Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	parliament_n	petition_n	2,565	5	9.5981	5	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47876	The lawyer outlaw'd, or, A brief answer to Mr. Hunts defence of the charter with some useful remarks on the Commons proceedings in the last Parliament at Westminster, in a letter to a friend.	L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1683 (1683)	Wing L1266; ESTC R25476	42,596	42

at Foot-ball and of equal Authority in point of Judicature The Lords saith he in their House have Power of Judicature and the Commons in their House have Power of Judicature and both together have Power of Judicature p 23 But I wish since the Lords Judicial Power as well with as without the Commons is beyond all dispute this great Lawyer had so far oblig'd Posterity as to have left us some convincing Argument to make the World believe the like of the House of Commons or at least given us some Instances of their using this Power in former Ages as the Lords have done time out of mind In the mean time 't is a shrewd Argument against his Assertion that in H. 4. time the Commons themselves in their Petition to the King declar'd That the Judgments of Parliament appertained only to the King and Lords and not to the Commons and therefore they prayed the King out of his special Grace to shew unto them the said Judgments and the cause of them that so no Record might be made in Parliament against the said Commons without their privity To which the Bishop of Canterbury answer'd by the Kings command That the Commons are Petitioners and Demanders and that the King and Lords always had and of right shall have the Judgments in Parliament even as the Commons themselves have shewed saving that in Statutes to be made or Grants and Subsidies or such things as are to be done for the publick profit of the Realm the King will have especially their advice and assent 1 H. 4. Rol. Parl n. 79. Who now is to be believ'd Sir Edward Coke attributing to the Commons or the Commons themselves wholly disclaiming all Power of Judicature Or shall a single Lawyers Ipse dixit or proofless assertion be of greater weight than so solemn a Declaration upon Record approv'd off by King Lords and Commons But to be short and to argue ad hominem against our late Demagogues at Wesminster if they thought themselves a Court of Judicature and Record as Sir Edward Coke is pleas'd to make them 't is strange what cou'd be their motive unless to shew their Arbitrary Power to the World to Imprison so many of His Majesties Loyal Subjects and after a long and chargeable Confinement release them without offering to bring them to any legal Tryal For if these Gentlemen were reputed Criminal they ought to have been try'd according to Law if Innocent they shou'd not have been Imprison'd And to say their Confinement was by the House design'd for a punishment of their suppos'd Misdemeanors 't is contrary to common sense and to all Laws both humane and divine For at this rate people will be condemnâ—d before they are heard and punish'd before they are convicted nay which is worse than Abington-Law to hang a man first and try him after they shall be punish'd at will and never brought to a tryal What can be safe if this be admitted or who can be secure either of Life or Liberty if a prevailing Faction in the House of Commons may toss him thus in a Blanket without any Rhime or Reason contrary to the undoubted Right of the Subject and the Fundamental Laws of the Nation But we are told the Commons have often Imprison'd people for misdemeanors and releas'd them again at their own Discretion I wish they had shew'd us withal by what Authority or Law they committed them for a facto ad jus is no good argument with any man of sense or judgment How many Appeals have been made to Rome and provisions of Benefices procur'd from thence during the Papal Usurpation Yet these being contrary to Law the Authors were still punishable and it was no excuse for any that others had done the like before The Commons have been a constituent part of the Great Council of the Kingdom either since the 16th of Henry I. as some Historians write or since the 49th of H. 3. in the year 1364. as most Authors agree and yet all this while we cannot find that by their own Authority they imprison'd any Criminal till in the 4th of Ed. 6. about the year 1550 they committed Criketost to the Tower when the King was an Infant and all govern'd by the ambitious Duke of Somerset who to be sure wou'd not expostulate with the House of Commons about such a trifle as he thought it whilst they forbore to question him for his more illegal and arbitrary Proceedings Now if there be no other argument to justifie the Commons imprisoning Delinquents but the practice of their House since the 4th of Ed. 6. 't is plain the commitment of Criketost was illegal because not justifiable by any former practice of that House and consequently cou'd be no fit Precedent to be imitated in succeeding Parliaments And if their first Essays of this kind were unwarrantable by Law their subsequent Commitments cou'd be no better for Quod ab initio non valuit tractu temporis non convalescit To what purpose then are such unwarrantable Examples alledg'd to justifie the late proceedings of the Commons if not to prove one absurdity by another since they can hardly think of any thing how wild and unreasonable soever but they may find one instance or another to offer as a Precedent in some of our former Parliaments For experience tells us this Great Council much less the meanest of the three Estates tho' our modern Republicans wou'd fain snatch the great Priviledge of Infallibility from the Pope's Cushion and place it in the Speakers Chair has not been always free from mistakes but is found to have often deviated from Justice Truth and Loyalty We must therefore with Seneca look non quaâ—itur sed qua eundum not what is but what ought to be done and consider that 't is not the example of frail men impos'd upon through ignorance or led by passion or private interest but the approv'd Laws of the Land ought to be the Rule both of the Magistrates Government and of the Subjects Obedience What! says a factious Petitioner cannot the House of Commons imprison any Criminal Have they no authority to chastise their own Members or punish the Invaders of their Priviledges Have they not often exerciz'd this Power and is it possible the King and Lords wou'd have so long conniv'd at their proceedings had they been illegal or unjust Does not the House of Peers punish the Breakers of their Priviledges why then may not the House of Commons be allow'd to do the like These are the mighty arguments our great Champions for the House of Commons always insist upon but how weak and insignificant they are is very obvious to any tho' but meanly vers'd in our Laws and the constitution of our Government For my part I have always been and still am as much for maintaining the just Priviledges of that House as any man whatsoever 't is my interest to do it and nothing but Truth and Loyalty shall ever induce me to speak

whilst these Brothers lived and held together they were as a strong Fortress one to the other the Admirals Courage supporting the Protectors Authority and the Protectors Authority maintaining the Admirals Stoutness but the Admiral once gone the Protectors Authority as wanting support began to totter and fell at last to utter ruine Besides there was at this time amongst the Nobility a kind of Faction Protestants who favour'd the Protector for his own sake and other of the Papal inclination who favour'd him for his Brothers sake But his Brother being gone both sides forsook him even his own side as thinking they could expect little assistance from him who gave no more assistance to his own Brother Bakers Chronicle p. 307. What a noise they make about these terrible Bugbears Popery and Slavery as if both were inseparable and actually breaking in upon the Nation or rather come as far as the Lobby of the House of Commons For my part tho I have no reason to be fond of either the one being no less contrary to my Nature than the other to my Principles yet I cannot be startl'd at every shadow nor believe that the Duke having already spent the Prime of his days let him succeed never so soon will be able to introduce amongst us any new much less the Popish Religion Neither can I be perswaded contrary to common sense and the experience of so many Ages but that the Papists are as fond of their Liberty and Property and consequently as great enemies to Slavery as any Protestant whatsoever For to them we owe the unparallel'd Common-Law of this Realm Magna Charta and all those wholesom Statutes grounded thereupon to them we are oblig'd for the incomparable Frame of our well-temper'd Monarchy which affords very much to the Industry and Happiness of the Subject yet preserves enough for the Majesty and Prerogative of any King that will own his People as Subjects and not as Slaves or Villains Who then but a Fool or a Mad-man wou'd think Slavery the unavoidable consequence of that Religion the Professors whereof even in the time of their blindest zeal and greatest darkness for since then they are much refin'd made such impregnable Bulwarks against it and provided such wholesome Laws to defend themselves from all the encroachments of Arbitrary Power Insomuch that the high and mighty Pope himself who often endeavour'd to enslave this Kingdom and make it Tributary to his avarice found to his great grief that tho some ignorant Bigots wou'd contribute to fill his Coffers yet the generality of the Nation were so tender of their own and their Princes Rights that they always oppos'd him with true English Courage as appears not only by hundreds of adjudg'd Cases reported in our Law-Books but by divers Records and Acts of Parliament For 25 Ed. 3. Stat. of Provisors 't is enacted That such persons as obtain Provisions or collation of Benefices from Rome and thereupon disturb the Presentees of the King or of other Patrons of Holy Church or of their Advowees The said Provisors their Procurators Executors and Notaries shall be attached by their body and brought in to Answer And if they be convict they shall abide in Prison without being let to Mainprise or Bail or otherwise delivered till they have made Fine and Ransom to the King at his Will and gree to the Party that shall feel himself grieved And nevertheless before they be delivered they shall make full renunciation and find Surety that they shall not attempt such things in time to come nor sue any Process by them nor by other against any man in the Court of Rome nor in any part elsewhere for any such Imprisonments or Renunciations nor any other thing depending of them And in the same year it was Enacted that he that purchas'd a Provision in Rome for an Abbey shou'd be out of the Kings Protection and any man might do with him as with the Kings Enemy 25 Ed. 3. c. 22. 2â— Ed. 3. c. 1. upon the grievous Complaints of the Lords and Commons in Parliament It was ordain'd that all People of the Kings Lâ—geance of what condition that they be which shall draw any out of the Realm in Plea whereof the cognizance pertaineth to the Kings Court or of things whereof Judgements be given in the Kings Court or which do Sue in any other Court to defeat or impeach the Judgements given in the Kings Court if they appear not within two months after warning given shall be put out of the Kings Protection and their Lands Goods and Chattles forfeit to the King and their Bodies wheresoever they may be found shall be taken and Imprisoned and Ransomed at the Kings will 13 R. c. 2. 'T is Enacted That if any do accept of a Benefice of Holy Church contrary to this Statute and that duly prov'd he shall within six Weeks next after such acceptation be exiled and banished out of the Realm for ever and his Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattles shall be forfeit to the King And if any Receive any such person banished coming from beyond the Sea or being within the Realm after the said six Weeks knowing thereof he shall be also exiled and banished and incurr such forfeiture as afore is said And their Procurators Notaries Executors and Summoners shall have the pain and forfeiture aforesaid And c. 3 It is ordained and established That if any man bring or send within the Realm or the King's power any Summons Sentence or Excommunication against any person of what condition that he be for the cause of making motion assent or execution of the said Statute of Provisors he shall be taken arrested and put in Prison and forfeit all his Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels for ever and incur the pain of life and of member And if a Prelate make execution of such Summons Sentences or Excommunications that his Temporalties be taken and abide in the Kings hands till due redress and correction thereof be made And if any person of less Estate than a Prelate of what condition that he be make such execution he shall be taken arrested and put in Prison and have Imprisonment and make fine and ransom by the discretion of the Kings Councel 16 R. 2. 't is declar'd That the Crown of England which hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalty of the same Crown ought not to be submitted to the Pope nor the Laws and Statutes of the Realm by him defeated and avoided at his will in perpetual destruction of the Sovereignty of the King our Lord His Crown His Regalty and of all His Realm And moreover the Commons affirmed That the things attempted by the Pope be clearly against the King's Crown and His Regality used and approved of in the time of all his Progenitors Wherefore they and all the Leige-Commons of the same Realm will stand by the King and

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