Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	call_v	church_n	part_n	2,516	5	4.5208	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88190	The grand plea of Lievt. Col. John Lilburne, prerogative prisoner in the Tower of London, against the present tyrannicall House of Lords, which he delivered before an open committee of the House of Commons, the twenteth day of October, 1647. where Mr. Iohn Maynard the lawyer had the chaire.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2112; Thomason E411_21; ESTC R202731	16,502	16

the House of Lords or some other of my adversaries that I am now falen from and forsaken my first principals and would have neither law nor government yet I doe with abundance of confidence avere it that I am not if I know my own heart changed or falen from my first principles in the least but that the Lords themselves are the true apostates and that they are the men that in their constant practizes now of late yeares strongly endeavour to destroy all law and government and to set up in themselves an absolute arbitrary Tyranie worse then either Starre Chamber Councell Table or High commission or all three of them put all together in one which I doubt not but in my following plea to make as apparant to this Committee as the Sun that shines at noone day for which end I desire this Committee to take notice in the first place That the Lords doe not sit in their House by any power or authority derived from the peoples free election and choice who cannot in justice reason and equitie be bound but by their own free consents neither in reason iustice or equity can any be law-makers to them that are not thereunto justly impowred by them which the House of Lords are not in the least but are meerly and altogether the creatures of the King made by his prerogative some times of the basest and corruptest of the people being the meere issue of his will sitting by his command who himselfe in referrence to the bodies and estates of the people is lymitted and bounded by the law 1. As for instance by the 29 th of Magna Charta the King himselfe cannot imprison any man nor dispossesse him of his freehold liber●ies or free customes or outlaw him exile him or any otherwise destroy him but by due processe of law according to the law of the Land neither can he sell deny or deferre to any man either justice or right 2. And by the Statute of the 2 Edward 3 8 and 14 Edwaard 3 14 and 11 R. 2. 10 the King is tyed that he shal not hinder disturbe nor delay common right and justice according to the Law of the Land by any command under the great Seale or the little Seale neither by any letters of his Signet or privy seale and if he shall send any such commands the Judges notwithstanding shall and ought to goe on to execute the Law in every point as if any such command had never been 3. And by the Petition of right made in the 3.d of the present King all those lawes and liberties are not only confirmed but it is there inacted and fully declared that no man be adjudged or condemned but by the lawes already established and declared and that all the Administrators of the lawes of England and all other of the Kings ministers shall serve him and the Kingdome according to the declared lawes thereof and not otherwise 4. And in the acts that abolished Shipmoney and abolished the Star Chamber and rectiffeth the Councell Board all and every the particulars of the said Petition of right is not only confirmed but it is inacted further that neither his Majesty nor his privie Councell have or ought to have any jurisdiction power or ●…er authority by English Bill Petition Articles libells or any other arbitrarie way whatsoever to examine or draw into question determine or dispose of the Lands Tenements heredetaments goods or chattels of any the subjects of this Kingdome but that the same ought to be tryed and determined in the ordinary Courts of justice and by the ordinary courses of law which last clause is extraordinary pertinent to my purpose that the ordinarie Courts of iustice and the ordinary Courts of the law are to be tryers of all causes and differences betwixt partie and partie And in that act there is a remedie provided for any man that shal illegally suffer imprisonment or hereafter be committed or restrained of his libertie by the command or warrant of the King himselfe his heires or successors in their own person yea and the Kings oath that he takes when he is made King recorded 1. part booke decla page 712 713 714. tyes him to govourn his people according to the established Lawes and to preserve unto them their liberties and freedomes Now Sir if the King the creator of the Lords be thus restrained by Law as he is that he shall not doe to the freemen of England what he pleaseth nor exercise an arbitrarie tyranicall illegall power over their bodies or estates It is impossible for him to give unto the Lords the exercise of an arbitrarie tyranicall illegall power over their lives liberties or estates for it is a maxime in nature there is no being beyond the power of being neither I am confident are they able to produce any soled testimonie that he ever gave them any such power And though I grant that the King to the iudges gives such a power as he can not nor doth not in his own person execute 〈◊〉 I say that it is alwayes a power not flowing from his owne will but lim●…ted by the Law by which he is authorized so to doe by acts of Parliament and I am sure by the words of the writt by which he summond them to sit in Parliament as I find it printed in a late printed book called the manner of holding Parliaments pag. which writt is the foundation and roote of their power all the power that is given them by that writt is to come to the Parliament to confer and treat with the King or afford their councell of certaine hard urgent affaires concerning the King the State and defence of the Kingdome of England and the Church therof But my pretended offence touching none of these things but at the most is meerely an action or offence tryable at common Law Cooks 5. part reports delibellis Famosis and besides the Lords about me had no conferrence nor treatie with the King their prorogative fountaine as by their writt of summons which is the foundation and ground of their power they ought to have And therefore the Lords not only by the common law but by their own law and principles had not the least ground to pretend to a power or jurisdiction in the least of my cause 2ly I am summond by the Lords Warrant to come to their Barre and to answer such things as I stand charged with before their Lordships concerning a pamphlet intitulled the iust mans iustification Now Mr Maynard admit that that pamphlet as they call it were mine and full of scandals in the highest nature yet lybells and scandalum magnatum is not to be tryed by the House of Lords but is to be tryed only now the Starchamber is downe by an action at the common law as appeares by the 5. part of Cookes reports Page 125. and the 13. Hen. 7. Kelay 11. Eliz. Dier 285. and 30. assis Pla. 19. all which is fully confirmed by your own words in your

upon the 12. of Iuly 1645. joyntly under both their hands send into the Speaker a most malicious false note by way of accusation against me about 60000. l that then was said to be sent to Oxford by the Speaker whereupon without being called into the House though then at the doore either to justifie or deny the charge fixed upon me I was by vote of the House committed a prisoner to the Serjeant at Armes and from thence by Mr. Lawrence Whitaker was sent to Newgate and being there there was an expresse order of the House of Commons for any thing I know to the contrary by Col. King procured for the arreigning of me at Newgate Sessions where I was acquitted by proclamation as guiltlesse of any crime and afterward by the certifying thereof by Mr. Glyn Recorder of London to the House of Commons I was by vote thereof the 14. of Octob. 1645. freely and cleerly discharged But King being conscious of his own guilt and judging himselfe not safe nor long lived unlesse he crushed me to peeces and therfore most maliciously and unjustly upon the 14. of April 1646. contrary to the just priviledge of Parliament and the Common law of England caused me at Westminster as I was following my businesse depending and then in agitation before the house of Commons by whom I ought therefore in justice and law to have been protected comming staying and going till I had beeen dispatched by them ☞ to be arrested by the Bayliffe thereof into the Court of Common Pleas in an action of trespasse for 2000. l. pretending that I the day I was delivered out of Newgate had said that he the said Col. Edward King was a Traytor and I would prove him one which according to your Articles of Warre or your own Ordinances had and still is easie to doe if you will doe iustice whereupon by petition to your House I pressed hard that he upon his impeachment might speedily come to his tryal or else that I as in justice law and equity ought to be might be protected and the Judges of the Common pleas might be commmanded to sease their proceedings till King upon his impeachment then depending in the house of Commons might either be condemned or iustified but I could get no answer to my petition although I followed it with all the interest might and strength I had wherupon being in very great straits I was necessitated to pen my plea my self to I. Reeves and print it in the penning of which I was necessitated for my own iustification to touch a little upon the Earle of Manchesters refusing to doe me and the kingdome iustice and right in an open Councell of War against Col. King and having by L. G. Cromwells meanes beene deeply with him engaged against the said Earle in actively prosecuting of that impeachment of Treason and breach of trust which he exhibited to your house about two yeares agoe against the said Earle of Manchester he the said Earle of Manchester being then Speaker of the house of Lords and so chief Iudge in his own case caused me as ● conceive though most illegally and uniustly upon the 10. of Iune 1646. to be summoned up to their barre to answer as by their warrant appeares such things as I should be there charged with for writing that book or plea which if there had been any thing in it scandalous it was only tryable by a Iury of my Peers or Equalls which are Commons or men of my own condition at the Common Law the house of Lords having not by law the least cognizance or iurisdiction in the world of it and therefore all their proceedings upon me from the beginning to the end are most illegall and uniust and coram non iudice And now in the third place I come unto my plea but by the way I desire to premise this unto you that by your own Declaration of the 15. of December 1641 and 17. of Ianuary 1641. and the 12. of Iuly 1642. I find the law of the land and the ordinary course of iustice called by you the common birth-right of all the free men or people of England 1. part book Decl. pag. 7. 38. 39. 459. and in your Declaration of the 23. of October 1642. you aver that it is the birth right of the meanest of the Commonalty of this Kingdome to inioy the freedome and libertyes of the lawes of the land being as there you say intituled unto it with the greatest Subiect The inviolable preservation of which in divers of your Declarations you declare is the maine and principall end of all your undertakings mannaged both by your swords and councells And this is that for which you have compelled the kingdome to sweare divers oaths to maintaine with the uttermost hazzards of their lives and estates and you have also imprecated in your Declarations the fearce wrath and vengeance of the great God of heaven and earth to fall upon you when you decline th●se ends And therefore Mr Maynard considering all these your own words and considering your own deepe knowledge and understanding in the lawes of England by the practize of which you have got a great part of your estate and by the destruction whereof you are not worth a groate in all the world having no propriety in that you possesse being subject every moment of time to have all you have taken from you without remidie by him that is stronger then you and therefore well did Mr. Iohn Pym say in his speech against the Earle of Straford recorded in your own booke of Declarations 1 part page 140. that the law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evill betwixt just and unjust if you take away the law all things will fall into confusion every man will become a law unto himself which in the depraved condition of human nature must needs produce many great inormities Lust will become a law envy will become a law coveteousnesse and ambition will become a law and what dibates what divisions such lawes will produce may easily be discern'd And truly Sir neither the Lords nor you can lay it to my charge that I am leagally convicted of the least crime that doth disfranchise me or render me in the least uncapable of injoying the utmost benefit and priveledge that the Law of England will afford to a freeborne Englishman neither can the Lords nor you justly pretend against me that I have drawne my sword against or otherwise publickly or privatly engaged with any interest in England for the destroying the lawes and liberties thereof nay so farre have I beene from any of those things that I doe with confidence avere it that I have as freely with my sword in my hand upon your and their primitive declared principles adventured my life and blood for the preservation of the lawes and liberties of England with as much resolution as any Lord in England and though it may unjustly be bruted abroad to my disgrace by

The grand Plea of Lievt Col. John Lilburne Prerogative Prisoner in the Tower of London against the present tyrannicall House of Lords which he delivered before an open Committee of the House of Commons the twenteth day of October 1647. Where Mr. Iohn Maynard the Lawyer had the Chaire Mr. Maynard I Have undertaken a mighty hard and difficult worke to contest with so many powerfull and great men of this Kingdome conjoyned in a House of Peers and thereby claiming the exercise of a greater power then any other Court of record in England for the Lawes and liberties thereof but when I read over the 19. Chap. of Magna Charta and the Petition of right and other the good and post knowne and declared Laws of this kingdome made for the Common good benefit profit protection and preservation of the lives liberties and estates of all the free Denizons thereof and seriously consider of them and compare the present house of Lords violent and irregular practises and dealings with me thereunto it makes my worke to seem very facile pleasant and easie to me And therefore for the clearing up of the justnesse of my present Contest with the present house of Lords I shall desire from you a little liberty to speake a few words unto two things before I come to my maine Plea And in the first place I intreate a little libertie to make some short repetitions of my desires unto the Committee that examined my businesse now about 12. Monethes agoe where Mr. Martin had the Chai●e who I know cannot but remember that at my first pleading of my cause before him and the rest of that Committee in the Inner Court of Wards J made it my earnest desire unto them that they would deale fairelier and iustlier with the Lords then they had dealt with me that so they might not justly complaine of them for iniustice as I had to just cause to complain of the Lords themselves seeing that it was not the manner or law of the Heathen Pagan Romans to condemn any man before that he which is accused hath the accuser face to face have liberty to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him Acts 25.16 and therfore I earnestly pressed th●… 〈◊〉 Lords might be summoned to send their Lawyers or Proctors to the Committee to plead for them and that they might 〈◊〉 condemned 〈…〉 was prest at present to speake to my own businesse whereupon I desired them to give me leave to speake to two things and the first was to matter of law and the second to matter of fact And first to matter of Law I desired liberty to lay before them my grounds reasons and arguments and to read my law proofes which did fully convince my understanding that the Lords originally had no iurisdiction over any Commoner of England what ever either to try him or passe judgement against him either for life limb liberty or estate But Mr. Martin told me that for his part he was as fully satisfied in the point as my selfe and so he thought was all the whole Committee and thereupon addressed himselfe unto them to see whether they were or no. And they all unanimously declared their satisfaction without any one then scrupling and therefore commanded me to goe on to matter of fact which I did and laid down this assertion then before them That in case the Lords had had iurisdiction over me which I then and still do deny yet I did aver and would by particulars make it good that there was not the least legall formallitie in any of their Proceedings with me and therefore also void in law summoning me before any charge impeachment or indictment was filed against me which was and is expresly against the fundamentall common law of the land and also against the 29. chap. of Magna Charta and the Statutes of the 5. E. 3. 9. and 25. E. 3 4. and 28. E. 3. 3. and 37. E. 3. 18. and 42 E. 3. 3. Which Statutes are the true expositors of the 29. chap. of Magna Charta and what is meant by lex terrae there mentioned which is as all those Statutes shew That no man be put to answer without presentment before iustices or matter of record or by due processe or writ originall according to the old law of the land and if any thing from henceforth be done to the contrary it shall be void in law and holden for error all and every of which Statutes are confirmed by the Petition of right in the 3. of the present King and in that act made the 17. of the King this present Parliament for the abolishing the Star Chamber I then further went on to shew multitudes of errors in all their proceedings with me and by speciall order and command of that Committee the 6. of Novemb. 1646. brought in my said plea in writing under my hand and the 9. of Novemb. 1646. Delivered it to the hands of Col. Hen. Martin and since caused it to be printed and intitulnd an Annotamy of the Lords tyranny to which plea in point of fact I desire to referre my selfe 2. And secondly I desire liberty by way of introduction to my plea to state the occasions of my being summoned before the Lords barre in Iune 1646. which were these that after my deliverance out of Oxford Castle I was by L. Gen. Cromwells meanes made Major to Col. Edw. King then Governour of Boston c. under the Earle of Manchester which said Edw. King proved unfaithfull to his trust and committed besides divers transendent inormities and misdemeanors for which by the rules of warre which both he and I was under he ought to have lost his life of which I according to my duty and trust reposed in me complained to my Generall and Lievt Gen. Cromwell and laboured hard to obtaine a tryall for his life before a Councell of Warre But as I conceive by reason of the great interest of Kings two Chaplaines Mr Lee and Mr. Garter with the Earles two Chaplaines Mr. Ash and Mr. Good I nor the Committee of Lincolnshire nor the Magistrates of Boston who then were persecutors of him as well as my selfe could get no effectuall justice upon him saving the casheering him of all or most of his great and profitable commands Whereupon in August 1644. Mr. Mussendon Mr. W●lley and divers of the Committee of Lincolnshire preferred 22. Articles to the house of Commons against the aforesaid Coll. Edward King in the 4. ct 12. articles of which they expressely accuse him for betraying Crowland and Grantham into the hands of the professed and declared enemies of the Parliament and my selfe in discharge of my duty to my Country and the Parliament being an active prosecutor of the said Col. Edward King to bring him to a tryall in the House of Commons upon the said impeachment whereupon by way of diversion and revenge to save his own head upon his shoulders he maliciously and designedly confederates with Dr. Bastwick and

50. by the King and all the grandees in full Parliament That that judgement should never be drawn into example or consequence for the time to come And they there gave the reason of it because it was against the Lawes of the Land for them to judge those that were not their peeres and equals From whence I observe That if it be illegall for the House of Lords with the Kings presence consent and concurrence as they here confesse to condemne Sir Simon de Berisford for Treason and murdering the King because he was none of their peeres although vigorously put upon it by King Edw. the Third in the behalf of his father who in his own person sate and concurred with them in it much more is it unlawfull for the Lords to presume to passe judgment upon me a Commoner for a triviall supposed case without the King their creators presence Commission or Concurrence which by their own principles and by the principles of the Law yet in force gives life power and strength to all such their Judiciall actions and therefore all their proceedings with me are most illegall and unjust and utterly null and void in Law 5 My Fifth Argument against them is That by the Lawes of this Land no man is to be Judge in his own case 8. H. 6. fol. 21. 5. El. Dier 220. and Doctor Bonbams case 8 part of Cooks Reports yea and an Act of Parliament in such a case is a void Act by Law Therefore the Lords ought not to have judged this cause of mine for that it concerns themselves or at least the Earl of Manchester who was Speaker all the three severall times I was before their House who with the rest of his fellow Lords were not only Parties but Complainants Persecutors Witnesses Jury and Iudges which practise is against all the Lawes of England and the formes thereof as you your selves notably confesse and declare in the case of the five Members 1 part Book Decl. pag 201. and a greater act of injustice then ever I heard done by either the Starre-Chamber Councell-Board or High Commission Court in the dayes of their greatest tyranny and oppression 6 If the Lords judgement originally were binding in my case then a few Lords would bind not onely me but all the Commons of England who all one after one may be so served by them as I am and that without any hope of redresse in the world which both Law and reason abhorres either by Writ of Error or Appeale Attaint or Certificate of Assize to any Court whatever no not to the Parliament it selfe for then it would come before themselves againe who would never condemne themselves nor their owne Decrees And if the House of Commons suffer the Lords to excercise such an arbitrary illegall tyranny as they have done upon me and without all grounds rules or formes of Law suffer them to send for whom of the Commons of England they will and at their will and pleasure condemne them in what and how they please then the House of Commons stands for meere cyphers the Judges in Westminster-Hall for cyphers and all the Lawes in England for cyphers and we the Commons of England are become the perfectest slaves this day upon the face of the earth and by this practice the end of all Government is overthrowne viz. the weale and safety of the people as your House declares it to be in your notable Declaration of 17. April 1646. 2. part Book Decl. pag. 879. where you also declare but I may say by your dealings with me without any intentions to performe it that you will not nor any by colour of any authority derived from you shall interrupt the ordinarie course of justice in the severall Courts and Judicatories of this Kingdome nor intermeddle in cases of private interest otherwhere determinable unlesse it be in case of male administration of justice wherein ye shall see and provide that right be done and punishment inflicted as there shall be occasion according to the Lawes of the Kingdome and the trust reposed in you Yea and hereby the people of the Kingdome are left without all meanes to preserve themselves which your selves say it never ought to be being as old a Law as any is in the Kingdome 1 part Book Decl. pag. 207. in that you suffer the House of Lords without controule to exercise at their pleasure such a power over the Lives Liberties and Estates of the Free-men of England as I confidently aver it cannot legally nor justly be exercised by King Lords and Commons joyned and agreeing altogether who are when the most is said that can be said of them but Magistrates as all other Magistrates are appointed for the protection and preservation but not ruine or destruction of the people 1 part Book Dec. pag. 150. yea and de facto habitually to doe that for but endeavouring of which the Earle of Strafford lost his head by the decree of this very Parliament and for which I doubt not but either I or my posterity shall see the proudest and stoutest of them to do theirs it being more just equitable and rationall to destroy a man for acting and doing of a mischiefe then intending it Strafford being a Saint and a just man upon their owne principles in comparison of themselves And therefore Sir if you or the Lords shall shew me as many Presidents as will fill Pauls that they have done to others as they have done to me I value them no more in comparison to the severall Acts of Parliament and the Common Law of the Land which are above Acts that I have cited which are point blank against their usurpations then I value a dirty rag on the dunghill and I say unto you that if the Lords in their House can make Presidents to destroy Acts of Parliament and plucke the fundamentall common Law of England up by the roots yea such Acts as have been confirmed by scores of Parliaments then why doe you cozen blind deceive and delude the people of England by sitting for cyphers in the House of Commons and therefore awake and rouze up like men and powerfully and effectually rescue our Liberties from them least we doe it our selues and punish you as justly you deserve for your cowardly or treacherous negligence 7. The Lords being the meere creatures of the King made by his will and pleasure and set there as Prerogative persons and yet in Law and by their own principles as Lords without the King they have no Prerogative and yet have acted upon mee without the King or his particular Commission which makes all they have done unto me to be null and void both in Law and reason yea and I may justly say that they both in reference to the King and people thereby have forfeited their power and honour and cannot justly by you the Trustees of the people and who should be the Guardians of their Lawes and Liberties any longer be owned or acknowledged either in equitie