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	writing_n	13	3	8.2964	4	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

according to the ancient Law of the Kingdom Either therefore the Privy-Council had no power to hold any Pleas at all or else no power of Trial. The first of these was concluded in open Parliament and the second as good as so for if the first then the second will come on undeniably But suppose all this be given up yet was this Liberty to hold Pleas so qualified that the person could not be touched till the thing did appear by Inquisition and then in a legal way Such proceeding was had upon suggestion made against the City of London in Henry the Third's time for one of the Judges was first sent into the City to find the suggestion by a Jury and then the Lord Mayor appeared before the Lords and traversed the matter and in a manner appealed or rather demanded to be tried according to the custom of the City And the like course do we find observed in our Law-Reports of these times in a Case concerning the price of Wool by a false Report The foot of the whole account will be this That the work of Judicature of the Privy-Council in these times in cases of Crimes was to receive Articles and award Inquisitions and after return in nature of a Grand Inquest to Recover Traverse and to order Trial at the Common-Law and upon Verdict returned to Fine and Ransom In other Cases either of Right or Equity in matters of private property they were determined either by Judges of the Bench or Chancery although possibly the suit was Coram Concilio for that all the said Judges were of the King's Council And yet as I dare not affirm so I cannot deny but it might also be possible that some matters especially these of a greater consequence either in their own nature or in regard of the persons whom they concerned were determined by the major Vote of the whole Council in a prudential or rather arbitrary way But this was Invita Minerva and used so rarely as the path is grown out of view saving some few footsteps here and there remaining which shew that the Grand Council of Lords had been there CHAP. IV. Of the Chancery IT is the birth of the King's power in Judicature and may deserve the name of the first-born For though it had no better Title in these later times than Officium because amongst other of the King's Escripts it formed Writs remedial for such as had received wrong yet even by that work it was in repute for so much skill in the Law of the Land that by the consent of all it was as well able to advise a remedy as to advise the Complainants where to have it And yet it had one advantage further that it was an Office of remembrance to the King who is a person of great trust in the Law and gave such credit to all acts done before him as being entred into the remembrance became of the highest nature of Record against which no Plea did lie Amongst these matters of debt and contract coming into the account this Office taking notice of the Record took cognizance of the thing and for the executing thereof and thus in these and such-like Cases granted Judicial Writs and so found out a way of Judicature to as many Causes as the State would trust it with And because it pretended cognizance onely of matters of Record before them they found out a way of examining of Witnesses by Commission and returning their Depositions in writing which being become a Record before them they gave their Sentence upon the whole matter without the ancient ordinary Trial per pares It becomes a kind of peculiar exempting it self from the ordinary course in manner of Trial and from the ordinary rules of Law in giving of Sentence and as a Back-door for the King 's Arbitry in case of Judicature in matters of Common-pleas as the Council-Table was in Crown-pleas They both are looked upon with a very pleasing eye of Majesty which loves not to be strait-laced yet all is embattelled under the Colours of Equity Honour Conveniency and Conscience like a Monopoly that is bred under the wings of the publick but feeds it self upon it That this had attained the Title of a Court so anciently as in King Steven's time as the Honourable Reporter noteth I much question by the Title that Fleta gives it in later times nor under his favour will that Testimony cited out of the History of Ely warrant it but upon a mistaken ground of misplacing the note of distinction For I take the words to be thus translated King Etheldred determined and granted that the Church of Fly should for ever in the King's Court hold the dignity of the Chancery and not hold the dignity of the King's Court of Chancery Nevertheless it is clear that these times brought it to that condition that it might well carry that name if formerly it had not For it grew very fast both in honour and power and this not by Usurpation though it did exceed but by express donation from the Parliament Yet is this power much darkned in the limits and extent thereof chiefly in regard that the Chancellor is betrusted with many things whereof there is no evidence for the Chancery to claim any cognizance For he was in these times a person of many interests and relations being one of the Quorum in the Star-Chamber of the King's Council chief in the Chancery most commonly a Clergy-man and therewith Legate à Latere and in these several Relations might act directly and yet in several Courts And therefore though he had power with others to punish neglects of Execution of the Statutes of Wines by Act of Parliament and also of the Statute concernign Victual and to determine matters of controversie between parties in Cases depending before the Parliament and in some matters that concern the King's Revenue yet cannot these be said to be the proper work belonging to the cognizance of the Chancery but to the Chancellor by special Commission in another Relation Albeit I cannot deny but the Court it self had cognizance in matters of as strange a nature Viz. To punish disturbances of Merchants in their Trade to see to the executing of the Statutes of Purveyors and to remedy grievances contrary to other Statutes Which general words let in a wild liberty to that Court to intermeddle in Laws which were never intended for their touch to punish Nusances according to discretion to give remedy to Merchants upon the Statute of Staple so that it is clear enough the Parliament intended it should be a Court and gave their Seal to their power of Judicature Nor as it seemeth was this any regret to the Courts of Common-Law but as a thing taken for granted For the Reports tell us That if the King grants Tythes arising from without the bounds of any Parish the Patentee shall sue in the Chancery by Scire Facias and shall there proceed to