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england_n	henry_n	king_n	westminster_n	3,051	5	10.0412	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80048	Judges judged out of their own mouthes or the question resolved by Magna charta, &c. Who have been Englands enemies, kings seducers, and peoples destroyers, from Hen. 3. to Hen. 8. and before and since. Stated by Sr. Edvvard Coke, Knt. late L. Chief Justice of England. Expostulated, and put to the vote of the people, by J. Jones, Gent. Whereunto is added eight observable points of law, executable by justices of peace.	Jones, J., Gent.; Coke, Edward, Sir, 1552-1634.; England. Magna Charta.	1650 (1650)	Wing C4938; Thomason E1414_1; ESTC R13507	46,191	120

Gratis and no Judge to take any Fee or Reward for any thing but of himself Eightly Do they not deny Justice when they deny such Writs Gratis Ninthly Do they not defer Justice when they detain poor men that are Bailable in Prison while they have sufficient men ready to tender for their Bail till they be forced to borrow money of other friends and to send far and stay long before they can receive it to loose their Bail in the interim and be forced to seek others by which delays their Goalers Fees increase and their Dyer Lodging and Expences draw charges which they might have saved to find Bread for their Wives and Children at home who perhaps are forced to fast by that means and to sell or pawn their Cows or Clothes for this money this damnable money thus extorted by a Judge for scribling his Infamous name to a Writ which doth but wrap a man and his cause faster in his clouches O Merciless Miserable Mercinary Judge that can neither give nor lend so little as his name to so much goodness in Policie if not in Charity to give a man Liberty to breath and take leave of his Home upon security of more advantage both to Court and Party than his imprisonment to return to his Pinfold Radamanth himself abhorreth such foolish covetousness Do they not defer Justice when by their Writs they cause Indictments Informations and just Suits Commenced in other competent and more proper Courts in all parts of the Kingdom to be removed to Westminster and there detained without any Tryal these 40 years How many thousands of Papists and heinous Malefactors that should have been punished in and by their Counties and Courts at home have by this means found Westminster and its Courts their onely Sanctuaries and Priviledges for none but Eminent Opulent Impenitent Offendours But is not Justice denyed when any Bailable man is denyed to be Bailed Or more when Bail is accepted upon Oath for its sufficiency and is denyed to be Filed and the Party so Bailed in Law detained Prisoner still at the Judges and Planriffs pleasures Briefly Is not the Administration of all the Law and Justice in England Ingrossed and Monopolized at Westminster where the Judges and Courts assume to be chief and do exercise a plenary jurisdiction over all others so that they suffer none but themselves to erre or to abuse Law nor any to accomplish any Justice or to reform any Errors but onely themselves who do pretend to correct all in their Exchecquer-Chamber where instead of correcting any they confirm their own which must be all as aforesaid Lastly is it unknown that they were wont to Buy their Offices of the Kings Servants and therefore to Sell their Under-Offices to their own Servants Attorneys c. And was not this the Buying and Selling of Justice that is yet unpaid for had need so to be Reformed Is it any reason that any should Buy Justice and not Sell it for gain by the Bargain Is it not Bought to that end Is it not to that end Judges neglect to give Attorneys their ancient Oath whereby they were wont to be Sworn to do no Falshood nor cause any to be done in their Courts and if they knew any to give knowledge thereof to the Judges c. that they should increase no Fees c. as you may read it at large in the latter end of the Attorneys Academy Is it not to the same end that Judges neglect to give all Plantiffs for Trespass their Oaths that the Trespass amounteth to 40 f or more or else let the Suit be Tryed in the Sheriffs Court at home according to the Statute of Glocester 6. Ed. 1. cap. 8. And is it not likewise to the same end they neglect to take security of all Plantiffs to prosecute all Actions with effect or pay Costs and Damages to the Defendants if they prove not their Issues which Judges anciently used to do and still ought before any Declaration be admitted or Plea required as saith the Mirror of Justice fol. 64. b. Is it not to the same end the Chancery neglecteth to take the Oath of all Complainants to make good their Bills in all points or pay Costs and Damages in case they fail and that before any Sub-poena be granted them according to the Statute 15. H. 6. cap. 4º And were not all well ended if all the end were that none were forsworn for Injustice but the chief Justices though comfortless for them to be so wretched as to have no associates is it not the worse for the People that their Ministers which ought to be Sworn as aforesaid are not Whereby old Attorneys without hazard of Perjury lead young Judges Sworn to what they know not to do what they should not as when so many subtil and lying Mercuries direct so many covetous and blind Cupids to shoot forth their arrows that they may stick them where they please and commend the shooters for hitting the marks that yield them the best sports of the gain The rest of this Charter I shall omit as aforesaid for the reasons aforesaid and shall conclude this with the beginning of another made in Confirmation Renovation and Perpetuation thereof by King Edward the first in the 28 year of his Reign as followeth viz. EDWARD by the Grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Guyen To all Arch-Bishops c. greeting We have seen the great Charter of the Lord Henry our Father of the Liberties of England in these words And so beginneth the Charter as aforesaid and ondeth this and it together saying We ratifying and approving these gifts and grants aforesaid confirm and make strong the same for us and our Heirs perpetually and by tenor of these presents renew the same Willing and granting for Vs and Our Heirs that this Charter and all and singular its Articles for evermore shall be stedfastly and inviolably observed And if any Article in the same Charter conteined yet hithirto peradventure hath not been observed nor kept We will and by Our Authoritie Royal command from henceforth firmly they be observed These c. being witnesses Given at Westminster under Our own hand the 28 of March in the 28 year of Our Reign Again where the L. C. maintaineth the Statute of Marlebridge made 51 Hen. 3. cap. 5. which saith The great Charter shall be observed in all its Articles as well in such as pertain to the King as to others and that shall be enquired of before the Justices in Eyre in their Circuits and before Sheriffs in their Counties when need shall be and writs shall be freely granted against them that do offend b●fore the King or the Justices of the Bench or before Justices in Eyre when they come into those parts c. And the offendors when they be convict shall be grievously punished by our sovereign Lord the King in form above mentioned Expost and Quer. I shall but ask Why not Justices in

Authority of Parliament but of many Parliaments such Parliaments of such Infallibility as were those wherein Magna Charta and all its Confirmations were made and grounded upon the Common-Laws of England which as all Lawyers profess were grounded upon the Law of God the Word of God the God of Christians Christ Jesus the God of Truth even Truth it self to put them in Execution If not To what ends are Parliaments or the Laws of God and man to such as dare not or will not if and when they may Doth not the Statute of Ano. 1o. P. M. cap. 12o. which made it Fellony for twelve English persons or above to assemble together of purpose to break any point of the Laws of England imply it to be Warrantable for all the People of England to Assemble together to cause the Laws of England made by all their consents to be observed and to punish not onely the Breakers but also the onely begetters and causers of all the Breakers and Breaches of all the Laws of England the onely assumers of the knowledg thereof and concealers of that knowledge from the People so that none but themselves can knowingly break the Laws because they will not let them know them Lastly If Excommunications be nothing formidable to Lawyers to make them care whether they incur or shun them but as their profit guids them Let us see what the L. Coke saith fol. 536. concerning the conclusion of this Act and the Seals that were put to it and the Oaths of the King and Parliament then and for ever for the Ratification of it omitted in the Stat. at large in Print but to be seen in the Tower Rot. Parl. 7o. Hen. 4th no. 60. begining with the word Simile c. Note saith he the Solemnitie of this Act in that all the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Berons c. did put their Seals thereunto A rare example which was done for the obliging of them the more firmly to the observation of this Act which concerned the Laws Liberties and Free-Customs of their Countrey and for their greater Obligation for the due Observation of this Act they took a voluntary Corporal Oath And let us note Expost Q. that if the Judgement of God and this Parliament hath made the Prelates sensible of their slighting of their Predecessors Excommunications seals and oaths by what justice or excuses shall Lawyers avoid the same Judgement And though the Ignorance of Mag. Charta and the Law which Lawyers have begotten caused by concealing the same from them as aforesaid can be no safe Plea for any with God or man without prayers for Remission and manifestation of Repentance yet is Ignorance a better subject for mercy than knowing wilfulness and the people while ignorant of Mag. Charta are more capable of grace for the breaking of it than when they know it if they put not the Iudgements of it in Execution against the causers of their offence Now I shall let you see that there were two Excommunications denounced against the breakers of Mag. Charta according to this Statute as followeth The Year of our Lord One thousand two hundred fiftie three Excomunic prim the third of May in the great Hall of the Ring at Westminster in the presence and by the assent of the Lord Henry by the Grace of God King of England and the Lord Richard Earl of Cornwall his brother Roger Bigor Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk Marshal of England Humohrey Earl of Herford Henry Earl of Oxford John Earl Warren and other estates of the Realm of England We Boniface by the mercie of God Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England T. of London H. of Ely S. of Worcester E. of Lincoln W. of Norwich P. of Herford W. of Salisbury W. of Durham R. of Excester M. of Carlile W. of Bath E. of Rochester T. of S. Davids Bishops apparrelled in Pontificals with tapers burning against the breakers of the Churches Liberties and of the Liberties or other Customs of the Realm of England and namely of those which are contained in the Charter of the Common Liberties of England Charter of the Forrest have denounced the sentence of Excommunication in this Form By the Authoritie of Almightie God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost and of the glorious Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of all Apostles and of all Martyrs of blessed Edward King of England and of all the Saints of heaven We Excommunicate accurse and from the benefits of our holy Mother the Church we sequester all those that hereafter willingly and maliciously deprive or spoil the Church of her Right and all those that by any craft or wiliness do violate break diminish or change the Churches liberties and Free-customs contained in the Charters of the Common liberties and of the Forrest granted by our Lord the King to Arch bishops Bishops and other Prelates of England And likewise to the Earls Barons Knights and other Freeholders of the Realm and all that secretly or openly by deed word or counsel do make Statutes or observe them being made or that bring in Customs or keep them being brought in against the said libertis or any of them the Writers Lawmakers Counsellors and the Executors of them and all those that shall presume to Judge against them All and every which Persons before mentioned that willingly shall commit any thing of the Premises let them well know That they incur the foresaid sentence Ipso sacto first upon the deed done And those that commit ought ignorantly and be admonished except they Reform themselves within 15. daies after the time of the Admonition and make full satisfaction for that they have done at the will of the Ordinary shall be from that time forth wrapped in the same sentence And with the same sentence we burthen all those that presume to perturb the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King and of the Realm To the perpetual memory of which thing We the aforesaid Prelates have put Our Seals to these Presents What though the Form of this Excommunication be Popish Expost and Quer. Is not the Substance the maintenance of Englands Liberties And is not that all which the meaning of this Law requireth If Judges and Prelates as well since King Hen. 8. as before have neglected their Duties in Itterating the charge of their Functions the first in pronoucing Sentence and the other in Executing it doth not once pronoucing once executing of such one Sentence of Law as concerneth all Ages Sexes and Conditions of People to learn and remember no less for the Preservation of their lives and livelihoods than Scriptures for their Salvation take away the plea of Ignorance from all men Shall any man commit that sin which he knoweth to be once so Declared by the Law and think to avoid punishment because not often so Declared by Law-Professours Are not all men bound to search the Scriptures and

JUDGES JUDGED out of their own mouthes OR The QUESTION Resolved by MAGNA CHARTA c. Who have been Englands Enemies Kings Seducers and Peoples Destroyers from Hen. 3. to Hen. 8. and before and since Stated by Sr. EDVVARD COKE Kn ● late L. Chief Justice of England Expostulated and put to the Vote of the People by J. JONES Gent. Whereunto is added Eight Observable Points of Law Executable by Justices of Peace Abusum ego non usum forensem damne Ex legibus illis quae non in tempus aliquod sea perpetuâ utilitatis causâ in aeternum latae sunt null abrogari debet nisi quam aut u sus ceärguit aut status aliquis Reipublica inutilem fecit Tit. Liv. lib. 4. dec 4. LONDON Printed by W. Bently and are to be sold by E. Dod and N. Ekins at the Gun in Ivy-Lane MDCL To the Right HONOURABLE HONOURABLE Right WORSHIPFULL And Well-beloved the COMMONS and PEOPLE of England Universally BEcause Magna Char. Printed in English An. 1564. and bound up with other Statutes at large too Voluminous and costly for the generality to read or buy doth yield less profit than hath been long necessary I have presumed at the instance of some to Dedicate this Treatise to you all as it concerneth the good of all that be or would be good the hurt of none that have left any unhurt wherein you shall find so many Chap. of Mag. Char. Confir Char. Art super Char. and other Statutes at large corroborating the same and the L. C. Exposition thereupon with some Expostulations and Queres of mine own as I thought requisite or convenient for these times The rest of the Charter concerning the Church yet unsetled or the Kings Tenures otherways disposed of I have omitted as useless desiring that thus much may prove useful to all undertakers of Reformation as well Martial as Civil Whose Servant to my power I shall ever be and continue with due faithfulness and humility Jo. Jones The Great CHARTER of the LIBERTIES of ENGLAND Granted to the People of the same By King HENRY the third And accorded between him and them in diverse full Parliaments as followeth viz. HENRY by the Grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Normandie and Guyen and Earl of Angeow To all Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons Sheriffs Provosts Officers And to all Bailiffs and our faithfull Subjects which shall see this present Charter greeting Know ye that We to the honour of Almightie God and for the salvation of the souls of our Progenitours and Successours Kings of England to the advancement of holy church and amendment of our Realm of England of Our meer free will have given and granted to all Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and to all Free-men of this Realm of England for evermore First We have granted to God and by this present Charter have confirmed for Vs Cap. 1. Liberties and our Heirs for evermore That the church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole rights and liberties inviolable We have granted also and given to all Free-men of our Realm for Vs and Our Heirs for evermore these Liberties under-written to have and to hold to them and to their heirs of Vs and Our heirs for evermore Here be four rehearsals saith the Lord Coke of four notable causes of the making this Law Lord Coke upon Mag. Chart. Fol. 1. First for the honour of God Secondly for the health of the Kings soul Thirdly For the exaltation of the church Fourthly for the amendment of the Kingdom And all granted to all subjects and their heirs from the King and his heirs for evermore That the great Charter might live and take effect in all successions of ages for ever Expost and Quer. The last of these causes which the L. C. in his Preamble calleth the ends for which this Charter was made being for the amendment of the Realm was saith the L. C. upon the first chapter of confirmatio Chart. fol. 529. to amend great mischiefs and inconveniences which oppressed the whole Realm before the making of both Charters viz. This and the Charter of the Forrest which saith the L. C. in his Preface were declarative Acts of the old Common-Law of the Land and no introductives of any new Law If the mischiefs and inconveniencies of the Realm were great before the said Acts were made to declare the Laws of the land which formerly the lawyers reserved to themselves till then undeclared Were there not greater since those Acts were made and the Lawes thereby declared and since the accord of King and People to keep the same inviolable when and as often as they were violated by Kings and their Counsel learned in the Laws As hereafter shall appear We Cap. 8. Debt Debtors Suerties nor Our Bailiffs shall not seise any lands or rent for any debt as long as the present goods and chattels of the debtors do suffice to pay the debt and the debtor himself be ready to satisfie Therefore shall neither the pledges of the debtor be distrained as long as the principle debtor is sufficient for payment of the debt and if the principal debtor fail in paiment of the debt haveing nought wherewith to pay or will not where he is able enough Then the pledges shall answer for the debt and if they will they shall have the lands and rents of the debtor until they be satisfied of that which they before paid for him except that the debtor can shew himself to be acquitted against the suerties We saith the Lord Coke spoken in the politique capacitie of a King L. Coke upon M. C. fol. 19. extendeth to his Successours And by Bailiffs are meant Sheriffs who write Baliva mea c. And by the words shall not seiz is expressed the Kings Grace who by the Common-Law had Execution against his Debtors bodies lands and goods And by the Statute of 33. Hen. 8. cap. 9. The Sheriff is to inquire c. and to extend all Lands Goods Chattels c. and 〈◊〉 take and imprison the Bodies as by that Stat. appeareth and as the daily practice sheweth Expost and Quer. If We extend to Successors even to King Hen. 8. Why not longer If Magna Charta was to live for ever Why not hitherto If the King of his Grace remitted by this Act the execution which the Common Law gave him before against his Debtors Bodies Lands and Goods in case of having nought wherewith to pay through decay of their estates by unavoidable necessities then the Kings Debtors obtained of the Kings Grace as much Liberty for their bodies as this King gave to all his free subjects by the 29th of this Act viz. No Free man c. And for his Estate as much as the proverb saith Where nothing is to be bad the King looseth his due If the King did not remit so much by this Act then did he gain thereby more

judgement of the Coroners of the Countie wherein they are Outlawed Are the Coroners of any Countie now adays present at every or any Countie when and where men are Outlawed Are not their names nevertheless returned as Judges of every Outlary unknown to them for the most part or all Are not those Returns false and forged and are such proceedings the due course and Proces of Law How many thousands of the Free-men of England are Outlawed yearly by such means and how many of them undone before they can reverse them How many are imprisoned thereupon and have all their estates seised for the King by Sheriffs chosen without the consent of the People and often such as purchase their Offices to gain by such means How many Outlawries yearly are so clandestinely carried that the parties so Outlawed can hear nothing thereof before they be imprisoned and their estates destroyed as aforesaid How many are further damnified by such Outlawries procured of purpose to debar them of their just suits in all Courts until they reverse them How chargeable are reversals thereof What lawfulness is it or what honour for the Courts at Westminster to make unlawfull prosit of such unlawfull practises Cannot the Judges at Westminster be contented to have counterfeit Returns of their Originals in London and Middlesex but they must also have the like Returns of their Exigents throughout the Kingdom Are not such Returns false and perjurious in the Sheriffs that make them Is it not sufficient for Judges to perjure themselves but that they must animate others to do so too by not punishing them when they know that practise Are not the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex and all the Coroners of the Kingdom made liable by this practise to Actions of the Case and to pay costs and dammages to the parties grieved Are such Judges Lawyers c. for the Peace or Profit of the Common-wealth that beget foment or suffer the causes of such Actions causelesly but for their own ends and gains Are such Courts to be called or counted Courts of Justice that maintain any Actions or Arrests upon unjust grounds or colour of any mis-begotten Laws contrarie to Mag. Charta Are not Assaults Batteries Rescues Riots and Homicides frequent upon such Arrests Are not many mens lives lost and more hazzarded and their estates ruined thereby And if a Catch-poll be killed for making or attempting such unlawfull Arrest do not the Judges use to adjudge it wilful Murther though the wronged party doth but endeavour his justifiable defence And have they not begotten a Statute for officers to plead the General issue by colour of which they justifie themselves and their creatures and condemn the guiltless Are not the causers of Murther as worthy to be hanged as the doers Are not they that maintain such Arrests to the same ends as their Predecessors Imps of the same generation Why therefore their advice desired or received in such matters Are not the Releases of Errors which Prisoners are forced to seal before they can be inlarged rather proofs of their guiltiness than acquittances of such practitioners Are not their Errors manifest to be wilfull and gainfull onely to themselves and hurtfull to the Common-wealth are such Errors or Proceedings to be called Due courses or Proces of Law Then to speak once for all is not the Due course and Proces of Law obstructed and perverted and a wrong course practised full of Errors Lies Forgeries Perjuries c. as alreadie appeareth and better shall hereafter and cannot Law be executed without such practises Doth not Mag. Char. and all its confirmations shew how it may Are not they sufficient lights and guids for the Due course Proces and Proceedings which ought to be observed in the right execution of Law And doth not the Lord Coke confess them to be such and that they never misguided any man that certainly knew them and truly followed them Fol. 526. Fourthly If no man shall be exiled c. Are not Debtors exiled from their Native Soils in Cumberland or Cornwal and from all their wordly comforts of Wifes Children Families Friends and Estates both Real and Personal when called and forced by Habeas corpus c. to attend Duke Humsrey in Pauls or Judge Owen in Westminster as good dead as any Judges living to hear or dispatch Suits by the Law of the Land in any way of Justice while the Suitors money lasts or to relieve them with any Alms when their Purses are spent And if at last sent to the Fleet or Marshalsey where they be pent up as aforesaid are they not worse Exiled than into Turkie where they may have more Liberty of Land and Sea and live in less Slavery than under Goalers in England and have more hopes to return home again like Sir Thomas Shirley and many others than from these Hells whence few find Redemption Had Henry of Bullingbrook been Imprisoned for Debt here as such now are when he was banished to France could he have hoped to be King of England except he had made all his Judges and Goalers the best sharers of all his Usurpations as all the cheating Prisoners in these places do theirs as they and their Creditors can best tell by dear and daily experience Fifthly If no man shall be destroyed c. unless by Verdict c. Are not all Prisoners for Debt who are first forced themselves to destroy their small Estates to buy bread to eat in Idleness and to pay Fees to Goalers c. and at last to Famish in the Fleet or Marshalsey c. destroyed both in Lives and Estates and their Families to boot without any Verdict given or intended for their Lives Nay are not all the Free-men of England that are or may be subject to Debts consequently subject to the like destruction And worthy so long as they suffer the Laws of England contained in the glorious Fabrick of the Great Charter of the Liberties of England built by their Ancestors for a perpetual Monument of their care of their Posterity and their Liberties for ever to be thus destroyed by an Hypocritical Generation of Pharisaical Pretenders to the onely knowledge of these Laws which by that pretence they thus pervert to destroy all honest men whom it should save and to save all whom it should destroy or punish and that for unlawful respects and considerations tending onely to their own profits and ends Sixthly If no man shall be condemned c. but by the judgement of his equals according to the Laws of the Land Are not all Debtors that are Famished as aforesaid Condemned for their Lives in effect though but for their Debts in appearance without any Verdict of their equals so intended contrary to the Law of the Land Seventhly do not all the Judges at Westminster sell Justice when they sell Prisoners for Debt their Writs of Habeas Corpus c. for money when the King would have all his Writs of Grace to be given to his Subjects

Eyre still And why not Writs Gratis sent to the Sheriff of every Countie to enquire of offences and offendors against the great Charter And doth not this Statute prove that Sheriffs ought to have such Writs and to make such enquiries And that the King referred himself as well as others to the judgements as well of Justices in Eyre as of the Justices of the Bench and that he would have his Writs granted as well against him as others and that Gratis doth it not futther prove that Kings accounted the Justices in Eyre his Justices and their Court his Court as well as the Kings-Bench how therefore doth the Lord Coke hereafter call them new Justices and their Court new Court But more of that in its place Now having done with so much of Mag. Charta as I promised and with the 5 Chapter of the Statute of Marlebridge and the 8 of the Statute of Glocester Here ensueth the Confirmation of the great Charter made at London 10 Octob. Anno 25. Ed. 1. three years before that which is Printed before it because that containeth all the Charter in 38. chapters at large and this but 7. In the First of which it confirmeth both Charters and every Article thereof both made 9º H. 3. in general words as followeth viz. Edward by the grace of God Cap. 1. Charters King of England Lord of Ireland and Duke of Guyen To all those that these present Letters shall hear or see Greeting Know ye that We to the Honour of God and of Holy Church and to the profit of Our Realm have granted for Vs and Our Heirs That the Charter of Liberties and the Charter of Forrests which were made by the Commonalty of the Realm in the time of King Henry Our Father shall be kept in every point without breach And We will that the same Charter shall be sent under Our Seal aswel to Our Justices of the Forrest as to others And to all Sheriffs of Shiers and to all Our other Officers and to all Our Cities throughout the Realm together with Our Whits in the which shall be contained that they cause the foresaid Charters to be published And to Declare to the People that We have confirmed them in all points And that Our Iustices Sheriffs Maiors and other Ministers which under Vs have the Laws of Our Land to guid shall allow the same Charters pleaded before them in Iudgement in all their points That is to wit The Great Charter as the Common Law And the Charter of the Forrest for the Wealth of Our Realm The Title of this Statute saith the Lord Coke is Confirmationes Chartarum de Libertatibus Angliae Forrestae L. C. upon Cons C. f. 526. viz. The Confirmations of the Charters of the Liberties of England and of the Forrest And true it is saith he that hereby the said Charters are expresly confirmed but they are also excellently interpreted which is a Confirmation in Law for here is nothing Enacted but is included within Magna Charta And by the Commonalty saith he is to be understood by the consent of all the Realm by Authority of Parliament and many times by the Commonalty of England is signified an Act of Parliament c. before Printing and before the Reign of King Hen. the 7th Statutes were Ingrossed in Parchment and by the Kings Writ Proclaimed by the Sheriff of every Countie this was the ancient Law of England that the Kings Commandments issued and were published in form of Writs as then it was An excellent course and worthie to be restored c. This Clause saith he is worthie to be written in letters of gold viz. That our Justices Sheriffs Majors and other Ministers which under us have the Laws of the Land to guid them shall allow the said Charters in all points which shall come before them in Judgement And here it is to be observed That the Laws are the Judges Guides or Leaders according to that old Rule Lex est Exercitus Judicum viz. The Law is the Judges Armie Tutissimus Doctor viz. The safest Teacher or Lex est optimus Iudicis Synagogus viz. Their best Synagoug And Lex est tutissimus cassis viz. Their safest Fortress There is an old legal word saith he called Guidagium viz. Guidage which signifieth an Office of guiding Travelors through dangerous and unknown ways Here it appeareth that the Laws of the Realm hath this Office to guid the Iudges in all causes that come before them in the ways of right Justice who never yet misguided any man that certainlie knew them and truly followed them The sence of the words That the great Charter is to be holden for the Common Law is that it is a Common Law to all in amendment of the Realm that is of great mischiefs and inconveniencies which oppressed the whole Realm before the making thereof Expost and Quer. Doth nor the Lord Coke by all this his expression commend this Statute very highly Why did he not in his duty cause it to be observed in his time And had not Iustices of the Forrest and other Iustices Sheriffs Majors and other Ministers of his time had they received the Great Charter with the Kings Writs power thereby as well as he to cause the said Charter to be published to the People and that the King had confirmed it in all points Why did he by neglecting his duty to send the said Charter and Writs unto them accordingly make them fail of their duties Doth not the Lord Coke confess by this clause Worthie as he saith to be written in letters of gold That Sheriffs Majors and other Ministers as well as Justices and other Justices as well as those at Westminster have or ought to have the Law of England to be their guid and ought to allow Magna Charta in all points which in any Plea shall be before them Why then do the Iustices at Westminster by their Habeas corpus and other Writs as aforesaid disturb and prevent all Sheriffs Majors c. to exercise their Offices before Judgment or after without proof of Injustice or manifest Errors committed by them in their Iudgements Why do not the Iustices at Wistminster when they have Persons and Causes brought before them by virtue of their Writs allow Mag. Car. to be Pleaded before themselves since they will suffer no others to hear it How can it be true when they do not that the Law is their guid Do not they assume the sole Guiding Learning Interpreting Exercising and Over ruling of the Law to themselves when they suffer no other Iustices or Ministers of the King but themselves to have any Judgement therein as aforesaid Why do they bely the Law so much as to call it their Guid their Teacher their Army their Synagogue their Fortress when it is manifest That their Attorneys their Sollicitors their Catch-polls and their Goalers are their Guids Teachers Supernumerous Armies and Invincible Fortresses as they trust but may be deceived

for all England divided into six See and compare Rast abridg fol. 65. and Rog. Hoveden parte poster Annal. fol. 548. The not reading and publishing of Mag. Char. is the default partly of Sheriffs not requiring it partly of the Clerk of the Crown c. not sending it to them under Seal All defaults of Sheriffs c. are inquirable and punishable by Justices of Peace as Lamb. Fitz. H. Cromp. Dali c. affirm at large 5. Observe the peoples choice resumed by this Statute when the King presumed to make Justices of P. and under that specious Title to impower them first to affront and by degrees to suppress and at last to extinguish the larger power of Conservatours A Prerogative imposture devised by Lawyers for their own advantage when they got the King to confer this creation of Justices of Peace upon his Chancellours and Keepers to whom their creatures became obliged to subject all England to Westminster contrary to Mag. Char. 5. Justices in Eyre are discontinued long since and not onely for that they were interrupted and wearied out by the Prerogative Judges and Courts at Westminster by their Certioraries Corpus cum causa Errours and other Writs as the Lord Coke confesseth in his Exposition of the Stat. called A●t super Chart. fol. 540. but also for that Justices of Assize Justices of Peace and all Oyers and Terminers by their Commissions and Magistrates of Corporations by their Charters were enabled sworn to hear and determine all Trespasses Contempts Oppressions and Misdemeanours according to the Laws and customs of England as appeareth in and by all Commissions of the Peace Oyers Terminers and Charters that have Oyer and Terminer and by the Stat. made for the first institution of Justices of Peace in the 18th year of Ed. 3d. in which year was also ordained the Oath of all Judges and Justices of Oyer and Terminer for the due execution of justice without sale delay or denial which the thrice reverend Judge Anthony Fitz Herb. admonisheth them that consider it and their duty to God and their Countrey not to break upon any conditions Nat. brevium fol. 240. d. but now the common practice is otherwise 6. Justices of Peace ought not to be seduced to transgress M. C. and the Petition of Right by any Stat. that contradicts them nor to lose the publike interest for any Prerogative usurpation but to re-assume their authority fro People to act as conservatours of the ancient peace and profit of the Common-wealth as in cases of Remitter men stand to their best Title 6. Any that Will ought to have Commissions of Oyer and Terminer for all Extortions Oppressions and Misdemeanours of Sheriffs Under sheriffs Escheatours Bayliffs Clerks and all other Officers See Cromp. Just Peace fol. 51.8 Fitz H. Nat. br fol. 112. d. And Justices of Peace and all other Commissioners that ought by their Commissions and Oaths to punish all such offences do not are no less than porjurers and the greatest malefactours of all other themselves Nor can any Writs of Certiorari Corpus cum causa Errour Supersedeas or putting out of Commission excuse or supercede them to finish their Judgements and Executions in all such causes brought in question before them See and compare the Stat. of 2. Ed. 3. and 14. Ed. 3.14 and the 20. Ed. 3.1 and the Procedendo thereupon in Fitz. H. Na. Bre. fol. 240. where it is said They shall proceed to justice according to law notwithstanding any Letter Commandment Prohibition Writ Privy-Seal or Great Seal to the contrary And if any such things be granted by the King or any of his Judges or Coutrs such a Procedendo ought to be granted by the Keeper of the Broad Seal to countermand them and to command justice judgement and execution to be done even against the King much rather against Judges who under colour of Authority and justice delude and wrong Kings and People For saith the L. Coke upon the Stat. of Marlebridge cap. 5. there is no greater injustice than when under colour of Justice men are injured but Writs of Certiorari Corpus cum causa and Errour ought to be had and granted upon proof of malice partiality injustice or errour in matter committed by any inferiour Court but not upon suggestions or bare suppositions as is used See and compare therefore all the said Statutes in this case together with M. Dearhams Manuel p. 25. Nor by any Superiour Judges or Courts that are parties or concerned in the cause See the L. Coke upon Art super Chart. 7. These oppressions are daily committed by mercinary lawyers by colour of Statutes of their own devices against Mag. C. which Stat. ought to be repealed the longer execution thereof resisted by all or any necessary means 7. The granting of Writs or Commissions to do injustice by or to stay or delay justice where it is done or doing or to deny Writs or Commissions to cause or further justice to be done which always was and yet is the practice of the Prerogative Judges at Westminster not onely to cross interrupt Commissioners legally chosen in and by their Counties as Justices in Eyre were and such and all Justices of Peace and Officers of Trust and concernement in and to the Common-wealth still ought to be is the worst of all Oppressions and a general destruction of Law and People committed by colour of an usurped Authority as saith the L. Coke upon the Statute of Marlebr cap. 5. To prevent which his Lordship further saith It is lawful for the People to take up Arms or for Inferiour Judges to commit their Superiors and that before any Verdict or Judgement because they worthily loose the benefit of Law who intend to subvert it and Subordinate authority is more to be obeyed and assisted in the execution of Justice than the Supreamest to be indured to obstruct it All this and more is to be read in effect in the L. Cokes Exposition upon Art super Char. and the Stat. of Marl●br which if executed by Justices of Peace in their Counties and Magistrates in their Corporations would soon regulate abuses settle Peace and much inable the State and Common-wealth to pay publike debts and relieve distressed Souldiers For it is Law it self as virtue it selfe invirtuateth dignifieth and authorizeth her true servants to execute her precepts and confoundeth expulseth and turneth out of her service all her unjust Stewards and underminers As Jacob and David were preferred before their elder brethren and Saul Jeroboam c. were confounded by and for their own Apostacies As in all these cases c. all Justices of Peace should be carefull to observe their Oaths and perform their duties to the Common-wealth whereof they are eminent members So no doubt the Freemen of England would be ready to assist them in the regaining and preservation of their ancient Birth-rights Laws and Liberties Deus Faxit 8. Under the Titles of Trespases Contempts Oppressions