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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91211	The lyar confounded, or A briefe refutation of John Lilburnes miserably-mistated-case, mistaken-law; seditious calumnies, and most malicious lyes against the High Court of Parliament, the Honourable Committee of Examinations, Mr Speaker, with other members of the Commons House; and Mr William Prynne; wherewith he hath seduced many ignorant overcredulous people. Manifesting the Parliaments extraordinary clemency towards him, their justice in their commitment of, and proceedings against him; for which he so ingratefully and falsely taxeth them, with tyranny and injustice / By William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P4002; Thomason E267_1; ESTC R212413	54,867	55

17 c. 15 26. c. 16. 13. 1 John 4. 6. c. 5. 6. A Spirit of Truth which guides true Christians into all Truth Upon this ground Solomon rankes h Prov. 6. 16. 17. 19. A lying tongue and a false witnesse that speaketh Lyes among those things which the Lord especially hates and abhominates And Saint John registers i Rev. 21. 8. c. 22. 15. Lyars and he that loveth and maketh a lye in the black Catalogue of those damned ones who shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone and shall be excluded the Caelestiall Jerusalem to k Mat. 25. 4● accompany the Devill and his Angels for Eternity in hell fire Yet notwithstanding this undeniable verity there is a new Generation of fiery zealots sprung up in the world of late who deem themselves brimfull of the Spirit of Truth and most others no better than Reprobates or Devils in carnate who like Jobs deceitfull friends are l Job 13. 4. Forgers of Lyes or like the m Tit. 1. 12. Cretians alway Lyars if not like those wicked ones whom David describes Psal 58. 3 4. They go astray as soon as they be born yea new-born into their factious separation speaking Lyes their poyson is like the poyson of the Serpent n Psal 52. 2 3 4. Their tongue deviseth mischiefes like a sharp rasor working deceitfully They love lying more than to speake righteousnesse they love all devouring words Yea o Jer. 9. 3. 5. they bend their tongues like their bow for lyes but are not valiant for the Truth and they will deceive every man his Neighbour and will not speake the Truth they have taught their tongues to speak Lyes and weary themselves to commit Iniquity even in Print being the very generation of men in the latter times of whom the p 1 Tim. 4. 1. 2. 2 Tim. 3. 3. 4. Spirit speaketh expresly that they should depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits speaking Lyes in hypocrisie having their conscience seared with a hot Iron false accusers sierce heady high-minded c. having a form of godlinesse but denying the power thereof Among the whole rabble of this lying slandring Generation there is none more peceant then John Lilburn of late years a poor obscure Apprentice in London but now a Lieutenant Colonel and Ringleader of an Anti-Parliamentary Anabaptistical Faction who forgetting all the Laws of Christianity common Civility hath abused his best Benefactors yea the very high Court of Parliament who as himself confessed saved him from the Gallows and most grosly belyed traduced his ancient Christian friends in such a scurrilous virulent unchristian maner without any provocation as no age can parallel in sundry Printed Libels which he intitles Letters wherewith he hath poysoned the minds of many poor Ignorant people of his Sect and others with prejudices against the Parliaments proceedings and filled their mouths with bitter invectives calumnies and reports against those they formerly honoured most of any Mortall● and the very Raisers of John Lilburne to all the reputation he ever gained in the world to wit Master William Prynne whose Servant he was generally reputed to be and was contented to own that Title for his own emoliment though never capable of such an Honour and Dr. John Bastwick the Printing of whose Letany which he freely bestowed on him at his request was the best stock he had and that which first made him notorious to the Prelates their opposites and the present Parliament whereas otherwise he had lyen buried in obscurity among the rubbish of the meanest vulgar scarce known to any but him selfe For my own particular I so much undervalue all his scurrilous lyes and rayling invectives against my selfe that I deeme them more worthy scorn than answer and his Libellous seditious Letter to a Friend with that unto my selfe fitter to be refuted by the hangman hand than any others But because I am certainly informed by divers That this last Letter with other seditious Printed papers of his which he hath privatly scatred among his friends have done extraordinary hurt much incensed his ignorant mis-informed Brethren of the Separation and opened the mouthes of them yea of many Royalists and Malignants against the Parliaments proceedings in his and other cases as tyrannicall illegall arbitrary unjust and diametrally contrary to Magna Charta which this grand Ignoramus had never law enough to understand in the Language wherein it was first written nor in his mother tongue as appears by his very transcribing of it wherein he writes DISEASED for DISSEISED the meaning of which Law term I am certain he understands not and that his mistaken Law embraced by his disciples as infallible Oracles hath deceived many poor silly souls and is conceived to have been learned from my selfe whose servant heretofore and now he is generally cryed up to have been when as I blesse God I never entertained him in my service nor any such turbulent factious crosse-graind peece as he shews himself I have at the motion of some friends undertaken to passe a briefe censure on this his most seditious Letter so far as it trencheth upon the Parliaments and Committees most just Proceedings and my own personall reputation both which I shall clearly vindicate from his Malicious Lyes and intollerable Libellous slanders Wherein I shall pursue this method First truely State the Parliaments most just and favourable Proceedings against him which he most wilfully falsly and ungratefully mis-relates to alinate the peoples affections from and draw down an odium upon them without the least just occasion Secondly Rectify his grosse mistaken Law his mis-interpretation of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and manifest the Parliaments and Committees proceedings against him to be warranted by both not contrary to either much lesse to be utterly Illegall Tyrannicall Unjust and destructive to the Subjects Liberties as he scandalously reports them Thirdly Recite and answer this whole Jury of most grosse Lyes and Slaunders summoned from the very Vicinage of Hell and brought by him to the Bar to give in a Verdict intentionally against my Reputation but really against his own 1 To begin with the first of these Upon the publication of my Truth triumphing over Falshood Antiquitie over Novelty in defence of the Parliaments undoubted Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction against Papists Prelats Anabaptists Independents Royalists who oppugned the same Iohn Lilburne for whom I had done sundry Courtesies but never injured in thought word or deed I know not out of what malicious schismaticall or unchristian humour before ever he had read over my book a great part whereof he understood not Writ and sent me a most rayling virulent Letter dated the 7. of January 1645. wherein he scurrilously Libels not onely against my selfe but likewise against the Synod assembled by Parliament against the Ordinances of Parliament prohibiting the Printing of Libellous and Seditious Pamphlets Bookes without speciall License as contrary to the Libertie and

examined before they ever acquaint them with their Accuser or Accusation or heare them speake one word in their own behalfe yet none ever deemed these ordinary proceedings of theirs either Arbitrary Tyrannicall or Illegall contrary to Magna Charta or the Subjects Liberties but most iust And shall not the Parliament the supremest Court have as great a liberty and power thus to summon and attach men upon informations against them onely to answer their Accusations when ripe for Examination as the meanest Iustice of the Peace doth dayly ex●rcise without exceptions How many thousands have the Lord Mayor of London the Courts of Guard and Committee of Examinations sent sor attached and restrained thus for a short space of their liberty till they could be examined before ever they knew their Accuser or Accusaton or could be brought to publike examination and yet not one of them ever made such an horrid outcry against the Legality of their proceedings as this Ignoramus who understands the Law and Magna Charta no more then a Iack-daw as one once said of a doting Lawyer But to proceed to his other falsehoods Page 7. he writes That during his imprisonment at Oxford he was ruined in his estate to the value of six or seven hundred pounds which he left behind him at Londō which he can clearly make appeare Which he likewise recites in two other printed papers This certainly is as grosse a lye as any of the former For his best and neerest friends will attest he was never worth halfe so much and the maine reason why he left the City and went into the Parliaments Forces was not so much for any good affection to the Parliaments cause as to protect himselfe against his Creditors arrests for these many debts which he incurred by renting of a Brew-house which both himself and his Father oft times told me when they repaired to me for advice in Law concerning it had quite undone and broke both himselfe and his friends who stood ingaged for him And this Libeller himself Pag. 5. insinuates as much complaining for want of recompence for his imprisonment TO PAY HIS DEBTS and buy him and his bread So that he was as much or more beholing to the Parliaments Service for protecting him from the arrests and executions of his Creditors as they were to him for any of his good services the praise whereof he hath now utterly lost and blemished by his evill Libellous and Seditious attempts against them Pag. 16. He most scandalously and falsely avers That many of the House of Commons tooke to themselves 3. l. 10. s. a weeke and some of them more and others of them great places worth 500 l. 1000 l. 1500 l. 2000 l. and more per annum and live in as great pompe superfluity and bravery as ever they did in their daies by the ruine of the Common-wealth when as thousands who have spent all they have in the world and done the Kingdome good service have not a bitt of bread to put in their mouthes c. This is a most notorious Lye the Lords and Commons having removed all their Members by a speciall Ordinance from all the Offices conferred on them by the Parliament though well deserving and fit to mannage them And when this slanderer shall make good this false charge by sufficient witnesses against any particular Members guilty of it he shall receive a fuller answer Page 5. He complaines that the Parliament and House of Commons who formerly owned him having served their turnes of him hee could never have Justice from them though he hath been as faithfull a friend to the Common-wealth as ever any they imployed And whereas Magna Charta saith Justice and Right we will deny to none we will deferre to none yet have I waited these foure yeares upon them at great expences and cannot get them to put their Votes in execution And now of late I have followed them about this six moneths to the expence of about 100 l. to get a Petition read that I might have justice and reparation but have been denied Justice and Right and could not get my Petition read which he ingeminates inculcates in sundry other pages To which I answer that it appeares by the next preceeding words that the Parliament served his turn first not he theirs First By inlarging him out of Prison and restoring him to his Liberty Secondly By hearing his cause and Voting his sentence in the Star-Chamber illegall and that he ought to have reparations Thirdly By saving him from an arraignement for his life before the whole House of Peeres about the Earle of Strafford when the King himselfe sent in an Accusation against him Aug. 4. 1641. for his seditious carriage To which he might have added and doth elsewhere relate a fourth by saveing his necke from the Gallowes at Oxford and purchasing his release by an exchange from thence to which I contributed my owne best assistance But did the House ever imploy him in any publike service to serve their turnes Surely never for ought I could learne and if they had they should have heard of it to purpose in this Letter What an ungratefull lying Merchant then doth he shew himselfe thus ill to requite the House of Commons for this their extraordinary favours to use such scandalous false speeches and Libellous invectives against them that having served their owne turnes of him he could never have Iustice from them since c. Yea but he hath waited above foure houres space and can have no reparations for his losses according to their Votes But is this the House of Commons fault Have they been backewards to doe him right or rather hath not he beene negligent and wanting to himselfe in procuring a transmission of his cause to the Lords without whose concurrence his sentence cannot be reversed nor his dammages ascertained and repaired Surely it is very well knowne to the world that my owne Sufferings Imprisonments Losses transcended his by many degrees and that the Commons Voted me Reparations and Dammages for them long before they passed their Votes for him that never yet received one farthing recompence for all my Losses Dammages eight yeares Imprisonment Exile the losse of my calling and estate in any kinde whatsoever though I presume I have done far greater more and better Services for the State Church Parliament then ever he performed for them Yet did I never complain either of or against the Parliament for breach of Magna Charta in not doing or delaying to do me Right or Justice neither had I just cause to do it since the weightier publike affaires of three bleeding Kingdomes Churches and our Bloody Wars and Schismes in all three have ingrossed all their time thoughts and deprived them both of vacancy opportunity and since of present meanes to right me in this kind in these necessitous times The like I might say of my Dear Fellow-sufferers Doctor Bastwicke Mr. Henry Burton Mr. Peter Smart Dr. Leighton Mr. Walker and

Parliament have prescribed Oathes to be given to men in their own cases in sundry particulars as the Statutes in the * 5 R. 2. c. 13. 8 H. 6. c. 7. 14. H. 8. c. 5. 3 Iac. c. 4. 5. 1 Iac. c. 15. 21 Iac. c. 19. Margin will inform you Therfore they are not simply against Law but yet the Committee of Examinations examined not Lilburne upon Oath against himselfe and they had a speciall Order from the House to examine him without Oath which they might justly do daily practise in case of Delinquency in other mens cases therfore his insolent contemptuous refusall to be thus examined by them was a most high insufferable contumacy against the Committee Parliament their Power and Priviledges for which he was most justly committed See p. 7. 8. to Newgate as the House hath unanimously voted and that according to the rules of Law Magna Charta and the Petition of Right the particular causes of his imprisonment being expressed in the forcited warrant by which he was committed to Newgate By all which it is most evident that both the Committees and Parliaments proceedings against this obstinate Libeller and Lyar have beene in every circumstance and punctilio agreeable to the constant practice rules proceedings of Law and Iustice yea warranted by Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and no wayes repugnant to them in any particular whatsoever Therefore Lilburnes seditious railing Invectives against them both in his printed Libels and his ordinary Discourses with the late most seditious printed Paper entituled A Copy of a Letter from an Vtter Barrister to his speciall Friend concerning Lievtenant Colonell Lilburnes imprisonment declaiming against his commitment as illegall and advising him to appeale to the People for right against the Parliament concerning his restraint as to the supream Power c. are but meer malicious scandalous Libels and Firebrands of sedition to excite the ignorant vulgar and Separatists of his Faction against the Parliament and promote some Anabaptists long agitated and late detected Conspiracy to root out the Members of this Parliament by degrees beginning with Mr Speaker whom if they could cut off all the rest would easily follow and if this succeeded not then to suppresse and cut off this Parliament by force of Arms and set up a new Parliament of their own choyce and Faction to which Conspiracy all Lilburnes mutinous Papers the Arraignment of Persecution A sacred Synodall Decretall Martins Eccho with other seditious Pamphlets mentioned in my Fresh Discovery of new prodigious lights and Firebrands and two new printed Pamphlets since the one entituled Englands misery and remedy in a Iudicious Letter from an Vtter Barrister to his speciall Friend concerning Lievetenant Colonell Lilburnes imprisonment in Newgate and another Paper begining thus In the 115 page c. were but so many preparatives and incentives to prepare the people to joyne with and assist them in this damnable Traytorly Plot. Having thus farre vindicated the Parliaments and Committees Iustice and legality in their proceedings against Lilburnes Notorious Calumnies Lyes and mistaken law I should in the next place have vindicated Mr Speaker with the rest of the Members of the Commons House from those groundlesse lyes and slanders he reported of them for which he was first apprehended by Vote of the House But because this matter hath been fully fifted to the bottom by the Committee of Examinations and from thence reported to the House which hath by solemne Votes acquitted Mr Speaker the other Members and Sir Iohn Lenthall from the groundlesse slanderous reports concerning them I shall only here insert the Votes and so passe it over Die Lunae 15 Septembris 1645. UPon Mr Whittacres Report of the whole state of the Proceedings before the Committee of Examinations concerning Mr Speaker and Sir Iohn Lenthall it is Resolved c. That the House doth agree with the Committee that there is no colour of proofe appearing of Mr Speakers sending of 60000. l. or any summe of money to Oxford or consenting thereunto Resolved c. That this House doth agree with the Committee that there is no colour of proofe appearing of Mr Speaker or any Member of the House holding any correspondency with Oxford Resolved c. That this House doth agree with the Committee that it was a breach of Priviledge of Parliament in the Committees of Surry and Salters Hall to enter upon any examination touching Mr Speaker or any Member of this House Resolved c. That there is not any colour of proofe of 60000. l. or any money at all sent by Sir Iohn Lenthall to Oxford or that he was privy to any money sent or received to that purpose Resolved c. That there is not any proofe against Sir Iohn Lenthall of holding any correspondency with Oxford by Letter Message or any other way Resolved c. That this Complaint hath beene raised and prosecuted without any ground at all falsly maliciously and scandalously Resolved c. That William Pendred Edward Ienkes and Hannah his wife Iames Freeze and Stephen Pratt have beene principall instigators and prosecutors of these proceedings and deserve severe and exemplary punishment Mr Selden Mr Grimstone Mr Recorder Mr Sandys Mr Whitlock Mr Lesse Sir Tho. Widdrington Serjeant Wylde This Committee or any three of them is appointed to consider what exemplary punishment is fit to be inflicted upon the malicious Instigators and Prosecutors of these Proceedings named in the Votes aforesaid and that they doe bring in their Report by Thursday morning next peremptorily And are to meet when and where they please Copia vera H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I could willingly here cast Anchor and rake no further into Lilburnes dunghill and Legend of lies pretermitting all his scurrilous Invectives and slanderous falshoods against my selfe as not worth my taking notice or any Animadversions on them but because I know the Naturall Disposition of this Libeller and his perverse Generation of seduced Disciples that they would judge me guilty of all the false Aspersions he hath cast upon me in his Libells if I should only vindicate the Parliament and its Members not my selfe and so cannot without betraying mine owne Innocency and Reputation pretermit or passe them by in silence I shall crave so much liberty and patience from the Reader as to wipe off the dirt and lying Calumnies which hee hath most injuriously cast into my face to wound and blast my credit and integrity with all of his owne Schismaticall Tribe and others to as much as in him lies though unable to effect it In his Copy of a Letter to a Friend pag. 12. he begins his railing scandalous Lyes against my selfe in stead of recanting those in his former Letter and Answer to the Committee and because I am a Lawyer he hath mustered up no lesse then a whole Iury of notorious Lyes and Slanders against me which I shall relate and answer in their order 1. The first is That Mr Prynne writ

That it was their cordiall desire not to look on the King or Parliament as divided one from another but united and would thus cordially adhere to both without siding against either c. Whereupon they humbly prayed they might enjoy their joynt favour and protection and the like liberty of Trade to both their Quarters as they enjoyed by ancient Charters between England and France during the Wars between both only with their Lawfull Commodities without doing prejudice to either side This Petition to the Parliament with Letters from Sir Philip to Mr. Pym were sent to London by one John le Coulter of Iersey bound thence for England with divers Letters from some English Captives in Argeir to their friends here about their Redemption who coming to London with the Letters and Petition presently met with some Iersey men opposites to Sir Philip and acquainting them that he had Letters from Sir Philip to Mr. Pym with a Petition from the Estates of the whole Island to the Parliament and desiring their direction how he might present them to Mr. Pym they presently procured him to be seised on by a Messenger as a Spye sent purposely over by Sir Philip whom they cryed up for a Malignant and Enemy to the Parliament without any colour or shadow of proofe took away all his Letters and the Petition which by this means was smothered and never presented to the House and if presented and Answered would doubtlesse have settled that Island in quietnesse and made Sir Philip and the whole Island firm to the Parliament After which by false suggestions they detained him above three moneths in their Custody to his great expence before I could procure his full release About the same time one Osmond Cooke a Souldier of Mount-Orguile Castle who attended on me in my Chamber during all the time of my close Imprisonment there and came into England about halfe a year before meerly upon his own private businesse to recover a house and some Lands in Beccles devised to him by his Uncle returning into Iersey from hence was in his passage thither by these malitious persons Informations seised on in the Western parts as a Spye to Sir Philip sent up Prisoner to London by Sea and there detained in Custody divers moneths Notwithstanding there was no proof of any thing at all against him but meer suggestions behinde his back the which to my knowledge were false Whiles these two parties were thus Imprisoned Sir Philips Adversaries by their malitious suggestions of his dangerous malignity and Enmity to the Parliament and importunate solicitations procured an Order from the close Committee for Major Lidcot and some other Officers with six very good brasse Ordnance and sundry Musquets Barrells of Powder Match and Ammunition to be sent into Iersey to apprehend Sir Philip as an enemy to the Parliament to besiege and take in the Castles secure the Island to the Parliament and desend their party there and withall got the Coyners Messeruies enlarged to go over with them into Iersey Maximillian promising to do great matters for the Parliament with the party he and his confederates would there raise and out of my cordiall affection to the Parliament and that Island acquainted Mr. Solicitor and others of the close Committee with the inconveniences and ill consequence of this rash design of which I having intelligence grounded upon meer misinformations of Sir Philips adversaries to effect their own ends informing them upon my own knowledge that both Castles in Iersey were so strongly scituated fortified that they must have an Army by Land and a Fleet by Sea to Block them up that an hundred men in each would maintain the Castles against all the Force the Island could make and three times more and therefore it was a ridiculous thing to imagine that a Major with five or six Gunners and Officers and that small force Sir Philips Enemies could raise there should take both or either of the Castles especially without a Fleet to assist them one of them being quite surrounded with the Sea at half Flood and above half the other at low water that the Castles to my knowledge were very well furnished with Ordnance and Ammunition for two or three years Siege that they could every tide receive fresh Supplyes of Victualls Men and what ever they wanted from France and elsewhere That the Islanders were generally rawe faint-hearted Souldiers who durst not come within Canon shot of the Castles much lesse approach a Breach and run upon the Canons mouth as they must do if they will take them That if they sent any Ordnance Musquets or Ammunitions thither which they needed at home they would all certainly be lost and that they who engaged them in this action did it more out of private ends and malice against Sir Philip then any publike good to the Parliament for admit the Parliament had the Castles and Island surrendred without a stroke they would cost them more the keeping then they were worth and draw a charge upon the State in these needfull times to no purpose but to waste the publike Treasure That in times of Peace the King received not one peny profit from the Island but only the Governour whose whole income in time of war would not maintain the Garrison souldiers requisite to keep one of the two Castles and that it could supply the Parliament neither with fighting men nor money nor Shipping in this time of War but must be supplyed from hence with all these And admit the King had it all in his absolute power it could do the Parliament no hurt at all since it could neither supply him with Souldiers Men Money Provisions nor Ammunition and far remote from England quite out of the road of our English Trade That the Inhabitants being generally very poor and having none but base French Coyne among them could yield the King no supply of moneys That Sir Philip Carteret and the States of the Island did now by Petition and Letter desire the Parliaments friendship and Kings joyntly and not to side with either as divided but United and that he would engage himself if they would give but a fair Answer to their Petition which was suppressed by the opposite party that Sir Philip and those Islanders of his party should continue firm unto the Parliament and their friends and never do one act of Hostility or unkindenesse on the Kings behalf against them and that the Parliaments and the Kings Ships upon all occasions should have all accomodations and ride safely in the Harbour there at their pleasure which was all the benefit we could reap if the Island and two Castles were totally in the Parliaments possession That if they sent any Ships or Forces thither to apprehend Sir Philip or Seise the Island and Castles by sorce especially by such infamous persons as the Coyners and some others were it would make Sir Philip and his party to stand upon their guard and perchance of friends or Neuters at