exaltationem Sanctae Ecclesiae pacem populi tenendam concessit c. King William being dead the Great Men of England not knowing what was become of Robert Duke of Normandy So R. 1. was call'd but Duke of Normandy till he was chosen King of England the deceased King's Elder Brother who had been five years at the Holy-war were fearful of wavering long without a Government Which when Henry the youngest Brother a very wise young Man cunningly observ'd the Clergy of England and all the people being assembled He promised an amendment of those Laws with which England had been oppressed in the time of his Father and his Brother newly deceas'd that he might stir up the minds of all to his promotion and Love and that they might receive him for King and Patron To these things the Clergy answering and then the Great Men That if with a willing mind he would Grant and Confirm with His Charter those Liberties and ancient Customs which flourish'd in the Kingdom in the time of Holy King Edward they would consent to have him and would unanimously consecrate him King And Henry freely consenting to this and affirming with an Oath that he would perform He was Consecrated King on our Lady day by the Consent of Clergy and People upon whose Head the Crown was immediately set by Maurice Bishop of London and Thomas Archbishop of York As soon as he was Crown'd He granted the under-written liberties for the exaltation of Holy-Church and preserving the Peace of the Kingdom Then follows his Charter containing some Alterations of the Law which had before obtained not only in relation to the Rights of the Crown but of the Subjects particularly whereas the Relief had been Cart. H 1. Siquis Baronum meorum Comitum vel aliorum qui de me tenent mortuus fuerit as Fines now in most Copy-hold Mannors at the Will of the Lords they were reduced to what was just and lawful according to St. Edward's Laws for which as should seem by the Charters of King John and H. 3. declaratory of the Common-Law there were known Rates and H. 1. restored all the Common-Law with the Statutes made for the amendment of it in the time of W. 1. He seem'd in two particulars wisely to have ingratiated himself with the people the first was in gaining to his side the Directers of their Consciences by a concession to the benefit of Church-men which was wholly new and that was That an Archbishop or Bishop or Abbat being dead Vid. Cart. H. 1. he would take nothing of the demean of the Church nor of its tenents until the Successor was inducted which was a departure from that Prerogative which belonged to the Crown upon the Vacancies as appears by the affirmation of H. 2. Vid. Anti. Brit. inf f. 135. Carta Johannis Haec omnia observentur de custodiis Arch. Episcopatuum Abbat Prior Eccles Dignitat vacantium quae ad nos pertinent c. Prerog Regis 17 E. 2. c. 14. the Charter of King John and the Statute of the King's Prerogative 17 E. 2. This Indulgence to the Church without special Provision for keeping it up was withdrawn by the next general Confirmation of the Confessor's Laws and therefore 't is no wonder that it is left out of subsequent Charters If he was not popular in this at least he was in another Action which was his imprisoning Ranulph who had been the great Instrument of oppression in the former Reign Mat. Par. f. 76. and that it was with intention of punishing him severely appears by Ranulph's making his escape out of Prison by means of those great Treasures which he had heaped up from the Spoils of the People Ranulph no doubt could at a much cheaper rate have applied himself to such a Lawyer as the Author of the Magistracy vindicated if such an one could have been found in that Age of less corruption Vid. the last part of the Magistracy and Government vindicated p. 8. I 'll not mention the Argument from the Vacancy that the Government was dissolved every thing reduced into its Primitive State of nature all Power devolved into Individuals and the particulars only to provide for themselves by a new Contract for if so there 's no new consent for punishment of Acts done before the dissolution and consequently revenge for that is at an end Vid. ib. p. 2. who might have advised him to rest satisfied that it would not be consistent with the Wisdom and Justice of a Prince who came in upon a Vacancy of the Throne as H. 1. did not standing next in the Line to punish any Criminals of the foregoing Reign but Ranulph was wiser in running away and perhaps more modest than to think that for his useful parts employed in the pillaging and destroying innocent men he might pretend to merit under the Successor H. 1. having truly shewn a Fatherly care of the people no man then raised any foolish scruple upon the manner of the Proceedings where the Substance was pleasing to all But that which has been done by them who could get together upon the intervals of Government has been held valid that the Vacancies might be as short as possible unless the general sense of the people has immediately appear'd against it and thus Harold having been Crown'd by surprize when the Friends of W. 1. were at the Confessors Buryal some Authors upon that very Account Vid. 2. part will have it that Harold was an Usurper But that it may be seen how little apt people are to dispute Forms when a King acts agreeably to the sense of a Nation I shall shew that H. 1. acted as King even before he was Crown'd immediately upon his Election for which Huntindon is my Author who having mentioned the death of W. 2. says Henricus frater ejus junior ibidem in Regem electus Hen. Huntin f. 216. b. de H. 1. dedit episcopatum Wincestriae W. Giffard pergensque Londoniam sacratus est ibi a Mauritio Londonensi Episcopo His younger Brother Henry being there chosen King gave the Bishoprick of Winchester to W. Giffard and going on to London was consecrated there by Maurice Bishop of London And I am much mistaken if what he did in relation to another Bishop Anselm who had been Archbishop of Canterbury in the time of W. 2. is not an additional evidence to what I have already produced that the Convention in which he was Crown'd was turn'd into a Parliament or acted as one Ordericus Vitalis says Anselmus enim Dorebornensis Archiep. exulabat Eadmerus f. 38 39 40. shews this was at a Council at Winchester ubi says he ex condicto venimus Mat. Far. f. 25. Trajacere quidem liberum esse sed inconsulte id facturum siquidem nullam revertendi spem in posterum ei futuram Eadmerus Anselm as appears by the circumstances of the story had been condemned to perpetual Banishment by Parliament in the time of
TO proceed to the Reign of H. 3. who was Crown'd by a Faction at Glocester while Lewis was in possession of London the Metropolis of the Kingdom That he came not to the Crown as Successor in an Hereditary Monarchy but upon a plain Election and Compact with part of the Nation at least in the Name of the rest who would come in under those terms may be prov'd beyond contradiction For tho' in the Language of the Homilies King John were Natural Lord to the Subjects of England yet as Arthur who was the next in the Line to King John's Predecessor had the Right of Blood Mat. Par. f. 278. as far as that could operate before King John which he insisted on in the Fourth of that King's Reign even while he was his Prisoner the same right had Eleanor Arthur's Sister all the remainder of King John's time and for some years during the Reign of H. 3. 2. The Father came to the Crown by virtue of a Free Election of the People as the Archbishop of Canterbury told him at his Coronation wherefore his Election could not invest him with more than a Personal Right unless more were express'd at the time But the Archbishop Hubert Mat. Par. f. 264. 1 Johan Audite universi noverint discretio vestra quod nullus praevia ratione alii succedere habet in regnum nisi ab universitate regni unanimiter invocatâ spiritus gratiâ Electus secundum morum suorum eminentiam praeelectus who spake in the name of the Community was so far from giving the least Umbrage to a Right that might extend to Heirs that he affirm'd That no man is Intituled to succeed to the Crown upon any other account previous to the unanimous choice of the Kingdom except only the eminence of his Virtue And being afterwards ask'd why he took such freedom of Speech He declar'd That he foresaw and was assur'd by Ancient Prophecies That King John would corrupt the Kingdom and Crown of England and precipitate it into great confusion And he asserted That he ought to be minded of his coming to the Crown by * Ne haberet liberas habâ—nas hoc faciendi Election not by Hereditary Succession least he should take a liberty to act as he fear'd 3. Since therefore what the Archbishop fear'd came to pass and that Contract in virtue of which King John assum'd the Royal Scepter was notoriously broken How can it be thought that a Right devolv'd upon his Son H. 3. especially considering the interruption that was made by a Choice of Lewis tho' not Universal I must confess there is no Evidence occurring to me that Lewis was ever Crown'd here yet considering that the Coronation as is agreed by most is but a Ceremony the bare want of it would not the less argue a breach in the Succession since the sounder part of the people took the benefit of that Forfeiture which King John manifestly made and if nothing but an Universal Concurrence in this could justify withdrawing Allegiance from him then it is hardly possible for any resisting of Tyranny to be lawful at the begining and he who is forwardest in the Cause of his Country must be always a Criminal But being there is a deep silence as to Lewis his Coronation Mat. Par. Illico Coronandus tho he was promis'd by the Barons at London to be Crown'd immediately upon his coming over I take the reason of the silence in this matter to be That if he were Crown'd in form it was by the Laity alone because the Pope was fast to the side of King John and his Son and Lewis lay under a Papal Sentence of Excommunication so that the Clergy durst not Communicate with him in those Acts of Religious Worship which accompany Coronations But these Ceremonies being to be performed by Clergy-men 't is most probable that the Laity contented themselves with the Substance and left those Ceremonies for a more convenient time But that Lewis was in Possession of the Crown and the Regalia is to be believed as London with the Tower where they us'd to be lodg'd had not only been in the Possession of his Friends from the beginning but held so till the second Year after H. had been Crown'd as it is to be presum'd with a Crown made for that purpose Whether Lewis were Crown'd or no he was as fully received by them that had withdrawn their Allegiance from King John as if he had been Crown'd and reciprocal Oaths past between them And he was so far lookt on as King Mat. Par. that Alexander King of Scots swore Homage to him for the Lands he held of the Crown of England But certain it is as the Circumstances evince that there were at least three Express and Binding Contracts which H. 3. entred into with his People either beyond or rather explanatory of what is included in the Coronation-Oath and which H. 3. was bound to observe as he would be King of England and these besides several Confirmations of the Great Charter purchas'd with the Peoples Money and one of the Grants of Aid so particularly Conditional that Treasurers for it were appointed in Parliament and the Money was to be returned upon the King 's not performing the Conditions of the Grant 1. The First Contract which I shall observe was that which Lewis perhaps induc'd to it by the Money which he borrowed of the Londoners oblig'd H. to before he would quit his Pretensions So that one was plainly the Condition of the other and as the Civilians have it ran into the other by way of Mutual Consideration Vid. inf Lewis for the reasons which I before touch'd upon finding his Interest daily decline thought good to come to terms with Henry whereby Lewis oblig'd himself by Oath to withdraw from England Mat. Par. fol. 400. with all his Followers never to return and to use his endeavours that his Father might restore all the Rights of the Crown of England which he had seiz'd on beyond Sea In consideration of which Henry the Earl Marshal of England and the Pope's Legat F. 423. N a. Discord not Rebellion f. 431. swore to the restoring to the Barons of England and all others all their Rights and Liberties for which there had been Discord between King John and his Barons This Agreement with Lewis the Great Council of the Nation afterwards insisted on 7º H. 3. when they urg'd a Confirmation of the Great Charter which they obtain'd not till 9º of that King 2. The Second particular Contract was that of which the Great Council or Parliament 28º H. 3. mind him and of which they then after much strugling purchas'd a Confirmation According to this among other things 28 H. 3. referring to 20. f. 864. Four Great Men were to be chosen by Common Consent as Guardians of the Kingdom to be the standing Council about the King with a very large Trust reposed in them The Chancellor Treasurer and
cause of Complaint being removed and his Estate in Ireland having received great damage from his Enemies he left Leolin to Treat for himself and his Friends and went over to Ireland where he was slain by Treachery The Treaty went on and among the terms it was provided That all Men on the one side or the other Rot. Claus 18. H. 3. N. 17. dors Homines etiam illi qui hinc inde recesserunt a fidelitate dominorum suorum se tenuerunt ex adversa parte libere revertantur Rot. Claus 18. H. 3. N. 20. dors who had receded from the fealty of their Lords and adher'd to the adverse Party should return with freedom And in the Credential Letters which were sent to Leolin with them that managed the Treaty on the side of King Henry He gives him to understand That before that he had restor'd the Lands to all people who had been disseiz'd by occasion of the War between him and the Earl Marshal where 't is far from being call'd a Rebellion on the Marshal's side and at the time of the Treaty the King found himself obliged to protest that he was clear of any consent to the Death of the Marshal and that his Seal was by the great importunity of his evil Counsellours set to Letters which encouraged the Treachery against him and pronounc'd him a Traytor But that he was wholly ignorant of the Contents of them Vid. Matthew Paris The Clergy the Historians the People of that Age in all things extol the Marshal would never allow him to have been a Traytor and were not his own Defence of himself too long to transcribe I should add it as an embelishment to these Remarks Dugdale's Baronage o Vol. 1. f. 752. Simon 16. H. 3. bore the Title of the Earl of Leicester and obtain'd from Almaric his Brother then bearing the Title of Constable of France a grant of all the Lands in England with the Stewardship of England This came to the Earls of Leicester with the Honour of Hinkley in Leicestershire from Petronil Daughter of Hugh de Grentesmenil Vid. Mat. West 20 H. 3. Simon Montfort holding the King's Bason at his Nuptials as Steward of England The Fourth War was that under the Great Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester another Tribune of the People as he was hereditary High Steward by Purchase from his Brother Almaric Constable of France the Stewardship of England having descended from their Mother Amicia eldest Sister to Robert Fitz Parnel Earl of Leicester who died without Issue Mat. Par. f. 1302. Whoever reads the History of H. 3. must needs conceive a mean opinion of him his Cowardise was as remarkable as that of one of his Successors who is said not to have been able to contain at the sight of a drawn Sword nor could H. bear the terrour of Thunder and Lightning yet when Simon Montfort endeavoured to remove one of his frights Quod scilicet Comes Leycestriae virilius perstitit ferventius in persequendâ provisione ut saltem Regem omnes adversantes suis astare consiliis cogerent c. he confest to him That he fear'd him most Which was suspected to proceed from Montfort's warm and strenuous pursuing the Provisions at Oxford at least his being for compelling the King and all opposers to stand to the Counsel of his Barons Simon thinking the execution of the Oxford Provisions to be well secur'd Fol. 1314. went beyond Sea upon which Richard the King's Brother prepar'd to come into England with intention and hopes as it should seem to get them vacated as being made without consulting him But the rest of the Barons tho' they were in great fear because of Simon 's absence Ib. f. 1315. Juramentum quale Barones Angliae reipub Zelatores exigebant would not suffer Richard to Land till he had oblig'd himself under his hand to take such an Oath as the Barons of England who were zealous for the Commonweal or Publick-good required the form of which follows I Richard Earl of Cornwal will be faithful and diligent to reform the Kingdom of England with you hitherto too much deform'd by the Counsel of Evil-men And I will be your effectual helper to expel the Rebels and disturbers of the said Kingdom Notwithstanding the seeming agreement between the King and People and Security taken for his performance Foreigners invited and supported by him became an intolerable burden and the King being kinder to them than to his People obtain'd from the Pope an Absolution from his Oath Mat. Par. F. 1322. to make good the establishment at Oxford But the Barons resolutely insisted upon the Establishment and when the King sent Itinerent Justices into Herefordshire Ibid. the Barons of that County would not suffer them to execute their Office there as being contrary to the Provisions at Oxford which contrariety seems to lye in the King 's directing enquiries of misdemeanours to be judged of in the Countries when according to what was then Enacted the Inquisitions were to be return'd before the Parliament or at least such Council as was chosen in a Parliament But the King having procur'd an Absolution from his Oath thought himself free to act by the Counsels of Foreigners which his Great men would not bear Wherefore the Earl of Leicester and others met together in Arms at Oxford resolving either to dye for the Peace of their Country F. 1323. or to drive out the Foreigners The Foreigners met at the same place but finding themselves out-number'd and that the Lords were resolv'd to call them to account for their violations of the Government and make them swear to observe with them the Provisions made for the profit of the Realm they fled away by Night but were pursued by the Barons and forc'd to quit the Land Yet soon after this the King as the Historian says Anno 1260. 44 H. 3. 45 H. 3. by the evil Counsel of some fell from the pact which he had made with his Great Men betook himself to the Tower of London and compell'd the Citizens to swear to be true to him without regard to the terms before setled and rais'd what Forces he could Whereby it is evident That he began the War and that it was an open violation of his Contract made with the people at Oxford The Barons took Arms against him in their own defence F. 1331. Communiter prestitum and sent Messengers to him to entreat him to observe the Oath which had been sworn to by all Which Message he slighted at first but afterwards was prevail'd upon to consent that he should chuse one and the Barons another to arbitrate their differences the Arbitrators having power to chuse an Vmpire but that this should be respited till the King's Son Edward came from abroad When his Son came home he was so fully convinced of his Father's being in the wrong that he joyn'd with the Barons and they resolv'd together to drive
guerrae emergat c. Vid. Append. When any doubt or difficult case of War or Peace happens in the Kingdom or without let that Case be referr'd and brought in Writing into full Parliament and let it be treated of and debated among the Peers of Parliament and if need be let it be enjoyn'd by the King or in his Name to every degree of the Peers That every degree act by its self and let the Case be delivered to their Clerks in Writing and in the said place let them cause the said Case to be recited before them so that they may consider among themselves how it may in the best manner and most justly be proceeded upon as they would answer before God for the Person of the King and their own proper persons and also the proper persons of them whom they represent And let them report in Writing their Answers and Advice that all their Answers Counsels and Advices on all sides being heard it may be proceeded upon according to the better and more wholesom Counsel But if the Peace of the Kingdom or the Nation People or Commonwealth be weakned by reason of discord between the King and other Great Men so that it seems to the King and his Council What that Council was vid. 2d Part that the matter should be treated of and amended by the consideration of all the Peers of his Kingdom or if the King and Kingdom are disturbed by War or if a difficult Case arise before the Chancellor of England or a difficult Judgment is to be given before the Justices and the like And if it happen that in such deliberations all N 2 a Remedy where equally divided or at least the greater part cannot agree then the Earl Steward Earl Constable and Earl Marshal or Two of them shall chuse Twenty five persons from all parts of the Kingdom viz. Two Bishops and Three Proxies of the Clergy Two Earls and Three Barons Five Knights of Shires Five Citizens and Five Burgesses who make Five and Twenty Et condescendere in eos and they Five and Twenty may chuse Twelve out of themselves and be concluded by what they do The Twelve may chuse Six and be concluded by them The Six Three and be concluded by them But the Three cannot be reduced to fewer without leave of the King And if the King consent the Three may be brought to Two and the Two to One and so at last their Ordinance shall bind the whole Parliament and so by coming from Twenty five to One if the greater number cannot agree to an establishment at last one Person as is said shall Ordain for all because he cannot disagree from himself saving to the King and his Council That they may examin and amend such Ordinances after they are written if they can and will Provided they do this upon the place in full Parliament and with the consent of the Parliament and not out of Parliament According to which the High Steward Constable and Marshal being looked on as Hereditary Officers were entrusted with a means of composing the differences of the Nation when they should happen to be equally divided I find the Authority of the High Steward and Constable more express in a Translation of another Modus tenendi Parl. agreeing in substance with that which I have cited The MS. which I have used seems to be of the time of H. 7. MS. penes Authorem MS. penes Authorem thô Mr. Elsing says That which is in Sir Robert Cotton's Library was written temp E. 2. The Translation of the other was Printed with Royal Privilege in King James his time as I take it It was done in a very pedantick stile by one Anthony Bustard of Lyons-Inn He that wrote the Latine in his Preface speaks of it as the Order setled by W. 1. Pref. That Modus places the Power of chusing the Twenty five in the Steward and Constable It adds That if any of the Ministers act contrary to their Duty the King the Steward and others of the Parliament may remove them from their Office And says particularly That the Steward of England with the Constable and Nobles of the Realm shall send to evil Counsellors willing them to desist from giving Counsel and entreat the King not to listen to them and if they regard not such advertisement they were to send to the King to put such away from him And if King and Counsellors neglect such wholsom Advice then for the safety of the Commonwealth it hath been thought fit and lawful for the Steward and Constable and Nobles and others of the Commons of England with the King's Banner displayed the King's name omitted the said Counsellors to take and keep in Custody till the next Parliament and Seize their Goods Vid. Append. Lands and Hereditaments until they receive Judgment by consideration of the whole Parliament Sir Robert Cotton Of the High Steward c. There is no more in this than is warranted by Sir Robert Cotton's Letters in the Herald's Office part of which seem to be taken from a MS. joyn'd to the Modus in his Library under the name of Fleetwood The High-Steward's Office as I have before observed was annex'd to Land 4 Inst f. 127. Dyer f. 285. b. Kelway f. 170. and so was the Constable's of England as appears by our Law-Books in the Case of the Duke of Buckingham 6 H. 8. who pleaded That Humphrey de Bohun formerly Earl of Hereford was seiz'd in Fee of the Mannors of Harefield Newnam and Whitenhurst in the County of Glocester and held them by the service to be Constable of England which the Judges allowed of as a good Plea Dyer Indeed they held that thô the King might compel him who had the Land at his pleasure to execute the Office so he might at his pleasure resuse to have it Executed But as to that this being an honorary and profitable tenure by Grand Serjeanty it is to be considered 12 Car. 2. c. 4. that the Stat. 12 Car. 2. when it took away those Tenures of the Crown which were burthensom to the Subject provided that it shall not take away the Honorary Services of Grand Serjeanty But H. 8. Dyer thought it sufficient that he disclaimed the Service and the Reason of the disclaimer was because it was very high and dangerous and very chargeable to the King in Fees the last part of which shewed the Subject's property concerned in the question Upon the Duke of Buckingham's claim to this Office Kelway f. 171◠Nevil says it has been a common saying That the Constable of England by virtue of his Office in some case may Arrest the King himself and therefore held it necessary that the King should be appriz'd what Authorities belong to his Office Fineux Chief Justice says We know of no such Authority to belong to any Officer within the Realm by the Common Law of the Land Which he afterwards explains for
And as anciently as the year 789. an Act was made in a General Convention of all England in Conventu Pananglico that their Kings should be Elected by the Clergy senioribus populi and Elders of the people that is such as were Members of their Great Councils or Witena Gemots Assemblies of Sage and Wise Men. This tho it was long before the reputed Conquest yet was never repealed or cut off by the Sword nay seems received with the Confessor's Laws as included in them 2. It appears by the several instances given in the fourth Chapter and the testimonies there both of Malmsbury and the Publisher of the life of King Alfred That no lineal Succession was observed here before the supposed Conquest 3. The Confessor's Law received by W. 1. Vid. Sup. and continued downwards as the noblest Transcript of the Common Law shews that the Kings of England were to be elected and the end for which they are chosen by the people After the same manner do the ancient Historians and Lawyers as well since that time as before commonly express accessions to the Throne and seem industriously to mind Kings of it that according to the caution given the Jewish Kings Deut. 17.20 their hearts be not lifted up above their Brethren 4. According to the usage from before the reputed Conquest downwards the People are asked Whether they are content to have such a Man King 5. The most absolute of the English Monarchs never believed Cambd. Brit. s 104. de W. 1 Neminem Anglici regi constituo Haredem sed a terno conditori cujus sum in cujus manu sunt omnia illud commendo non enim taâ—tum decus hereditario jure possedi c that then Children had a right to the Crown except the people consented that they should succeed as appears by King Alfred's Will and the Death-bed Declaration of William 1. And therefore some of our Kings against whom there has been no pretence of better Title in any particular Person or Family when they stood upon good Terms with their People have often prevail'd with them in their Lives-time to secure the Succession to their eldest Son and H. 2. to prevent hazarding the Succession endanger'd himself by getting his eldest Son Crown'd himself living But as the going no farther than the eldest argues that they looked on that as a Favour the pressing for a Settlement on their Issue in any manner argues That it was not look'd upon as a clear Point of Right without it Of later Times Settlements have been made in Tail which though they were occasion'd by Pretences to Titles are Records against an Hereditary Monarchy according to the common notion which is one that by the original Constitution descends to the next in the Line male or Female V. Leges W. 1. de Fide c. Statuimus etiam ut omnes liberi homines foedere sacramento affirment quod intra extra regnum Angliae Willielmo Regi Domino suo fideles esse volunt c. Leges S. Edw. tit Greve Vid. Juramentum homagii facti Regi 6. The Oaths of Allegiance required of all the Subjects were never extended to Heirs but were barely Personal till Settlements of the Crown were obtain'd upon the Quarrels between the Families of York and Lancaster and though H. 4. obtain'd in Parliament an Oath to himself the Prince and his Issue and to every one of his Sons successively and in the time of H. 6. the Bishops and Temporal Lords swore to be true to the Heirs of R. Duke of York yet perhaps no Oath of Allegiance to the King and his Heirs can be shewn to have been requir'd of the Subjects in general till that 26 H. 8. according to the Limitations of the Statute 25. 7. Even where the People had setled the Crown they seem'd to intend no more than to give a preference before other Pretenders not but that as Ideocy Frenzy or the like might set such an one aside so upon other weighty Reasons they might alter the Settlement Pryn 's Signal Loyalty p. 274. Pol. Virgil. 1. 22. sub initio as appears by Polydore Virgil who was never thought to lie on the Peoples side whatever Evidences for them he may have conceal'd or destroy'd whose words of H. 5. to whom the Crown had been limited by Parliament may be thus rendred Nota Proceres may take in the Nobiles minores Prince Henry having buried his Father causes a Council of Nobles to be conven'd at Westminster in which while they according to the Custom of their Ancestors consulted about making a King behold on a sudden some of the Nobility of their own accord swear Allegiance to him which officious Good-will was never known to have been shewn to any before he was declared King William 2. was elected during the Life of his eldest Brother who was set aside by the English against whom he had discovered Ill-will in spite of the Normans So H. 1. Stephen was elected while Maud the Daughter of H. 1. was alive and H. 2. succeeded in her Life-time upon an Agreement made with Stephen by the Peoples Consent R. 1. as within King John crown'd in the Life-time of his eldest Brother's Son Prince Arthur So was his Son H. 3. in the Life-time of Eleanor Prince Arthur's Sister E. 1. as within E. 2. elected E. 3. set up by the People in his Father's Life-time which the Father took for a Favour R. 2. declared Successor by Parliament in the Life-time of his Grandfather H. 4. of the younger House came in by the Peoples Choice upon their deposing R. 2. H. 5 6. Son and Grandson to H. 4. came in upon a Settlement E. 4. of the elder House came in under an Agreement made in Parliament between his Father who liv'd not to have the benefit of it and H. 6. His Son E. 5. was never crown'd R. 3. who set him aside was of the younger House H. 7. who vanquish'd him could have no Right of Proximity for the Daughter of E. 4. and his own Mother were before him All that came in since enjoy'd the Crown either under the various Settlements of H. 8. or that of H. 7. which took place again in J. 1. or from H. 6. at the highest 8. As the Practice of the Kingdom is an Evidence of its Right numerous Instances might be produc'd of Choices since the supposed Conquest not only so called by Historians but appearing so in their own Natures wherein no regard has been had to Proximity but barely to Blood And I believe no Man can shew me any more than Two since the reputed Conquest of whom it can be affirm'd with any semblance of Truth that they came in otherwise than upon Election express'd by the Historians of the Time or imply'd as they had no other Title or else a late Settlement of the Crown either upon themselves immediately or in Remainder The Two upon which I will yield
not be thought that I in the least derogate from the Honour due to him when I observe matter of fact not falling within his notice The Author of a late Paper in relation to these Times has this passage not to be neglected A Letter to a Friend advising in this extraordinary Juncture All Power is originally or fundamentally in the People formally in the Parliament which is one Corporation made up of three Constituent essentiating Parts King Lords and Commons so it was with us in England When this Corporation is broken when any one essentiating Part is lost or gone there is a Dissolution of the Corporation the formal Seat of Power and that Power devolves on the People When it is impossible to have a Parliament the Power returns to them with whom it was originally Is it possible to have a Parliament It is not possible the Government therefore is Dissolv'd Hence he would argue a necessity of having a larger Representative of the People Vid. Pufend. de Interregnis p. 267. sup in Marg. that the Convention may be truly National But had this Ingenious Person observed Pufendorf's two distinct Contracts by the first of which a Provision was made for a Monarchy before any particular Person was setled in the Throne he would have found no such necessity But if immemorially the People of England have been Represented as they were for this Assembly and no needful form or circumstance has been wanting to make the Representation compleat all men who impartially weigh the former Proofs of Elections not without a Rightful Power must needs think the last duly made Dr. Brady indeed with some few that led him the Dance and others that follow will have the present Representation of the Commons of England to have been occasioned by Rebellion 49 H. 3. But I must do him the honour to own him to be the first who would make the Barons to have no Personal Right but what depends upon a King in being for he allows none to have Right of coming to Parliament Brady's first Ed. p. 227. See this prov'd upon him in the Pref. to Jus Anglorum ab antiquo but such only to whom the King has thought fit to direct Writs of Summons Yet I dare say no man of sense who has read that Controversie believes him But were his Assertions true it might be granted that the Barons would have no more personal Right to be of any Convention upon the total Absence or Abdication of a King than they would have of coming to Parliament without His Writ Yet since the Right of the People in person or Representation is indubitable in such a Case what hinders the validity of the late Choice considering how many Elections of Kings we have had and that never by the people diffusively since the first Institution of the Government And the Representations agreed on tho I take them to be earlier setled for Cities and Burroughs than for the Freeholders in the Counties have ever since their respective settlements been in the same manner as now at least none have since the first Institution ever come in their own persons or been Electors but what are now present personally or representatively and their own Consent takes away all pretence of Error If it be said That they ought to have been Summoned Forty days before the Assembly held That is only a Privilege from the King which they may wave and have more than once consented to be Represented upon less than Forty days Summons Prynne 's Animadversions on 4 Inst f. 10. Mr. Prynne gives several Instances as 49 H. 3. 4 E. 3. 1 H. 4. 28 Eliz. and says he omits other Precedents of Parliaments Summoned within Fourty days after the Writs of Summons bear date upon extraordinary Occasions of publick safety and concernment which could not conveniently admit so long delay And Sir Robert Cotton being a strict Adherer to Form Vid. Rushw 1 Vol. f. 470. 3 Car. 1. upon an Emergency advised That the Writs should be Antedated which Trick could make no real difference To say however there ought to have been a Summons from or in the name of a King in being is absurd it being for the exercise of a lawful power which unless my Authorities fail the people had without a King or even against the consent of one in being Besides it appears That such Summons have not been essential to the Great Councils of the Nation Tacitus shews That the Germans Tacit. de Moribus German Coeunt nisi quid fortuitum subitum certis diebus c. V. Leges S. Ed. tit Greve In Capite Kal. Maij. Jus. Angl. c. 7. Vid. Append. from whom we descend had theirs at certain days unless when some extraordinary matter happened And by the Confessor's Laws received by W. 1. and continued downwards by the Coronaton Oaths requir'd to this very day the General Folcmot ought to be held annually without any formal Summons upon May-day By the time of E. 1. this custom to hold a Parliament upon May-day received a little alteration for the Pope having at the beginning of that King's Reign demanded eight years Arrears of an Annual payment which he claim'd for the Kingdom of England the King had put him off till the next Parliament which he said had us'd to be held in England about the Octaves of our Saviour's Resurrection This Parliament was held at the Octaves accordingly as the King acknowleges upon the Pope's second demand but pleads that it had been taken up with the great Affairs of the Nation till his want of Health occasion'd a Dissolution before they could consider oâ—… tt Matter which he promis'd should be brought before them at the next Parliament which he purposed to hold at Michaelmas then following The Statute 16 Car. 1. which our rigid Formalists must own to be in Force has wholly taken away the necessity of Writs of Summons from a King Stat. 12. Car. 2. c. 1. The Assembly of the Lords and Commons held Anno 1660. was summoned by the Keepers of the Liberties of England not by the Kings Writs yet when they came to Act in conjunction with the King they declare enact and adjudge where the Statute is manifestly declaratory of what was Law before That the Lords and Commons then sitting are and shall be the Two Houses of Parliament notwithstanding any want of the King 's Writ or Writs of Summons or any defect or alteration of or in any Writ of Summons c. Tho' this seems parallel to the present Case yet in truth ours is the strongest For the King then had been only King de jure no Authority could be received from Him nor could any Act of His be regarded in Law through defect either of Jurisdiction or Proof if not both Accordingly as not only the Reason of the thing but the Lord Coke shews 3 Inst f. 7. Sup. in Marg. a Pardon from one barely King de jure is of
Contempt and Scorn of the current Doctrine of Passive Obedience Some would ask whether he does not exclude himself from the glorious number of Friends Nor will they be shy of affirming that he does so when they observe that he contends that they forgot their Duty both as good Christians Pag. 3. and good Subjects who declared for the Prince of Orange his now Majesty before the late King actually left the Nation Yet he seems not aware that while he blemishes these with setting up themselves against the Doctrines of Christianity he condemns Pag. 36. not only some of our Clergy but the Church of England for maintaining a Doctrine which he does not deny to be destructive to the Constitution of our Government and to Mankind by which one would be tempted to think that his business is to make Men not only out of love with Crowned Heads but with Christianity it self Pag. 36. As to particular Persons he confesses that the heat of Controversy has misled some of the Church of England to write too much in favour of wicked and tyrannical Princes even to the encouraging them to do worse than otherwise they would Where he taxes their Doctrine of Non-resistance with encouraging Tyranny and such excesses of it as the Tyrant would not otherwise presume upon Pag. 31. Nor does he less condemn the whole Church The Disloyalty says he of two other Parties have made the Church of England take into the contrary Extream and as a Jesuit wish'd it might do her much good in scorn So she had like to have pay'd too dear for the pretence and they who would now again sacrifice her to their Interest and Reputation are to speak softly none of her best Friends They pretend we have not suffered enough for our Religion to justify our Resistance Why according to their Principles we are never to resist whatever we suffer but to suffer on till there is not one left to resist Herein I confess he makes a true Representation of that Principle which himself runs into so naturally that he is not sensible of it But is not this by him judged to be an Extream to be avoided Does he not yeild that the Church of England has been made to take into this Extream out of abhorrence to the other Nay does he not in effect admit that himself and others sacrifice the Church to their own Interest and Reputation while that they may justify their Extream they condemn those who avoided both Scylla and Charibdis in Making to an happy Port along with our Caesar and his Fortune God forbid that it should still be Mens Interest to justify that Extream and let them enjoy the Reputation of never acknowledging an Error tho the most gross and pernicious But what a miserable Defender has our Church which must needs reject such Doctrines and Defences If Church-men are the Church States-men the State Truth may profane or lybel else the Great This Gentleman pretends to have the Scriptures Pag. 35. and all Primitive Antiquity on his side Vid. inf f. to which he would draw in the Church of England which upon a rational Construction cannot be thought to mean more than that we are bound to obey the King 's Legal Commands and not to resist him while he continues King nor has that any thing against the Supposition of a Civil as well as Natural Death And as to the two other Topicks it is to be considered 1. That the Scriptures meddle not with particular Constitutions but give a general Rule for Obedience which is more than bare Non-resistance according to those Constitutions which are God's Ordinance as he authorizes Human Laws in Civil Affairs not contrary to his own And 2. Pag. 3. This Gentleman himself sets aside all Primitve Antiquity when he confesses that in those times the Religion was contrary to the establish'd Laws and so Men could not be persecuted for it against Law at least not so as to come up to our case especially if we take in what he acknowledges farther The Roman Emperors says he under whom they liv'd So Jovian p. 85 86. Julian did persecute them legally vid. p. 91. were absolute independent Princes whose Will was the Law and the Constitution of the Empire differed vastly from that of England so that we are not under the same Obligation they were because our Princes have not the same legal Power as the Roman Emperors had but then I doubt not but we are as much bound to submit to the legal Commands of the King of England as the Primitive Christians to the legal Commands of their Princes But says he this was no part of the Controversy under the Reign of James 2. who had as little Law as Reason for what he did If this be not a giving up all Primitive Antiquity I shall never pretend to understand how words ought to be taken Since therefore neither the Scriptures Primitive Antiquity nor the Doctrine of the Church of England are against them who embrac'd and assisted in the Deliverance which his present Majesty vouchsaf'd us it became not this Gentleman who takes such pains to purge himself from having any hand in it to censure those Worthies who had as not behaving themselves like good Christians and good Subjects Pag. 3. Pag. 3. And to call them a few is almost an equal Reflection upon the honour of the Nation which has never been backward in freeing it self from Tyranny and vvas ready as a Man to act in this King's Service before they were so just as to lay the Crown at his Feet nay before Success had crown'd his glorious Enterprize which almost all were eager to evidence as they had opportunity and I may say of many with Mr. Cowley in his Description of Envy They envy even the Praise themselves bad won That the Body of the Nation were thus forward is manifest in their declaring by their Representatives that the late King had broken the Original Contract vvhich must have been before the Judgment pass'd upon it or ortherwise the Judgment were not warrantable Pag. 25. When the Gentleman vvill allow of no Title in his present Majesty but real Conquest over the Nation as vvell as the late King and lawful meaning lineal Succession either of vvhich Titles he supposes he may claim by he would do vvell to consider 1. That he reflects upon the great Representative of the Nation which founds it upon the others Misgovernment 2. He sets it all aside when he owns that this King does not claim by Conquest nor in truth could he be a Conqueror who was not only invited by those who had a just Ascendant over the Minds of the People but was pray'd for and receiv'd with open Arms by the Nation in general tho indeed such an universal Consent with such Inducements from Gratitude and the common Necessity ought to subdue all Scruples as much as the most real Conquest And this Gentleman must yeild
Peace when he judges it fitting notwithstanding Mens Oaths to defend all the Regal Priviledges they were not bound to defend this especially if the War were against Protestants in which case the Subject would take to himself the Judgment of the Justice or Expedience of the War as much as others do of the necessity of resisting Or suppose yet farther that the late King had discharged his Mercenaries and commanded the Militia by Law establish'd for the Defence of the Kingdom to march and fight against his present Majesty had not this been a legal Command The King 's legal Commands he agrees with me that we are bound to obey yet he with all agrees that it was unlawful to assist the late King against This before he was crown'd How then can the matter be adjusted without yeilding that the late King lost his Regal Power by assuming a Tyrannical one This may suffice to shew that they who resisted the late King did it not out of Principles either Anti-christian or Anti-monarchical and that they who are for the non-resisting Doctrine as it past for current in the last Reign and the foregoing and yet pretend a Zeal for the present Government do but daub with untempered Mortar and as they were not to contribute to the late Revolution so much as in their Prayers but on the contrary were to pray for the late King's Victory over all his Enemies and in effect that God would keep and strengthen him in his Kingdom as well as in that Worship which they could not but know not to be God's true Worship So if that misguided Prince should desert Ireland and return into their Arms for a Punishment of those Opinions which occasioned his Ruine their pretended Loyalty to this King if they prove true to their Principles must fall to the ground And the least puff of Wind adverse to us but prosperous to the Jacobites would blow up that Fire covered with deceitful Ashes to the extinguishing of which I shall readily devote my Service The Lay-Gentleman who has extorted my Reflections by his indecent Censure of the Subjects of this Monarchy who contributed towards the late Revolution thinks it clear that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience is no way concern'd in the Controversies now depending between the Friends and no Friends if not Enemies to their present Majesties having in his vain Imagination put it past question that the Williamites were neither good Subjects under the late Administration nor good Christians and true Members of the Church of England And that his good Christians and true Members are the only Persons whose Principles may be relied on now Yet since he will have the Sense of the Church to be known from the Cry of the Clergy and a Bishop supposed to be a Martyr for it may be presum'd to give the Sense of that Truth which he would be thought to attest to the last If this Gentleman will not hear me let him hear the Church for his Conviction in this matter The late Bishop of Chichester's Paper BEing called by a sick and I think a dying Bed and the good Hand of God upon me in it to take the last and best Viaticum the Sacrament of my dear Lord's Body and Blood I take my self obliged to make this short Recognition and Profession That whereas I was baptized into the Religion of the Church of England and sucked it in with my Milk I have constantly adhered to it through the whole course of my Life and now if so be the Will of God shall die in it and I had resolved through God's Grace assisting me to have dy'd so tho at a Stake And whereas that Religion of the Church of England taught me the Doctrine of Non-resistance and Passive-Obedience which I have accordingly inculcated upon others and which I took to be the distinguishing Character of the Church of England I adhere no less firmly and stedfastly to that and in consequence of it have incurred a Suspension from the Exercise of my Office and expected a Deprivation I find in so doing much inward Satisfaction and if the Oath had been tendred at the Peril of my Life I could only have obey'd by Suffering I desire you my worthy Friends and Brethren to bear Witness of this upon occasion and to believe it as the Words of a dying Man and who is now engaged in the most Sacred and Solemn Act of conversing with God in this World and may for ought he knows to the contrary appear with these very Words in his Mouth at the dreadful Tribunal Manu propriâ subscripsi Johannes Cicestrensis This Profession was read and subscribed by the Bishop in the Presence of Dr. Green the Parish Minister who administred Dr. Hicks Dean of Worcester Mr. Jenkin his Lordship's Chaplain Mr. Powell his Secretary Mr. Wilson his Amanuensis who all communicated with him Here 't is observable 1. That the Bishop as fallible as an inferior Clergy-man died in that Opinion which he had profess'd and inculcated in his Life-time so warmly and so often that himself believ'd it Tho it may be a Question Whether he would on his Death-bed have affirmed as he had done in his Pulpit where Mens Affirmations ought to be as solemn as at the last moments of Life Sermon at Tunbridg That they could not enter into Heaven without particular Repentance who in derision were called Ignoramus Jury-men because they would enquire into the Credibility of Witnesses and scorned to enslave themselves to the Directions of Judges or more powerful Influences from White-hall And tho it seems the Tower had not wean'd him from his fondness of Passive Obedience perhaps it did from that which he had express'd towards our then Court's firm League with France while he believ'd it design'd to curb none here but the Fanaticks Vid. the Defence of his Profession concerning Passive Obedience and the new Oaths Ed. Anno 1690. These severe Truths tho in proof beyond Contradiction I should gladly let lie buried with him were not his Ghost still kept walking to do Mischief And if the Authority of a Man's Person or Office shall without any other ground be set up to condemn the far greatest number of Persons of at least equal Credit and Station it is no more than requisite to shew that this Man is not more than others exempted from Errors and the common Incidents to Humanity 2. The Bishop shews that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience which he had inculcated as the Doctrine of the Church of England and which he found himself oblig'd to propagate at his Death is so far concern'd in the Controversies now depending that upon the account or in consequence of holding to it he had incurr'd Suspension and expected Deprivation for not taking the Oath of Allegiance to our present King and Queen wherein he abundantly confutes our Son of the Church And all the Authority which can be deriv'd from the Bishop's Dying-Declaration to prove the Doctrine of Passive Obedience
to be the Doctrine of the Church of England equally proves that this is essential to the Controversies depending between the Friends of the late Government and the happy Subjects of this As a just Corollary from which we may affirm that no Man who is true to the Doctrine of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience can bear Faith and true Allegiance to our King and Queen In consequence to which as I have above shewn such are bound to their Power to assist the late King and to maintain the Regal Rights which he still claims as King of England if they are entrusted with any of our King's Secrets to reveal them to the other and to employ all those Advantages which his Majesty's Favour may give them Preface to the Hist of Passive Obedience towards the advancing that Interest to which they believe themselves unalterably bound And tho our King with the Generosity of Alexander may trust himself with them of whose at least probable Designs he may have certain Information yet no Man need wonder that his Friends offer him the Notice and that they would have that Doctrine extirpated out of the World without vvhich it vvere impossible for him to have an Enemy in the English Nation but a Papist And even among them I dare say all but the bigotted Slaves to their Clergy are sensible of the benefit of his Protection and may encourage themselves in civil Obedience to him who is King over them from the Examples of St. Anselm with other holy Men and the generality of their Clergy who quietly obeyed the Power vvhich protected them without considering whether the Person who administred it stood next in the Line or no. And tho it may be excusable for a dying-Man to justify his own Sincerity to his private Friends yet when the matter vvhich he affirms is of such Consequence to the Peace of that Government which had rescued him and the Church in vvhich he had such a Trust from impending Ruin and afforded it and him sure Protection tho he had disabled himself from farther benefit he ought not certainly to have taken such Pains to transmit his Opinion to the knowledg of the unthinking Vulgar who vvere likely to be influenced by it unless he vvere certain beyond the least shaddow of doubt that this was not only a Truth but of such a nature that the Sin of Ignorance in others were damnable Or else that the Restoration of the late King were preferrable to Submission to this The last I hope his Admirers vvill not say and since the first evidently depends upon Points of Lavv tho ignorance of human Law cannot reasonably excuse before Men who know not the Heart and when the Plea ought to be allowed when not yet there is no doubt but it will before God But who would not be impatient to find our great Law-Casuist Dr. H. to justify his Disaffection to the Government under the Umbrage of the Bishop's Declaration and to boast himself a Confessor to this pretended Martyr vvithout producing more colour for it than a dying-Bishop's Belief that this is in Consequence of adhering to the Religion of the Church of England Had any one publish'd thus much in the Reign of Innuendoes when Dr. H. was the Trumpeter to the Imperial Power in Contradistinction to the Political one he vvould have met with Col. Sydney's Doom who suffered for publishing Hicksian Treason all over his own Study Jovian p. 236. And were Dr. H. to be judg'd by his own Law 't is certain he vvould be pronounc'd a Traitor if the Publication of this Paper vvere prov'd upon him For in his Jovian he says What tends to Treason is Traiterous The Lord Hollis his Book against the Bishop's voting in Capital Cases he says for the same Reason is an impious and treasonable Book because it abounds with Falsifications of Records c. and asserts that the King is one of the three Estates Pag. 237. And the Dialogue between the Tutor and Pulpit is a treasonable Piece because it misrepresents the English Government as if it were a Reciprocal Contract betwixt the King and the People and as if the Parliament ought whether or no the King pleas'd to sit till all Grievances were redress'd and Petitions answer'd By the last of which the Bishops were Traitors for their Proposals to King James And by the former Vid. the Bishops Proposals all those Passive-Obedience-Men are Traitors who publickly maintain an Opinion which necessarily implies that the Right of the last King could not be alter'd or diminish'd for any matter which induc'd King William to undertake our Deliverance If Men of the Doctor 's Opinion will be exasperated for being driven from their Coverts they should consider that they ought rather to be thankful that they are put to no further Mortification while they cease not to give jealousy to the Government by maintaining or patronizing what is inconsistent with that Peace vvhich they are bound to pray for But Dr. H. it should seem Jovian p. 104. now aims at the Glory of taking that boldness and liberty of speaking and acting vvhich he says was common among Confessors by which they shewed the greatness of their Zeal to suffer for God and how much they despis'd that Authority vvhich was over them in Competition with their Duty to God And this may be to retrieve his Reputation for not calling the late King an Idolater Ib. pag. 96 a Bread-worshipper a Goddess-worshipper a Creature-worshipper an Image-worshipper a Wafer-worshipper c. which we might have expected for the making good his Vapour before he came to the Trial. Did his then Silence agree with that supernaturul Courage Pag. 297. which he vvas fully perswaded God would inspire him with And does it not seem odd that the Inspiration should seize him to the Prejudice of that Government under which alone it can reasonably be expected that Protestancy can be supported but should be vvanting in a Popish Reign The Jews had a Divine Caution against receiving even those Prophets who vvrought Wonders if they labour'd to withdraw Men from the Worship of the true God And surely Protestants would not scruple to reject the Doctor 's Pretences to Inspiration Vid. Dr. H. his Raviliac Redivivus which some vvould be ready to ascribe to that Spirit vvhich himself had found out for the fluency of some Mens Prayers or rather to that lying Spirit in the Mouths of the Jewish Prophets which encouraged Ahab to go out to fight for what had formerly been in the Possession of the Crown of Israel 3. The Bishop will have this Doctrine of Passive Obedience to be the distinguishing Character of the Church of England and therein admits that she holds it in a manner differing from all other Protestant Churches And if this be so the acting or believing according to it can be incumbent only upon the unfeigned Assent and Consent-Men But we of the Laity vvho believe our selves to be
the Political Constitutions of this Nation made in the compleat Exercise of the Soveraignty I am sure says he in this Realm the Soveraign cannot wrong nor injure his Subject Pag. 226. but contrary to the Political Laws where perhaps he may serve himself of Mr. Hobbs his Distinction Leviathan f. 98. that his Soveraign may commit Iniquity but not Injustice or Injury in the proper Signification And thus a King of England has Right to make his Subjects Slaves when he pleases Tho this naturally follows from the Doctor 's Tenets yet one would have thought that in Prudence this frightful Consequence should have been left for others to find out were it not that there was some reason to believe that by such Prints and Preachments the People had been sufficiently prepared for Slavery But here indeed the Doctor admirably distinguishes that this is with relation to particular Persons whom he may destroy one by one Pag. 192. or Company by Company yet he has no Right to enslave the whole People by altering the Constitution of the Government from a Civil into a Tyrannical Dominion c. Yet even in this Case he allows of no Resistance but that still being upon Supposition that the Power which was restrained in the Exercise a Power to act and not to act was vested absolutely in the Soveraign till he proves it so here all his Authorities from Scripture Homilies or elsewhere fall beside the Question which is of one assuming an absolute or imperial Power when the Constitution gave no more than Political one Vid. Fort. de laudibus Legum Angliae according to his own Quotation out of Fortescue explain'd by the whole course and design of that admirable Vindication of our Laws After all he owns the whole to be a Controversy of Law that all the Laws of Men are the Laws and Ordinances of God And so God's Law places the absolute Soveraignty where-ever Man's Law does Wherefore from the whole it follows 1. That Lawyers are the best Casuists in this Point 2. That if our Law requires true Allegiance to be paid to the King in Possession and allows of all Constitutions made by him with Consent of Lords and Commons duly represented then the new Oath of Allegiance is required by an Ordinance of God and they who refuse it fight against God For the not obeying lawful Authority is evidently more a resisting God than the forcibly opposing a pretence to Authority neither deriv'd from God nor Man This Inference I must own will not reach those Passive-Obedience-Men who believe that Monarchy is the only Govenment of Divine Right or that human Choice or Constitutions cannot intervene in the disposal of the Soveraignty nor yet Dr. H. his own Notion of the Original Entail of the Crown But till the Doctor has answer'd the Letter formerly address'd to him or rejoin'd to Mr. Johnson I should think this enough for his Conviction tho I do not expect that he will confess it For the keeping up a Reputation with a Party in hopes to become an Head is a probable means for making good Terms for ones self And then the Party may shift for themselves And this the Doctor may do the more honourably having dropp'd some Expressions which a Man of less Art and Subtilty than himself may easily turn to the Service of the Government that is uppermost In the mean while the poor Bishop either through the Prevalence of his Distemper the Weakness of his Judgment or Violence of the Doctor 's Importunity has been induced to subscribe a Paper which may do much harm among them to vvhom a Bishop's dying vvords concerning matters of vvhich he was no competent Judg are of more weight than the clearest Reasons The Censure of the Observations upon Mr. Johnson's Remarks P. 6. You have sign'd a kind of Post-humous Apology for your Judges and almost justified the Inhumanity of your Sentence and most undeniable Authorities Upon the Bishop's Principle of affected or acquired I am sure unnatural Religion the scurrilous Observator upon Mr. Johnson's Remarks chews the Cudd in repeating his delight in those Sufferings vvhich are more the Reproach of some of either Gown than Mr. Johnson's vvhich however this vain Writer if Humanity and the Consciousness of his own Deserts could give leave vvould justify ex post facto but out of his great Tenderness allows him the choice of Death as a gentle Commutation of Penance Upon this Principle he imputes to that extraordinary Person perfidious Apostacy from the Church of England and the abdicating his Religion together with his King threatens the Nation with Judgments because they have not kept their Master the Lord 's Anointed Vid. Tit. Page and charges all them who having sworn Allegiance to the late King swear now to this with Perjury Pag. 14. in swearing a direct Contradiction to what was lawfully sworn before as if we might not without danger of contradicting the former Oath go upon the Supposal that there may be a Civil as well as Natural Death of a King that an Oath sworn to a Person as legal King and in relation to the Laws has no force when the Law is either subverted or altered or that the Law may transfer Allegiance from the Person in Possession to a Successor legal by the Constitution of the Government without need of Absolution from any Power whatever Dr. H. would teach this younger Brother that paying Allegiance to such a Successor is part of the Oath tho indeed there is a Question between us what Succession the Constitution requires or warrants Jov. Pref. p. 53. The Doctor contends that Faith and Allegiance is promised to the possible Heirs according to the ordinary Rule of Succession the Original and Fundamental Custom of this Realm to which he gives the addition of Hereditary Vid. Pref. to Predictions of Nostredamus Grebner c. If therefore as I have formerly shewed at large and now in the following Treatise our Allegiance has been duly transferr'd according to the Original and Fundamental Custom of this Realm whether Hereditary or not or how far still being subject to that Custom then this removes all danger of Contradiction and necessity of Papal or other Absolution But the Spirit of Contradiction is a Disease which assimulates whatever comes in its way and it may be very dangerous to meet this Zealot in his Paroxisms lest he drive you to the Wall and force you to confess that a legal King and a Tyrant are but the same under different Names and that the maintaining Tyranny is imply'd in swearing to defend all the Rights of this Imperial Crown and Political not Despotical Monarchy I am not enough dispos'd for Sport to observe all the Follies of his Invective but I am sure the Government will not allow Mr. Johnson's sound Assertion Pag. 3. that no Man can authorize himself in Abatement of the Guilt of denying that Authority which made the Oath since that
I may add Flectere si nequeant superos Acheronta movebunt If neither Heav'n nor Earth afford them Aid They 'll try to fetch it from the Stygian Shade If such things as these do not shew that there was occasion for my gathering together those Precedents and Authorities which evince that in declaring for our present Soveraigns the Nation has proceeded according to their Inherent Power and in due form I at lest shall have the Satisfaction of having in my Capacity serv'd my Country and therein I shall have more than my Labour for my Pains which I may here close with that of Pliny to his Friend Tacitus C. Pliny Ep. lib. 9. Posteris an aliqua cura nostri nescio Nos certè meremur ut sit aliqua non dico ingenio id enim superbum sed studio sed labore reverentia posterûm Pergamus modò itinere instituto quod ut paucos in lucem famamque provexit ita multos è tenebris silentio protulit I know not whether they that come after will have any care of us we surely deserve from Posterity some Care and Esteem I do not say for Ingenuity for that would argue Pride but for Study and Labour Let us only go on in that way which we have enter'd upon which as it has rais'd some few Men to Splendor and Fame so it has drawn out many from Obscurity and Silence THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Vniformity tho unprofitableness of Truth The Insufficiency of false Mediums to defend this Government us'd by Men who thereby seek only themselves Quietism in Allegiance advanced by some The Supposition of a Conquest made by his present Majesty or his Succession in the Line no way for his Service That Lawyers are the best Casuists in this matter Mr. Lessey's Protestation when he took the Oath of Allegiance Lord Clarendon's Complaint of Divines busying themselves in Matters of State Mr. Tirrel and the Author of two late Treatises about Government set against Sir Robert Filmer's Authority Dr. Heylin's Opinion of Sir Robert The Judgment of Hooker touch'd upon concerning the Derivation of Power The present Bishop of Worcester's Judgment Cragius his A large Account of the Derivation of Power from the People of Rome to their Emperors brought to explain what our ancient Lawyers mean when they receive the Roman Lex Regia The Sense of Grotius Plato Conringius Pufendorf of the Subject or Seat of Power That all Empires and other Civil Societies must have been founded in Contract A right to design the Person if not to confer the Power admitted in the People by the greatest Asserters of Monarchy The Dispute here chiefly of the Right to design the Person what that is referred to the Constitution Allegiance to our present King and Queen undertaken to be prov'd lawful both by the Equity and Letter of our Fundamental Law explain'd by the Practice of the Kingdom pag. 1. CHAP. II. Of Equity or implied Reservations Who judges of the Equity The Lord Clarendon's Judgment of such Cases Cocceius his A short Reference to three late Treatises of great use upon the Question Some Reservations which Bp Sanderson will have implied in all Oaths Grotius his Opinion and his Quotation out of Barclay in relation to the withdrawing the Allegiance which had been due to Kings Even the Author of Jovian of some Service here Mr. Falkner's Christian Loyalty set in a true Light and shewn notwithstanding his being misled by the Canons of J. 1. and of 1640. to be wholly on our side in what relates to our present Enquiry and to joyn with Grotius Barclay Bp Bilson Lessius and Becanus So Bp Bedell tho a Cloud has been endeavoured to be drawn over his Opinion Mr. Lawson's Opinion Bp Bilson's whose Authority is confirm'd by the Objection made to it in the History of Passive Obedience To which is added the Divine Plato pag. 11. CHAP. III. Five Heads of positive Law mention'd Vpon the first Head are produc'd the Confessor's Laws Bracton Fleta and the Mirror shewing the Original Contract with the Consequences of the King 's breaking his part Some Observations upon the Coronation-Oath with the Opinions of Sir Henry Spelman Cujacius and Pufendorf of the Reciprocal Contract between Prince and People The Objection from the pretended Conquest answer'd in short with reference to the second part The Sense of Dr. Hicks and Saravia upon the Coronation-Oath receiv'd with a Limitation from Grotius The Curtana anciently carried before our Kings explaining the Mirror A Passage in Dr. Brady against the Fundamental Contract touch'd upon referring the particular Consideration of him to the second Part. pag. 28. CHAP. IV. The second Head of Positive Law The establish'd Judicature for the Case in question implied if not express'd in the Confessor's Law and asserted in Parliament 12 R. 2. with an account why the Record then insisted on is not now to be found Our Mirror the foreign Speculum Saxonicum Bracton and Fleta explaining the same The Limitation of that Maxim The King can do no Wrong Precedents from Sigibert King of the West Saxons to the Barons Wars in the time of King John confirm'd by occasion of an Objection to the Instances in the Northumbrian Kingdom How far this Monarchy was reputed Hereditary or Elective before the time of W. 1. there touch'd upon Instances of the Peoples Claim of their Rights in the times of W. 1. W. 2. H. 1. King Stephen H. 2. pag. 34. CHAP. V. The Barons Wars in the time of King John That he had abdicated the Government That he had lost all means of being trusted by his People How unwilling they were to engage in a War against him They invite over Lewis the Dauphin of France His Case a Parallel to the late Abdication The Vacancy of the Throne insisted on by the French King's Advocate and that thereupon the Barons had right to chuse another King of the Blood Royal of England as Lewis was Why the Barons fell off from Lewis What the Homilies say concerning their inviting Lewis swearing Allegiance to him and fighting under his Banner against King John considered pag. 41. CHAP. VI. The Barons Wars in the time of H. 3. particularly considered H. 3. Crown'd by a Faction Had no right but from Election as his Father had That no Right could descend to him from his Father Lewis while here as much King as H. 3. Three express Contracts enter'd into by H. 3. besides the Confirmations of the Great Charter Those applied to the Consideration of the Wars Three of them under such as seem like the Roman Tribunes of the People Dr. Falkner's Objections against those Wars answer'd The Answer confirm'd by a full instance in the time of E. 1. pag. 46. CHAP. VII The known Cases of Ed. 2. and R. 2. touched upon The Power of the People manifested in the Wars and Settlements of the Crown occasion'd by the Disputes between H. 6. and E. 4. Why the Instances from those Times to the Abdication
omitted The Objections from the Oath against taking Arms and from the Declaration against a Coercive Power over Kings removed by Sherringham and the Triennial Act 16 Car. 1. Pufendorf's due Restraint of the Power of the People Instances of the like Power in other Nations particularly Denmark Swedeland and Norway when under the same King For France Hottoman Sesellius the Author of Les Soupirs de la France esclave Bodin explain'd and shewn to justify King William in his descent hither and the People of England in their asserting the true Constitution of the Government For the German Empire Bodin and Conringius An occasion taken from him to shew the Antiquity and Power of a Palatine in Germany and England Gunterus used to shew that Office in several Countries Loyseau concerning it in France The Distinction in the Author of Les Soupirs between Officers of the King's House and Officers of the Crown The Antiquity and Authority of the Offices of Constable of England of the High Steward and the Earl Marshal which with the Earl of Chester have been as so many Tribunes of the People pag. 57. CHAP. VIII The Third Head of Positive Law The Kingdom founded in Monarchy yet Elective sub modo The Form of Government not dissolv'd with the Contract between Prince and People The Argument from Election of Kings as it is used by the Author of the Sighs of France enslaved The Crown of England proved Elective sub modo 1. From the Saxon Pontifical and the Council of Calcuth An. 789. 2. From the Practice till the supposed Conquest 3. From the Confessor's Law received by W. 1. and the Expressions of Ancient Historians and Lawyers since the time of W. 1. 4. The Common usage in asking the People's Consent at Coronations 5. The Opinion of Kings themselves 6. The old Oaths of Allegiance 7. The Liberty even after a Settlement of the Crown 8. The Breaches in the Succession 9. The Statute 11 H. 7. Answers to the Objections 1. That the King never dies 2. The supposition of a Testamentary Heir 3. The Declaration temp E. 3. against consenting to the disherison of the King and His Heirs 4. The Claims of Right between two Families 10. A qualified Election of Kings of England confirmed by observing how it has been in other Nations descended from the same common Stock pag. 72. CHAP. IX The Fourth Head of Positive Law A short Recapitulation of what has been prov'd An actual Discharge of Oaths of Allegiance to J. 2. shewn from the Authority of the Judgment past His usurping a Legislative Power leaving the Kingdom without providing for the Administration of Justice and going into France This confirmed by Rastal Lord Hobart Justinian's Digest The Rescript of Theodosius and Valentinian Pufendorf de Officio hominis civis His Elementa Juris prudentiae His Treatise de Jure Gentium Grotius Pufendorf de Inter-regnis Knichen's Opus Pol. Philip Paraeus A particular Consideration of what the Learned Knight Sir R. Pointz says seeming against these Authorities but shewn in truth to confirm them and to bring the Rules of the Civilians to our side That the Crown came not by Right of Descent to the next in Blood after the discharge of the Allegiance to J. 2. The Arguments for the People's being restor'd to the Liberty which they had before the Settlement of the Crown enforc'd from a particular Consideration of the State of the Settlement Where is it shewn how the word Heirs may be look'd on as restrain'd in the first Settlement on Heirs by Gomezius his Rule The Titles of H. 6. E. 4. H. 7. and H. 8. His several Settlements and their Effects in relation to the Queen Mary and Elizabeth and J. 1. The Recognition to J. 1. not extending to his Heirs And question'd Whether the Recognition was not his best if not only Title With a modest Inference pag. 84. CHAP. X. The Fifth Head of Positive Law The effect of the Dissolution of the Contract The use of the Triennial Act 16 Car. 1. against the necessity of common Form The Form and proceedings of the Convention assembled upon the Death of H. 3. The Dilemma used by the Formalists answer'd with a Distinction Pufendorf's Answer to Hobbs Another Passage of his applied to a Passage in a late excellent Treatise against Sir Robert Filmer And to a Letter upon this Juncture Tho what Dr. Brady says against the Rights of Lords and Commons were true yet it is shewn that the Acts of the late Assembly would be conclusive to the Nation Neither forty days Summons nor Writs nor yet Summons to a Parliament Essential And this confirmed not only by the Precedent 12 Car. 2. but by two Precedents of the time of H. 1. The Subjects in the time of E. 1. said to have held a Parliament by themselves and of their own appointing The Objection of want of Form answered out of the Civil Law and its Reasons applied to our Case Objections made by the Author of Elimenta Politica considered The Conclusion pag. 98. APPENDIX Among other things SIR Robert Filmer and some of our Divines plaid against one another in relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Power and Sir Robert against Himself pag. 1. Allegations in behalf of the High and Mighty Princess the Lady Mary now Queen of Scots against the Opinions and Books in the Part and Favour of the Lady Katherine and the rest of the Issues of the French Queen touching the Succession of the Crown Written in the time of Queen Elizabeth Reflections on Bishop Overal's Convocation-Book THE Fundamental Constitution OF THE English Government PROVING KING WILLIAM and QUEEN MARY our Lawful and Rightful King and Queen CHAP. I. The Vniformity tho unprofitableness of Truth The Insufficiency of false Mediums to defend this Government us'd by Men who thereby seek only themselves Quietism in Allegiance advanced by some The Supposition of a Conquest made by his present Majesty or his Succession in the Line no way for his Service That Lawyers are the best Casuists in this matter Mr. Lessey's Protestation when he took the Oath of Allegiance Lord Clarendon's Complaint of Divines busying themselves in Matters of State Mr. Tirrel and the Author of two late Treatises about Government set against Sir Robert Filmer's Authority Dr. Heylin's Opinion of Sir Robert The Judgment of Hooker touch'd upon concerning the Derivation of Power The present Bishop of Worcester's Judgment Cragius his A large Account of the Derivation of Power from the People of Rome to their Emperors brought to explain what our ancient Lawyers mean when they receive the Roman Lex Regia The Sense of Grotius Plato Conringius Pufendorf of the Subject or Seat of Power That all Empires and other Civil Societies must have been founded in Contract A right to design the Person if not to confer the Power admitted in the People by the greatest Asserters of Monarchy The Dispute here chiefly of the Right to design the Person what that is referred to
eum qui judiciorum particeps sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and (d) Hermanni Conringii Exercitationes Acad. de Civibus Imperii p. 3. Ordines Imperii Incolae Conringius his Cives to be too restrain'd the first limiting it to them that have shares in the Judicature and Magistracy the other to the States and Orders of the Empire allowing no others to be more than Inhabitants or Strangers Whereas the Civitas must manifestly reach to that diffus'd Body who are either capable of being part of the Ordines or Great Council or of being represented in it for otherwise the common subject of Power must needs fail as often as there are Intermissions of the States or Great Council And 't is plain that Conringius his Reason why none but the Status vel Ordines Imperii are more than Inhabitants reaches farther Every Civis he says is a Companion of the Civil Society and it is the part of a Companion to give his Suffrage and Judgment of things belonging to the Society This certainly he does virtually who gives his Suffrage in the choice of them who conclude the rest and if this should not make a Citizen there could be no means of exerting any moral or lawful Power in any Society upon the determination of the Authority of those particular Persons who had constituted any dissolv'd Assembly of States unless the sole Power resided entirely and absolutely in the Person or Persons with whom they had lodg'd a Trust for summoning them together that is giving publick notice of the Time and Place for meeting Indeed if none but the Ordines were part of the Civitas Grotius his Distinction between the common 〈◊〉 proper or particular Seat of Power would be very vain wherefore I take his Cives to be the same with Pufendorf's Quorum coitione consensu primò Civitas coaluit aut qui in illorum locum successerunt nempe Patres familiâs Sam. Pufendorf de officio Hominis Civis p. 265. By whose Conjunction and Consent the Civil Society first came together or they who succeeded into their rooms to wit the Masters of Families Indeed if we consider it will appear that never any Empire or other Civil Society was founded but there was an Original Contract or Agreement among the People for the founding of it How was the most absolute Authority of a single Person ever rais'd or maintain'd but by the undisciplin'd Rabble or disciplin'd one of an Army and what could keep them together but a Contract or Promise of Pay or Spoil to the Leaders or Officers who were to be undertakers to the common People or the Souldiers I remember Mr. Hobbs in his History of the Civil Wars of England Hobbs his History of the Civil Wars blames King Charles the First for engaging in a War against the Parliament while at the same time he pretended to justify what he did by Law and to leave all that that assisted him to answer to the Law when he should have encouraged them to have been hearty on his side by hopes of the Spoil of the Nation but whatever may be the Inducements to fight for an Authority lawfully establish'd before surely no People ever submitted to any without a prior Obligation but where they had hopes or expectations of Advantage or Ease the obtaining of which if not made a Condition was ever implied Suppose a Colony of some hundreds of Men among which one is chosen General Head or Leader without any particular or express Contract and his Son suffered to succeed after him Is the Power either of Father or Son antecedent or obligatory before the free Consent of the rest has past Or is it to be imagined that either the Father or his Successor have this People as an Inheritance given them from above to dispose of their Lives and Fortunes without any regard to the Good of All The most sensible of them who utterly deny that any Power can be derived from the People as fighting against their fancied Divine Right of Kingship own that the People have a Right to design the Person Vid. Sacrosanct Regum Majest Potestas designativa personae vel collativa Potestatis tho not to confer the Power only these Men will have it that the extent of the Power of a King is ascertained by God himself which I must needs say I could never yet find prov'd with any colour But to avoid a Dispute needless here since the Question is not so much of the Extent of Power as of the Choice of Persons or Derivation of it Whether any Choice is allowable for us must be determined by the fundamental or subsequent Contract either voluntary or impos'd by Conquest and 't is this which must resolve us whether the Government shall continue Elective or Hereditary to them that stand next in the course of Nature guided to a certain Channel by the common Law of Descents or limited only to the Blood with a Liberty in the People to prefer which they think most convenient all Circumstances considered And if our Constitution warrants the last then we may cut the Gordian Knot and never trouble our selves with Difficulties about a Demise or Cession from the Government or Abdication of it for which way soever the Throne is free from the last Possessor the People will be at Liberty to set up the most deserving of the Family or whom they judg so unless there be subsequent Limitations by a Contract yet in force between Prince and People which being dissolv'd no Agreements take place but such as are or have been made among themselves Vid. infra cap. In which Case whatever ordinary Rule they have set themselves they may alter it upon weighty Considerations And that the People of England have lawfully and rightfully renounc'd their Allegiance sworn to J. 2. and transferr'd it to the most deserving of the Blood notwithstanding any Oaths or Recognitions taken or made by them I shall evince not only from the Equity of the Law and Reservations necessarily implied in their Submission to a King but from the very Letter explain'd by the Practice of the Kingdom both before the reputed Conquest and since CHAP. II. Of Equity or implied Reservations Who judges of the Equity The Lord Clarendon's Judgment of such Cases Cocceius his A short Reference to three late Treatises of great use upon this Question Some Reservations which Bp Sanderson will have implied in all Oaths Grotius his Opinion and Quotations out of Barclay in relation to the withdrawing the Allegiance which had been due to Kings Even the Author of Jovian of some Service here Mr. Falkner's Christian Loyalty set in a true Light and shewn notwithstanding his being misled by the Canons of J. 1. and of 1640. to be wholly on our side in what relates to our present Enquiry and to joyn with Grotius Barclay Bp Bilson Lessius and Becanus So Bp Bedell tho a Cloud has been endeavoured to be drawn over his Opinion
dimittere But if no Act which is ineffectual in Law will justify the withdrawing Allegiance then none of the Instances will hold for to that purpose they are equally ineffectual Yet who doubts but the King doing what in him lies to alien his Kingdom gives pretence for Foreign Usurpations as King John did to the Pope's And whoever goes to restore the Authority of the See of Rome here be it only in Spirituals endeavours to put the Kingdom under another Head than what our Laws establish and to that purpose aliens the Dominion Vid. Bellarm. how the Pope hooks in Temporals in ordine ad Spiritualia Nor can it be any great Question but the aliening any Kingdom or Country part of the Dominion of England will fall under the same Consideration which will bring the Case of Ireland up to this where the Protestants had been disarm'd and the Power which was arm'd for the Protection of the English there Vid. Leges S. Edwardi put into the Hands of the Native Papists nor is it now likely to be restor'd to its Settlement at home or dependance upon England without vast Expence of Blood and Treasure Even the Author of Jovian owns Dr. Hick 's his Jovian p. 280. Ib. p. 192 193. that the King's Law is his most Authoritative Command and he denies that the Roman Emperor had any Right to enslave the whole People by altering the Constitution of the Roman Government from a Civil into a Tyrannical Dominion or from a Government where the People had Liberty and Property into such a Government as the Persian was and the Turkish now is c. No Clergy-man of the last or foregoing Reign having treated of Civil Government with more Temper and Judgment and yet with greater Applause of the warmest Men of his own Gown Falkner 's Christian Loyalty Ed. An. 1679. than the Learned Mr. Falkner of Lyn I shall be the longer in giving an account of his Discourse of Christian Loyalty which will prove an Authority on my side beyond what could be hop'd for considering the time when his Book came out with License and a Dedication to the Archbishop of Canterbury it being when Mr. Johnson by way of Composition against a threatned Suspension was oblig'd to drink his Coffee at home lest he should inlighten his Brethren who fill'd all places of publick Resort with their Pulpit-Law and the Dictates of their Guide Sir Roger. I must own that Mr. Falkner was in some things carried away with that Tide which if any of that Cloth besides Mr. Johnson had the Courage to stemm they had at least the good fortune to be less observ'd but the shewing wherein the Author of Christian Loyalty gave too much way to the Fashion or the Noise may yield farther strength and light to that Truth which will arise out of those very Clouds with which he might think requisite to obscure it His Treatise is in two Parts in the first he vindicates and endeavours to explain the Oath of Supremacy 1. In relation to the Regal Power as it is receiv'd in our Church or at least by Church-men or as it is acknowledged by our Laws 2. As the Oath renounces all Foreign Jurisdiction the last of which falls no otherwise under Consideration here than as it shews the King's Duty to preserve his Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Supremacy and not to alienate either In the second part this Worthy Author considers the publick Declarations against Subjects taking Arms. Page 14. 1. In the first he rightly affirms That the asserting the Supremacy of Government is never design'd meaning I supppose by the Law in any wise to violate either Divine or Christian Institutions or to assert it lawful for any Prince to invade that Authority and Right which is made particular thereby whether in Matters Temporal or Spiritual Where by Christian Institutions Page 3. 't is plain that we are to understand the Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of Christian States or the Laws of others not contrary to Christianity and thus he deservedly blames them who nourish false Conceptions and mistaken Opinions concerning the CIVIL POWER beyond due Bounds exalting it so high as not to reserve that Respect which belongeth to God and Christian Institutions Page 15. and rightly observes that the Supremacy does not exclude the Subject from a real Propriety in his own Estate And that there are some Kingdoms where without any Disparagement to the Supremacy of their Prince Page 11. they are govern'd by the fixed Rules of the Civil Law and others where other Laws established by their Predecessors are standing Rules Page 391. And particularly in relation to the People of this Realm he says in the second Part The English Constitution doth excellently and effectually provide against injurious Oppressions Of which more in its place 1 Canon An. 1640. However I cannot but here observe that even the Canons of 1640. which he receives as speaking the Sense of the Church of England own that the Subject has a Propriety but withal say that Tribute Custom and Aid and all manner of necessary Support and Supply are due to Kings from their Subjects by the Law of God Nature and Nations yet tho it is the Duty of Subjects to supply the King it is part of the Kingly Office to support his Subjects in the Propriety and Freedom of their Estates Still it seems subject to the King's Judgment of necessity which is right Sibthorpism and Manwarinism afterwards eccho'd to by the Courts at Westminster in the Resolution about Shipmoney and of late in that of the Dispensing Power I think in two things what Mr. Falkner writes upon the first Head lies open to Exception 1. That generally by Civil Power Page 356. he seems to mean the Person of the King and that not according to his own Definition of a King which he says doth denote the Royal Person who governs which himself owns to be according to the respective Limitations in those places where they govern many having the Title of a King Page 339. who had not such Royal Power as is allowed by our Constitution but he ascribes to a King generally speaking and particularly to ours such a Soveraignty as carries with it the absolute and arbitrary Exercise of that Civil Power whereby a Nation is govern'd Thus he asserts with St. Austin That Subjests may and ought to obey their Prince's Commands where they are certain Page 302. that what he commands is not against the Command of God And hence he attributes to the Kings of England even more Power than he allows to the Roman Christian Emperors as will soon appear And it appears that this is not only a casual dash with his Pen Page 123. for having before in one place spoken of the business of the Civil Power describ'd by St. Peter Page 131. in another he mentions the Authority with which he supposes Kings and Princes to be
against the Ammonites upon his present hearing the Cause of the Men of Jabish Gilead The Text says The Spirit of God came upon Saul 1 Sam. 11.6 And tho wicked Ahab would have engag'd Jehosaphet the King of Judah who was with him out of his own Country in a War against Syria without consulting the Order of Prophets in Israel 't is of his own shewing that Jehosaphet would not undertake it till the Prophets of Israel were consulted and had encouraged it However Jehosaphet having been King of Judah is not an Instance so directly to the Point But as Mr. Falkner notwithstanding his Mistakes in comparing our Polity to the Jewish shews a Propriety in the Subject Vid. Canon 1. 1640. beyond what they will allow who infer a contrary Right from that manner or way of Kings with which Samuel The Hebrew imports no more than ratio or mos the Chaldee Paraphrase Statutum Regis either would deter the People of Israel from choosing one or at least foretels what they would lose by quitting the Theocracy administred by Persons more immediately commissioned by God himself Mr. Falkner no less fully comes up to the case of putting the Kingdom under any other Head than that which the Law allows and says The Constitutions of this Realm oblige all the Subjects thereof to maintain the the Royalty of the Crown and further that it is a great and special Priviledg of a free-born People that they cannot Falk p. 234. according to the Condition of Slaves have the chief and principal Dominion over them translated from one to another according to the Pleasure of any Person whomsoever though it be their own natural Prince What was in his Judgment the due Consequence of such an Attempt will appear by considering his second part Mr. Falkner's second Part. where he speaks more directly to it and tho it be against the Subjects taking up Arms upon any pretence whatsoever yet it sufficiently justifies the late real Occasion for recourse to them ultimo necessitatis praesidio Vid. Inf. It must be understood that looking upon the Canons of 1640 as the Sense of our Church he thinks himself bound to assert the Divine Right of Kingship Page 419. in a more peculiar manner than any other Form of Government and having duly observ'd that in those States or Relations which are fixed by Divine Institution Page 422. there are some things so necessary and essential that they cannot be separated from them Page 423. he makes Irresistibleness to be one of those Essentials nor could he do less Vid. Stat. 13. Car. 2. cap. 12. which provides that it shall not be thought to extend to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. Page 419. Can. 1. 1640. seeing tho all the Canons of 1640 lie under a Censure of much greater Authority in our Church than that with which they were made he cites the first Canon as the Sense of our Church That the most high and sacred Order of Kings is of Divine Right being the Ordinance of God himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by the express Texts both of the Old and New Testaments upon this ground he might well suppose that the People in chusing a King which he allows often to have been where there hath been a Vacancy and none could claim a Right of Succession whatever Terms or Contract were made at the Choice Page 414. Page 420. stand obliged from the Nature of that Relation they thereby enter into Page 414. and the Laws which God hath established concerning it and not only from their own Intention And if the Rights of Princes or any of them are ascertain'd by God himself Page 423. not by the ancient Constitution of the Government or express Contract then indeed even in Elective Principalities those Divine Rights of Soveraingty as well as such as arise from the Original or more immediate Contract are invested in the Person elected thereto before the Coronation But to qualify this 't is to be consider'd that he contends that the Declaration against taking Arms relates particularly to the King not indefinitely to any King and can bare no other Construction than to condemn the English Subjects taking Arms against their natural Soveraign the King of England Page 338. and therefore tho the like Attempts against any other Kings who enjoy Soveraign Authority are equally blameable in their Subjects yet this Position says he does not assert the utter unlawfulness of taking Arms amongst any other Nations against him who hath the Title of King if he doth not therewith enjoy that Right of Supream Government which our Kings have and exercise So that notwithstanding the Canons of 1640 even in his Judgment the Laws of England must determine this Controversy And elsewhere he grants what shews that the Examples for Passive Obedience which he instances in from the Jews or Primitive Christians will not affect us Page 541. The Agreement saith he between the Condition of those Jews whom he mentions and the Primitive Christians under their Persecutions was so great that if the Laws of Nature would have allowed these Jews to resist it must also have been lawful for the Christians to have done the same which is contrary to their general Profession and universal Practice But then in relation to the Practice he says Page 501. The Result of all these Testimonies is that when the Authority Laws and Rules of Government they liv'd under did oppose the Christian Profession or the Truth and Purity of its Doctrine they thought it their Duty patiently to suffer and not in Opposition to those Laws which were then establish'd to take up Arms against their Governours And coming to Examples of Passive Obedience among the Jews when the Soveraign Power had undertaken to destroy a part of the People he says Forasmuch as the Soveraign Power in Judea Page 535 536 537 538. and many other Eastern Nations and also in the Roman Empire as their Laws declare had such an Authority that the particular Rescripts and Edicts of the Emperors were accounted Law and what they determined was a Legal Decision or Sentence and a judicial way of proceeding From these Considerations he supposes it was not lawful for any of the Persons in the Instances above-mentioned by him tho some of them were unjustly sentenced to have taken Arms in their own Defence But he tells us Page 539. The excellent Constitution of our English Government hath this advantage among others that it gives sufficient Security to the English Subjects that there is no way of judiciary or legal Proceeding by the King himself or any other against the Life or Property of any Person who lives peaceably and orderly but according to the establish'd Laws of the Land and upon a fair Trial of his Case Nor will our Laws allow any such general Sentence which may take in innocent Persons The destroying
Corporations the managing Juries and improving Religious and lawful Civil Assemblies into Riots nay Consults for Treason had not then been brought to Perfection And the Dispensing Power having been attempted but receded from he says The true Religion is established by our Laws Page 542. and no Law can be repealed or altered to the Prejudice of English Subjects by the Pleasure of any Prince alone and without the Consent of the Peers and the Representatives of the Commons of England And indeed the good Man takes a great deal of Pains from the Duty Honour and Interest of the Prince the danger to evil Instruments and the like to prove that it ought not to be presumed that any such Case as we have known will happen which at this time looks like a Philosophical Argument against Motion and deserves the like Confutation However Page 532. looking upon such Violations as but simply possible he maintains that the Declarataion against taking Arms ought to be in general Terms for that such extraordinary Cases as may be put fall not under Consideration Page 361. I may add till they happen for then they must be put and remembred to justify what they have render'd necessary Nay himself restrains the general Terms to a Subject's taking Arms without any Command from his Prince Page 360. against those who act by virtue and in pursuance of his Commission REGVLARLY granted to them Page 346. I will yield to him that it would be an high Reflection upon the Laws of our Realm if there were need of consulting skilful Lawyers for the general Rule of Duty and to whom Men ought to yeild Obedience and Submission Yet if learned Men will confound the plain Rule of Submission to the Powers which are in being by setting up a supposed inseparable Right in a Power which once had a being but is become a meer Shadow and Spectre 't will be requisite to have recourse to them who have taken some pains in enquiring into the Constitution of the Government to see what Remedy is thereby allowed in extraordinary Cases Christian Loyalty p. 521. And whereas speaking of Officers suppos'd by some to have Authority of resisting in such Cases he seems to know of none but by Charter or Commission having their Authority depending upon the King a little Skill in the Law or in Antiquity would have inform'd him of several others at least such as were not so dependent Vid. inf of the Earl Marshall c. Vid. The Act of Pacification between the English and the Scots Temp. Car. 1. which provides that it shall be lawful for the Subjects of either Nation to fall upon the Forces which shall come out of one into the other without the Consent of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms not only hereditary Great Officers and other Great Men of the Kingdom but other Officers chosen by the People the Heretochii or Lords Lieutenants and the Sheriffs anciently and the Officers in Boroughs by Prescription and Constables at this day I will be as ready as he to maintain that for the future such Supposals as he touches with great Fear and Tenderness will be very remote Possibilities and being look'd upon in our Law as vain in the Apprehension are thought not to stand in need of any particular Provision but he mentions three Cases in which upon yeilding the Suppositions Page 531. he grants the Answer given by Barclay to two of them and to all three by Grotius to be true To the general Question May there no Cases fall out in which the People by their Authority may take Arms against the King Page 515. Barclay answers Certainly none as long as he is King or unless ipso jure Rex esse desinat which is pregnant with the Affirmative that there may be some Case wherein he by Law or of Right ceases to be King And Barclay manifestly allows of two Grotius adds a third branch'd into a fourth in which Mr. Falkner concurs with him as well as with Barclay and Grotius in the other two Pag. 525 527. The first particular Case upon which he delivers his own Opinion Voluntary Resignation or Cession or Abdication without referring to Authorities is of a King 's voluntarily relinquishing and laying aside his Crown and Government of this several Examples are mentioned and among the rest nine of our Saxon Kings Page 426. and he rightly observes that if such Persons should act against the settled Government of their respective Kingdoms after they are fixed in the next Heir in an Hereditary Kingdom or in another King according to the Constitution of Elective Principalities the resisting any of them is not the taking Arms against the King but against him who now is a private Person If therefore the late King's Abdication were such a relinquishing as he means Vid. sup f. 13. which it must be if he receive Grotius or if he hold to the other Cases in which as it will appear he yields that he would be devested of Soveraignty in all such Cases every thing is lawful against the late King that would be lawful against any other private Person 2. The second Case agreed by all three and by Bishop Bilson Page 526. is of a Prince ' s undertaking to alienate his Kingdom Alienation of the Kingdom or to give it up to the Hands of another Soveraign Power against the Mind of his Subjects And he thinks Barclay Grotius and Bishop Bilson truly to assert that such an Act of Alienation or of acknowledged Subjection especially if obtained by evil Methods as was done in the Case of King John is null and void and therefore can neither give any Right of Soveraignty to another nor dispossess the King himself thereof But if any such Prince shall actually and forcibly undertake to bring his Subjects under a new Supream Power who have no Right thereto and shall deliver up his Kingdom to be thereby possess'd Grotius saith he doubteth not but he may be resisted in his undertaking but then says Mr. Falkner this Resolution must proceed upon this ground that this Action includeth his devesting himself of his Soveraignty together with his injurious proceeding against those who were his Subjects And Barclay who allows only two Cases in which a Prince may be devested of his Royal Dignity doth account this to be one of them Not to mention the notorious truckling to France and Pupilage under that bribing and imposing Monarch since the Kings of England are Supream in Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Affairs and the late King by Force and open Violation of the Laws against the universal Bent and Mind of his People renounc'd his own Supremacy in yielding to the Pope's and since the People might resist him therein but that which justified their resisting him devested him of his Soveraignty 't is evident that according to Mr. Falkner and the Learned Men whose Authority he receives the late King thereby ceas'd
particular Consideration of him to the second Part. TO proceed to positive Law I shall shew how the Contract between Prince and People stood and hath been taken both before the reputed Conquest and since Where 't will appear 1. That Allegiance might and may in some Cases be withdrawn in the Life-time of one who continued King until the occasion of such withdrawing or Judgment upon it 2. That there was and is an establish'd Judicature for this without need of recurring to that Equity which the People are suppos'd to have reserv'd 3. That there has been no absolute Hereditary Right to the Crown of England from the beginning of the Monarchy but that the People have had a Latitude for setting up whom of the Blood they pleas'd upon the Determination of the Interest of any particular Person except where there has been a Settlement of the Crown in force 4. That they were lately restored to such Latitude 5. The People of England have duly exercis'd their Power in declaring for King William and Queen Mary and recognizing them to be Lawful and Rightful King and Queen 1. If the King not observing his Coronation-Oath in the main lose the Name of King then no Man can say that Allegiance continues But that so it was before the reputed Conquest appears by the Confessors Laws Vid. Leges Sancti Edwardi 17. de Regis Officio Nec nomen Regis in eo constabit where they declare the Duty of the King But the King because he is Vicar to the Supream King is constituted to this end that he should rule his Earthly Kingdom and the People of God and above all should reverence God's Holy Church and defend it from injurious Persons and pluck from it wrong Doers and destroy and wholly ruin them Vid. Bracton l. 2. c. 24. Est enim Corona Regis facere Justitiam Judicium tenere Pacem sine quibus non potest eā tenere which unless he does not so much as the Name of a King will remain in him c. To which Bracton seems to refer when he says The King cannot hold his Crown without maintaining Justice Judgment and Peace that therein consists his Crown or Royal Authority Hoveden shews how this Law was receiv'd by William 1. Hoveden f. 604. Rex atque Vicarius ejus Nota There was occasion for naming the Deputy by reason of the accession of Normandy requiring the King's Absence sometimes The King and his Deputy or Locum tenens in his Absence is constituted to this end c. in substance as above Which unless he does the true Name of King will not remain in him And as the Confessor's Laws have it in which there is some mistake in the Transcriber of Hoveden otherwise agreeing with them Pope John witnesses That he loses the Name of King who does not what belongs to a King which is no Evidence that this Doctrine is deriv'd from the Pope of Rome The Pope only confirms the Constitution or gives his Approbation of it Vid. The Case of Rehoboam inf in the Quotation out of Lord Clarendon f. 32. perhaps that the Clergy of those Times might raise no Cavils from a supposed Divine Right And to shew that this is not only for violating the Rights of the Church the Confessor's Laws inform us that Pipin and Charles his Son not yet Kings but Princes under the French King foolishly wrote to the Pope asking him if the Kings of France ought to remain content with the bare Name of King Lambert Qui vigilanter defendunt regunt Ecclesiam Dei Populum ejus By whom it was answer'd They are to be called Kings who watch over defend and rule God's Church and his People c. Hoveden's Transcriber gives the same in substance but through a miserable mistake in Chronology will have it that the Letter was written by Pipin and his Son to W. 1. Lambart's Version of St. Edward's Laws goes on to Particulars among others That the King is to keep without diminution all the Lands Honours Dignities Rights and Liberties of the Crown Barones Majores Minores Vita Aelfredi f. 62. Ego tria promitto populo Christiano meisque subditis c. That he is to do all things in his Kingdom according to Law and by the Judgment of the Proceres or Barons of the Realm and these things he is to swear before he is crown'd By the Coronation-Oaths before the reputed Conquest and since all agreeing in Substance every King was to promise the People three things 1. That God's Church and all the People in the Kingdom shall enjoy true (a) Nota Protection Peace 2. That he will forbid Rapine and all Injustice in all Orders of Men. 3. That he will promise and command Justice and Mercy in all Judgments And 't is observable that Bracton Bracton lib. 3. c. 9. who wrote in the time of H. 3. transcribes that very formulary or rather Abridgment of the Oath which was taken by the Saxon Kings In Bracton's time 't is certain the Oath was more explicit tho reducible to those Heads and 't is observable that Bracton says The King is created and elected to this end that he should do Justice to all Where he manifestly shews the King's Oath to be his part of a binding Contract it being an Agreement with the People while they had Power to chuse With Bracton agrees Fleta and both inform us Fleta lib. 1. c. 17. that in their days there was no scruple in calling him a Tyrant and no King who oppresses his People violatâ dominatione as one has it or violentâ as the other either the Rule of Government being violated or with a violent Government both of which are of the like import Mirror p. 8. The Mirrour at least puts this Contract out of dispute shewing the very Institution of the Monarchy before a Right was vested in any single Family or Person When forty Princes who had the Supream Power here chose from among them a King to reign over them and govern the People of God and to maintain the holy Christian Faith and to defend their Persons and Goods in quiet by the Rules of Right And at the beginning they caused the King to swear That he will maintain the holy Christian Faith with all his Power and will rule his People justly without regard to any Person and shall be obedient to suffer Right or Justice as well as others his Subjects And what that Right and Justice was in the last result the Confessor's Laws explain when they shew that he may lose the Name of King Vid. Seld. spicil ad Ead. merum f. 171. Dissert ad Flet. f. 591. Hoved. f. 608. Leges H. 1. confirming St. Edward ' s Laws Cum illis emendationibus quibus Pater meus emendavit consilio Baronum suorum Mat. Par. f. 243. Barones petierunt de Rege Johanne quasdam libertates Leges Regis Edwardi f.
divested of his Soveraignty by the Counsel and Consent of all his Subjects (a) Ib. f. 108. Anno 779. Mailros Anno 794. f. 139. S. Dunelm f. 113. Five Years after this their King Ethelred was driven from the Throne and Kingdom for treacherously procuring the Death of three of his Great Men Alwlf Cynwlf and Ecga Within fifteen Years after this the People having without Example called back Ethelred from Exile slew him without any allowable Precedent and set up in his stead Osbald a Nobleman none of the Royal Stock and he not answering their Expectation they depos'd him in twenty eight days Milros f. 141. Anno 806. Ibid. f. 143. Anno 866. degenerem Ibid. 144 872. Twelve Years after they deposed their King Eardulf and remain'd long without chusing any Sixty Years after they depos'd their King Osbrich and chose Ella who still swerv'd from the Ends of Government Six Years after they expell'd their King Egbert For sixty nine Years the Kings and their People agreed without coming to any Extremities F. 148 941. F. 148 947. but then they renounc'd the Allegiance sworn to King Edmond and chose Aulaf King of Norway for their King Aulaf had not reigned six Years when they drove him away and tho they receiv'd him again they soon cast him off again and swore Allegiance to the English King Edred Then they rejected him and chose Egric a Dane with whom their independent Monarchy expir'd and turn'd into the Government of Earls I would not be thought to mention those numerous Examples with the least approbation 't is certain they argue great Levity in rejecting or Folly in chusing But if we are believ'd to receive many Laws and Customs from the Germans from whom we are more remotely deriv'd much more may the English Monarchy be thought to partake of the Customs of the contiguous Kingdoms which compose it and by this frequent Practice the Members of it were sufficiently prepar'd to understand that part of the Compact whereby the Prince was oblig'd to suffer Right as well as his Subjects Vid. Mirror sup Leges S. Edw. and that if he did not answer the End for which he had been chosen he was to lose the Name of King Indeed a very Learned Author Discourse concerning the Vnreasonableness of a new Separation on the account of the Oaths p. 15. in a Treatise for the most part unanswerable seems to set aside all the Precedents within the Kingdom of the Northumbers as if that were of no consequence to any other part of England I shall not says he meddle with the Kingdom of the Northumbers which alone was originally elective as appears by Matthew Westminster The words to which he refers are these Anno Gratiae 548 Regnum Northanhumbrorum exordium sumpsit Math. West f. 101. Cum enim Proceres Anglorum magnis Laboribus continuis patriam illam subjugassent Idam Juvenem nobilissimum sibi unanimiter praefecerunt In the Year of our Lord 548 Anno 548. the Kingdom of the Northumbers began For when the Great Men of England had with much and continual Labour subdued them they chose for King Ida a most Noble Young Man I cannot understand how the shewing the Foundation of one Kingdom in Election is any Argument against the Original Electiveness of others within the same Island Nay primâ facie without more of one side or other it gives ground to believe the others to have had the like Foundation and this Quotation particularly is so far from implying that this was the only Kingdom within the Isle Originally Elective that it supports the Authority of the Mirror which informs us that forty Princes at the beginning of the Monarchy chose one to reign over them Mirror sup for this speaks not of the English as then under one King or more in their respective Divisions but under several Proceres Great Men or Princes and that part of the Island seems to have been the first which chose a King but I know not by what Rule of Logick it can be gathered from this Passage in Matthew Westminster that other Kingdoms which chose their King afterwards were not equally Elective in their Foundation tho not so ancient or the time of the Commencement not so easily to be shewen Vid. inf Vid. Falkner p. 329. This called a Synod of all England 827.548.279 Malmsbury f. 13. Certain it is that the Council of Calcuth in the Year 789 which provides for the Election of Kings was Conventus Pananglicus and if it took not in the Northumbrian Kingdom as having been disjoin'd from the rest till the Reign of Egbert An. 827 being 279 Years it is to be presum'd that all England besides was included Nay this very Author produces Authorities which prove other Kingdoms here though their beginning is not so well known to have been as truly Elective as this which he waves 1. He shews Page 14. that Beornred being set aside by a Convention of the Nobility and People of the Kingdom of Mercia Offa was chosen King who was of the Royal Stem but not the next Heir And so says he William of Malmsbury observes in the West Saxon Kingdom after Ina that no Lineal Succession was then observ'd but still some of the Royal Line sat in the Throne and of Ina himself that he was rather put into the Throne for his Vertue than by Right of Succession Discourse sup p. 15. 2. He argues that if by the Fundamental Constitution Allegiance were indispensably due to the next rightful Heir in this Monarchy Athelstan whom he shews not to have stood next in the ordinary course of Descent would not have been chosen Magno Consensu Optimatum and gives several other Instances wherein he observes that Reason of State Page 17. and the publick Interest still over-ruled this matter 3. He shews that Reason of State and the Publick Interest over-ruled not only for Elections when the Throne was free from a Possessor but even for the removing Kings in Possession P. 13. An. 454. Vid. sup Anno. 756. P. 14. An. 758. An. 854 867. P. 16. An. 957. For which he cites the Cases of Vortigern under the British Government Sigebert King of the West Saxons Beornred of Mercia above-mentioned Aetheluph King of the West Saxons and the eldest Son of Edmund who was set aside because in Commisso regimine insipienter egit He acted foolishly in the Government committed to him After all he contends that ours is not only a true Original Monarchy but Hereditary where the Right of Succession and publick Good did not interfere and thus much I readily grant him but in restraining this to Cases where there was not a natural or moral Incapacity he plainly confines Reason of State and the Publick Good to narrower Limits than before he allowed for if these were to over-rule Page 17. as he before observ'd then the Question upon Competitions for the Crown between Persons of the Royal
Family was barely which of the Competitors all Circumstances being considered was most likely to advance the Publick Interest of which the People were to be Judges whereas according to his Limitation they were bound to take the Person who was next in the Line if he lay not under a natural or moral Incapacity directly contrary to what he shews out of Malmsbury of the West Saxon Kingdom in which after Ina no Lineal Succession was observed When Athelstan Page 15. of his own shewing was chosen King were his Brothers Edward and Edwin under any natural or moral Incapacity Or were the Sons of Edmond Iron-side either way uncapable when Edward the Confessor was elected For Confirmation of what himself produces upon this Head I take leave to add one Authority from the Writer of the Life of King Alfred Vita Aelfredi lib. 1. f. 19. Many Examples says he are found among the Saxon Kings of a Brother's succeeding to the Brother before his Son especially if the Son had any Impediment from the Infirmity of his Age or other Ineptitude for governing Nay OFTEN BY REASON OF LESS MERIT I must admit that for the deposing one actually invested with the Regal Authority the Author's Limitations were to be observ'd tho they were not strictly kept to and I cannot but think that this Author confounds himself for want of this Distinction Either the frequent Examples of setting Kings aside whom the Nation judg'd uncapable of the Government through some natural or moral Defect or Excess or rather the continual Engagements in war with Foreigners had such Effect that from the time of King Edwin Nephew to the English Monarch Edred who was driven out of the Kingdom Anno 957 to the time of W. 1. being 109 Years I find no like Instance but one Anno 1014 52 Years before the suppos'd Conquest which was the case of Etheldred who abdicated the Government and went into Normandy from whence the Nation agreed to receive him again upon Condition si vel rectiùs gubernaret Flor. Wigorn. An. 1014. vel mitiùs eos tractare vellet if he would either govern more according to Law or treat them more mildly Upon which he promiss'd omnia Rege Populo digna All things which become a King to his People For the most part during the Saxon Government a King was but a more splendid General nor could he hope to maintain his Dignity but by hardy Actions and tender Usage of his People Even Will. 1. notwithstanding the Pretence made in after-Ages of his having broken the English Spirit Vid. second Part. was not only oblig'd to keep within Bounds as the following Discourse will evince but to renew his Compact with the People more than once Their extraordinary Power had slept very few Years after the Death of this reputed Conqueror Ed. Lond. Mat. Par. f. 19. Rex Willielmus videns omnes pene regni proceres una rabie conspiratos Anglos fortitudine probitate insignes faciles Leges tributorum lenamen liberasque illis venationem promittendo sibi primo devinxit for the Sickness of his Son W. 2. giving the English Nobility an opportunity of consulting together they almost as one Man were for declaring against him which he timely prevented by fair Promises to them Nay tho his Brother H. 1. came in with the universal Applause of the Nation yet a great part of his Navy deserted him and declar'd for his Brother Robert not because he was the elder Brother but because Henry was unmindful of that Contract which gain'd him the Preference Quia Rex jam tyrannazaverit as the Historian has it because the King prov'd a Tyrant King Stephen his immediate Successor after Allegiance sworn to him had it a while withdrawn for Maud the Empress Daughter to H. 1. but the People soon return'd to it again rejecting her who was nighest in Blood because she deny'd them the benefit of St. Edward's Laws And Discourse p. 21. as the Author of the learned Discourse about the New Separation observes out of Manuscript written by Fortescue Chancellor to H. 6. Maud was set aside and the Reversion of the Crown entail'd on her Son altho she was living and this was done in Parliament Communi Consensu Procerum Communitatis Regni Angliae By the common Consent of the Peers and Commons of England for which Fortescue whose Skill and Integrity no Man can justly question appeals not only to the Cronicles but to the Proceedings of Parliament However this Author will have it that the Commons were not there but as represented by the Barons being misled by the general Expressions of the Historians whose Authority he opposes to the Rolls of Parliament Yet for the purpose here it is enough that this was done by a Parliament of that Time that the Agreement then made was confirm'd by the Oaths of the Great Men and that the Publick Good which was the Foundation of the Agreement was thought to be the measure of the Obligation of such Oaths Hen. 2. came to the Crown by virtue of an Agreement with King Stephen to which the Nation consented for ought appears he was a strict Observer of the Constitution of the Government but being render'd uneasy by the Refractoriness of the Clergy and desirous that his Son should enjoy that Kingdom which he found a desirable Possession to them who would keep the Laws he took his Son into a Partnership of the Care and Dignity this occasion'd a Competition for Power which the Admirers of the traiterous St. Becket improv'd into a War which divided the People Archbishop Parker's Antiquitates Britanicae f. 130. salvâ fide Regi patri quamdiu viveret ac regno praeesse vellet but this being between two Kings both in Possession I should not look on as any Precedent to our Point did I not find that the Allegiance sworn to the Son at the receiving him to the Succession was with a Salvo for that which was due to his Father as long as he should live or think fit to reign CHAP. V. The Barons Wars in the time of King John That he had abdicated the Government That he had lost all means of being trusted by his People How unwilling they were to engage in a War against him They invite over Lewis the Dauphin of France His Case a Parallel to the late Abdication The Vacancy of the Throne insisted on by the French King's Advocate and that thereupon the Barons had right to chuse another King of the Blood Royal of England as Lewis was Why the Barons fell off from Lewis What the Homilies say concerning their inviting Lewis swearing Allegiance to him and fighting under his Banner against King John considered THE Power lodg'd in the People for the publick Good to be sure was rous'd and justified by the Tyrannical Reign of King John who tho he had effectually abdicated or unking'd himself by his giving up his Crown as much as in him
lay to hold in Vassallage of the Pope as well as by other his Exorbitances yet was not set aside till the Nation was necessitated to it by the Success of his Usurpations and Ravages to which as he was encouraged and enabled by the Influence of the Pope's Authority over the less honest or less discerning so he thereby lost all means of gaining Trust from his People for the future The Earls and Barons of England having without any Writ from the King given one another notice of meeting demonstrated that they engag'd not out of any Affectation of Change but meerly to secure those Liberties which were their due by the Constitution for they agreed to wage War Mat. Pa. f. 339. and renounce Allegiance to him only in case that he would not confirm those Liberties which were contain'd in the Laws of Hen. 1. and the ancient Laws of King Edward the Confessor That they might proceed with such Deliberation as became them they appointed another Meeting for a peremptory Demand declaring that if he then refus'd them they would compel him to Satisfaction by seizing his Castles nor were they worse than their words and their Resolutions had for a while their desir'd Effect in obtaining a Confirmation of their Liberties which tho they were as forceable in Law before and his Promise to maintain them as little to be credited as ever yet his open Violation of them after his own solemn acknowledging them and granting that Petition of Right was likely to cast the greater Load upon him and his Courtiers when they should act to the contrary and to take from their side numbers of well-meaning Men who otherwise might be cheated with a pretence of Prerogative The Pope as was to be expected soon absolv'd the King and encourag'd him to break those legal Fetters which was ipso facto an Absolution to the People of more effect in Conscience than the Pope's ipso facto Excommunications They being thus discharged the wiser and sounder part of them stoutly casting off the Authority both of King and Pope proceeded to the Election of another King Lewis the Dauphin of France Mat. Par. lib. Addit An. 1216. The Account in Matthew Paris of a Debate which the French King and his Advocate or Attourny-General held with the Pope's Nuncio who would have disswaded the Dauphin's Expedition against King John the Pope's sworn Vassal is so exactly parallel to the Case now in question that many who will allow us no Precedent of ancient Times will be ready to say that some words at least were foisted in since our present happy Settlement The French King as became a Monarch spake his mind in few words Si aliquando fuit verus Rex postea Regnum forisfecit per mortem Arthuri de quo facto damnatus fuit in Curiâ nostrâ Item nullus Rex vel Princeps potest dare regnum suum sine assensu Baronum suorum qui regnum illud tenentur defendere If ever he were King he afterwards forfeited his Kingdom by killing Arthur of which Fact he was condemned in our Court. Besides no King or Prince can give his Kingdom without the Assent of his Barons who are bound to defend it That is to preserve the Kingdom against the King who has parted with it or any Demisee as appears by his Advocate 's Enlargement to whom he left the rest after himself had granted all Kingly Power to have this implied Limitation Mat. Par. Addit f. 281. The Advocate goes on addressing himself to the King Domine Rex Res notissima c. May it please your Majesty It is a thing well known to all that John called King of England was condemned to death in your Court for his Treachery to his Nephew Arthur whom he slew with his own Hands And was afterwards by the Barons of England for his many Homicides and other Enormities there committed rejected from reigning over them Whereupon the Barons waged War against him Ne regnaret super eos reprobatus ut ipsum solio regni immutabiliter depellerent that they might drive him from the Throne of the Kingdom never to return Moreover the said King without the Assent of his great Men gave his Kingdom to the Pope and the Church of Rome to receive it again to be held under the yearly Tribute of a thousand Marks Dare non potuit potuit tamen dimittere eam And altho he could not give the Crown of England to any one without his Barons he might demise it or devest himself of it which as soon as he resign'd he ceased to be King and the Kingdom was vacant without a King Therefore the vacant Kingdom ought not to have been administred without the Lords What difference between the Kingdoms being vacant without a King and the Throne vacant Vacans itaque Regnum sine Baronibus ordinari non debuit unde Barones elegerunt Dominum Ludovicum ratione Uxoris suae c. By reason of which the Barons chose Lord Lewis upon the account of his Wife whose Mother the Queen of Castile was the only Survivor of all the King of England's Brothers and Sisters This was so true and so convincing that the most plausible Return which the Pope's Nuncio could make to it was that King John had been sign'd with the Cross for the Service of the Holy Land and that therefore by the Constitution of a General Council he ought to have Peace and be under the Pope's Protection for four Years And you may be sure that the French King would not interrupt him in his Journey thither but was well satisfied that his Son should supply his place in England Who tho he had been received not only as one that rescued the Nation from King John's enormous Tyranny but as one that was in the Right of his Wife entitled to the Priviledg of the English Blood Royal and so duly chosen according to the standing Law of this Monarchy as has been mentioned and will hereafter more fully appear Vid. sup inf Yet the Clergy and all who were so weak as to be led by them in Civil Affairs being against Lewis Mat. Par. f. 384. as he stood excommunicated by the Pope besides it having been made known by the Death-bed-Declaration of one of Lewis his Confidents that his Master had evil Designs against those very Men who were the chief Instruments in his Advancement and that he look'd upon them who fought for him as Traitors he through the uncertainty and indifference of his Friends more than the strength of his Enemies was oblig'd to quit the Kingdom to Hen. 3. Object This would lead me to the particular Consideration of the Barons Wars with H. 3. were it not needful first to remove an Objection against their Proceedings with his Father which tho not founded on the Histories of the same Age may seem to have weight from the Authority of Divines of later times The Homilies pass this Censure upon
them Had English Men at that time known their Duty to their Prince Homilies the sixth Sermon against wilful Rebellion last Ed. 383. set forth in God's holy Word would English Subjects have sent for and receiv'd the Dauphin of France with a great Army of French-Men into the Realm of England would they have sworn Fidelity to the Dauphin of France breaking their Oath of Fidelity to their natural Lord the King of England and have stood under the Dauphin's Banner display'd against the King of England To which I answer 1. That our Church pretends not to Infallibility nor will it be any Imputation upon it to have err'd in relation to Fact or the Constitution of the Government without regard to which it is not to be suppos'd that the Fathers of our Church would apply the Duty of Subjects set forth in God's Word Pseudomartyr Chap. 6. p. 172. And I doubt not but Dr. Donne Dean of St. Paul's in the time of C. 1. very well understood the Scriptures and our Homilies and yet he tells us that some ancient Greek States are call'd Laconica because they were shortned and limited to certain Laws And some States in our time seem to have conditional and provisional Princes between whom and Subjects there are mutual and reciprocal Obligations which if one side break they fall on the other This he supposes to be where-ever there is not a Pambasilia in the hands of one Man that is as he explains it that Soveraignty which is a Power available to the main ends One of the main ends of Government must needs be making Laws and levying Taxes if that be not vested in any single Person he has not the Pambasilia and if he have not the Pambasilia according to him he is but a conditional or provisional Prince and if he be a conditional Prince the Obligations between him and his Subjects are mutual and reciprocal and the Subjects may take the advantage of a failure on the Prince's side History p. 40. This being taken from an Authority cited in the History of Passive Obedience since the Reformation shews what Limitations may be put upon those Passages in the Homilies which seem like the late King's Declaration to Scotland to require Obedience without reserve Vid. sup c. 2. Mr. Falkner as appears above had carried the Point as high as the Homilies have done and yet he admits that if those extraordinary Cases happen which as he contends ought not to be suppos'd in such Cases Subjects may resist notwithstanding Oaths for Passive Obedience without any such Exception in the words 2. Whatever Obligation may be upon the Clergy from their Assent and Consent none is given by the Laity and they may do all that is requisite to make them true Members of the Church of England without being concluded by the Opinion of Church-men about Civil Government 3. Even Clergy-men look upon the very Articles but as Articles of Peace that they may not disturb the Government by publick maintaining what is contrary to them but surely cannot think that they are oblig'd to disturb the Government for the sake of any matter meerly as it is contain'd in the Articles or Homilies 4. The Doctrinal matter contain'd in the Homily That a natural Lord is not to be resisted may be true and yet this may not in the least condemn resisting an unnatural Tyrant And the Application of their Doctrine to the Case of inviting and joyning with Lewis may have been grounded upon a false State of the fact as if King John had done nothing whereby he truely ceased to be King And that they went upon a false state of the Fact is the rather to be believed because Archbishop Parker Antiquitates Brit. f. 148. by whom we may well gather the sense of these Fathers tho' he admits King John to have been an ill Man and to have joyn'd with the King of France against his Natural Lord and King R. 1. yet will have it that he was justifiable in his Actions against his Rebellious Subjects and excuses his very Abdication in resigning his Crown to the Pope as an act of mere necessity being compell'd to it by the Artifice and Turbulency of the Clergy Ib. f. 131. Eodem annno Alexander Papa Turonense Concilium celebravit cui Arch. Prelati Angliae Regis permissione licentiâ interfuerunt ac à dexâ—ris Papae Thomas cum suis suffraganeis a sinistris verò Ebor. Arch. cum solo Dunelm Episcopo sederunt ibi Capto de Ecclesiasticâ quadam super regiam libertate pertinaciter retinendâ concilio A Papâ ocyus dimissi in Angliam reversi sunt Post hoc Turonense concilium cum omnibus pene in rebus Clerus se a populo disjunxisset cepit in Angliâ de Regni atque sacerdotii authoritate atque vi multo varioque sermone disceptari factaque perturbatio gravis de prerogativâ atque privilegiis ordinis Clericalis which he observes to have carried on a separate Interest divided from the Nation ever since the Council of Tours in the year 1163. But Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury in King John's time is to be presum'd better acquainted with the Justice of the Arms on either side than Archbishop Parker or the Composers of the Homilies upon that King 's gathering Forces against his Barons the Archbishop tells him that he would break the Oath that he took at his Absolution si absque judicio Curiae suae contra quempiam bella moveret Mat. Par. f. 137. if he wag'd War against any body without the judgment of his Court referring it seems to that part of his Oath wherein he Swore That He would judge all his Men according to the just judgment of his Court Nay farther yet Mat. Par. f. 268. King John had brought over Forces against his Barons from Poictou Gascony and Flanders before they had recourse to any Foreigners 5. The Case of Swearing Allegiance to Lewis cannot be brought as a parallel to Swearing Allegiance to our present King and Queen because Lewis was never receiv'd by the whole Collective or Representative Body of the Nation the last of which has receiv'd and declar'd for King William and Queen Mary upon a solemn Judgment given by them the proper Judges of the Fact That the late King had broken the Original Contract and thereby ceased to be King CHAP. VI. The Barons Wars in the time of H. 3. particularly considered H. 3. Crown'd by a Faction Had no right but from Election as his Father had That no right could descend to him from his Father Lewis while here as much King as H. 3. Three express Contracts enter'd into by H. 3. besides the Confirmations of the Great Charter Those applied to the consideration of the Wars Three of them under such as seem like the Roman Tribunes of the People Dr. Falkner's Objection against those Wars answer'd The Answer confirm'd by a full instance in the time of E. 1.
meintenir les establisments que sunt fet ou sunt a fere par la dit Conseil declaring That all things provided or to be provided by the King's Council and the greater part of them who were chosen by the King and the Community of his Realm should be held firm and established and requiring all men to swear to hold and maintain the Establishments made or to be made by the said Council Vid. Flet. Habet Rex Consilium suum in Parliamentis c. But upon farther consideration I find that Council was the King's Council in Parliament and those Knights who were the Inquisitors for the Counties were not only oblig'd to come to deliver in their Inquisitions but their Consent was requisite to what the King should ordain by his Council in Parliament which then were a select number chosen as abovesaid Claus 42. H. 3. m. 1. dorso Quia Robertus Cambhen socii sui de Comitatu Northumb. de precepto Regis venerunt ad Regem apud West c. pro quibusdam negotiis Communitatem totius Communitatis praed tangentibus Mandatum est Quod prefatis quatuor militibus de Communitate praed rationabiles expensas suas in eundo redeundo habere faciat In another of the same time to Huntingtonshire they are said to have appeared coram Consilio nostro apud Westm in Parliamento Vide of this at large in the 2 d part since as it should seem all the Lords Certain it is there are Writs upon Record for the Expences of those Four Knights for every County as since there have been for Two The observing of the above-mentioned Contracts will give light to that Judgment which may by us at this distance be past upon the Wars between H. 3. and his Barons and not to mention any small disturbances and the Violations of the Rights of particular men and what they did in defence of them I find H. 3. four times opposed by the People in Arms in Three Wars and a Fourth rising which wanted only Numbers on the King's side to make it a War all manag'd under Heads formally chosen or seeming to have claim to the Conduct by virtue of their Offices 1. The first was under Lewis the Dauphin of France whom the Barons at London had chosen for King in this there was one King against another both standing in truth upon the same title the choice of the People Lewis had the greater part of the Chief Nobility on his side how much soever the Pope's Thunder might have frightned the more ignorant Vulgar and prevailed upon their interested Guides 2. The Second was under the Conduct of the Earl of Chester named first as 't is to be suppos'd for the reason before shewn The occasion of the Insurrection began Ao 1223. 7o. of that King when he being Seventeen years old obtain'd a Bull from the Pope declaring him of full Age and enabling him to order the Affairs of the Kingdom chiefly by the Counsel of his Domesticks that is such as he should chuse turning out those Officers which either had Hereditary Rights or had been chosen in Parliament according to what was insisted on at his Coronation 20o. as matter of Right wherefore his assuming all the Power into his own hands and countenancing the Exorbitances of Hubert de Burgh Mat. Par. Addit Chief Justice of England who indeed as appears upon his Defence afterwards when he came to be impeach'd had been chosen in one of King John's Parliaments but was continued in by H. 3. against the sense of his own Parliament sowed the Seeds of Discontent tho they did not break out into a general Rising but all seem'd to be quieted by his Confirming the Great Charter Ao. 1224. Yet soon after when he was in truth of full Age he was resolv'd to act as one out of Wardship 11 H. 3. and in a Parliament at Oxford declared himself free and by the advice of Hubert de Burgh cancell'd the Great Charter of the Liberties of the Forest as of no validity because granted in his minority and forc'd many who had Ancient Grants of Liberties to purchase them a-new at such Rates as the Chief Justice impos'd Besides Hubert had advis'd the King to act Arbitrarily with his own Brother Richard Duke of Cornwal which drove him to shelter himself under the Publick-Cause and glad were the Great Men to find his resentment contribute to such a general demand of Justice Mat. Par. as forc'd the King to compliance in a Parliament at Northampton 3. But by the Seventeenth of H. 3. Peter Bishop of Winchester An. 1233. Mat. Par. f. 413. Adhuc sub custodiam Petri Winton who had succeeded to William Earl Marshal in the custody of the King during his minority having been supplanted by Hubert the Chief Justice at last put the Dice upon the less subtile Layman and resolving not to fall again for want of flattering his Prince advis'd him in order to become Absolute to remove his Natural Subjects from the Great Offices and put Foreigners in their Places who were brought over in great numbers and oppressed and plunder'd the Nobility upon false accusations and pretences seiz'd their Castles and enjoy'd the Wardships of their Children This occasion'd a general insurrection under Richard Earl Marshal who as a Roman Tribune of the people went to the King and in their name demanded a redress of Grievances but the Bishop of Winchester having given an haughty answer justifying the King's calling over what Strangers he thought fit to reduce his Proud and Rebellious Subjects as he call'd them to due obedience The Marshal and the rest of the Great Men who were Witnesses to that insolence Swore to stand by one another to the last extremity in the Cause of their Country But the Earl of Chester another Tribune here sold his Country for a Sum of Money The Marshal finding himself deserted was obliged to have recourse to Leolin Prince of Wales for aid Upon this the King Proclaim'd him Traytor 9º Octob. Ao. 1233. But in a Parliament held at Westminster at the latter end of that year tho' the Earl Marshal was absent and in Arms the Parliament advis'd the King not to Banish Spoil or Destroy his Subjects without Legal Process nor to call them Traytors who endeavour'd the Peace of the Kingdom Mat. Par. last Ed. f. 388. and by whose Counsels the Government ought to be managed Which was a full justification of the Arms taken by the Marshal Nay the Bishops proceeded so far as to Excommunicate the Bishop of Winchester and others the King's Ministers and to lay upon them the imputation of disturbing the Peace of the Kingdom The Marshal carried all before him with universal applause The Bp. of Winchester and his Accomplices were punished in a Parliament held at Candlemas The King having sent to treat of Peace with the Marshal and Prince Leolin the evil Counsellors which were the Marshals chief
away all the evil Counsellors which the King perceiving again betook himself to the Tower But an agreement being made with some of the Barons by the Queens mediation the King having left the Tower in the Custody of one in whom he confided went a progress and found his Barons very quiet and peaceable but he soon discover'd that he was resolv'd to act without regard to the Provisions at Oxford Violently seiz'd several Castles and coming to Winchester displaced the Chief Justice and Chancellor which had been constituted by the Baronage F. 1335. the Barons met him at Winchester with a considerable Force upon which the King hastens again to the Tower of London The Barons one would have thought were now in a fair way of securing the performance of the last Contract made at Oxford but now the Clergy had their Game to play and acted it like Men who knew how to manage the Nation against its interest they keeping a correspondence with the Clergy of France were Authors of advice to the Barons That all things in difference should be referred to the Determination of the French King no doubt making the Barons believe that they had assurance of that King 's good Wishes for the Prosperity of England Both the King and Barons agreed upon the reference upon which as was to be expected the French King gave Sentence for the King against the Barons and for annulling the Statutes at Oxford with all Provisions Ordinances and Obligations thereunto belonging With this Exception that he intended not by that Sentence in the least to derogate from the Ancient Charter of King John granted to the Kingdom of England Qui habebant sensus exercitatos Which Exception says the Historian oblig'd the Earl of Leicester and others of sound Judgments to resolve firmly to keep the Statutes of Oxford which were founded upon that Charter And Matthew Paris condemns those as guilty of Perjury who upon this A fidelitate Comitis Leicestriae receded from their Faith to the Earl of Leicester who fought for Justice He grew so strong and so successful that the King came again to Terms with him and with the other Barons the Terms were these Mat. Par. f. 1327. That Henry his Brothers Son should be deliver'd out of Prison That all the Kings Castles throughout England should be put into the Custody of the Barons That the Provisions of Oxford should be inviolably observed That all Foreigners shall depart the Kingdom within a certain time excepting only them whose stay should be permitted by unanimous Consent as being faithful to the Kingdom Mat. Par. But notwithstanding all Pacts Promises and Oaths the King sends to have Windsor-Castle besieg'd but was disappointed by the Earl of Leicester After this a Parliament met at London in which several deserted the Earl and adher'd to the King so that he seem'd the strongest The Barons writ him a Submissive Letter declaring That they had no evil Intentions against his Person but complain of his Counsellors The King in his Answer justifies his Counsellors and says their Enemies are his The Barons on the King's side send a defiance to the others and particularly to the Earl of Liecester and to Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester and Hereford undertaking to prove them Traytors in the King's Court. Which Tryal the Barons thought they then had Reason to decline but the Barons offer the King 30000 l. for his Damage sustained by the War 1329. provided the Statute of Oxford may be observed but their Proposals not being accepted they came to a pitch'd Battel at Lewis wherein the King was totally routed and taken Prisoner and his Son Edward soon after yielded himself Upon which followed a form of Peace solemnly sworn to while the King and his Son were in Prison Pat. 48. H. 3. m. 6. dors but the Son making his Escape took the Advantage of a Difference between the Earls of Leicester and Glocester Vide Cave de Scriptoribus Eccles f. 716. His Character of that Bp. who animated the Barons Vir erat ut pietatem vitae Sanctimoniam reliquasque virtutes Christiano Praesule dignas praetermittam ingentis animi acris ingenii in re literariâ quantum ea ferebant tempora ad summum pen̄e apicem evectus totum encyclopediae circulum emensus in literis sacris pariter prophanis c. and over-powering Montfort gained an entire Victory at Evesham by the Death of that Earl who as Matthew Paris's Continuator tells us laid out himself for the Relief of the Poor the Assertion of Justice and the Right of the Kingdom and was incited to it by the Famous Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln who always affirmed that they who died in that Cause would be Martyrs The King being victorious no wonder that a Parliament called immediately upon it at Winchester condemned the Conquered for Rebels but it is evident that more Parliaments justified such as then were Rebels for being beaten Falkner's Christian Loyalty p. 349. and methinks Mr. Falkner does not argue with his usual fairness when he urges the unfortunate conclusion of the Barons Wars in the later end of H. 3. as sufficient evidence that if we look into the Records of the former ages we may thence discern that no Subjects whatsoever of this Realm had under any pretence an authority to bear arms against the King The Dictum de Kenelworth 51 H. 3. mentioned by him as an evidence of the sense of another Parliament besides that of Winchester is plainly an abatement of the rigours of that Parliament and was only a determination and award made after Simon Montfort the younger Vid. Brady's Hist f. 655. had submitted to any terms that should be imposed saving his Life and Limbs and excepting perpetual Imprisonment Mr. Falkner adds Anno 52. P. 351. The Statute of Marlbridge mentions it as a great and heavy mischief and evil that in the time of the late Troubles in England many Peers and others refused to receive Justice from the King and his Court as they ought to have done which is more expresly contained in the Original Latin than in the common English Translation Justitiam indignati fuerint recipere per dominum Regem curiam suam prout debuerunt consueverunt and did undertake to vindicate their own Causes of themselves P. 352. Now to declare that all Peers and all other Persons ought to have received Justice only from the King and his Courts and not to revenge themselves or be Judges in their own cases doth more especially condemn the entring into War its self which is an Undertaking founded upon a direct contrary Proceeding And thus we have a sufficient Censure in our English Laws upon that War against the King which those who have pleaded for the Lawfulness of Subjects taking Arms do account the most plausible Instance for their purpose as our Chronicles can furnish them with Answer But to any who consider
that Statute 't will appear beyond contradiction 1. That the rule of submitting to the judgment of the King's Court will be of no service to Mr. Falkner's purpose the Court which is presum'd to be intended if it relates to the Controversies between the King and his Barons being the Parliament where they would be Judges in their own cases which Mr. Falkner says they ought not to be 2. The Statute of Marlborough does not in the least condemn the Barons Wars For 1. The Subject of that Act is to remedy the abuses of Distresses which are matters within the Jurisdiction of the ordinary Courts of Justice and no way extends to the great questions of the Kingdom determinable only in the highest Court 2. The Statute does not call those Wars a time of Rebellion Vid. Stat. Marlb Fleta p. 25. but of Dissention and Troubles suitably to which even in the time of E. 1. among the Articles of the Crown in charge to the Justices in their Circuits one provides for enquiry after them who have substracted Suits of Shires c. after the War moved between King Henry the Third and his Barons Mat. Par. f. 373. 3. Tho the Barons once threatned H. 3. That unless he would send away the Foreigners they would all by the Common-Council of the whole Realm drive Him and his wicked Councellors out of the Kingdom and would consider of making a new King yet it appears by the Circumstances and Events of the several Insurrections that their design was only to bring him to reason they still were for continuing him King and therefore it might not be improper for the Parliament at Marlborough to hold That for all matters of private differences even while Armies were in the Field the Course of ordinary Justice was to go on and that it was not to be look'd on as a state of War This may be enough to remove the Objections made by Mr. Falkner against the Barons Wars in the time of H. 3. which he supposes to be the most plausible Instance brought by them against whom he writes and I take it that the Reign even of E. 1. one of the most warlike of our Kings affords an Instance no less plausible Ao. 1297. Knighton f. 2510. Libratas In the twenty-first year of his Reign he summoned all who had twenty Pounds a Year â—… Land of whomsoever they held to attend him at London with Horse and Arms in order to go with him to Flanders When they met at London he was advised to be reconciled to some of the Great Men with whom he had been at variance He complied with the Advice excusing himself for former Exactions and desiring their farther Assistance since what he was engaged in was not his own private concern Mat. West f. 430. but the concern of the whole People as he was their Protector and Defender And he intreated them to pray for him which the Historian says very few did heartily But Humphrey Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex High-Constable of England and Roger Bygot Earl Marshal withdrew from the King whereupon he discharged them of their Offices and gave them to others Yet the King found himself obliged to send some Persons to mediate between Him and Them To whom they declared That it was not their own Cause alone but the Cause of the whole Community which they undertook Knighton f. 2511. For not only They but the whole Community of the Land was agrieved with unjust Vexations Tallages and Levies and chiefly That they were not treated according to the Liberties in Magna Charta Wherefore they drew up a Remonstrance of their Grievances which if the King would command to be redressed they were ready to follow him to the Death Knighton f. 2512. The King gave a dilatory Answer excusing himself through the absence of some of his Council and having desired them not to do any thing to the prejudice of Him or his Kingdom passed the Seas notwithstanding the dissatisfaction that he left behind concluding 't is likely That that Success which commonly attended him in his Wars would gain him a more absolute ascendant over his People The King being gone the Constable and Marshal with their Adherents forbad the Chancellor and Barons of the Exchequer to issue out Process for levying the eighth Peny which had been granted the King in Parliament and which yet they said was granted without their Consent either as they had not due Summons or were upon just Cause absent They continuing together in Arms the King's Son who had been constituted Vicegerent found a necessity of giving them satisfaction To which end he calls a Parliament Knighton f. 2523. where through the mediation of the Arch-bishop whom Knighton blesses for it it was agreed That the King should confirm Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forrest That for the future Magnates he should not ask or take any Aid of the Clergy or People without the good will and assent of the Great Men. And that he should remit all Rancor to them and their Adherents In the Charter or Act of Parliament which then passed there are these Words Remisimus Humfredo de Bown Comiti Herfordiae Esekes Constabulario Angliae Rogero Bygot Comiti Norfork Mareschallo Angliae c. rancorem nostrum malam voluntatem quam ex causis praedictis erga eos habuimus etiam transgressiones si quas nobis vel nostris fecerint utque ad praesentis Cartae confectionem We have remitted to Humphrey de Bowne Earl of Herford and Essex Constable of England Roger Bygot Earl of Norfolk Marshal of England c. the rancour and ill-will which we had against them for the foresaid causes and also all Transgressions or Offences if they have committed any against us or ours to the making of this Charter Here was a quiet conclusion of an Insurrection managed under two Tribunes of the People whose Union had such an effect that what they did was not lookt on by the Parliament to be so much as a Misdemeanor CHAP. VII The known Cases of Ed. 2. and R. 2. touched upon The power of the people manifested in the Wars and Settlements of the Crown occasion'd by the Disputes between H. 6. and E. 4. Why the instances from those times to the late Abdication omitted The Objections from the Oaths against taking Arms and from the Declaration against a Coercive Power over Kings removed by Sherringham and the Triennial Act 16 Car. 1. Pufendorf's Due Restraint of the Power of the People Instances of the like Power in other Nations particularly Denmark Sweedland and Norway when under the same King For France Hottoman Sesellius the Author of Les Soupirs de la France esclave Bodin explain'd and shewn to justify King William in his descent hither and the People of England in their asserting the true Constitution of the Government For the German Empire Bodin and Conringius An occasion taken from him to
shew the Antiquity and Power of a Palatine in Germany and England Gunterus used to shew that Office in several Countries Loyseau concerning it in France The Distinction in the Author of Les Soupirs between Officers of the King's House and Officers of the Crown The Antiquity and Authority of the Offices of Constable of England of the High Steward and the Earl Marshal which with the Earl of Chester have been as so many Tribunes of the People TO proceed to E. 2. Son to E. 1. 't is certain that the sentence threatned H. 3. was executed upon his Grandson E. 2. who was formally Deposed in Parliament for his misgovernment Walsingham f. 107. Rex dignitate regali abdicatur filius substituitur His Case with his next Successor's but one R. 2. by what I have observed before appear to have been no Novelties in England Nor was it long before the like was again put in practice more than once Hollingshead f. 637. Ib. f. 639 640. H. 6. being a weak mis-led Prince gave occasion to Richard Duke of York whose Line was put by to cover his designs for restoring the elder Family with the pretence of redressing publick Grievances A Crown over a Branch of lights in the H. of Commons and another from the top of Dover-Castle falling about the same time ib. f. 659. The Crown he was so far from pretending to at first that himself swore Allegiance to H. 6. in a very particular manner But having afterwards an advantage given by the Divisions of them who had driven him out of the Land he in a fortunate hour with lucky Omens as was believed challeng'd the Crown as his Right upon which there was an agreement ratified in Parliament That H. 6. should enjoy it during his Life and Richard and his Heirs after him Tho Richard Duke of York and his Son Edward afterwards E. 4. had sworn that H. 6. should enjoy the Royal Dignity during life without trouble from them or either of them yet Richard having been treacherously slain by the Queen's Army immediately after the solemn Pacification Edward at the Petition of some of the Bishops and Temporal Lords Ib. f. 661. took upon him the charge of the Kingdom as forfeited to him by breach of the Covenant established in Parliament Yet this gave him no sure footing for the popularity of the Earl of Warwick drove him out of the Kingdom without striking a stroke for it Ib. f. 678. Upon which H. 6. was again restor'd to his Kingly Power and Edward was in Parliament declared a Traytor to the Country and an Vsurper of the Realm the Settlement upon Richard and his Heirs revok'd and the Crown entail'd upon H. 6. and his Heirs Males with remainders over to secure against Edward's coming to the Crown But the Death of the Earl of Warwick having in effect put an end to King Henry's Power he was soon taken Prisoner and put to death as his Son had been before and then Edward procures a Confirmation in Parliament Hollingshead f. 693. of the Settlement under which he enjoyed the Crown Thus the Parliament from time to time determined the Controversie according to the Inclination of the People or Reason of State And as the power of the People of England or of Great Men of interest with them turn'd the scales sometimes one way sometimes another so their consent fixt them at last during the Life of E. 4. I might following the light of History take in the most material Occurrences from the Reign of E. 4. to the last Revolution but tho the unanimity which appeared at the first casting off the former Yoke made me with chearfulness undertake the justification of those who have contributed to the Change yet I must needs say I am checkt in that freedom which otherwise I might have justly used in relation to late times and tho I labour against prejudice in what I bring from faithful Memorials of ancient days yet I hope the prejudice will be free from that heat and passion which mixes with mens own concerns or the concerns of them from whom they immediately descend in Blood or Parties Object Vid. 13 C. 2. Stat. 2. c. 1.13 14 C. 2. c. 3.14 C. 2. c. 3 4.15 C. 2. c. 5.12 C. 2. c. 30. It may be said That whatever the Law or Practice has been anciently neither can now be of any moment by reason of the Oath required by several Statutes declaring it not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and abhorring the Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person And 2. The Clause in the Statute 12 Car. 2. whereby it is declared That by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom neither the Peers of this Realm nor the Commons nor both together in Parliament or out of Parliament nor the People Collectively or Representatively nor any other Persons whatsoever had have or ought to have any Coercive Power over the Persons of the Kings of this Realm What has before been observed from and upon Mr. Falkner's Answer Vid. Chap. 2. Christian Loyalty might make it needless to take notice of the Objection from either of these Clauses were it not that many either cannot or will not observe what lies at the least distance I shall not here insist in answer to the first part of the Objection on the necessity of a Commission and a King continuing legal in the Exercise as well as Possession of Power nor the difference between the Traiterous Acts of single Persons and the Revolt of a Nation nor yet upon the Authority of the Common Law whereby a Constable or other Officer chosen by the people Vid. Justin Pandec l. 1. tit 3. Nulla juris ratio aut aequitatis benignitas patitur ut quae salubriter pro utilitate hominum introducuntur ea nos duriore interpretatione contra ipsorum commodum producamus ad severitatem may act without any Authority from the King And for rhe latter part of the Objection as Coertion is restrained to the Person of the King the declaring against that is not contrary to the Authorities for discharging Allegiance by a judicial Sentence or otherwise by virtue of equitable and implied Reservations provided a tender regard to the Person be still observ'd But if proceedings to free our selves from his Authority fall under this Coertion then I shall offer something which may remove both this and the other from being objections to what I have above shewn To keep to what may equally reach to both Authorities I shall not urge here Vid. Rot. Parl. 39 H. 6. n. 18. That these Statutes being barely declaratotory and Enacting no Law for the future introduce none so that if the Fundamental Laws shall appear to be otherwise the Declarations do not supplant them Nor yet to insist upon a Rule in the Civil-Law That the Commonwealth is always a Minor Vid. Cujac
King I shall refer to Krantius Krantii Hist particularly in the remarkable Story of their King Eric who was Adopted Son of the Three Kingdoms Anno 1411. he having provoked his People by countenancing the outrages of his Officers and Common Soldiers was opposed with Force by one Engelbert a Danish Nobleman transmitted down to posterity with the fair Character of engaging in the Publick Cause neither out of Love of Rule nor greediness of gain but meer compassion to an oppressed people This generous undertaking was so justly popular that Eric not able to stem the Tide withdrew from Denmark where he usually resided to Sweedland Engelbert's Noble Cause found so few opposers there that the King as a pattern to James 2. privately ran away and recommended his Nephew to succeed him But they told him plainly he was made King by Adoption Ib. f. 188. and had no Right to surrogate another Himself there not being the inconsistency of a different Religion between the Head and Members of the same Body they would have received upon terms but he refusing the three Kingdoms unanimously chose one of another Family For the Authority of the people even in France Hottomanni Francogallia c. 23. insisted on no longer since then the time of Lewis 11. Hottoman gives a large proof in his Franco Gallia And I meet with an excellent Treatise of the French Government written originally in that Language by an eminent French Lawyer Claudius Sesellius soon after the death of Lewis 12. and dedicated to his Successour Francis 1. This Treatise the Learned German Sleidan Sleidani Dedicatio Ed. sexto Anno 1548. f. 263. Vid. Tres Gallicarum Rerum Scriptores Nobiliss A Johanne Sleidano e Gallico in Lat. Serm. convers Ed. Francofurti Anno 1578. turned into Latin and Dedicated it to our King E. 6. Sesel f. 268. Qui tutorio nomine Rempublicam procurant f. 269. Sesellius at that time looked upon France as an Hereditary Monarchy in which he admits that there may be great inconveniencies through the folly vice or minority of a Successour to a good Prince or the wickedness of those who execute the Government during his minority yet says he There are remedies at hand by which we may restrain a King Reigning Arbitrarily and them who have the care of one who cannot Govern for want of fit Age so that the King may have the Dignity which belongs to him and yet it may not be lawful for him to do what he pleases but what is agreeable to Law and Equity Provision is made for this by the best Laws and most Sacred Establishments which may not be violated without great hazard although sometimes force is offered to them He tells us their Kings have as it were three Bridles with which their Soveraign Power is restrained Sesellius f. 269. 1. Religion And if the awe of that is not sufficiently impressed upon him yet the reverence of some Holy Man may prevail it being allowable for any Bishop or other Ecclesiastical person of an unblameable life and in esteem with the people to admonish him of his Duty nor can he use any severities to his Admonisher without danger of alienating the affections of his people 2. The Jurisdiction of the Senate or Parliament whose Power he says Ut decretis ipsorum Rex quoque pareat Vid. Les Soupirs De la France Esclave Memoire 8. Histoire de l'origine du Parlement de Paris Sesellius f. 270. is such that even the King obeys its Decrees And yet when he wrote the Parliament of Paris the meer shadow of the Assembly of the States of the Kingdom and which in its institution was but a Committee chosen out of them had through the Artifice and Usurpation of their Kings driven out the substance 3. The Polity or Laws of the Kingdom which temper the Regal Authority this he says is greatly to the Honour of their Kings For if they could do every thing they would be much more imperfect And as it does not derogate from God Almighty that he cannot sin but his perfection is the more illustrious and to be admired for this very reason so Kings when they obey their Laws deserve the greater praise and come nigher to perfection than if they could command all things at their will and pleasure Sleidan in giving an account of Sesellius his Book to E. 6. says Sleidani Dedicatio ad E. 6. Although these things seem written in a peculiar manner in relation to the King of France yet they equally belong to all Kings For all Kings are Monarchs very few excepted And as they acknowledg no Power over them so they deserve great praise when they keep themselves within the bounds of those Laws with which they Govern their People And these are those Offices which he treats of as becoming a King and Prince Which if he neglects and thinks himself not to be obliged by any Law he loses in the eyes of good Men all Splendor Reputation and Glory and the very name of King A modern French Author Les Soupirs de la France Esclave Qui aspire apres la Liberte Ed. Anno 1690. Memoire 6. p. 82. who has with great diligence collected the Evidences of the Ancient Government of France supposes all the descendants from the old Germans as the Francs and we were to have had the same sort of Government and resemblance of Constitutions Among his several Arguments to refute the pretensions of the Court of France to Arbitrary Power one is Memoire 7. That nothing of great importance ought to be done within the Realm P. 97. but with the advice and consent of the Estates insomuch says he That the Government of France is rather Arstocratical than Monarchical or at least it is a Monarchy temper'd by an Aristocracy exactly such an one as England is The sum of his Authorities upon this Head he reduces to these particulars 1. ' The Estates of the Kingdom may Chuse and Depose their Kings Ib. p. 110. ' and by consequence may Judge them 2. ' They may Judge between the People and the King 3. ' They may Judge between King and King when more than ' one aspire and pretend to the Crown 4. ' They Determine the Differences which Kings have with their ' Subjects 5. ' They give Tutors to Kings and Regents to the Realm 6. ' They dispose of the great Offices of State 7. ' They make Ordinances which alone have the Force of Law ' within the Realm 8. ' They regulate the Affairs of Money 9. ' They appoint Impositions and Levies of Taxes 10. ' They are to be consulted upon all great Affairs 11. ' In fine They are of right to Correct all defaults of Government ' even those of which their Kings are Authors By all these particulars says he it appears Soupirs Mem 7. p. 110. that in some respects the States are superiour to the King for example when they chuse depose judge
been split into the Constable Chancellour Treasurer and the Grand Maistre du France or Count du Palais which he seems to resemble to an High-Steward with us The Author of the Sighs of France shews Les soupirs Mem. 7. p. 167. that when Childebert was chosen King they chose Grimoald for Maire du Palais And says he Through all our History we may always see a very clear distinction between the Officers of the King's House and those of the Crown This distinction remains to this day as a Monument of the Ancient Liberty of the French For we say the Great Master of the King's Houshold the Great Chamberlain c. But we say the Constable of France the Admiral of France the Chancellour of France And these last Charges do not dye with the King whereas the Officers of the King's House dye with the King and may be changed by his Successour The Reason of this difference comes from this That that which is given by one King may be taken away by another But the Officers of the Crown being made by the People and by the Realm cannot be turn'd out by the King alone And it is very remarkable that these Offices of the Crown which the States of the Kingdom may give and which they alone can take away may extend to the whole to the War to Justice and to the Finances or Treasury In a Book published in Queen Mary's Reign which at least went under the name of Bishop Poinet one of our Confessors History of Passive Obedience p. 38. who fled to Germany from the Marian Persecution such a Power as is above mentioned is affirmed to have belong'd to the High Constable of England Treatise of Politick Power Anno 1556. As God says the Author has ordained Magistrates to hear and determine private Matters and to punish their Vices so also will he that the Magistrates doings be call'd to account and reckoning and their Vices corrected and punished by the Body of the whole Congregation or Commonwealth As it is manifest by the meaning of the Ancient Office of High-Constable of England unto whose Authority it pertained not only to summon the King personally before the Parliament or other Courts of Justice to answer and receive according to Justice but also upon just occasion to commit him to Ward Theloal in his Digest of Writs Printed in the year 1579. 21 Eliz. Collects what is in the Year-Books concerning Summoning the King Theloal's Digest tit Roy. p 71. This was H. 3. Vid. 22. E. 3. f. 3. b. Trin. 24 E. 3. f. 55. b 43 E. 3.22 a. Wilby Justice Fuit dit H. 22 E. 3. que en temps le Roy Henry devant le Roy fuit impled come serroit autre home de people Mes Edward son fits ordein que home sueroit vers le Roy per petition Et issint dit suit T. 43. E. 3.22 que en temps le Roy Henry le Roy ne fuit mes come comune person car a ceo temps home averoit brief d'entre sur disseisin vers le Roy touts autres maners d'actions come vers auters persons c. Et Wilby dit T. 24. E. 3.23 que il avoit vieu tiel brief Precipe Henrico Regi Angliae c. En lieu de quel est ore done petition pur sa Prerogative It was says he held Hil. 22 E. 3. that in the time of King Henry and before the King was impleded as any other Man of his people but Edward his Son ordain'd That a Man shall sue to the King by Petition And so it was said Trin. 43 E. 3.22 That in the time of King Henry the King was but as a common person for at that time a Man might have a Writ of Entry upon Disseisin against the King and all other manner of Actions as against other persons c. And Wilby said Trin. 24 E. 3.23 That he had seen such a Writ Precipe Henrico Regi Angliae in lieu of which now a Petition is given for his Prerogative Sir Robert Cotton of the Constable of England MS. in the Herald's Office It may be difficult to distinguish between the Office of the Earl of Chester and the Constable of England who as Sir Robert Cotton held is Second to the King and has the Custody of his Sword the carrying which as appears by Matthew Paris belonged to the Earl of Chester by reason of his Palatinate and yet at the same time Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford Constable of England was in full possession of his Office Dugdale 's Bar. 1. Vol. f. 180. 11 H. 3. he stood up with the Earl of Chester and others on the behalf of Richard the King's Brother and was alive and in England 20 H. 3. when the Earl of Chester carried the Sword as of Ancient Right so that one seemed to have the right to carry the other to keep the Sword The Office of Constable seems to have been no ancienter than the the time of W. 1. Vid. Patent to Earl Rivers Temp. E. 4. Vid. 2 d. Part. to which the Patents for the Office refer but the Earldom of Chester and its Rights were Ancienter Wherefore one would think that W. 1. erected the Office of Constable to ballance that of the Earl Palatine Sir Rob. Cotton Of Constable c. MS. sup The other Great Officers the High-Steward and Marshal are easily distinguishable from the Constable and as Sir Robert Cotton observes the Office of Constable was of Military that of the High-Steward of a Civil Jurisdiction The Marshal was in the nature of an High Sheriff Vid. Stat. 3. R. 2. Stat. 1. C. 2. Of the Constable and Marshal Flet. lib. 2. c. 60. Of the Steward and Marshal So Ryle 's Placita Parl. f. 126. 21 E. 1. Selden 's Bar. 2 d Part c. 5. f. 739 F. 743. to see to the Execution of the Process and Judgments of either and yet had a Judicial Power with both In some Cases all three acted with joynt authority as appears by the most Ancient Copies of the Modus tenendi Parliamenta which tho' it has been put into Latine since the Conquest and has the names of Things and Offices adapted to what was known and in use at the time of the Translation from the Saxon MS. yet certainly for substance gives a true account of what was before the Conquest Mr. Selden supposes it to have been no ancienter than about the time of E. 3. yet confesses that he had from Mr. Hackwel a Copy of an Inspeximus 12 H. 4. Exemplifying under the Great Seal most of the particulars that occur in the ordinary Modus for England fitted for Ireland as sent thither by H. 2. but it would have been very strange if there should have passed an exemplification under the Great Seal of what was a meer fiction The Modus says Modus tenendi Parl. Cum dubitatio vel casus difficilis pacis vel
being ask'd by the King upon the report made by the Justices of their resolution for the Duke what things the Constable can do by reason of his Office Sir says he this Point belongs to your Law of Arms of which we have no experience nor cognizance This may shew what occasion Cardinal Wolsey had to strain a point of Law against that Duke and to have one who durst insist upon a Right to be Constable of England by inheritance Vid. Inf. 2d Part. to be taken off by an High Steward out of Parliament made for that turn And what Fineux says of the Power of the Constable may account for the silence of Bracton Fleta and other Ancient Common-Lawyers in relation to the Authority of the Constable and Marshal Flet. lib. 2. c. 31. yet Fleta shews that the Constable had a Seat in the Exchequer and overlooked Accompts relating to Soldiers Forts and Castles and gives a shrewd hint concerning the Earl Marshal speaking of the Exchequer The Justices says he sitting there were all Barons Fleta lib. 2. c. 26. because Barons used to sit in their places while the Earl of Norfolk and Martial of England had his Place and Seat there as Chief Justice of the Kingdom of England whose Place the Treasurer possesses at this day but he cannot occupy his Office This shews that in the Exchequer the Earl Marshal had place above the Constable accordingly when 25 E. 1. they came into the Exchequer to forbid the Levying of the Tax The Barons in their account of this to the King say There came to the Bar of the Exchequer Vid. Append. the Earl Marshal and the Earl of Hereford and the Earl-Marshal and the others declared they would not suffer it to be Levied That this Office was of extraordinary Authority Rot. Pat. 42. H. 3. M. 4. appears by a Record 42 H. 3. which shews That the Precept for executing the Provisions at Oxford were by the King and his Council in Parliament deliver'd to the Earl-Marshal and if we consider the Authority exercised by the Earls Marshal in the time of H. 3. and E. 1. with the approbation of Parliaments Vid. Mat. Par. 28 H. 3. it may be thought that he was an hereditary Conservator of the Kingdom notwithstanding which in the 28th of H. 3. the Parliament insisted upon it as their right to have four Conservators chosen by them This Office perhaps is the only one which was enjoyed in gross and went along with the name of Marshal till the time of H. 3. when Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk Bar. 1. Vol. f. 133. Married Maud the Daughter of William Marshal Earl of Pembroke Sir William Dugdale says the first mention which he finds of the Name and Family of Mareschal Ib. f. 599. was in the time of H. 1. but in all probability that Name and Office went together from before the time of W. 1. I am sure Roger Mareschal was a very considerable Proprietor in Doomsday-Book Vid. 2 d Part. Indeed the first contest about the Office was in the time of H. 1. when it was adjudged to belong to the Family of the Mareschals Vid. Appendix Rot. Pat. 1. Johan N. 85. M. 12. as appears by the Record of the Confirmation 1º Johannis CHAP. VIII The Third Head of Positive Law The Kingdom founded in Monarchy yet Elective sub modo The Form of Government not dissolv'd with the Contract between Prince and People The Argument from Election of Kings as it is used by the Author of the Sighs of France enslaved The Crown of England proved Elective Sub modo 1. From the Saxon Pontifical and the Council of Calcuth Anno 789. 2. From the Practise till the supposed Conquest 3 From the Confessor's Law received by W. 1. and the Expressions of Ancient Historians and Lawyers since the time of W. 1. 4. The Common usage in asking the People's consent at Coronations 5. The Opinion of Kings themselves 6. The Old Oaths of Allegiance 7. The Liberty even after a Settlement of the Crown 8. The Breaches in the Succession 9. The Statute 11 H. 7. Answers to the Objections 1. That the King never dies 2. The supposition of a Testamentary Heir 3. The Declaration temp E. 3. against consenting to the disherison of the King and His Heirs 4. The claims of Right between Two Families 10. A qualified Election of Kings of England confirmed by observing how it has been in other Nations descended from the same Common Stock THE Kingdom I own is founded in Monarchy and so is Poland which yet is absolutely Elective Nor is there any consequence that the dissolution of the Contract between the immediate Prince and People This objected by the Author of Elementa Politica Of the Magistracy c. vindicated and others Vid. Pufendorf de Interregnis p. 267. Post decretum circa formam Regiminis novo pacto opus erit quando constituuntur ille vel illi in quem vel in quos Regimen coetûs confertur should destroy the form of Government for that depends upon a Prior Contract which the People entred into among themselves And that by virtue of this to avoid endless competitions our Kings have generally from the first erection of the English Monarchy been chosen out of the same Family appears beyond contradiction If our Monarchy will appear from the foundation to be no otherwise an inheritance than as it is setled on a Family with a latitude for choice within the Family no Man can doubt but it will tend greatly towards removing objections against our present Settlement 't is certain the Learned Author of The Sighs of France improves the Argument farther than is needful for us Soupirs de France Mem. ' It is says he indubitable That they who have power to Chuse ' have power to Depose Every Nation says he that makes a King P. 81. preserves to its self a right to unmake him when he goes beyond the bounds of his duty and when he ruines the Estate instead of preserving it and this very thing makes it appear That Elected Princes neither are nor can be Soveraigns of an Arbitrary Power I know some talk of a Birthright and Inheritance in the Crown of England which is not founded in the statutes Jovian p. 87. but on the original Custom and Constitution of the English Government which is thought to be an hereditary Monarchy according to proximity of blood But I would desire all Men of this Opinion impartially to weigh these following particulars 1. Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour shews us the form of Prayer used at the Coronation of Saxon Kings wherein they pray God to bless him whom they chuse for King and call him one chosen to be Crowned King Et hunc electum in Regem coronandum bene Titles of Honour f. 157. Out of the Saxon Pontifical At Calcuth Anno 789. Spel. Concil 1 Vol. f. 291. dicere consecrare digneris
some colour are R. 1. and E. 1. which singular Instances will be so far from turning the Stream of Precedents that unless the Form or Manner of Recognising their Rights as Hereditary be produc'd the Presumption is strong that the Declarations of the Conventions of those Days or the Peoples acquiescing upon the Question Whether they would consent to the King in nomination or both made even their Cases to be plain Elections And of these two Instances Walsingham f. 1. perhaps one may be struck off For tho Walsingham says of E. 1. They recogniz'd him for their Liege-Lord that does not necessarily imply a Recognition from a Title prior to their Declaration for which way soever a King comes in duly he becomes a Liege-Lord and is so to be recogniz'd or acknowledg'd and that the Title was not by this Author suppos'd prior to the Recognition appears in that he says Walsing ib. Paterni honoris successorem ordinaverunt They ordain'd or appointed him Successor of his Father's Honour And yet his Father Sir P. P. Obligation of Oaths f. 295. to secure the Succession to him had soon after his Birth issued out Writs to all the Sheriffs of England requiring all Persons above Twelve Years old to swear to be faithful to the Son with a Salvo for the Homage and Fealty due to himself Indeed of R. 1. the Historian says Walsingham Ypod Neustriae f. 45. He was to be promoted to the Kingdom by Right of Inheritance yet the very Word promoted shews something that he was to be rais'd to higher than that Right alone would carry him which he fully expresses in the Succession of E. 2. Walfing f. 68. which he says was not so much by Right of Inheritance as by the unanimous Assent of the Peers and Great Men. Which shews that ordinarily they respectively who stood next in Blood might look for the Crown before another till the People had by their Choice determin'd against them This appears very fully by the Commissions issued out for the taking the Oath of Allegiance to E. 1. both in England and Ireland after the People of England had agreed in his absence to receive him for their King The Commission or Dedimus for Ireland Claus 1. E. 1. m. 20. De conservatione pacis in Hibern runs thus Cum Angliae Gubernaculum terrae Hiberniae dominium successione hereditariâ nobis pertineant ob quod Praelati Comites Proceres ac Communitas regni nobis tanquam domino suo ligio regi fidelitatis juramenta omnia alia quae nobis ratione Coronae dignitatis regiae ab ipsis fieri aut praestari nobis in absentiâ nostrâ potuerunt plenariè sine omissione aliquâ prompto libenti animo praestiterunt ac vos tanquam Regi Domino vestro ligio consimile Sacramentum fidelitatis praestare teneamini c. Dat. 7. Decemb. Here the Lords and Commons by whose direction the Commission was sent to Ireland in the King's absence acted without staying for Powers from him they own indeed his coming to the Crown by Hereditary Succession and that by reason of that Inheritance or his standing next to his Father they had sworn Allegiance to him yet they say they had done it prompto libenti animo voluntarily which tho it does not necessarily imply a free choice leaves room for the admission of it And he that observes the Dedimus for England may see that this ordinary Right of Inheritance was not lookt on as enough to constitute him King without the consent of the Proceres Regni which in the Language of that time took in the Commons Vid. Jan. Ang. fa. Nov. Jus Anglorum ab Antiquo Vid. etiam 2 part inf as I have elsewhere shewn and appears not only by the enumeration in the record for Ireland of the Parties who received and swore to him as their King But even by the Dedimus for England which says the Magnates Fideles caus'd his Peace to be Proclaim'd So much of the Record as is material here follows Claus 1. E. 1. m. 11. Quia defuncto jam celebris memoriae Domino H. Patre nostro ad nos regni Gubernaculum Successione hereditaria ac procerum regni voluntate ffdelitate nobis praestita sit devolutum per quod nomine nostro qui in exhibitione justitiae pacis conservatione omnibus singulis de ipso regno sumus ex nunc debitores pacem nostram dicti Magnates Fideles fecerunt proclamari Here the said Proceres are brancht into Magnates Fideles Lords and Commons and their Consent and Swearing Allegiance is join'd with the Succession as the per quod or ground of the King 's becoming a Debtor for exhibiting Justice and preserving the Peace as King of England What I have here shewn of E. 1. with that under the Sixth Observation giving an account of the Peoples forwardness in swearing Allegiance to H. 5. abundantly confutes the Inference from the Allegiance sworn to those two Kings Elementa Politica p. 12. made by the Author of Elementa Politica in these words We may observe that the Kings of England are in full Possession of the Crown immediately upon the Death of their Predecessors and therefore King Edward 1. and H. 5. had Allegiance sworn to them before their Coronation whence says he it follows that as swearing does not make them Kings so neither can Perjury tho truly objected unmake them again He instances also in King John but surely cannot pretend that he had any Right before the Peoples immediate Choice to which the Arch-bishop told him that he ow'd his Crown And if the People swore first yet 't is certain it was not till he had been received as King of England which implies the terms exprest in the Oath Bromton f. 1155. So Hoveden f. 656. But to return to R. 1. 't is observable That he was not called King here but only Duke of Normandy till he was Crown'd which next to the People's Choice was in great measure owing to his Mother's Diligence For he being absent at the Death of his Father his Mother who had been releas'd out of Prison by his means to secure the Succession to him went about with her Court from City to City and from Castle to Castle and sent Clergy-men and others of Reputation with the People into the several Counties by whose Industry she obtain'd Oaths of Allegiance to her Son and her self from the People in the County Courts Bromton f. 1159. as it should seem notwithstanding which the Arch-bishop charg'd him at his Coronation not to assume the Royal Dignity unless he firmly resolv'd to perform what he had sworn To which he answered That by God's help he would faithfully observe his Oath Hoveden f. 656. And Hoveden says That he was Crown'd by the Counsel and Assent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons and a great number of Milites
Salus Populi the preservation of Three Kingdoms is concern'd and in danger If then an Alteration of the Course of Descent in case of Necessity is so far from a Change of the Constitution that 't is by vertue of the Chief Fundamental Law the Salus Populi I hope it will be allowed That the Representatives of the People have upon the Vacancy of the Throne from a former Possessor which he yields to have been in the Case in question a right to judge wherein their own Safety lies Otherwise they have a Law of which they can have no benefit And since our Representatives have made so wise a determination they that do not submit to it may well be lookt upon as Persons who abdicate themselves from the benefit of this Government Nay further the Doctor confesses that for his part he knows no Law against the possibility either of a Vacancy in the Throne or an Interregnum in extraordinary Cases such as himself yields ours was But the remaining Question is Whether the Convention shewed that they meant such a Vacancy as caus'd an Interregnum Their Words as he observes are these P. 38 King James the second having Abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant So far he is in the right That the Convention went upon the Supposition of a Vacancy but their supposition did not make one neither did it make an Abdication But 't is evident that the supposition of the Vacancy as Consequent upon the Abdication was the Ground of setling the Government as it is and that they look'd upon the Vacancy as more than a freedom from the last Possessor appears by their preferring His Majesty in the Settlement Which preference had been justifiable even according to what the Doctor receives tho this King had not been of the Blood-Royal But for a farther Evidence The Stat. 1 W. M. for reviving of Actions and Process lately depending in the Courts of Westminster and Discontinued by the not holding of Hillary Term and for supplying other defects relating to proceedings at Law Consid touching the Oath in the Title page that the Throne was absolutely Vacant in the eye of the Law and so judg'd and declar'd to all Men by the Convention and Their Majesties concurring in a Parliamentary Act The Doctor may please to consider the Statute for Supplying defects relating to proceedings at Law Which provides that for Crimes committed between the 11 th of December and the 13 th of February following Informations or Indictments shall have only the year of our Lord God instead of the year of the King's Reign And where Conclusions used to be contra pacem Domini Regis they shall conclude contra pacem Regni Let not Divines therefore go to argue us out of our Government but let them submit to that Rule which Dr. Whitby cites Optima regula quâ nulla est verior aut firmior in jure neminem oportet esse sapientiorem Legibus Object 2 'T is urged That the Hereditary Right contended for has not been interrupted by the Peoples Elections so often as it should seem by the Breaches in the Succession for that many who came in before them who stood next were Testamentary Heirs of the appointment of the Predecessor Which argues an Inheritance in him that Disposes And Dr. Brady thinks he produces an Example Brady's Hist of the Succession f. 8 9. where the Election of the People was bound and limited by the nomination of the Predecessor But if he had duely weighed the Presidents of this kind he might have understood That an Election without a Nomination had full effect while a bare Nomination had none And he might have learnt from Grotius That among the Germans from whom we descend Kingdoms did not use to pass by Wills and that Wills were but Recommendations to the Peoples Choice but not Dispositions Mezray in the Life of Clotair 2. And that thus it was in France appears by their Historian Mezray who shews That anciently the King 's of France were chosen out of the Royal Race But that Three Conditions were ordinarily requir'd 1. Birth for they were to be Legitimate 2. The Will of the Father 3. The Consent of the Great Men which commonly used to follow the other two Object 3 I find it urged That as anciently as the time of E. 3. the Realm declared Vid. Debates about Deposing That they would not consent to any thing in Parliament to the Disherison of the King and his Heirs or the Crown whereunto they were Sworn Answ If any colour of evidence can be produced that the Subjects of England so early as that Swore Allegiance to the King and his Heirs this were to the purpose Knighton f. 248. Indeed I find that before this 24 E. 1 a Foreign Prince the King of Scotland Feudatory to the Crown of England did Homage to the King and his Heirs but the like not being exacted of the Subjects of England till particular Acts whereby the Crown was setled it argues strongly as indeed appears from the Subject matter That the Homage paid by a Foreign Prince was due to none but the present King and his Successor to the Kingdom whoever was next of Blood And by parity of Reason the Disherison of the King and him her or them who succeeded to the Crown was all that could be referr'd to when they urged the Obligation of their Oath to the King and his Heirs or the Crown Which appears farther Leges Sancti Edwardi tit Greve Conjurati fratres ad defendendum Regnum c. honores illius omni fidelitate cum eo servare So Leges W. 1. tit De Fide obsequio erga Regem Quod Willielmo Domino suo fideles esse volunt honores illius c. defendere Bracton Lib. 2. Cap. 29. not only from the old Oath of Allegiance to which they must needs have reference whereby they are bound to defend the Rights of the Crown but even from the Matter then in question which was not of the Right of Succession but of a Flower of the Crown Bracton puts this out of Dispute when he tells us That Inheritance comes not from an Heir but an Heir from Inheritance And that Inheritance is the Succession to all the Right which the Predecessor had by any sort of Acquisition Vid. Sir P. P. As Successors are Heirs so Dr. Brady tells us Gloss f. 18. That Prepossessor one that possessed the Land before the present possessor without any relation to Blood or Kindred is Ancestor in Doomsday and in the Writ de Morte Antecessoris Sir P. P's Obligation of Oaths f. 302. F. 298. F. 300. With Bracton agrees the Civil Law Haeredis significatione omnes significari successores credendum est etsi verbis non sint expressi By Heirs we are to believe all Successors to be signified altho' not expressed in words And again Nihil est aliud haereditas quam Successio in universum jus
And this is implied in restraining the assertion with the word Regularly to Matters within the ordinarily Rule But consider these severally 1. By perfect Contracts must be meant such wherein the Obligations are fixed and compleated at the beginning or from the nature of the Relation entred into And he says notwithstanding The Distinctions and Limitations in Contracts and Obligations Civil all agree That in those Duties which are mutual by the Laws of God and Nature as between the Father and the Son the Husband and the Wife the Lord and his Vassal the Prince and his Subjects the breach of Duty in the one is no discharge unto the other Not to observe how extensive he makes that Law of God or Nature which ascertains the Lords right over his Vassal and the Princes over his Subjects I much question Whether all agree that his Rule holds in such Cases as destroy the very nature of the Relation as the Adultery of the Wife or the like However himself yields that there may be an Obligation superiour to these for having produced Examples of Passive Obedience P. 96. he says ' We cannot here ground an Argument ' for justifying obedience to all Tyrants and invaders of our Country Omnes enim omnium Charitates una Patria complexa supergressa est c. filius sine scelere Proditorem Patriae licet Pater sit occidit In omni tempore bellum gerendum sit pro Defensione suâ Patriae Legum Patriae For our Country alone comprehends and goes beyond all private affections A Son without sin kills a Traitor to his Country tho he be his Father At all times War may be waged in Defence of ones self ones Country and the Laws of ones Country He owns expresly that Obedience is so far from being due to a Tyrant that it is not justifiable And he could not but know that the Civilians whose Rules he receives and applies under this Apellation include as well one who (a) Vid. Comment de Regno aut quovis principatu rectè tranquillè Administrando Advers Machiavellum Ed. Ao. 1577. p. 248. Bartolus duas species tyrannorum Statuit quarum unam juris seu tituli alteram exercitii sive usûs vocat Tyrannus titulo is est inquit qui sine ullo jure aut iniquo minimè legitimo titulo Principatum invadit Tyrannus exercitio sive usu is est qui legitimum quidem jus ad principatum habet sed eum injustè contra Leges exercet Itaque demum Statuit ejusmodi Tyrannis obsequium non deberi Sed è Magistratu deturbandos esse Ib. f. 249. having a lawful Title to Power uses it unjustly as one who usurps Power without any Title or other than what is unjust and illegal Wherefore since he makes no Distinction of Tyrants 't is not to be doubted but he with the Civilians particularly the Learned Bartolus discharges all Obedience and consequently Allegiance the Legal tye of Duty to a Tyrant in the exercise of Power as well as in Title Of both these Bartolus as a Judicious Author represents his sense held That Obedience is not due to them but that they are to be thrust out of the Government And the deservedly esteemed Great Man Mornay du Plessis Tractatus de Eccles per Phil. Mornaeum p. 68. in his Treatise of the Church cites Zabarel Baldus and Bartolus for the same distinction of Tyrants Nay observes that these Lawyers thô Papists held that even Popes might be Tyrants in either of these respects 2. As to the innominal Contracts Sir Roger's Rule is That the Breach of one will not justify the other to proceed towards the dissolving of the Contract which comes not up to any Case which does ipso facto dissolve it Besides this notwithstanding there may be either a Dissolution of the Contract a compelling to perform or satisfaction taken According to which in all Cases wherein the two last are insufficient a Dissolution of the Contract ought or may follow But farther the fixt Obligation of the Subject whatever the King shall do contrary to the Contract is by him founded upon the supposition either that the People of England have transfer'd the Power of the Nation to their Kings as absolutely as he supposes that the People of Rome had done to their Emperors Vid. Sup. or rather that W. 1. made a Conquest of this Nation If says he we cannot find any Law or Reason Sir Roger Poyntz p. 123. that the Romans or any other People who had in them the Supream Power could after they had transferr'd this Power to Kings and elected them reassume this Power again and when it doth please them depose their Kings or limit and restrain their Power by vertue of an habitual Power still remaining in the People as is suppos'd then undoubtedly we can find no Right in the People Vid. the punishment which the Senate decreed against Nero More majorum or in any Societies or Communities of People to Depose Restrain or Limit Kings of hereditary Succession especially those who have not their Right from the People but by Conquest as in England From such Kings of Hereditary Succession and Right all Jurisdictions do proceed and in them reside and unto them they return say the Lawyers Rex est lex animata And his Office and Function is Indesinens consulatus All other Rights and Liberties whatsoever have been as in other Kingdoms at the Will and Mercy of the Conquerors of our Island the Romans Saxons Danes Normans Our Rights and Liberties contain'd in Magna Charta granted and confirmed by divers Kings after much effusion of Blood we nor our Ancestors did nor could ever claim by Virtue of any Reservation made by the People or any others when they were Conquer'd Neither by any Original Right inseparably inherent and vested in the People and from them deriv'd Here 't is observable 1. That thô Sir Roger will not have any Original Right to be inseparable from the People yet he owns that in some places they may have Elected Kings and have had Supream Power in them till they transferr'd it to their Kings Sherringham's Supremacy asserted Introduct p. 11. Contrary to Mr. Sherringham who to make his Court at the coming in of C. 2. held that all Authority is originally in Kings or other Supream Magistrates themselves immedidiately from God Tanquam in primo creato Subjecto as in the first created Subject 2. Sir Roger with that Divine holds that W. 1. obtain'd the Crown by Conquest Sher. p. 53. Vid. 2 d Part. Mr. Sherringham indeed owns that there was a composition and agreement but will have it that this was not till after a Victory as if the Victory over Harold made a Conquest of the Nation Of which more in its place 3. Sir Roger goes no more beyond our Case when he argues upon supposition of a total Translation of the Power whereby a People or Nation is
Therde But because this without consideration of his Merits in rescuing them from R. 2. entituled him to the Crown no more than another of the Blood therefore the Lords and Commons drew up an Instrument purporting their Election Ib. n. 55. 4. But admit none of the foregoing Arguments were enough to shew That upon James the second 's Abdication or at least losing his Interest in the Government the People of England were restor'd to that Liberty which they had before the Settlement of the Crown which was in force till the Original Contract was broken by him yet I conceive the particular Consideration of the state of the Settlement might afford sufficient Argument Brady's Hist of the Succession f. 25. Henry the Fourth Fifth and Sixth if we believe Dr. Brady held the Crown by Usurpation Yet the earliest Settlement of the Crown farther than the first Son or Grandson was in the time of H. 4. Nor as I shall shew was the Crown enjoyed by J. 2. under better Title than they had H. 5. and 6. came in under an Entail of the Crown 7 H. 4. Vid. Rot. Parl. 8 H. 4. n. 60. confirm'd 8. The misgovernment of H. 6. having given occasion to Richard Duke of York of the Blood-Royal and Elder-house to assert the Peoples Rights not his own Henry and the Duke with the Consent of the Lords and Commons come to an agreement in Parliament That Richard and his Heirs should enjoy the Crown after the Death of Henry Tho here the word Heirs is mentioned without restraint yet considering that it is the first time that ever the Crown was setled so far Gomezius de Qualitatibus Contractuum f. 319. Hottomanni Com. de Verbis Juris usus-fructus est jus alienis rebus utendi fruendi salvâ rerumsubstantiâ Emphyteusis I know not whether it is not to be taken with Gomezius his Restriction of an Usufructuary or Emphyteutical Estate of the last of which much of the same nature with the other he says If it did not use to be granted to more than the first second or third Heirs the mention of Heirs simply ought to be restrain'd to those only because the Nature or Quality of the thing granted ought to be attended to After the Death of Richard Duke of York his Son Edward the Fourth as I before observ'd took the Government upon him as forfeited by breach of the Covenant estabish'd in Parliament However Vid. sup H. 6. being set up again ten Years after gets that Settlement by which E. 4. was to have benefit to be revok'd and the Crown to be entail'd on his Issue the Remainder to the Duke of Clarence younger Son to the Duke of York Afterwards E. 4. having success 13 E. 4. revives the Settlement 39 H. 6. Only that he attaints H. 6. Rot. Parl. 1 H. 7. n 16. Vid. Append. H. 7. Son to Edmund Earl of Richmond Brother by Mother's Side to H. 6. with others of his Party Which Attainder was remov'd 1 H. 7. and declar'd contrary to due Allegiance and all due Order And not only the Attainder but that Act of Parliament it self was revok'd So that hitherto there had been no Title in the Heirs of Richard Duke of York or of Edward the Fourth but what was deriv'd under the Settlement of Henry 6. call'd an Usurper and Edward the Fourth's Treason depriv'd him of the Benefit even of that Settlement H. 7. Indeed married the eldest Daughter of E. 4. But before that Marriage having conquer'd Rich. 3. he claimed the Crown as his Words in Parliament were Tam per justum titulum haereditantiae Rot. Parl. 1 H. 7. Vid. Append quam per verum Dei judicium in tribuendo sibi Victoriam de inimico suo As well by just Title of Inheritance as by the true Judgment of God in giving him the Victory over his Enemy If it be ask'd how he could have a Right of Inheritance when the Daughter of E. 4. and his own Mother were alive Vid. Rot. Parl. 1 H. 7. n. 16. supra it seems in the Judgment of that Parliament That E. 4. having acted contrary to his Allegiance due to H. 6. he and his had lost the Benefit of the Settlement reviv'd by his successful Treason and that this was lost even before the Revival was destroy'd by Parliament And then tho' H. 7. could not come in without an Election yet he as H. 4. before might have a sort of Inheritance according to a very witty Author Vindiciae contra Tyrânnos Ed. Amstelodami p. 110. who speaking of the Kingdom of Israel says Concludere licet regnum Israelis si stir pem spectas haereditarium certè fuisse at sanè si personas omnino electivum We may conclude That the Kingdom of Israel if you look at the Stock was certainly Hereditary but if at the Persons altogether Elective Be this as it will the Lords and Commons so far regarded King Henry's Claim that they not only receiv'd him for King but it was enacted by the Authority of the then Parliament Rot. Parl. 1 H. 7. That the Crowns of the Realms of England and France should rest in him and the Heirs of his Body lawfully coming perpetually and in NONE OTHER When they had thus done the Commons requested the King to Marry Elizabeth Daughter to E. 4. that by God's Grace there might be Issue of the Stock of their Kings So that this was only to preserve the Royal Blood not to give any new Countenance or Confirmation to his Title H. 8. enjoy'd the Crown not as Heir to his Mother but under the Settlement upon H. 7. Nor can it be said that he was in by Remitter since that Act under which his Mother should have deriv'd was Repeal'd And had it stood in force yet it would not have made the Title more Sacred unless it can be shewn that the Mother had a Title prior to the Act of Settlement 39 H. 6. the contrary to which appears by the former Account from Law and History H. 8. procur'd several Settlements of the Crown according as Love or Jealousie prevail'd in him 25 H. 8. c. 22. In the 25th of his Reign 't was settled upon Himself and the Heirs Male of his Body lawfully begotten on Queen Anne c. declaring the Marriage with Queen Katherine unlawful Remainder to the Lady Elizabeth Remainder to his own Right Heirs 26 H. 8. c. 2. 28 H. 8. c. 7. 26 H. 8. an Oath was enjoyn'd for that purpose 28 H. 8. the two former Acts 25 26 are Repeal'd the Illegitimation of Mary Daughter to Queen Katherine is confirmed the like declared of Elizabeth Daughter to Queen Anne and the Crown entail'd upon his Heirs Males by Queen Jane or any other Wife Remainder to Heirs Females by that Queen or any other lawful Wife Remainder to such Person or Persons and according to such Estates as he should appoint by Letters Patent or by Will 35.
of Foreign Princes That this was a Question in Q. Elizabeth's time appears by a Letter from Lethington Secretary of Scotland to Cecil Secretary to Q. Eliz. Appendix to Vol. 2. of the Hist of the Ref. f. 269. This appears farther from the Treatise at the end of the Appendix which seems to admit That the Right to the Crown would have been in the issue of the younger Daughter being born in England if the Birth had been without blemish since there was no means of being sufficiently inform'd of the Circumstances of the Birth neither the Common or any Statute-Law affording any Means of proving it as appears by the Statute 25 E. 3. which for the Children of Subjects only born out of the King's Allegiance in Cases wherein the Bishop has Conusance allows of a Certificate from the Bishop of the Place where the Land in question lies if the Mother pass'd the Seas by the King's License But if our Kings or Queens should upon any occasion be in Foreign Parts 't is to be presum'd that they would have with them a Retinue subject to our Laws who might attest the Birth of their Children and be punish'd if they swear falsly Stat. 25. E. 3. Wherefore 25 E. 3. 't is declar'd to be the Law of the Crown That the Children of the Kings of England ENFANTZ DES ROYS as the Record has it in whatever Parts they be born be able and ought to bear the Inheritance after the Death of their Ancestors Yet this is most likely to be meant of those private Inheritances which any of the Kings had being no part of the Demeasns of the Crown since the Inheritance of the Crown was not mentioned nor as has been shewn was it such as the King's Children were absolutely entitled to in their Order The most common acceptation of Children is of a Man's immediate Issue Vid. 1. Anderson f. 60 61. A Devise to the Wife after her Decease to the Children Vid. Wild 's C. 6. Rep. In Shelley 's C. 1. Rep. f. 103. A Gift to a Man semini suo or prolibus suis or liberis suis or exitibus suis or pueris suis de corpore As where Land is given to a Man and his Children Who can think any remote Descendants entitled to it Nor could it extend farther in the Settlement of a Crown 37 E. 3. c. 10. a Sumptuary Law was made providing for the Habits of Men according to their Ranks and of their Wives and Children ENFANTZ as in the former Statute of the same Reign Now altho' this should extend to Childrens Children born in the same House it could never take in the Children of Daughters Vid. Sir James Dalrimple's Institutions of the Laws of Scotland f. 52. forisfamiliated by Marriage nay nor to those of such Sons as were educated in a distinct Calling from their Parents Farther the very Statute of which the Question is cuts off the Descendants from Females out of the number of a King's Children when among other Children not of the Royal Family it makes a particular Provision for Henry Son of John Beaumond Vid. Dugdale 's Bar. 2. Vol. Beaumont who had been born beyond Sea and yet Henry was by the Mother's Side in the Fourth Degree from H. 3. for she was Daughter to Henry Earl of Lancaster Son of Edmund Son to H. 3. Had this Henry been counted among the Children of a King 't is certain there had not been a special Clause for him among other Children of Subjects Nor does the Civil Law differ from ours in this Matter for tho under the name of Children are comprehended not only those who are in our Power but all who are in their own either of the Female Sex or descending from Females yet the Daughters Children were always look'd on as out of the Grandfather's Family Just Inst lib. 1. tit 9. So Bracton l. 1. c. 9. Greg. Tholos Syntagma juris universi f. 206. Spiegelius tit Liberi Non procedere in privilegiis quae generaliter publicae utilitati derogant Vid. Antonii Perezi Inst Imperiales p. 21. Vid. Cujac ad tit de verborum significatione p. 147 230. according to the Rule in the Civil-Law transcribed by our Bracton They who are born of your Daughter are not in your power And Privileges derogating from Publick Vtility were never thought to reach them as a Learned Civilian has it A Daughter is the end of the Family in which she was born because the name of her Father's Family is not propogated by her And Cujacius makes this difference betweene Liberi and Liberi Sui Sui he says is a Legal Name the other Natural The former are only they who are in a Man's power or of his Family and Liberi strictly taken he will have to go no farther But in truth Considering the purview of the Statute which we are here upon Children in it seems to be restrain'd to Sons and Daughters without taking in the Descendants from either the occasion of the Law being the Births of several ENFANTZ in Foreign Parts which could be but Sons or Daughters to the immediate Parents whether Kings or Private Persons 3. But however this may be enough for my purpose That there is no colour of any Settlement in force but that 1 H. 7. And admitting that to have continued till J. 2. had broken the Original Contract yet that being broken the present Assembly of Lords and Commons had full as much Authority to declare for King WILLIAM and Queen MARY as the Parliament 1 H. 7. had to Settle the Crown For H. 7. could give them no Power but what he had received immediately from them Nor is it material to say He was Crown'd first since as I have shewn the Crown Confers no Power distinct from what is deriv'd either from an immediate or prior Choice But if there is reason from what I have shewn to believe that even the limitations in Henry VII th's Settlement were all long since spent then at least it is not to be doubted but the interest of J. II. being determined the People of England might lawfully and rightfully declare for King William and Queen Mary as being the most deserving of the Blood Royal which if they were free to do not to submit to be Gover'n'd by Their present Majesties would have been the highest Ingratitude that could be CHAP. X. The Fifth Head of Positive Law The effect of the Dissolution of the Contract The Vse of the Triennial-Act 16 Car. 1. against the necessity of Common Form The Form and proceedings of the Convention assembled upon the death of H. 3. The Dilemma used by the Formalists Answer'd with a Distinction Pufendorf's Answer to Hobbs Another passage of his applied to a passage in a late excellent Treatise against Sir Robert Filmer And to a Letter upon this Juncture Tho what Dr. Brady says against the Rights of Lords and Commons were true yet it is shewn that the Acts of
Cancellario Angliae emergat seu judicium difficile coram Justiciariis fuerit reddendum hujusmodi si forte in hujusmodi deliberationibus omnes vel saltem major pars concordare non valeant tunc Comes Senescallus Comes Constabularius Comes Marescallus vel duo illorum eligent viginti quinque personas de omnibus paribus Regni scilicet duos Episcopos tres Procuratores pro Clero duos Comites tres Barones quinque Milites Comitatuum quinque Cives quinque Burgenses qui faciunt viginti quinque Et illi viginti quinque possunt eligere ex seipsis duodecim condescendere in eis ipsi duodecim sex condescendere in eis ipsi sex ad tres condescendere in eis illi tres in paucioribus se condescendere non possunt nisi optentâ licentiâ à Domino Rege Et si Rex consenceat ipsis tres possunt in duos de illis duobus aliter poterit in alium descendere Et ita demum stabit sua ordinatio super totum Parliamentum ita condescendendo à viginti quinque personis usque unam solam personam nisi numerus major concordare valeat ordinare tandem una persona ut est dictum pro omnibus ordinabit quòd cum seipsâ discordare non potest Salvo Domino Regi ejus Consilio quod ipsi hujusmodi ordinationes postquam Scriptae fuerint examinare emendare valeant si hoc facere sciant velint Ita quod hoc faciant ibidem tunc in pleno Parliamento de consensu Parliamenti non retro Parliamentum N. VII Vid. CAP. 7. F. 70. SEneschallia Angliae pertinet ad Comitem Leicester pertinet ab Antiquo Et sciendum est Sir John Cotton 's Library Tit. Tiberius n. 8 De Officio Seneschalliae quod ejus officium est supervidere regulare sub Rege immediate post Regem totum Regnum Angliae omnes ministros legum infra idem Regnum temporibus pacis guerrae c. Item officium Seneschalliae est quod si Rex habeat malos Consiliarios circa eum qui sibi dant Consilia ad faciend talia quae sunt apta prona ad dedecus suum aut exhaeredationem suam ad publicum malum destructionem populi sui tunc Seneschallus Angliae assumpto secum Constabulario aliis Magnatibus aliis de Communitate Regni Angliae mittent ad hujusmodi Consiliarium Regis quod ipsum Regem ita ducere consulere desistat de hujusmodi malis consiliis prius Regi factis mentionem faciend Quod ab eo ejus presentiâ recedat moram cum eo quod dedecus suum damnum publicum ut predictum est non faciat Quod si vero faciat tum mittent ad Regem quod ipsum ab eo amoveri faciat ejus consilium non audiat pro eo quod à toto populo malus Consiliarius inter Regem suum Populum praesumitur Quod si Rex non fecerit aliâs pluries mittent tam Regi quam ei Quod si demum non Rex nec hujusmodi Consiliarius de hujusmodi missionibus supplicationibus advertat sed ea potius facere neglexerit tum pro bono publico licebit Seneschallo Constabulario Angliae Magnatibus aliis de Communitate Regni capere corpus ejus salvum custodire usque ad proximum Parliamentum seisire res redditus omnes possessiones suas donec judicium suum attenderit subierit per considerationem istius rni in Parliamento N. VIII Vid. CAP. 7. F. 72. JOhannes Dei gratiâ c. sciatis nos concessisse presenti cartâ nostrâ confirmasse dilecto fideli nostro Willielmo Marescallo Comiti Pembroke haeredibus suis Magistratum Marescalciae Curiae nostrae quem Magistratum Gilbertus Marescallus H. Rs. avi patris nostri Johannes filius ipsius Gilberti disrationaverunt coram praed Rege H. in Curiâ suâ contra Rob. de Venoiz contra Willielmum de Hastings qui ipsum Magistratum calumpniabantur Et hoc judicium quia defecerunt se de recto ad diem quem eis inde constituerat Quare volumus firmiter precipimus quod predictus Willielmus heredes sui post eum habeant teneant pred Magistratum cum omnibus ad illum pertinen bene in pace liberè quietè integrè honorificè de nobis heredibus Testibus W. Lond. E. Elyens H. Sarum Ep. Dat. per manus H. Cant. Arch. N. IX Vid. CAP. 9. F. 93. Rot. Parl. 1. H. 7. Presentatio Praelocutoris SUbsequenterque idem dominus Rex prefatis communibus ore suo proprio eloquens ostendendo suum adventum ad jus Coronam Angliae fore tam per justum titulum haereditanciae quam per verum Dei Judicium in tribuendo sibi victoriam de inimico suo in Campo declaravit quod omnes subditi sui cujuscunque statûs gradûs seu conditionis fuerint haberent tenerent sibi haeredibus suis omnia terras tenementa redditus haereditamenta sua eisdemque gauderent exceptis talibus personis quales suam Majestatem Regiam ostenderunt qui juxta eorum demerita in presentis Parliamenti Curiâ aliter essent plectendi Titulus Regis Item Quaedam Billa exhibita fuit praefato Domino Regi in praesenti Parliamento per Communitates Regni Angliae in eodem Parliamento existentes hanc seriem verborum continens To the Pleasure of Almighty God the Wealth Prosperity and Suertie of this Realm of England to the singular comforth of all the King's Subjects of the same and in avoiding of all Ambiguities and Questions Be it ordeigned Stablished and Enacted by Auctoritee of this present Parliament that the Inheritance of the Crounes of the Realmes of England and of France with all the preeminence and dignitie Roiall to the same pertaining and all other Signeries to the King belonging beyond the See with th' Appurtenaunces thereto in eny wise due or perteineing be rest remaine and abide in the moost Roiall Personn of oure nowe Soveraigne Lord King Henrie the vii th and in the Heires of his Body lawfully comeing perpetually with the Grace of God so to endure and in none other Quà quidem Billâ in Parliamento praedicto lectâ auditâ maturâ deliberatione intellectâ eidem Billae de assensu Dominorum Spiritualium Temporalium in dicto Parliamento existen ad requisitionem Communitatis praedictae necnon authoritate ejusdem Parliamenti respondebat eidem in formâ sequenti Nostre Seigneur le Roy del assent des Seigneurs Espirituelx Temporelex esteaniz en cest Parlement a la request des Commens avantditz le voet en toutz poyntz The King our Soveraigne Lord remembering Restitutio Henrici Sexti 1. H. 7. n. 16. how ayenst all Rightwisnes
Honour Nature and Dewtie an inordinate seditious and slaundres Act was made agayns the most famous Prince of blessed memory Kinge Herrie the Sixte his Vncle in the Parliament holden at Westminster the fourth day of November the first Year of the Reigne of Edward the Fourth late King of England whereby his said Vncle contrary to due Allegianee and all due Order was attainted of High Treason Wherefore our same Soveraigne Lord by the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spirituals and Temporals and Comines in this present Parliament assembled and by Auctoritie of the same ordeineth enacteth and establisheth that the said Act and all Acts of Attainder Forfaiture and Disablement made or had in the said Parliament or else in any other Parliament of the said late King Edward ayenst the said most blessed Prince King Herrie or against the right famous Princess Margaret late Queen of England his Wife or the right victorious Prince Edward late Prince of Wales Son of the same blessed King Herrie and Margarett Jasper Duke of Bedford late Earl of Pembroke or Herrie late Duke of Somerset the which Jasper and Herrie late Duke of Somerset for their true and faithful Allegiances and Services done to the same blessed King Herrie were attainted of High Treason or any of them by what Name or Names they or any of them be named in any of the said Acts be ayenst the said blessed King Herrie Queen Margaret Edward late Prince and the same Dukes and the Heirs of every of them void annulled repelled and of no Force ne Effect N. X. Vid. CAP. F. 103. SAnctissimo in Christo Patri Domino Claus 3. E. 1. m. 9. Cedula In a Letter to the Pope Domino G. divinâ providentiâ Sacro-sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae universalis Ecclesiae summo Pontifici Edwardus ejusdem gratiâ Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae Dux Aquitaniae Cum reverentiâ honore salutem pedum oscula beatorum Mandavit nobis olim per literas Apostolicas quas pronâ mentis devotione recepimus vestra sanctitas reverenda ut annuum censum in quo Sacrosanctae Rom. Ecclesiae ratione Regni Angl. pro octo praeteritis annis asseritis nos teneri venerabili vestro Magistro R. de Nogeriis Capellano vestro assignari liberaliter ac integrè nomine pred Rom. Ecclesiae faceremus Nuper autem alias literas vestras recepimus cum Reverentiâ continentes quod cum nos respons Relationis solutionis Censûs annui memorati quam nobis pred Capel vester exposuit vestrae Ecclesiae Romanae Nomine diligenter Deliberatione Consilii Procerum Regni nostri in Parliamento quod circa Octabas Resurrectionis Dominicae celebrari in Angliâ consuerit pro eo duximus reservand quod tempore receptionis pred lit vestrae noviter ejusdem Regni gubernacula sumpseramus nunc de hujusmodi censu sine ulteriori procrast impendi faceremus eidem satisfac plen Capellano Fatemur enim S. Pater Domine ad Parliament nostrum in Octabis Resurrectionis Dominicae prox pret Regni nostri Praelatos Proceres evocasse ibique multa statuisse divinâ gratiâ favente quae meliorationem statûs Ecclesiae Anglicanae reformationem Regni ejusdem respiciunt communes profectus populi capiant incrementa Set antequam eidem Parl. propter negotiorum multitud quae reformationis remedio indigebant finem imponere valeremus Eodem Capellano vestro responsionem debitam sibi fieri instanter postulante quaedam gravis nos invasit sicut Domino placuit infirmitas corporalis quae perfectionem multorum aliorum negot deliberationem Petitionis Censûs annui supardict de quo dolemus non modicum impedivit Sicque cum occatione infirmitatis hujusmodi à quâ per Dei gratiam cujus est perimere mederi incepimus convalescere Idem Parl. fuerit dissolutum super hoc nequiverimus super Petitione Censûs ejusdem deliberationem habere cum Praelatis Proceribus antedictis sine quorum communicato consilio sanctitatae vestrae super predictis non possumus respondere Et jurejurando in coronatione nostra prestit sumus astricti quod jura Regni nostri servabimus illibata nec aliquod quod Diadema tangat Regni ejusdem absque ipsorum requisito consilio faciemus Reverende Benignitati vestrae humiliter supplicamus pro dono petimus spirituali quatenus molestè non ferat sanctitas vestra si ad praesens super pred sicut vellemus non possumus respondere Imo patientia vestra paterna si placet nos super hoc habere dignetur excutatos Pro firmo scituri pie Pater Domine quod in alio Parliamento nostro quod ad festum Sancti Michaelis prox fut intendimus dante Domino celebrare habito communicato Consilio cum Praelat Proc. memoratis vobis super praem ipsorum Consilio dabimus responsionem Conservet vos Dominus Ecclesiae Sanctae suae per tempora longaeva Teste meipso apud Westm 19. die Junii Anno Regni nostri 3o. The Present CONVENTION a Parliament N. XI Vid. CAP. 10. F. 111. I. THat the formality of the King 's Writ of Summons is not so essential to an English Parliament but that the Peers of the Realm and the Commons by their Representatives duly Elected may legally Act as the great Council and Representative Body of the Nation though not summon'd by the King especially when the Circumstances of the time are such that such Summons cannot be had will I hope appear by these following Observations First The Saxon Government was transplanted hither out of Germany where the meeting of the Saxons in such Assemblies was at certain fixed times viz. at the New and Full Moon But after their Transmigration hither Religion changing other things changed with it and the Times for their publick Assemblies in conformity to the great Solemnity celebrated by Christians came to be changed to the Feasts of Easter Pentecost and the Nativity The lower we come down in Story the seldomer we find these General Assemblies to have been held and sometimes even very anciently when upon extraordinary Occasions they met out of course a Precept an Edict or Sanction is mentioned to have issued from the King But the Times and the very Place of their ordinary Meeting having been certain and determined in the very first and eldest Times that we meet with any mention of such Assemblies which times are as ancient as any Memory of the Nation it self hence I inferr that no Summons from the King can be thought to have been necessary in those days because it was altogether needless Secondly The Succession to the Crown did not in those days nor till of late Years run in a course of Lineal Succession by right of Inheritance But upon the Death of a Prince those Persons of the Realm that Composed the then Parliament Assembled in order to the choosing of another That the Kingdom was then Elective though one or other of the Royal
Blood was always chosen but the next in Lineal Succession very seldom is evident from the Genealogies of the Saxon Kings from an old Law made at Calchuyth appointing how and by whom Kings shall be chosen and from many express and particular Accounts given by our old Historians of such Assemblies held for Electing of Kings Now such Assemblies could not be Summon'd by any King and yet in conjunction with the King that themselves set up they made Laws binding the King and all the Realm Thirdly After the Death of King William Rufus Robert his Elder Brother being then in the Holy Land Henry the youngest Son of King William the First procur'd an Assembly of the Clergy and People of England to whom he made large promises of his good Government in case they would accept of him for their King and they agreeing That if he would restore to them the Laws of King Edward the Confessor then they would consent to make him their King He swore that he would do so and also free them from some Oppressions which the Nation had groan'd under in his Brothers and his Fathers time Hereupon they chose him King and the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of York set the Crown upon his Head Which being done a Confirmation of the English Liberties pass'd the Royal Assent in that Assembly the same in substance though not so large as King John's and King Henry the Third's Magna Charta's afterwards were Fourthly After that King's Death in such another Parliament King Stephen was Elected and Mawd the Empress put by though not without some stain of perfidiousness upon all those and Stephen himself especially who had sworn in her Father Life-time to acknowledg her for their Sovereign after his decease Fifthly In King Richard the First 's time the King being absent in the Holy Land and the Bishop of Ely then his Chancellor being Regent of the Kingdom in his Absence whose Government was intolerable to the People for his Insolence and manifold Oppressions a Parliament was convened at London at the Instance of Earl John the King's Brother to treat of the great and weighty Affairs of the King and Kingdom in which Parliament this same Regent was depos'd from his Government and another set up viz. the Arch-Bishop of Roan in his stead This Assembly was not conven'd by the King who was then in Palaestine nor by any Authority deriv'd from him for then the Regent and Chancellor must have call'd them together but they met as the Historian says expresly at the Instance of Earl John And yet in the King's Absence they took upon them to settle the publick Affairs of the Nation without Him Sixthly When King Henry the 3 d. died his Eldest Son Prince Edward was then in the Holy Land and came not Home till within the third Year of his Reign yet immediately upon the Father's Death all the Prelates and Nobles and four Knights for every Shire and four Burgesses for every Borough Assembled together in a great Council and setled the Government till the King should return Made a new Seal and a Chancellor c. I inferr from what has been said that Writs of Summons are not so Essential to the being of Parliaments but that the People of England especially at a time when they cannot be had may by Law and according to our Old Constitution Assemble together in a Parliamentary way without them to treat of and settle the Publick Affairs of the Nation And that if such Assemblies so conven'd find the Throne Vacant they may proceed not only to set up a Prince but with the Assent and Concurrence of such Prince to transact all Publick Business whatsoever without a new Election they having as great Authority as the People of England can delegate to their Represantatives II. The Acts of Parliaments not Formal nor Legal in all their Circumstances are yet binding to the Nation so long as they continue in Force and not liable to be questioned as to the Validity of them but in subsequent Parliaments First The two Spencers Temp. Edvardi Secundi were banished by Act of Parliament and that Act of Parliament repealed by Dures Force yet was the Act of Repeal a good Law till it was Annull'd 1 Ed. 3. Secondly Some Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. and Attainders thereupon were Repealed in a Parliament held Ann. 21. of that King which Parliament was procur'd by forc'd Elections and yet the Repeal stood good till such time as in 1 Henry 4. the Statutes of 11 Rich. 2. were revived and appointed to be firmly held and kept Thirdly The Parliament of 1 Hen. 4. consisted of the same Knights Citizens and Burgesses that had served in the then last dissolved Parliament and those Persons were by the King's Writs to the Sheriffs commanded to be returned and yet they passed Acts and their Acts though never confirmed continue to be Laws at this day Fourthly Queen Mary's Parliament that restored the Popes Supremacy was notoriously known to be pack'd insomuch that it was debated in Queeen Elizabeth's time whether or no to declare all their Acts void by Act of Parliament That course was then upon some prudential Considerations declined and therefore the Acts of that Parliament not since repealed continue binding Laws to this day The reason of all this is Because no inferiour Courts have Authothority to judge of the Validity or Invalidity of the Acts of such Assemblies as have but so much as a colour of Parliamentary Authority The Acts of such Assemblies being Entred upon the Parliament-Roll and certified before the Judges of Westminster-Hall as Acts of Parliament are conclusive and binding to them because Parliaments are the only Judges of the Imperfections Invalidities Illegalities c. of one another The Parliament that call'd in King Charles the Second was not assembled by the King 's Writ and yet they made Acts and the Royal Assent was had to them many of which indeed were afterwards confirmed but not all and those that had no Confirmation are undoubted Acts of Parliament without it and have ever since obtained as such Hence I Infer that the present Convention may if they please assume to themselves a Parliamentary Power and in conjunction with such King or Queen as they shall declare may give Laws to the Kingdom as a legal Parliament ALLEGATIONS In behalf of the High and Mighty Princess THE LADY MARY NOW Queen of Scots Against the Opinions and Books set forth in the Part and Favour of the LADY KATHERINE And the rest of the Issues of the French Queen Touching the Succession of the Crown Written in the Time of QUEEN ELIZABETH London Printed by J. D. in the Year 1690. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER I Thought it not improper to subjoin the following Treatise written by a Lawyer in Queen Elizabeth's Time whether ever printed or no I cannot say in favour of the Title of the Queen of Scots against the Pretences of the Lady Katherine descended from the
Ordinary nor is not so to be receyvid but it must recyve a Tryal directly by th' Ordinary whose Certificate must proceede accordinge to such mater as may informe a Truthe or ells it must receyve the Tryall by a Jury of twelve Men according to the common usage of Tryalles And whoe can thinke if the cause of eny such separation stirred upon no just Motion but onely of corrupte or fleshly disposition shuld come now in question that either eny Ordinary or ells eny Jury in so playne and open Bastardy wold either so farre forgeete or hazard theimselfes or elles exceede the Bondes of their Dutyes to God their Countrey or all honest Reputation to the World to certify such Issues to be ligitimate wherby no Controversy shuld be decyded but rather dangerously encreased and the whole Government of such a Noble Realme therby brought unto a double Bastardy as the case now standith For touchinge th' Issues betweene the Duke and the French Queene yf question be askyd whether they be lawfull answer is made They are not because the Duke was first lawfully marryed to the Lady Mortymer and contynued with her aboue seven Yeres and that he was maryed after to the French Queene duringe the sayd Lady Mortymer's Lyfe whoe overlyved the byrth of all the French Queenes Children Which answer by our Law cleerly distroyeth the seconde Mariage and makith it voyde and so all the Issues cleerly Bastardes And this is th' absolute Judgementof our Lawe so as now th' Issues of the French Queene cannot eny way help theimselfes but they must first destroy the first maryage which our Lawe will never disallowe untill it be first disanulled And therfore yf the Duke of Suff. had had eny Issue by the L. Mortimer those Issues shuld haue ben allowed his Heyres by our Lawe notwithstandinge the Mariage after with the French Queene And therfore for that the French Queenes Issues rest dissabled in poynt of Common Lawe they must make theimselfes able by some such proofe as may satisfye the same Lawe before they can be receyvid And yf they seeke their relief by eny dispensation from Rome as is sayd it servith not although ther wer a Dyvorce to be proovyd by eny such Instrument And it is most true that they ar able to proove no lawfull Devorce within the Realme though by search it hath not onely ben perceyvid but is evidently to be provyd howe meny corrupte and subtile attemptes by sundry meanes hath ben taken in hande to cowntenance those matches with the French Queene and other as by a supposition of a Sute sued betweene one Anne Browne and the said Charles Brandon wherof shuld aryse the displeasure betweene the Lady Mortimer and the said Charles her Husband seven Yeres and more after their Mariage During which time the said A. B. God wotte never tooke it so earnestly as she once complaynid to the Lawe or ever thought of the Mater nor as it seemith wold ever haue done yf in this tyme the sayd Charles had not consumyd the sayd Lady Mortimers Welth and Lyvelyhoode and found her Yeres not answerable to his Yeouth and wanton Disposition for satisfyenge wherof this Acquayntance that Bely risinge and these Practises after hapt with the same Anne Wherof riseth now these feeble-groundid Histories this Speche and these Devices that she forsooth shuld be precontracted to him before and had a Childe which Childe eight Yeres after is knowen well inoghe was but two or three Yeres olde at the moste A strange case and yet she had it at seventeen or ninteen and was but twenty at the tyme of this supposed Divorce when the sayd Charles and she came togither Well I say no more for the Case is skant worth the speakinge of but yf this Mater wer to be shewid ye shuld see such a patron of a Divorce as they that faynest wold have it wold soonest be ashamyd to countenance their Title upon the same and yet these Passages thus hapt in these Dayes and in that Lyfe from better to worse advoutry upon advoutry and such other stuff But how vayne is it to wryte or to occupy yow with these Digressions as with what mought haue ben what is supposed to haue bene or such other vayne and frivolous practises or shifts as heerafter may be when it behoovith so much presently to consyder what in this case properly may and ought to be And therfore because it is one of the most assuryd wayes to understand what the Lawe willeth or is in eny question to admitte that the Mater were at present to be decided by dewe course of Lawe with all the Pollicies that on bothe partes may be used for their most avayle and purpose and so to bringe the same in Forme of Lawe to such a poynt as judgement may be therof gyven rightly Take heerin for Ensample that I. S. made a Gifte of Lande to Charles Duke of Suff. and the Frenche Queene after their Mariage and the Heires of their Bodyes and now the same I.S. bringith his Action of Forme-downe in reverter for the same Lande agaynst the Lady K. and her Sister and the resydue of that Lyne and supposeth that the Land ought to him to revert for lacke of Issue lawfully begotten betweene the Duke and the French Queene and they come and pleade by way of Barr the Mariage betweene the French Queene and the Duke and convey the Pedegree lineally Wherunto I. S. replieth and shewith a former Maryage with the Lady Mortimer and averrith her Lyfe after their Birth And the Lady K. and the rest cannot by Lawe maynteyne their Barr and destroy his Title unlesse they pleade a lawfull Divorce and yf they pleade eny such yet the same shall not be under the Pope's Bulle but by the Certificate of th' Ordinary and for that th' Ordinary hath no Recorde or other lawfull Proofe wherupon he can lay eny Foundation to certify any lawful Divorce therfore the Certificate cannot be avaylable And so to conclude ther is no doubt in the troth of the case and by lyke reason no doubt in Lawe if you will allowe the Proceedinges accordinge to troth but that the Bastardie remaynith and is not able to be purged And yf the Bulle shuld have ben to make the Children of the sayd Queene and Duke of Bastardes legitimat besydes the Reasons before alledgid which ar as effectuall in this purpose as in the other yet it is most true that such legitimation had ben of no more force or Vertue heere in this Realme of Englande then they be of in those Contreyes that ar at the Pope's Obedience And who soever is legitimated ther of the Pope is not to be understandid for all that to be legitimate to inherite but in the Lands that do belonge vnto the Churche (i) Imo in ca. per venerabilem qui filii sint legi And besydes who soever is legitimate and abled generally to eny Dignitie is not in that neither to be understandid legitimatid vnto
so happe as God forbidd but also it is so penall that if such ill Chaunce shuld unfortunately befall it makith Traytors of those that will clayme their Inheritance although their intent were but to try their Titles And it is a Learninge by the Common Lawes of England that longe hath ben so receyvid that in every such case as eny of these happen no Exposition is to be allowed but the Lawe willith us to cleve to the Letter without eny further wrestinge therof then the Letter naturally and strictly will reache unto So that if it be not a stricte observation of the Letter according to his natural entent in any of these cases the Common Lawe allowith it not And the rather the Lawe is precise herin for that it is a newe Statute which seldome ar taken by equite in eny point because they ar all pennyd at large As for Example I will remember one or twoe which may suffice to such as be Learnyd to search for other of lyke effect wherof ther ar not a few In Anno 1. of Kinge Edward the 6 th ther was a Statute made That if eny were condemnid for the stealinge of Horses and Mares they should lose their Clergy and because the words Horses and Mares were the plurall nombre it was taken not to extende to one Horse or to one Mare And so for that cause a new Statute was made Anno 2. of the same K. that made lyke Lawe for stealinge one Horse or one Mare And the chief cause of this was because it is a Penall Statute in takinge from a Man that wherby his Lyfe might be savid In K. Richard the 3 ds Tyme there was a Statute made to Auctorize Cest a que use to enter vpon his Feoffees and make Feoffementes And it was in question in Anno 9. of H. the 7 th yf he made a Letter of Atturney whether this were good by the Statute and lefte therfore a doubtfull question by reason the Statute gyveth auctoryte onely which must in all poyntes be observed And ther is a greate deale more coulour to make that Feoffement goode being by Letter of Atturney then to make this Will to this purpose goode not signed with the Kinges owne Hande For if eny other put his Hande therunto and not the Kinge himself then it is signed with an other Hande and not the Kinges Hande And yf I gyve Auctorytie to my Executors to sell my Landes and say no further then yf they sell the same by Wrytinge or without Wrytinge it is sufficient but if I adde these wordes That they shall sell my Landes so that they do it by Wrytinge signed with their proper Handes yf now they sell the same and th' one cause the Residue in all their presence to wryte all their Names as thoughe every one had severally subscrybed I hold it no question but this Sale is not good for they must pursue their Auctorytie strictlye and otherwyse it is of no effect And consyderinge as is partly before remembryd how greate a mater it was to committe such a Trust it were a greate lacke and slander to the whole Parliament to thinke that they wold condiscend to the committinge of so high and weightie a Confidence as wherof the whole Estate and Weale of the Realme shuld depend but that they did forsee that their doinges therein shuld not be blynded by a Wrytinge signed with a Stampe The same thing was urg'd by Lethington the Secretary of Scotland in a Letter to Sir Will. Cecil Appendix to the 2d Vol. of the Hist of the Ref. F. 269. which might be put vnto either when the Kinge was voyde of Memory or els when he was deceassid as indeed it after happenyd as most manifestly appeeryd by open declaration made in Parliament by the late L. Paget and others that King Henry did not signe it with his owne Hande as it is playne and probable inough by the Pardon obteynid for one William Clerke for puttinge the Stampe vnto the sayde Will after the Kinge was departid and who doubtith but yf his meaninge had ben such so to haue disposed of the Crowne but that he wold have put this mater out of doubte by signifyenge the same with his owne proper Hande And touchinge the two chief Examples that ar brought foorth the one of the 21 and 33 of K. H. th' Eight wherby K. H. was aucthorized to gyve his Royall Assent to Actes of Parliament by his Letters Patentes and so foorth and th' other for that Queene Mary omittyd the style that was apoyntid by Parliament in 35 of H. th' Eight in her Parliament Writts howe little they make to the matter every Man may judge For the Statutes of 21 and 33 of H. 8. were only made in affirmance of the Common Lawe and such a Royal Assent wold suffice by Letters Patents without eny assurance thereof by the Signe And this Statute was but to put such matter out of question for if the Common Law had ben such before there is no doubt but that he must haue signed every Patent with his proper Hande and so these Cases are no way lyke And touchinge the seconde yf the Statute that conteynith the King's Style be well consyderid there wold be made thereof no such Collection For the same apoyntith a punishment to such Subjects as of purpose depryve the K. of the Realm of that Stile But there is no doubt but the Writts that wantyd the Stile were in Lawe sufficyent and the Parties that made the same punishable So that these Examples cannot be wrestid to serve eny whit for the purpose And where ther is made a great mater by reason the Will was inrollid in the Chancery and Constats thereof made under the Broade Seale and the Legacyes thereof in all poyntes performyd To that may be answerd That all that is therein affirmed may easily be confessed and yet it proovith nothinge to th' intent applied for it was his Will is ever he condescendid thervnto though he did never signe it with his Stampe nor with his Hande and a goode and a perfect Will to all Entents and Purposes whereof he had by Common Lawe Authoritye to make his Will of But it is not or cannot be the more a perfect Will to this respect or purpose vnlesse he did execute the auctoritie apoyntid by the Statute of 35 of H. 8. as is before remembryd Since then the Duke had a Wyfe lyvinge when he maryd the Frenche Queene and by the Statute ther is nothinge to be Claymid onles K. Henry had passed eny things either by his Letters Patentes under the Broade Seal of Englande or ells by his last Will signed with his most gracious Hande And that it is trewe that he had a Wyfe lyvinge when he maryd the Frenche Queene that so if it were requisite or hereafter may be there mought be avouchid more then one with much other matter touchinge that poynt of Illegitimacion and Inhabilitie as well in
the Constitution Allegiance to our present King and Queen undertaken to be prov'd lawful both by the Equity and Letter of our Fundamental Law explain'd by the Practice of the Kingdom HAving sufficient Experience of the Consequences of being always on the Forlorn Hope tho in the noblest Cause I should yeild to the Justice of my Friend 's kind Rebuke for engaging in so many unprofitable Battels wherein they who have raised neither Envy nor Provocation are suffered to carry away the Prize by the Consent of Friends as well as Enemies were it not that he who is mercenary and fights for Pay or for Spoil can be no fit Votary to Truth which may sometimes be consistent with Mens Worldly Interest rarely advances it but can never vary with it while they who court Truth for the Dowry are often driven to Inconsistences with her and themselves and must be content to serve themselves of her thinnest Disguises Which I take to be the case of them who pretend to justify this Government upon any other bottom than that on which it really stands and may flourish in spite of open Enemies if it be duly arm'd against false Friends who ground it upon their own Fictions and flattering Schemes prepared in times with which they suited and were but like the Hypotheses of Philosophers to answer the then present Phaenomena Such Men valuing their own Reputation and Interest too much above the Publick expose it to the Contempt of the more subtile Adversaries Vid. Considerations offered for taking the Oath of Allegiance said to be Dr. Whitby's reflected upon in a Treatise call'd The Charity and Loyalty of some of our Clergy who cannot but smile to see Quietism prevail in Allegiance as well as in Devotion and them to pretend to discharge the Duty of Subjects and to deserve Protection from the Government who not only make resisting the late King damnable which implies a scrupling to defend that Government which protects them but broadly insinuate that no personal Assistance is due to keep the King and Queen in their Station even tho they have sworn Allegiance to them which shews what is to be thought of some Mens Promise constantly to pay that Fidelity and Allegiance which they have all sworn When the fit of Quietism is over and the opportunity inviting they may in the sense of some of the Brethren with a safe Conscience fight for their King de Jure Wherein it is evident that no Provision is made for the Safety of this Government but only for securing to themselves their Places of Profit under it yet no Man can believe that the Law which requires the Oath of Allegiance can give the least scope for so gross an Evasion so serviceable to that pretence of Title which it rejects Vid. The Doctrine of Non-resistance and Passive Obedience not concerning the Controversy Vid. the Preface Nor will the Jacobites be less thankful for their Doctrine who not only condemn all those whose active Zeal help'd to turn the Scale against them but allow no Title in our King unless it be by a real Conquest of the Nation or legal Succession in the Line The first of which the King not only disowns and the People would be loth to fight to maintain over themselves but according to the Objection in Elementa Politica Vid. Elementa Politica would have required a formal Denunciation of War And the last labours with such Difficulties as few can be able to resolve themselves or others in But as I am verily perswaded that our Government stands upon such a Rock as has been unmov'd for many Ages and has no need of a Lie for its Support I shall with the utmost Faithfulness address my self to its Defence wherein if I offend some of contrary Sentiments I must entreat them to answer me like Men with Reason and Authority and not in those Methods wherein they have hitherto been too successful All the Opposers of our present Settlement who pretend to talk Sense when press'd home grant that the Constitution of the English Government must be the Guide to their Consciences in this matter And tho I cannot commend those Justices of the Peace who permitted a Divine Thomas Lessey Rector of Laurence Lyddeard in Somersetshire Eminent in his Country and an Example to others to read a Protestation before his taking the Oath of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary yet I ought not to reject his Testimony that Lawyers are the best Directers of Conscience in this case The words according to a Copy of his written Paper now in my hand transmitted from the Country were these I am assured by Learned Men in the Law whom I have consulted as the best Directers of my Conscience of this case This was at last Christmas-Sessions for the County Sir Edward Philips being Chair-man that by the Laws of this Nation the Allegiance of the Subject is due to a King in Fact or in Possession of the Government provided they have been recognized by the three Estates of the Kingdom in a Publick Convention I am fully convinced of the Truth of this And this is a Reason prevails with me to swear Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary The great Unhappiness of this Nation is that Divines not only set up for the greatest States-Men but will pretend to be the best Lawyers and Casuists in these Points of which the truest Friends to them and the Church have complained Thus the late Earl of Clarendon having in his excellent Book against Mr. Hobbs Lord Clarendon's Survey of the Leviathan p. 75. tax'd some Divines of malicious Endeavours to render Monarchy insupportable by the unlimited Affections and Humours and Pretences and Power of a single Person Says others of them believe as unreasonably that the Disposition Natures and Hearts of the People cannot be applied to the necessary Obedience towards their Princes nor their Reverence and Duty be so well fix'd and devoted to them as by thinking that THEY HAVE NOTHING OF THEIR OWN but whatever they enjoy they have only by the Bounty of the King who can take it from them when he pleases Whatever such Casuists hold of the absolute and inseparable Soveraignty of Princes if I prove that King William and Queen Mary are Rightful King and Queen according to the ancient Constitution of the English Government how much soever my Endeavours of real Service to the Croâ—… may be misrepresented by Men of another Allegiance I shall hope at least to be thought to have served my Country too much infected with wrong Notions or distracted with false Mediums and to have done Justice to our Great Deliverer and those English Worthies who invited or embraced the Deliverance and by their steady adhering to the Interest of their Country avoid that Forfeiture of Protection which too many have incurred To which end I shall shew 1. That the People of England had a rightful Power lodg'd with them for the
Preservation of the Constitution in vertue of which they might declare King William and Queen Mary King and Queen of England and Ireland with all their Dependencies tho J. 2. was alive at the time of such Declaration 2. That this rightful Power was duly exercis'd in the late Assembly of Lords and Commons and afterwards regularly confirmed by the same Body in full Parliament 1. As to the Nations rightful Power I shall not go about to refute the fond Notion of an absolute Patriarchal Power descending from Adam to our Kings in an unaccountable way because tho if this were true there could be no more Compact between Princes and their People than is between Fathers and Children for establishing the Rights of Fatherhood Patriarcha non Monarcha Ed. An. 1681. Two Treatises of Government In the former the false Princeples and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer and his Followers are detected and overthrown Ed. Anno 1690. Heylyn 's Certamen Epistolare p. 386 387. yet the difference between a Patriarchal and Monarchical Authority is so well stated and prov'd by my Learned Friend Mr. Tyrril that few besides the unknown Author of the two late Treatises of Government could have gained Reputation after him in exposing the false Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer and his Admirers one of which Dr. Heylyn in his Letter to Sir Edward Filmer the Son speaking of his Father says His eminent Abilities in these Political Disputes exemplified in his judicious Observations on Aristotle's Politicks as also in some Passages on Grotius Hunton Hobbs and other of our late Discoursers about Forms of Government declare abundantly how fit a Man he might have been to have dealt in this Cause which I would not willingly should be betrayed by unskilful handling and had he pleased to have suffer'd his excellent Discourse called Patriarcha to appear in publick it would have given such Satisfaction to all our great Masters in the Schools of Polity that all other Tractates in that kind had been found unnecessary This he says might have serv'd for a Catholicon or general Answer to all Discourses of this kind Since Sir Robert Filmer and Dr. Heylin were our late Observator's Predecessors in guiding the Inferior Clergy 't is not to be expected that they should nicely enquire into the Errors and Contradictions of their Leaders but the Doctor 's scandalous Reflections upon the Reformation in England and the Misfortunes of Charles the First in some measure at least occasion'd by the Countenance given to Sybthorpism Manwarism and Filmerism may justly raise a Prejudice against these Men and their Doctrines in the thinking Laity and those who are not able to think of themselves may take every Morning some Pages of the two Treatises of Government for an effectual Catholicon against Nonsense and Absurdities which have nothing to recommend them but Stile and Names cried up among a Party Vid. Dr. Heylyn's Stumbling-Block of Disobedience and Rebellion Wherefore I may well think that I may pass over the Stumbling-Blocks which such Men lay in the way to my Proof that the Power whereby this Nation is govern'd is originally under God derived from the People and was never absolutely parted with Hooker 's Ecclesiastical Polity lib. 1. f. 10. Many have cited the Authority of the Judicious Hooker till it is thread-bare to prove that it is impossible there should be a lawful Kingly Power which is not mediately or immediately from the Consent of the People where 't is exercised The present Bishop of Worcester whose Name will undoubtedly be held in no less esteem in future Ages Irenicum p. 132. is as express in his Irenicum That all civil Societies are founded upon CONTRACTS and COVENANTS made between them which saith he is evident to any that consider that Men are not bound by the Law of Nature to associate themselves with any but who they shall judg fit That Dominion and Propriety were introduced by free Consent of Men and so there must be Laws and Bonds fit Agreement made and Submission acknowledged to these Laws else Men might plead their natural Right and Freedom still which would be destructive to the very Nature of those Societies When Men then did part with their natural Liberties two things were necessary in the most express Terms to be declared 1. A free and voluntary Consent to part with so much of their natural Rights as was not consistent with the well-being of Society 2. A free Submission to all such Laws as should be agreed upon at their entrance into Society or afterwards as they see Cause But when Societies were already entered into and Children born under them no such express Consent was required in them being bound by virtue of the Protection which they find from Authority to submit to it and an implicit Consent is suppos'd in all such as are born under that Authority The Account which the Learned Cragius gives of the first Institution of Kingly Government seems to deserve not to be omitted Quum multa iracundè multa libidinosè multa avarè fierent c. Cragius de Feudis f. 2. Vid. The like account in Sir Will. Temple 's admirable Treatise of Monarchy among his Miscellanies So Bracton Rex à regendo non à regnando Jus dicebant When many things were acted wrathfully many things lustfully many things avariciously the best Man of a Society was chosen who might take Cognizance of the Offence or Injury and determine what was equal among Neighbours Thus were Judges constituted in every City for the sake of distributing Justice These were call'd Kings for Kings at the beginning were no more than Judges having their Denomination from ruling Each presided over his own City that is administred Justice Hence that multitude of Kings in Holy Writ To descend from generals to the Romans in particular whose Emperors were suppos'd to have been the most absolute and that the Obedience to Higher Powers required in the Gospel is to be taken from the measures of Subjection due to them Dr. Hicks Dr. Hicks his Jovian the great Maintainer of the Absolute Power of Monarchs takes a great deal of Pains to shew that the Empire was not Hereditary and by Consequence that their Power was immediately vested in the particular Emperors by the Consent of the Legions or other People who set them up Saravia as careful of the Rights of Princes owns Saravia de Imp. Author f. 159. That by the Roman Law the Crime of Laesa Majestas or Treason is defin'd to be that which is committed against the People of Rome and its Security Where he confines it to Crimes against the People only Vid. Tacitus p. which indeed agrees with the dying Speech of an old Roman in Tiberius his time But that in the Eye of our Law there may be a Laesa Majestas Vid. Glanv p. 1 Crimen quod in legibus dicitur crimen Laesae Majestatis ut de nece vel seditione
Tom. 4. f. 154. Resp circumscripta in integrum restituitur perinde ac pupillus vel adolescens Vid. Cic. de Legibus Salus populi Suprema Lex esto Inter Leges 12. Tabularum of which Tacitus says Accitis quae usquam egregia compositae duodecim Tabulae finis aequi juris Tacitus Ed. Plant. p. 90. and at liberty to renounce the obligations which it has entred into against its benefit which is the Supream Law But I shall stop their Mouths who object these Statutes and maintain That according to what themselves receive for Law the Parliaments which Enacted these Declarations had no power so to do and then the Law must stand as it did For this let us first hear Mr. Sheringham whose Authority few of these Men dispute They that lay the first foundation of a Commonwealth Sheringham of the King's Supremacy p. 41. have Authority to make Laws that cannot be altered by Posterity in the Matters that concern the Rights both of King and People For Foundations cannot be removed without the Ruin and Subversion of the whole Building Wherefore admit the Acts had been duely made according to him they would be void if the Fundamental Law were as I have shewn However I am sure I can irrefragably prove to them who will not have a Nation sav'd without strict form of Law That the Parliament which made those Acts had no Power at the time of making them being by the express words of a former Statute repealed Triennial Act 16 Car. 1. Nota There was no attempt to repeal this till 16 Car. 2. The Triennial Act 16 Car. 1. provides in a way not easily to be defeated not only for holding a Parliament once within three years at least but that all Parliaments which shall be Prorogued or Adjourned or so continued by Prorogation or Adjournment until the Tenth of September which shall be in the third year next after the last day of the last Meeting of the foregoing Parliament shall be thenceforth clearly and absolutely dissolved Now say I That Parliament which Enacted these Laws had sat beyond that time Ergo c. These were made in the Parliament next after the Convention which brought in the King Brook tit Commission N. 21. Ib. tit Officer n. 25. vid. Stat. 17. C. 1. Every thing or things done or to be done for the Adjournment Prorogueing or Dissolving of this Parliament contrary to this present Act shall be utterly void Anno 1647. Vid. Hist of the Civil-Wars f. 207. which they I am sure will not call a Parliament Wherefore we must go back to the first long Parliament which upon their own Rule Rex est caput finis Parliomenti was dissolv'd by the Death of C. 1. Anno 1648. notwithstanding the Act for making it perpetual which indeed by the words of it seems only to provide against any Act of the King to the contrary without their consent but by the Death of the King that Parliament lost the being which before it had as it was under him when it was Parliamentum nostrum the Parliament of Charles 1. and so expired Anno. 1648. by Act in Law And perhaps it s own breaking up in Confusion before was in Law an Adjournment sine die working a dissolution by either of which that Parliament was Dissolved more than three years before the meeting of that Parliament which made the Statute in question which Parliament Assembled Anno 1661. and was ipso facto dissolved when it attempted to make those Statutes it having been continued by Prorogation or Adjournment beyond the Tenth of September in the third year after the Dissolution of the last Parliament of Charles the first which was the next foregoing legal Parliament according to strict form For the Parliament which brought in Charles 2. Anno 1660. was not summoned by the King's Writs consequently the Parliament 1661. having according to them no power after it had continued as above whatever was the Ancient Law in this Matter remains as it did before those Laws If it be objected That the necessity of the times had dispensed with the Letter of the Triennial Act as to this Particular 1. They who would plead these Statutes cannot urge this since they will not allow of greater necessity to Authorize the Maintaining and Restoring the Constitution But surely however necessity might support our Laws it shall not such as alter the Constitution but every legal advantage shall be taken for restoring it 2. The necessity was not absolute for the first Parliament of Charles the Second might have continued together as long as they could sit without Prorogation or Adjournment and be good for a day at least time enough to have Repealed the former Statute as to that part and to qualify themselves for a longer continuance In short they with whom our Dispute is are either for the unalterableness of Fundamentals according to which what I have shewn remains notwithstanding all efforts to the contrary or else all of a sudden they have a mighty Zeal for the strict Letter of the Law by which that Parliament which endeavoured to alter the Fundamental Contract was ipso facto dissolved before such attempt However since the Question is not about a Coercive Power over Kings but barely concerning Allegiance to them Quum aufertur ratio juramenti juramentum cessat ratione eventus qui casus est eorum qui juraverunt se obedituros Domino aut Principi alicui qui postea cessat esse talis Amesius de Juramento lib. 4. c. 22. whenever he who was King ceases to be so either by the Act of God or the Law the Obligation of Allegiance necessarily determins as the subject matter of it fails But lest the Liberty allowed in extraordinary Cases be used as a Cloak for maliciousness I shall restrain it with the Authority of the Learned Pufendorf In Contracts by which one is made subject to Another Sam. Pufendorf de Interregnis p. 272. this has the Right of Judging what the Subject is to perform and has also a Power conferr'd of compelling him to performance if he refuses which Coercive Power is by no means reciprocal Wherefore he who Rules cannot be called in question for breaking his Contract Omnem Reipublicae curam abdicaverit dolo malo unless he either wholly Abdicate the Care of the Government or become of an Hostile mind towards his People or manifestly with evil Intention depart from those Rules of Governing upon observance of which as upon a Condition the Allegiance of the Subjects depends Which is very easie for any one who Governs always to shun if he will but consider that the highest of Mortals are not free from the Laws of Humane Chance But that the Judicial power of the people so qualified as above is not peculiar to England might appear by the Customs of most Neighbouring Nations For Denmark Sweedland and Norway which had anciently three distinct Negatives in the Choice of a
to keep Men in obedience to him who has the Power of punishing the disobedient Wherefore the meaning may be That no Man who departs from his Duty of Allegiance to the present King shall save himself by pleading that he had been in Arms or had done him any signal Service In short this was to be no Corban to Answer for any following departure from Duty But as the body of the Act provides only for the Indemnity of them who pay due Allegiance to the King de facto this Proviso may be particularly for the Kings own Security in affirmance of the Common Law which makes all Resisting the Possessors of Crowns Treason in single persons And the sense may run thus Provided that whoever declines from Allegiance to the King in possession to help another to the Crown shall not if the first happen to be Restor'd plead that the other became King de facto However this does not in the least diminish the Obligation of Allegiance to the King who shall obtain possession by the Ousting another And I suppose by this time 't is pretty evident That both the Body of the Act and the Proviso relate only to a King de facto and endeavour to free the Nation from nice speculations about the Right to the Crown For confirmation of what I have shewn to prove that the English Monarchy has been Elective within the Royal Family it may not be improper to observe how it has been anciently in Germany and France See this distinction in Nauclerus Aimonius lib. 1. c. 4. Les Soupirs de la France esclave Mem. 6. p. 83. P. 84. or France Germanick from whence we came and France Gallick branch'd out from the Ancient Germans Aimonius says ' That the Francs chose a King and plac'd him upon the Throne in imitation of other Nations which the Author of the Sighs of France inslav'd renders the other Nations of the Gauls and Germans And that Author puts it by way of question implying the stronger affirmation Whether it does not appear throughout the whole History that the French have preserved to themselves the Right to chuse within the Royal Family him who appeared to them the most fit to Protect Defend and Govern them well The German Conringius Esse quid hoc dicam vivis quod fama negatur Conringius de Negotiis Conventuum Imperii p. 417. being an Author already possess'd of that Credit which may spring out of the French man's grave I shall transcribe Conringius to this Point more at large Altho says he some think that our Kings anciently came to their Power by Succession others by Election yet it seems fit to say that a middle way was in use That the Children of Kings or Emperors did not succeed unless approv'd of by the States and yet were not pass'd by if they were worthy of the Empire For they who were come from the Royal Stock were believed to tread in the steps of their Ancestors and that they would not only preserve but exceed the glory of their Progenitors according to that of Aristotle Aristot Rhet. lib. 2. c. 16. They who are of Noble Birth are desirous of Praise and Glory For it is the nature of men to desire to encrease not to diminish or lose the goods which they had before But when the Royal Family was extinct then it was permitted the States to raise to the Empire whomsoever they pleased by an Election in every respect free So the Caroline Family being extinct the Kingdom of the Western Francs was conferr'd upon Henry afterwards called Auceps by a most free Election of the Francs and Saxons of which Translation of Power Regino in his Chronicles of the year 920 says thus Duke Henry is chosen King by the Consent of the Francs Almains Bavarians Thuringians and Saxons when however he had no prior Right to the Empire before the other Princes In the same manner afterwards Lothair a Saxon Conrade 2. a Suede Otho 4. a Saxon and many more obtain'd the Empire of Germany in the right of pure Election as Onuphrius witnesses ' But whether they were of the Royal Family Onuph Panvin c. 5. de Comitiis Imp. or obtaind the Kingdom ' only and merely by Election they were chosen by the States and People in full Conventions For which he instances in the Elections of Sigebert the Son of Dagobert In plenis Comitiis Charles and Charlemain chosen together upon the death of their Father Pipin Of Charles upon the death of his Brother and Lewis the Pious after him This manner of Chusing within the Royal Family he observes to have remain'd in the Empire to the time of H. 4. but that it was interrupted by Pope Gregory 7. who under shew of advancing the Liberties of Germany made way for the Papal Influence and Tyranny Having observed the mischief of absolute Elections he adds Indeed I should not wholly prefer mere Succession Election being quite taken away but I think this manner of Election to be best where great account is had of Blood and no Son worthy to succeed his Father is put by That the way of constituting Kings mixt with Hereditary Succession and free Election was very suitable to the manner of Ancient Germany appears at least from hence that afrer that meer free Election had been introduc'd by Hildebrand all things in Germany were in Commotion and Disorder CHAP. IX The Fourth Head of Positive Law A short Recapitulation of what has been prov'd An actual Discharge of Oaths of Allegiance to J. 2. shewn from the Authority of the Judgment past His Vsurping a Legislative Power Leaving the Kingdom without providing for the Administration of Justice and going into France This confirmed by Rastal Lord Hobart Justinian's Digests The Rescript of Theodosius and Valentinian Pufendorf de Officio hominis civis His Elementa Juris prudentiae His Treatise de Jure Gentium Grotius Pufendorf de Inter-regnis Knichen's Opus Pol. Philip Paraeus A particular consideration of what the Learned Knight Sir R. Pointz says seeming against these Authorities but shewn in truth to confirm them and to bring the Rules of the Civilians to our side That the Crown came not by Right of Descent to the next in Blood after the discharge of the Allegiance to J. 2. The Arguments for the People's having been restor'd to that Liberty which they had before the Settlement of the Crown enforc'd from a particular Consideration of the State of the Settlement Where it is shewn how the word Heirs may be lookt on as restrain'd in the first Settlement on Heirs by Gomezius his Rule The Titles of H. 6. E. 4. H. 7. and H. 8. His several Settlements and their effects in relation to the Queens Mary and Elizabeth and J. 1. The Recognition to J. 1. not extending to his Heirs And question'd Whether the Recognition was not his best if not only Title With a modest Inference That the People of England were lately restor'd
to a qualified Choice I Think I have with due regard to all colourable Objections made it appear That Allegiance may in some Cases be withdrawn from one who had been King till the occasion of such Withdrawing or Judgment upon it And this I have done not only from the Equity and reserved Cases necessarily implied but from the express Original and continuing Contract between Prince and People which with the Legal Judicature impowered to determine concerning it I have likewise shewn and exemplified by the Custom of the Kingdom both before the reputed Conquest and since And have occasionally proved That tho Oaths of Allegiance may reach to Heirs according to special Limitations as was 26 Hen. 8. yet in common intendment by Heirs of a King or Crown no more is meant than such as succeed to it according to the Law positive or implied And that whoever comes to the Crown upon either Allegiance is as much due to him by the Law of God and Nature as it was to the nighest in Blood Sanderson de Obligatione Juramenti Lect. 4 Or to use the words of Bishop Sanderson Dignity varies not with the change of Persons Whence if any Subject or Soldier swear Fealty to his King or General the Oath is to be meant to be made unto them also who succeed to that Dignity And when the Crown continues in the Blood this especially by what I have above-shewn puts the Obligation of Allegiance to the King in being out of Controversie unless it can be made appear that the Right of the former King remains or that there is some Settlement of the Crown yet in force which ties it strictly to the next I come now to prove That the People of England are actually discharged from their Oaths of Allegiance to J. 2. and were lately restor'd to that Latitude of Choice which I have shewn to be their Original Right The Lords and Commons having a Judicial Power in this matter as hath been prov'd at large their Exercise of this Power in the nature of the Thing determines the Right unless an Appeal lies from them to some higher Court in this Nation But that no Power can legally question them or any of them in this matter appears more particularly in that there is no Statute now in force nor was since the Death of Car. 2. which makes it Treason to conspire to Depose a King or actually to Depose him Vid. Sir Rob. Atkins his Excellent Defence of the L. Russel f. 22 23. But this is of the Nature of those Common-Law-Treasons which are left to the Judgment of Parliament And they who are the only Judges of their own Actions have a pretty large liberty in them especially according to them who would infer the absolute Power of Princes from the supposition of no constituted Judges of their Actions Wherefore the Defence of their Proceedings might justly seem to be superseded were it not for an ungovernable sort of men who either cannot or will not judg according to the Rules of Right Reasoning but as they will hardly admit of any Doctrine as true for which they have not the Decision of some Father or Council will believe no Action not proceeding from their imperious Dictates justifiable even in Cases of the utmost necessity for the preservation of the true Religion and just Laws for which they have no warrant from the Examples of their Forefathers or Opinions of Men whose Books have past with their Allowance Which often drives me to the seeming Pedantry of Quotations to confirm the most obvious Considerations to which my own thoughts led me The either open or more covert Matters of Fact inducing the Declaration of Lords and Commons That J. 2. has broken the Original Contract I need not now inquire into All People must own that he has if they in the least attend to the Constitution of our Government and how apparently he by his general Dispensations usurp'd a Legislative Power for the Destruction of the Protestant Religion and Civil Rights which we were in a fair way of being Dragoon'd out of by a standing Army by degrees to have been totally under Popish or Complying Officers Yet if there were no more than his Leaving the Kingdom without making any Provision for keeping up the Justice of it and going into France a Country from whence all mischiefs have of late Years flow'd upon us and our Religion Who can deny but this alone would have been enough to set him aside Rastal's Entries tit Reattachment f. 544. b. Resum c. quia extra Regnum Angliae progres fecimus nullo locum tenente nostrum sive Custode Regni relicto c. The going out of the Realm without appointing a Custos was anciently in our Law a Discontinuance of Justice Hobart f. 155. And the Lord Hobart gives it as a Maxim Cessa Regnare si non vis Judicare ' Cease to Reign if you will not judg or maintain the ' Course of Justice Vid. Leges 12. Tab. de Magistrat Many I know upon these Questions rather regard the Civil Law and that I am sure gives a home thrust in the Case of deserting one's Country and going into such an one as France is to our Nation tho it has been in too strict Alliance with our Kings The Digests say Digest lib. 49. tit 15. De Captivis Postliminio Transfugae nullum postliminium est nam qui malo Consilio Proditoris animo patriam reliquit hostium numero habendus est c. transfuga autem non is solus accipiendus est qui aut ad hostes aut in bello transfugit sed ad eos cum quibus nulla amicitia est fide susceptâ transfugit A Deserter has no Right of being restored to his Countrey For he who left his Countrey with an evil and treacherous mind is to be held as an Enemy c. But we are to take not only him for a Deserter who runs over to Enemies in time of War but also during a Truce Or Who runs over to them with whom there is no Amity either after undertaking to be faithful to his Country or else undertaking to be faithful to the other Either of which senses the words will bear 'T is likely to be said That this out of the Civil Law is improperly applied to the Prince who according to that is exempt from all Laws Imp. Theod. Valentin Caes ad Volusianum Praefectum Proetorio Digna vox est Majestate Regnantis Legibus adligatum se Principem profiteri Adeo de auctoritate juris nostra pendet auctoritas re verâ majus imperio est submittere Legibus principatum Et oraculo praesentis Edicti quod nobis licere non patimur aliis indicamus But I would desire such besides what I have observed upon the Roman Lex Regia to read the Rescript of Theodosius and Valentinian wherein they thus declare 'T is an Expression suitable to the Dignity of