Excluded she brought forth a Prince that was afterwards chosen Emperor Frederic the 2 d. If it were needful we could shew Your Highness that the Honour and Security of our Royal Family of England with the peace and safety of the Kingdom were intended in the Constitution of our Legal Monarchy in such manner that the Kings should not have Power at their will to Change the Succession or by any means prevent the Descent of the Crown to the next in Blood. But if the Kingdom should believe his Majesties Affirmation of this supposed Princes Birth without proof thereof according to the Laws and Customs of England the next Succession were really and actually thereby put out of the Legal Course and referred to the will of the King which is in effect to make the Crown Patrimonial whereas by the Laws and Customs of England the Right to the Crown descends to the next of Blood and the Successor is most properly to be stiled the Heir of the Kingdoms by force of the Kingdoms Laws and cannot be defeated of the Succession by any Act of the Predecessor if therefore the King should gain so vast a power by imposing on the People to believe his Attestation of this supposed Princes Birth 't is manifest that natural Justice as well as the Law of England makes it of no force or effect to the prejudice of her Royal Highness in her Esteem of being the Heiress apparent to the Crown We believe the Jesuits and other maintainers of this supposed Prince will claim as is their common practice against these our Laws whose force detects and defeats their Impostures they will pretend that 't is unreasonable to expect a Testimony of his Birth from such Witnesses and in such manner as are herein described exclusive of all Roman Catholicks but the reason and wisdom of these Laws are irresistible and its a great Circumstance shewing their guilt that they are displeased with the Laws that prevent Falsehood and Impostures and require proofs of Facts as clear as the Sun. The just and innocent are never offended at any Law that provide for Truth and Righteousness they cannot but be conscious to themselves that it was more easie to have provided such Witnesses as our Laws requires of a Princes Birth then to have had such as they provided that would Counterfeit to be Spectators and be content as 't is now said they were to see nothing of the Fact of which they were to be published to the Kingdom to have been the knowing Eye Witnesses 'T is notorious that the presence of ten of the Protestant Nobility of either Sex and other persons of Eminent Quality might have been as easily procured as one of the Catholicks if it had been intended to deal justly and fairly with the Kingdom and they know that the Protestants throwout Europe not the Papists wanted and desired satisfaction about the Queens great Belly and her delivery the suspitions of a Counterfeit Prince were strong amongst them and decryed by all the Papists they knew the Friends and those of Consanguinity with her Royal Hss were as ready to attend if they had been called as any Catholick whatsoever and they were not ignorant that Custom Law and Natural Justice required that Convenient notice should have been given to her Royal Highness above all others of the Expected time of the Queens Delivery that such Noble Matrons as she had thought Necessary might have been sent to have Continually attended near her Majesty and to have been impartial Witnesses of the Birth beyond Exception they understood the custom of calling Embassadors to be present at the Queen Delivery and that a Common fame of a designed Imposture was spread in forraign Protestant Countries and that there were Envoys and Publick Ministers from some of them Especially that the Dutch had an Embassador there and Expected to have been called they know that those Provisions for legal unquestionable proof of the Birth that was pretended have been no hindrance of the presence or assistance of as many Papists of each Sex as Her Majesty had desired and she might have as intirely depended upon their only help if it had been her pleasure as if those lawful Witnesses had not been present The Popish Councils delude his Majesty if they perswade him that any pleas of Inadvertency Neglect or Ignorance can satisfy the Kingdom instead of the proofs in the Case that the Custom and Laws of England require 't is a Rule of our Law that none shall make advantage of their own lachez that is their Failers or neglects of what they ought to have done less evidence is never to be accepted in our course of Judicature because the Party concerned was negligent in seeking it or ignorant when he might have known his duty We presume Your Highness in reading this may be satisfyed in the Truth of our first Preliminary Conclusion which is necessary to be always remembred in order to a just Judgment to be made of this supposed Prince of Wales and of the things proper to be done by Your Highness by reason or occasion of his pretences we doubt not Your Highness will clearly perceive what you may in justice demand of his Majesty in the Case preserving nevertheless a most pious sense of a fillial Duty We may more remember Your Highness that as the case now appears no acknowledgment of that pretended Prince can justly be required of Your Highness by his Majesty It s contrary to Justice and our Laws that her Royal Highness should depart from her place and claim of Heiress apparent to the Crown and resign it to a Child who is not yet lawfully witnessed to have been born of the Queen VVe therefore put your Highness in remembrance of a second Conclusion fit to be premised in this Case as an absolute certainty to be insisted on that is That neither the Laws of England nor any natural or Civil Justice do require of your Highness any kind of Testimonies or proofs that the pretences of this supposed Prince of Wales are false and feigned or that he was not born of the Queen Whosoever claims to be the natural and legitimate Son of any Family it s wholly and solely incumbent on him to prove it by the Laws and Customs of all Civil Governments and by the manifest Light of Nature those two Rules of the Civil Law are adopted by all Countries into their courses of Judicature Qualem quis se facit pro fundamento intentionis suae talem se debet probare and Filius qui petit haereditatem tanquam filius debet probare filiationem if Sonship or other quality or relation be the ground of a demand that Foundation must be always proved by the demandant if he that pretends to be Heir by his Birth to any inheritance fails of such sufficient Witnesses as the respective Laws of Countries require to prove his proximity of Blood there needs no Testimony on the part of those that deny his Linal Descent
or the Laws of England Our Laws require and demand an entry to be made upon all Intruders into the Rights or Inheritances of another there ought to be legal Interruptions made of all wrongful Possessions however obtained A long permission of an illegitimate Child to pass for a legitimate Heir is of dangerous consequence to the true Heir of an Inheritance 't is a known Rule both in our English Laws and the Civil Laws Tacens longo tempore praesumitur consentire he that remains long without answering any thing to an Intruders claim seems to allow it We crave pardon that we must freely tell your Hss that it hath been our astonishment that your Hss have been so long silent and have deferred to make your just demand and that you have so long suffered her R. Hss Chaplains to pray publickly for this supposed Prince of Wales Your Hss Heart cannot desire the God of Truth and Righteousness to prosper such an Invasion of your own and the Kingdoms Rights nor to bless the Impostor as such being set up tho an Innocent Child to be a Tool in the hands of others to destroy the Protestant Profession your Hss claims to the greatest Inheritance and the best Civil Government known in the World. We believe your Hss to be true Christians that tremble in the Worship and Prayers before the Eternal Majesty and therefore hope such a shew of owning him will not be longer suffered to be acted before the great God that searcheth all the hearts of Princes and Subjects If your Hss shall first make this 〈…〉 and Satisfaction therein be not given by the maintainers of the supposed Prince 〈…〉 al Justice and our Laws dictate that your Hss demand a retraction by the 〈…〉 all Christian Kingdoms and States of the false News they have published of the Birth of a Prince of Wales and their Vindication of her R. Hss Right apparent to the next Succession of the Crown When a wrongful Claimer to be Heir of any Inheritance cannot prove his true Descent the Court wherein he sues his Claim not only rejects and damns his false Pretences but openly declares the Counterfeit Tricks or Forgeries that they observe to have been attempted to support the false Claim and our Laws enable the Heir that hath been disturbed to demand by his Action against the false Pretender Satisfaction for the Scandal of his lawful Title and our Laws further require his prosecution for Justice against all the known Confederates in that intended Wrong and Fraud for their several Crimes therein committed We are sensible that most Catholic Princes have a prejudice to us in the Rights we claim as English Protestants not knowing our Laws and Liberties and we have therefore proposed these two Demands to be first in order made by your Hss in the behalf of her R. Hss and the Kingdom that we might convince them that we have Reason and Justice according to their own Laws and Rules of Right to seek your Hss Protection against the King's Practices as they yet appear in forcing us to stoop to a Counterfeit Prince and to change the Succession of the Crown and the whole Government your Hss having therein a joint Concern with us and our Laws and Nature it self call upon you to defend your own and the Kingdom 's Right to preserve the Succession of the Crown as it is by the Laws established which the King had no pretence of Power to Change. But we must also humbly fly to your Hss to protect us against the horrible destruction made by the King of all our Laws for the Reformation of our Christian Religion and our Security against the open professed and mortal Enemies of our Liberties therein the King having declared to the World that those Laws shall never hereafter be put in Execution and to make our Case therein desperate hath caused his Judges to justify him in what he hath done We must also pray your Hss help against his Invasion of all our Civil Rights and Fundamental Liberties and his utter subversion of the Free Government of England by its ancient Customs and Laws We cannot doubt but your Hss will be convinced by this Memorial that we have not complained of our Oppressions until they are become intolerable nor sought any Relief save from God alone until your Highnesses justly expected inheritance and the very being of our Civil Government are in the most extream danger of utter ruine We are and have been truly Loyal to the King and never refused obedience to any of his legal Commands or any whatsoever that could consist with all our other Duties to God and our fellow Subjects We have been content to suffer personal wrongs and manifest Injustice and considered the Corruption of Men that abuses and particular wrongs will happen in all Governments and ought patiently to be born whilst the Fundamentals of Civil Government and Justice are sacredly preserved Our Christian Charity taught us that 't is better that a few suffer wrongs than to hazard for their just Relief more effusion of Blood or other Mischiefs than can be recompensed by their obtaining Right We know the Jesuites crafts might have clouded the Justice that might have been demanded in particular Cases and we have therefore staid until the Justice of what we pray is become demonstrable unto all that are not corruptly and wilfully blind or led blindfold by the Jesuites or Romish Priests We are sensible that the King hath used the Name of the Royal Authority and Prerogative in all the lawless powers that he hath exercised and we durst not pray your Hss aid against his doings if there could be reasonably any doubt or question whether the things he hath done and daily doth might be authorized by the Royal Powers and high Prerogatives which belong to the Kings of England 'T is most unquestionable that the Noble English Monarchy and Government had a legal Foundation and was and is established upon Customs Franchises and Laws peculiar to the English Nation It was always free and independent upon all the Powers and Potentates on Earth the Kings and the People are and of right were always free and absolute to bind themselves by their own Laws made by their joynt consent and not otherwise they could never be bound by any others than themselves save only by the Laws of the most high God. A King of England ceaseth to act by the English Kingly Authority or as a King of England if he yield up himself or his Subjects to be bound or subjected to any other Laws Canons or Jurisdictions than such as are made or freely received by the mutual agreement of the King and the representative Body of the Realm in Parliament 'T is declared in the St. 16 R. 2.5 that the Crown of England had been so free at all times that it hath been in Subjection to no Realm and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality to be submitted to the Bishop of Rome
to persons disabled to bear them by positive and direct Acts of Parliament made for that very purpose and declared to be for the peoples security nevertheless the King hath put most of the Offices of the Kingdom in the hands of those that are so disabled It s as certain it never was in the power of our Kings to dispossess at their Wills any of the subjects of those interests and profits which they had for their lives nor to Commission any to judge his Subjects finally in matters criminal or civil by their discretion without any regard to the Laws Customs and priviledges of the Realm These and many other powers 〈…〉 ight name to your Hss are not the actings of and English legal Monarch but an a 〈…〉 Persons the Liberties and Interests of the Subjects as if he alone had at least the Property paramount in all â—â—â—ir persons and their Interests which in all civil Governments belongs only to the Lawful Legislators and as if the people of England wâ—â—â— Tenant of his meer will to what they have and had no right nor Interest in their Laws Customs or Franchises nor 〈◊〉 Justice to demand the benefit of them Nothing can compleat his Majestys renuntiation of the Trusts and Obligation of the English Regal Office save only that he assume as he now doth actually to take from the Citys and Boroughs intirely all their Customs and Priviledges and free Election of their Magistrates confirmed to them expressely by the great Charter and many other Laws and that he deprive all the rest of the people of their Liberty to chuse such persons as they please according to the Statutes to Consent for them to the Laws that shall bind them their Estates and Lives as he hath declared he will and intends and is every day doing and then the antient rightful and Free English Government will be manifestly and intirely dissolved and Englishmen shall have no Legal right to their Estates their Wives and Children or their Lives There will be then no legal English Monarchy in England trusted by the Laws with high Royal Prerogatives for the joynt safety and benefit of the King and the subjects acknowledging themselves to be bound by an Oath to maintain the Customs Laws and Franchises of the Realm and to take continual care for the Execution of the Laws impartially for that purpose every man shall then have equal and eternal right to every hing as this King will and his Popish forces shall dispose of it and so long only as he shall please to continue in the same mind with the same force 'T is with bleeding hearts that in this manifest extream oppression and danger we beg your Highnesses aid to defend the rights of the Crown and the Realm There can be no question of your Hss right to defend the same the Legal Monarchy and Government by our antient Customs Laws and Franchises to save the antient Penal Laws against the Popes Vsurpations and the latter Laws for the Reformation of our Religion from Popery and to preserve the special Customs and Priviledges of the Cities and Boroughs as well as the General Customs of the Kingdom which our Customs and Laws only have vested in your Hss the next right Expectant of the English Crown and if no Prince shall be born Rege etiam renitente tho the King shall do all that 's possible for him to hinder you If you suffer them to be destroyed or to be disused and deemed to be of no force but as the King shall please by his Judges and Courts and by all that he shall possess of the Power of the Kingdom Your Highnesses claym and rights as Expectant of the Crown is in like manner destroyed and set aside and the whole arbitrary Magistracy serving his Will and all his Popish forces Foraigners and Natives will be ingaged in Interest and misguided Conscience to oppose your Highnesses claim by the Laws and Customs of England there will be indeed in the State to which the King hath brought the Kingdom no legal Magistrates nor Government in being and use unto which her Royal Highness can immediately succeed according to the Customs and Laws of England the Kingdom must be a confused Multitude and the strongest may subdue the rest to their Will. As your Highnesses have a right to save the Government by reason of your great Interest in it so all the People have an unquestionable right to seek your Highnesses Aid therein and 't is one of the principal Duties of the Christian Religion and will be one of the best outward Expressions of their Love to God and Jesus Christ to assist your Highness in all your righteous ways defending their Just Civil Government being instituted by God for preserving Justice among humane Societies The People that love their Neighbours and Countries as Christian Religion commands ought not carelesly nor irreligiously to suffer their Civil Government their Laws and all their Rights and Interest that their Country hold by them for themselves and Posterities to be destroyed by any Man's Will Superstition or Ambition He that was at first a Legal Supream Magistrate and ought to have been obeyed if he would have so continued tho he had done many Injustices to particular Persons he may cast off the Quality and Use of the Power of a Legal Supream Magistrate and use and exercise Power destructive to all the Legal Trusts and Office and then he devests himself of that Office and Trust of a lawful Magistracy unto which the Laws of God and the Kingdom require Obedience The ancient Kings of England acknowledged the Peoples Right to save their Free Government if any of the Kings themselves would have dishonorably parted with the Rights of the Crown and the Realm We mentioned the Letter of H. I. to the Pope and that great Prince Ed. I. on the like occasion of Power claymed by the Pope not only writ to the Pope to the same Effect as H. I. did but by his consent Letters were written to Pope Boniface by the Lords and Commons in Parliament wherein they told the Pope that they were bound by Oath to the Observation and Defence of their Liberty Customs and ancient Laws and would maintain them with all their Power and Force and that they neither did nor ever would could or ought to suffer the King tho he would to do or any ways attempt what the Pope desired contrary to their Customs since it would be to the Destruction of the Rights of the Crown of England and the Kingly Dignity and the Subversion of the Statutes of the Kingdom and Prejudice of their antient Liberties Customs and Laws Since then your Hss have an undoubted right to interpose between the King and us in your own and the Kingdoms behalf to save our ancient legal Government and in special our Laws for the Reformation of our Christian Religion we humbly offer that besides the former Demands about the supposed Prince your Hss will please to
demand and insist immovably That the antient free Government of England by its 〈…〉 and Law â—nly made or approved in Parliament be immediately restore 〈…〉 all th 〈…〉 at is that the Rights of the Crown and Freedom of the Realm be forth 〈…〉 Submissions publickly made to the Pope by the King that now is to the Disho 〈…〉 English Crown and Realm and from all the Claims made by the Romish Church â—â— any Powers and Jurisdictions whatsoever over the Christians o 〈…〉 England â—â—â—t all the Laws now in force against the Admission of the Canons and Jurisdiction of Rome contrary to our Customs and Laws and against the maintainers of them be forthwith declared to be put in due Execution and all Suspensions of them or Dispensations with them without the Authority of Parliament be declared null and void That the Ancient Customs Liberties and Priviledges of the City of London and the whole form and course of its Government be forthwith restored the Customs thereof being part of the Common Law of England and its Liberties being established by the great Charter and many Acts of Parliament that the Customs Free Election of their Magistrates and all the Priviledges of all the Cities and Boroughs of England confirmed by the great Charter and other Laws be duely restored That Legal Officers both Civil and Military be settled in all the Places of Magistracy and all the Commands throughout the Kingdom That all Commissions whatsoever be forthwith revoked and declared null and void whereby are granted any Powers of Discretion over the Persons or Interest of the Subject contrary to the Laws and Customs of England especially the Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs with its monstrous non obstante to all our Laws That the Freedom of Elections which is the Foundation of the Government be duely vindicated and all the most unworthy Preingagements revoked and renounced to elect and vote as the King would have them That the Kingdom may be restored as soon as possible to a Capacity of holding a Legal Parliament in such Form and Manner as the Laws require by whose help the Civil Government may be reestablished and force and arbitrary Powers therein utterly abolished We crave your Highnesses Pardon that we further humbly offer to your Hignesses that time and accident always made Changes in the Usefulness of Laws and that it hath so happened in our Penal Laws made for Uniformity in the Profession of Faith and in the outward Worship of God four of our succeeding Parliaments perceived the abuse of these Laws and the Mischief thereby to conscientious Christians and declared their Intention of relieving them if the King would have permitted them and they endeavoured to stop the Execution of them and desired a Settlement of Liberty of Conscience as is due to Christians In these Regards and the Subversion of the whole Government since made Necessity and Charity may have the force of Laws to inforce the stay of the Execution of some of those Laws for Conformity until those Matters may be settled in Parliament We therefore humbly pray your Highness to procure as a case of Necessity that none be disturbed until a Legal Parliament shall have resolved the case for the Profession of their Faith in Matters meerly supernatural or the outward Expression of their Worship so as both terminate only in God and neither wrong nor hurt any Man on Earth in Body Goods and good Name but their own Souls only if they be mistaken therein We now most humbly submit our selves and all herein contained to your Highnesses Wisdom Candor and Charity 〈◊〉 shall pray the just and great God to fill your noble Souls with perfect Love and Wisdom and all the most resplendent Vertues that are fit to shine in the highest Thrones and Power that ever the Sun beheld Sr The Character we have had of your Worth makes us confident of your Faithfulness to deliver the inclosed forthwith to his Highness the Prince of Orange or in his Absence to her Royal Hss the Princess we could not trust it by the Post and therefore have sent it by an Express which may perhaps make it longer in coming the Messengers only Order is to deliver it to one of your Servants and we confide in your Integrity and remain To Monsieur M 〈…〉 at the Hague SIR Your most humble Servants whom you may hereafter know (*) The Instances hereof are too many to be recited but some thereof are these viz. 1. Most of the Protestants are pressed to declare for a Repeal of all the Laws made for the Reformation of our Religion and its settlement 2. All the Subjects are forced to submit to Serve and Obey those that are no lawful Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors Lords Lieutenants and other Commanders and all are Threatned Vexed and Prosecuted as the Lord Lovelace now is that dare but say that such have no lawful Authority 3. All the Subjects are commanded to suffer all the Actions and Offences of their Lives and the secrets of their Hearts to be searched into and their chief Interests and many of their Free-holds to be judged by the discretion of a few of the Kings Creatures called his Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs whose Commission is to proceed without and against the Rules of our Laws with a non obstante to all other Laws and every Man is required to assist their Arbitrary Powers on peril of their Censures which extend to imprisonment for Life 4. All our Ministers are required under grievous menaced Penalties to be the Kings Cryers to Proclaim in the Churches the Kings Power to suspend at once the force and use of all our Penal Laws made in 400 Years past to secure the Rights of the Crown the freedoms and properties of the Realm and the profession of the Protestant Religion 5. All the Protestants are forced by fear of the Kings Wrath to suffer the Rights of the Crown and the freedom of the Realm against Foreign Powers and Laws to be publickly denied and the force of Foreign Laws over them to be maintained they are injoined by the King to neglect their sworn duties to God to the Crown and Kingdom of prosecuting at Law those Treasons which they know and see to be daily committed for which no excuse can be made by pretence of Liberty of Conscienâ—e in Christs Religion 6. The Constables and other Officers throughout the Realm are forced to quarter Irish and Scots and oâ—her mercenary Souldiers in their Neighbours Houses against their Wills in contempt of the Ancient Laws and the express Words of the late Statutes 7. All the Gentlemen and Free-holders are pressed to renounce their native and legal freedom in their choice of Members for Parliament 8. The Freemen of the Cities and Towns are urged to yield up to the Kings Will the Tenure of their Magistracies and all their free Customs and Priviledges 9. All the People are forced by fear of Punishments to suffer a Child to be
Licensed and Entred According to Act of Parliament AN ACCOUNT OF THE REASONS OF THE Nobility and Gentry's Invitation Of His HIGHNESS the PRINCE of ORANGE INTO ENGLAND Being a MEMORIAL from the English Protestants Concerning their GRIEVANCES With a Large Account of the Birth of the Prince of WALES Presented to their HIGHNESSES The PRINCE and PRINCESS of ORANGE LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew and Jonathan Robinson in St. Paul's Church-yard 1688. A MEMORIAL FROM THE ENGLISH PROTESTANTS FOR THEIR HIGHNESSES THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF ORANGE IT cannot be unknown to Your Highness that the Protestants of England that are Faithful to the Principles and Doctrines of their Religion and to the just Established legal Government are in divers kinds most intollerably vexed and oppressed by the Popish Contrivances and Practices covered with the pretences and name of Authority That Illegal things are daily imposed upon them in their several Stations and Places which they are convinc'd in their Consciences can never be justified unto God or the Kingdom and yet they are pressed upon them without regard to their Consciences by loss of their Offices and Imployments and many other threatned Effects of the Kings displeasure That many of their legal Liberties Benefits and Means of subsistence in their Churches and Colledges are taken from them by meer Will and Pleasure and Processes and Prosecution by arbitrary Commissioners are threatned and begun against great numbers of them without their guilt of the least Offence or Transgression against any of the Laws of this Realm That they are debarred and spoyled of the due free Election of their Magistrates and Officers in their Cities and Towns and pretended Officers and Magistrates are imposed upon them and turned out and put in at the Kings absolute Will as they are found ready to comply with and serve the Popish Design either ignorantly or corruptly That several of the Bodies Politick of their Cities and Towns are declared to be dissolved at the Kings Pleasure to terrify and subjugate the minds of all the rest and the Citizens and Burgesses are thereby Disfranchised and Divested of all their good Customs Freedoms and Priviledges if they cannot in Conscience comply with Illegal Commands and will not treacherously surrender their legal Rights and Priviledges unto the Kings Will. That the legal securities provided by the Kings and Kingdom in Parliament against the dangers of their Religion and Liberties are by the Kings absolute Command thrown aside and made useless by pretence of his Power to dispence with those penal Laws notwithstanding the Subjects Right in them for the protection and safety of their Religion Liberties and Lives whereby the very Foundation of all the Subjects Rights and Properties is undermined and shaken and a New Claim is set up and maintained that the Subjects have no Right Property or security against the Will and Pleasure of their Kings That by colour of such a dâ—spensing Power the trust of the Kingdoms Defence and Safety by military Powers is put into such hands as are made incapable of them by many express Laws of the Kings and Kingdoms in Parliament which justly give the Protestants sad apprehensions of imminent dangers seeing themselves put into the Power of those that publickly profess to be in Union and Communion with the Church of Rome that openly declare themselves to be the mortal Enemies to all Protestants and that they are bound upon peril of their Salvation to seek their Destruction if they shall continue constant to the Protestant Profession That contrary to the express Laws of the Realm lately declared in Parliament an Army of Papists and Mercenaries is maintained and dispersed through the Kingdom in full Peace to the great disquiet and terror of the Pretestants and they are in divers ways constrained to receive these Soldiers into their Houses to sojourne there against their Wills whereby they are deprived of their Peace and Security in their Families and of their Converse with their Neighbours and Friends and of the advantages they might make in their ways of living That the King hath barred and forbidden the execution of the Ancient Laws of the Realm against divers sorts of Treasons and other most hainous Crimes and all the Statutes now known to have been made from age to age for 500 Years past in relation to the Popes and Romish Priests Powers and Practises are suspended tho' the Experience of the Papists in all those Ages shewed those Powers and Practices to be so mischievous and dangerous that they often complained in Parliament they feared the Destruction of the Kingdom by them His Majesty also so Controuls the Courts of Law in the Course wherein Justice ought to be administred that the Judges tho' they have highly served the Popish Designs are turned out of their Places Honours and Pensions if they dare but suffer the Laws justly to acquit those whom the King would have condemned as appears amongst divers other Instances by his late displacing Judge Holloway and Judge Powell upon the legal acquittal of the seven Bishops We need not shew to your Highness more particular Instances of our Oppression since 't is notorious that there is a publick attempt authorized by the King to subvert the very Foundation of the whole Civil legal Government of the Kingdom that is the Peoples free Election in the Customary Established Course by Counties Cities and Boroughs of their Deputies to Act and Consent for them in Parliament unto all Laws to be made and repealed The truly Noble Monarchy was founded on equal Freedom and the Civil Government of England was always of right truly free because no Laws or Authorities ever bound the Persons and Properties of the Kingdom save only those wherein the Kings and all the Subjects freely agreed every Subjects free consent being deemed by our Laws to be given personally as by his Deputies to the Enacting and Repealing of every Law. Therefore the Statutes of old in affirmance of the common Custom of England declared that Elections should be free from all interruptions and interpositions by the King or the Pope and the Kings have bound themselves by the Statutes no way to disturb any Electors in making their free Elections No Commands Promises or Threats no Prayers nor Solicitations ought to be made unto the Electors by the King or Pope or any others the Peoples Deputies say the Laws are to be chosen Freely and Indifferently without pre-ingagement of the Electors or fear of displeasing the King and without promises of Favour or Rewards to them They are to be indifferent at the Time and Place of Election and in such manner to proceed notwithstanding any Request or Command to the contrary otherwise the Elections are void and null But we are not able to number the various kinds of Attempts and Practises to overturn this Foundation of our Government There have been infinite Endeavours and Artifices openly used to destroy
nor the Laws and Statutes of the Realm to be by him frustrated or defeated at his Will to the perpetual destruction of the Kings Soveraignty Crown and Regality and of all the Realm The Commons then prayed the King and him required by way of Justice to examine all the States of the Realm how they would stand to defend the Rights of the Crown and the Realm against the Pope and it was thereupon ordained that all that should pursue or bring any Bulls or Instruments from Rome against the Kings Regality or his Realm should be put out of the Kings Protection and incur a Premunire which as the Law then was made it lawful for any man to kill them Likewise the Stat. of 24 H. 8.12 and 25 H. 8.21 say that the Realm hath been and is free from Subjection to Mans Laws but only to such as have been devised and made within the same for its own welfare or of their free Liberty received by their consent to them The King and Parliament neer four hundred years since were so resolute to defend the Rights and Freedoms of the Crown and the Realm against the Imp 〈…〉 Jurisdictions and Powers which he attempted to exercise that notwith 〈…〉 they by the Stat. of 18 Ed. 3. St. 1. Rot. Parliament num 38. declared th 〈…〉 Enemy to the King and the Realm and so he stands now declared and to the â—â—â—e purpose is the Roll Parliament 17 Ed. 3. num 59. Tho these Statâ—â—â—s are not printed their force is the same to make them to fall into the Condition of Enemies to the Kingdâ—â— â—â—â—at correspond with him or his Nuntio It never was in the Power of any King of England to yield up or submit the Rights of the Crown and the Realm and its Laws Powers or Jurisdictions of any sort against the Will of the Realm in Parliament so it was confessed 500 years since K. H. 6. in his Letters to Pope Paschal Notum habeat sanctitas vestra quod me vivente auxiliante Deo dignitates usus regni nostri Angliae non imminuentur si ego quod absit in tanta me dejectione ponerem Magnates mei totus Angliae populus nullo modo pateretur Be it known said he to your Holiness that whilst I live by Gods assistance the Authorities and Vsages of the Kingdom of England shall never be diminished but if I would so debase my self which God forbid my Nobles and the whole People of England would by no means suffer it King John indeed unworthily surrendered the Crown and Regalities to Pope Innocent the 3d and his Successors and the Priests falsely put into that Charter that it was by the consent of his Council of Barons he submitted to hold the Kingdom of the Pope and that by yearly rent again but when Pope Gregory the tenth in the third of Ed. 1. sent for that pretended Rent that Noble Prince justly answered that he was bound by his Oath in his Coronation to preserve the rights of the Kingdom untouched and that he could do nothing that concerned the Crown without the advice of the People in Parliament which are there called Proceres In the 40 of Edward the Third the Pope demanded the same Rents and the King proposed it in Parliament but they declared that neither King John nor any other King had any power to put himself or the Realm and People into subjection to the Pope without their consent in Parliament and that if it were done by King John it was done contrary to his Oath in his Coronation and if the Pope attempted any thing thereupon against the King or his Subjects they would resist him to their utmost power The same King Edward the third had only negligently suffered the Popes power to be too much used in the Kingdom contrary to the Statute of Carlile 35 Ed. 1. as appears by the Parliament Roll 17. Ed. 3. num 59. and the Commons in Parliament complained that the Treasure of the Realm was transported to Rome and the Secrets of the Realm discovered by the Foreign Priests sent hither and they required of the King some Mercy for that they neither could nor would any longer bear those strong Oppressions or else that he would help them to expel out of this Realm the Popes Power by Force and thereupon were enacted against many of the Popes Powers in this Realm those severe Penal Laws of 25 Ed. 3.27 Ed. 3.1.38 Ed. 3. Stat. 2. ch 1. all which our King hath now declared shall never hereafter be put in Execution That Victorious Prince Edw. 3. tho a Papist yet pretended to no Regal Prerogative of suspending the Laws made by the Kings and Parliaments against the Pope he confesseth in that Statute of 35 Edw. 1. against the Pope's Power that it held its Force being not annulled by Parliament and therefore he was bound by his Oath to see the same kept as a Law of the Realm tho by Sufferance and Negligence it had been attempted to the Contrary If the Effects of the Romish Jurisdictions in the Realm were looked upon as they are related in that 38 Edw. 3.1 It would be manifest that the King that would put the Kingdom into such a state lays aside thereby his Kingly Office and Dignity whilst he pursues these Intentions that Statute saith that by the Powers exercised by the Pope and Court of Rome and the Dependants thereof the good ancient Laws Customs and Franchises of the Realm were greatly impeached blemished and confounded the Crown abated the Treasure and Riches of the Realm carried away the Inhabitants and Subjects of the Realm impoverished and troubled and the great Men and Commons in Bodies and Goods damnified surely there can be no doubt whether the King hath any Royal Prerogative to enable him either to stop the Execution of these Penal Laws that prevent the Kingdom from falling back into such a forlorn Estate or to attempt by pretence of Liberty of Conscience for the Romish Priests and Emissaries and their Practices to enable them to work all the mischief they can against those that would save the Kingdom from such Miseries Your Highnesses may be absolutely certain that the King acts not by vertue of the English Regal Office or Prerogatives in his authorizing Treasons to be daily committed against the Realm By the Statute of 13 Eliz. 2. they that give or receive any Absolution or Reconciliation to Rome by the Popes Authority or any of his Priests which the King licenseth and authorizeth to be done continually those are declared high Traytors to the King and the Realm and no doubt Treasons declared by a Statute against the Realm are common Nusances of the highest Nature and Mischief 't is the trust of the Regal Office to prevent and punish them and 't is directly Contrary to the Kingly Office to assume Power to authorize or license such Crimes 'T is unquestionable that no King of England ever had power to grant Offices