REASONS Assigned by WILLIAM PRYNNE c. BEing on the 7 of this instant June 1649 informed by the Assessors of the Parish of Swainswicke that I was assessed at 2 l. 5 s. for three months Contribution by vertue of a pretended Act of the Commons assembled in Parliament bearing date the 7 of April last assessing the Kingdom at ninty thousand-pounds monthly beginning from the 25 of March last and continuing for six months next ensuing towards the maintenance of the forces to be continued in England and Ireland and the paying of such as are thought fit to be disbanded that so Free-quarter may be taken off whereof 3075 l. 17 s. 1 d. ob is monthly imposed on the County and 2 l. 5 s. 3 d. on the small poor Parish where I live and being since on the 15 of June required to pay in 2 l. 5 s. for my proportion I returned the Collector this Answer That I could neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence in the least measure submit to the voluntary payment of this illegall Tax and unreasonable Contribution after all my unrepaired losses and sufferings for the publick Liberty amounting to six times more then Ship-money the times considered or any other illegall Tax of the late beheaded King so much declaimed against in our three last Parliaments by some of those who imposed this And that I would rather submit to the painfullest death and severest punishment the Imposers or Exactors of it could inflict upon me by their arbitrary power for legall they had none then voluntarily pay or not oppose it in my place and calling to the uttermost upon the same if not better reasons as I oppugned a Ship-money Knighthood and other unlawfull impositions of the late King and his Councel heretofore And that they and all the world might bear witnesse I did it not from meer obstinacy or fullennesse but out of solid reall grounds of Conscience Law Prudence and publick affection to the weal and Liberty of my native Country now in danger of being enslaved under a new vassalage more grievous then the worst it ever yet sustained under the late or any other of our worst Kings I promised to draw up the Reasons of this my refusal in writing and to publish them so soon as possible to the Kingdom for my own Vindication and the better information and satisfaction of all such as are any wayes concerned in the imposing collecting levying or paying of this strange kinde of Contribution In pursuance whereof I immediately penned these ensuing Reasons which I humbly submit to the impartiall Censure of all conscientious and judicious Englishmen desiring either their ingenuous Refutation if erronious or candid Approbation if substantiall and irrefragable as my conscience and judgment perswade me they are and that they will appear so to all impartiall Persons after full examination First By the fundamental Laws and known Statutes of this Realme No Tax Tallage Ayd Imposition Contribution Loan or Assessment whatsoever may or ought to be imposed or levied on the free men and people of this Realm of England but by the WILL and COMMON ASSENT of the EARLS BARONS Knights Burgesses Commons and WHOLE REALM in a free and full PARLIAMENT by ACT OF PARLIAMENT All Taxes c. not so imposed levyed though for the common defence and profit of the Realm being unjust oppressive inconsistent with the liberty and propertie of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm as is undeniably evident by the expresse Statutes of Magna Charta cap. 29.30 25. E. 1. c. 5 6. 34. E. 1. De Tallagio non concedendo c. 1. 21. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 16. 25. E. 3. c. 8. 36. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 26. 45. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 42. 11. H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 10. 1. R. 3. c. 2. The Petition of Right and Resolutions of both Houses against Loans 3. Caroli The Votes and Acts against Ship-money Knighthood Tonnage and Poundage and the Star-chamber this last Parliament 17. 18 Caroli And fully agreed and demonstrated by Mr. William Hackwell in his Argument against Impositions Judge Hutton and Judge Crook in their Arguments and Mr. St. John in his Argument and Speech against Ship-money with other Arguments and Discourses of that subject Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Instit. published by Order of the Commons House pag. 59.60 c. 527.528.529.532.533 c. with sundry other Records and Law-books cited by these great Rabbies of the Law and Patriots of the Peoples Liberties But the present Tax of Ninety Thousand pounds a Month now exacted of me was not thus imposed Therefore it ought not to be demanded of nor levied on me and I ought in conscience Law and prudence to withstand it as unjust oppressive inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm To make good the Assumption which is onely questionable First This Tax was not imposed in but out of any Parliament the late Parliament being actually dissolved above two months before this pretended Act of these Tax-imposers taking away the King by a violent death as is expresly resolved by the Parliament of 1 H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 1. by the Parliament of 4. H. 4. and 1. H. 5. Rot. Parliam n. 26. Cook 4 Institutes p. 46. and 4. E. 4.44 b. For the King being both the Head beginning end and foundation of the Parliament as Modus tenendi Parliamentum and Sir Edward Cooks 4. Instit. p. 3. resolve which was summoned and constituted only by his Writ now b actually abated by his death and the Parliament as is evident by the clauses of the severall Writs of Summons to c the Lords and for the election of Knights and Burgesses and levying of their wages being onely PARLIAMENTUM NOSTRUM the Kings Parliament that is dead not his Heirs and Successors and the Lords and Commons being all summoned and authorized by it to come to HIS PARLIAMENT there to be present and conferre with HIM NOBISCUM not his Heirs and Successors of the weighty and urgent affairs that concerned NOS HIM and HIS KINGDOME of England and the Knights and Burgesses receiving their wages for Nuper ad NOS ad PARLIAMENTVM NOSTRVM veniendo c. quod sommoneri FECIMVS ad tractandum ibidem super diversis arduis Negotiis NOS Statum REGNI NOSTRI tangentibus as the tenor of the d Writs for their wages determines The King being dead and his Writ and Authority by which they were summoned with the ends for which they were called to confer with HIM about HIS and HIS KINGDOMS affairs c. being thereby absolutely determined without any hopes of revivall the Parliament it self must thereupon absolutely be determined likewise especially to those who have disinherited HIS HEIRS and SUCCESSORS and voted down our Monarchy it self and these with all other Members of Parliament cease to be any longer Members of it being made such onely by the King 's abated Writ
addresses were to passe to make a Declaration to the whole world declaring THE LEGAL RIGHT OF THE LORDS HOUSE THEIR FIXED RESOLUTION TO MAINTIAN UPHOLD IT which was sent by the Generall to the Lords by Sir Hardresse Waller and to indear himself the more unto the Lords in whose House without all doubt he intended to have sate himself he requited me evill for good and became my enemy to keep me in Prison out of which I must not stirre unlesse I would stoop and acknowledge the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners and for that end he sets his agents and instruments at work to get me to do it yet now they have suppressed them Whence it is most apparent 1. That the General Liutenant General Cromwel Ireton Harrison and other Officers of the Army now sitting as Members and over-ruling all the rest have willingly acted against their own knowledges Declarations Judgments Consciences in suppressing the Lords House and depriving them of their Legislative and Jurisdictive Right and power by presuming to make Acts pass sentences and impose Taxes without them or their assents in Parliament 2. That this Tax enforced upon the Commons and Kingdom for their own particular advantage pay and enrichment is in their own judgment and conscience both unjust and directly contrary to the Laws of the Realm being not assented to by the Lords and therefore to be unanimously and strenuously opposed by all who love their own or Countries Liberty or have any Nobility or Generosity in them Thirdly he e there asserts in positive terms in his own behalf and his confederates That the purged Parliament now sitting is but a pretended Parliament a mock-Parliament yea and in plain English NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL but the shadow of a Parliament That those company of men at Westminster that gave Commission to the High Court of Justice to try and behead the King c. were no more a Parliament by Law or Representatives of the people by the rules of Justice and Reason then such a company of men are a Parliament or Representative of the People that a company of armed Theeves choose and set apart to try judge condemn hang or behead any man that they please or can prevail over by the power of their swords to bring before them by force of arms to have their lives taken away by pretence of Justice grounded upon rules meerly flowing from their wills and swords That no Law in England authoriseth a company of servants to punish and correct their Masters or to give a Law unto them or to throw them at their pleasure out of their power and set themselves down in it which is the Armies case with the Parliament especially at Thomas Pride's late purge which was an absolute dissolution of the very Essence and being of the House of Commons to set up indeed a MOCK-POWER and a MOCK-PARLIAMENT by purging out all those that they were any way jealous of would not Vote as they would have them and suffering and permitting none to sit but for the major part of them a company of absolute School-boys that will like good Boys say their Lessons after them their Lords and Masters and vote what they would have them and so be a skreen betwixt them and the people with the name of Parliament and the shadow and imperfect image of legall and just Authority to pick their pockets for them by Assessments and Taxations and by their arbitrary and tyrannicall Courts and Committees the best of which is now become a perfect Star-chamber High-Commission and Councel-board make them their perfect slaves and vassals With much more to this purpose If then their Principall admirers who confederated with the Army and those now sitting in all their late proceedings and cryed them up most of any as the Parliament and supreme Authority of England before at and since the late force upon the House and its violent purgation doe thus in print professedly disclaim them for being any reall Parliament or House of Commons to make Acts or impose Taxes upon the people the secluded Members Presbyterians Royallists and all others have much more cause and ground to disavow and oppose their usurped Parliamentary authority and illegall Taxes Acts as not made by any true English Parliament but a mock-Mock-Parliament only Fourthly He therein further averrs f That the death of the King in Law indisputably dissolves this Parliament ipso facto though it had been all the time before never so intire and unquestionable to that very houre That no Necessity can be pretended for the continuance of it the rather because the men that would have it continue so long as they please are those who have created these necessities on purpose that by the colour thereof they may make themselves great and potent That the main end wherefore the Members of the Commons house were chosen and sent thither was To hear and conferr with King Charles and the House of Peers about the great affairs of the Nation c. And therefore are but a third part or third estate of that Parliament to which they were to come and joyn with and who were legally to make paramount and binding Laws for the people of the Nation And therefore having taken away two of the three Estates that they were chosen on purpose to joyn with to make Laws the end both in reason and Law of the peoples trust is ceased for a Minor joyned with a Major for one and the same end cannot play Lord paramount over the Major and then do what it please no more can the Minor or a Major viz. one Estate of three legally or justly destroy two of three without their own assent c. That the House of Commons sitting freely within it's limited time in all its splendor of glory without the awe of armed men neither in Law nor in the intention of their Choosers were a Parliament and therefore of themselves alone have no pretence in Law to alter the Constitution of Parliaments c. concluding thus For shame let no man be so audaciously or sottishly void of reason as to call Tho. Prides pittifull Junto A PARLIAMENT especially those that called avowed protested and declared again again those TO BE NONE that sate at Westminster the 26 27. c. of July 1647. when a few of their Members were scared away to the Army by a few hours tumult of a company of a few disorderly Apprentices And being no representative of the People much less A PARLIAMENT what pretence of Law Reason Justice or Nature can there be for you to alter the constitution of Parliaments and force upon the people the shew of their own wills lusts and pleasures for Lawes and Rules of Government made by a PRETENDED EVERLASTING NULLED PARLIAMENT a Councel of State or Star chamber and a Councel of War or rather by Fairfax Cromwel and Ireton Now if their own late confederates and creatures argue thus in print against their continuing a Parliament
ever breathed by how much more under the pretence of friendship and brotherly kindness they have done all the mischeife they have done in destroying our Lawes and liberties there being no Treason like Judas his Treason who betrayed his Lord and Master with a kisse c. Seventhly He there asserts k That whosoever stoops to their new change of Government and Tyranny and supports it is as absolute a Traytor both by Law and Reason as ever was in the world If not against the King PRINCE CHARLES heir apparent to his Fathers Crown and Throne yet against the peoples Majesty and Soveraignty And if this be true as it is That this purg'd Parliament IS NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL then there is neither legal Judges nor Justices of Peace in England And if so then all those that are executed at Tiburne c. by their Sentence of condemnation are meerly murthered and the Judges and Justices that condemned them are liable in time to be hanged and that justly therefore for acting without a just and legal Commission either from TRVE REGAL OR TRVE PARLIAMENTARY POWER except in corporations only where they proceed by ancient Charters in the antient Legal form And if this be Law and l Gospel as no doubt it is then by the same reason not only all legal proceedings Indictments Judgments Verdicts writs Trials Fines Recoveries Recognisances and the like before any of our new created Judges and Justices since the Kings be heading in any Courts at Westminster or in their Circuits Assisses or quarter Sessions held by new Commissions with all Commissions and Proceedings of Sheriffs ate not only meerly void illegal coram non judice to all intents with all Bills Decrees and Proceedings in Chancery or the Rolls and all Judges Justices Sheriffs now acting and Lawyers practising before them in apparent danger of High-Treason both against King Kingdom they neithver taking the Oathes of Judges Supremacy or Allegiance as they ought by Law but only to be true and faithfull to the new erected State but likewise all votes and proceedings before the pretended House or any of their Committees or Sub-Committees in the Country with all their grants and Offices Moneys Salaries Sequestrations Sales of Lands or goods Compositions c. meer Nullities and illegal acts and the proceedings of all active Commissioners Assessors Collectors Treasurers c. and all other Officers imployed to leavy and to collect this illegal tax to support that usurped Parliamentary Authority and Army which have beheaded the late King dis-inherited his undoubted Heire levyed war against and dissolved the late Houses of Parliament subverted the ancient Government of this Realm the Constitution and Liberties of our Parliaments the Lawes of the Kingdom with the liberty and property of the people of England no less then High Treason in all these respects as is fully proved by Sir Edward Cook in his 3. Institutes ch. 1.2 and by Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law at the attainder of the Earl of Strafford both published by the late Commons House Order which I desire all who are thus imployed to consider especially such Commissioners who take upon them to administer a new unlawful Ex Officio Oath to any to survey their Neighbours and their own estates in every parish and return the true values thereof to them upon the new prov'd rate for the 3 last months contribution and to fine those who refuse to do it a meer diabolical invention to multiply perjuries to damne mens souls invented by Cardinal Woolsy much inveighed against by Father Latymer in his Sermons condemned by the expresse words of the Petition of Right providing against such Oahes and a snare to enthrall the wealthier sort of people by discovering their estates to subject them to what future Taxes they think fit when as the whole House of Commons in no age had any power to administer an Oath in any case whatsoever much less then to conferr any authority on others to give such illegal Oathes and fine those who refuse them the highest kinde of Arbitrary Tyranny both over mens Consciences Properties Liberties to which those who voluntarily submit deserve not only the name of Traytors to their Country but to be m boared through the ear and they and their posterities to be made Slaves for ever to these new Tax-masters and their Successors and those who are any ways active in imposing or administring such Oathes and levying illegal Taxes by distress or otherwise may and will undoubtedly smart for it at last not only by Actions of Trespasse false imprisonment Accompt c. brought against them at the Common Law when there wil be no Committee of Indemnity to protect them from such suits but likewise by inditements of High Treason to the deserved loss of their Estates Lives and ruin of their families when there will be no Parliament of purged Commoners nor Army to secure nor legal plea to acquit them from the guilt and punishment of Traytors both to their King and Country pretended present sordid fears of loss of Liberty Estate or the like being no n excuse in such a case and time as this but an higher aggravation of their crime the o FEARFUL being the first in that dismall List of Malefactors who shall have part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death even by Christs own sentence John 18. vers. 38. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnesse unto the truth FINIS Objection IF any object that true it is the Parliament by the Common Law and custome of the Realm determines by the Kings death but by the Statute of 17. Caroli which enaâ—ts That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose continues this Parliament stil in being notwithstanding the Kings beheading since no Act of Parliament is passed for its dissolution The only pretext for to support the continuance of the Parliament since the Kings violent death To this I Answer that it is a Maxime in Law That every Statue ought to be expounded according to the intent of those that made it and the mischiefs it intended only to prevent as is resolved in 4. Ed. 4.12 12. Ed. 4.18 1. Hen. 7.12.13 Plowd Com. f. 369. and Cooks 4. Instit. p. 329.330 Now the intent of the Makers of this act and the end of enacting it was not to prevent the dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death no ways intimated or insinuated in any clause thereof being a clear unavoidable dissolution of it to all intents not provided for by this Law but by any writ or Proclamation of the King by his Regal power without consent of both Houses which I shall manifest by these ensuing reasons First from the principal occasion of making this act The King as the Commons in their *
Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15. Decemb. 1642. complain had dissolved all former Parliaments during his raign without and against both Houses approbation to their great discontent and the Kingdoms prejudice as his Father King James had dissolved others in his reign and during their continuance adjourned and prorogued them at their pleasure Now the fear and preventing of the like dissolution prorogation or adjournment of this Parliament after the Scotish Armies disbanding before the things mentioned in the preamble were effected by the Kings absolute power was the only gronud and occasion of this law not any fear or thoughts of its dissolution by the Kings untimely death then not so much as imagined being before the wars or Irish Rebellion brake forth The King very healthy not ancient and likely then to survive this Parliament and many others in both Houses judgment as appears by the bil for Triennial Parliaments This undeniable Truth is expresly declared by the Commons themselves in their foresaid Remonstrance Exact Collection p. 5.6.14.17 compared together where in direct terms they affirme The ABRUPT DISSOLUTION OF THIS PARLIAMENT is prevented by another bil by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved or adjourned without the consent of both Hâ—uses In the bil for continuance of this present Parliament there seems TO BE SOME RESTRAINT OF THE ROYAL POWER IN DISSOLVING OF PARLIAMENTS NOT TO TAKE IT OUT OF THE CROWN BUT TO SUSPEND THE EXECUTION OF IT FOR THIS TIME and OCCASION ONLY which was so necessary for THE KINGS OWN SECURITY and the publick Peace that without it we could not have undertaken any of these great charges but must have lest both the Armies to disorder and confusion and the whole Kingdom to blood and rapine In which passages we have a clear resolution of the Commons themselves immediately after the passing of this Act that the scope and intention of it was only to provide against the Kings abrupt dissolution of the Parliament by the meer royal power in suspending the execution of it for this time and occasion only and that for the Kings own security not his Heirs and Successors as wel as his peoples peace and safety Therefore not against any dissolutions of it by his natural much lesse his violent death which can no ways be interpreted an Act of his Royal power which they intended hereby not to take out of the Crown but only to suspend the execution of it for this time and occasion and that for his security but a natural impotency or unnatural disloyalty which not only suspends the execution of the Kings power for a time but utterly destroys and takes away him and it without hopes of revival for ever Secondly The very title of this act An Act to prevent Inconveniences which may happen by the UNTIMELY adjourning proroguing or DISSOLUâ—ION of this present Parliament intimates as much compâ—red with the body of it which provides as wel against the adjourning and proroguing of both or either Houses without an Act of Parliament as against the dissolution of the Parliament without an Act. Now the Parliament cannot possibly be said to be adjourned or prorogued in any way or sence much less untimely by the Kings death which never adjourned or prorogued any Parliament but only his by Proclamation writ or royal command to the Houses or their Speaker executed during his life as all our Journals ‖ Parliament Rolls and * Law-Books resolve though it may be dissolved by his death as wel as by his Proclamation writ or royal command And therefore this title and act coupling adjourning proroguing and dissolving this Parliament together without consent of both Houses by act of Parliament intended only a dissolution of this Parliament by such Prerogative wayes and meanes by which Parliaments had formerly been untimely adjourned and prorogued as well as dissolved by the Kings meer will without their assents not of a dissolution of it by the Kings death which never adjourned nor prorogued any Parliament nor dissolved any formerly sitting Parliament in this Kings reign or his Ancestors since the death of King Henry the 4th the only Parliament we read of dissolved by death of the King since the conquest and so a mischief not intended nor remedied by Act Thirdly The prologue of the act implies as much Whereas great sums of money must of necessity be SPEEDILY advanced procured for the relief of HIS MAJESTIES ARMY and PEOPLE not his Heirs or Successors in the Northern parts c. And for supply of other HIS MAJESTIES PRESENT and URGENT OCCASIONS not his Heirs or Successors future occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raising the said monies which credit cannot be attained until such obstacles be first removed as are occasioned BY FEAR JEALOVSIES and APPREHENSIONS OF DIVERS OF HIS MAJESTIES LOYAL SVBJECTS THAT THE PARLIAMENT MAY BE ADJOVRNED PROROGVED OR DISSOLVED not by the Kings sodain or untimely death of which there was then no fear Jealousy or apprehension in any his Majesties Loyal Subjects but by his Royal Prerogative and advice of ill Councellors before justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents then in being not sprung up since publick grievances then complained off redressed a firm peace betwixt the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded and before sufficient provisions be made for the repayment of THE SAID MONYES not others since so to be raised All which the Commons in this present Parliament assâ—mbled having duly considered doe therefore humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be declared and enacted c. All which expressions related only TO HIS late Majesty only not his Heirs and Successors and the prnicipal scope of this act to gain present credit to raise moneys to disband the Scotish and English Armies then lying upon the Kingdom being many yeers since accomplished yea and justice being since executed upon Strafford Canterbury and other Delinquents then complained of the publick greivances then complained of as Star-chamber High Commission ship-money Tonnage and Poundage fines for Knighthood Bishops votes in Parliament with their Courts and jurisdictions and the like redressed by Acts soon after passed and a firm peace between both Nations concluded before the wars began and this preambles pretentions for this act fully satisfied divers years before the Kings beheading it must of necessity be granted that this Statute never intended to continue this Parliament on foot after the Kings decease especially after the ends for which it was made were accomplished And so it must necessarily be dissolved by his Death Fourthly This is most clear by the body of the Act it self And be it declared and enacted By THE KING OUR SOVERAGIN LORD with the assent of the LORDS Commonsin this PRESENT PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED by the authority of the same That THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT NOW ASSEMBLED shall not be DISSOLVED unlesse it be By ACT OF PARLIAMENT TO BE PASSED FOR THAT PVRPOSE nor
shall any time or times DVRING THE CONTINVANCE THEREOF BE PROROGVED OR ADJOVRNED unless it be By ACT OF PARLIAMENT to be likewise PASSED FOR THAT PURPOSE And that THE HOUSE OF PEERS shall not at any time or times DURING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT BE ADJOURNED unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER And in like manner that THE HOVSE OF COMMONS shall not at any time or times DVRING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT be adjourned unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER Whence it is undeniable 1. that this act was only for the prevention of the untimely dissolving Proroguing and adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled and no other 2. That the King himself was the Principal Member of his Parliament yea our Soveraign Lord and the sole declarer and enacter of this Law by the Lords and Commons assent 3. That neither this Act for continuing nor any other for dissolving adjourning or proroguing this Parliament could be made without but only by and with the Kings Royal assent thereto which the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their * Remonstrance of the 26. of May 1642 oft in terminâ—s acknowledge together with his Negative voice to bils 4. That it was neither the Kings intention in passing this act to shut himself out of Parliament or create Members of a Parliament without a King as he professed in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. 5. p. 27. Nor the Lords nor Commons intendment to dismember him from his Parliament or make themselves a Parliament without him as their foresaid Remonstrance testifies and the words of the act import Neither was it the Kings Lords or Commons meaning by this act to set up a Parliament only of Commons much less of a remnant of a Commons House selected by Colonel Pride and his confederates of the Army to serve their turns and vote what they prescribed without either King or House of Peers much less to give them any supertranscendent Authority to vote down and abolish the King and House of Lords and make them no Members of this present or any future Parliaments without their own order or assent against which so great usurpation and late dangerous unparliamentary encroachments this very act expresly provides in this clause That the House of Peers wherein the King sits as Soveraign when he pleaseth shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned much less then dissolved excluded or suspended from sitting or voting which is the greater and that by their inferiours in all kinds a Fragment of the Commons House who can pretend no coulor of Jurisdiction over them before whom they alwayes stood bare-headed like so many Grand-Jury-men before the Judges and attended at their Doores and Barr to know their pleasures unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own Order 5. That neither the King Lords nor Commons intended to set up a perpetuall Parliament and intayl it upon them their Heirs and Successors for ever by this Act which would cross and repeal the Act for trienniall Parliaments made at the same time and on the same * day in Law but to make provision only against the untimely dissolving of this till the things mentioned in the Preamble were accomplished and setled as the Preamble and those oft repeated words any time or times during the continuance of this present Parliament conclude and that during His Majesties Reign and life not after his death as these words coupled with The relief of His Majesties Army and People and for supply of His Majesties present and urgent occasions in the Preamble manifest Therefore this Act can no wayes continue it a Parliament after the Kings beheading much less after the exclusion both of the King and Lords House out of Parliament by those now sitting contrary to the very letter and provision of this Act by which devise the King alone had he conquered and cut off or secluded by his Forces the Lords and Commons house from sitting might with much more colour have made himself an absolute Parliament to impose what Taxes and Lawes he pleased without Lords or Commons on the people by vertue of this Act then those few Commons now sitting since his tryall and death doe 6. The last clause of this Act And that all and every thing or things whatsoever DONE OR TO BE DONE to wit by the King or His authority for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT CONTRARY TO THIS PRESENT ACT SHALL BE VTTERLY VOID and of NONE EFFECT Now death and a dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death cannot as to the King be properly stiled A thing done or to be done by Him for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this Parliament contrary to this present Act which cannot make the Kings death utterly void and of none effect by restoring him to his life again Therefore the dissolution of the Parliament by the Kings death is clearly out of the words and intentions of this Act especially so many years after its Enacting 7. This present Parliament and every Member thereof being specially summoned by the Kings Writ only to be HIS Parliament and Councell and to conferre with HIM of the great and urgent affaires concerning HIM and HIS Kingdom and these Writs and Elections of them returned unto HIM and HIS COURT by Indenture and the persons summoned and chosen by vertue of them appearing only in HIS Parliament for no other ends but those expressed in HIS WRITS it would be both an absurdity and absolute impossibility to assert that the Houses intended by this Act to continue this Parliament in being after the Kings beheading or death unless they that maintain this paradox be able to inform me and those now sitting how they can conferr and advise with a dead King of things concerning Him and His Kingdom and that even after they have extirpated Monarchy it self and made it Treason to assert or revive it and how they can continue still HIS Parliament and Councell whose head they have cut off and that without reviving or raising him from his grave or enstalling His right Heir and Successor in His Throne to represent His Person neither of which they dare to doe for fear of losing their own Heads and Quarters too for beheading him This Tax therefore being imposed on the Kingdom long after the Kings beheading and the Parliaments dissolution by it must needs be illegall and meerly void in Law to all intents because not granted nor imposed in but out of Parliament by those who were then no Commons nor Members of a Parliament and had no more authority to impose any Tax upon the Kingdom then any other forty or fifty Commoners whatsoever out of Parliament who may usurp the like authority by this president to Tax the Kingdom or any County what they please and then Levy it by an Army or force of Armes to the peoples infinite endless oppression and
ceased to be Members by the Parliaments dissolution through the Kings beheading Neither were they ever invested with any legall power to seclude or expell any of their fellow-Members especially if duly elected for any Vote wherein the Majority of the House concurred with them or differing in their consciences and judgments from them nor for any other cause without the Kings and Lords concurrence in whom the ordinary judicial power of the Parliament resides as I have undenyably proved by presidents and reasons in my Plea for the Lords p. 47. to 53. and Ardua Regni which is further evident by Claus. Dors. 7. R. 2. m. 27. and Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour p. 737. Baronet Camoyes Case discharged from being Knight of the Shire by the Kings Writ and Judgment because a Peer of the Realm the practice of sequestring and expelling Commons by their fellow-Commons onely being a late dangerous unparliamentary usurpation unknown to our Ancestors destructive to the priviledges and freedom of Parliaments and injurious to those Counties Cities Burroughs whose Trustees are secluded the House of Commons it self being no Court of Justice to give either an Oath or finall Sentence and having no more Authority to dismember their fellow-Members then any Judges Justices of Peace or Committees have to dis-judge dis-justice or dis-committee their fellow Judges Justices and Committee-men being all of equall authority and made Members onely by the Kings Writ and Peoples Election not by the Houses or other Members Votes who yet now presume both to make and unmake seclude and recall expell and restore their fellow-Members at their pleasure contrary to the practice and resolution of former ages to patch up a factious Conventicle in stead of an English Parliament Therefore this Objection no ways invalids this first Reason why I neither can nor dare submit to this illegall Tax in Conscience Law or Prudence which engage me to oppose it in all these respects Secondly Should I voluntarily submit to pay this Tax and that by vertue of an Act of Parliament made by those now sitting some of whose Elections have been voted voyd others of them elected by new illegall Writs under a new kind of Seal since the Kings beheading as the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Edward Howard uncapable of being Knights or Burgesses by the Common Law and Custome of Parliament being Peers of the Realm if now worthy such a Title as was adjudged long since in the Lord Camoyes case Claus. Dors. 7. R. 2. m. 32. and asserted by Master Selden in his Titles of Honour part 2. cha. 5. p. 737. Seconded by Sir Edward Cook in his 4. Institutes p. 1.4 5 46 47 49. As I should admit these lawfull Members so I should therby tacitly admit ex post facto assent to some particulars against my knowledg judgment conscience Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant taken in the presence of Gyd himselfe with a sincere heart and reall intention to performâ— the same and persevere therein all the dayes of my life without suffering my selfe directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination perswasion or terrour to be withdrawne therefrom As First That there may be and now is a lawfull Parliament of England actually in being and legally continuing after the Kings death consisting only of a few late Members of the Commons House without either King Lords or most of their fellow Commons which the very Consciences and judgments of all now sitting that know any thing of Parliaments and the whole Kingdome if they durst speak their knowledg know and beleeve to be false yea against their Oaths and Covenant Secondly That this Parliament so unduly constituted and packed by power of an Army combining with them hath a just and lawfull Authority to violate the Priviledges Rights Freedoms Customes and alter the constitution of our Parliaments themselves imprison seclude expell most of their fellow Members for voting according to their consciences to repeal all Votes Ordinances and Acts of Parliament they please erect new Arbitrary Courts of war and Justice to arraign condemn execute the King himself with the Peers and Commons of this Realm by a new kind of Martiall Law contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and Law of the Land disinherit the Kings Posterity of the Crowne extirpate Monarchy and the whole House of Peers change and subvert the ancient Government Seals Laws Writs Legall proceedings Courts and coyne of the the Kingdome sell and dispose of all the Lands Revenues Jewels goods of the Crowne with the Lands of Deans and Chapters as they think meet absolve themselves like so many antichristian Popes with all the Subjects of England and Ireland from all the Oaths and engagements they have made TO THE KINGS MAJESTY HIS HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS yea from their very Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding this express clause in it which I desire may be seriously and conscienciously considered by all who have sworne it I do â—eleive and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope NOR ANY PERSON WHATSOEVER HATH POWER TO ABSOLVE ME OF THIS OATH OR ANY PART THEREOF which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully ministred unto me and DO RENOUNCE ALL PARDONS AND DISPENSATIONS TO THE CONTRARY dispense with our Protestations Solemn League and Covenant so lately zealously uâ—ged and injoyned by both Houses on Members Officers Ministers and all sorts of People throughout the Realme dispose of the Forts Ships Forces Officers and Places of Honour Power Trust or profit within the Kingdom to whom they please to displace and remove whom they please from their Offices Trusts Pensions Callings at their pleasures without any legall cause or tryall to make what new Acts Lawes and reverse what old ones they think meet to insnare inthrall our Consciences Estates Liberties Lives to create new monstrous Treasons never heard of in the world before and declare reall treasons against King Kingdome Parliament to be no treasons and Loyalty Allegiance due obedience to our knowne Lawes and consciencious observing of our Oaths and Covenant the breach whereof would render us actuall Traytors and pernicious persons to be no lesse then High Treason for which they may justly imprison dismember disfranchise displace and fine us at their wills as they have done some of late and confiscate our persons and lives to the Gallowes and our estates to their new Exchequer a Tyranny beyond all Tyrannies ever heard of in our Nation repealing Magna Charta c. 29.5 E. 3. c. 6.25 Edw. 3. cap. 4.28 Ed. 3. c. 3.37 E. c. 18.42 E. 3. cap. 3.25 Ed. 3. cap. 2.11 R. 2. c. 4.1 H. 4 c. 10.2 H. 4. Rot. Par. 11. N. 60. 1. E. 6. c. 12.1 m. c. 1. The Petition of Right 3 Caroli and laying all our Laws Liberties Estates Lives in the very dust after so many bloody and costly years wars to defend them against the Kings invasions rayse and keep up what force they will by Sea and Land to impose what
Jurisdiction Proceedings Taxes and arbitrary pleasures should not all others much more doe it and oppose them to the utmost upon the self-same grounds Fifthly He there likewise affirms g That those now sitting at Westminster have perverted the ends of their trusts more then ever Strafford did 1. In not easing the people of but encreasing their greivances 2. In exhausting of their Estates to maintain and promote pernitious Designs to the peoples destruction The King did it by a little Ship-money and Monopolies but since they began they have raised and extorted more mony from the people and Nation then half the Kings since the Conquest ever did as particularly 1. by excise 2 Contributions 3. Sequestrations of lands to an infinite value 4. Fift parts 5. Twenty parts 6. Meal-mony 7. Sale of the plundered goods 8. Lones 9. Benevolences 10. Collections upon their fast days 11. New impositions or customs upon Merchandize 12. Guards maintained upon the charge of private men 13. Fifty Subsidies at one time 14. Compositions with Delinquents to an infinite value 15. Sale of Bishops lands 16. Sale of dean and Chapters lands and now after the wars are done 17. Sale of King Queen Prince Duke and the rest of the Childrens revenues 18. Sale of their rich goods which cost an infinite sum 19. To conclude all a Taxation of ninety thousand pounds a month and when they have gathered it pretendingly for the Common-Wealths use divide it by thousands and ten thousands a peece amongst themselves and wipe their mouthes after it like the impudent Harlot as though they had done no evil and then purchase with it publick Lands at small or trivial values O brave Trustees that have protested before God and the World again and again in the day of their straits they would never seek themselves and yet besides all this divide all the choisest and profitablest Places of the Kingdom among themselves Therefore when I seriously consider how many men in the Parliament and elsewhere of their Associates that judge themselves the only Saints and Godly men upon the earth that have considerable and some of them vast estates of their own inheritance and yet take five hundred one two three four five thousand pounds per annum Salaries and other comings in by their places and that out of the too much exhausted treasury of the Nation when thousands not onely of the People the of world as they call them but also of the precious redeemed lambs of Christ are ready to starve for want of bread I cannot but wonder with my self whether they have any conscience at all within them or no and what they think of that saying of the spirit of God That whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him which he absolutely doth that any way takes a little of his little from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 John 3.17 These actions and practises are so far from being like the true and reall children of the most High that they are the highest oppression theft and murther in the world thus to rob the poor in day of their great distress by Excise Taxations c. to maintain their Pompe Superfluities and Debauchery when many of those from whom they take it do perish and starve with want and hunger in the mean time and be deaf and Adamant-hearted to all their TEARS CRYES LAMENTATIONS MOURNFUL HOWLINGS GROANES Without all doubt these pretended Godly Religious men have got a degree beyond those Athests or Fools that say in their hearts there is no God Psal. 14.1 and 53.1.3 In quite destroying the peoples essential Liberties Laws and Freedoms in leaving them no Law at all as Mr. Peters their grand Teacher averred lately to my face we had none but their meer will and pleasures saving Fellons Lawes or Martial Law where new Butchers are both informers Parties Jury-men and Judges who have had their hands imbrewed in blood for above these seven years together having served an apprentiship to killing of men for nothing but money and so are more bloody then Butchers that kil sheep and calves for their own livelihood who yet by the Law of England are not permitted to be of any jury for life and death because they are conversant in shedding of blood of beasts and thereby through an habit of it may not be so tender of the blood of men as the Law of England Reason and Justice would have them to be Yea do not these men by their swords being but servants give what Lawes they please to their Masters the pretended Law-makers of your House now constituted by as good and legal a power as he that robs and kills a man upon the hgih-way And if this be the verdict of their own Complices and Partizans concerning them and their proceedings especially touching their exhausting our Estates by Taxes and sharing them among themselves in the times of famine and penury as the great Officers of the Army and Treasurers who are Members now doe who both impose what Taxes they please and dispose of them to themselves and their creatures as they please contrary to the practice of all former ages and the rules of reason and justice too are not all others bound by all bonds of conscience Law Prudence to withstand their impositions and Edicts unto death rather then yeild the least submission to them Sixthly He there avers proves and offers legally to make good before any indifferent Tribunal that the h Grandees and over-ruling Members of the House and Army are not only a pack of dissembling Jugling Knaves and Machevillians amongst whom in consultation hereafter he would ever scorn to come for that there was neither faith truth nor common honesty amongst them but likewise Murtherers who had shed mens blood against Law as well as the King whom they beheaded and therefore by the same Texts and arguments they used against the King their blood ought to be shed by man and they to be surely put to death without any satisfaction taken for their lives as Traytors Enemies Rebels to and i conspirators against the late King whom they absolutely resolved to destroy though they did it by Martial Law Parliament Kingdome and the peoples Majesty and Soveraignity That the pretended House and Army are guilty of all the late crimes in kinde though under a new Name and notion of which they charge the King in their Declaration of the 17. of March 1648. that some of them more legally deserve death then ever the King did and considering their many Oathes Covenants Promises Declarations and Remonstrances to the contrary with the highest promises and pretences of good for the people and their declared Liberties that ever were made by men the most perjured pernicious false faith and Trust-breakers and Tyrants that ever lived in the world and ought by all rationall and honest men to be the most detested and abhorred of all men that
even as all Judges Justices of peace and Sheriffs made onely by the Kings Writ or Commission not by Letters Patents cease to be Judges Justices and Sheriffs by the Kings death for this very reason because they are constituted Justiciarios Vicecomites NOSTROS ad Pacem NOSTRAM c. custodiendam and he being dead and his Writs and Commissions expired by his death they can be his Judges Justices and Sheriffs no longer to preserve HIS Peace c. no more then a wife can be her deceased Husbands Wife and bound to his obedience from which she was losed by his death Rom. 7.2.3 And his Heirs and Successors they cannot be unlesse he please to make them so by his new Writs or Commissions as all our e Law-Books and Judges have frequently resolved upon this very reason which equally extends to Members of Parliament as to Judges Justices and Sheriffs as is agreed in 4 E. 4.43.44 and Brooke Office and Officer 25. Therefore this Tax being cleerly imposed not in but out of and after the Parliament ended by the Kings decapitation and that by such who were then no lawfull Knights Citizens Burgesses or Members of Parliament but onely private men their Parliamentary Authority expiring with the King it must needs be illegall and contrary to all the fore-cited Statutes as by the Convocations and Clergies Tax and Benevolence granted after the Parliament dissolved in the yeer 1640 was resolved to be by both Houses of Parliament and those adjudged high Delinquents who had any hand in promoting it 2. Admit the late Parliament stil in being yet the House of Peers Earles and Barons of the Realm were no ways privy nor concentivg to this Tax imposed without yea against their consents in direct affront of their most ancient undubitable Parliamentary Right and Priviledges these Tax-masters having presumed to vote down and nul their very House by their new encroached transcendent power as appears by the title and body of this pretended Act intituled by them An Act of THE COMMONS assembled in Parliament Whereas the House of Commons alone though full and free have no more lawful Authority to impose any tax upon the people or make any Act of Parliament or binding Law without the Kings or Lords concurrence then the man in the moon or the convocation Anno 1640. after the Parliament dissolved as is evident by the express words of the forecited Acts the Petition of Right it self Acts for the Trienniall Parliament and against the proroging or dissolving this Parliament 17. Caroli with all our printed Statutes f Parliament Rolls and g Law-Books they neither having nor challenging the sole Legislative power in any age and being not so much as summoned to nor constituting members of our h ancient Parliaments which consisted of the King and Spiritual and Temporal Lords without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses as all our Histories and Records attest til 47 H. 3. at soonest they having not so much as a speaker or Commons House til after the beginning of King Edward the third his reign as never presuming to make or tender any Bils or Acts to the King or Lords but Petitions only for them to redress their grievances and enact new Laws til long after Rich. the seconds raign as our Parliament Rolls and the printed prologues to the Statutes of 1.4.5.9.10.20.23.36.37 and 50. Ed. 3. 1. Rich. 2.1.2.4.5.7.9.11.13 Hen. 4.1.2.3.4.8.9 Hen. 5.1.2.3.4.6.8.9.10.11.14.15.29.28.29.39 Hen. 6.1.4.7.8.12.17 22. Ed. 4. and 1. Rich. 3. evidence which run all in this form At the Parliament holden c. by THE ADVICE and AS SENT OF THE LORDS SPIRITUAL and TEMPORAL and at THE SPECIAL INSTANCE and REQUEST OF THE COMMONS OF THE REALM BY THEIR PETITIONS put Ãn the said Parliament as some Prologues have it Our Lord the King hath caused to be ordained or ordained CERTAIN STATUTES c. where the advising and assenting to Lawes is appropriated to the Lords the ordaining of them to the King and nothing but the requesting of and petitioning for them both from King and Lords to the Commons in whom the Legislative power principally if not solely resided as is manifest by the printed Prologue to the Statute of Merton 20. Hen. 3. The Statute of Morteman 7. Ed. 1. 31. Ed. 1. De Aspertatis Religiosorum Therefore this Tax imposed by the Commons alone without King or Lords must needs be void illegal and no ways obligatory to the subjects 3. Admit the whole House of Commons in a full and free Parliament had power to impose a Tax and make an Act of Parliament for levying it without King or Lords which they never did nor pretended to in any age yet this Act and Tax can be no ways obliging because not made and imposed by a full and free House of Commons but by an empty House packed swayed over-awed by the chief Officers of the Army who have presumed by meer force and armed power against law and without president to seclude the Major part of the House at least 8 parts of 10 who by law and custome are the House it self from sitting or voting with them contrary to the Freedom and Priviledges of Parliament readmitting none but upon their own termes An usurpation not to be paralleld in any age destructive to the very being of Parliaments i Where all Members ex debito Justiciae should with have equal Freedom meet and speak their mindes injurious to all those Counties Cities Boroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses are secluded and to the whole Kingdom yea contrary to all rules of reason justice policy conscience and their own Agreement of the people which inhibit the far lesser part of any Councel Court or Committee to over-sway seclude or forejudge the major number of their Assessors and fellow Members over whom they can no wayes pretend the least jurisdiction it being the high way to usher Tyranny and confusion into all Councels and Realms to their utter dissolution since the King alone without Lords and Commons or the Lords alone without King or Commons may by this new device make themselves an absolute Parliament to impose Taxes and enact Lawes without the Commons or any other forty or fifty Commoners meeting together without their companions do the like as wel as this remnant of the Commons make themselves a compleat Parliament without King Lords or their fellow Members if they can but now or hereafter raise an Army to back them in it as the Army doth those now sitting 4. Suppose this Tax should bind these Counties Cities and Buroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses sat and consented to it when imposed though I dare sware imposed against the mindes and wills of all or most of those they represent who by the k Armies new Doctrine may justly question and revoke their authority for this high breach of Trust the rather because the Knights and Burgesses assembled in the first Parliament of E. 3. rot Parl. n. 8. Did all refuse to grant