Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	witness_v	word_n	world_n	103	3	4.0733	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59082	An historical and political discourse of the laws & government of England from the first times to the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth : with a vindication of the ancient way of parliaments in England : collected from some manuscript notes of John Selden, Esq. / by Nathaniel Bacon ..., Esquire.	Bacon, Nathaniel, 1593-1660.; Selden, John, 1584-1654.	1689 (1689)	Wing S2428; ESTC R16514	502,501	422

sense of that grand Title of Supremacy of Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence and Authority than by the common Vogue hath been made The Title of Supremacy was first formed in the behalf of Henry the Eighth's Claim in matters Ecclesiastical which by the Statute is explained under these words of power To visit correct repress redress Offences and Enormities This Power and no other did Queen Elizabeth claim witness the words of the Statute in her own time But in the framing of the Oath of Supremacy in her time not onely in Causes Ecclesiastical but Temporal which never came within the Statutes and publick Acts in Henry the Seventh's time are inserted and if any thing more was intended it must come under the word Things which also was inserted in the said Oath and yet if the words of the Statute of Queen Elizabeth formerly mentioned be credited the word Things ought to comprehend no more than the word Causes and then the power of Queen Elizabeth in the Commonwealth will be comprehended in these words of Supremacy to visit correct repress redress Offences and Enormities for the Supremacy in the Church and Commonwealth is the same in Measure and what more than this I cannot understand out of any publick Act of this Nation Now in regard Offences and Enormities are properly against Laws the power to visit and correct must also be regulated according to Laws either of War or Peace Nor do these five words Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence and Authority contain any more Supremacy or other sence for two of them speak onely the Rank or Degree of the Queen in Government viz. Superiority and Pre-eminence belongeth onely to her and not to any other Foreign Power And two other words do note her Right and Title thereto by Power and Authority committed to her And the other word denotes the thing wherein she hath Superiority and Power viz. in Jurisdiction the nature of which word Vlpian speaking of the nature of a mixt Government explaineth thus Quando servata dictione juris judiciorum fit animadversio So as this Supreme Authority in Jurisdiction is no other than Supreme Power to visit correct redress Offences or determine matters in doubt by deputing fit persons to that end and purpose according to the Law and this is all the Supremacy that appeareth to me belonging to the Crown in these times CHAP. XXXVI Of the Power of the Parliament during these times WHen the Throne is full of a King and he is as full of opinion of his own sufficiency and power a Parliament is looked upon as an old fashion out of fashion and serves for little other than for present shift when Kings have run themselves over Head and Ears A Condition that those of that high degree are extremely subject unto but where the Crown is too heavy for the wearer by reason of infirmity the Parliament is looked upon as the chief Supporters in the maintaining both the Honour and Power of that Authority that otherwise would fall under contempt A Work that must be done with a curious touch and a clear hand or they must look for the like Censure to that of a King to a great Lord that crowned him My Lord I like your work very well but you have left the print of your fingers upon my Crown Such was the condition of these times wherein a Child and two Women are the chief but ever under the correction and direction of the Common Council in matters of common concernment Two things declare the point the course of the Title of the Crown and the Order of the powers thereof The Title ever had a Law which was at the Helm although diversly expounded Kings ever loved the Rule of Inheritance and therefore usually strained their Pedegree hard to make both ends meet though in truth they were guilty oftentimes to themselves that they were not within the degrees The People ever loved the Title of Election and though ever they joyned it to the Royal bloud and many times to the right Heir to make the same pass more currant without interruption of the first love between them and their Princes yet more often had they Kings that could not boast much of their Birthright in their first entry into their Throne Of three and twenty Kings from the Saxons time four of the former had no Title by Inheritance the two Williams Henry the First and King Steven Two others viz. Henry the Second and Richard the first had right of Birth yet came in by Compact The Seventh which was King John had no Title but Election The Eighth viz. Henry the Third came in a Child and contrary to Compact between the Nobility and the French Lewis The Ninth and Tenth succeeded as by unquestionable Title of Descent yet the Nobles were pre-engaged The Eleventh which was Edward the Third in his entry eldest Son but not Heir for his Father was alive but his Successour was his Heir It is true there were other Children of Edward the Third alive that were more worthy of the Crown but they were too many to agree in any but a Child that might be ruled by themselves Three next of the ensuing Kings were of a collateral line Their two Successours viz. Edward the Fourth and Edward the Fifth were of the Line yet Edward the Fourth came in by disseisin and Edward the Fifth by permission Richard the Third and Henry the Sev●nth were collateral to one another and to the right Bloud Henry the Eighth though when he was King might claim from his Mother yet came in as Heir to his Father And if Edward the Sixth was right Heir to the House of York by his Grandmother yet cannot the Crown be said to descend upon the two Sisters neither as Heirs to him nor Henry the Eighth nor to one another so long as the Statute of their Illegitimation remained which as touching Queen Mary was till three months after her entry upon the Throne and as touching Queen Elizabeth for ever for that Virago provided for her self not by way of Repeal as her Sister had done but more tenderly regarding the Honour of her Father and the Parliament than to mention their blemishes in Government by doing and undoing She over-looked that Act of Henry the Eighth and the Notion of Inheritance and contented her self with her Title by the Statute made by her Father in his Thirty fifth year which to her was a meer purchase and was not ashamed to declare to all the world that she did have and hold thereby and that it was High Treason for any Subject to deny that the course of the Crown of England is to be ordered by Act of Parliament And this power did the Parliament exercise not onely in ordering the course of the Crown to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth but during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth so far as to disinherit and disable any person who should pretend Right to the Crown in opposition to the

Yoke is easie and Burthen light But their motion proved so irregular as God was pleased to reduce them by another way CHAP. XLIV Of the Norman entrance THus was England become a goodly Farm The Britons were the Owners the Saxons the Occupants having no better title than a possession upon a forcible entry with a continuando for the space of Four hundred years seldom quiet either from the claim and disturbances of the restless Britons or invading Danes who not onely got footing in the Country but setled in the Throne and after gave over the same to the use as it proved of another people sprung from the wilde stock of Norway and thence transplanted into a milder Climate yet scarcely civilized That in one Isle the glory of God's bounty might shine forth to all the barbarism of Europe in making a beautiful Church out of the refuse of Nations These were the Normans out of the continent of France that in their first view appeared like the Pillar of the Cloud with terrour of Revenge upon the Danish pride the Saxon cruelty and Idolatry of both people But after some distance shewed like the Pillar of fire clearing God's providence for the good of this Island to be enjoyed by the succeeding generations Nor was this done by Revelation or Vision but by over-ruling the aspiring mind of Duke William of Normandy to be a scourge unto Harold for his usurpation and unto the people for their causless deserting the Royal Stem Yet because the haughtiest spirit is still under fame and opinion and cannot rest without pretence or colour of Right and Justice the Duke first armed himself with Titles which were too many to make one good claim and served rather to busie mens mindes with musing whilst he catcheth the prey than settle their judgements in approving of his way First he was Cousin-german to the Confessor and he childless and thus the Duke was nigh though there were nigher than he but the worst point in the case was that the Duke was a Bastard and so by the Saxon Law without the line nor was there other salve thereto but the Norman custom that made no difference so as the Duke had a colour to frame a Title though England had no Law to allow it And this was the best flower of his Garland when he meant to solace himself with the English as may appear by what his Son Henry the first sets forth to the World in his Charter whereby he advanced the Abbey of Ely into the degree of a Bishoprick and wherein amongst his other titles he calls himself Son of William the great Qui Edwardo Regi successit in regnum jure haereditario But if that came short he had the bequest of the Confessor who had designed the Duke to be his Successor and this was confirmed by the consent of the Nobility and principally of Harold himself who in assurance thereof promised his Sister to the Duke in marriage This countenanced a double Title one by Legacy the other by Election and might be sufficient if not to make the Duke's title just yet Harold's the more unjust and to ground that quarrel that in the conclusion laid the Duke's way open to the Crown And for the better varnish the Duke would not be his own Judge he refers his Title to be discussed at the Court of Rome and so flattered the Pope with a judicatory power amongst Princes a trick of the new stamp whereby he obtained sentence in his own behalf from the infallible Chair The Pope glad hereof laid up this amongst his Treasures as an Estoppel to Kings for times to come And the King made no less benefit of Estoppel against the English Clergie that otherwise might have opposed him and of assurance of those to him that were his friends and of advantage against Harold that had gotten the Crown sine Ecclesiastica authoritate and by that means had made Pope Alexander and all the Prelates of England his Enemies But if all failed yet the Duke had now a just cause of quarrel against Harold for breach of Oath and Covenant wherein if Harold chanced to be vanquished and the Crown offered it self fair he might without breach of conscience or modesty accept thereof and be accounted happy in the finding and wise in the receiving rather than unjustly hardy in the forcing thereof And this might occasion the Duke to challenge Harold to single Combat as if he would let all the World know that the quarrel was Personal and not National But this mask soon fell off by the death of Harold and the Duke must now explain himself that it was the value of the English Crown and not the Title that brought him over For though he might seem as it were in the heat of the chase to be drawn to London where the Crown was and that he rather sought after his Enemies than it yet assoon as he perceived the Crown in his power he disputed not the right although that was Edgar's but possessed himself of the long-desired prey and yet he did it in a mannerly way as if he saw in it somewhat more than Gold and precious Stones for though he might have taken it by ravishment yet he chose the way of wooing by a kind of mutual agreement Thus this mighty Conqueror suffered himself to be conquered and stooping under the Law of a Saxon King he became a King by lieve wisely foreseeing that a Title gotten by Election is more certain than that which is gotten by Power CHAP. XLV That the Title of the Norman Kings to the English Crown was by Election SOme there are that build their opinion upon passionate notes of angry Writers and do conclude that the Duke's way and Title was wholly by Conquest and thence infer strange aphorisms of State destructive to the Government of this Kingdom Let the Reader please to peruse the ensuing particulars and thence conclude as he shall see cause It will easily be granted that the Title of Conquest was never further than the King's thoughts if it ever entred therein else wherefore did he pretend other Titles to the world But because it may be thought that his wisdom would not suffer him to pretend what he intended and yet in practice intended not what he did pretend it will be the skill of the Reader to consider the manner of the first William's Coronation and his succeeding Government His Coronation questionless was the same with that of the ancient Saxon Kings for he was crowned in the Abbey of Westminster by the Archbishop of York because he of Canterbury was not Canonical At his Coronation he made a solemn Covenant to observe those Laws which were bonae approbatae antiquae legis Regni to defend the Church and Church-men to govern all the people justly to make and maintain righteous Laws and to inhibit all spoil and unjust judgements The people also entred into Covenant with him That as well within the