of good right and equity it appertaineth any grants usages prescription act or acts of Parliament or any other thing to the contrary hereof notwithstanding Secondly the power of appointing subordinate judges is declared and determined to be in the King by the same Statute And be it also enacted by authority aforesaid that no person or persons of what estate degree or condition soever they be from the said first day of July shall have any power or authority to make any justices of Eire justices of assize Justices of peace or justices of Goale delivery but that all such Officers and Ministers shall be made by Letters Patents under the Kings great Seal in the name and by authority of the Kings highnesse and his Heirs Kings of this Realm in all Shires Counties Counties Palatine and other places of this Realm Wales and the marches of the same or in any other his Dominions at their pleasure and wills in such manner and form as justices of Eire justices of Assise and justices of peace and justices of Goale delivery be commonly made in every shire of this Realm any grants usages prescription allowance act or acts of Parliament or any other thing or things to the contrary thereof notwithstanding Thirdly the power of making leagues with forraign Princes and States is declared to be in the King by a Statute made in the fourteenth year of Edward the fourth which begins thus 14. E. 4. cap. 4. Whereas divers and great offences and attempts have now of late been done and committed against the amities and leagues made betwixt our said soveraign Lord the King and strange Prince By this beginning of the Statute it is manifest that the power of making leagues and contracting alliance with forraign estates is a right belonging onely to the crown I could yet add divers other acts of Parliament to confirm this and all the other particulars above named but I suppose these which are already alledged are more then sufficient there are also other rights of Soveraignty which I could shew by the statutes to be in the King but because there is no contestation about them I will not fight with a shadow those above mentioned are the chiefest and inseparable from Majesty CHAP. IV. The Kings Supremacy in general shewed by the Common Law HAving shewed the Kings Supremacy from the Statutes I come now to the Common law which is the ground and foundation of it for Statutes are but declarations of the royal power the power it self with the several modifications and qualifications of it is more ancient then any statute and cannot be limited or restrained by an Act of Parliament in any thing that tends to the derogation or diminution of Majesty for the English Monarchy by the common law is an absolute Monarchy susceptible of no alteration in the rights and preheminences of Majesty First I say the English Monarchy is an absolute Monarchy by the Common Law admitting no mixture in the rights of Soveraignty the King alone being the onely supreme head and governour having none superiour to him or coordinate with him either singly or collectively taken this is expresly determined in Sir Edward Cokes reports If that Act of the first year of the late Queen had never been made it was resolved by all the judges that the King or Queen of England for the time being may make such an Ecclesiastical Commission as is before mentioned by the ancient prerogative and Law of England Coke lib. 5. in Caudreys case And therefore by the ancient Laws of the realm this Kingdom of England is an absolute Empire and Monarchy consisting of one head which is the King and of a body politick compact and compounded of many and almost infinite several and yet agreeing members all which the law divideth into two general parts that is to say the Clergy and the laitie both of them next and immediately under God subject and obedient to the head also the King head of this Politick body is instituted and furnished with plenary and iutire power prerogative and jurisdiction to render justice and right to every part and member of this body of what estate degree or calling soever in all causes Ecclesiastical or Temporal otherwise he should not be head of the whole body This is further proved by Sir Edward Coke by divers Precedents and Acts of Parliament who concludeth his report after this manner Fol. 40.6 Thus hath it appeared as well by the ancient common lawes of this Realm by the resolutions and judgements of the judges and sages of the Lawes of England in all succession of ages as by authority of many acts of Parliament ancient and of later times that the Kingdome of England is an absolute Monarchy and that the King is the only supream governour as well over Ecclesiastical persons and in Ecclesiastical causes as temporal within this Realm to the due observation of which Laws both the King and Subject are sworn In the second year of King James in Hillary Terme letters being directed to the judges to have their resolution concerning the validity of a grant made by Queen Elizabeth under the great seal of the benefit of a penal Statute in which grant power was given to the Lord Chancelour or Keeper of the great Seal to make dispensations when and to whom he pleased after great deliberation it was resolved that when a Statute is made by Act of Parliament for the publick good the King could not give the power of dispensation to any Subject or grant the forfeitures upon penal lawes to any before the same be recovered and vested in his Majesty by due and lawful proceeding and the reason there alledged is because the King as head of the Common-wealth and the fountain of justice and mercy ought to have these rights of Soverainty annexed only to his Royal person Coke lib. 7. tit penall Statutes Car quant un statute est fait pro bono publico le Rey come le teste del bien publique le fountaine de justice mercie est par tout le realme trust ove ceo cest considence trust est cy inseparablement adjoyne annexe al Royal person del Roy in cy haut point de soveraigntie que il ne poit transferre ceo al disposition on poiar d'ascune privat person ou al ascune privat use that is For when a Statute is made for the publick good and the King as head of the Common-wealth and the fountain of justice and mercy is by all the Realm trusted with it that confidence and trust is so inseperably annexed to the Royal person of the King in so high a point of Soveraignty that he cannot transfer it to the disposition or power of a private person or to any private use I shall not need to explain and amplifie the matter by arguments and inferences drawn from these reports for the words are clear of themselves and do expresly declare and resolve the Monarchy of
England to be an absolute Monarchy the King alone to be the only supreme head and Governour of the whole body that is of all the people as well collectively as severally taken And hence it is namely in regard of the Kings Supremacy he being the only head of the Kingdome having no equal or Superiour but God alone whose Vicegerent he is upon earth that the Common law doth by way of fiction and similitude attribute unto him the Divine perfections 1. H. 7.10 Finch lib 2. del ley bap 1. Roy est le test del bien publike immediate desoubs Dieu desuis touts persons en touts causes Et pur ceo entant que il resemble le person del Dien port son image enter homes le Ley attribute a lui en un similitudinarie manner 7. E. 4.17 21. H. 7.2 Coke 7. f. 7. B. 43. El. Coke 5. fol. 114. B. 4. E. 6.31 5. E. 4.7 2. H. 4.7 1. H. 7.19 bombre del excelleneies que sont en Dien cest ascavoir SOVERAIGNTIE tout terre est tenu de de luy nul action gist vers luy car quis commandra le Roy POYAR il poit commaunder ses subjects daler hors de Realm en guerr poet faire ascune foreine coine currant icy per ses Proclamations MAJESTY ne poet prend ne departer ove oscune chose forsque per matter de record si non soit chattell ou tiel quia de minimis non curat lex INFINITENES en un manner 35. H. 6.26 esteant present en touts ses courts si come home poet dire en chescun lieu PERPETVITY ayant perpetuell succession ne unque mor. 10. El. 331. 35. H. 6.61 4. El. 246. PERFECTION car nul laches follie infancie ou corruption del sank est judge en lui VERITY ne serra unque estoppe JUSTICE ne poet esse disseisor ne faire ascun tort id est The King is head of the Common-wealth immediately under God over all persons and in all causes and therefore because he represents the person of God and bears his image the law attributeth unto him in a similitudinary manner a shadow of Divine excellencies namely SOVERAIGNTIE all lands are holden of him no action lyeth against him for who shall command the King POWER he may command his Subjects to go out of the Realm to War He may make any forraign coyn currant here by his Proclamations MAJESTY he can neither take nor part with any thing without matter of Record except it be chattel or such like because the law regards not such small matters INFINITENESSE after a Manner being present in all his courts and as it were in all places PERPETUITIE having perpetual succession and being not subject to dye PERFECTION for no laches folly infancy or corruption of blood can be judged in him TRUTH he cannot be estopped JUSTICE he cannot be a disseisor or do any wrong There are also divers prerogatives and priviledges by the Common law belonging to the King and divers Acts which the King may do or not do by reason of his Supremacy The King shall not in his writ give any man the style or title of Dominus because it is unbeseeming his Majesty to use that tearm to any he being himself omnium subditorum supremus Dominus the supream and soveraign Lord of all his subjects and in this case although there be variance between the Writ and Obligation 8. E. 6.23 B. 11. E 4.2 8. E. 4.2 or other specialty yet the Writ shall not abate which it shall in other cases as if they vary in the name or sirname or if they vary in the surn The King can hold land of no man As p. 1.18 Elizab. 498. because he can have no superiour but on the other side all lands either immediately or mediately ate holden of him as Soveraign Lord for although a man hath a perpetual right in his estate yet he hath it in the nature of a fee and whether it cometh to him by descent or purchase he oweth a rent or duty for it and therefore when in pleading a man would signifie himself to have the greatest right in his estate Littleton f. 3. he saith Que il est ou fuit seise de ceo en son demesne come de fee that he is or was seised thereof in his demeasne as of fee and if a man holds his estate immediately of the King as of his Crown or person this tenure is called a tenure in capite because he holds it of the supreme head of the Common-wealth If a man holdeth land both of the King and other inferiour Lords whereby his heir becometh a Ward the King alone shall have the custody both of the heir and land the reason which is rendered in law is because the King can have none coordinate with him or superiour to him Glanvil lib. 7. cap. 10. Si quis in Capite de Domino Rege tenere debet tunc ejus custodia ad Dominum Regem plene pertinet sive alios Dominos habere debeat ipse haeres sive non quia Dominus Rex nullum habere potest parem multo minus superiorem i. e. If any man houldeth land of our Lord the King in capite then his wardship shall wholly belong to our Lord the King whether he hath other Lords or not because the King can have no equal much less a superiour Bracton lib. 2. cap. 37. Si aliquis haeres terram aliquam tenuerit de Domino Rege in Capite sive alios Dominos habuerit sive non Dominus Rex aliis praefertur in custodia haeredis sive ipse haeres ab aliis prius fuerit feofatus sive posterius cùm Rex parem non habeat nec superiorem in regno suo i. e. If an Heir holdeth land of our Lord the King whether he hath other Lords or not our Lord the King shall have the wardship of the heir whether the heir were first or last infeoffed by others because the King hath no equal or superiour in his Kingdom The law is the same as well for whole Societies Incorporated and collective bodies as for Particular men if a man should make the two houses his heir leaving them lands holden of them by Knights service if the same persons held also of the King in capite by Knights service the King alone should have the wardship and custody of the heir and land though first infeoffed by the others and the reason in law of this prelation is saith Bracton and Glanvil because the King hath neither equall nor Superiour By the common law there lieth no action or writ against the King but in case he seiseth his subjects lands 21. H. 7.2 or taketh away their goods having no title or order of law petition is all the remedy the subject hath Stanford in his exposition of the Kings Prerogative c. 22. and this petition is called a petition of right The reason which is
is no good colour or pretence much lesse a sufficient ground for such a coordination and mixture as is pressed by them Although their assents be free and not depending upon the will of the Monarch yet that makes them not coordinate with him in the rights of Soveraigntie It is the common assertion of a Pannormit cap. gravem de fententia excommun Canonists b Bertol. in L. omnes populi ff de justitia jure q. 2. princip quoestiunc 5. num 20. Civilians and c Suarez lib. 1. de legibus lib. 1. cap. 8. num 9. Schoolmen nor is it to my knowledge contradicted by any that the Legislative power is delegable d Besold de jurib Majest cap. 2. that such a concurrence is no argumeni of Supremacy or of such a mixture as they would inferre out of it e Arnisae doct polit lib. 1. cap. 8. Some call it therefore apparens mixtura because it seemeth to destroy a simple form of government and to make a mixture in the power it self but doth not though otherwise they acknowledge it to be such a mixture as doth remit the simplicity thereof Grotius affirmeth to this purpose Istam legislationem quae alii quam summae potestati competit nihil imminuere de jure summae potestatis quod in Scholis dicunt cumulativè datam censeri non privativè He speaketh this of lawes made by generall conventions whose concurrence he saith doth not in the least manner diminish the rights of Majesty Such a mixture of the three estates hath been in other monarchies which all men acknowledge to have been absolute in respect of power In the Persian monarchie how absolute soever the other Estates had interest with the monarch in the legislative power as appeareth by that passage of Daniel wherein the Princes Governours and other officers of Darius sought to betray him by a law Then these Presidents and Princes assembled together to the King Dan. cap. 6. vers 7 8 9. and said thus unto him King Darius live for ever all the Presidents of the Kingdome the Gevernours and the Princes the Counsellours and the captaines have consulted together to Establish a Royall Statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall aske a petition of any God or man for thirty dayes save of thee O King he shall be cast into the den of Lyons Now O King Establish the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree These Princes Governors and Officers of Darius had the same authority in making laws that the Lords and Commons have in England yet were not coordinate with the King They had votum Consultivum and Decisivum these words have consulted to establish a Royal Statute include both an act of Counsel and an act of Authority and Jurisdiction Grotius saith they signed the Decree as well as the King and that they had this authority by the constiution of the Government And the sequele of the History doth imply as much In Dan. cap. 6. for had the act been his alone had he set out his Decree by way of Edict or Proclamation he might have altered it himself as Ahasuerus did the Decree he set out touching the destruction of the Jewes Esther 3.12 13. 8.10 13. but being made by the assent of others who had a concurrent authority with him by Law he could not alter it I shall not need to instance in the Roman Empire or in other Kingdomes for it is generally known that such a mixture was in that and hath been and is in most other Monarchies And not only whole representative bodies but divers particular free Cities have the same priviledge yet have not supreme authority In our own Kingdome the Common-Councill of every Incorporation have authority to make ordinances and constituions within their own Liberties for the good order and government of their body The Inhabitants of every Parish have authority to make Bylawes and Ordinances amongst themselves for their own profit where they have custome for it and for the publick good where they have no custome Coke part 5. in the Chamberlain of Londons Case tit Cases de Bilawes ordinances Inhabitants dun ville sauns auscun custome poyent faire ordinances ou Bylawes pur reparation del Eglise ou dun haut voy ou dascun tiel chose que est pur le bien publique generalmēnt in tiel case le greinder part lier touts sauns ascun custome Vide 44. E. 3.19 Mes si soit pur lour private profit dem comme pur le bien ordering de lour Common de pasture ou semblables la Sauns custome ils ne poient faire Bylawes i. e. The Inhabitants of a Parish without any custome may make Ordinances and Bylawes for the reparation of a Church or of the high way or any other thing that is for the publick good in general and in such a case the greater part shall bind the lesse But if it be for their own profit as for the ordering of their Common or the like there without Custome they cannot make Bylawes Why doth not the Treatiser and the Pretended Parliamentarians conclude from hence that every man is coordinate with the King in the rights of Soveraignty for this is done by the Legislative power and this authority they have by the constitution of the Government But secondly I answer to the consequent that the Legislative power is not radically in the three estates but in the King alone for although their assent be free and dependeth not upon his will yet their authority is derived from him he should have proved his consequent which he saith appeareth in the former question where indeed he doth confidently affirm the whole latitude of the Nomothetical power to be jointly in the three estates yet offereth not to prove it But there is scarcely any man in the Kingdom so much a stranger to the Laws but knows that the King alone hath power to dispence with the Statutes and to abate their rigour where a mischief would otherwise insue that he alone hath power by edicts and Proclamations to order all affairs for which there is no order taken by certain and perpetual laws that he with his Judges hath power to declare the meaning of the Law and to give an authentick interpretation to statutes of ambiguous and doubtful sense The King can exercise these and all other parts of the Nomothetical power which are of absolute necessity to government without the assent of the two houses whose concurrence is only necessary in making laws which shall bind posterity and may not be repealed without the consent of the people as well as of the King The whole latitude therefore of the Nomothetical power is not jointly in the three Estates but the power only of making certain and perpetual Lawes and when such laws are made it is the Kings
greatest enemies to justice are set up in their places some are bereft of their estates others are driven out of the Kingdome and forced to seek a forraign ayre where they may breath more freely then in their own The whole Nobility Clergy Commonalty walk desolately mournfully up and down being no more like the men they were then the skinnes of sacrificed beasts are like their living bodies And after all these indignities offered to the King and people they endevour contrary to the lawes to alter the government and to pull up the very foundation of the Kingdome calling their new frame and structure a Free Estate and themselves the keepers of the freedome of England Thus having guilt over this Idol of their own fancy they force all men to fall down and worship it they whose vertue oblige them to refuse are cast into a furnace hotter then that of Babylon Seeing the body of the Kingdome devoured thus to the very entrails I could not withont horrour behold such a miserable carkasse so rent and torn in every part nor could I satisfie mine own conscience if I should not endevour according to my poor abilities to oppose the rage and sury of these men which are grown so fat with the blood and spoile of others My intention therefore is reserving matters of fact to speak here of matters of right and to shew the injustice of their cause and discover the falshood of all those Principles whereby they endevour to justifie their proceedings not doubting but I shall so far convince the understanding of all those that shall read this insuing discourse that they shall not hereafter enter into any combination with the rebels or continue with them in them in case they be already engaged except their hearts be hardened so far as they dare act in matters of such concernment contrary to their consciences The Principles and grounds whereby they endevour to justifie this present war against the King are two First they say that it is lawful for the people to resist their soveraign and supreme governours by force of arms in case they be Tyrants and bent to subvert the laws and religion established or by illegal proceedings invade the lives estates or liberties of their subjects But there is some disagreement amongst them in the restriction and limitation of their Principle for some give free scope and liberty to all private persons to resist and with their swords in their hands to defend their lives and estates against the unjust invasion of all Kings and governours whatsoever Others do a little stint the people and limit the bounds of resistence permitting none to have that power but subordinate Magistrates or the people collectively taken and their subsistutes in Parliament Yet these content themselves with the same particular instances brought by others alledging little besides particular examples as the example of David who as they say would have resisted Saul if occasion had been offered The example of the Priests who as they say assaulted Uzziah and such like examples of particular men which were neither the people collectively taken nor their substitutes in Parliament nor yet the greater part subordinate Magistrates But some have thought upon an other way how to make good their rebellion confessing the former assertion to tend directly to the ruine and subversion of government and to be also contrary to the law of God these proceed upon another Principle namely that supreme jurisdiction belongs to the people the King they say is major singulis but minor universis greater and hath more authority then any one of his subjects taken by retaile but taken in the gross his subjects are greater and have more authority then he and these agree altogether in this that they teach all authority to be originally in the people tanquam in primo subjecto creato as in the first subject immediately under God and from them translated to Magistrates Yet these are also divided amongst themselves about the extent latitude of the power that may be translated for some of them say that the rights of soveraignity belong to the people by the law of nature and are so essential to them that they cannot be seperated or divided from them they cannot be taken away by conquest they cannot part with them by consent but under what form of government soever they live by what means soever established and set up they have still reserved in them a supreme jurisdiction over all Magistrates by which they are authorised to give a legal judgment upon all their actions and to resume again their whole authority when they shall see occasion making a circle in government and granting a power in Magistrates to judge and govern the people and also in the people to judge and govern their Magistrates Others on the contrary side say that the people may lose the rights of soveraignty by conquest or part with them by consent so that they shall not reserve to themselves supreme jurisdiction over their Magistrates to judge juridically whether their actions be legal or illegal but the people of England they say have not de facto parted with their authority in such a full degree but are supreme by the laws of the land or at least coordinate with the King for at the first coalition of the government by paction and agreement made with the King they reserved to themselves a part in the rights of soveraignty which they still hold by law This is their other Principle as destructive to government as the former and the authors and maintainers of them both agree well enough in their end that is to stir up the people to rebellion only they of the first rank would perswade them they may lawfully do it by way of self preservation and they of the second by way of jurisdiction I intend now by Gods assistance to examine these mischievous Principles and to discover as well the falsity of them as the dangerous consequences that flow from them which I hope to perform with such clearness and evidence that the most harc-brain'd sectaries amongst them shall be convinced if they will but read that which shall be alledged against them Now that I may proceed in opening and clearing the truth with the better method I will divide the matter I am to handle into two parts In the first part I will speak of Supremacy and here I will shew that the King alone is the only supreme head and governour of the Kingdom of Englan and that all the people and their deputies in Parliament as well collectively taken as severally are his subjects and not coordinate with him In the second part I will speak of Resistance and there I will shew that the supreme Magistrates and governours of any Kingdom or Commonwealth may not by their subjects be resisted by force of armes upon pretence of tyranny or misdemeanour or upon any other cause or pretence whatsoever I will begin with Supremacy because they endevour now
words seeing that all authority of jurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal is derived and deducted from the Kings Majesty as Supreme head of these Churches and Realms of England and Ireland do clearly intimate the two houses to have no authority radically in themselves and to be no way coordinate with the Kings Majesty in the rights of soveraignty For conclusion of this Chapter I will add one Act more made in the first year of King James wherein the two houses of Parliament collectively taken made an humble recognition of their faith and obedience to him We your most humble and loyal Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do from the bottome of our hearts yield to the Divine Majesty all humble thanks and praises not onely for the said inestimable benefit and blessings above mentioned but also that he hath further inriched your Highness with a most Royal progeny of most rare excellent gifts and forwardness and in his goodness is like to encrease the happy number of them and in most humble and lowly manner do beseech your most excellent Majesty that as a memorial to all posterities amongst the records of your high court of Parliament for ever to endure of our loyalty obedience and hearty and humble affection it may be published and declared in this high court of Parliament and enacted by authority of the same that we being bounden thereunto both by the laws of God and man do recognize and acknowledge and thereby express our unspeakable joys that immediately upon the dissolution and decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the imperial crown of the Realm of England and of the Kingdomes Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent birthright and lawful and undoubted possession descend and come to your most excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole heir of the blood Royal of this Realm as is aforesaid and that by the goodness of Almighty God and lawful right of discent under one imperial crown your Majesty is of the Kingdomes of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by Gods goodness more able to protect and govern us your loving subjects in all peace and plenty then any of your noble Progenitors And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our heirs and posterities for ever until the last drop of our bloods be spent And do beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the first fruits of this high court of Parliament of our loyalty and faith to your Majesty and your Royal progeny and posterity for ever This is a far different strain from that which the present pretended Parliament have used to his Majesty who although bound both by oath and duty to have been as respectful and obedient towards him yet have they themselves after many insolences cōmitted against his person most audaciously and unadvisedly taken away his life and procured others by defamatory libels to blast his credit who according to the trust reposed in them cease not to traduce him and by malicious aspersions to stain his chiefest vertues creeping like Snailes over the sweetest flowers and leaving behind them their slime and filthiness CHAP. III. The Kings supremacy in particular shewed by the Statutes of the Land THe Kings supremacy in general being thus confirmed by several Acts of Parliament I will now descend into particulars and shew his Majesty to be legally invested with all the particular rights of soveraignty I will beginne with the Militia which is a right so essential to Majesty that it can not nor ought not to be separated from it For Majesty consists not in a bare and empty title but in the rights of soveraignty which he cannot be said to possesse who wants the Sword to protect the Scepter It was confessed by the pretended Parliament at the beginning of these dissentions that the Militia by right pertained to his Majesty and therefore at the first they laboured to have it assigned to them by his own assent but he opposing their unjust desires as knowing both his own and the ruin of his posterity would be the necessary consequences of such a grant they resolved seeing they could not gain it by surrender to take it by assault and assisted by men of like natures and inclinations they seised upon his Majesties forts and Magazins and have since exercised an arbitary and tyrannical power over the lives and estates of all that pleased them not and none could ever please them but such as are of the same humour and disposition with themselves I must confess I am amazed when I consider how confidently and desperately they have carried on their designs in a case so contrary to law and justice for they could not have begun a war or contested with his Majesty about a matter more clear then that of the Militia which is a right so inherent in the crown setled upon it by the fundamental Laws of the Land and confirmed by so many several acts of Parliament that although the pretended Parliamentarians have a great dextetity in coyning distinctions to elude the laws yet they will not easily coyn such as shall serve their turn in this particular In the seventh year of Edward the first a Statute was made to injoyn all men to go to Parliaments Treatises and general Assemblies without force and armes wherein the Kings power over the Militia is acknowledged The King to the justices of his bench sendeth greeteng Whereas of late before certain persons deputed to treat upon sundry debates had between us and certain great men of our Realm amongst other things it was accorded that in our next Parliament after provision shall be made by us and the common assent of the Prelates Earls and Barons that in all Parliaments Treaties and other Assemblies which should be made in the Realm of England for ever that every man shall come without all force and armour well and peaceably to the honour of us and the peace of us and our Realm And now in our next Parliament at Westminster after the said Treatise the Prelates Earls Barons and the Commonalty of our Realm there assembled to take advice of this business have said that to us it belongeth and our part is through our Royal seigniory straitly to defend force of armour and all other force against our peace at all times when it shall please us and to punish them which shall do contrary according to our laws and usages of our Realm and hereunto they are bound to aid us as their Soveraign Lord at all seasons when need shall be We command ye that ye cause these things to be read afore you in the said bench and there to be inrolled Given at Westminster the thirtieth day of October In another Statute made the eleventh year of Henry the seventh it is declared that all subjects of the Realm but especially those that have by the King any
ordinances not a bridle of force but a bridle of admonitions counsel and advice they have no other means but such by Law to bridle the King if at any time he breaks out into violent and illegal courses This is the Scope of Bracton as is evident by the whole coherence and connexion of the matter who was so far from allowing such fond conceits and imaginations as they seem to suppose that the contrary runs in one constant veine through all his book if they regarded the authority of Bracton they would soon lay down their arms and sue to his Majesty for a Pardon Thirdly they alledge the testimony of Fortescue who speaking of the King of England Fol. 25. saith Prinipatu ne dum Regali sed Politico suo populo dominatur That is He governeth his People not only by Kingly but also by Politique power Reply Fortescue implyeth in these words that the King ought not to make his Will but the Lawes the rule of his power not that others are coordinate with him in the rights of Soveraingty Arist Pol. l. 1. c. 1. 3. For power is either Despotical or Politick Despotical power is Kingly power not moderated nor restrained by humane Laws and constitutions Politick power is Kingly power limited and restrained by humane and politick Laws Now Fortescue saith that the Kings power is not meerly Despotical and Regal but Politick and tempered by law and his intention is to shew the difference between the Common Laws of England and the Civill Laws The Emperour after the power was translated to him from the Common-wealth by that Law which in the Digest is called lex regia until the custome of making Laws by the assent of the people took place again might command what he pleased Quod Principi placet legis habet potestatem is a part of that Law but the King of England he saith cannot altogether govern his people by such a power but is obliged to rule them according to the tenour of the Politick Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdome so that Politique power is here opposed to Kingly power taken in its greatest latitude and not to Kingly power moderated and restrained by Law But how doth this concern the case in hand Object 4 Fourthly they alledge Precedents Parliaments they say have exercised a supreme power over the Crown of England it self to transfer it from the right Heir and setled it upon whom themselves thought meet to elect for their King They cite two Kings which were deposed Edward the second and Richard the second and then conclude that those Parliaments which have exercised such jurisdiction over them must certainly be above them and the highest Soveraigne power Reply The deposition of those Kings hath been resolved Treason by all the Judges of England and yet if it had been legall Coke institut part 2. tit treason the Precedents are impertinent for those acts were confirmed by the Kings themselves and could never have been esteemed Acts of Parliament without their own assent CHAP. X. Objections made against the KINGS supremacy in Particular by Mr. Bridge the reverend Divines and Others answered THey have yet other Objections whereby they endevour to prove that the Particular Rights of Soveraigntie are divided from the King and placed in the two Houses And first touching the Militia Mr. Bridge and the reverend Divines have found a device how the Parliament may make use of that and levy war against the King by his own authority They say as Judges they may send out Messengers or Sergeants at Arms for his evill Counsellours and in case they refuse to appear before them fetch them in as Delinquents by force of arms this is the sum of their Objection but I will set it down in their own terms Suppose saith Mr. Bridge a man be complained of to the Parliament for some notorious crime it is granted by all that the Parliament hath a power to send a Sergeant at Arms for him Mr. Bridges Objection and if he refuse to come that Sergeant at arms hath a power to call more and if the Delinquent shall raise twenty or thirty or an hundred men to reskue him then the Parliament hath power to send down more messengers by force to bring up the Delinquent and if they may raise an hundred why may they not upon the like occasion raise a thousand and so ten thousand And again in his answer to Doctor Ferns reply If the Parliament may send one Serjeant at Arms then twenty then an hundred then a thousand Reply This I confesse is a subtile invention for there can be by Law but thirty Serjeants at Arms at the same time within the Realm now if Mr. Bridge can shew a way how out of thirty Serjeants at Arms an Army of a thousand 13. R. 2. Cap. 6. or ten thousand may be raised he shall be worthy to have a Statue erected to his Memory The reverent Divines have in substance the same objection The reverent Divines objection saving onely they are not so punctuall for point of Law as to have their Army consist of Serjeants at Arms and they alledge a case in Law to justifie that way of proceeding Supposing say they the power of calling and dissolving Parliaments wholly in the King ordinarily yet there may be such power in them so long at they do sit to command arms to be raised for the suppressing of any Delinquents maintaining themselves with Arms even under the colour of the Kings authority which I thus make good If there be any such kind of power in the very judges in their Courts at Westminster for the whole Kingdome and in their several circuits for the shires they sit in although themselves are made Judges at the Kings will merely and put out ordinarily at his pleasure and they can neither keep assizes at any time nor keep any term any where but when and so long as the King pleases to give commission If I say there be such a power in the Judges and even in one of them then much more in the whole Parliament which is unquestionably and undoubtedly the highest judicature in the Kingdome and hath most power during their sittings now that such a kind of power is in the Judges I appeale to experience in the case following A private man hath a suit with the King about land or house and the like the King hath possession and some officer or tenant of his holds it for the King the Judges having heard the cause give sentence for the subject adjudge him to have the possession delivered him by the Kings Tenant or Officer he refuses and Arms himself to keep possession still upon this after due summons and processe of Law a writ of rebellion shall go out against the Officer af the Kings even though he should pretend to keep possession still by a command and warrant from the King and the Sheriffe shall be commanded to raise arms oven the whole
confident the last Parliament had been as great as blessing to the land as ever any was in former ages had not the ambition avarice and malice of some interrupted the course of the lawes But for this assembly of Traitors which hath a long time called themselves a Parliament sitting without the house of Lords and secluding from the house of Commons all that would not be as cruel barbarous and wicked as themselves it is a disturber of the Kingdoms peace an enemy and destroyer of the people and if we look upon their actions in their beginning in their raise and in their progress they may seem to have had alwayes a formal opposition to justice and to have acted by some occult and specifical quality not common to other Christians There was indeed at the first beginning of the Parliament much murmuring and discontent amongst the people partly caused by the monopolies and unusual taxation of Ship-mony and partly occasioned by the abuses of divers Courts Here the enemies of the Common-wealth finding a spacious overture to enter into this Rebellion began to act their parts and being too provident to loose such an advantage laboured to exasperate the minds of the people and to stir up those evil humours which began already to appear And although his Majesty offered all just satisfaction for what was past and the best securitie themselves should in reason require that the like Disorders might for ever after be prevented yet these turbulent and factious spirits being for the most part men of broken fortune and hoping to heal themselves by the ruin of others opposed all such motions and would needs themselves become Chyrurgions to the state and as Chyrurgions are wont to smooth and stroak the parts which they resolve shall bleed so they began to smooth and stroak the people promising them a new light in matters of Religion and that they would remove the grievances and sweeten the evils which affected the Common wealth although in stead of removing and sweetning them they have almost made them incurable By these perswasions mixed with many pretences of Religion they procured the people to meet together in great multitudes and in a tumultuous manner to assault divers of the Lords as they were going to the Parliament and to drive them back again not permitting them to speak in the house when their speech was most necessary for the service of the Kingdome Although it was easy for his Majesty to discover their intentions yet the love he bare his people made him to dissemble it and to give way to their proceedings hoping they might in time be brought by his favours to mitigate and correct their furious practises but finding at last that his patience served for nothing else but to fortifie and encourage them in their malice he thought himself obliged to take such wayes as he judged most convenient to stop the course of their proceedings the continuation whereof was like to bring so many mischiefs to the Commonwealth and seeing it was like to be prejudicial to the safety of the people as well as to his own to stay longer in a place where there was neither security for his person nor liberty for any other then those factious persons to vote according to the dictats of their own reason he was forced to withdraw himself from the Parliament to avoid the pernicious effects of those mens counsels which were resolved the whole commonwealth should sink rather then themselves not obtain those places of command and profit which they aimed at The King being gone it was not to be wondred if they which in his presence had the boldness to weave such pernicious designes against the state should in his absence endevour to corrupt the fidelity of his subjects for having the city of London wholy at their command they neither wanted means nor opportunity to draw the people to their faction who by such artificial devices as they used were easie to be insnared They tould them that by resisting the King they should not be rebels but an army authorised by those which were depositaries of the Kings authority that this resistance was an inspiration from heaven which promised the restauration of their ancient liberties which they said had been so often violated by the King They made them believe that the authority of the King and the whole commonwealth would be brought into confusion if they did not vigourously oppose those disorders were growing upon them and remove those evill counsellors from the King that did mislead and seduce him and withall they set out a Declaration promising to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority together with the liberties of the Kingdom assuring them they had no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness or any way to alter the constitution of the government or of Parliaments consisting of a King a house of Lords and a house of Commons But now we see the effects contrary to those words and promises which were so solemnly made to the whole Kingdome for they have not onely diminished his Majesties just power and greatness overthrown the nature and very being of Parliaments but most traiterously deprived his Majesty of his life and that afte he had condescended so far as to satifie all their unreasonable demands which fact of theirs although it hath been masked with many specious pretences and coloured with the fairest shews of justice yet was it the most execrable murder that ever was committed next that of our Saviour Christ and his ambitious judge hath gained this that next PILATE BRADSHAW of all such judges shall by posterity be esteemed the chief This murder of the King as it was most unjust so was it also most unseasonable considering the present disposition of the Kingdome whose strength being already too much weakened and attenuated ought not to have been further wasted and consumed by renewing the war which the death of the King did threaten But such motions could work nothing upon those which had long before resolved to make all other considerations give place to profit and ambition the people abused themselves whilst they thought this factious assembly would be more careful and tender of them then of the King for they have not onely brought a new war upon them which might have been avoided dashing them all against one another but have also themselves many wayes barbarously afflicted and destroyed them they have made the scaffold the Gibbet the prison and the grave the common places of their rendezvous and those which they have not devoured by their cruelty they devour by their unsatiable avarice whilst they declaim against Kings for oppressing the people by unjust taxations they have themselves as hath been computed by many squeesed more in one year from the Commonwealth then all the Kings of England have done since the conquest The lawful Magestrates are deprived of the liberty and honour of their functions and such as are the