cases of spoil and their accessaries or dependencies be granted hereafter Item That no Ship or Goods taken from any of his Majesties Friends shall be delivered by any other Order than upon proof made in the said Court of the Admiralty before the said Judge or his Deputy to the end that a Record may be kept of all such restitutions made to strangers to serve when occasion shall require Item That every Vice Admiral is enjoyned by this Proclamation whereof he shall take notice at his peril to certifie into the said Court of the Admiralây every Quarter of the Year what man of War hath gone to the Sea or returned home within that time with any Goods taken at Sea or the procedure thereof upon pain to lose to his Majesty by way of fine for every such default forty pounds of current money of England to be answered into his Majesties Receipt of the Exchequer by Certificate from the said Judge of the Admiralty under the Great Seal of that Office to be directed to the Lord Treasurer and the Barons of the Exchequer Item That all the Kings Subjects shall forbear from aiding or receiving of any Pyrate or Sea-Rover or any person not being a known Merchant by contracting buying selling or Exchanging with them or by victualling of them or any of their Company whereby they or any of them shall be the more inabled to go or return to the Seas to commit any pyracy or disorder upon pain for so doing to be punished presently as the principal Offenders and Pyrates ought to be Item That the Vice-Admirals Customers and the other Officers of the Ports shall not suffer any ship to go to Sea before such time as they respectively in their several Ports have duly searched and visited the same to the intent to stay such persons as apparently shall be furnished for the Wars and not for âerchandize or Fishing and if there shall be any manner of suspicion that the said person though he shall pretend to trade for merchandize or fishing hath or may have an intent by his provisions or furniture otherwise than to use the trade of merchandize or fishing thaâ in such case of suspicion the Officers of the Ports shall stay and in no wise suffer the same to pass to the Seas without good Bonds by sufficient Sureties first had to use nothing but a lawful trade of merchandize or fishing and if the said Officers shall suffer any person otherwise to repair to the Seas then above is mentioned they shall not onely answer for any pyracies which any such person shall chance hereafter to do upon the Seas but shall suffer imprisonment until the Offenders may be apprehended if they shall be living And generally his Majesty declareth and denounceth all such Pyrats and Rovers upon the Seas to be out of his Majesties protection and lawfully to be by any person taken punished and suppressed with extremity And whereas divers great and enormous spoyles and pyracies have been of late time committed within the Streights of Gibralter by Capt. Thomas Tomkins Gent Edmond Bonham Walter Janerin Mariners and divers others English Pyrates and the Goods monies and merchandizes brought into England by them have been scattered sold and disposed of most lewdly and prodigally by the means of their Receivers Comforters and Abettors to the exceeding prejudice of his Majesties good friends the Venetians whom they have robbed and to the great displeasure of God and dishonour of this State His Majesty doth expresly command all Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Admirals Vice Admirals and their Deputies and all other Officers of the Admiralty and all Justices of the Peace Mayors Sheriffs Bailiffs Constables and all others his Officers and Ministers whatsoever to use all care and diligence in the inquiring searching for and apprehending all such Pyrates their Receivers Comforters and Abettors and if they shall by their travels and cares find any of them to send them presently under safe custody to the Common-Goales of Hampshire or Dorseâshire there to remain without Bail or mainprise till the Lord High Admiral of England or his Lieutenant the Judge of the High Court of the Admiralty shall dispose of them according to the Laws in that case provided Given at his Majesties City of Winchester the 30th day of September 1603. in the first year of his Highness Reign of England France and Ireland and of Scotland the seven and thirtieth Anno Dom. 1604. An. Reg. Jac. 2. A Proclamation by King James for the Revocation of Mariners from forreign services to prevent their turning of Pyrates and to hinder Acts of Hostility to be committed on the Coasts of England WHereas within this short time since the Peace concluded between us and the King of Spain and the Arch-Dukes our good Brothers It hath appeared unto us that many Mariners and Sea-faring men of this Realm having gotten a custome and habit in the time of the War to make profit by spoil do leave their ordinary and honest Vocation and trading in merchantly Voyages whereby they might both have convenient maintenance and be serviceable to their Country and do betake themselves to the service of divers foreign States under the title of men of War to have thereby occasion to continue their unlawful and ungodly course of living by spoil using the service of those Princes but for colour and pretext but in effect making themselves commonly no better than Pyrates to rob both our own Subjects their Country men and the Subjects of other Princes our neighbours going in their honest trade of merchandize By which courses they impeach the quiet Traffique of Nations one with other leave our Realm unfurnished of men of their sort if we should have cause to use them and inure themselves to an impious disposition of living by rapine and evil means although by reason of the universal peace wherein we rre at this present with all Christian Princes and States they may have a more plentiful imployment in an orderly and lawful naâigation that at any time of late years they could have had We have thought it necessary in time to prevent the spreading of such a corruption amougst our subjects of that sort and calling whereby our Nation will be so much shandered and our Realm so greatly disedvnataged wherefore we do will and command all Masters of ships Piâts Mariners and all other sort of âea-faring men who now are in the âartial service of any foreign State âat they do presently return home inâo their own Country and leave all âch foreign services and betake themâlves to their vocation in the lawful âourse of merchandize and other orâerly Navigation upon such pains and âunishments as by the Laws of our âealm may be inflicted upon them if âfter this Declaration of our pleasure âhey shall not obey And We do also âpon the same pains straitly charge and âommand all our Subjects of that profesâon that none of them shall from henceâorth take Letters of Mark or Reprisal âr serve under
what impeachment is it to the Justice of any Judge although his sentence be revoked and and a contrary sentence given by another Judge when the parties between whome the suite is either cannot or through negligence or collusion will not alleadge or make such proof before him the first Judge as they might but afterwards before the second Judge good and sufficient proof is made a matter which falleth out every day here in England in every Civil and Ecclesiastical Court upon Appeal made from one Court to another and the like falleth out in all other Countries and yet the former Judge whose sentence is reversed thinketh not himself any whit impeached of injustice thereby That the absurdities which would ensue may by example more plainly appear if the Law should not be as we say Put this Case a Widdower in the Confines of England towards Scotland marrieth a Wife in a Parish Church publickly in the presence of a hundred Witnesses and afterwards they live together by the space of a year and have a Child at the years end upon some discontentment they both being disirous to be ridd the one of the other the woman in England sueth her Husband to be divorced from him pretending that at such time as he married her he had another wife living and produceth witnesses which prove that he had married another wife before he married her and peradventure make some probable shew that that wife was living when he married his second wife who in truth was dead before as the man could have plainly proved by twenty witnesses if he had listed Notwithstanding the husband being willing to be ridd of his wife either would not plead that his former wife was dead or else would not make any proof thereof Whereupon the woman obtaineth sentence against the man whereby the Marriage between them two by this Collusion and errour is pronounced void from which sentence there was no Appeal or provocation Now within a Month after this Divorce this man goeth into the Confines of Scotland not Ten Miles from the place where he and his divorced wife formerly dwelt and there he marrieth another woman being ignorant of the former wife and Collusory Divorce and there Cohabiteth and dwelleth with her This woman shortly after understanding of the premises and that she could not be his lawful wife but lived in Adultery with him desireth before the Judge in Scotland under whose Jurisdiction they both dwell to be devorced from him and to be delivered from her Adulterous living with him and offereth to prove all the Premises most manifestly were it not now a most absurd and abominable thing that this woman should have no remedy any where but be inforced to live still in Adultery with this man because the sentence of divorce was given by a Judge in England pronouncing the marriage between the man and his second wife to be void whereas it can be most manifestly and apparently proved that the first wife was dead before his second Marriage and so the sentence was given against the apparent Truth And what impeachment of Justice can this be to the Judge in England before whom it was never proved that the mans first wife was dead to have his sentence reversed upon new proofs made before the Judge in Scotland Now between the Ladies Case and this Case there is no difference in truth of matter and point of Law only by reason of the multitude of the witnesses the nearness of the time and place when and where these things in this Case were done the truth whereof may more easily and readily be proved than in the Ladies Cause it can though with more difficulty the cases are all one If any man shall yet doubt whether this cause can be heard and determined by the Ecclesiastical Courts in England it is desired that Sir John's Councel considering the Marriage was made here in England and the Lady and Sir John do both dwell here and by Law Sir John is not compellable to appear in any other place than in England for this matter I would tell before what Judge this matter should be heard and determined for it is to be presumed that when two persons live in Adultery together and so in continual sin and the one of them seeketh redâess and to be freed from that sinful and Adulterous Life no man will say that he or she shall be compelled to live notoriously in Adultery still and have no Judge at all to separate them and remedy this enormity If further doubts be made how where or in what manner proof shall be made in this Cause It is said that this Question doth not concern the Question what Court or or before what Judges the Cause shall be heard and determined But to this it is answered That the Proofs shall be made in such manner as they be ordinarily in all other Cases that is by the answers of the contrary part upon Oath by such witnesses as they can procure voluntarily to come before the Judges here from whence or out of what Country soever they can procure them If they will not come voluntarily then if they be within the Jurisdiction of the Judge and the Party producent think so good he shall have process to compel them to come before the Judge if they dwell so far off as that it will be too chargeable to bring thâm before the Judge then a Commission shall be granted to some Commnsioners to examine them near the places where they dwell and this if they dwell within the Judges Jurisdiction but if the witness dwell out of the Juâges Jurisdiction in any other place Realm or Country then the Judge of the Cause may direct requisitory to the Judges of the places or Countries where the witness dwells to intreat them to examine the witness remaining there by their Authority and to send them depositions to the Judge of the Cause Also by the Records of other Courts or any other Instruments or Writings which may any way further the Cause these being the ordinary and usual courses used for makeing of Proof in every Cause every day and will not be denyed by any acquainted with the proceedings in any Ecclesiastical or Civil Courts Anno Dom. 1611. An. Reg. Jac. 9. The Commission and Warrant for the Condemnation and burning of Bartholomew Legatt who was burnt in Smith-feild in London 1611. for Heretical Opinions JAmes by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and âreland defender c. To our right Trusty and well beloved Councellor Thomas Lord Elsmere our Chancellor of England Greeting Where the Reverend Father in God John Bishop of London haveing judicially proceeded in a Cause of Heresy against Bartholomew Legatt of the City of London in the Diocess of the Bishop of London concerning divers wâcked Erours Heresies and Blasphemous Opinions holden affirmed and published by the said Bartholomew Legatt and châifly in these thirteen Blasphemous Posââons following viz. That the Creed called the
4. That Christ our Saviour took not Humane Flesh of the Substance of the Virgin Mary his Mother and that that Promise the Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head was not fulfilled in Christ 5. That the Person of the Holy Ghost is not God Coequal Coeternal and Coessential with the Father and the Son 6. That the three Creeds viz. the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed the Athanasian Creed are the Heresies of âe Nicolaitaines 7. That he the âid Edward Wightman is that Proâhet spoken of in the Eighteenth of âeuteronomy in these words I will âise them up a Prophet c. and that âat place of Isaiah I alone have troden âe Wine-press and that that place âhose Fan is in his hand are proper âd personal to him the said Edward âightman 8. And that he the said âightman is that Person of the Holy âhost spoken of in the Scriptures âd the Comforter spoken of in the âxteenth of St. John's Gospel 9. And at those words of our Saviour Christ the Sin of Blasphemy against the âoly Ghost are meant of his Person ââ And that that place the Fourth ââ Malachy of Elias to come is âewise meant of his Person 11. That âe Soul doth sleep in the Sleep of âe First Death as well as the Body âd is mortal as touching the Sleep âe first Death as the Body is And ât the Soul of our Saviour Jesus ârist did sleep in that Sleep of Death well as his Body 12. That the Souls of the Elect Saints Departed are not Members possessed of the Triumphant Church in Heaven 13. That the Baptizing of Infants is an abominable Custom 14. That there oughâ not in the Church the use of the Lords Supper to be celebrated iâ the Elements of Bread and Wine and the use of Baptism to be celebrated in the Element of Water as they are now practised in the Church of England but that the use of Baptism iâ to be administred in Water only to Converts of sufficient Age and Understanding converted from Infidelity to the Faith 15. That God hath ordained and sent him the said Edwarâ Wightman to perform his part in the Work of the Salvation of the World to deliver it by his Teaching or Admonition from the Heresie of the Nicolaitanes as Christ was ordained and sent to save the World and by hiâ Death to deliver it from Sin and to reconcile it to God 16. And thaâ Christianity is not wholly professed and preached in the Church of England but only in part wherein he âhe said Edward Wightman hath before the said Reverend Father as alâo before our Commissioners for Cauâes Ecclesiastical within our Realm of England maintained his said most âerilous and dangerous Opinions as âppeareth by many of his Confessions âs also by a Book Written and Subscriâed by him and given to us for the which his damnable and heretical Oâinions he is by Divine Sentence declared by the said Reverend Father âhe Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield with the Advice and Consent of Learned Divines and others Learned in âhe Law assisting him in Judgment âustly adjudged pronounced and declared to be an obstinate and incorrigible Heretick and is left by them under the Sentence of the great Excommunication and therefore as a Corrupt Member to be cut off from âhe rest of the Flock of Christ lest he should infect others professing the true Christian Faith and is to be by our Secular Power and Authority as an Heretick punished As by the Significavit of the said Reverend Father in God the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield bearing Date at Lichfield the Fourteenth day of December in the Ninth Year of our Reign and remaining in our Court of Chancery more at large appeareth And although the said Edward Wightman hath since the said Sentence pronounced against him been often very charitably moved and exhorted as well by the said Bishop as by many other Godly Grave and Learned Divines to dissuade revoke and remove him from the said Blasphemous Heretical and Anabaptistical Opinions yet he arrogantly and willfully resisteth and continueth in the same We therefore according to our Regal Function and Office minding the Execution of Justice in this behalf and to give Example to others lest they should attempt the like hereafter have Determined by the Assent of our Council to will and require and do hereby Authorize and Require You our said Chancellour immediately upon the Receit hereof to award and make out under Our Great Seal of England Our Writ of Execution âccording to the Tenor in these presents ensuing And these presents shall âe your sufficient Warrant and Discharge for the same Then was a Warrant granted by the King to the Lord Chancellour of England to award a Writ under the Great Seal to the Sherriff of Lichfield for Burning of Edward Wightman delivered over to the Secular Power by the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield The Warrant THE Kng to the Sheriff of Our City of Lichfield Greeting Whereas the Reverend Father in Christ Richard by Divine Providence of Coventry and Lichfield Bishop hath signified unto Us That he judicially proceeding according to the Exigence of the Ecclesiastical Canons and of the Laws and Customs of this our Kingdom of England against one Edward Wightman of the Parish of Burton upon Trent in the Diocess of Coventry and Lichfield of and upon the Wicked Heresies of Ebion Cerinthus Valentinian Arrius Macedonius Simon Magus of Manes Manichees Photinus and of the Anabaptists and other Arch Hereticks and moreover of other cursed Opinions belched by the Instinct of Satan excogitated and heretofore unheard of the aforesaid Edward Wightman appearing before the aforesaid Reverend Father and other Divines and Learned in the Law assisting him in Judgment the aforesaid Wicked Crimes Heresies and other detestable Blasphemies and Errors stubbornly and pertinaciously knowingly maliciously and with an hardened Heart published defended and dispersed by definitive Sentence of the said Reverend Father with the Consent of Divines Learned in the Law aforesaid justly lawfully and Canonically against the said Edward Wightman in that part brought stands adjudged and pronounced an Hereâick and therefore as a diseased Sheep âut of the Flock of the Lord lest our âubjects he do infect by his Contaâion he hath decreeed to be cast out ând cut off Whereas therefore the Holy Mother-Church hath not furâher in this part what it ought more âo do and prosecute the same Reveâend Father the same Edward Wightman as a Blasphemous and Condemâed Heretick hath left to our Secuâar Power to be punished with Conââign Punishment as by the Letters Patents of the aforesaid Reverend Father the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in this behalf thereupon made is certified unto us in our Chancery We therefore as a Zealot of Justice and a Defender of the Catholick Faith and willing that the Holy Church and the Rights and Liberties of the same and the Catholick Faith to maintain and defend and such like Heresies and Errors every
where so much as in us lies to âoot out and extirpate and Hereticks so convict to punish with Condigâ Punishment holding that such an Hâretick in the aforesaid Form Conviââ and Condemned according to thâ Laws and Customs of this our Kingdom of England in this part accustomed ought to be Burned with Fireâ We command thee that thou cause the said Edward Wightman being iâ thy Custody to be committed to the Fire in some publick and open Placeâ below the City aforesaid for the Cause aforesaid before the People and the same Edward Wightman in the same Fire cause really to be Burned in the Detestation of the said Crime and for manifest Example of other Christians that they may not fall into the same Crime And this no ways omit under the Peril that shall follow thereon Witness c. Anno Dom. 1616. An. Reg. Jac. 14. â Order of the King 's Privy Council sent to the Peers of the Realm for the Tryal of the Earl and Countess of Somerset Whitehall Apr. 24. 1616. AFter our very hearty Commendations to your Lordship âhereas the King 's Majesty hath reâved that the Earl of Somerset and âe Countess his Wife lately indicted âf Felony for the Murder and Poyâning of Sir Thomas Overbury then âs Majesties Prisoner in the Tower âall now receive their Lawful and âublick Tryal by their Peers immeâately after the end of this present âaster Term. At the Tryal of which âoble Personages your Lordship's âresence as being a Peer of the Realm ând one of approved Wisdom and Inâgrity is requisite to pass upon them âhese are to let your Lordship understand that his Majesties Pleasure ââ and so commandeth by these our Leâters that your Lordship make youâ repair to the City of London by thâ Eleventh day of the Month of Mââ following being some days before thâ Tryal intended at which time youâ Lordship shall understand more of hiâ Majesties Pleasure So not doubtinâ of your Lordships Care to observe hâ Majesties Directions we commit yoâ to God Your Lordships very loving Friends G. Cant. T. Ellesmere Canc. Fenton E. Wotton Tho. Lake Lo. Dare. C. Edmonds E. Worcester Lenox P. Herbert R. Winwood F. Grevyll J. Caesar âhe Speech of Sir Francis Bacon at the Arraignment of the Earl of Somerset the Countess having received the King's Pardon âT may please your Grace my Lord High Steward of England and you ây Lords the Peers You have here âefore you Robert Earl of Somerset ââ be Tried for his Life concerning âe Procuring and Consenting to the âoysoning of Sir Thomas Overbury ââen the King's Prisoner in the Tower âf London as an Accessary before the âact I know your Honours cannot beâold this Noble Man but you must âemember the great Favours which âhe King hath conferred on him and âust be sensible that he is yet a Memâer of your Body and a Peer as you âre so that you cannot cut him off ââom your Body but with grief and âherefore you will expect from us that give in the King's Evidence sound ând sufficient matter of Proof to satisfie your Honours Consciences As for the manner of the Evidence the King our Master who amongst other his Vertues excelleth in that Vertue of the Imperial Throne which is Justice hath given us Command that we should not expatiate nor make Invectives but materially pursue the Evidence as it conduceth to the points in question A matter that though we are glad of so good a Warrant yet we should have done of our selves For far be it from us by any Strains of Wit or Arts to seek to play Prizes or blazon our Names in Blood or to carry the Day other ways than on sure grounds We shall carry the Lanthorn of Justice which is the Evidence before your Eyes upright and so be able to save it from being put out with any grounds of Evasion or vain Defence not doubting at all but that the Evidence it self will carry that Force as it shall need no Advantage or Aggravation First My Lords The Course that will hold in delivery of that which shall say for I love Order is First I will speak something of the Nature and Greatness of the Offence which is now to be Tried not to weigh down my Lord with the greatâess of it but rather contrariwise to âew that a great Offence needs a âood Proof And that the King howâever he might esteem this Gentleâan heretofore as the Signeâ upon his âinger to use the Scripture Phrase âet in such a Case as this he was to âut it off Secondly I will use some few words âouching the Nature of the Proofs which in such a Case are competent Thirdly I will state the Proofs And Lastly I will produce the âroofs either out of Examination ând matters of Writing or Witnesses âiva voce For the Offence it self it is of Crimes âext unto High Treason the greatest is the foulest of Felonies It hath âree Degrees First It is Murder by Impoysonment Secondly It is Muâder committed upon the King's Prisoner in the Tower Thirdly I might say it is Murder under the colour â Friendship but that it is a Circumstance Moral and therefore I leavâ that to the Evidence it self For Murder my Lords the firââ Record of Justice which was in thâ World was Judgment upon a ãâã therer in the Person of Adam's First born Cain and though it was not punished by Death but Banishment and marks of Ignominy in respect of the Primogenitors or the Population oâ the World yet there was a severâ Charge given that it should not gââ unpunished So it appeareth likewise in Scripture that the Murder of Abner by Joab though it were by David respited in respect of great Services past or reason of State yet it was not forgotten But of this I will say no more because I will not discourse It was ever admitted and ranked in God's own Tables That Murder is of Offences between man and man next unto High Treason and Disobedience to Authority which sometimes have been referred to the first Table because of the Lieutenancy of God in Princes the greatest For Impoysonment I am sorry it should be heard of in our Kingdom It is not nostri generis nec sanguinis pecâatum it is an Italian Comfit fit for the Court of Rome where that person that intoxicateth the Kings of the Earth is many times really intoxicaâed and poysoned himself but it hath three Circumstances which makes it grievous beyond other matters The First is That it takes a man away in full peace in God's and the King's peace that thinks no harm âut is comforting of Nature with Reâection and Food so that as the Scripture saith his Table is made a Snare The Second is That it is easily committed and easily conceal'd and on âhe other side hardly prevented and hardly discovered For Murder by violence Princes have Guards and Private Men have Houses Attendants and Arms. Neither can such Murder be committed but Cum sonitu with some