Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n
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A61528
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The case of an oath of abjuration considered and the vote of the honourable House of Commons vindicated in a letter.
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Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing S5564; ESTC R19563
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23,046
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38
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Hearts were with John he made his Peace with him upon the vile unworthy Terms of forsaking Arthur But this was not what John wanted which was his Dègradation and Removal to which the following Passage ministred occasion Geofry Archbishop of York was forbid for some cause or other by K. Richard to enter England in three Years space but he unmindful of the King's Command and some say of his own Oath resolved to take the opportunity of the King's Absence and enter on his Bishoprick which attempting to do at Dover he was watched by the Chancellor's Spies and taken from the Altar of a Church whither he fled for refuge and dragged from thence and carried and committed to the Constable of Dover Castle This made a great Noise you may be sure in those days and opened the Mouths of the Clergy with whose Cries Earl John fell in immediately tho no great Friend to Church-men who are even with him in most of their Histories and wrote to the Chancellor to set the Archbishop at Liberty who refusing to do it he raised a considerable Army and drove his Enemy to great Straits and at last suffered him to transport himself out of the Land having first in the Presence and with the Consent of many Bishops Judges and Great-men and the Citizens of London decreed that he was not fit to bear any Rule or live any longer in the Kingdom When this good Company was got together Earl John resolved they should not part without a Tast of his Intentions and therefore the same day both he and the Archbishop of Roan who was put into the Chancellor's place as one of the Administrators of the Kingdom and others of the King's Justices granted to the Citizens of London habere communam suam and again in the same Year John and the Archbishop of Roan with almost all the Bishops Earls and Barons swore they would most firmly and inviolably as long as it should please the King observe and keep communam illam The Glossary to the X. Scriptores interprets Communam by Association and Confederation as if it were that these Lords and great Folks took the Citizens of London into Council with them and made them join with them in passing their Decree and Sentence on the Chancellor They did indeed do so but this is not enough methinks I have the Authority of a most excellent skilled Person both in these and all other Learned Matters whatsoever that Communa signifies in the place Privileges and Immunities and by the Sense I believe we should all of us construe it so For by the Passage with its Circumstances it appears that there was a Combination of Lords and Bishops and the Citizens of London in favour of John against any other Successor And the Citizens of London on their part swore Faithful Service took the Oath of Fidelity to King Richard and his Heirs and engaged that if he died without Issue they would receive John for their Lord and King And thereupon sware Fidelity to him against all Men saving their Oath to Richard Radulph de Diceto and Joh. Bromton make no mention of these Londoners Swearing but Roger Hoveden does in his Annals pag. 702. who lived and wrote in King John's Days and to him I refer you if you please This makes me inclinable to interpret Communam by something that the Citizens of London liked because they seemed to do a very bold and an unjust thing in lieu of it They took an Oath of Fidelity to One who was neither Heir by God's nor by the Laws of the Land nor yet by Designation and Appointment of the King then living who was very angry at these Proceedings and spoke very hard Words of his Brother John and there is great Reason to believe these strange Doings as well as the Departure of his Enemy King Philip of France hastened his Return the sooner into England But in his Return he was unfortunately taken Prisoner by the Duke of Austria and delivered into the Emperor's Hands and there continued Sixteen or Eighteen Months This Opportunity his Brother John laid hold on and by the instigation of the French King opened his Purposes and sought the Crown sometimes giving out the King was dead and sometimes that the Emperor resolved never to let him go And some Historians tell us that the King of France and John made mighty Offers to the Emperor either to detain him or deliver him up into their Hands which he had much ado to resist But the Nobility opposed him constantly and kept their Faith inviolable to their King to their great Praise and however careless and injurious they had been with respect to Arthur's Right of Succession yet they were very bold and faithful to their present King in Possession insomuch that instead of delivering up the Kingdom and swearing Allegiance to him as he demanded they very vigorously besieged him and his in Windsor-Castle and forc'd him to surrender that and other Holds and fly the Kingdom which he did and betook himself to his old Friend the King of France to whom he became Liege-man and did Homage for Normandy which yet would not submit to John but declared it self for its old Master whom they hoped to see at home again and safe in a short time And so they did for Richard came and landed at Sandwich in Kent and was joyfully receiv'd of all his Subjects throughout the Kingdom excepting some few Places which held out for John which in a little time were reduc'd and taken into Mercy by the King who by the Advice of the Bishops was again Crown'd with great Pomp at Winchester This is a long History you will think tho I have greatly shortened it but whereto does it serve Why some have confounded these Two Attempts of John and made but One of them and some have only mentioned his Attempt during his Brother's Imprisonment which yet you see was a Second Undertaking in pursuance of the First which made way as he imagined for it The Use I make of it is this to shew you that John by this first Treasonable Attempt of causing People to swear Fidelity to him against the King's Will and without his Knowledge and when he was not so much as Presumptive Heir must make him justly liable both to the King's Anger and to the Punishment of the Laws of the Land but that his second Attempt upon the Crown made him undoubtedly a Traitor and not to be endur'd either by King or Subject I know not how a Subject can become more dangerous and to be suspected than by having once been sworn into the Succession without his Prince's Knowledge and Good Will and having afterwards demanded openly the Crown altho his King was then alive And sure his succeeding so well as he did the first time and his attempting it the second time must make him a dangerous Competitor to the King and fit to be excluded by an Oath of Abjuration But nothing of this was thought upon Richard
falsified their Faith to King William and Queen Mary in favour of the Late King will not stand out upon another Oath by which they shall not only lose perhaps a Beneficial Office but also incapacitate themselves for either hurting their Present Majesties or serving their Late Master This I have before shewed and it is not in Man to find out or assign one tolerable Reason why they should not do it Will therefore any such Persidious Men as these be discovered by an Oath of Abjuration Will they not rather be enabled to do more mischief by being more trusted for such an Oath which they esteem and will keep just as they did the Other So that the King and Queens Enemies will lie as safe and close under an Oath of Abjuration as under an Allegiance Oath for what I would know does the most solemn and tremendous Oath signifie unless the Party think himself oblig'd in Conscience to observe it And if he do not think himself oblig'd in Conscience to observe and keep his Oath of Allegiance what is there that should tie an Abjuration Oath upon him For the tie and Sanction of both these Oaths must be the same and the breach of them must be alike Criminal and will be punished alike in both Worlds inasmuch as a Man is equally Perjur'd in little and in great matters and if any Man will shew how he may safely violate his Oath of Allegiance with a good Conscience I will do as much for him for the violation of the strictest Oath of Abjuration in the World I hope you perceive then that they who will take an Oath of Allegiance to their Present Majesties and make no manner of Conscience of Performing it but actually serve and correspond with their Enemies will also make no Bones of taking and breaking an Oath of Abjuration which is the Reason from whence I conclude an Oath of Abjuration will not serve to discover the King and Queens Enemies which yet it certainly pretends to do They are it seems to be discovered by Refusing the Oath but they intend to take the Oath and where is the discovery Well but will all that take the Oath of Allegiance take the Oath of Abjuration No unquestionably no. Will not therefore those who refuse it be thereby discovered to be Enemies to the Present Government I say again No. They will not be discovered to be Enemies because they will not be thereby its Enemies Let us for once divide the People that have taken the Oath of Allegiance to their Majesties into 1. Such as have taken and kept it bona side 2. Such as have taken and broken it wittingly and willingly and with an evil mind Of these latter we have seen no manner of good can be expected They will neither be made Good Subjects by a New Oath nor discovered to be Bad ones by it A New Oath will therefore only affect such as have taken the Oath of Allegiance bonâ fide and kept it very honestly And is it likely that they who have done so should be Enemies to the Government I grant you that a great many scrupled and considered long before they ventur'd on the Oaths but are not Scruple and Consideration tokens of a good and honest mind And if after Scruple and Consideration they took the Oaths and since have kept them well and honestly what Reason is there to think or call these People Enemies to the Government though they should go no farther The Legislative Power imposed the Oath of Allegiance on the Subject and intended it for the Security and Establishment of the Present Government the Subject takes the Oath and keeps it faithfully how is he then an Enemy My Friend desires me to walk a Mile with him to conduct him homewards and see him safe through such a Thieving Lane and I consent and when he comes to the Miles end his fears grow greater and he desires me to walk another Mile but I tell him it is late and I can go no farther without inconveniency and danger to my self and for this he quarrels me and accounts me his Enemy I leave you to judg with what Reason I did what he desir'd at first and thought with all his foresight and distrust would be sufficient to secure him and so did all that passed that way before him but I can do no more and be secure my self Sure though I can no longer serve him yet I have served him hitherto and may deserve a better name than Enemy What think you of the Application Must those be Enemies to the Present Government who took the Oath of Allegiance to their Majesties which was all that was required and thought sufficient for their Safety and have all along kept it inviolable and served them faithfully and diligently must these be reckon'd Enemies because they will not also take an Oath of Abjuration Will therefore an Oath of Abjuration discover who are the King and Queens Enemies But that I may not seem to deny every thing to an Oath of Abjuration after having shewn you what I think it will not discover I will now shew you what I think it will discover And first It will discover the Nakedness of the Land it will discover the distress and straits we find our selves reduc'd to when we must have recourse to such extremities When that which secures all other Governments in the World besides and that which has secured our Own as well as any Other for so many hundreds of years viz. an Oath of Allegiance to the Possessors of the Throne will not secure or be thought sufficient to secure the Present Government on what Foundation will the World about us think we stand They have seen us choose and place upon the Throne our Princes with all good liking and affection possible And they will see us now forc'd to be Chain'd to our Obedience and tied down groveling on the ground for fear of rising up against them This Posture will not please our Friends abroad who understand our Generous Tempers better they will fear the effects of such unusual Bonds And for our Enemies abroad they undoubtedly will do as our Enemies at home do rejoyce exceedingly at such an Oath The Jacobites as all the Discontented Disaffected People are now call'd have hitherto shewn themselves but Puny Politicians their Designs have neither wanted Malice nor Barbarity but they have laid and manag'd them with so much Weakness and Simplicity that they seem to be infatuated very much but yet they are wise enough to foresee the advantages they are like to reap from the Distractions an Oath of Abjuration will undoubtedly produce amongst us And though some of them may be set to decry it publickly as a most abominable unheard-of thing and others of them in their weakness truly believe it is so yet the Managers of the Party and more understanding People amongst them do underhand abett and favour it exceedingly well knowing they shall find their account therein This is One