Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	parliament_n	person_n	2,736	5	5.0257	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44191	Lord Hollis, his remains being a second letter to a friend, concerning the judicature of the bishops in Parliament, in the vindication of what he wrote in his first : and in answer to ... The rights of the bishops to judge in capital cases in Parliament, cleared, &c. : it contains likewise part of his intended answer to a second tractate, entituled, The grand question touching the bishops right to vote in Parliament, stated and argued : to which are added Considerations, in answer to the learned author of The grand question, &c., by another hand : and reflections upon some passages in Mr. Hunt's Argument upon that subject, &c., by a third.; Second letter to a friend concerning the judicature of the bishops in Parliament	Holles, Denzil Holles, Baron, 1599-1680.; Holles, Denzil Holles, Baron, 1599-1680. Letter of a gentleman to his friend.; Atwood, William, d. 1705? Reflections upon Antidotum Britannicum.	1682 (1682)	Wing H2466; ESTC R17318	217,539	444

in that Letter to which I refer my self But for these omissions which he makes so criminal As for the first concerning my not expressing that they made their Peerage a ground of their Protestation I answer That since what I conceived and maintained to have been their end in their Protestation which was Only to assert and lay claim to their Right of being present in Parliament in all other matters but matters of Blood was not at all controverted by me but that to which I fully agreed in omnibus I did not think it at all necessary nor proper to insert what moved them to make such a Protestation but only so much as was to the purpose for what I alledged that Precedent The matter of their Peerage is another point for which in truth there is little ground notwithstanding all their claim to it and that it be sometimes attributed unto them by such as desire to please them and perhaps by many ignorantly and mislead to it in regard of their sitting in the Upper House of Parliament and having a Parity of Vote with the Temporal Lords in the Legislative part and likewise in the judicial part of that House in all other Cases but of Blood from which they have been particularly debarred both by their own Canon Law and afterwards by the Law of the Land and the custome and usage of Parliament which may very well make many persons not considering the true nature of Peerage nor examining with care and diligence what in that particular our Law saith and what hath been the usage of Parliament give them that Appellation But I have in my former Letter cleared also this point I think very fully and shall say more to it in this when I come to answer that Article hereafter in course as our Assertor brings me to it for this now is but by the way upon occasion of this his first Postulatum And now for his other charge upon my unfaithful citing the Protestation in 28 H. 6. leaving out how the Lords Spiritual and Temporal joyned in challenging their Right of Judicature and that the Judgment given by the King concerning the Duke of Suffolk should not turn to their prejudice but they and their Successors should enjoy their liberties in case of their Peerage hereafter as freely and as largely as their Ancestors had before them I shall give a like answer to this as I did to the other I concealed nothing that was necessary and proper to be said which may appear by my letting forth particularly the whole proceeding in that Tryal step by step how the Prelates joyned in the management of it from the beginning to the end therefore certainly it had been no more a disadvantage to me to acknowledge that the Prelates claimed such a Right in a verbal Protestation than that they did actually exercise it as I say they did all along in the whole transaction of that business Therefore if it was designedly done it was a weak design in me my end was only to shew the palpable extravagances of that Tryal and of the Kings taking upon himself to give the Judgment and so mentioned the Lords Protesting against it in which the Prelates joyned with the Temporal Lords as well as they had in all the foregoing passages of it for the matter of their Peerage I reserved it still to be spoken to in a clause apart by it self when it comes to be the proper subject matter in question I did it in my former Letter to you and I shall do the same in this His second Postulatum is concerning Attainders in which he saith we both agree that Bishops may and ought to be present and yet Attainders saith he are matters of Blood and learnedly he adds That it is not material in the Judgment of any considering person which way a mans life is taken away whether by way of Attainder or by Impeachment and infers further That the Canon Law which by a jeer he saith I call the Law of Laws is not so indispensibly obliging And our Asserter it seems puts himself into the rank of those considering persons that make an Attainder and an Impeachment two distinct species or kinds of proceeding against a Criminal person to take away Life saying it is not material which of the two wayes life is taken away whether by Attainder or Impeachment Oh the Ignoramus that wants a considering Cap to judge aright and know what an Attainder is which is what follows upon the Conviction and Condemnation of the guilty Person be it upon an Impeachment in Parliament and Tryal there in a judicial way or by an Act of Parliament in the Legislative way or by a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer under the great Seal the Attainder is the Result and Consequent of those three wayes of Tryal and Condemnation and not a distinct thing running in a different channel from an Impeachment or from any of the other wayes of Tryal being the end and consequent as I say of all Tryals when the person is found Guilty The Term Attainder or Attainted implies so much which our Etymologists derive from the Latin Attingere to Touch or Reach to a thing Now a Criminal person is touched or reached unto and seized upon by the Law upon an Impeachment and Tryal in Parliament or by a Tryal out of Parliament by Commission as well as by an Act of Parliament so I think one may give it this Definition That it is a Notion in Law whereby the Law reacheth and seiseth upon a Condemned person taints his Blood and divesteth him of all his Priviledges both in publick and private concerns which he enjoyed before as a Free Man of England Besides our confident Asserter doth not consider the nature of the Question in controversy which is not Whether a Bishop quatenus a Bishop an Ecclesiastical person in holy Orders may be present as a Judge in any case when matters of Blood are agitated and whether the Canon Law be so obliging as that in no case he may but whether by the Law of the Land and the custome and usage of Parliament the Bishops be forbidden it when the House of Peers acts in a judicial capacity to condemn any body and not when they pass an Act of Parliament for it and I think it is clearly made out That they may in the latter case passing a Law for it and not in the former to act as Judges in a judicial way His third Postulatum is concerning the Petition of the Commons 21 R. 2. That in regard divers Judgments in Parliament had been heretofore undone and repealed for that the Lords Spiritual were not present at them the King would command them to make some their common Procurator with sufficient authority thereunto which would put an end to all controversies To this he saith That for me to demand what in particular those Judgments were at this distance of time is neither equitable nor rational And truely I made no such

concerning Breakers of Truce and a Proviso in it That this Act shall not extend to any Act or Ordinance made 2 H. 5. late indeed and not of right King of England But still he is acknowledged King of England de facto which goes a great way to authorize any thing done under their power Therefore 11 H. 7. c. 1. A Law is provided to indemnifie all persons that shall do service to the King in being whether he have right or no. As for what is said of the Bishops making their Common Proxy at the prayer of the House of Commons That their Proceedings might be valid and not questioned in future Parliaments by reason of their absence and that divers Judgements had been reversed because they were not present It is true it is so expressed in the Roll of that void Parliament which as it hath no authority nor validity in it self so it is very strange that if there had been ground for this apprehension there should remain nothing upon Record in all the Rolls of Parliament that ever any Judgement or any other act done in any Parliament had been so repealed We know it was once attempted 2 H. 5. by Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury as I told you in my former Letter who brought his Writ of Error to reverse the Judgement given against his Father 2 H. 4. because the Bishops as he alledges there being Peers of Parliament were not parties to that Judgement but it was declared to be no Error and his Petition was rejected And we know that in Edward the First 's time there was a Parliament held at St. Edmonds-bury Clero excluso not a Prelate admitted to it And in Henry the Eighth's time all the Judges of England declared it for Law That the King might hold a Parliament with his Lords Temporal and Commons altogether without the Lords Spiritual Tout sans les Spirituels Seigneurs it is in Keilwayes Reports in Dr. Standish's Case Therefore there is no reason to think that any Judgements were repealed upon the Bishops being absent seeing their presence is not of necessity for the constituting and sitting of a Parliament And especially not for the Judgements which we treat of in Capital Cases because by what appears upon Record and by all the Laws Canon Common and Statute Law they never were present I always except that Unparliamentary Extravagant Proceeding and Judgement of Henry the Sixth in the twenty eighth of his Reign upon William de la Pool Our Asserter tells us of some Judgements reversed 15 E. 2. particularly in the Case of the Spencers but he doth not tell us where he finds it nor I believe doth he know himself having only taken it up some where upon trust as he doth other things But in this 21 R. 2. upon the Petition of the Earl of Gloucester it appears by the Record of the proceedings against the two Spencers Father and Son in that 15 E. 2. which are there repeated at large that there was nothing Capital in their Case neither in the Charge nor in the Judgement so as this signifies nothing to the matter in question which is all can be said to it And as little shall I say to his witty allusion of bringing me to a sight of my self as Alexander did his Horse to the Sun that he might not kick only this I might say if I were as foul-mouthed as he that indeed such a scoffing injurious Scribbler were fitter to be answered with a kick than with fair reasoning by way of Argument Next we come to the 1 H. 4. Sir William Rickhill's Case where I think I should do well only to transcribe what he hath written to shew it needs no answer but that I should waste too much Ink and Paper I represented in my Letter to you that Rickill being sent for into Parliament no formal charge being against him to give an account only by what order he had taken the Duke of Gloucester's Confession at Calais which he did the Bishops present but when they came to consider what was to be done upon it then only the Lords Temporal were asked their opinion which I alledge to shew that the Bishops there were not advised with because it might be preparatory to a further proceeding by way of Tryal And this our Asserter says is to serve an Hypothesis and learnedly gives it us in Greek and bids the Reader judge and so do I. Then for the Tryal of Hall who was one of the murtherers of the Duke of Gloucester he hath the condescension to acknowledge it probable that the Bishops were not there but then saith that they left it to the Temporal Lords without any Impeachment to their right it being secured before by the security of a confessed Act of Parliament 11 R. 2. it is their Protestation he harps at And if I had as much Greek as he I would say it in Greek that he now doth serve an Hypothesis or in good English beg the Question for that is his meaning of serving an Hypothesis for the Right which the Bishops there saved he will have to be and hath forty times repeated it to judge Capitally when they please but I have clearly shewed it was not of their assisting in those Judgements as he still will have it to be but other Judgements and proceedings in Parliament where in truth they had a right to assist Then follows the Case of William Sautre 2 H. 4. where he is pleased to give me a wipe for stiling him the Protomartyr of England and out of his great reading informs that St. Alban lived some hundreds of years before him but he must give me leave to inform him that the common acceptation of Martyrs amongst us Protestants now is of such Orthodox persons as have suffered for the truth whom the Papists have put to death for Hereticks and this man was the first of them in England He hath some other notable Remarks one is that whereas I said that the Bishops and Clergy of those times were the chief Promoters of bringing him to his end which I meant of their declaring him an Heretick and then turning him over to the Secular Power he observes upon it That then they acted in a Capital Case which he saith makes against me And that if it was the Lords Temporal who signed the Warrant for his execution that the Bishops had no hand in it and so have escaped my lash but who were his Judges nondum constat I am sure it doth not constare to me to what purpose he saith all this which I do not find to make either for him or against me No more than what he saith of the Case of the Earls of Kent Huntington and Salisbury 2 H. 4. who he grants were declared and adjudged Traytors by the Temporal Lords and no Bishops present and then saith he will give a Parallel Case it is of the Earl of Cambridge and the Lord Scroope 3 H. 5. where the Bishops were present and

a Simon de Bereford Chebalier c. Item in the same Parliament our Lord the King charged the said Earls Barons and Peers to give a right and loyal Iudgement upon Sir Simon de Bereford c. It follows afterwards Si agarderent aviggerent les ditz Countes Barons Piers come Iuges du Parlement per assent du Roy que le dit Simon come treitre fast treisne pendu So the said Earls Barons and Peers as Iudges of Parliament did with the Kings assent award and adjudge Sir Simon de Bereford to be Drawn and Hanged You see the same persons were his Judges who had before Tryed and Condemned the Earl of March yet I must observe a little difference in the expressions The King in giving the charge to the Peers in the Earls Case the words of the Record are The King charges you Earls Barons Les Piers de son Royalme The Peers of his Realm which must be construed Who are the Peers or Being the Peers of his Realm And then their Judgement comes to be set down the Record saith Les queux Countes Barons Piers c. The which Earls Barons and Peers did so and so with a Conjunction Copulative and before Peers as if there were some other Peers after the Earls and Barons which if there were we are sure it could not be the Bishops which is all that we are to enquire into We know that heretofore the Kings of England did sometimes send Writs of Summons to other persons that were not Peers of the Realm but persons of Quality as Bannerets and some Officers as the Warden of the Cinque-Ports whom I find commonly to be the last set down in the List of those who were summoned And those persons so summoned came and attended the Parliament and had Voice and Vote with the Peers as Members of their House and as Peers pro tempore and might be comprized under the general name of Peers and being Lay-men might act as Peers in all Tryals and in all other Judgements of Parliament both Civil and Criminal even in Capital Causes but these could in no sort be esteemed to be Peers of the Realm though they might pass in a large acceptation and a vulgar construction of the expression be termed Peers in Parliament These now might be summoned to a Parliament or two or three Parliaments one after another as pleased the King and then be summoned no more if the King was otherwise minded and they could not pretend to have wrong done them their former Summons having been Ex mera gratia without any right of theirs to them So then I may conclude that it is all one whether you will take it as it is expressed in the Kings charge then The Earls Barons Peers of the Realm c. or as it is when they come to give Judgement and as it is likewise expressed in the Case of Sir Simon de Bereford The said Earls Barons and Peers c. and whether that Conjunction and before the word Peers be of any signification or no to mark out other Peers subsequent to the Barons is not material to what our Asserter would have to be understood of my leaving out any thing for it had all made for me and against him making it clear enough that the Bishops had no part in those Judgements The next Precedent is the Judgement of Iohn Mautravers the Record says Trestouz les Piers Countes Barons assemblez a ceste Parlement a Westminster 〈◊〉 on t examine estroitement sur ce sont assentuz accordez que John Mautravers 〈◊〉 est culpable c. All the Peers Earls and Barons assembled in this Parliament at Westminster have strictly examined and thereupon have agreed and accorded that John Mautravers is guilty c. I appeal now to any man that hath but common sense if it can be imagined that the Prelates or Bishops can be thought to be meant by that expression of All the Peers and if it be not the same in signification as when the King charged them to give righteous Judgement upon the Earl of March saying Si vous charge Countes Barons les Piers de mon Roialme c. And so I charge you Earls Barons the Peers of my Realm c. There the several ranks of Peers are first named and the general word which denotes their Quality common to both which makes them competent Judges of those matters that is their being Peers is put last And here in this Record concerning Mau●…avers it is put first Which comes all to one And it is further observable that at the time of that Parliament there were no Temporal Lords before Earls neither Dukes nor Marquesses So if any others were to be understood to be comprised under that General Title of Peers it could be only the Lords Spiritual which is a thing very ridiculous to believe Can it be thought nay can our Asserter himself think I trow not that when the other particular ranks and degrees of the Peerage are expressed and set down nominatim by name as one may say by Tale and by Token Earls and Barons that I say at the same time and to be joyned with them in the same action another rank of men viz. Bishops must pass under a General Title and that put in the first place as if Peerage were an Apellativum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them or a Genus Imperfectum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the two Species the Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal which Genus the Logicians define to be Quod speciebus suis non communicatur ex aequo sed alteri magis alteri minus uni speciei immediatè propriè alteri mediatè in ordine ad primariam And that so the Lords Spiritual should still be principally and chiefly meant by the General Name of Peers they Primariò and the Temporal Lords Secundarió Those Logical expressions I know our Asserter understands well who blames others for bringing Illogical arguments therefore I put this to him But that they are not at all Peers of the Realm to speak properly and truly and as they are in the eye of the Law though they have sometimes been stiled so both by themselves and others I have in my former Letter I think made it clear and all that our Asserter saith to the contrary hath not made me change my opinion and I shall say more to it when I come in course to answer what is there said by him In the mean time I shall only add this which I lay for a ground that I do verily believe no instance can be given of an enumeration of some particulars in an Universal Collective Proposition and to leave out that particular which is first in Rank and ought to be first named if any at all be named and to have that to be tacitely implied under the General Term the Signum Collectivum As in this Proposition All the Peers Earls and Ba●…ons gave such a Iudgement This

Kingdom 9 H. 3. 39 Years before the 49th of that King per Common assent tout de le Reaum and this in another Record is said to be Per le Roy Piers Commune de la terre And the Statute of Westminster the first eleven Years after 49. H. 3. was ordained per Passentments de Archievesques Evesques Abbies Priors Countees Barons Et tout la Comminalty de la terre illonques Summonees Now what Man of common Sense can believe that the Clerus Populus cotius Regni after the Comites Barones 5 Io. the Commune de la terre after the Peers 9. Hon. 3. and tout le Eomminalty de la terre after Countees and Barons 3 Edw. 1. were no more than the Prelates Earls and Barons indeed there being no Et between Baronum and Cleri 5 Io. were it not for other Records explanatory of the like there might be some Colour for Mr. Hunt's supposal that Eleri Populi were only comprehensive of the Orders foregoing and might be in the same sense with Communitas Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum Baronum But for the penning of Records both Mr. Hunt and Mr. W. know better than to think the Clerks in those times stuffed them with Tautologies Mr. Hunt's way of expressing the same Notion I shall soon consider more particularly But admit that my Interpretation of Records is generally erroneous yet 't is manifest that the Record which is cited and insisted on to warrant the contrary shews that there were other Persons at the General Council of the Kingdom besides Prelates Earls and Barons and that these were such as are now called Commons The Record was the form of Peace agreed on in the 48th Year of Hen. 3. it says Haec est forma Pacis a Domino Rege Domino Edwardo filio suo Praelatis Proceribus omnibus Communitate Regni Angliae communitèr concorditèr approbata c. Amongst other things 't was agreed ad Reformationem Statûs Regni Angliae that there should be chose in that Parliament three Men who should have Power from the King toname nine that should be the King 's standing Counsel and if any of the three displeased the Community of the Prelates and Barons or were by them thought unfitting for their Office Si videatur Communitati Praelatorum Baronum one or more should be placed in his or their Room per Concilium Communitatis Praelatorum Baronum and the Record concludes Haec autem ordinatio facta fuit apud London de Consensu Voluntate Praecepto Domini Regis necnon Praelatorum Baronum acetiam Communitatis tunc ibi presentium Upon this 't is observable 1. That et Communitas Regni in the beginning of the Record next after the Praelates and all the Peers must necessarily be the Commons of England nor can Et possibly be taken otherwise than as introductive of other Persons besides the Prelates and all the Peers before expresly mentioned for that the Record concludes as it were with an Intention of preventing all manner of expositive Cavils for having declared that the Ordinance then made was by the Consent Will and Authority of the King necnon and as well of the Prelates and Barons it adds Ac etiam Communitatis tune ibt presentium which must necessarily be and also of the Commons then and there present as well as the Prelates and Barons presentium being taking as relating to all that went before or and also of the Community of them that were then and there present that is all that were present were Parties to the Ordinance if the first then the Commens also were there by name if the second tho Communuas be not taken as an Appellative for the Commons of England yet that they were then and there present is as evident from the Record since it shews that others were present besides the King Prelates and all the Peers that those others were Parties to the Ordinance then made and as they could not possibly be of an higher Rank than what were before exprest but much less the same being so manifestly distinguished with an and also from what went before they must needs have been inferiour that is Commoners unless there was another Rank of Men that were neither Lords nor Commons but between both wherefore 't is a demonstration that there was then present and acting in a Legislative Capacity a Body of Commons over and above or distinct from the Prelates and all the Peers or Barons above mentioned 2. In this Parliament 48 H. 3. there was a particular matter referred by the King and that in a full Parliament of Prelates Peers or Barons and also the Commons to the Disposition and Management of the Prelates and Barons only and surely 't was no great thing for them to be empowered to remove or put in Electors of the King 's standing Counsel which was all that was referred to them without consulting the Commons upon every occasion But I cannot discern the least Consequence that because the word Communitas doth many times extend to the Prelates and Barons which as Mr. W. rightly observes it doth that therefore it must be limited to them and extend no further whatever words come between And I would thank him that should satisfy my reason how it is possible it should be confin'd to them when there comes and or and also to extend it farther If Mr. Hunt had observed how distinctly all the Orders of Parliament are mentioned in this Record viz. Praelati Proceres omnes Communitas Regni Angliae and again Praelati Barones ac etiam Communitas and had further observed how full and clear the Evidence is that all of them together referred or consented to the King 's referring the matter before taken notice of to the Earls and Barons only or to the Community or Generality of them from whom another Community the Communitas Regni Angliae then and there present was sufficiently distinguish'd in other parts of the Record and that that Affair was to be managed per Consilium Praelatorum Baronum he would never have insisted upon this as demonstration that Communitas Regni Angliae after Praelati Proceres omnes nay tho with an ac etiam has no other Sense than Commune Concilium Regni and was as a comprehensive Term of those that made it or was used exegetically as Mr. W. has it If it had been Praelati Proceres Commune Concilium Regni or Communitas Regni there because there is no discretive and or and also the latter might be comprehensive of the former But whatsoever may be said of the careless penning of Records or Histories anciently yet when there are numbers of Records or Histories expressing the Parties present at general Assemblies of the Kingdom some of the like penning with the aforesaid form of Peace 48 H. 3. some more express and particular if possible shall all the Clerks

by the institutions of the Holy Canons to be personally present and that of Right they cannot nor ought to be there and therefore they do not intend in any sort quomodolibet to be present but wholly to absent themselves while those matters are handling Can any man now have the fore-head to maintain that they could have a thought of challenging still a right contrary to such prohibitions and to say that it was only the Canon Law that did prohibit them I say still that the Canon Law was to them above all Laws and the Prelates of those times conceived themselves to be above all other Laws even not to be subject to them but what the Canon Law did allow or forbid was accordingly by them held to be most lawful or unlawful The Salvo they add makes it clear Iure paritatis nostrae cuju●…ibet eorum interessendi in dicto Parliamento quoad omnia singula inibi exercenda nostris eorum cuju●…ibet Statui Ordini congruentia in omnibus salbis The right of our Parity and of every one of them that is our equal right in the general and of every one of us in particular with the rest of the Lords of being present and acting in the said Parliament as to all things and every thing befitting our State and Order always remaining unto us safe and entire Now I would ask if it can be imagined that they would by way of Protestation reserve to themselves a liberty when they pleased to do what they said was not lawful for them to do and that which of right and according to the Law to which they were subject and must obey they could not nor ought to meddle with And if such things can be thought to be Statui Ordini congruentia for their Salvo extends only to such things as are agreeable to their State and Order Indeed I think it a solecism to have such a thought And I know it will be excepted against that I do take Paritas here in such a sense and not to be Nomen Apellativum to signifie Peerage a rank of men but I consider how it is put that it is Paritas interessendi in Parliamento which in my opinion is proper to render a Parity or an equal right with others to be present in Parliament But let them construe it Peerage it matters not to me I have handled that point fully by it self in my former Letter and shall do it again in this before I make an end to shew I am not afraid of that expression and though in those times the Prelates gave themselves sometimes that Character that it did not at all belong unto them And he beats upon this again That this was left out purposely by me in my citing this Protestation which I have sufficiently cleared already amongst his Postulata's therefore I shall not trouble you with it again in this place In the Case of Thomas Haxey 20 R. 2. my Gentleman is so ingenious as to say He believes the Bishops were not present but then he tells you why because it was an erroneous Judgment and an Irregular Condemnation and so commends their Prudence And sure he hath been with some Witch to raise some of those Prelates from the Grave as the Witch of Endor did Samuel to tell him the true cause why they withdrew themselves and did then forbear to use their Right as he saith it is lawful for every man to do else he could never have hit so pat upon the true cause of their withdrawing whereas otherwise a man might say it was because they knew they had no right to be there and if it had been their right they should the rather have made use of it to prevent and hinder an unrighteous Judgement and have caused a righteous one to be given And more than that if it was their Right and that they had a calling to be there they were bound to attend the Service and I think it would have been a breach of Duty and a Sin in them to withdraw themselves from it And now I come to a Bundle of Words indeed it is what he says concerning their Proxies 21 R. 2. out of which one shall have much ado to pick some sense and what it is he would be at I will do my endeavour in it He first puts us in mind of his fifth Postulatum and of what he said there of the difference between the Matter of a Law and the Manner of its enacting and that a Law may be repealed for the Matter of it and yet the Manner of making it still hold good This I suppose he saith because I except against the authority which that Parliament at the desire of the Commons gave the Bishops to make their Common Procurator in regard that whole Parliament was afterwards repealed and consequently all it did made null and void Yes saith he the Parliament was repealed by 1 H. 4. because it condemned those who were his friends as Traytors to the King and Government yet the proceedings in that Parliament were just and lawful To which I answer That what was done that Parliament agreeing with the practice and usage of other Parliaments was certainly just for the Manner of the doing though the Matter might be repealed and made null But what was never done before in any Parliament nor any thing like it could not receive any stamp of Authority for its being done in this Parliament because the Parliament it self had no authority a subsequent Parliament repealing it and making it as if it had never been And this of all the Bishops joyning to make a Common Proctor was never done in any Parliament before nor since If any should object that Henry the Fourth was an Usurper and had no right nor Title to repeal former Parliaments nor to make any Laws This were an Objection if it should be allowed would have a long tail and carry a very bad consequence for it would sweep away at once all the good Laws that were made in three Kings raigns and would make such a Hiatus in our Statute Laws as would put things into a very great disorder We know that in Edward the Fourth's time which followed immediately after those three Henries in all the Acts of Parliament which passed when mention is made of any thing done in those Kings Reigns still what was done is allowed of and confirmed and to their Persons and Government the Parliament still gives this Character that they were Kings indeed but not of right Which implies the stamp of Soveraign power and authority to be set upon all their actions and so upon the Parliaments that were summoned and held by them and principally there because of the concurrence and conjunction of the whole Kingdome in all things there done Nay in some Acts of Parliament we find care taken that nothing should clash with what had been done in Parliament by some of those Kings as 14 E. 4. c. 4. there is a Statute