of the Kings foundation and the Kings of England are the Founders of them all and they sit in Parliament and have the Names of the Lords of the Parliament non ratione Nobilitatis sed ratione Officii not by reason of their Nobility but by reason of their Office and in respect of their Ancient Barronies annexed to their dignities C. Inst 1. part 97. a. And in C. 5. 1. part Cawdreyes Case it may be seen That King Kenulphus by Charter in Parliament in the year of our Lord 755. Exempted the Abbot of Abingdon from Episcopal Jurisdiction and gave it him That amongst the Laws of Edward the Confessor it was Ordained that he should Govern the Kingdom and his People and above all the Holy Church not the Pope That William the Conqueror Appropriated Churches with Cure That King Henry the First presented to Abbeys as well by his Ecclesiastical as his Kingly Power That Henry the Third granted Prohibitions and in Issue of Loyalty of Marriage and general Bastardy the King wrote to the Bishop as his immediate Officer That in the time of Edward the Third the Temporalties of the Archbishop of York were lost during his Life for refusal of a Clark of the King by reason of a Provision of the Pope That by 25. Edw. the Third a Man might kill those that procured Provisions from Rome and those that executed them Also by 25. Edw. 3d. It was Enacted that the Pope shall not give Archbishopricks Bishopricks c. but that the King them shall give c. That by 16. Rihard the Second chap. 5th It is Enacted that because the King holdeth his Crown immediately under God they who purchase or pursue in the Court of Rome Translations Processes Excommunications Bulls Instruments c. and their Fautors and Councillors shall be out of the Protection of the King and Praemunire facias shall be awarded against them That 2. H. 4. 9. It is resolved that Collectors of the Pope by their Bulls have not any Jurisdiction here and that the Archbishops and Bishops are called the Spiritual Judges of the King And 11. H. 4. 37. it is said Papa non potest mutare leges Angliae that the Pope cannot change or alter the Laws of England That 2. Henry the Fourth chap. 3d. he that obtaineth from the Bishop of Rome to be exempt from regular Obedience is within the Case of a Praemunire That 6. H. 4. chap. 1. Forfeiture was imposed upon those who payed great sums to the Chamber of Rome That by 2. H. 5. chap. 1. The King not the Pope gave power to the Ordinary to enquire of the Foundation and Government of Hospitals and to correct c. That in 9. H. 6. 16. The King only can give License for the Foundation of a Corporation Spiritual not the Pope That 12th Edw. 4th 16. A Legate of the Pope was compelled to Swear that he would not attempt any thing against the Crown c. That in 2. Rich. 3. It is said that Excommunication or Judgment at Rome is of no force here That in First Henry the 7th 10th It is said that in time of King Henry the Sixth Humphry Duke of Glocester burnt the Letters of the Pope that were in Derogation ot the King and his Crown And 1. H. 7. 20. It is adjudged that the Pope may not grant Sanctuary And 25. Henry the 8. chap. 21. It is Enacted by the Statute forementioned of faculties that none shall make suit to Rome but that the Archbishop of Canterbury may grant to the King and his Subjects such Licenses Dispensations Grants Faculties Escripts Delegacies Instruments c. not repugnant to Holy Scripture as been used to be granted by the Pope yet it is to be noted that such Cannons Constitutions Ordinances Synods Provincials c. were provided to be in force which had been allowed by general Consent and Custom within the Realm not repugnant to Law or the Prerogative of the King and so by the same general Consent may be Corrected Enlarged Explained or Abrogated hence we may rest satisfied that for many Hundreds of years last past successively in the time of one King after another King when all our Ancestors were Papists and of that profession that yet the Government of the Church ever was inherent to the Imperial Crown of the Kings of England In the time of King Henry the Third the Usurped Jurisdiction of the Pope was elevated more high than ever before or since yet it may be observed that in the Ninth year of his Reign in the very first Chapter of the great Charter Entitled and Called The Confirmation of Liberties is mentioned First We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for Us and Our Heirs for ever that the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable And by the Statute of 24. H. 8. chap. 12. by 24. Bishops and 29 Abbots it is recited that England is an Empire and that the King is the Head of the Body Politick consisting of the Temporalty and the Spiritualty impleet and furnished with full Power to render final Justice in all matters whatsoever as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal And that part of the said Body Politick called the Spiritualty hath been always thought sufficient and meet of it self without the intermeddling of any Forreign Pope or any exterior Person or Persons when any cause of the Law Divine happened to come in question or of Spiritual Learning to declare and determine all such doubts and to adminster all such Offices and Duties yet as the Spiritual Judges of and under the King as to their several Roomes Spiritual doth appertain And the Laws Temporal for Trial of Property of Lands and Goods and for the conservation of the Realm in Unity and Peace without Rapine or Spoil were and yet are Administred Adjudged and Executed by sundry Judges and Ministers of the other part of the Body Politick called the Temporalty And their Authorities and Jurisdictions do conjoyn together in the due Administration of Justice the one is a help to the other and both are a help to and in ease of the King the Head of this Body Politick here you have concisely and in few words discovered unto you the Ancient form of the Government of England both in Church and State and accordingly in Ancient times the Parliaments of England consisted only of the King the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal who were Anciently the Representatives of the whole Kingdom in Parliament Assembled under the Kings or Queens thereof but for some Hundreds of years last past a Writ hath been framed for the Election of Knigts c. to sit in Parliament and these Knights c. are to be chosen by the Freeholders in their several Counties CHAP. XX. As to the Kings Supremacy is shewed the difference between the Primitive and more modern times herein the Author adviseth all to be at Vnity within themselves and
Secretaries of State or some Magistrate and to discover the whole matter in orderly manner that he ought not to stay Two days or nights in one place before he sees the King nor to be let or hindred by any business though never so urgent quia vix ei permittitur ut retrospiciat because the Law giveth him not so much time as to look back in some Cases as we must render an account for every idle word so must we likewise in this case for our idle silence for in such a Case as this where any knoweth of any Conspiracy against his King or Country he is bound by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm presently to discover it for as Fire in its beginning whilst it is but small is more easily quenched than it is afterwards when by some continuance it hath gathered strength so the beginning of Rebellious contrivances being known and discovered with more ease the sad events and evil consequences thereof are nipped in the Bud and are smothered hindred and prevented therefore as to this Evil or rather Devil of Rebellion all are to be advised by the Poet who saith Principiis obsta sero medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras CHAP. XVII Sheweth that all Writs Process Executions and Commandments are and ought to be in the Kings Name only NOW I shall acquaint you further that all Writs Executions and Commandments are done in the Kings Name Nay we do say in England the Life and Member of the Kings Subject are the Kings only that is to say no Man hath hault or moyenne Justice but the King nor can hold plea thereof Hence it is that those Pleas which touch the Life or Mutilation of Man be called Pleas of the Crown nor can be done in the Name of any inferior Person than he or she that holdeth the Crown of England And all Enditements Presentments and Processes relating to the Sessions of the Peace begin with Juratores presentant pro Domino Rege quod I. S. de c. or Inquiratur pro Domino Rege si A. B. de c. And every warrant from a Justice of the Peace upon all occasions whatsoever directed to the Constable begin with these or such like words these are in his Majesties Name to Will and Require you forthwith c. If any Process Summons Invitation or Commandment come to you in Parliament time or out of Parliament time in any other Habit Dress or Name whatsoever Be you assured such Coin is counterfeit and not currant within his Majesties Realms and Domions but are deceitful and delusory and may not improperly be likened to the Melody of Syrens who Sing not to stir up Mirth but to allure unto danger and mishaps CHAP. XVIII All Freeholders are advised as to what manner of Persons they are or ought to Choose for future Parliaments I Remember I made mention of the Secluded Members in the late times of Rebellion These were they with whom Treason had no place because with them Obedience to their Soveraign Lord the King and his Laws Ecclesiastical and Temporal bore sway and held Principallity some of whom when the confluence and Clamours of the Tumults in those times passed all boundaries of Laws and Reverence to Authority by the rude and unseemly deportments both in contemptuous words and actions of the vulgar and that no means prevailed for their suppression withdrew themselves with his Sacred Majesty King Charles the First for the security of their Persons from Violence others of when the Lords were Excluded and the House of Commons was purged by the Military power to a Rump Parliament for rotten Members as they then termed them were cast out and all of them that were afterwards living were again chosen for Parliament-men upon his late Majesties most miraculous and happy Restauration Many of them held their King and Country and the Government thereof so dear that in defence thereof they feared not to hazard their lives and Fortunes Such as these were Men Fearing God Honouring their King and abhorring to meddle or joyn with those that are given to change I advise every Freeholder who hath a voice in the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses should Chose and Elect to sit in Parliament for the future when his Majesty shall be pleased to Issue forth his Royal Writs for the same If you know of any that have offended grievously in former Parliaments Elect them not again upon an expected repentance All jealousies and fears laid aside Elect such as are Men of good Fortunes not such as have their fortunes to make such as are Wise and prudent Men in the management of their own private Affairs at home and in their several Countries make a right and good use of those benefits which God hath put into their hands for their succouring of others their poor Tennants and Neighbours whose vertue is yet altogether joyned with that Justice that is prudently guided with Moderation and reason for they that know well how to manage their own private Affairs when called thereto will in all probability as carefully contribute their prudent and hearty endeavours for the preservation of the Publick Peace and welfare of the whole Community Let not Elections be carryed on as heretofore with partiality and popular heat let the Gravity and discretion of the more sober and better educated Gentry allay and fix the Commons to a due temperament guiding some Mens well meaning Zeal by such Rules of Moderation as are best both to preserve and restore the health and welfare of all States and Kingdoms Every Freeholder ought to know and well to consider with what power he trusts those whom he chooseth in regard the Power of the House of Commons is derived from that trust and the Kings Writ directed to the Sheriff gives Authority to the Freeholders to make their Elections in which is expressed not only the Sheriffs Duty in point of Summoning but the Writ also contains the Duty and Power of such Knights and Burgesses as shall be Elected and such as shall be Elected are to know that as a Body Natural cannot do any perfect Act if it be dismembred viz. if the Head be in one place and the Body in another place and so of the rest of the Members of a Body Natural so it is in like wise of the Parliament which may be said by the Power of the King to be made corporate or the highest Court aggregate and consisting of the King or Queen of England the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in Parliament Assembled the Members whereof are or ought to know that they are Capitulariter or rather sub uno capite congregati Chapterwise or rather Assembled under one Head which is the King or Queen thereof who have the only Power Priviledge and Prerogative not only of Summoning but also of Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving of the Parliament as alsh of Passing or not Passing any Bills whatsoever framed for Acts at
their omission of the word quibusdam in their said protestation the said Learned King James the First did actually take the said protestation out of the Journal Book propriâ suâ manu and on the sixth of January Dissolved the Parliament and some eminent Members of the Parliament were committed to the Tower and others to other Prisons and some sent into Ireland rather for Punishment than to Enquire as was pretended of sundry Matters concerning his Majesties Service There then appeared some Men of Antimonarchial Spirits and that insisted too highly upon Priviledges little regarding or rightly considering the measures chalked out to them by the Kings Writ by which they are summoned and impowered to sit in Parliament The Members before spoken of remembred not what the said King James the First in time before said the Parliament is a thing composed of a Head and a Body the Monarchy and the Three Estates it was first a Monarchy then after a Parliament that there were no Parliaments but in Monarchical Governments for in Venice the Netherlands and other free Governments there are none the Head is to call the Body together and for the Clergy the Bishops are the Chief for Shires their Knights for Towns and Cities their Burgesses and Citizens these are to treat of the certain difficult Matters and to Counsel their King with their best advice to make Laws for the Commonweale and the Lower House is also to Petition their King and acquaint him with their Grievances and not to meddle with their Kings Prerogative they are to offer supply for his necessity and he is to distribute in recompence thereof Justice and Mercy If this Head and Body Monarch and Three Estates be at unity within themselves they then make le treshault Court de Parliament the Supreme and in the superlative Degree the highest Court of Parliament Their Priviledges are so great that whilst that Court is at unity within it self I know not what it may not do and as directed by Mr. Plowden I shall not think much less speak any thing dishonourable of that Court but as in Arithmetick Three Cyphers with a Figure of One prefixed makes the compleat Number of one Thousand so take away the Number or rather the beginning of Number of One and the Three Cyphers that remain signifie nothing For when the Parliament is stiled the Supreme Court it must be understood properly of the King sitting in the House of Peers in Person and improperly of the Lords or Commons without him the Consultive Directive or Deliberative Power is in the House of Peers the Performing and Consenting Power is in the House of Commons but the Legislative Power lodgeth in the Person of the King yet altogether that is to say King Lords and Commons make Parliamentary binding Laws and Statutes 7. H. 7. 14. it is said that there are many Statutes indicted quod dominus Rex Statuit that our Lord the King hath ordained yet if they are in the Parliament Roul and have always been allowed as Statutes it shall be intended that they were made by Authority of Parliament But if a Statute be made thus the King with the Assent of the Lords or the King with the Assent of the Commons It hath been held from about the time of H. 3. to the time of the late Rebellion not to be good for all ought to Assent Coke 8.20 21. so that as Sir John Fortescue saith Fol. 40. a. b. Statutes are made in England not only by the Princes pleasure tho he saith not that in England they can be made without the Princes pleasure or Royal Assent but by and with the Assent of the whole Realm in Parliament assembled by their Representatives so that of necessity they must procure the Wealth of the People and in no wise tend to their hindrance which well they cannot do seeing they are ordained not by the device of one Man alone or of a Hundred wise Councelors only but of more than three Hundred chosen Men much agreeing with the number of the Ancient Senators of Rome and if it chance these Statutes being devised with such great Solemnity and Wit not to fall out so effectually as the intent of the makers did wish they may quickly be Reformed in a Subsequent Parliament but not without the Assent of all the Powers by whose Authority they were first passed and devised CHAP. II. Sheweth how King Charles the First found things at his first coming to these Crowns and there is also said something as to the learning of the Customs the chief Maintenance of the Crown in his time I Further observe that at the first coming to the Crown of the said King Charles the First his first Parliament in the first Year of his Reign or the Major part of them met not without being armed with some prejudice to his said Sacred Majesty King Charles the First for therein the Act for Tonnage and Poundage passed not which in the first Parliaments from the time of H. 7. to this time as it were accustomably and of course had been granted and passed to all his Royal Ancestors Kings and Queens of this Realm The sudden Dissolution of that Parliament preventing the Act of Subsedies he was forced to draw from his People by borrowing of Persons able to lend such competent Sums of Money as might discharge his present Occasions and to that purpose directed Letters to the Lord Lieutenant of Counties to return the Names of Persons able to lend omitting the Names of Noble Men and Clergy-men and the Names returned the Comptroler of the Kings Household by the Councils order issued forth Letters in the Kings Name under the Privy Seal to the several Persons returned for Loane of Money Though this was not the first time that ever such Loanes under the Privy Seal were had upon certain emergent Occasions and in cases of urgent necessity by failer of Parliamentary Supplies Yet in the Parliament next after in tertio Caroli primi many of the Members took the occasion to strive as to their insisting upon their Priviledges to outdo one another Then the modesty of the House of Commons which was very great in former times was by them forgotten and they began to arrogate more Power than what the Kings Writ gave them heretofore they evaded matters of State as much as they could and when their Advice hath been desired they have humbly desired not to be put to consult of things of which they had no knowledge and at other times they have humbly desired that the King would be advised in matters of War or Peace by the Lords being of more Experience than themselves in such Affairs and have used modestly to excuse themselves as too weak to consult in so weighty Matters But then several Speeches and Resolves made by divers Champions of the House of Commons who were no friends to Prerogative put the Lords and Commons then Assembled in Parliament upon their Petition concerning divers Rights and Liberties of