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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54640	The pillars of Parliament struck at by the hands of a Cambridge doctor, or, A short view of some of his erroneous positions, destructive to the ancient laws & government of England to which is added the true state of the doctor's error about the Parliament, 49 H.3 / by William Petyt of the Inner-Temple, Esq. ...	Petyt, William, 1636-1707.	1681 (1681)	Wing P1950; ESTC R5699	10,164	16

THE PILLARS OF PARLIAMENT Struck at by the Hands of A Cambridge Doctor OR A SHORT VIEW Of some of his Erroneous POSITIONS Destructive to the Ancient Laws Government OF ENGLAND To which is added The true State of the Doctor 's Error about the Parliament 49 H. 3. By William Petyt of the Inner Temple Esq LONDON Printed for Tho. Simmons at the Princes Arms in Ludgate-Street MDCLXXXI THE PILLARS OF Parliament STRUCK AT By the HAND of A Cambridge Doctor OR A SHORT VIEW Of some of His Erroneous Positions c. ABout a Tear and a half since I did in a small Treatise assert the Ancient Right of the Commons of England in Parliament And therein maintained That the Commons of England represented by Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament did not begin to be an Essential part of Parliament Anno 49 H. 3. by Rebellion To which there lately came out a pretended Full and Clear Answer wherein the Author thereof affirms That the Commons of England represented by Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament were not introduced nor were one of the three Estates in Parliament before the 49th of H. 3. The Dignities Learning and Fame of the supposed Author of the Book being so great it is but fit that the Use End and Scope thereof should be better known and understood than yet it is In order whereunto I have for the Publick Good got time to make a small Abstract or Compendium of some of the Principles which the Answerer hath asserted and laid down therein Which are these following The DOCTOR' 's POSITIONS What Interest the Commons of England had in the Parliaments of the Saxon Times THere are no Commons to be found in the Saxon Great Councils Nor any thing that tends towards the Proof of the Commons of those Times to have had any Share of making Laws in those Councils The Commons as at this Day known not to be found amongst the Community of England in Old Historians In the Norman Times THat William the Conqueror claimed by the Sword and made an Absolute Conquest For without doubt there was no English-Men in the Common Council of the whole Kingdom For the English had neither Estates nor Fortunes left and therefore it could be no great matter to them by what Law Right or Propriety other Men held their Estates William the Conqueror divided all the Lands in England amongst his great Followers to hold of him The Free-men of England being French Flemings Anjovins Britains Poictovins and People of other Nations who came in with the Conqueror and to whom his Magna Charta was made not to English-men These were the Men the only Legal Men that named and chose Juries and served on Juries themselves both in the County and Hundred Courts and dispatched all Country business under the Great Officers If therefore the Justiciaries Chancellors Earls Sheriffs Lords of Mannors such as hear'd Causes and gave Judgment were Normans if the Lawyers and Pleaders were also Normans the Pleadings and Judgments in their several Courts must of necessity have been in that Language and the Law also the Norman-Law otherwise they had said and done they knew not what and judged they knew not how especially when the Controversies were determined by Military-men Earls Sheriffs Lords of Mannors c. that understood not the English Tongue or Law Or when the Chief Justiciary himself was a Military-Man as it often happened and understood only the Norman Language and 't is hardly to be believed these Men would give themselves the trouble of learning and understanding the English-Law and Language These were the Free-men which made such a Cry for their Liberties as appears by Magna Charta most of which is only an Abatement of the Rigour and a Relaxation of the Feudal Tenures the rest were but only Followers and helped to augment the Noise they were no Law-makers as this Gentleman meaning me fondly imagines For it is not probable that those Men that had the force of the Nation would permit Men of Small Reputation to share with them in Law-making Those that had the Power of this and other Nations De Facto always did give Laws and Tax the People After Symon Montford Earl of Leicester and the Numerous Barons had taken Hen. 3. and Prince Edward Prisoners at the Battel of Lewes and a New Government was framed and set up they Anno 49 H. 3. sent out Writs in the King ' s Name unto divers Bishops Abbots and Priors and to such of the Noble-men as were of their own Party to the Sheriffs of Counties Cities Burroughs and the Cinque-Ports And without doubt as others have Conjectured before Me the danger that Symon and his Privado's apprehended from the Concourse of the Nobility and their great Retinues and the Example of his and the Barons Practices at Oxford was the reason why they Anno 49 H. 3. altered the Ancient Usage and of their Sending Directing and in the King ' s Name Commanding the Sheriffs of each County the Cities and Burroughs to send Two Knights Citizens and Burgesses respectively Hence he affirms That the Commons of England represented by Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament were not introduced nor were one of the Three Estates in Parliament before the 49th of H. 3. For the Commons were not comprehended in the Common University For the Noble-men of England and Council of the Baronage were the Community of England Barones Regni called to Parliament at the King's Pleasure And what King Henry a little before his Death begun that is to call such Earls and Barons Quos Dignatus est such as he pleased Edward the First and his Successors constantly observed Having had one great Antiquary's Opinion meaning Mr. Camden ' s joyned with Matter of Fact upon the Constitution of the House of Lords Let us see the Opinion of another concerning the Origin of the House of Commons back'd also by Matter of Fact Sir Robert Cotton says the Victory at Evesham and the dear Experience Henry the Third himself had made at Oxford in the 42d Year of his Reign and the memory of the many Streights his Father was driven to especially at Runnemede near Stanes brought this King wisely to begin what his Successors fortunately finished in lessening the Strength and Power of his Great Lords And this was wrought by searching into the Regality they had usurped over their peculiar Soveraigns and by weakening that Hand of Power which they carried in Parliaments by commanding the Services of many Knights Citizens and Burgesses to that great Council These were the Reasons why those Kings followed Montfort 's pattern to secure themselves against the Tumultuous Insolent and Seditious Practices of the Barons And as according to the Opinions of these great Antiquaries these new Constitutions of Parliament had their Origin from the King 's Authority so from the

as well on the one hand to acquit my self from the real Passion of our Doctor to say no worse though common Prudence might have obliged him to more sober Considerations as on the other to vindicate and assert the Honour of our English Nation and Parliaments against his and his Author 's ill grounded Notions Which is true I must agree that the General Understanding and Judgment as well of the Kings of England as of the whole English Nation and all Foreign Writers for so many Centuries of Years have been marvellously abused and imposed upon especially King James and His late Majesty Who tell us 1. That not only the Regal Authority but the People's Security of Lands Livings and Privileges were preserved and maintained by the Ancient Fundamental Laws Privileges and Customs of this Realm and that by the abolishing or altering of them it was impossible but that present Confusion will fall upon the whole State and Frame of this Kingdom 2. The Law is the Inheritance of every Subject and the only Security he can have for his Life or Estate and the which being neglected or disesteemed under what specious shew soever a great measure of Infelicity if not an irreparable Confusion must without doubt fall upon them Lastly I will for the present give but five or six Jnstances that the Commons of England as now distinguished from the great Lords were an Essential Part of the General Councils or Parliaments before 49 H. 3. 1. Bracton a Grave and Learned Judge who flourished in the time of H. 3. and an Author beyond the Answerer's Exception after he had declared to Posterity that he had bent his mind ad vetera Judicia perscrutanda diligenter non sine vigiliis labore and whatsoever he found Nota dignum he reduced In unam summam perpetuoe memoriae commendandam declares the Rule how Laws were made not in his own only but in Ages before Cum Legis vigorem habeat quicquid de Consilio de Consensu Magnatum Reipublicae communi spontione Authoritate Regis sive principis precedente juste fuerit difinitum approbatum That that hath the Force and Power of a Law which shall be justly declared and approved of by the Council and Consent of the Great Men and by the General Agreement of the Commonwealth the Authority of the King preceding 2. The Statute of Magna Charta was made and confirmed in Parliament 9 H. 3. which was thirty nine Years before 49 H. 3. as is evident by these Authorities which say that It was made 1. De Communi Concilio Regni 2. Per Comune assent de tut le Roiaume en temps le Rey Henry nostre Pere 3. Per Le Roy Piers Commune de la Terre My Discourse pag. 1. Pag. 1. Pag. 20. in the Margin Pag. 13 14. Pag. 130. in the Margin Pag. 35. in the Margin Pag. 37. Pag. 43. Pag. 176. Pag. 35 37 38. Pag. 39. Nota. When be agrees they understood not a word of English Law or Language Pag. 30. Nota. As this is precarious so it is certainly false and impracticable and directly against Domes-day-Book and the Evidence and Testimony of the Historians and Laws of that very time Gloss. pag. 27. Nota. Let him prove it to save his Credit Nota. Why then may not the like Reason hold against the Introduction of the Commons to be first a part of Parliament by the Victorious and Numerous Barons after the Battel of Lewes Anno 49 H. 3. Pag. 210. They send out Writs in the King's Name to summon a Parliament a P. 224. Dugd. Baron fol 75● col 2. The probable cause that moved Montfort to summon this Convention Nota. How could that be when the Numerous Barons as they say had all things in their Power b Nota. Here we have the Original and all the Authorities and Proofs that the Commons as they would have it began by Rebellion 49 H. 3. Nota For no Man ever dream'd of such an Origine before the Doctor and his Author only Pag. 1. Pag. 163. in the Margin Pag. 165. Pag. 227. in the Margin Pag. 228. Nota. The Original Author of this Fictitious Change is quoted by Camden followed by Sir Robert Cotton but slighted bafled and proved evidently false by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour f. 589. 590. and contrary to the course of Histories and Records of those Ages † Nota. How came the Doctor to quote Sir Robert Cotton since he is expresly against him For if what Sir Robert saith was true the Commons were first called to Parliament by King Henry after the Battel of Evesham and then not by the Barons nor in 49 H. 3. And so they began not by Rebellion as the Doctor and his Author say Nota. Nota. Not a Syllable of Montfort's Patern in any of his Authors cited by him except his own Contemporary Author Nota. All deceived by Camden's Author not an Historian or any Record mentioning one word of such an Alteration though several lived and writ in the very time Nota. The Doctor fancies that the present Constitution both of Lords and Commons began Anno 49 H. 3. and after and was setled by E. 1. and his Successors but proves not a tittle of the matter of fact Nota. The Doctor 's manifest Error in making Writs of Summons to Magna Concilia to be Summons to Parliament Pag. 79. in the Margine Nota. Thus the Doctor insers from this Clause in the Record Et tunc fiat eis super hoc Justitia vocatis evocandis si necesse fuerit The Doctor 's Jani Anglorum facies Antiqua pag. 63 64. Nota. The Doctor to serve his turn fondly designs to destroy Magna Carta of H. 3. and make E. 1. live before his Father and Grandfather were born Nota. A convincing Argument that because the Charter of H. 3. is enrolled by Inspeximus Anno 25 E. 1. in haes verba Henricus c. Therefore it was properly his Charter and not H. 3. Ibid. 64. Nota. All this is to prop up a new and mistaken Norton that Tenants in Capite by Military Service only made the Parliament till 49 H. 3. Nota. Here the Doctor again refers to his mistaken Writs of Summons to Great Councils for Parliaments temporibus E 1. E. 2. E. 3. which he hath printed and by them would give a colour to his and his Author 's marvellous change of the ancient Government of the Kingdom Anno 49 H. 3. never found out or discovered by any before Author of Jani Anglorum Facies Nova Rot. Clan 49 H. 3. in Schedula Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales fol. 18. col 1. Pag. 221. Dugdale's Origines Jurisd fol. 18. But to point out who they were viz. Barones Majores that had their first Rise by Writs of Summons until 22 E. 1. and afterward passeth my skill there being no publick Record that doth make mention of them till then except that of 49 H. 3 Dugdale's Pref. to his Baronagium Angliae Tom. 1. The Doctor pag. 225. Nota. According to the Doctor Mr. Camden and his Author speaks not any thing of the Commons but only of the Lords and their Peers Nota. The Doctor and his Author having tack'd and patch'd together the Historian and Writs of Summons to a Parliament 49 H. 3. is their only Evidence that the Commons begun by Rebellion in that very Year Nota. These Arguments Proofs and Reasons besides many more the Doctor hath unfairly concealed from his Readers yet he hath published to the World his full and clear Answer to my Book and particularly to the eighth and ninth Arguments wherein these Authorities are urged the Doctor gives this Answer in these very words p. 143. His eighth and ninth Arguments also his first and second Observations upon the whole matter have nothing in them worth a serious Consideration In the Northern Kingdoms Adamus Bremensis saith that the Bishops after the People received Christianity were received into their Publick Councils And Loccenius reckons up among the several Estates the Bishops Nobles Knights and Deputies of the Country and Cities The learned Author of The Grand Question pag. 11. King James's first Speech to his first Parliament in England Pulton's Stat. 1 Jac. c. 2. f. 1157. King Charles the First 's Declaration to all his loving Subjects published with the Advice of his Privy Council Exact Collections of Declarations p. 28 29. Bracton lib. 1. cap. 1. fol. 1. This Authority the Doctor took no notice of in my Book Rast. Stat. 9 H. 3. sol 1. 3. Id. 12 E. 4. c. 7. It is called The Laudable Statute of Magna Charta Regist. fol. 175. Rot. Stat. 25. E. 1. m. 38. Rot. Parl. 15 E 3. num 50. dor Enprimes est accorde assentu que la franchise de seint Esglise la Grand Chartre la Chartre de la Foreste les autres estatatz faitz per nostre Seignior le Roy ses progenitors piers la Comune de la terre pur comune profit du people soient firmement gardez maintenez en touz pointz Rast. Stat. de An. 15 E. 3. ● 1. f. 82. It is accorded and assented that the Franchize of Holy Church and the great Charter and the Charter of the Forest and the other Statutes made by our ●overeign Lord the King and his Progenitors Peers and the Commons of the Land ●r the common profit of the People be firmly kept and maintained in all Points Rast. ●at 12 E. 4. c. 7. The Laudable Statute of Magna Charta which Statute was made ●r the great Wealth of all this Land and in affirmation of the said Statute of the said ●reat Charter divers Statutes have been afterwards made and ordained 1. By