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cause_n	king_n	parliament_n	petition_n	2,565	5	9.5981	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91211	The lyar confounded, or A briefe refutation of John Lilburnes miserably-mistated-case, mistaken-law; seditious calumnies, and most malicious lyes against the High Court of Parliament, the Honourable Committee of Examinations, Mr Speaker, with other members of the Commons House; and Mr William Prynne; wherewith he hath seduced many ignorant overcredulous people. Manifesting the Parliaments extraordinary clemency towards him, their justice in their commitment of, and proceedings against him; for which he so ingratefully and falsely taxeth them, with tyranny and injustice / By William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P4002; Thomason E267_1; ESTC R212413	54,867	55

warrant illegall And after a long and sound debate of the businesse it was thus unanimously resolved in the Commons House 3 April 4. Car. Regis and afterwards A Conference had by a Committee o●●oth Houses concerning the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject 3 April 4 Car. printed 1642. p. 66. consented to by the Lords 1. Resolved upon the Question That no Free-man ought to be detained or kept in prison or otherwise restrained by the Command of the King or the Privy Councell or any other unlesse some cause of the commitment detainer or restraint bee expressed for which by Law he ought to bee committed deteined or restrained 2. That the Writ of Habeas corpus may not be delayed but ought to bee granted to every man that is committed or deteined in prison or otherwise restrained though it be by the Command of the King the Privy Councell or any other he praying the same 3. That if a Free-man be committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the Command of the King and Privy Councell or any other no cause of such commitment detainer or restraint being expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed deteined or restrained and the same to be returned upon a Habeas Corpus granted for the said party then he ought to be delivered or bayled These Votes and the Lords concurrence with them begat the Petition of Right after many dayes debate which thus states the Subjects grievance in this particular First it recites Magna Charta c. 29. and 28. of Ed. 3. That no Free-man should be taken or imprisoned without being brought to answer by due processe of Law and then proceeds thus Neverthelesse against the Tenor of the said Statutes and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realme to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed And when for their deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your Majesties Writs of Habeas corpus there to undergoe and receive as the Court should order and their keepers commanded to certifie the causes of their detainer no cause was certified but that they were detained by your Majesties speciall Command signified by the Lords of your Privy Councell and yet were returned back to severall prisons without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to the Law Whereupon they pray in this Petition That no Free-man in any such manner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or detained To which the King subscribed this Answer Let Right be done as is desired Now what is this to Lilburns case Who was not now committed to prison by the Committee without any cause expressed but only sent for in custody to come before the Committee as these Gentlemen were sent for by Pursevants to come before the Privy Councell to answer to such things as should be objected against them which sending for was never so much as once complained of in Parliament as a breach of the Great Charter or Subjects Rights but admitted to be legall Had the Parliament or Committee sent Lilburne then to Newgate without expressing any cause of his commitment in the warrant and he had brought a Habeas corpus in the Kings Bench to be bayled as these Gentlemen did and then no cause of his commitment or detainer had been returned but only the Committees pleasure if thereupon hee had been remanded perchance then he might have had some colour to complaine of injustice and breach of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right But the Committee not so much as then proceeding against him so farre as to commit him but only sending for him in custody and permitting him to goe at large upon his appearance without baile only upon his bare word to attend them when he should be summoned how this can be brought within the compasse of Magna Charta or the Petition of Right as a breach of both or either transcends my understanding and all other Lawyers but himselfe I am credibly informed that this upstart monstrous Lawyer since he was called to the Barre at Newgate where he now practiseth hath the Book of Statutes there lying open before him which he reads and interprets to all the poore ignorant people that visit him telling them that he will in a few dayes make them understand the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme as exactly as any Lawyer in the Kingdome Belike he keeps now his Reading in that Inne of Court and will be a Serjeant at Law or a Iudge very shortly since he hath commenced a Reader of Law in so short a space But I shall beseech his Readership to resolve this Mootpoint against what clause of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right his sending for in custody by the Committee of Examinations is and what coherence there is in this his Argument No man ought to be detained or kept in prison upon a Habeas corpus returned in the Kings Bench unlesse some legall cause of his commitment be returned upon the Writ because it is contrary to Magna Charta and so resolved in the Petition of Right Ergo the Committee of Examinations in sending for John Lilburne in custody to examine him for his printing divulging Libels contrary to the Common Statute Law and Ordinances of Parliament without any commitment of him or any Habeas corpus brought or returned is contrary to Magna Charta and so resolved in the Petition of Right When all the wise men of Gotham Colledge can make this argument Sense or Reason it may passe for Law among the vulgar Separatists till then it deserves no other censure but this that it is only John Lilburns Newgate Law Yea but he hath something more to say against the Commons House though not against the Committee of Examinations in this point which is contrary Object as he conceives and it is but his conceit to the true intent of Magna Charta And what is that forsooth he was by the forementioned Vote of the House of Commons on the 19 Iuly 1645. upon Dr Bastwicks Paper only which the Doctor hath sufficiently clea●ed to bee a meere Lye and sland●r to defame him ordered to be forthwith taken into custody by the Serjeant at Armes attending that House and so kept till the House took further order by meanes of which Vote he was committed to prison to his custody only before he was ever heard speak This forsooth is the grand breach of Magna Charta so much declaimed against in his Letter to a Friend and since seconded in another most seditious printed paper entituled The Copy of a Letter from an Utter Barrister to his speciall friend concerning Lievtenant Colonell Lilburnes Imprisonment there justified to be illegall and against Magna Charta I answer and averre that this Commitment of his by the House of Commons was most just and necessary if the occasion and ground of it be considered Answ Iohn Lilburne had that very

from the Committee for Examination for refusing to answer to such Questions as were propounded unto him by this Committee by Order of the House of Commons and for the reasons that he gave for the same And not to permit him to goe out of the same without further Order of the House or Committee Dat. 9o. Augusti 1645. Examinat per Radm. Briscoe Cler. de Newgate On Munday the 11th of August this comtemptuous obstinate deportment of his and refusall to be examined was reported to the House together with his commitment for it to Newgate whereupon the House unanimously made and entred these two Votes Die Lunae 11o. Augusti 1645. Ordered upon the Question by the Commons assembled in Parliament that they doe approve of what the Committe hath done concerning Lievtenant Collonel Lilbourne Ordered upon the Question That Lievtenant Colonell Lilburne be tried at the next Quarter Sessions to be held for the City of London concerning the contriving making devulging and spreading DIVERS NOTORIOVS SCANDALS set forth in his name in a Printed Pamphlet under the Title of a Letter to a Friend AGAINST THE PARLIAMENT AND SEVERALL MEMBERS OF THE COMMONS HOVSE and the care hereof is especially referred to Master Recorder And by other subsequent Orders a Sollicitor and Councell were specially assigned in the behalfe of the Parliament to prosecute this businesse against him Yet notwithstanding this incorrigible Lib●ller and unparalleld affronter of the Higher Powers persevering in his villany and seditious practises since his commitment to Newgate hath compiled printed and privily dispersed another most pestilent mutinous Libell against the Parliaments power and proceedings to incense and muteny the people against them Printed in halfe a sheet as Libellous and seditious as his Letter and much of the same stra●ne for all which unparallel'd insolencies he shall no doubt be brought to a faire Legall triall and receive condigne punishment in due season This is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth of his Case and of the Parliaments and Committees proceedings against him every Tittle whereof will be justified and made good by a clowd of Witnesses being persons of Honour quality Piety Fidelity by the Parliaments and Committees Journalls Lilburnes owne Pamphlets and himselfe if he be not past all shame grace dares not gaine-say it in any particular Now this being the true state of his Libellous Seditious Incorrigible Contemptuous carriages toward the Parliament successively from time to time and of the Parliaments leasurely milde indulgent proceedings towards him I appeale to all the world yea to his best and most partiall friends and Confederates First Whether any mortall be he Papist Prelate Malignant Royalist or Cavalliere much lesse any profest Votary to the Parliaments service did ever demeane himselfe so Libellously Slanderously Seditiously Contemptuously Peremptorily Presumptuously and ungratefully to the Parliament the Committee of Examinations the Members proceedings of the House as this proud upstart Iacke hath done both in words writing deedes without the least shaddow of remorse or penitence Or whether any History records his Parallel Secondly Whether ever any Parliament Committee or other Court of Justice did with so much lenity patience and long-suffering endure so many reiterated multiplied Libels and publike affronts against their Jurisdiction Proceedings Justice Members without any just occasion or ground at all as this Parliament and Committee hath received from this Seditious Lying Libeller before they did commit him after so many preceedent questionings and admonitions Or whether any such patterne of Clemency Patience as they have used toward this incorrigible wretch can be produced out of any Parliament Rolles or Journals in preceeding Ages If not as I am confident none can then how desperately ingratefull and malicious is this Lilburne for taxing them with Tyranny Cruelty and injustice in their proceedings against him Thirdly Whether ever any proceedings were more Legall just and regular in every punctilio of Law or more consonant to Magna Charta the Petition of Right or Lawes of the Land then these against him And whether ever any man committed by Parliament had lesse cause to complaine of Injustice and Infringement of the Subjects Liberty then he Yet never did any man both in discourse and Printed Libels so raile against the Parliament for Tyranny Injustice breach of Magna Charta the Petition of Right the Subjects Hereditary freedome and liberty as he hath most causelesly and seditiously done of purpose to raise up tumults against and alienate the peoples affections from the Parliament his Emissaries scattering abroad these his seditious Libels among the Malignants in Kent and else where no doubt to excite them to a new Rebellion Having thus truely stated his case and the truth of the Parliaments proceedings I shall in the next place discover and refute his malicious Lyes and Forgeries against the Parliament and Committee of Examinations in his owne Printed Relation of his Case in his Letter to a Friend In this Lying Libell Pag. 3. he writes Yet notwithstanding since the first of May last I have by the Authority of the House of Commons BEEN THREE TIMES IMPRISONED before ever I knew mine Accuser or mine accusation or ever was suffered to speake one word in mine owne defence which I humbly conceive is contrary to Magna Charta And these Priviledges that I ought to enjoy by vertue of my having an interest therein The manner whereof he relates more largely Pag. 12. 13. 14 where he repeates the former words with this addition In againe I was called and told I must wait again to morrow I expressed my selfe againe and againe unto them to give mee leave to declare but one thing to them but heard I could not be till about two houres after waiting at the doore bemoaning and * Note here his seditious carriage crying out to those that stood by of the sad and deplorable condition that I and the rest of the Free people in England are fallen into to be so unjustly Imprisonned for the expence of our bloud for the just preservation of our just Freedomes that we should from Commitees of Parliaments themselves be Imprisoned we know not wherefore and when we come before them according to their owne command that we shal be * If the Committee hath businesse of great●● importance y●t John Lilburn must forthwith be heard and have p●ecedence of all others else Magna Charta the Subects Liberties are presently infringed remanded back again and not suffered to speake one word for our selves Heare ô Heavens and give eare ô Earth and thou righteous God that lovest justice and judgement and hatest and abh●orrest oppression and crueltie which makest wise men mad put forth thy hand and doe justice thy selfe upon the unjust and unrighteous Iudges of this age whom the people have set up for their good namely to preserve their Lives Liberties and Estates as their faithfull Stewards and Servants doe yet destroy what they would seeme to mainetaine

Law or Iustice executed the summons being ever the first proces and meanes to bring men to appeare before the Officers of Iustice who are to examine their misdemeanors complained of and so to informe them of them when they appeare and if men should know their particular accusers or accusations before their summons it would be a meanes First to make the Delinquents fly or hide away to avoyd the hand of Iustice if they could possibly make escapes Secondly to corrupt the Informers and witnesses that should prosecute to smother or ex●enuate theeir crimes Thirdly to furnish the Delinquent with premeditated answers and evasions and so introduce a totall subversion or pervertion of Iustice All which inconveniences a generall summons which the Lawes provide and allow of prevents In few words a summons to appeare without an actuall attachment of the person summoned is no imprisonment no outing of any man of his freehold lands goods franchises no sentence passed against him Therefore clearely no proceedings at all within the words or intent of Magna Charta or the Petition of Right as this New Lawyer out of his deep ignorance hath most magisterially resolved being one of those unintelligent Lawyers that St Paul speaks of 1 Tim. 1. 17. Desiring to be Teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor what they affirme These Premises make way for proofe of the second Conclusion to wit That the Committees sending for Lilburne in custody upon new information of the Stationers against him for printing his libellous Answer given in to them contrary to their expresse Order with scandalous marginall Notes and other schismaticall seditious Papers contrary to Law and severall Ordinances of Parliament is agreeable to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right not any wayes repugnant to them For the clearing whereof to the very meanest capacy we must distinguish between a warrant to apprehend a man in nature of a processe or attachment and the commitment of a man to a prison goale or Messenger upon his examination after an apprehension or attachment In the first of these a generall warrant made to a Sheriffe Constable Messenger or any other inferiour Officer upon a precedent particular information or vehement suspition is and ever was reputed just legall without expressing the name of the Accuser or particulars of the Accusation in the warrant For example If an information be given in to the Lord Maior of London or to the Chiefe Iustice of England or any Iustice of Peace that any particular person hath committed or is suspected to be guilty of such a Murther Robbery Treason Trespasse or offended any penal Law the breach whereof they have power to examine there is nothing so ordinary in daily practice and experience as to send a warrant to the Sheriffe Constable or other under Officer to apprehend and bring the party accused or suspected before them to answer such things as shal be objected against him The like is done daily in all Courts of Iustice upon complaint of Misdemeanours in and by both Houses of Parliament their Committees and Sub-Committees and hath been done of late in many thousand persons cases who neither did nor could of right so much as once complain of the breach of Magna Charta And I appeale to Iohn Lilburn or any other Officer or Souldier in our Armies whether the General Councel of warre and other Officers doe not every day almost upon complaints send for Souldiers and others in custody and apprehend them by the Marshall sometimes by a warrant in writing sometimes by a meere verball command without acquainting them before hand with the Accusers name or his particular accusation but only in generall termes to answer such things as are or shall be objected against them and did ever any Souldier yet complaine that this was tyranny injustice in their Generall the Counsell of warre their Officers or contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and the Liberty of the Subject for which they fight What ground then hath this clamorous Libeller to raile against the Parliament or Committee of Examinations for sending for him in custody upon a precedent true just and vi●●ble complaint even the printing of these libellous Papers conttary to their expresse Order the priviledges of Parliament and Ordinances against unlicensed printing which inflict in this case imprisonment by this very Committee with other penalties upon such offenders Certainly none at all but only his owne seditious malignant venomous rankor against the Parliaments justice But certainly if others yet he of all men had least cause to complaine thus in this case because though the warrant was to bring him in custody yet he was not brought thither in custody as other prisoners ate but only summoned to appeare and that upon a more particular warrant then others expressing in generall termes the cause for which he was sent for and when he came he was neither committed to any prison nor forced to put in Baile nor deteined in the Messengers custody as a prisoner but remained with him one night at his free liberty as a friend and paid no fees nor any thing for his diet and lodging as the Messenger himselfe will depose And was this sending for an infringement of Magna Charta and the Lawes of the Land Certainly if it were it was only in his favour that he was not according to the Law of the Land Magna Charta and the severall Ordinances concerning printing presently committed to some Goale or other for his seditious Libels and Lies and there detained as he hath been since This case of summons and attachment by vertue of a generall warrant being cleare out of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right the sole question will be What commitment and imprisonment that is which is against Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and whether Lilburnes was such a commitment This will best appeare by the very Petition of Right it selfe and the originall case and votes in Parliament which were the grounds and occasion of this Petition The case was only this Divers eminent Gentlemen of the Kingdome in the third yeare of King Charles were sent for by Pursevants before the Lords of the Councell for refusing the loane of moneyes then set on foot contrary to divers Statutes and by them committed to severall prisons sundry monthes without expressing any cause of their commitment in the warrant And when for their deliverances they brought their Habeas corpus in the Kings Bench the Iaylors certified no cause of their deliverance or commitment but only the Kings speciall Command signified by the Lords of his privy Councell yet the Iudges would not bayle but remaunded them to prison Hereupon in the next Parliament complaint was made that this imprisonment and detaining of them in prison only upon the Kings bare Command without any other cause expressed was against Magna Charta and other Statutes and the Iudges remanding of them to prison upon such a generall

indulged so much liberty to any other in the like case onely they added this command then entred in their Booke of Examinations He was commanded to be carefull to publish nothing Hereupon being dismissed for the present he Penned an Answer full of Invectives against the Parliament the Iudges and Iustices Legall proceedings against seditious Sectaries seconded with many false relations of unheard off cruelties towards them to render the Parliament odious to his Faction calumniates and railes afresh against me as an enemy to Gods people a Seditious Fire-brand one deserving to be hanged c. which answer he no sooner delivered in to the Committee but the very same or the next day after he published it in Print without any Licence contrary to the Committees expresse Command and the Priviledges and Orders of Parliament and to shew his further contempt of Authority caused this very Letter for which he was questioned to be re-printed About which time the Scurrilous Libels entituled The Araignement of Persecution and A Sacred Synodicall Decretall were published Printed with the selfe same Letter and Presse as his Letter and Answere were and some of them seised together with his Letters by the Stationers Who acquainting the Committee of Examinations therewith according to the former Order of the House thereupon the Committee for these insufferable insolencies and contempts of his on the 18. of June ordered that Lilburne should be sent for in custody touching the Printing of his Letter and other Scandalous Bookes in which number was his Answer to nine Arguments Printed at an unlicensed Presse Anno 1645. with his Picture and Verses before it wherein he intollerably railes against our Church Ministers Worship Gover●ent as Antichristian and Diabolicall to be utterly abhorred renounced by all Gods people Upon this the Messenger only summoned him to appeare before the Committee but did not at all attach or imprison him After that another seditious Libell intituled Martyns Eccho Printed with the selfe same Letter and Presse that Lilburnes Letters and Pamphelts were being published and having some of his very Expressions and Phrases scatterd in it Lilburne upon the Stationers Information who were checked for suffering these Libels to be Printed which they said they could not remedy unlesse some were exemplarily punished was againe Ordered to be sent for in custody by the said Committee whereupon the Messenger took detained him in his house but for one nights space where he used him very courteously and tooke not one farthing of him And notwithstanding his publishing of so many Libellous Pamphlets contrary to expresse Ordinances of both Houses which inflict not onely Imprisonment but other Censures too upon such delinquents and his refusall to discover the Printers of those Books the Committee of Examinations were so exceeding indulgent to him thinking to reclaime his incorrigible obstinacie by lenity that they permitted him to goe at large attending them only when he should be sent for without putting in any Bayle On the 19.th of July following Lilburne walking in the Court of Requests with one Hawkins and others reported to them without any reall ground at all but bare reports heare-sayes from persons of meane condition That there were strange things discovered against many Members of the House of Commons and went as high as the Speaker against whom it would be proved that he had with his owne hand sent three score thousand pounds to the King at Oxford and that many Members had made their Peace and done strange things amongst whom Sir Robert Harloe was one Of which seditious and scandalous Speeches the House being informed by Colonel King Dr. Bastwicke and other Witnesses of good credit and having no time to examine the businesse having sate all that day till past six of the clocke made this ensuing Vote Die Sabbati 19. Julij 1645. Resolved upon the Question by the Commons assembled in Parliament that Lievtenant Colonel Lilburne be forth with taken into Custody by the Serjeant at Armes attending this House and so kept till the House take further Order To the Serjeant at Armes attending on this House or to his Deputy c. H. Elsing Cler. Parl. D. Com. By vertue of this Warrant and upon this occasion onely he was apprehended by the Serjeant of the House and kept in Custody till the 24. of July At which time being brought to the Committee of Examinations and there examined touching this forementioned scandalous Speeches of the Speaker and others He peremptorily refused to give them any answer unlesse the Committee would first expresse the cause why he was ordered to be taken into custody when as himselse did well knwo it was for those very words against the Speaker and other Members whereupon they told him they would then examine him Using divers insolent Speeches to them and charging them with the breach of Magna Charta which he is not ashamed to relate at large in his Printed Libel to his Friend pag. 2. to 5. whereupon he was most justly and Legally committed to Custody and his contempt Ordered to bee reported to the House The very next day he compiled a most lying scandalous seditious Libell Against the Parliament Speaker some eminent Members of both Houses Sir Iohn Lentall Doctor Bastwicke and my selfe which he Intitled The Copy of a Letter from Lievtenant Colonell Iohn Lilburne to a friend The most seditious scandalous false lying Libell against the Parliament Committe of Examinations and Members of both Houses that ever yet was penned farre worse then any Oxford Aulicus and tending only to stirre up the People to rise up against the Parliament to resist their power Proceedings alienate their affections from them This after his old manner he sent to a private Unlicensed Presse alwaies ready at his command where being speedily Printed he despersed the printed Copies thereof every where by his Agents among his Friends and Confederates who vented them under-hand for money One of the Printed Copies whereof being brought into the House and there read the House unanimously passed this Vote Die Sabbati 9. August 1645. Ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That the consideration for finding out the Author of this Booke be referred to the Committee of Examinations and that in case it appeares to be Lilbournes Booke they shall have power to commit him to what Prison they please Hereupon the Committee of Examinations sent for Lilburne this very day in the afternoone to examine him concerning the writing and printing of this Letter but he most obstinatly in a peremptory and contemtuous manner refused to be examined or give any answer to the questions demanded of him concerning the writing or publishing therof whereupon he was committed to Newgate by this ensuing Warrant expressing the cause of his commitment thither according to the Petition of Right and Magna Charta the effect whereof is thus entred in the Keepers Book of Newgate Gibb Chambers Vic August 1645. Lievtenant Collonel Lilburne committed by Laur. Whittaker Esquire

and put themselves upon the trial of the Country the law of the Land deemes it such an high contempt against justice that presently without further triall or evidence of their guiltinesse they are for this their obstinacy and contumacy * See Brookes Abridgment ti● Paine and Penance adjudged to be prest to death in the most painful manner far worse then any hanging because their contempt in not answering is in Law a greater offence then that for which they stand indited as obstinacy in any sinne is worse then the sinne it selfe And in case they answer not guilty and so come unto their legall triall the Iudge Iustices and Iury somtimes doc usually strictly examine and interrogate them again as well as the witnesses touching the particular Treasons and Felonies whereof they stand indited and oft times when witnesses fayl or prove short finde them guilty and hang them by their own examinations and confessions at the Barre or at their apprehension If then Iudges and Iustices may proceed thus to examine Traytors and Felons themselves in their own cases in capital crimes which concern their very lives and estates without violating Magna Charta or any other Law may not the House of Commons then much more appoint the Committee of Examinations to interrogate Lilburn concerning his * See p. 6 7 8. forementioned speeches and Letter without any infringement of Magna Charta or the Subjects Liberty which protect no man against such legall examinations There was never any Traytor or other grand Delinquent to my knowledge committed by the Parliament Privy Councell or others to the Tower or any other prison but was once at least if not twice or thrice examined concerning the Treasons and offences for which they stood committed How m●●y members of both Houses in form●● Parliaments and in this especially which hath stood most of any for the Subjects Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament have beene thus examined in their own cases yet never any of them at any time refused to be examined or ever esteemed it a breach of Magna Charta or a thing against the Subjects Liberty I dare say the Committee of Examinations have examined above five thousand persons of all sorts sexes degrees before them in cases which concern themselves and yet never met with any that refused to be examined or that pleaded Magna Charta against it till Lawlesse John Lilburn or some of his Disciples came to be examined before them who when he was sent for before this very Committee about his first printed Letter to my selfe had not learned so much Law as he hath gained since for he then submitted to an examination wherein he confessed both the writing and printing of that Letter and for this his conformity was not then committed but suffered to goe at large till the matter should bee reported to the House Not to spend more time or cite presidents in so plaine a case the two grand Irish Rebels Mac-Guire and Mac-Mohon were upon their apprehensions in Ireland examined touching that late horrid Treason and Rebellion there of which they were chiefe contrivers and being sent for over hither by the Parliament were severall times examined by Order of the Houses both by the Chiefe-Iustice and others and by their own examinations thus taken being the principall evidence against them condemned and executed at Tyburn according to their just demerits never pleading nor pretending that their examinations the proceedings against them were against Magna Charta If Io. Lilburn then and all others cannot but subscribe to all the premises he must then recant his false mistaken Law in this particular as well as in the former This poore Ignoramus hath nothing to object against this but that to be examined upon Interrogatories concerning our selves as we were in the Starchamber and High-Commission is against the Law of Nature and that which caused this Parliament to suppresse those Courts and to vote his own sentence there illegall unjust arbitrary against the subjects Liberty and yet now they walk in the very same steps and build up that again which by that Vote they formerly destroyed So he dogmatizeth in page 15 of his Letter Take then an answer to it in few words 1 It is neither against the Law of Nature nor of the Land nor Magna Charta nor the Petition of Right for a man to be examined against himself upon interrogatories as all the premises sufficiently manifest no not in cases of Treason Felony nor in any other case nor yet against the Law of God for then Ioshua had never thus examined Achan in a case where his confession cost him his life Iosh 7. 14. 15. 19 to 26. nor Peter Ananias and Saphyra wherein their Lie lost their lives Acts 5. 1. to 11. Indeed in capitall and some other meere criminall causes a man by our Lawes ought not to be examined upon his oath against himselfe nor yet in case of Illegall Loanes the only thing complained of and provided against by the Petition of Right but without oath men are and may be thus examined against themselves by the rules and constant practise of our Law and in some criminall causes upon oath to 2 The examination of men upon their oathes in Starchamber was held lawfull and used there above an hundred yeares without dispute neither did this Parliament ever judge such examinations against Law or pull down that Court for them nor yet in your own case so vote or adjudge But that which they voted against and that for which they suppressed this Court was the bloodinesse and exorbitancy of their Censures Fines for small or no offences for making that criminall which was legall that a great offence which was neither a fault nor crime and making that Court as an Engine to undermine all our Lawes and Liberties by degrees and bringing those into it as Sheriffs Iustices and others who refused to levy or pay Ship-money or opposed any Oppressions Monopolies unlawfull Taxes Projects Impositions Innovations or Arbitrary proceedings in State or Church or maintained the just Rights Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects against them And the High Commission was voted down on the like grounds but not principally for the Oath ex Officio which was condemned in them not so much because it was unlawfull for any man to accuse himselfe or be examined in his own cause with or without an oath for then the Chancery Exchequer and Court of Wards where men are to answer and are examined upon oath against themselves should have been suppressed as well as it but upon two other reasons 1. Because men were there forced to take this Oath before sight of their Articles and so sworn to answer criminally to what they knew not when they took the Oath so as they could not sweare in judgement 2. Because the High-Commissioners had no power given them by the Statute of 1 Eliz. c. 1. or any other Law to administer any such Oath 3 Sundry Acts of