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A25628
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An Ansvver to this quodlibetical question, whether the bishops make a fundamental and essential part of the English Parliament collected out of some memorials in a larger treatise for the information of some, the confirmation of others, and the satisfaction of all.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing A3454; ESTC R22861
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15,455
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24
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AN ANSVVER To this Quodlibetical QUESTION Whether the Bishops make a Fundamental and Essential part of the English PARLIAMENT COLLECTED Out of some Memorials in a larger Treatise for the Information of some the Confirmation of others and the satisfaction of all De Legib. â—onga Consuet Si de interpretatione Legis quaeritur imprimis inspiciendum est pro jure civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus usa fuit Consuetudo enim optima interpretatio legis est LONDON Printed for A. Seile over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1661. AN ANSVVER To this Quodlibetical QUESTION viz. Whether the Bishops be a Fundamental and Essential part of the English Parliaments WHereas a great Question hath been raised of late and but lately neither Whether the Bishops make a Fundamental and Essential part of the English Parliament I hope to put it out of question by two sorts of Arguments of which the one shall be de jure and the other de facto The one derived from that original right which is vested in them the other from the constant exercise and continual practice by which that right hath been enjoyed in all times foregoing And first we shall begin with the proofs de jure and therein first with that which doth occurre in the Laws of King Athelston one of the first Monarchs of the English Saxons Among which there is a Chapter it is chap. 11. entituled De officio Episcopi quid pertinet ad officium ejus that is to say Touching the office of a Bishop and that which doth of right belong unto it In which Chapter it is thus declared viz. Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei scilicet seculi c. (†) Spelm. Counsel p. 402. convenit ut per consilium testimonium ejus omne Legis scitum Burgi mensura omne pondus sit secundum dictionem ejus institutum that is to say it belongeth of right unto the Bishop to promote Justice in matters which concern both the Church and State and unto him it appertaineth that by his Counsel and award all Lawes and Weights and Measures be ordained throughout the Kingdom 2ly Next we will have recourse to the old Record entituled Modus tenendi Parliamentum In which it is affirmed ad Parliamentum Summoniri venire debere Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Priores alios majores Cleri qui tenent per Comitatum aut Baroniam ratione hujusmodi tenurae (*) Modus tenendi Parliamentum That all the Archbishops Bishops Abbats Priors and other Prelates of the Church who hold their Lands either by an Earls Fee or a Barons Fee were to be summoned and come to Parliament in regard of their Tenure 3ly Next look we on the Chartularies of King Henry the first recognized in full Parliament at Clarendon under Henry the second where they are called Avitas consuetudines which declare it thus Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae Personae qui de Rege tenent in capite habeant possessiones suas de Rege sic ut Baroniam c. Et sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse judicijs Curiae Regis cum Baronibus quosque pervenierat ad dimmutionem membrorum vel ad mortem (*) Math. Paris in Hen. 2. The meaning is in brief that Archbishops Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical persons which hold in Capite of the King are to have and hold their Lands in Barony and that they ought as Barons to be present in all Judgments with the other Barons in the Court of Parliament until the very Sentence of Death or Mutilation which was very common in those times was to be pronounced And then they commonly did use to withdraw themselves not out of any incapacity supposed to be in them by the Law of England but out of a restraint imposed upon them by the Canons of the Church of Rome 4ly In the Great Charter made by King John in the last of his Reign we have the form of summoning a Parliament and calling those together who have Votes therein thus expressed at large And Habendum commune concilium Regni de auxilio assidendo c. Et de scutagijs assidendis faciemus summoneri Archiepiscopos Abbates Comites majores Barones Regni sigillatim per litter as nostras preteria summoneri faciemus in generali per Vice-Comites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in Capite tenent ad certum diem scil ad terminum 40 dierum ad minus ad certum locum c. (†) Id in Job In which we have not only a most evident proof that the Bishops are of right to be called to Parliament for granting Subsidies and Escuage and treating of the great Affairs which concern the Kingdom but that they are to be summoned by particular Letters as well as the Earls and Barons or either of them A form or copie of which Summons issued in the time of the said King John is extant on Record and put in Print not many years since in the Titles of Honour (†) P. 1.20.5 5ly We have it thus in the Magna Charta of King Henry the 3d. the birthright of the English Subject according as it stands translated in the book of Statutes First we have granted to God and by this our present Charters have confirmed for us and our Heirs for ever That the Church of England shall be free and shall enjoy all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable (†) Magna Charta cap. 1 But it is a known Right and Liberty of the Church of England that all the Bishops and many of the greater Clergy and peradventure also the Inferiour Clergy in the said Kings time had their Votes in Parliament and therefore is to be preserved inviolable by the Kings of England their Heirs and Successors for ever Which Charter as it was confirmed by a solemn Curse denounced on all the Infringers of it by Boniface Arch-Bishop of Canterbury (†) Math. Paris in Hen. 3. and ratified in no fewer then 80. succeeding Parliaments So was it Enacted in the raign of Edward the first That it should be sent under the great Seal of England to all the Cathedral Churches of the Kingdome to be read twice a year before the people (†) 28. Edw. 1. c. 1. That they should be ready four times every year in a full County Court (*) 28 Edw. 1. c. 2. and finally that all Judgements given against it should be void and null (†) 28. Edw. 1. c. 3. the application or which last clause I refer to those to whom the rectifying of the Error which to the contrary thereof hath been committed doth of right belong 6ly We have the protestation of John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the time of King Edward the 3d. who being in disfavour with the King and denied entrance in to the House of Peers Challenged his place and suffrage there as the first Peer of the
Remember what was said before touching the Writ of Summons in the said Kings time from this time till the last Parliament of King Charles there is no Kings Reign of which we have not many though not all the Acts of Parliament still in Print amongst us Nor is there any Act of Parliament in the Printed Books to the Enacting of which the Bishops Approbation and Consent is not plainly specified either in the general Proeme set before the Acts or in the body of the Acts themselves as by the Books themselves doth at large appear 7ly And to this kind of proof may be further added the Form and Manner of the Writ by which the Prelates in all times have been called to Parliament being the very Law Verbatim with that which is directed to the Temporal Barons save that the Spiritual Lords are commanded to attend the Service in fide dilectione the Temporal in fide Homagio and of late times in fide Ligeantia quibus nobis tenemini A Form or Copie of which Summons as antient as King Johns time is still reserved upon Record directed Nominatim to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury (†) Titles of Hon. part 2. cap. 1. and then a scriptum est similiter to the residue of the Bishops Abbates Earls and Barons Then adde the Privilege of Parliament for themselves and their Servants during the time of the Sessions the Liberty to kill and take one or two of the Kings Deer as they passe by any of his Forests in comming to Parliament upon his Commandment (†) Charta de foresta cap. their injoying of the same immunities which are and have been heretofore injoyed by the Temporal Barons (†) Camden in Britania and tell me if the Bishops did not sit in Parliament by as good a Title as the Temporal Lords and therefore certainly Essential Fundamental parts of the Court of Parliament By this discourse it may appear that the Bishops Sit and Vote in Parliament by a double capacity as Bishops first in reference to their several Sees and secondly as Peers in regard of their Baronies In both respects accounted one of the three Estates and the first also of the three as from the Premises may be gathered without any great trouble But in so nice a point as this we shall not only build upon general Inferences but particular Evidences And first it is affirmed by Titus Livius in his relation of the Life and Reign of King Henry the 5th That when his Funerals were ended the 3 Estates of the Realm of England did assemble together and declare his Son King Henry the 6th being an Infant of 8 Months old to be their Soveraign Lord (†) Tit. Liv. M. S. in Bibl. Bodl. as his Heir and Successor And three Estates there could not be to perform that service unlesse the Bishops were acknowledged to be one of the number 2ly In the Parliament Roles of King Richard the third there is mention of a Bill or Parchment presented to that Prince being then Duke of Gloucester on the behalf and in the name of the 3 Estates of the Realm of England that is to wit of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and of the Commons by name which for as much as neither the said 3 Estates nor the persous which delivered it on their behalf were then assembled in form of Parliament was afterwards in the first Parliament of that King by the same three Estates assembled in this present Parliament I speak the very words of the Act it self and by Authority of the same enrolled recorded and approved (†) An. Speed in K. Rich. 3. And at the request and by the assent of the three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Land Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same it be pronounced decreed and declared that our said Soveraign Lord the King was and is the very and undoubted Heir of this Realm of England c. And 3ly So it is acknowledged in a (†) 1 Eliz. Cap. 3. Statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 3. where the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in that Parliament Assembled being said expresly and in terminis to represent the three Estates of the Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majestie to be their true Lawful and Undoubted Soveraign Leig'd Lady and Queen And in a Statute of the 8th year of the said Queens Reign the Bishops and Clergy are declared to be the greatest Estates of the Realm and called the High Estate of Prelacy in another place It may perhaps be thought unnecessary or impertinent to adde the Testimony and Authority of a private person to that which hath been said by our Laws and Statutes But being it is such a Person as was accounted for the Oracle of Law when he served in Parliament his Judgement may be taken for a creditable and sufficient Evidence in the present Case It is the Testimony and Authority of Sir Edward Coke successively Chief Justice of either Bench who in his book concerning the Jurisdiction of Courts speaks thus of Parliaments (†) Coke of Parl. Fol. 1. This Court saith he consisteth of the Kings Majesty sitting there as in his Royal Politick Capacity and of the three Estates of the Realm viz. of the Lords Spiritual Archbishops and Bishops who sit there by Succession in respect of their Counties Baronies parcel of their Bishopricks which they hold also in their Politick Capacity And every one of these when any Parliament is to be holden ought ex debito Justitiae to have a Writ of Summons Secondly the Lords Temporal Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons who sit there by reason of their dignities which they hold by Discent or Creation and likewise every one of these being of full age ought to have a Writ of Summons Ex debito Justitiae The 3d. Estate is the Commons of the Realm whereof there be Knights of Shires or Counties Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Burghes All which are respectively Elected by the Shires or Counties Cities and Boroughs by force of the Kings Writ ex debito Justitiae and none of them ought to be omitted And these represent all the Commons of the whole Realm and are trusted for them So He and this is plain enough beyond all exception Adde hereunto ex abundanti that in all Christian Kingdomes of the Gothick Model there are no more nor fewer than three estates convented at the will and pleasure of the Supreme Prince for their assistance and advice in Affairs of consequence that is to say the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons who are alwayes one the Nobles for themselves and the Commissioners for the Commons of their several Provinces For so we find it in the Constitution of the Roman Empire and the Realms of Spain the Kingdoms of France Poland Hungary together with those of Dane mark Sweden and the Realm of Scotland And it