Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	power_n	4,568	5	4.9588	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88229	The out-cryes of oppressed commons. Directed to all the rationall and understanding men in the kingdome of England, and dominion of Wales, (that have not resolved with themselves to be vassells and slaves, unto the lusts and wills of tyrants.) Fron Lieut. Col. John Lilburne, prerogative prisoner in the Tower of London, and Richard Overton, prerogative prisoner, in the infamous gaole of Newgate. Febr. 1647.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2150; Thomason E378_13; ESTC R201382	26,058	20

downe many strong and solid arguments to prove that the House of Lords have not justly neither judicative noe legislative power at all in them and in his 94. 95 96 97 98. pages he declares from very sound and good authority that before William the Conquerour and invader subdued the rights and priviledges of Parliaments that the King and the Commons held and kept Parliaments without Temporall Lords Bishops or Abbots the two last of which viz. Bishops and Abbots he proves had as true and good right to sit in Parliament as any of the present Lords now sitting at Westminster either now have or ever had yea and out of the 20. 21. pages of that notable and very usefull to be knowne book called the manner of holding Parliaments in England before and since the conquest c. declares plainly that in times by past there was neither Bishops Earle nor Baron and yet even then the Kings of England kept Parliaments with their Commons only and though since by innovation Bishops Earles and Barons have been by the Kings prerogative Charters which of what legall or binding authority they are you may fully read in the Lords and Commons Declaration this present Parliament summoned to sit in Parliament yet not withstanding the King may hold a Parliament with the Commonalty or Commons of the Kingdome without B●shops Earles and Barons and saith Mr. Will. Prynn in the 1 part of his Soveraign Power of Parliaments pag. 43. which booke is commanded to be printed by speciall authority of the present House of Commons out of Mr. Iohn Vowells manner of holding Parliaments which is recorded in Holingh Cron of Ireland fol. 127. 128. that in times by past the King and the Commons did make a full Parliament which authority was never hitherto abridged Yea this present Parliament in their Declaration concerning the Treaty of Peace in Yorkshire 20 Septem 1641. betwixt the Lord Fairfax c. and Mr. Bellasis c. book decl 1. part pag. 628. doe declare first that none of the parties to that agreement had any authority by any act of theirs to bind that Country to any such Nutrality as is mentioned in that agreement it being a peculiar and proper power and priveledge of Parliament where the whole body of the Kingdome is represented to bind all or any part And we say the body of the Kingdome is represented only in the House of Commons the Lords not being in the least chosen or represent any body at all yea and the House of Commons calls their single order for the receiving of Pole-money May 6. 1642. 1. part decl pag. 178. An order of the House of Parliament yea and by severall single orders have acted in the greatest affaires of the Common-wealth And yet notwithstanding all this the Lords like a company of for-sworne men for they have often solemnly sworne to maintaine the Law have by force and violence indeavoured to their power and contrary to law to assume to themselves a judicative power over us who are Commons of England in criminal cases and for refusing to stoop therunto have barbarously for many moneths tirannized over us with imprisonments c. And we according to that duty we owe to our native country and to our selves and ours for the preservation of our selves and the good and just declared lawes and libertise of England and from keeping our selves and our posterities from vassalage and bondage did thereupon according to law and justice appeale to the honourable House of Commons as you may truly and largely read in divers and sundry bookes published by us and our friends as the supreame and legall power and judicature in England whom we did thinke and judge had been chosen of purpose by the free men of England to maintaine the fundamentall good lawes and liberties thereof but to their everlasting shame and the amazement of all that chose and betrusted them We are forced to speake it we have not yet found any reall intentions in them to performe unto us the trust in that particular reposed in them by the whole Kingdome neither have we any grounded cause to say in truth any otherwise of them but that they are more studious and industrious-unjustly in deviding hundred thousands of pounds of the Common wealths Money amongst themselves then in in actuall doing to us in whom all and every the Commons of England are concerned for what by the wills of the Lords is done to us to day may by done to any Commoner of England to morrow either justice or right according to their duty and their often sworne oathes though we have not ceased continuall to the utmost of our power legally and iustly to crave it at their hands as you may fully read in our forementioned printed bookes Sure we are they tell us in their printed Declarations that they are chosen and betrusted by the people 1. part decl pag 171 172. 263 264 266. 336 340 361 459. 462. 508. 588 613 628. 690. 703 705 711. 714. 716. 724 725. 729. And that to provide for their weale but not for their woe booke decl 1. part page 150. 81. 382. 726. 728. And they in their notable Declaration of the 2. Novemb. 1642. booke decl 1 part pag. 700. expresly tell us that all interests of publique trust is only for the publique good and not for private advantages nor to the prejudice of any mans particular interest much lesse of the publique and in the same page they further say that all interests of trust is limitted to such ends or uses and may not be imployed to any other especially they that have any interests only to the use of others as they confesse all Interests of trust are cannot imploy them to there owne or any other use then that for which they are intrusted yea and page 266. see 1. part book decl pag 687 they tell the King that the whole Kingdome it selfe is intrusted unto him for the good and safety and best advantage thereof and as this trust is for the use of the Kingdome so ought it to be managed by the advice of the Houses of Parliament whom the Kingdome hath intrusted for that purpose it being their duty to see it be discharged according to the cond●tion and true intent thereof and as much as in them lyes by all possible meanes to prevent the contrary And therefore negatively in the second place we are sure that the House of Commons by their owne Declarations were never intentionally chosen and sent to Westminster to devide amongst themselves the great offices and places of the Kingdome and under pretence of them to make themselves rich and mighty men with sucking and deviding among themselves the vitall and heart blood of the Common wealth viz. its treasure now lying not in a swound but even a gasping for life and being but let us see whether this and other of their late doings be according to their former protestations imprecations and just Declarations which if they be not

to be delivered in which regard they have all left the City and Parliament as dispairing in obtaining their just end at the present and are gone down into the Country truly to acquaint the rest of their friends how they have been dealt with we judge it our duty that we are so much bound to our selves and the whole Kingdome though we must truly confesse that we have no such Commission from the petitioners not their Commissioners as to publish a true Copy of their Petition and instructions which thus followeth To the right Honourable the betrusted Knights Citiz●ns and Burgesses in the Commons House of Parliament Englands legall Soveraign power Assembled The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of Buckingham-shire and Hartford-shire c. Whose Names are hereunto subscribed HVMBLY SHEWETH THat your Petitioners and the rest of the free-men of England before the beginning of this Parliament being almost destroyed of their Lawes Libertyes and Freedoms by the arbitrary machinations politick designes and practises of the Pattentee-Monopolizers and of other arbitrary supplanters and Agents which laboured to subvert the Fundamentall Constitutions of this Realme and to set up a tyrannicall Government tending to the utter vassalage and overthrow of all the free people of this Kingdome together with their Naturall Nationall and Legall Rights and Liberties God putting into our hands an opportunity to free our selves from those tyrannies and oppressions We for our better weal and happinesse chose and betrusted your Honours for the same end and purpose and to that end we have elected invested and betrusted you with our indubitable and naturall power and Birth-rights for the just and legall removall of our Nationall Evills In the expectation whereof we have waited ever since your first siting continually and cheerfully assisting you with our lives persons and estates being much incouraged thereto by the severall Protestations and Declarations wherein you have solemnly protested before the great God of Heaven and Earth and to the whole world declared your upright and well grounded resolutions to vindicate the just liberties of every Free-borne English man without exception Now therefore our most humble request unto your Honours is that you would according to your duties and the Great Trust reposed in you take into your consideration the slavish condition that we the free People of England are yet subject unto by reason of those Arbitrary practises that are still continued acted and perpetrated upon us by some prerogative men of this Kingdome whom we humbly conceive have no power over our bodies or Estates they being not Elected thereunto by the free-men of England and therefore may not Commit our bodies to prison contrary to the Fundamentall lawes of this Kingdome as we suppose hath been done to some Free-men of this Kingdome without producing any Legall Authority that your Petitioners can heare of for what they did Wherefore your Petitioners most humble desire is that you would according to the respective Appeals of the said Free Subjects unto this Supream House be pleased to take their cause into the legall judgement and speedie determination of this House as the whole matter thereof shall be reported unto you by the honourable Committee for consideration of the Commons Liberties who have their whole manner of the proceedings against them together with their respective defences ready to represent unto your Honours and to grant unto them your indubitable justice according to their late Petitionary and still constant desires whereby they may receive the Sentence of this House either for their present justification or condemnation that they may not be ruined and undone by an arbitrary and injustifiable Imprisonment And if that through the urgent affaires of the Kingdome your occasions will not afford you so much time as to consider and expedite their businesse at present Our humble request is that you would by an Order from this House forthwith set them free out of Prison they giving legall security for their future forth comming untill such time as your honours shall be pleased to hand out to them full and effectuall justice And that you would be pleased in case the principall Informers and Actors be found guilty to grant them full and ample reparations according to the Law of the Land And further that you would take care for the time to come to free us and our children from the feare and prejudice of the like A●bitrary and Prerogative proceedings according to your late promise in your most just Declaration of the 17. of Aprill 1646. And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray c. Instructions agreed upon as the sence of the Petitioners of Buckingham-shire and Hartford-shire First the persons imprisoned Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburn Mr. Overton his Wife and Brother Mr. Larners Brother and Maid c. Secondly by Prerogative-men we mean such as sit to try Commoners and are not elected by the free choice of the People viz. the House of Lords Thirdly by Arbitrary practices we meane such as are contrary to the Law of the Kingdome As first for any persons to try those their are not their Peers or Equalls witnesse Magna Charta C. 29.3 E. 1.6 Sir Edward Cookes exposition of the 14 and 29 C. of Magna Charta c. as the House of Lords have done and would have done all the above mentioned Secondly For any to imprison men for not answering to Interrogatories in Criminall Causes We must professe to all the world we are in amazement and almost at a stand when we consider that the House of Commons who are chosen and betrusted by the people for no other end in the World but to maintaine preserve and defend their Lawes and liberties and to redresse their mischiefes and grievances and to provide for their earthly happinesse and well-being book decl 1. part pag. 150. which they have so often sworn vowed protested and declared to doe that they should be so negligent in performing their trust and duty and making good their Oathes and Vowes in not doing us justice and right according to the Lawes of the Kingdome who have legally and formally long since appealed to them for that end but suffer before their faces the tyrannicall House of Lords arbitrarily and illegally to destroy us and to tread and trample under their feet the Lawes and Liberties of all the Commons of England and so by consequence make us all Vassals and Slaves to their tyrannicall lusts and wills But Considering that by natures principall we are bound to the utmost of our power to preserve our selves and to leave no wayes and meanes unattempted that tends thereunto we cannot yet sit still but goe on and the rather because our Iudges to whom we have appealed to for justice tell us in their Declaration of the 19. May 1642. 1. part book decl pag. 207 That this Law is as old as the Kingdome That the Kingdome must not be without a meanes to preserve it selfe the ground and reason of which Law

actually with a great deale of Barbarous cruelty done to us But before we doe solemnly seriously and actuall appeale to the people as of necessity if by them we cannot inioy iustice and right and the benefit of the knowne and unrepealed Lawes of the Land which is all we crave or desire We both must and will cost it hanging or burning or what ever it will we desire from their owne words to make our way plaine before hand and the more to leave them without excuse before God and all our fellow Commons of England Seeing skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Iob 2. And therefore in the first place we must professe in their owne words in their Declaration to the States of Holland pag. 637 that we have no other designe in the world but not to be destroyed and save our selves Lawes Liberties and Freedomes and let not them say if we should formally appeale to the people that we malitiously indevour to dissolve the whole frame and constitution of the civill pollicy and government of this Kingdome into the originall Law of nature by arraigning and condemning before the people the High Court of Parliament from whence legally there can be no appeale we doe truly confesse and owne the Honourable House of Commons whose iust interest wee honour with all our hearts to be to us the legall supreame power in the Kingdome from whom we conceive in law we have no higher appeale but if the House of Commons will not doe us justice and right and so discharge their trust and duty but suffer the Lords contrary to the Law of the Land which they have sworne to maintain to murther and destroy us our wives and children and by consequence the liberty of all the Commons of England we cannot nor dare not for fear of being Traitors and fellons to our selves sit still and willingly suffer our selves contrary to the good and just Lawes and constitutions of the Kingdome to be destroyed by the Lords who in Law have no more power to commit our bodies to prison being Commoners then wee have to commit theirs Therefore it is not we but they themselves that dissolve the legall frame and constitution of the civill policy and government of the Kingdome by suffering will and lust but not law to rule and governe us and so reduce us into the originall Law of nature for every man to preserve and defend himselfe the best he can and therefore since it must be so for so it is we in their owne words pag. 690. say in Gods name let the people Iudge every man within his owne breast whether they or we are most guilty of the foresaid charge But we come to their owne words in their appealing to the people and craving their aid and assistance to helpe to preserve them against those that they say contrary to Law would have destroyed them and we shall begin in the first place with the Protestation which they made and tooke the 3. of May 1641. and by an Order of the 5. May 1641. give their approbation to the taking it by any Commoner of England in the preamble of which they spend much time to demonstrate that there have been and still is a strong indeavour by a Malignant party to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes of England c. And to introduce the exercise of an Arbitrary and tyrannicall government and therefore they sweare and protest they will maintaine the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject and every Person that maketh this protestation in what soever he shall doe in the lawfull persuance of the same And to my power and as far as lawfully I may I will oppose and by all good wayes and meanes indeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such whether Lords or Members of the House of Commons without exception as shall either by force practise counsells plots conspiracies doe any thing to the contrary and by their Vote of the 30 Iune 1641. They say that what person soever will not take this Protestation is unfit to beare office in the Church or Common-Wealth Now let us see what use they make of this Protestation against the King and we shall find in the 1. part book decl pag. 190. 191. The Vote of the House of Commons in these words Resolved upon the Question That this House doth declare that if any person whatsoever shall arrest or imprison the persons of the Lords and Gentlemen or any of them or any other of the Members of either House of Parliament that shall be imployed in the service of both Houses of Parliament or shall offer violence to them or any of them for doing any thing in pursuance of the commands or instructions of both Houses shall be held disturbers of the proceedings of Parliament and publique enemies of the State And that all persons * * Marke it well ye Commons of England are bound by their Protestation to endeavour to bring them to condigne punishment An Order of the selfe same effect you may read pag. 156. made by them 26. Appill 16●2 And in their Declaration of the 26. May 1642 pag. 278. speaking of the Kings proclaming Sir Iohn Hotham a Traytor without due processe of Law they declare it not only a breach of the Priviledge of Parliament but a subvertion of the Subjects common right yea and such a breach of the Priviledge of Parliament as that the very being thereof depends upon it and therefore say they we no wayes doubt but every one that hath taken the Protestation will according to his solemn Vow and Oath defend it with his life and fortunes And in their Declaratioe of the 19. May 1642. pag. 214. speaking of the many difficulties that they are forced to incounter with in the discharge of their duty to the Kingdome they say yet wee doubt not but we shall overcome all this at last if the people suffer not themselves to be deluded with false and specious shewes and so drawne to betray us to their owne undoing who have ever been willing to hazzard the undoing of our selves that they might not be betrayed by our neglect of the trust reposed in us And in their smart Declaration of the beginning of August 1642 pag. 496. replying unto his Majesties Answers to their propositions they say And having received so sharp a return such expressions of bitternesse a justification and a vowed protection of Delinquents from the hand of Iustice Demands of so apparent danger such manifestations of an intention to destroy us and with us the whole kingdome and this most cleerly evidenced by their subsiquent actions even since these propositions have been made unto us from his Majestie over-running severall Countries compelling the Trained Bands by force to come in and joyne with them or disarming them and putting their Armes into the hands of leud and desperate persons thereby turning the Armes of the Kingdome against it selfe it be not fit for us not only