from it that it is confirmed and strengthened by the Law of the Land 3. The third Particular in which he saith all agree is That they have their Votes in Bills of Attainder acting in their Legislative capacity which is as much a Case of Blood as the other and perhaps as much forbidden by the Canon But I desire this worthy Person to consider that the Practice of Parliament is the Law of Parliament and is the commanding Law for regulating the Proceedings of Parliament and that hath over-ruled this Point that in the making of a Law every Free-man of the Kingdom doth give his consent either explicitly if he be a Member of either House or implicitly by his Representative for every Free-man of the Kingdome is there present or represented And it is the Fundamental Constitution of our English Freedome that no man can be bound by any Law but what himself hath consented to now a Bill of Attainder is as much a Law as any Statute Law of the Kingdom Therefore Bishops have acted in a Legislative capacity to judge and condemn Capitally as several Precedents we have of it in Henry the Eight's time but not in a judicial capacity And to say the Canon Law prohibits one as much as the other the Statute of 25 H. 8. clears that point which takes away the force of the Canon in the one not to abridge Members of Parliament from voting in the Legislative way and strengthens it in the other forbidding Bishops to vote Judicially in Cases of Blood Yet if you will have me deliver you freely my opinion in it I think it is an abuse crept in since Henry the Eight's time for before none were judged by Bill but such as had been slain in open War or Tryed Condemned and Executed by Commission and then the proceedings brought into Parliament and there approved of and the Attainder confirmed but under Henry the Eighth several persons were condemned by Bill and the Earl of Strafford lately in our memories which seems now to be authorized by the Practice of Parliament Sir Edw. Cooke tells a story which he had from Sir Thomas Gaudy one of the Judges of the Kings-bench how the King had commanded Cromwel and the Earl of Essex to attend the Justices and know of them if a man who was forth coming should be condemned by Act of Parliament without being heard who after some fencing answered if it were so it could not be afterwards called into question and Cromwel himself was not long after so served but this is by the way Multa quae fieri non debent facta valent I have been a little the longer in these particulars because it will much smooth our way in the following discourse And this worthy Gentleman must give me leave to say That he needed not have put himself to all that trouble of his first Chapter in telling us of the mighty power the Clergy had in the Primitive times in the ordering of Secular affairs which certainly was more by way of Counsel than any thing of Authority by way of Judgement and in a Judicial way And he will avow to me I doubt not that the ministery of the word was a full employment for the Apostles and so for Bishops who call themselves their Successors as well as serving of Tables and other ministerial duties was a full employment for those whom he calls the Treasurers of the Church and therefore they said it for themselves and left it as a Rule for their Successors even to Bishops and all other dispencers of the Word and Sacraments that it was not reason they should leave the Word of God and serve Tables Which it seems was a Non est Consonum by the Law of God just as by the Common Law of the Kingdom a Writ was provided declaring it to be likewise a Non est Consonum and to be Contra morem Consuetudinem Regni that Clergy-men should be employed in Secular affairs This indeed I hinted at then as I gave also some little touch at
Canons when 't is for our Advantage to break them I might now proceed to the Examination of his Iast Head How far the Canon Law is at this day binding But because I would not leave any thing untaken notice of he thinks fit to make use of for the strengthening his Cause I shall speak something to what he farther urgeth He tells you out of Knighton That this Parliament was called Parliamentum sine Misericordiâ and that many Circumstances concurred which might make the Lords willing to admit of their Protestation because their business might proceed better against the King's Ministers He need not have urged Inducements to perswade the Lords to admit of their Protestation except he had first shewed they had Power to have refused it But by this Inducement he insinuates that the Bishops would probably have obstructed Justice against those wicked Ministers about the King What the Accusation was for which some of them were executed I shall let you seek in the Historians of those times being unwilling to rake into that Puddle any deeper I shall therefore leave this Parliament and the mysterious Canons as our Author well calls them and come to the Anti-Parliament to this held in 21 R. 2. where as he saith the King had a Mind to undoe what was done in the Parliament in 11 R. 2. which Intention this Author saith he had kept in his Mind ten Years by being willing to let the Bishops be absent in 11. that he might have that pretence to Question in this Anti-Parliament the things then done An undecent Charge he lays upon the King if it be well considered The Declaration by help of the Bishops that the King's Pardon granted in Parliament in 11. was revocable by the King was the Labour of his Ministers in 〈◊〉 which those Ministers prevailed in 〈◊〉 Measure but their Actions with 〈◊〉 â—…cceeding Murther of the D. of Gloâ—… the King's Uncle bred such a Jealousie and Distrust between the King and his People that I may call it the first Stone which left not rolling till it ended in the Ruine of that poor Prince who continued not King much more than a Year after and was soon after the Deprivation of his Crown deprived of his Life also What Art was used to make that Parliament subservient to their ends I need not tell you One of the first Attempts was what I touched before to make Pardons granted by the King in Parliament revocable at his Pleasure in this the Clergy were very instrumental After this the Commons come to do their Parts and they represent that divers Judgments had been undone heretofore for that the Clergy were not there present and therefore pray they might appoint some common Proctor with sufficient Authority to that Purpose From hence he infers two things First That the Commons thought their Presence necessary because Judgments had been undone for want of it Therefore their Concurrence in Judgment was thought necessary to make a Judgment valid Secondly That they should therefore make a common Proctor This is strange Logick Their Presence was thought necessary and Judgments undone for want of it therefore they ought to be present I think ought to have been the Consequent but the Commons pray that in that respect they should make a Proctor I should think now the true Inference ought to have been The Bishops and Clergy ought not to be personally present in Cases of Blood yet because it is fit they should be represented at least in some Cases let them nominate a common Proctor to be in their stead where their Concurrence is necessary This is Sense the other is contradictory 'T is evident by this Petition of the Commons that matter of Blood was to be treated of for there needed no Proctor for any other use since themselves might have been present And I think it very clear by the Year-book in 10 E. 4. that when Issue was once joyned 't was their Duty to absent themselves For that Book is that the Peer questioned may plead not guilty and then the Bishops to depart so that it is plain they were not to vote after Issue joyned in matters of Blood So Hakewell in his Modus Tenend pag. 84. before cited saith That to our days when Question is had of the Attainder of any Peer the Bishops are to depart Now I take the Law to be all one what â—…ue is joyned in a Capital Accusation so as there be any upon which the Court may proceed to Famination of the Cause and to Judgment accordingly As to our purpose in the case of the 〈◊〉 of Danby he pleads the King's Pardon the King's Counsel or the Commons demur The matter then in Issue upon the Demurrer is whether the Pardon is good in Law upon which the Bishops according to 10 E. 4. are to go out because if the Pardon be found invalid then must Sentence of Death be pronounced against the Criminal for I take the Law to be That the pleading a Pardon in Bar upon an Endictment or Impeachment is a Confession that all the matters contain'd in the Endictment or Impeachment are true and he shall never be admitted to plead Not Guilty afterward But this by the way Our Question is about the Commons Petition that they would make a Proctor which being in matter of Blood the Author of the Letter saith was the only time whether this was Error temporis as one saith the Error of that time or an inconsiderate rash Desire of the Commons as another is not necessary to enquire for it doth not appear that any Capital Judgments had been reversed by reason of their Absence so that their desire fails in the ground of it if they meant of Capital ones for the first Judgment against the Spencers was affirmed in 1 Ed. 3. and the Reversal made 15 Ed. 2. was made null so that the Commons it seems were ignorant in that and might be unadvised in the rest as they sometime have been Beside if he consult Sir Edward Coke in his 2 Instit. cap. de Asportatis religiosor pag. 586. he doth well excuse the Commons in shewing that the Bishops were present at the Charge against the Spencers in 1 Ed. 2. so that the Commons might not know how far the Bishops were conusant of the thing and looking only on the out-side were ignorant of the Act in 1 E. 3. for the Discourser saith there were no more No replyes the Grand Questionist not in his Study but the Commons might know of more for we have not all the Rolls What then This at best is but a Surmise and the two Judgments against the two Spencers were enough to make their Allegation true that divers Judgments had been reversed for that cause though it be not to excuse their Ignorance in not knowing that the first Judgment against them was revived by the Statute of 1 Ed. 3. And it seems strange to me that he that had so much
they had a place to go to when 't was fit they should consult apart not that they always did so no more than it doth that the Prelates sate not among the Lords because they sometimes went apart and had a place to go to as well as the Commons We know that 7 Iacobi when Prince Henry was created Prince of Wales they all sate together in the Court of Requests and may do again when the King pleaseth I have now done with this rather curious than necessary Question which I had not touched upon had not Percy 's place in Parliament given me occasion a little to search into it Yet I think it not amiss here to insert the Prayer of the Commons and the form of the Proxy made by the Clergy to Sir Thomas Percy in 21 Rich. 2. memb 6. no. 9. as it is at large upon the Record that the Reader may be able to give a rational Judgment both what his Power was and how the Clergy were represented by him The Commons first pray the King that whereas divers Judgments and Ordinances before time made in the time of his Progenitors had been recalled and made null because the Estate of the Clergy were not present Et pour ceo prierent au Roy que pour surety de sa person salvation de son royaum les Prelates le Elergy ferroient un Procurateur avet povoir sufficient pour consentir en leur nome a toutes choses ordonances a justifier en cest present Parlament que sur ceo chacun seigneur spirituel diront pleinment son avis Sur quoy le dicts seigneurs spirituels commetterent leur plein povoir generalment a un lay personne nomerent en especial Thomas Percy Chevalier sur ceo baillerent au Roy une schedule contenant leur povoir la quelle nostre seigneur le roy receust commanda le dit Mardy estre entre de record en rolle de Parlement de quelle cedule la form sensuit Nos Thomas Cantuariensis Robertus Ebor. Archiepiscopi ac praelati Clerici utriusque provinciae Cantuar. Eborac jure ecclesiarum earundem habentes jus inter essendi in singulis Parlamentis Domini nostri Regis regni Angl. pro tempore celebrandis nec non tractandi expediendi in eisdem quantum ad singula in instanti Parlamento pro statu honore Domini nostri Regis nec non Regaliae suae ac quiete pace tranquillitate regni judicialiter justificand Venerabili viro Domino Thomae de Percy Mil. nostram plenarie committimus potestatem ita ut singula per ipsum facta in praemissis perpetuis temporibus habeantur It is observable in this Prayer the Commons recite Ordinances as well as Judgments to have been made null by reason of the Bishops Absence and comprehended not Judgments alone Now of what Latitude Ordinances were taken whether temporary or otherwise look'd upon as Laws is not very certain Secondly they desire such a Proctor as might have Power to confent to such things as should be done Thirdly they naming a Lay-man who had no Right of his own to sit there and giving the King a Schedule of their Procuration was enough to make their Right be preserved to them without any explicite Consent by their Proctor or perhaps his being so much as present at any Debate But I now proceed to observe how ready our Author is to pick what Advantage he can against the Author of the Discourse of Peerage from the words by him quoted out of the Manuscript History written by the Abbot of Molros in Scotland where the King of England sent Bishop Fox as I remember to treat with the King of Scotland Iames the Fourth then there touching a Match between the Children of those two Princes 'T is a Book to be seen in some few hands and writes of the Parliament in 21 R. 2. The Author of the Discourse pag. 20. tells you that that Manuscript Author blames the Prelates much for the Opinion they gave generally about the Revocation of Pardons but in this as in many other Authorities that make against him our Author curtails the Words and cites no more than makes for his turn The Words at large are these Dederunt ergo locum judicio sanguinis in hoc facto Ita quod dubitabatur à pluribus si non incurrerent in poenam irregularitatis pro negotio memorato unde contigit quod propter istud minus peccatum inciderent in aliud majus peccatum consequentur ut laicam personam constituerent procuratorem pro iisdem qui illorum vice consentirent ad judicium sanguinis dandum in isto Parliamento si necesse foret occasio emersisset The Prelates by this act of theirs gave Allowance or Countenance to Tryals of Blood insomuch that it was doubted by many whether they did not fall under the Penalty of Irregularity by reason of the foresaid business from whence it happened that instead of that lesser Offence they fell into a greater by Consequence in that they made a Lay-man their Proctor who in their Room might consent to a Judgment of Blood to be given in that Parliament if it were needful or occasion had happened I have translated dare locum fudicio sanguinis to give way or Allowance to a Judgment of Blood because it appears by the subsequent Words he meant them so The use the Author of the Discourse of Peerage makes of these Words is to shew that the Canons were not the only Cause that hindred their presence in II Rich. 2. For then when they had no Encouragement from the King or Lords then they ought not at any hand to be present in such Cases but here in 21. when they had any Allowance or Connivence as to the Laws against them then the Canons were neglected altogether His Inference seems to me rational and good Oh! but saith the Grand Questionist they were present in voting the Pardon to the Earl of Arundel revocable Under his Favour I think he is mistaken for the Book warrants no such matter only tells you that they gave a general Vote that Pardon 's granted in Parliament were revocable by the King by consequence whereof some of those who were pardoned in 11. were executed in 21. which Votes I hope might pass though the Parties concerned were not present and this meaning the book seems to enforce For first that Author saith it was a doubt amongst many whether that act did not make them incur the Penalty of Irregularity which would have been none had they personally by their Votes revoked the Pardon granted to the Earl of Arundel Secondly he saith by making a Proctor in that Case of Blood they committed a greater Fault than the former but certainly the making a Lay Proctor was not a greater Fault than actual Allowance and personal voting in Blood which that Author charges them with Lastly they made a
but of the better Opinion of such as were the Judges The Records of the Court were not to be denyed to any man others it seems might by understanding men concerned in the Cause The meaning of the Law I take to be that Cases of Right might be tryed here of any Value but criminal Cases were not medled withall I remember not to have read any where that Capitalia placita had that Signification our Author suggests Placita Coronae Placita Parliamentaria and Placita Communia I have met with but Capitalia Placita for Placita Capitalium criminum is new to me However the meaning of that be yet the Manuscript Life of Saint Cuthbert as to the thing it self will help us out He tells you it may be with as much Truth as Brompton that one Hamel the Son of Earl Godwin being imprisoned by the Earl of Northumberland his Friends earnestly interceded with the Earl that he might not loose his Head Here indeed we find a man imprisoned by an Earl Application made to the Earl in his behalf no mention of any Bishop any Tryal or any farther Proceeding in the business but the Tryal and the Bishops Presence at it are both supplyed by our Author who hath proved neither or produced greater Proof than the Authority of a loose Legend and that lame too and yet upon this he triumphs as if the Point were clearly gained when there is nothing of what he would have made good by him Is it not now a thousand Pities that so well sounding Words so well put together should signifie nothing The next Precedent our Author takes into Consideration is that of Nicholas Segrave cited by the Author of the Letter pag. 55. by this Author pag. 76. which he would evade by supposing the Bishops might be comprehended under the Name of Magnates or Counsellors and shews that some of the Bishops were probably then of his Counsel For a clear Answer to these Surmises I shall give you shortly the whole Case as you shall find it at large inter placita Parlam 33 Ed. 1. Riley pag. 266. Nicholas Segrave had Summons by the Sheriff and the Command of the King to answer to such things as should be objected against him and to hear and stand to what the Curia Domini Regis to wit the Parliament consideraret in praemissis Segrave upon this Summons Venit in pleno Parliamento in praesentiâ ipsius Domini Regis Arch. Cantuariensis plurimorum Episcopor Comitum Baronum aliorum de Consilio Regis tunc ibidem existentium Nicholas de Warwick perhaps the King's Atturney accuseth him of many and great Crimes which he offers to prove Segrave confesseth all submits to the King de alto basso Et super hoc Dom. Rex volens habere avisamentum Comitum Baronem Magnatum aliorum de consilio suo injunxit eisdem in Homagio fidelitate ligeantia quibus ei tenentur quod ipsum fideliter consulerent qualis poena pro tali facto sic cognito fueri infligenda The Comites Barones Magnates c. adjudge him worthy of Death After this the King pardons him and orders him to put in seven Sureties and to render himself a Prisoner at the King's Command and to be accountable to the King for the Issues of his Land held in his own or his Wifes Name This in short is the Case of Segrave in which it is very clear that at the Accusation the Bishops were present as of Right they might be but at the Tryal they are omitted Now to suppose them comprehended under a general Name and out of Order who were particularly expressed when their Presence was lawful is both unusual and unreasonable unusual because it is against the Rule of Law to comprehend the greater after the Nomination of the lesser and so to take the Bishops under the name of great Men who are constantly first named and were so here at the Beginning Secondly 't is unreasonable to make a different Construction of the same Words in different Cases or Laws now we know that in the Statute de Asportatis Religiosorum the Words are Comites Barones Magnates where we know the Bishops were not comprehended under the Name Magnates nor ought to be here and to suppose the contrary is against the Current of all Acts of Parliament and Records By the Magnates and alii de Consilio were meant the Judges and other Counsellors at Law whose Advice the King required as was very just and usual in those times 'T is likewise observable that the Word Consilio is written with an s which shews those Counsellors he advised with were not necessarily Members of Parliament for then the Word would have been written with a c Concilio His remarkable Precedent of the D'Spencers will stand him in as little stead in the Reign of Edward the Second they were both condemned and the Exilium Hugonis D'Spencer is to be seen in the old Natura brevium Those Judgments were afterward reversed at York in 15 Edward the Second but in 1 Edward the Third the first Judgments were affirmed and so they were look'd upon as condemned Persons which continued though themselves were dead for above seventy years til by the prevailing Party in 21 Richard the Second that Act was again called in question as void in regard the Bishops were absent and the Bishops desired to make a Proctor by the Commons which they accordingly did but at last through their exorbitant Proceedings that whole Parliament was repealed in 1 Henry the Fourth To this I have largely spoken before to which I shall refer the Reader with this farther Advertisement that in troublesome times things are not always carryed as they ought to be wherefore we are not always to look at what was but what ought to have been done neither are we to be governed by seeming Precedents such as sometimes as in the Case of Ship-money may be produced against Law I have before made it manifest that the Canons of the Church long before Lanfrank's time forbad Clergy-men to meddle either in Blood or secular Employments neither is it reasonable to believe the Laws of this Land were different from the general Rule incumbent upon all Clergy-men to observe especially when we see the Immunities granted them by King Stephen were so early recalled by Henry the Second and the Constitutions then made at Clarendon look'd upon as the ancient Customs of the Nation insomuch that the Discourser had very good reason to say 't was the common Usage which is the common Law of England Pag. 88. Our Author comes to the Examination of those Records urged against him and his Exceptions in general are First That they are Negative the Bishops were not present at Tryals of Blood therefore they had no Right to be present Secondly They were sometimes absent when they were not prohibited therefore their Absence was voluntary Thirdly they are sometimes comprehended under the
Lord HOLLIS HIS REMAINS BEING A Second Letter to a Friend Concerning the JUDICATURE OF THE BISHOPS IN PARLIAMENT In the Vindication of what he wrote in his First and in Answer to a Book since published against it Entituled The Rights of the Bishops to judge in Capital Cases in Parliament cleared c. It contains likewise part of his Intended Answer to a second Tractate Entituled The Grand Question touching the Bishops Right to Vote in Parliament Stated and Argued To which are added Considerations in Answer to the Learned Author of the Grand Question c. By another Hand And Reflections upon some passages in Mr. Hunt 's Argument upon that Subject c. By a Third London Printed for R. Janeway 1682. The GENERAL PREFACE THE name of the Lord Hollis is so well known both to the Active and Contemplative part of Mankind that no more need be said to recommend any Papers to the World than to give Assurance that they were his and by him Designed for the Press I am perswaded that most who Read the first of these ensuing Treatises and have been conversant in that Great Man 's Writings cannot but acknowledge this for the Genuine product of his large Soul and close way of Reasoning But besides the inward testimony of the thing it self we have other sufficient proof of its being Authentick from such as had the Honour of a familiarity with that Extraordinary Person in his life time to whom he communicated his thoughts on this Subject as he from time to time committed them to Paper He lived not to finish any more of his Answer to the Grand Question c. than what is now published but often affirmed that he had Conquer'd all the difficulties in it Nature was spent and all the Oyl of his Vital Lamp was consumed before he could advance further with his Pen And when we consider that he had past the Age of Man having arrived to his eighty first year and that he still continued Writing for Eternity when he was upon quitting this Mortal state we may well say that his Life went not out in a Snuff as most very aged men expire but that he ascended to Heaven in a bright flame which still continues to enlighten us that remain here below Surely I cannot be taxt of impertinence if I here strew upon his Herse some of Cicero 's happy flowers since one would think they sprung up now for this very purpose Est etiam quietae purae atque eleganter actae aetatis placida ac lenis senectus qualem accepimus Platonis qui uno octagesimo aetatis anno Scribens Mortuus est Let no Man say that it misbecame him to spend his time thus when he was posting to Eternity He had found Truth to stand in need of his Defence and his own Reputation was called in question upon his appearing for it And next to Devotion which without doubt had a due share of his time nothing perhaps can give a greater foretaste of the joys of Heaven than the sense of a Mans having fully vindicated Truth and his own good name The Author of the Considerations is likewise a person of great Age and well known for his great Learning Nor would his Name if made publick give any small Reputation to his Book But he is so sincere a Lover of Truth that I dare say he would not have any Man byast with a previous disposition to believe that there is more force in his Arguments than he finds but leaves them to their natural energy For me to pretend to give the Characters of such Authors as these two would he a presumption beyond what I am guilty of in putting some Papers of mine in the retinue of theirs But though my Character cannot do sufficient Right to either yet a Confutation of Mr. Hunt 's Errors may be a piece of Justice to the Lord Hollis who has been much undervalued by this warm Author And as Mr. Hunt is a Man justly in Reputation for his Parts and Literature unless it be shewn that his Authority is of no great weight in this sort of Learning he might wound by his Censure where he doth no great feats with his Argument I doubt not but he will pardon my freedom with him since he has used as much or more with what I have formerly published to the World Indeed by his Preface one would think that he had wrote before I had set out any thing relating to Antiquities But then he must needs have understood by way of Prophecy what I would say about the Curia Regis great part of which he makes use of and concerning the explication of King Iohn's Charter and several other things which he opposes I am sensible that enough has been said by the Two learned Authors on whose Papers mine attend to clear the Question concerning the Bishops Voting in Capital Cases in Parliament from all the dust raised by Mr. Hunt But he having put things together in another manner than had been done before some might think it requisite that there should be a particular Answer given to every thing of his that bears the face of an Argument both upon the account of the weight his Assertions may carry with many and the want of Judgement in others to apply what may be found in these Treatises to silence all Objections in how different a manner soever they may be repeated And truly this I had done according to my Talent but considering that those things are wrote for the Learned whose Judgements are too delicateisoon to rellish the same dish drest over and over again I thought it convenient to suspend the publication of what has occurr'd to me upon that Subject Nor shall I at present interpose in that Controversie any further than to free my self from a two-horned Argument which I were very dull not to perceive my self to be concerned in if not solely aim'd at by it Having first taken a difference between the Great or General Council of the Nation to which Proprietors of Lands as such had right to come till 49 H. 3. And the Curia Regis compos'd of the Kings immediate Tenants and Officers I had occasion to enquire into the nature of the Curia Regis mentioned in the Constitution of Clarendon which obliges the Ecclesiastick Tenants in Capite interesse judiciis Curiae Regis quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem This I took to relate to Judgements in the Curia Regis as such And the ground of coming to the Great or General Council being different from that of coming to the Curia From thence I conceived might be gathered a sufficient Reason why the Bishops might have been allow'd to vote in a Legislative Capacity in cases of Blood And yet that practice might no ways extend to warrant their sitting as Iudges upon such Causes either when there was a bare Curia de More or when it sat within the General Council of the Kingdom more
than the Suitors at the Curia being Summon'd The Legislative power they exercised as Members of the General Council or Parliament And the Iudicial power as Members of the Curia and were Members of the Curia as they held Lands of the King in Chief Whereas Men came to the Parliament generally upon the account of property in Land without consideration of tenure so it were free In short a Man may have that in an extraordinary capacity in Parliament which he has not there in an ordinary I likewise held that Becket was try'd for Misdemeanors only though according to the Language of those days they were crimina Laesae Majestatis and that the Tryal was in a bare Curia Regis when no more than Suitors to that were summoned Mr. Hunt 's Argument upon this follows If it was the Curia Regis wherein the ordinary Justice of the Nation was administred and not the Parliament was intended in the Assize of Clarendon in which the priviledge and indulgence under the quosque was allow'd to Bishops then the Assize of Clarendon is unduly urg'd against the Bishops judging in Cases of Blood in Parliament c. And consequently by the Assize of Clarendon the Bishops have no leave to withdraw If the Court wherein Thomas Becket was tryed was the Curia Regis then the Bishops judging in that Court in that cause doth most clearly declare that being a case in point that the quousque was an indulgence which they might use or wave Now to my thinking this seeming irrefragable Argument has no real force For not to mention his wrong interpretation of the Constitution of Clarendon nor yet his mistake of the Fact in relation to Becket 's Tryal as if he were Tryed for a Capital Offence In both which I doubt not but he will receive Conviction to the contrary from these two Learned Authors I am bold to say that there is no manner of consequence in the first Branch of his Dilemma which is the only thing that can lye upon me to answer And truly I conceive that it by no means follows that because the Curia Regis in the Constitution of Clarendon is not the whole Parliament but only that Court which either when a Parliament was held or when only a Council of Tenants in Capite or Lords assembled had the sole exercise of the Judicial Power that therefore Iudgements in Parliament before the Lords such as were Members of the Curia are not affected by that Constitution any more than we can now say the House of Lords cannot be concerned in any matter which does not belong to the whole Parliament I shall only add three Observations which may go far to put an end to this Controversie 1. That part of the Constitution of Clarendon which says of the Ecclesiastick Tenants in Chief Debent interesse Judiciis Curiae Regis quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem was part of the avitae consuetudines ecclesiasticae If it had been a New Law then indeed whatever was not expresly forbidden were matter of Liberty But it being only in affirmance of the Ancient Law their Liberty went no further than the usage which was to be present only till such Causes came to be tryed 2. If Precedents are as Mr. Hunt censures them like an Oracle that will always give a Response agreeable to the Enquirer and Consulter then we must as I formerly did look to the Law in the Case without entring into the large Field of Precedents 3. If the Canons require the Bishops not to concern themselves in the Tryals of Capital Causes and those Canons have been sufficiently received to become the Law of the Land which these Authors prove undeniably then the Bishops must ever be supposed to have been absent when such matters came in question in Parliament unless they are mentioned there by name and cannot be comprehended under words common to them with the Temporal Lords any more than we can imagine that the Popish Lords who are excluded the Lords House by Act of Parliament yet still are Peers are Parties to any Judgement given by the Peers there SIR THE former trouble I gave you upon this Subject you pulled upon your self by desiring my opinion in it but for this I now give you I must beg your pardon it being singly upon my own account to do my self â—…ht and justifie what I then wrote to you against several aspersions cast upon me in a Pamphlet entituled The Right of Bishops to judge in Capital Cases in Parliament c. made it seems by the same person who had set out the other Pamphlet intituled The Honours of the Spiritual Lords asserted c. Of which I gave you some account in a Postscript to my former Letter and I think without any sharp reflection either upon that Author or his work The most I said was When I had instanced in three notorious falsifications of his The first is p. 112. where he quotes Mr. Selden to prove That the Spiritualty made their Proxies in Capital Causes in more Parliaments than the 21 R. 2. for that they did it likewise in the 2 H. 4. and 2 H. 5. which I shew was a mistake and only said he could not find it so in the Record it self but that he took it upon trust out of the Margin of Mr. Seldens book of the Priviledges of the Baronage p. 125. where there is such a quotation of the 2 H. 4. and the 2 H. 5. but wholly misapplyed by our Assertor of Honours for Mr. Selden alledges that Precedent to shew that whereas 2 H. 5. it was by the then Earl of Salisbury assigned as an error in the Attainder of his Father who was condemned of High-Treason in the 2 H. 4. because it was done Sans Assent des Prelates which are the words of the Record Without the Assent of the Prelates by the way speaks nothing of Proxies it was then adjudged to be no error and his Petition rejected which in truth is a strong Argument to prove that the Prelates had no right to be present at such Tryals and Judgments which is the main Question between us And though he being of another mind had maintained his opinion by so gross a prevarication I was so far from retorting it upon him with any bitterness saying It was disingenious and a suppressing of truth and not setting things down faithfully which is his ordinary language concerning me Or with insipid jeers saying I wear a sharp Sword a Trenchant Toledo as one of the younger house of great Alexander and that he brings me to the Sun like Alexanders Horse and telling of the Magical combate in Apuleius and a City of Birds in Aristophanes and such other scurralous passages as his Book is full of which shews the sweetness of the Gentlemans nature and the goodness of his cause which he maintains only by railing and false assertions Whereas I rather lessened his fault saying only that he was mistaken by being
I say that if the Bishops did joyn in the Judgement it would have been so expressed and they would have been first named otherwise it is like an Et caetera in the beginning of an Enumeration which in the close and after an enumeration of some particulars may intimate a joyning of some others that are not particularly specified and named but is never put in the beginning And I think I may with confidence affirm That there is no example in all the Rolls of Parliament that any of the Benches of the House of Lords hath been particularly mentioned in any business and if the Prelates did likewise act in it that they were not also particularly mentioned and always in the first place nay before any other even before the Prince of Wales and the Princes of the Blood as may be seen in the Roll 28 E. 5. upon Roger of Wygmore's Petition the Record saith Le Roy â—…st venir devant lui les Prelatz Edward son fitz eisne Prince de Gales Henri Duc de Lancastre Countes Barons Piers le Iugement c. The King caused to be brought before him and the Prelates and Edward Prince of Wales his eldest Son and Henry Duke of Lancaster and the Earls Barons and Peers the Iudgement c. Now is it probable or can it be believed that the Decorum concerning the Bishops being in those times still so punctually observed and that respect always given to the Prelacy whenever they were concerned to mention them particularly and in their due place that they would in that Parliament of E. 3. be content to be comprized under a general notion and pass as a man may say Incognito when others have more respect shewed them to have their names recorded I do not think that the Clerk of the Parliament durst have been guilty of so great a disrespect to them Therefore we may well conclude that in this Judgement upon Mautravers the Prelates were not at all signified under the general word of Trestouz les Piers Countes Barons All the Peers Earls and Barons nor were they at all present or had any part in that Tryal no more than in that of Roger de Mortimer Earl of March The other persons judged that Parliament had all the same Judges and passed under the same Judicature The Record for Boeges de Bayons and John Deuerell is Item tieu Iugement est assentiez accorde que soit fait de Boeges de Bayons John Deuerell pur la cause susâ—…ite c. Item The same Judgement was agreed to and accorded to be given upon Boeges de Bayons and John Deuerell for the cause aforesaid c. The very same words are likewise for the Judgements upon Thomas de Gurney and William de Ocle And to prove it more authentically that they were all Ejusdem farinae of one and the same nature I will give you the Kings Writ that declares them to be so to the Lord Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer commanding them so to inroll those Judgements and with them a kind of Protestation made by those Peers stiled a Concordia ne trahatur in Consequentiam An Agreement that it should not be drawn into Consequence That is Not made a Precedent to oblige and compel them to judge hereafter any but their Peers because of the Judgement they had then given against Sir Simon de Bereford John Mautravers and the rest who were Commoners For as for those who were their Peers they could not avoid the Trying of them particularly in Parliament where only a Peer of the Realm can be tryed in Parliament time which hath ever been the priviledge of the Peers and from which I shall in due time and place before I make an end draw I think an Argument not to be answered that the Bishops are not Peers for if they be Peers and questioned in Parliament time they must be Tryed in Parliament But 4 E. 3. Stephen Bishop of London having been complained of in Parliament for saying That if Edward the Second were still alive as he was informed that he was and in Corfe-Castle he would assist him with all his force to re-establish him in his Throne was by the Parliament referred for his Tryal to the Kings Counsel and by them to the Kings-Bench where putting himself super Patriam to be Tryed as all Commoners do a Jury was empannelled and the Tryal went on there in the Kings-Bench till at last he got the Kings Pardon This is Term. Pasc. 4 E. 3. rot 53. Now had the Bishop been truly and really a Peer of the Realm neither could the House of Peers have avoided the Trying of him themselves nor would he have submitted to a Tryal elsewhere out of Parliament the Parliament being once possessed of his Cause But this is by the by the Writ for inrolling those Judgements and the Concordia is In Memor and. Scaccarii inter Brevia directa Baronibus de Termino Sancti Hillarii Rot. 33. 5 E. 3. In these words Rex Thes. Baronib suis salutem Bittimus vobis sub pede Sigilli nostri quaedam Iudicia in Parliamento nostro apud Westmon nuper tento per Comites Barones at alios Pares regni nostri super Rogerum de Mortuo Mari quosdam alios reddita nec non quandam Concordiam per nos Pares praedictos nec non Communitatem Regni nostri in eodem Parliamento factam super praemissis Mandantes quod Iudicia Concordiam praedicta in Scaccario nostro praedicto coram vobis legi publicari ibidem seriatim irrotulari de caetero ibidem obserâ—…ari faciatis Teste me ipso apud Wyndesor 15. die Februarii Anno regni nostri 5. Per ipsum Regem Concilium The King to the Treasurer and Barons greeting We send you under our Seal certain Judgements given in our Parliament late at Westminster by the Earls Barons and other Peers of our Realm upon Roger of Mortimer and some others also an Agreement made in the same Parliament by Our Selves the foresaid Peers and the whole Commonaliy concerning the matters aforesaid commanding you that the said Judgements and Agreement you cause to be read in your presence in our Court of the Exchequer and there to be enrolled in course and duly observed Given under our Test at Windsor Febr. 15. in the fifth year of our Reign All this shews there was no variation in any of those Tryals but all went on pari passu in the same Method And it is not probable there could be any great change in their proceedings the Parliament continuing together so short a time but fifteen days in all as Mr. Pryn observes by the Writs of wages in his fourth Part which is concerning Parliamentary Writs And I think I may now say that few will believe I concealed these Precedents because they made against me The Case of Sir Thomas Berckley is of another nature his Tryal is said to be Inter Placita
saying is neither in the Judgement it self nor any thing leading to it So he comes to the Arch-bishop Becket's Case where he notably spends his mouth but like an ill Hound all upon false Hunting and indeed runs riot so far as he is not to be lashed in He fills several leaves of his Book with Encomium's of the Popish Clergy because some of them sometimes did what it was their duty to do which doth not excuse them in the general current of their proceedings commonly to stand for the authority of the Pope and the See of Rome against the Regal power and the authority of Parliaments as they did 20 R. 2. saying They were sworn to the Pope and to that See and they would oppose whatever the King and the Temporal Lords should do En restriaion del Poair Apostoliqué ou derogagation de la libertoe de Saina Eglise In restraint of the Power Apostolick or derogation of the Liberty of Holy Church So he takes much pains to assert the Kings natural right to command his Subjects to serve him upon any emergency and so to make Clergy-men Justitiaries if he see cause for it Which then gives them power of Judicature and I do acknowledge it but it is to be understood of Judicature in such Cases as the Law of the Land allows we know they have been some of them Lord Chancellours Lord Treasurers Lord Privy Seal but can he shew me that any of them judged in Cases of Blood For this Case of Beckett's is certainly misrepresented in Fitz-Stephens manuscript We know there have been heretofore in many Counties Justices of Assize which have been Clergy-men joyned with others in Commission who were not Clergy-men to take Assizes in the County And the Act of Parliament 27 E. 1. c. 3. coming to give power to those Justices of Assize to deliver the Gaols and so to be made Justices of Gaol-delivery and try Felons and Murtherers it provides that if one of them be a Clerk then one of the most discreet Knights of the Shire shall be associated to him that is a Lay-man and be empowered by the Knights Writ to deliver the Gaols of the Shires and chasten and punish whom they shall find to be guilty And this Statute is confirmed 2 E. 3. c. 2. which makes it manifest what the intendment of the Law is in that particular that Clerks must not meddle to judge in Cases of Blood and must hold good even for Bishops who are all of them Clerks As for this Case of Beckets which only stands upon the credit of a Manuscript said to be made by Fitz-Stephens a Monk whom he characterizes for a sober and grave Historian and more solito out of the sweetness of his nature gives me a lash saying It is usual with me to let fall expressions to vilifie Testimonies and Precedents when they make against me and this because I stile it a Blind Manuscript and suspect the Author as partial having been a creature of Beckets and consequently no friend to the King And therefore I give rather credit to the unanimous consent of the Historians of those times who do not relate the passages of that Tryal to be as he makes them than I do to him and his Manuscript I call it a Blind Manuscript because it sees not the light lyes obscure in some bodies Closet Mr. Selden doth not tell where and I dare say our Asserter never saw it though he terms the Author a grave Historian His tale is how at that great Council at Northampton Archiepiscopus laesae Majestatis Coronae Regiae arguitur quia est a Rege citatus pro causa Iohannis neque venerat neque idonee se excusasset c. The Arch-bishop is questioned for Treason against the Crown of the King because he was summoned by the King in the Cause of John that is one John the Marshal who complained that the Arch-bishop had done him injustice in his Court and he neither came nor had sifficiently excused himself upon sickness or any other just reason which might necessarily hinder him whereupon he was condemned to forfeit his personal estate and the Bishops and Barons not agreeing who should pronounce the sentence they putting it off from one to another at last the King commanded the Bishop of Winchester to do it This is his story and one may think it a strange piece of Treason one not to come immediately upon a Summons to attend the King especially if it be true what all the Historians that write of those times have related of this business Gervasius Dorobernensis is an Author as Mr. Selden observes who lived in that age and one of whom Mr. Selden and all Antiquaries we are sure have a good opinion and though our Asserter is confident enough to affirm they all have so of Fitz-Stephen it is of what I do not find that much hath been said by them to shew that nor do I think that any of our Antiquaries but Mr. Selden doth so much as mention him And from Gervasius Dorobernensis we have this relation Rex praecepit praesules Proceres regni apud Northamptoniam una cum ipso Archiepiscopo convenire c. The King commanded the Prelates and Nobles of the Kingdome together with the Arch-bishop himself to meet at Northampton where the Arch-bishop was accused of many things first that he had not fully done justice to one John that had a suit before him then that upon this occasion being called into the Kings presence he neglected to come To this the Arch-bishop made answer That John had all the justice done him that was due to him that he had illegally defamed his Court that he would not swear upon the Evangelists as the custome is but upon an old Song-book which he brought with him But that being upon this summoned he came not into the Kings presence was not upon any contempt but that he was hindred by a great sickness and that he had excused himself by two competent witnesses whom he had sent for that purpose yet this served not his turn but Curiali Iudicio Episcoporum consensu condemnatus est He was condemned by the Iudgement of the Court the Bishops consenting to it that all his personal estate should be at the Kings disposing This now is delivered unto us by an unquestionable known Author who lived in that time Fitz-Stephen and he agree in the matter of the Accusation and agree in the Judgement but Fitz-Stephen lays it to be Crimen laesae Majestatis Coronae Regiae High-Treason which must be for not coming to the King when he was summoned Gervasius saith that he sent his excuse by two witnesses who testified that he was then very sick and not able to come which we all know to be a Lawful Essoine De malo lecti which cannot be disallowed but must excuse nay justifie any bodies absence Now can any body that is master of common sense believe Fitz-Stephens relation who will have this to be
a Capital crime High Treason and a Capital proceeding upon it We see the Sentence was far from Capital and could not have been such as it was if the Crime had been laid in the Accusation to be High Treason Roger de Hoveden in his relation of this business makes no mention of Treason He saith That the King calling a great Council at Northampton Taedium magnum fecit Archiepiscopo did a thing which much vexed the Arch-bishop which was that he caused his Horses to be put into the Arch bishops Inn whereupon the Arch-bishop sent the King word that he would not come to the Council till his Inn was cleared of those Horses yet upon the second day of the meeting the Arch bishop came into the Chapel where the Council sate and there desired the Kings leave that he might go over into France to visit Pope Alexander who was then there which the King denied him and said he should first answer for the injustice he had done to John the Marshal in his Court This John having complained to the King that he had had a long suit in the Arch bishops Court for some Land he held of him and could have no Iustice and that thereupon Curiam Archiepiscopi Sacramento falst ficaverat secundum consuetudinem Regni He had according to the custome of the Kingdom upon Oath charged the Court with wrong doing which I take to be a protesting against the proceeding of that Court and the Judgement there given in the nature of a Writ of Error The Arch-bishop answered to this That John had no injustice done him and that he brought into the Court a certain strange Book and would swear upon that how for want of Iustice he left my Court which the Officers that kept my Court looked upon as an injury done to me because it is the Law of the Kingdome Quod qui Curiam alterius falsificare voluerit oportet eum jurare super sacrosancta Evangelia Whoever will so charge a Court with false dealing must take his Oath upon the Holy Evangelists Notwithstanding this the King swore he would have Iustice done upon him Et Barones Curiae And the Barons of the Court gave Iudgement on him to be at the Kings mercy Which Iudgement the Arch-bishop going about to reverse Iudicium illud falsificare is the expression He was perswaded by the Barons to submit himself to the Kings mercy for a Fine of five hundred pounds Here is nothing in all this that can possibly infer any thing like Treason And it is something observable what both these Authors say of the Judgement given Gervasius saith Curiali Iudicio Episcoporum consensu condemnatus est as if the part of the Bishops in this judgement were something differing from the Act of the Court and not comprized in it Hoveden saith Barones Curiae Regis judicaverunt eum as if the Bishops had no hand in it at all Radulphus de Diceto Decanus Londinensis I suppose Dean of Pauls who lived in those times mentions this business he saith That the Arch-bishop was questioned upon John the Marshals complaint and fined 500 l. and that he was questioned likewise for moneys received by him when he was Chancellour for some Bishopricks and Abbies of which he had received the profits during their vacancies and that not finding the Bishops to be his friends he appealed from their Judgement but then the Proceres the Nobles though he appealed from their Judgement likewise yet they In eum nec confessum nec convictum sententiam intorserunt They wrested a Iudgement against him though he confessed nothing nor was at all convicted You see here is not a word of Treason laid to his charge nor nothing Capital or any thing towards it Matthew Paris tells you the same story and almost in the very same words Now let any man judge whether all those Historians concurring or single Fitz-Stephen disagreeing deserves more credit And that which hath greatest weight with me is the Argument drawn ex natura rei the crime which all agree that the Arch-bishop was charged with was his not appearing upon the Kings Summons which without a great and a very false Multiplying-Glass cannot appear to be any thing like Treason So I must conclude that since the Charge against him had nothing of Capital in it the proceedings upon it was not as against a Capital Offender not brought to Tryal as a Prisoner but came in upon a bare Summons and tarried there and returned at full liberty the Judgement neither of loss of Life nor Limb but meerly Pecuniary and as some of the Authors say compounded with for five hundred pounds I must I say conclude that this whole Case is nothing to our purpose and neither the Law nor usage of Parliament did bar the Bishops from being personally present at such a Tryal And now I come to the point of Peerage which I have so fully handled in my former Letter as I think I need not say much in this Our Asserter brings three Arguments to prove them to be Peers The first is That it is the general stile of all Parliaments from the beginning to be Generale Concilium Cleri Populi even before the coming in of the Normans which no man denies The businesses of the Church as well as of the Civil State are there determined the Writ of Summons shews it which saith That the King intending to call a Parliament Pro quibusdam arduis negotiis Nos Statum defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus Bishops and Temporal Lords are summoned and heretofore several others were summoned as Bannerets and sometimes other persons of Quality who likewise were not Peers and yet were called to the Parliaments as pleased the King and the Judges are so summoned at this day Super dictis negotiis tractaturi consilium suum impensuri Where the Bishops act as Bishops and what by the Law of the Land and the practice and usage of Parliaments they ought to do that they do and may do the Temporal Lords in like manner and so likewise the Judges every one acts in his Sphere but this neither gives the Bishops power to judge in Capital Causes if otherwise it be prohibited them nor doth it make them Peers no more than it did formerly the Bannerets and others for their being summoned to sit and vote in the House of Peers We had the experience of this the last Parliament a Baron pretending to a much ancienter station among the Peers by proving that his Ancestor had been summoned by one of our former Kings to sit more than once in the House of Lords yet not making it appear that that favour had been still continued to him and it being made appear on the other side that several Families in this Kingdom would have the same pretence upon the like ground it was the opinion of the House that he had no Right to it and consequently that his Ancestor was never acknowledged to
Times it may appear plainly that their yielding Obedience to the known Laws of the Kingdom in matters of Appeal appearing and answering in the King's Courts though it were the ancient Usage and Custom of the Realm was the thing that most vexed them and not how far their Presence was required in cases of Blood brought into Parliament in which they were contented to be limited by the Usage of that Court and to afford or forbear their Presence according to that Obligation which was incumbent upon them from the Canons of the Church invigorated by the constant Usage of the Nation If therefore I can make it good that the Bishops had no Right to be present in the Debate and handling matters of Blood and that that was the known Law and the Sense of this Act now before us and of the subsequent Protestation in 11. of R. 2. I shall think my self competently safe though some seeming Precedents and Records should be brought against me for it is the Law must be the Measure and Standard of our Actions and not always Records the Reasons whereof are sometimes obscure and the matter it self many times shortly rehearsed and not always legal I must confess this Author hath much laboured to fix a Sense upon this Article subservient to his Purpose but the more he struggles the more he is intangled 'T is worth Observation that four or five I suppose different Persons have written in the Defence of the Bishops Right to vote in Capital Causes in Parliament and having all of them a necessity to say something to this Law of Clarendon do all of them give different Interpretations of the meaning of it a great Argument of a weak Cause The first whose Title is The Honour of the Lords Spiritual c. I presume being satisfied with the general Sense which was put upon these Constitutions from all times from which it is always unsafe to vary and perceiving that those illegal Priviledges granted to them by King Stephen were by the reviving the Laws of Henry the First abolished doth ingeniously confess in three places pag. 26. at the end of the sixth Chapter and in the same page at the beginning of the seventh Chap. That at Clarendon their Wings were indeed much clip'd yet the Priviledge of sitting and voting in Parliament is left intire to them and tho' they never of late voted in Capital Cases yet they have ever made their Proxies as he hopes to make appear In Chapter the seventh he hath these words We confess as before for that they were Spiritual Persons they were not to sit in Capital Causes and loss of Limb but adds that long before they had exercised this Power By which Words it appears that in the Judgment of that Author whatever their Power and Practice was before yet that now by the Laws of Henry the First recognized at this Parliament at Clarendon that Power was taken away and not since practised That they had such Power before he endeavours to prove out of Compton and Spelman neither of which Authors make good any more than that the Bishop was Assessor with the Earl in the County-court which was only to advise him in point of Conscience not much unlike the Offices of our Surrogates who sit in consistory with the Bishops Chancellor in whom we know resides all the Power That this is so appears by the Laws of Edgar put out by Mr. Lambert who in his fifth Chapter hath these Words Centuriâ—… comitâ—…is quisqueâ—…t antea praescribitur interesto Celeberrimus autem ex omni Saâ—…ia bis quotannis conventus agitor cui cuidem illius Diocesis Episcopus senator intersunto quorum alter jura divina alter humana populum edoceto By which we see 't was the Office of the Bishop to direct the People in Divine Laws as it was of the Senator or Earl to teach them Humane of the same Opinion is Sir Edward Coo. 2 Instit. p. 488. Stat circumspecte agatis Lastly Chap. 8. pag. 32. he mentions the Council at Westminster that in regard they might not Agitare judicium sanguinis they had many times forborn to meddle in such Matters The whole Chapter is concerning Bills of Attainder now whether he meant that in such cases they did sometime absent themselves let himself explain This Author not fore-seeing the Advantage would be made of these Constitutions or else hoping to help himself upon the Power they had to make Proxies doth ingeniously confess the Truth but is deserted by all those of his Side who follow him The Author of the Rejoinder p. 5. tells you that the Constitutions of Clarendon permit the Bishops to be present and vote till it comes to loss of Life or Member which is not till the passing of Sentence upon the Prisoner I believed the loss of Life and Member was the Execution and if they may be there and vote till then they may be present as long as any other for when that is given all go away but if his Meaning be that they should go away when the Sentence is to be pronounced the precedent Words will not bear that Construction so that according to him this is rather an imping than clipping the Wings of the Bishops as the former Author affirmeth Beside this Exposition is contrary to the Votes of the Lords who tell you they must go away when their Lordships proceed to voting Guilty or Not Guilty which is before the definitive Sentence which is always given in the Presence of the Prisoner the other not Vide Iournal of Parl. pag. 258. 15 Maii 1679. in which they explained a former Vote made by their Lordships 13 Maii 1679. in which they had voted that the Lords Spiritual had Right to stay in Court in Capital Cases till Sentence or Judgment of Death came to be pronounced by which you see the House of Lords have disowned that Sense our late Interpreters would put upon the Words of this Constitution though themselves before had given colour to that Interpretation Our third Author intituled The Rights of the Bishops fairly passeth over this Law only tells you that a Bishop pronounced Sentence against Becket in case of Treason as Fitztephen a grave Author saith and farther tells you That though the Prince may indulge many Priviledges to his Clergy as this of not compelling them to vote in Parliament in cases of Blood where by the Canon Law they are prohibited yet that Law must yield to the Law of the Land but how if the Canon Law be part of the Law of the Land what 's then to be done which cannot devest the King of his Right of using his Subjects Clerks or not in any Places or Employments he shall think fit to employ them in or in which he may think them capable of doing Him or the Publick any Service This I confess is plain dealing and I wish it were not too much the Sense of some of our greatest Clerks that let the
Law be what it will it cannot bind the King's Hands from making use of any of his Subjects in what he pleases though the Employment be forbidden by Law This is the Meaning our third Author gives of this Constitution and much good may it do him Our last Author in his Grand Question comes next to be examined in which I shall be more large because in him is concentred what the rest have said and his Cause defended with much Learning and variety of Reading He names the Constitutions of Clarendon and the Protestation in 11 R. 2. as the two main Laws against him The Constitutions of Clarendon which were no more than a Recognition of the ancient Laws and Customs of England not made but revived by Hen. the First and now confirmed by his Grand-son Hen. the Second he considers as the most material and is content this Cause should stand or fall by them He tells you the Constitution in Debate is the eleventh in number of which the Words are Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae Personae regni qui de Rege tenent in Capite habeant Possessiones suas de Rege sicut Baroniam inde respondeant Justiciariis Ministris Regis faciant omnes consuetudines Regias Et ficut ceteri Barones debeant interesse Iudiciis curie Regis quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem Membrorum vel ad Mortem After the Words he gives us the Translation of them made by the Author of the Letter in the following manner The Arch-bishops and Bishops and all the dignified Clergy of the Land that hold of the King in Capite shall hold their Possessions of the King as a Barony and answer for their Estates unto the King's Justices and Ministers and shall observe and obey all the King's Laws and together with the other Barons they are to be present at all Judgments in the King's Courts till it comes to require either loss of Life or Member But pray Sir why did you not rather give us a Translation of these Words of your own If the Author of the Letter have made an imperfect Translation why did not you mend it I believe if this Author had found it would have advantaged his Cause some Exceptions would have been taken to the Translation I shall by and by give the Reader a full account of the true Sense of the whole Period but will first make appear the Unreasonableness of the Exposition he makes of the last Clause of it Et sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse judiciis Curiae Regis quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem Membrorum vel ad Mortem The Meaning he conceives to be That the Bishops are required to be present in the King's Courts as other Barons are till they come to give Sentence as to dismembring or loss of Life Why he translates Curiae Regis in the plural Number the Kings Courts which is in the singular the King's Court and in this place hath always been understood of the High Court of Parliament in which the other Barons had an Interest to be present as Judges and in which Sense it is very often taken as is made clear by Mr. Petit in his learned Discourse of the ancient Rights of the Commons of England Pref. pag. 45. out of Gervasius Dorobornensis pag. 1653. who speaking of the Election of Arch-bishop Lanfrank hath these Words Eligentibus eum Senioribus ejusdem ecclesiae cum Episcopis ac principibus Clero Populo Angliae in Curia Regis in assumptione Sanctae Mariae and another Author saith it was Consensu Consilio omnium Baronum suorum omniumque Episcoporum Abbatum totiusque Populi Angliae commisit ei Dorobornensem ecclesiam That this was a Parliament we have little Reason to doubt and that it was called Curia Regis See also Inter com T. Hill 17 E. 3. penes remem in Scacc. 29. 32 H. 3. mem 12. 13. in dors rot claus Consideratum fuit in Cur. nostra toto Parliamento nostro c. Wherein Cur. Regis totum Parl. are but expressive of the same thing and not two Courts as I think I very well know that Curia Regis had various acceptations sometime it signified that Court of Justice that at those times followed the King's Person sometime it was taken for Aula Regis where Entertainments and Feasts were made as we read often in our Historians but I take it here to be understood of the High Court of Parliament for the Reasons before touched and many others if any shall seem to doubt of it Next why doth he leave out Judiciis whereas the Words are The Bishops as the other Barons ought to be present Judiciis curiae Regis in Trials in the King's Court viz. the Parliament he renders they are to be present in the King's Courts To help himself under the covert of an ill Translation savours not of that candour justly to be expected from so learned a Person and one that seeketh after Truth rather than Victory but since this Author is a subtile and no loose Writer give me leave to guess at the Reason of it He saw plainly that had he fairly rendred the Words The Bishops as other Barons have Right to be present in all Causes Sentences or Judgments in the King's Court or Parliament till the Cause Sentence or Judgment come to concern Life or Member the Word Judiciis in the plural Number must have referred to other Judgments in other cases and then the latter clause till Judgment or Sentence came to concern Life or Member would have been clearly restrictive as to cases of Blood for to be present at the Judgments of the Court till Judgment is Non-sense except the Words be applyed to different cases Now this Interpretation would have quite destroyed his main Undertaking who at last gives a Sense of the Words not only coincident with that given by the Author of the Bishops Rights to which I have before spoken but contrary to the Votes of the Lords in Parliament who though they seem to admit their Presence in the hearing such a case yet will not admit them to have any part or voice in the judging of it Beside I must needs take notice that 't is a strange Translation of the words Quousque perveniatur or in judicio perveniatur ad diminutionem Membrorum vel ad mortem Till they come to give Sentence when the Words more naturally import till Judgment may be fulfilled in the cutting off of Member or Life which is Execution But I shall anon give him a more proper Translation of the Words in the mean time will consider all his Subterfuges and cunning Evasions by which he would give colour to his Interpretation First from the occasion the Author of the Letter pag. 73. had said The Prelates affected a kind of Omnipotency he conceives the Author means in Judicature and I conceive he made that Supposition because he judged it for his Advantage to suppose so
not that the thing was true or that the Author of the Letter gave him any cause to take up that Fancy Their Affectation of Omnipotency was not to be freed from that part of the Law of the Land which was agreeable with the Laws of the Church which they were content to submit to but their Desire was to be freed from those they thought were against them to wit to do Service to the King for their Lands to answer to his Justices and Ministers to be subject to the secular Power for any crimes they should commit These were the things they stormed at and were the Ecclesiastical Bondage and the wicked Constitutions Matt. Paris and other Historians of his Time so much exclaimed against because they would have had all their Affairs transacted in their own Courts so that our Author need not have spent ten Pages to prove what no body affirms Much of the Contests between the King and Clergy arose from the Charter granted by K. Stephen Anno 1136. That all Persons and Causes ecclesiastical should appertain only to ecclesiastical Judges which Charter whatever stir they made about it according to our Author's Logick was void for Maud the Empress Daughter to Henry the First third Son to William the First and so right Heir to the Crown was then alive to whom the Bishops and People had sworn Obedience and therefore King Stephen was as much an Usurper as Hen. the Fourth This Charter was the Latis offendiculi the stumbling Stone they could not escape and the meer restoring now at Clarendon the ancient Laws and Customs confirmed to the People by Hen. 1. was what gave them the greatest Disturbance not that they affected any Omnipotency of Judicature at least in cases of Blood insomuch that our Author had no reason to pin a Sense upon the Words of the Author of the Letter to which he had no Inducement from any Words of that Author Having done with the Occasion we come now to his second Enforcement of his Opinion viz. the plain meaning of the Words First he quarrels with the copy the Author of the Letter follows taken out of Matt. Paris and Wendover who notwithstanding in Mr. Selden's Opinion have best preserved the meaning of this Constitution Seld. tit hon part 2. pa. 703. 704. Though I do not grant his Vatican copy following as he saith Gerv. Doroberniensis is better yet for once I am content to follow his copy and admit the Words in Judicio to be inserted which are left out by Matt. Paris yet I think necessarily implyed but shall never yield to his unwarrantable construction of them which in conclusion amounts to this That the Bishops were bound to be in the Kings Courts in all Judgments till it came to Sentence of loss of Life and Member and then they might go out in obedience to the Canons of the Church if they pleased to which they pretended themselves bound in Conscience to give Obedience and that for this Reason the Pope marked this Constitution with a hoc tolerandum the others with hoc improbandum I confess I think the Interpretation of these Words contrary to their natural Sense and contrary to the Opinion and Practise of former times who have always understood them to import that the Clergy ought to be present in all Tryals in Parliament except in Tryals of Blood But before I proceed to make good the true Sense and Translation of these words it will be necessary to explain the Signification of some of them First Quousque usque quo dummodo praeterquam are often times indifferently taken as signifying the same thing and are limiting restraining Particles and used as Exceptions to something which went before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till what time till when so far forth except when or the like Secondly Iudicium signifies properly a Tryal at Law a Case a Suit or Process and is not taken for a definitive Sentence except when it is delivered as the Opinion of the Court resulting upon a precedent Tryal had before others in which he that pronounces Sentence hath not or very rarely more than a directive Power and do's not give his own single Opinion but the Sense of others in matters debated Actiones quarum causa in jus quisque vocatur quandoque dicuntur judicia Ut in L. in bon fid 13. de Usuris L. 4. C. tit 32. L. Mora S. in bo fid Theophilus refert in S. 1. de Act. quas Athenienses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebant Budaeus notat in communi Lingua Graeca per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 generali nomine dicebant litem actionem paenam mulctam judicium to wit the whole Proceedings Iudicium est legitima disceptatio duorum aut plurium coram judice Cale Dict. Calv. Lex juridcirca finem to the same purpose By these Authorities and many more 't is plain that Judicium Judgment comprehends the whole Proceedings in any Cause and not the Sentence only Pervenio signifies to arrive at or the Accomplishment or Bounds of any thing as pervenire ad metam is to arrive at or come to the Goal Ovid speaking of the Return made by the Eccho hath these Words Verba refert aures non pervenientia nostras Words that arrived not at our Ears they came not to the Terms or Bounds designed So pervenior in the Passive Voice must signifie to be arrived at or accomplished in That Judicium in our Case must be taken in the Sense I have given I shall evince from the general Opinion of Lawyers I shall begin with Magna Charta The Words there are judicium Parium and understood of a Tryal by his Equals The Question which is asked the Prisoners after their Plea is not who shall give Sentence upon thee but how wilt thou be tryed and they that give Sentence are not those that try them in criminal Cases nay their appealing to a Tryal by them is accounted a standing Mute The next Authority shall be from the Council at Westminster in the 22. year of Hen. 2. no more than twelve years after the Assize of Clarendon and as Hoveden saith taken out of the 11. of Toledo and summoned as Gervas of Canterbury saith In hoc consilio ad emendationem Ecclesiae Anglicanae ex assensu Domini Regis primorum omnium Regni haec subscripta promulgata sunt Capitula Amongst which this is one His qui in sacris ordinibus constituti sunt judicium sanguinis agitare non licet unde prohibemus ne aut per se Membrorum truncationes faciant aut inferendas judicent That such as were in holy Orders should not agitate or meddle in Tryals of Blood as a thing unlawful for which Reason they are prohibited from cutting off any Member themselves or from giving their Opinions or Judgments that such Punishments ought to be inflicted This Synod we see was not only a Meeting of the Clergy but with them of the Primores Regni
the Truth but that he confounds the Potential with the Indicative Mood The Words are where Life or Member may be concerned which he reads are concerned and so seems to refer them to the Sentence which ought to be referred to the whole Proceedings In the last place let us hear the Sense his grave Author Fitz-Stephens puts upon this last Clause After the Appeal of the Arch-bishop Becket to Rome the King expostulates the matter with him asketh him why he would break his Oath so lately sworn at Clarendon Amongst which Hec una est ut Episcopi omnibus ejus assint judiciis preterquam judicio sanguinis That is That the Bishops should be present at all Tryals except when the Tryal concerned Blood where you see he renders Duousque by preterquam as indeed â—…sque quo quousque usque dum praeterquam have the same Sense all restrictive Now Fitz-Stephen was undoubtedly at the Parliament at Clarendon which was not above seven months before the Meeting at Northampton Fitz. ca. 10. col 12. Our Author proceeds and tells you there is a great deal of difference between Duousque perveniatur ad judicium mutilationis Membrorum vel Mortis and quousque perveniatur in judicio c. I confess I understand not this Criticism which however is not warranted by the Authority of any Copy neither can it be made capable of any good Sense except one not different to what I have given for if it were quousque perveniatur ad judicium c. I ask to what doth perveniatur refer I think most properly to Curia Regis That is to say 't is their Duty to be present at all Proceedings in Parliament until such a Case may fall out where Life or Member may be concerned For we must not be permitted to fancy a Sense of Words and then contrary to all Rule wrest them to our own Biass and against the Opinion of such as writ before us neither are we to expect from these old Monkish Writers such polite Latin as Tully writ but take their meaning as others who liv'd nearer the time have done before us So that I have done with this Clause when I have first told the Reader that I have translated debent interesse 'T is their Duty to be present because they would often take Liberty to go away or protest or be troublesom upon several Pretences sometime the Canons allowed them not when the Law did sometime the Liberty of the Church was concerned as appears by the Statute de asportatis religiosorum where they absented themselves Co. 2. Inst. pag. 585. All these Subterfuges were obviated by this Statute although perhaps not by them well observed which required their Attendance in Parliament in all Causes where they were not prohibited by the received Laws of the Nation Now our Author acknowledgeth that the Council of Toledo was brought into England by Lanfrank in William the First his time which Council is put out in the second Tome of the English Councils by Sir Will. Dugdale and Mr. Spelman as the Work of Sir Henry his Father That Council forbids their Presence in Cases of Blood which being as he admits received here as low as the Conquest made it a Custom in Henry the First his Time and an ancient Custom in Hen. the Second and now being allowed at the Parliament at Clarendon to which they all swore makes that Custom or Canon as much a part of the Law of England as any affirmative Statute can and so not to be repealed except by as equal Authority as that by which it first became a Law and was now affirmed as such By what hath been hitherto said I think it will appear competently plain to any unbiassed Reader that the word in judicio doth not refer as he supposes to that particular Tryal then in Court as if it had respect to one Period in the Tryal and left them at liberty to be present at all other parts of it but was restrictive to all Tryals whatsoever which might have their Conclusion in Blood and his Allusion in the same Page is as little solid As suppose saith he Charles the Fifth had required the Protestant Princes to attend him to Mass as other Princes did only when the Mass-Bell tinckled they might withdraw would not any reasonable man believe by this that they were obliged to their Attendance till then So here the King commands their Attendance till it comes to such a Point therefore before it comes to such a point their Presence is plainly required by this Constitution This Allusion or Supposition doth no way answer our Case except he had shewed us that there were different sorts of Masses in some whereof the tinckling-Bell sounded in others not and then Charles the Fifth had required their Attendance at all Masses until such a Mass might sall out in which the tinckling-Bell was to sound here their Absence would have been allowed during every part of such a Mass. Our Case is the same some Tryals there are in Parliament which may concern Life or Member others which cannot Now the Statute saith 't is their Duty to be present in all Tryals until such a Tryal happen in which Life or Member may be concerned I hope here this Restriction will have Reference to the whole Tryal and not any particular Period of it I had not said this the matter being sufficienttly cleared before but out of Apprehension that some unwary Reader might be misled by this Author's Subtilty and believe there was weight where indeed there was none But however the Words of Petrus Blesensis will give great light to the whole matter This Petrus Blesensis was Arch-Deacon of Bâ—…th and the place cited is amongst his Oâ—…ula in the Edition I have in Quarto and precedent to that other in Folio 'T is in his Tractate de institutione Episcopali pag. 542. or rather Y y 2 for the Pages are in my Copy falsly numbred dedicated to the then Bishop of Worcester The Design of the whole Tractate is to shew the duty of a Bishop and by the whole Scope seems to be addressed to all Bishops and not to the English only He lived in the time of Hen. 2. for his 136. Epistle is to Pope Alexander the Third from K. Henry about the Rebellion of his Son The Words are not in my Edition as the Author recites them Principes Sacerdotum seniores Populi But Quidam Principes Sacerdotum Seniores Populi Not the chief Priest and Elders but certain of the Chief Priests and Elders of the People By which it seems to me this could not be understood of an English Parliament because all the Bishops had equal right to be present in Parliament and this is restrained to certain of them Secondly I think Seniores Populi never comprehends Abbots Priors with Lords and Commons together I know Baronagium Clearus Populus are sometime so taken but I believe Seniores populi never
the Lords and Commons in the case of some of the late Traitors should have the like construction and the entring into the Roll by the Clerk was no more then entring into the Lords Journal now But since our Author hath made his Observations let him give me leave also to make mine First This protestation is cunningly worded by their own Direction therefore their calling themselves Peers of the Realm doth not make them such in any new sense neither doth entring in their Journal Book do more than make it a Record and render them liable to Punishment if any thing unfit in it shall be taken notice of An example of this we have in the Bishops Protestation 1641. That all Laws to be made in their forced Absence should be void which could not any way weaken them or ours here that they should be good any ways strengthen those Laws then made The next thing observable is that he saith 'T is their undoubted Right as Peers of the Realm by virtue of their Baronies to sit and vote in all Debates in Parliament In which Assertion he begs two things first That they sit there by Vertue of their Baronies whereas he hath not proved they ever had any except tenere sicut or quasi per Baroniam or per servitium Baroniae be equivalent with esse Baronem which I cannot so easily admit though they call themselves so and in ordinary Speech may be so called by others that Question having never been determined though admitted in Pleading by Counsel The Reasons of my Doubts I have given in my first Chapter and shall submit them to more learned Judgments They say here they sit as Barons but allow that they have no Right to judge in those Cases then in Agitation and notwithstanding it should be true that William the First divided the Kingdom into Counties and Baronies to hold of him in Capite a County to contain twenty Knights Fees a Barony thirteen or thereabout it doth not appear that every Bishop had thirteen Knights Fees or that some of them had not above twenty yet all of them held equally in Capite sicut Baroniam and sate there among the Nobility as Associates to them I shall farther observe that their Right to sit and vote there was more solito as they had usually done and this with a Salvo or Saving to their State and Order so that except our Author had first proved that 't was their usual manner to vote and judge in matters of Blood and that this was agreeable to their State and Order which themselves deny he hath done nothing for they pretend not to any other Right but what they usually enjoyed and what was agreeable to their State and Order Let now our Author take what Advantage he can from the Preface to the Protestation for the Omission of which he so much blames the Pen-man of the Letter The second matter he affirms and attempts to prove is that their absenting themselves was merely in obedience to the Canons of the Church and not out of Respect to any other Law Yet Sir William Baker's Continuer pag. 478. ult Edit saith their Absence was not from their Obedience to the Canon-Law only but according to the Practise of the Kingdom to this day by which it seems he look'd upon it as the common Practise for them to do so For he tells you 't was impossible they should claim such a Right by virtue of their Baronies or that the Lords should allow such a Protestation if there were any other Law against them then in force And that if this Protestation were a Law the Case was more strong on their side for then it declares they had that Right they pretended to by Law Should I admit this for once Doth it not also as solemnly declare that in Cases of Blood they are barred by the Canon-Law and so make that Bar a part of the matter enacted But for a fuller Answer and Discharge of what he urgeth without repeating what I have said before as to the Protestation it self let me put him in mind what I doubt not he knows that all Arguments ab impossibili or Deductions ad impossibile are the weakest ways of Demonstration and never used where any other can be brought which at best in this Case can only argue a Neglect in the Lords But secondly he may be advertised that all protestations are entered according to the desire of the Protestors and not made an Act of the House Lastly all this is but what they usually did and hath not relation to any other Matter than what was their Custom and was agreeable to their State and order which was to absent themselves in cases of Blood His Digression afterward for for two or three Leaves about the Power of of the Pope or his Legate to dispense with Irregularity which here he calls a Penalty in another place the Sanction it self together with the mystery of the Canon-Law serves in my Judgment to no other end but to shew the Bishops were generally Time-servers and forced Polity and Religion to bend to their turns forgetting that nothing is profitable which is not first Just. However we do not hear of any Dispensation granted here either by the Pope or his Legate and I would be glad this Author did let us know that his Opinion is that the Pope or Legate have a legal Power to to dispence with those Canons established in Councils and received by a Nation I always did believe that those that attributed to the Pope a greater Power then I do did not look upon him under any other Notion than as one trusted to keep and not to break the Canons Having thus cleared the Protestation from his Objections let us examine the clear meaning of it This Author saith that the very reading it is sufficient to convince any man that the Canons were the only cause of their absence I will not deny but that it might him but do not believe it hath Reason to force others to be of this mind For if two Laws were against them to wit the Canon-Law and the Common-Law confirmed in Parliament 't was not unusual for those sort of men to express which of them they had most mind to But beside this I find no Absurdity to affirm they took notice of both though more obscurely of the last by a Non licet to the one by a de jure non possumns to the other 'T is not lawful for us at any hand by the first viz. the Canons which are to us a greater Law than any other Next by the Law of the Land de jure non possunius Not that in it self our Presence in all Cases were unlawful if the Canons were not in the way But there is also another Law which prohibits us from being present in those Cases in which otherwise we might have thought it reasonable to have given our Assistance who are no such strict Observers of the
when they might have been others that they were present when by his own Rules they should have been excluded either therefore the general words where they are not mentioned do not enforce their Absence or that they oughtto have been excluded at some other Trials where the Author of the Letter admits they were or might have been present The chief Case he instanceth in is that of Michael de la Pool Chancellour of England who was accused of many Misdemeanours by the House of Commons and as I think he would infer such as Thorp Chief Justice was found guilty of being Capital where the Author of the Letter saith the Bishops were not present yet allows them to have been present in the Case of this Chancellour a parallel Case as he saith with that of Thorp either therefore saith our Author they might have been present in the Case of Thorp or they should have been absent in Trial of Pool This is his Argument as near as I can gather out of his Words put together something obscurely I need give no other Answer to this than to lay before you the words of the Record This Accusation was exhibited by the Commons in 10 R. 2. against Michael de la Pool Lord Chancellour in full Parliament before the King Bishops and Lords and six Articles were objected by them against him The first was That he purchased Lands of the King of great value whilst he was Chancellour the other five as the Record saith were only Quarrels and of little concern To the first and most considerable the Chancellour put in a fair Answer the Commons reply and urge things to the utmost and amongst other things say That whereas by the Popes Provisions a Person was recommended to the Priory of St. Anthonies he the said Chancellour would not suffer him to be admitted till the Grantee had contracted to pay to the Chancellor and his Son 100 l. yearly and then parallel this with Thorp's Case and would have had the Chancellor in the same fault with Thorp for Bribery as a Judg and consequently incur the same Judgment The Chancellor replies and shews great difference between the Cases Upon the whole matter Judgment was given against him pursuant to the Accusation for Misdemeanours only in which the Bishops were and might be present and the parallelling it with Thorp's Case was only in the Management of the Cause by the Commons and no part of the Accusation Neither is it reasonable to believe that which our Author asserts in the same Page that the Prelates were free Agents and might withdraw at some times and be present at others as they saw cause For beside that this is contrary to the express Law of Clarendon which expresly declares that 't is their duty to be present in all Proceedings in Curia Regis which in that place must be understood of the Parliament because they were to be present with the other Lords tho I know that Curia Regis is sometimes taken in a more laxe Sense for all the Courts in Westminster are the King's Courts and unto which they were to give Obedience and Attendance in Cases not prohibited I say over and above this Act at Clarendon it seems to me very unreasonable to suppose that such a Body of Men had liberty to give their Attendance when they pleased without leave of the House or cause shewed why 't was fit they should be absent or that the Author of the Letter meant more when he saith they might have been present than that they were not prohibited by the Law of Clarendon which only had Relation to Matters of Blood But these Men had other Canons to go by when they thought fit as well as those of Toledo and 't is probable enough that the rest of the Noble-Men finding them most constant Factors for the Pope were willing enough to let them be absent upon any colourable Pretence when they desired it Is not one clear Precedent against them in point of greater weight than many dubious and equivocal ones which cannot without great Art be wire-drawn to speak to their advantage Let him consult the Discourse of Peerage pag. 17. The Case of the Earl of Northumberland 7 Hen. 4. Rot. processus cor Dom. Rege in Parl. in 5 Hen. 4. This Noble-Man came into Parliament and confessed before the King and Lords that he had done against his Allegiance in gathering Power and giving Liveries this Fact by the Lords was adjudged no Treason for which he gives Thanks to the Lords his Judges and a day after the Commons do the like where the Prelates are named as our Author affirms and to which I shall speak by and by But in 7 Hen. 4 the same Earl was in actual Rebellion in the North and his Forces dispersed by the Earl of Westmarland but he and the Lord Bardolf fled into Scotland the rest were most of them taken Prisoners This Case came into Parliament where the King commands the Lords Temporal Peers of the Realm to advise what Process to make and what Judgment to render against the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolf Nothing can be plainer than that the King look'd upon the Lords Temporal as those Peers who were proper to give Judgment touching their Fellow Peers who had fled from Trial in a case of Blood The Record goes on the said Lords advised thereupon and gave Counsel to the King Then the said Lords Peers of the Realm by assent of the King order summoning the said Lords to appear at a day given or to stand convicted by Award of the Peers in Parliament The King farther demanded the Opinion of the Lords Temporal touching the Arch-bishop of York who was in the same Treason The Lords Temporal by the Assent of the King and by their Authority declared and awarded the said Earl and Lord to stand convict of Treason for not appearing upon Summons 'T is very clear that this whole Business was transacted by the Lords Temporal without the Bishops and with the Concurrence of the King 'T is not to be believed that the Bishops would have sate quiet had they thought themselves wronged in these Proceedings See the Discourse of Peerage pag. 17 18. I think it hardly possible to find a more clear Record in the Point than this is First here were two Noble Lords defeated in actual Rebellion and fled from Justice into Scotland The King upon this would not so much as consult with his Prelates knowing them by Law no proper Counsellours against Peers in matters of Blood applies himself to his Lords Temporal they order Proclamations by order of the King enjoyning the said Lords to appear at a day certain or to stand convict they not appearing are by Award of the Lords Temporal convicted of Treason and a Year after one is slain the other mortally wounded at Bramham-moor in York-shire Can any thing be more agreable to the Practice at this day against Men that fly from Justice and
casu fieri consuevit Teste Rege apud Lancetost 18. die Octobris 34. FINIS ERRATA PAge 113. line 3. in Marg. read true way P. 117. l. 18. r. Bannerets Ib. l. 21. r. Banneret P. 122. l. 2. r. St. P. 144. l. 8. r. ingenuously So P. 145. l. 31. P. 160. l. 5 after the Word Barony add in the Margine viz. Ecclesiastical Persons P. 174. or 274. T l. 18. r. done P. 204. V l. 2. r. Counsel So l. 11. Ib. P. 212. X l. 22. r. permixtim P. 217. X l. 26. r. de tout le c. P. 220. l. 6. r. taken Other Literal Mistakes the Reader is desired to correct with his Pen. A TABLE of the Principal CONTENTS The Number of the Page being often mistaken through the Printers false counting to one another the Reader is desired where the Figures are wrong to observe the Letter which begins the Sheet A Page Abby of Molross O 206 207 Absence of the Bishops not merely from the Canon-Law 84 N 181 182 Adam de Orlton's Case R 267 T 180 Agitare Judicium Sanguinis prohibited H 101 and N 157 183 Allusion made by the Questionist not solid 165 Appeal to Rome no capital Crime antiently M 173 Appeal of Earl Godwin Q 227 Appeals in Trial V 191 192 193 Appellation ought to be governed by the Right S 278 Apostles their Rule p. 89 how far their Practice to be urged for Example now 133 Apostolick Canons against Clergy-Men their medling in Secular Affairs P 135 216 Arch-bishop Stratford's Case T 282 283 284 Arundel Earl his Case O 208 Assemby at Northampton no Parliament p. 170 171 172. Matters carried there in great Heat and no Iudgment of Treason given M 172 173 Attainders what they are 9 10 Augustine St. his Opinion 94 95 B. BArons how made enobled in Blood and how made 107 to 120 Barons by Blood and by Tenure different 78 118 119 120 Barones Majores who 78 Z 245 246 Barones Minores who 7 8 Barons Peer who 21 107 117 Barones Regis who 107 Z 247 to 250 Barones Regni who ibid. Baronagium and how comprehensive 107 P 202 203 Y 226 S 278 Becket not impeached of Treason from 65 to 70 and from 172 to N 180 Berkeley Sir Tho. his Case 28 29 V 196 Blesensis his Words marked 97 98 125 167 168 R 261 Bishops whether they sit in Parliament by vertue of any Baronies p. 106 108 and how 122 c. T 174 or 274 Bishops not Barons 77 108 19 123 124 125 Bishops how they sate with the Earls 91 92 93 145 P 217 Bishops Service and Tenure a Burthen 106 124 125 Their Tenure offects not their Persons 77 Bishops if a third Estate not capable to try a Peer 128 Bishops the form of their Writs no Argument of their Power 86 129 130 when present always exprest that they were 36 Bishops medling in Secular Affairs forbidden 129 135 P 216. Their Opposition to the King at Clarendon and from what Cause 141 Bishops Power clipt at Clarendon 99 O 144 when to go away in Criminal Cases 161 196 197 even in Acts of Parliament R 265 Bishops Absence not merely from the Canons 8 84 N 181 182 183 190 N 193 O Bishops Protestation p. 5 6 7 translated and explained 41 42 and N 185 to 194 Bishops not reckoned Nobles T 184 or 284 not called Lords till the time of Rich. II. 108 Bishop of Norwich his Case 40 Bishop of Carlile tried by a common Iury T 279 so Bishop of Ely 278 ibid. Bishops Absence no Error 47 Bishops had no Right to be present in the Debate and handling matters of Blood 143 Bishops not comprehended under the name of Peers or Grands if put after Earls and Barons 14 18 to 25 32 Bishops if others named always named where they are present 24 29 32 36 and that before others R 261 Bishops not Peers to Temporal Lords 71 to 99 S 280 Bishops sit in respect of Temporal Possessions 83 yet in the quality of Spiritual Persons T 174 or 274 and S 289 Bishops cannot sit in a double Capacity S 288 289 T 174 Bishops contended to be tried by their own Order T 181 or 281 whence their pretence of Immunity proceeded 153 Bishops to be tried by common Iuries T 277 to 282 Bishops their Equivocation 141 Bishops Messengers of Peace V 197 Bishops chief Employment to make Peace in civil Affairs antiently Counsellours not Iudges p. 89 91 their refusing to give Advice about keeping the Peace 30 31 266 and R 269 Bishops but part of a third Estate 80 to 85 and 126 127 137 S 290 Bishops in France never sit in that Chamber of Parliament which tries Capital Cases 90 Bishops never absent not prov'd Q 228 Bishops no where allowed to sit Inquisitors of Blood V 198 Bishops not summoned to Parliament several times Q 238 Bishops a Question whether they might be even of a Committee in matters of Blood V 199 Boeges de Bayon's Case 25 26 Brady Dr. his Assertions and Fancies condemned Pref. to the 2d Part and p. 189 in Marg. V X A a 204 205 224 227 Burroughs and Burgesses Z 237 238 C. CAmbridg Earl 50 Canons forbidding of Clergy-men to meddle in Capital Causes still in force 87 164 and P 217 to 222 Canons concerning Blood as anciently in England as the Conquest and part of the common Law N 181 182 Capitalis Justiciarius Angliae what Office 137 138 Capitalia placita what Q. 229 230 231 Chancellour when no Peer how tried T 285 286 Charter of King John the Author's Interpretation of it asserted against Dr. Brady X 206 207 against Mr. Hunt Z 237 to 242 Clarendon the meeting there a Parliament 139 Clarendon and the Parliament there considered 99 100 142 Clarendon Earl his Arguments against the pretended Conquest A a 260 to 263 Chivaler who B b 284 Clergy subjected to Baron-Service 112 140 Clergy their Power in Primitive-times 89 their Power in other Nations 90 Clerus never taken for the Bishops alone 126 Commons and Commonalty of the Kingdom where Records and Histories manifestly shew their Presence at Parliament before 49 Hen. 3â—… X 211 to Y 22â—… Commons their Vote in Danby's Case O 98 Commons sometimes meant by Grands R 270 S 279 226 3d Part anciently had their share in Judicature R 266 267 268 Commons always Members of Parliament 172 O 202 sâ—… together with the Lords in the times of Hen. I and King Stephen X 212 and long afterwards O 202 203 204 Mr. W's Grounds for the Belief that they had no Right to come to Parliament till 49 H. 3. answered and turned against him X 210 to Y 227 so Mr. Hunt's p. 221 222 223 Y 235 and to A a 268 Commons their Petition 21 R. 2. p. 11. and O 195 196 Community of Names no Argument of Right S 278 Concordia 4 E. 3. 27 R 263 Conquest disclaimed by William the first 139 A a 260 no Conquest
and 2. Ed. 3. forbidding Churchmen to take Cognizance of Matters of Blood 30 33 64. and 169 Statute of Clarendon a binding Law and only affirmative of the old Law 153 Statute of Westminster Anno 1175 forbidding all Persons in Holy Orders Judicium Sanguinis agitare 101 102 157 Stephen Bishop of London tryed by a Common Iury. 27 Stephen King his Charter to the Clergy 140 153 Stratford Arch-Bishop his Case T 283 Succession to the Crown 209 to P 214 Suffolk Duke his Case 13 60. S 284 285 T. TAlbot Lord his Case S 285 Temporal Lords sole Iudges of Peers 40 56 R 276. S 280 Tenants in Capite more than they Members of Parliament before 49th H. 3d. yeilded in Effect by Mr. Hunt 264 to 268. 3d. Part. Tenure in Capite created 78 A a 253 Tenure in Capite Mr. Hunt's Mistakes about it 242 to A a 258 Tenure by Barony inferred no more than a Minor Baron 78 109 118 119 120 Thorp Sir William 32 33 Titles Vid. Succession to the Crown Treason declared by the Iudges in Parliament R 264 265 Trial of Bishops by a Common Iury. 26 27 T 278 279 Trials in Appeals and the reason thereof V 191 192 193 U. UTriusque ordinis consensus explained T 275 276 W. Waver of Peerage T 286 287 Westminster the Council there forbiding Churchmen to meddle in matters of Blood 101 102 157 Cicero de Senectute ult edit tom 4. f. 532. Jani Angl. facies nova p. 186. Habet Rex Curiam suam in concilio suo in Parliamentis suis ubi terminatae sunt dubitationes judiciorum novis injuriis emersis nova constituuntur remedia unicuique justitia prout meruerit retribuetur ibidem Fleta lib. 2. cap. 2. The passage relating to the constituting new remedies must needs here relate to the power of the Magnum concilium or curia in making Ordinances Vid. Jus Angl. ab antiquo Addit p. 40. Ib. p. 39. Jan. Angl. p. 186 189 190. Jan. Angl. c. p. 201. Ib. p. 199. Ib. p. 189. Mr. Hunt's Argument p. 17. Vid. p. 100. 139 to 166. Vid. p. 65 to 70 172 to 181. Dr. Stillingfleet says The King insisted on the receiving the Ancient Customes of Clarendon Answer to Cressy's Apol. p. 100. This received over all the Western Church Burnet's History of the Reformation f. 101. Mr. Hunt's Arg p. 6. Jan. Angl. facies nova à p. 186. to 219. Vid. p. 87 183 184 c. Page 7. Page 25. Page 24. Pag. 13 and Pag. 37 c. Page 38. Page 129. Gr. Qu. p. 1. Seld. Tit. hon p. 730. I edit fol. 19 Edw. 2. Seld. Tit. Hon. pag. 704. Mat Par. p 7. ult ed. Ad id temporis Mr. Hunt thinks that the Tenure made them Barons and that Tenure and Barronies were coincident Seld Tit. Hon. p. 699. and 700. a This I take to be the only true of enobling any body as to the Nobilitas Major Seld. Tit. Hon. par 2. cap. 5. cir finem Vid. Els 〈◊〉 p. 33. b See Mr. Seld. Jans Angl. facies altera ult edit p. 51. Seld. Tit. Hon. pag. 747. Dugd. Baron c Query Whether this Summons gave him other Title than a Minor Baron 7 Edw. 2. 7 Rich. 2. 7 Rich. 2. Vid. Cot. Post. â—…ls edit pag. 344. Seld. Tit. Hon. pag. 690. Part 2. c. 13. Fitstep c. 11. Matth. Paris Anno 1215. Hakewell pag. 4. Pâ—…in 591 c. Seld. Tit. Hon. part 2. p. 743 Cook 's Iuris of Courts Hakew. Mod. p. 135. Dan. Cron. Anno 1133. Rights of the Crown p. 100. Cook 's Preface to his 9th Report sets it out at large Fitst cap. 10 col 2. Seld. Tit. Hon. cap. 5. pag. 706. d N. B. their calling themselves Barons did not make them such who were at first summoned Ratione Episcopalis Dignitatis e Vid. Rot. Fin. 9. H. 3. me 3. 12. E. 2. Funivals c. 18. E. 2. Nevils c. Pet. Blesens yy 2. edit in Quarto or some Lines before see after p. 58 and p. 129. b wrongfully or contrary to the true use Kelway fol. 184. saith That the Convocation is not a part of the higher House neither the Bishops any part of it but sit there as they have Temporal Baronies But he doth not say the Convocation is not one Estate or part of the Parliament which however is but the Opinion of a Serjeant at Law Dr. Heylin's Stumbling-block Prin. fourth p. Kal. p. 594 595. Gr. q. p. 〈◊〉 Gr. q. p. 3. Els. p. 〈◊〉 Gr. q. p. 4. Hist. Coll. part 2. pag. 990. Gr. q. p. 6. Vid. Dan. p. 35. 46. Baker p. 26. 30. Gr. q. p. 6. N. B. Here he makes the whole Clergy to be one of the three Estates Il Nipotismo de Roma p. 37. Pad paolo de materie ecclesiastiche Our Bishops Rights pag. 61. Spel. Glos. verb. Cap. Justic. Co. 2. Inst. p. 26. Seld. tit hon part 2. p. 703. What Dr. Bradies Fancy is in that Particular let him make good if he can Coo. Cawdreys Case Twysden's Vind. of Schism In a Parliament held at Oxford Anno 1136. he grants by his Charter under his Hand That all Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical should appertain only to Ecclesiastical Judges Hon. of the Lords p. 26. Laws of Edg. ch 5. Coo. Mag. Cha. p. 488. Rejoin p. 5. Jour of â—…arl p. 258. Bishops Rights p. 139. 141. Gr. q. p. 19. Gr. q. p. 20. Petit pr. p. 45. Ger. Dorob p. 1653. 〈◊〉 E. 3. Gr. q. p. 20. Gr. q. p. 30. Seld. tit hon p. 703. Gr. q. p. 32. Hoveden f. 543. Ger. Dorob fo 1429. An. 1175. Non licet ought not to be translated it is not convenient as Mr. Hunt would have it and never hath that Signification but when a Law intervenes which makes it as well unlawful as inconvenient for every Law makes the Breach of it inconvenient Linw. lib. 3. tit 29. Ne qui Cler. Vid. Treat of the Nobil pag. 68. supposed to be by Doddridg Seld. tit hon p 704. Cook 2 Inst. pag. 587. Hakewell mod pa. 84. Adsint Fitz. cap. 10. col 12. Co. Ma. Ch. p. 585. Gr. q. p. 33. Gr. q. p. 34. That Edition in qâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certainly the best the latter ones being printed from that Copy Pet. Blâ—…n Y y 2. The critically learned Mr. Hunt in his undigested Lump instead of a methodical Discourse pag. 5â—… endeavours to cure the Ignorance of his Readers by telling them that by Principes Sacerdotum Seniores Populi the Bishops are only meant who from the Dignity and Worthiness of their Order are called Seniores a note of Dignity in all Countries He should have done well to have added Qâ—…m Principes Sacerdotum Sâ—…es populi as the first and best Edition of Petrus Blesensis hath it That Senior is a name of Honour he might have learn'd at School but that the Chief Priests and the Elders often mâ—…ned in Scripture were the same â—…ns he hath