Selected quad for the lemma: house_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
house_n	contrary_a	king_n	knight_n	139,856	5	12.4234	5	true
house_n	contrary_a	king_n	knight_n	139,856	5	12.4234	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91207	A legal vindication of the liberties of England, against illegal taxes and pretended Acts of Parliament, lately enforced on the people: or, Reasons assigned by William Prynne of Swainswick in the county of Sommerset, esquire, why he can neither in conscience, law, nor prudence, submit to the new illegal tax or contribution of ninety thousand pounds the month; imposed on the kingdom by a pretended Act of some Commons in (or rather out of) Parliament, April 7 1649. (when this was first penned and printed,) nor to the one hundred thousand pound per mensem, newly laid upon England, Scotland and Ireland, Jan. 26. 1659 by a fragment of the old Commons House, ...	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1660 (1660)	Wing P3998; Thomason E772_4; ESTC R207282	74,956	90

and Burgesses and levying of their wages being only PARLIAMENTUM NOSTRUM the Kings Parliament that is dead not his Heirs and Successors and the Lords and Commons being all summoned and authorized by it to come to OUR PARLIAMENT there to be personally present and confer with US NOBISCUM not Our Heirs and Successors of the weighty and urgent affairs that concerned NOS US and OUR KINGDOM of England and Knights and Burgesses receiving their wages for Nuper ad NOS ad PARLIAMENTVM NOSTRUM veniendo c. quod sommoneri FECINUS ad tractandum ibidem super diversis arduis Negotiis NOS Statum REGNI NOSTRI t●ngentibus as the tenor of the d Writs for their wages determines The King being dead and his Writs and Authority by which they were summoned with the ends for which they were called to conferre with US about US and OUR KINGDOMS affairs c. being thereby absolutely determined without any hopes of revival the Parliament it self must thereupon absolutely be determined likewise especially to those who have disinherited HIS HEIRS and SUCCESSORS and voted down our Monarchy it self and they with all other Members of Parliament cease to be any longer Members of it being made onely such by the Kings abated Writ even as all Judges Justices of peace and Sheriffs made only by the Kings Writs or Commissions not by his Letters Patents cease to be Judges Justices and Sheriffs by the Kings death for this very reason because they are constituted Justiciarios Vicecomites NOSTROS ad Pacem NOSTRAM c. custodiendam and he being dead and his Writs and Commissions expired by his death they can be Our Judges Justices and Sheriffs no longer to preserve OUR Peace c. no more than a wife can be her deceased Husbands Wife and bound to his obedience from which she was loosed to his death Rom. 7. 2 3. And his Heirs and Successors they cannot be unlesse he please to make them so by his new Writs or Commissions as all our e Law-books and Judges have frequently resolved upon this very reason which equally extends to Members of Parliament as to Judges Justices and Sheriffs as is agreed in 4 E. 4. f. 43 44. and Brook Office and Officer 25 Therefore this Tax being clearly imposed not in but out of and after the Parliament ended by the Kings decapitation and that by such who were then no lawfull Knights Citizens Burgesses or Members of Parliament but only private men their Parliamentary Authority expiring with the King it must needs be illegal and contrary to all the forecited Statutes as the Convocations and Clergies Tax and Benevolence granted after the Parliament dissolved in the year 1640. was resolved to be by both Houses of Parliament and those adjudged high Delinquents who had any hand in promoting it as the Impeachments against them evidence drawnup by some now acting 2. Admit the late Parliament still in being yet the House of Peers Earls and Barons of the Realm were no wayes privy nor consenting to this Tax imposed without yea against their consents in direct affront of their * most antient undubitable Parliamentary Right and Privileges these Taxmasters having presumed to vote down and null their very House by their new encroached transcendent power as appears by the title and body of this pretended Act entituled by them An Act of THE COMMONS assembled in Parliament Whereas the House of Commons alone though full and free have no more lawfull Authority to impose any Tax upon the People or make any Act of Parliament or binding Law without the Kings or Lords concurrence than the Man in the Moon or the Convocation Anno 1640. after the Parliament dissolved as is evident by the expresse words of the fore-cited Acts the Petition of Right it self the Acts for the Triennial Parliament and against the proroguing or dissolving this Parliament 16 Car. c. 1 7. with all our printed Statutes f Parliament-Rolls and g Law-books they neither having nor challenging the sole Legislative power in any age and being not so much as summoned to nor constitutive M●mbers of our h antient Parliaments which consisted of the King Spiritual and Temporal Lords without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses as all our Histories and Records attest till 49 H. 3. at soonest they having not so much as a Speaker or Commons House till after the beginning of King E. the third's reign and seldom or never presuming to make or tender any Bills or Acts to the King or Lords but Petitions only to them to redress their grievances and enact new Laws till long after R. the seconds time as our Parliament Rolls and the printed Prologues to the Statutes of 1 4 5 9 10 20 23 36 37. and 50 Edw. 3. 1 Rich 3. 1 2 4 5 7 9 11 13 Hen. 4. 1 2 3 4 8 9 Hen. 5. 1 2 3 4 6 8 9 10 11 14 15 29 28 29. 39 Hen. 6. 1 4 7 8 12 17. 22 Ed. 4. and 1 Rich. 3. evidence which run all in this form At the Parliament holden c. by THE ADVICE and ASSENT OF THE LORDS SPIRITUAL and TEMPORAL and at THE SPECIAL INSTANCE and REQUEST OF THE COMMONS OF THE REALM BY THEIR PETITIONS put in the said Parliament as some Prologues have it Our Lord the King hath caused to be ordained or ordained certain STATVTES c. Where the advising and assenting to Laws is appropriated to the Lords the ordaining of them to the King and nothing but the requesting of and petitioning for them to the Commons and that both from King and Lords in whom the Legislative power principally and before 49 H. 3. originally and solely resided as is manifest by the printed Prologue to the Statute of Merton 20 Hen. 3. The Statute of Mortemain 7 E. 1. 31 E. 1. De Asportatis Religiosorum the Statute of Sheriffs 9 Ed. 2. and of the Templers 17 Ed. 2. to cite no more Therefore this Tax imposed by the Commons alone without King or Lords must needs be void illegal and no wayes obligatory to the Subjects 3. Admit the whole House of Commons in a full and free Parliament had power to impose a Tax and make an Act of Parliament for levying of it without King or Lords which they never once did or pretended to in any age yet this Act and Tax can be no waies obliging because not made and imposed by a full and free House of Commons but by an empty House packed swayed over-awed by the chief Officers of the Army and their Confederates in the House who having presumed by mere force and armed power against Law and without President to seclude the major part of the House at least eight parts of ten who by Law and Custom are the House it self from sitting or voting with them contrary to the Freedom and Privileges of Parliament readmitting none but upon their own terms of renouncing their own forme Votes touching the Kings

Concessions and taking their new treasonable Engagements against the King Kingship and House of Lords An usurpation not to be paralel'd in any age destructive to the very being of Parliaments i Where all Members of both Houses are ex debito Justitiae wi●h equal Freedom to meet and speak their mind● injurious to all those Counties Cities Borough● whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses are secluded and to the whole Kingdom yea contrary to all rules of reason justice policy conscience and their own Agreement of the people which inhibit the * far lesser part of any Councel Court or Committee to oversway seclude or fore-judg the major number of their Assessors and fellow-members over whom they can no ways pretend the least jurisdiction it being the high way to usher Tyranny and confusion into all Councels and Realms to their utter dissolution since the King alone without the Lords and Commons or the Lords alone without the King or Commons may by this new device make themselves an absolute Parliament to impose Taxes and enact Laws without the Commons or any other forty or fifty Commoners meeting together without their companions and secluding them by force do the like as well as this remnant of the Commons make themselves a complete Parliament without the King Lords or Majority of their fellow-Members if they can but now or hereafter raise an Army to back them in it as the Army did those sitting 1648. and 1649. and those sitting in 1659 have done secluding the majority of their old fellow-Members by meer armed Violence 4. Suppose this Tax should bind those Counties Cities and Burronghs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses sate and consented to it when imposed though I dare swear much against the minds and wills of all or most of those they represent who by the k Armies new Doctrine may justly question and revoke their authority for this high breach of Trust the rather because the Knights and Burgesses assembled in the first Parliament of 13. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 8. did all refuse to grant a great extraordinary Subsidie demanded of them though not comparable to this for the necessary defence of the Kingdome against foraign Enemies till they had conferred with the Counties and Burroughs for which they served and gained their assents Yet there is no shadow of Reason Law or Equity it should oblige any of the Secluded Members themselves whereof I am one or those Counties Cities Burroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses have been secluded or scared thence by the Armies or sitting Members fraud force violence or illegal Votes for their seculsion who absolutely disavow this Tax and Act as un-parliamentary illegall and never assented to by them in the least degree since the onely l reason in Law or equity why Taxes or Acts of Parliament oblige any Member County Burrough or Subject is because they are parties and consenting thereunto either in proper person or by their chosen Representatives in Parliament returned and authorized by Indentures under their Seals it being a recieved Maxime in all Laws m Quod tang it omnes ab omnibus debet approbari Upon which reason it is judged in our n Law-books That By-Laws oblige only those who are parties and consent unto them but not strangers or such who assented not thereto And which comes fully to the present case in 7. H. 6. 35. 8. H. 6. 34. Brook Ancient Demesne 20. Patl. 17. 101. it is resolved That ancient Demesne is a good plea in a Writ of Wast upon the Statutes of Wast because those in ancient Demesne were not parties to the making of them FOR THAT THEY HAD NO KNIGHTS NOR BURGESSES IN PARLIAMENT nor contributed to their expences And Judge Brook Parliament 101. hath this observable Note It is most frequently found that Wales and County palatines WHICH CAME NOT TO THE PARLIAMENT in former times which now they do SHALL NOT BE BOUND BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND for ancient Demesne is a good Plea in an action of Wast and yet ancient Demesne is not excepted and it is enacted 2. Ed. 6. cap. 28. That Fines and Proclamations shall be in Chester for the former Statutes did not extend to it And it is enacted That a Fine and Proclamation shall be in Lancaster 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 26. And in a Proclamation upon an e●igent is given by the Statute in Chester and Wales 1 E. 6. c. 20. And by another Act to Lancaster 5. 6. E. 5. c. 26. And the Statute of Justices of Peace extented not to Wales and the County palatine and therefore an Act was made for Wales and Chester 27. H. 8. c. 5. who had Knights and Burgesses appointed by that Parliament for that and future Parliaments by Act of Parliament 27. Hen. 8. cap. 26. since which they have continued their wages being to be levyed by the Statute of 35. H. 8. c. 11. Now if Acts of Parliament bound not Wales and Counties Palatines which had anciently no Knights nor Burgesses in Parliament to represent them because they neither personally nor representatively were parties and consenters to them much lesse then can or ought this heavy Tax and illegal Act 1649 or those of 1659. to bind those Knights Citizens and Burgesses or the Counties Cities and Burroughs they represent who were forcibly secluded or driven away from the Parliament by the confederacy practice orders commands or connivance at least of those now sitting who imposed these Taxes and passed these strange Acts as the recited Lawbooks and the later Clauses in all Writs for electing Knights and Burgesses resolve much lesse to oblige Scotland Ireland who have * Parliaments of their own and have yea ought to have no Members sitting for them in the English Parliaments who seldom or never imposed Taxes on Scotland or Ireland heretofore whose taxes were only imposed by their own Parliaments as is evident by claus. 46 E. 3. m. 25. claus. 47 E. 3. m. 3. My Plea for the Lords p. 426 427 2 R. 2 f. 11 12. Brook Parliament 98. 20 H. 6. f. 8. Fitz. Prescription 7. and Brook Prescription 4. They being not so much as a Parliament of England much lesse of Scotland Ireland as they stile themselves and having no authority by their writs of Elections and Indentures to treat or consult of any businesses but only such as touch and concern the Kingdom of England not the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland not mentioned in the Writs or Indentures of their Elections Especially because those Taxes are thus imposed by them for the support and continuance of those Officers and that Army who trayterously seised and secluded the Members from the House and yet detain some of them Prisoners against all Law and Justice and have oft secluded them since and because the secluded Members are the far major part above six times as many as those that sate and shut them out by force and would no waies have consented to

of mony must of necessity be speedilie advanced and procured for the relief of his Majesties Army and People not his Heirs or Successors in the Northern parts c. And for supplie of other his Majesties present and urgent occasions not his Heirs or Successors future occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raising the said monies which credit cannot be attained untill such obstacles be first removed which are occasioned by Fears Iealousies and Apprehensions of divers of his Majesties Royal Subjects that the Parliament may be adjourned prorogued or dissolved not by the Kings sodain or untimelie death of which there was then no fear jealousie or apprehension in any his Majesties loyal Subjects but by his royal Prerogative and advice of ill Counsellors before Justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents then in being not sprung up since publique Grievances then complained of not others introduced since this Act redressed a firm peace betwixt the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland concluded and before sufficient provisions be made for the repayment of the said Monies not others since borrowed so to be raised All which the Commons in this present Parliament assembled having duly considered do therefore humbly beseech your Majestie that it may be declared and enacted c. All which expressions related TO HIS late Majestie onlie not to his Heirs and Successors and the principal scope of this Act being to gain present credit to raise monies to disband the Scotish and English armies then lying upon the Kingdom manie years since accomplished yea Justice being since executed upon Strafford Canterbury and other Delinquents then impeached the publick Grievances they complained of as the Star-Chamber High-Commission Ship-mony Tonnage and Poundage Fines for Knighthood Bishops Votes in Parliament with their Courts and Jurisdictions and the like redressed by Acts soon after passed a firm peace between both Nations concluded before the Wars began and this preamble's pretensions for this Act all fullie satisfied divers years before the Kings beheading it must of necessity be granted that this Statute never intended to continue this Parliament on foot after the Kings decease especially after the ends for which it was made were all fully accomplished and so it must necessarily be dissolved by his Death Fourthly This is most clear by the body of the Act it self And be it declared and enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose nor shall any time or times during the continuance thereof be prorogued or adjourned unless it be by Act of Parliament to be likewise passed for that purpose And that the House of Peers shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own order And in like manner that the House of Commons shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own order Whence it is undeniable 1. That this act was only for the prevention of the untimely dissolving Proroguing and adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled and no other 2. That the King himself was the Principal Member of his Parliament yea our Soveraign Lord and the sole declarer and enacter of this Law by the Lords and Commons assent 3. That neither this Act for continuing nor any other for dissolving adjourning or proroguing this Parliament could be made without but only by and with the Kings Royal assent thereto which the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their * Remonstrance of the 26. of May 1642. oft in terminis acknowledge together with his Negative Voyce to Bills 4ly That it was neither the Kings intention in passing this Act to shut himself out of Parliament or create both or either House a Parliament without a King as he professed in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. 5. p. 27. Nor the Lords nor Commons Intendment to dismember him from his Parliament or make themselves a Parliament without him as their foresaid Remonstrance testifies and the words of the Act import Neither was it the Kings Lords or Commons meaning by this Act to set up a Parliament only of Commons much lesse of a remnant of a Commons House selected by Colonel Pride and his Confederates of the Army to serve their turns and vote what they prescribed without either King or House of Peers much lesse to give them any super-transcendent authority to vote down and abolish the King and House of Lords and make them no Members of this present or any future Parliaments without their own order or assent against which so great usurpation and late dangerous unparliamentary encroachments this very Act expresly provides in this clause That the House of Peers wherein the King sits as Soveraign when he pleaseth shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned much less then dissolved excluded or suspended from sitting or voting which is greater and that by their inferiours in all kinds a Fragment of the Commons House who can pretend no colour of Jurisdiction over them before whom they alwaies stood bare-headed like so many Grand-Jury-men before the Judges and attended at their Doors and Bar to know their pleasures unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own Order 5. That neither the King Lords nor Commons intended to set up a perpetual Parliament and intail it upon them their heirs or successors for ever by this act which would cross and repeal the Act for triennial Parliaments made at the same time and on the same * day in Law but to make provision only against the untimely dissolving of this till the things mentioned in the Preamble were accomplished and setled as the Preamble and these oft repeated words any time or times during the continuance of this present Parliament concludes and that during His Majesties reign and life not after his death as these words coupled with The Relief of his Majesties Army and People and for supply of his Majesties present and urgent occasions in the Preamble manifest Therefore this Act can no waies continue it a Parliament after the Kings beheading much lesse after the forcible exclusion both of the King and Lords House and majority of the Commons out of Parliament by those now sitting contrary to the very letter and provision of this act by which device the King alone had he conquered and cut off or secluded by his forces the Lords and Commons Houses from sitting might with much more colour have made himself an absolute Parliament to impose what Taxes and Laws he pleased on the people without Lords or Commons or any 40. of the Commons House or any 7. or 8. Lords concurring with

post facto assent to some particulars against my knowledge judgement conscience Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance P●otestation and Solemn League and Covenant taken in the presence of God himself with a sincere heart and real intention to perform the same and persevere therein all the dayes of my life without suffering my self directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be withdrawn therefrom As first That there may be and now is a lawfull Parliament of England actually in being and legally continuing after the Kings death consisting only of a few late Members of the Commons House without either King Lords or most of their Fellow-Commons which the very Consciences and Judgements of all now sitting that know any thing of Parliaments and the whole Kingdom if they durst speak their Knowledge know and believe to be false yea against their Oaths and Covenant Secondly That this Parliament so unduly constituted and packed by power of an army combining with them hath a just and lawfull authority to violate the Privileges Rights Freedoms Customs and alter the Constitution of our Parliaments themselves imprison seclude expel most of their Fellow-Members for voting according to their Consciences to repeal what Votes Ordinances and Acts of Parliament they please erect new Arbitrary Courts of War and Justice to arraign condemn execute the King himself with the Peers and Commons of this Realm by a new kind of Martial law contrary to Magna Carta the Petition of Right and Law of the Land dis-inherit the Kings posterity of the Crown extirpate Monarchy and the whole House of Peers change and subvert the antient Government Seals Laws Writs legal proceedings Courts and coin of the Kingdom sell and dispose of all the Lands Revenues Jewels Goods of the Crown with the Lands of Deans and Chapters as they think meet absolve themselves like so many Antichristian Popes with all the Subjects of England and Ireland from all the Oaths and Engagements they have made TO THE KINGS MAJESTY HIS HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS yea from their verie Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding this expresse clause in it which I desire may be seriously and conscienciously considered by all who have sworn it I do believe and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full authoritie to be lawfully ministred unto me and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary and to dispence with our Protestations Solemn League and Covenant so lately and * zealously urged and injoyned by both Houses on Members Officers Ministers and all sorts of People throughout the Realm to dispose of all the Forts Ships Forces Offices and Places of Honour Power Trust or Profit within the Kingdom to whom they please to displace and remove whom they will from their Offices Trusts Pensions Callings at their pleasures without any legal cause or trial to make what new Acts Laws and reverse what old ones they think meet to insnare inthrall our Consciences Estates Liberties Lives to create new monstrous Treasons never heard of in the world before and declare real Treasons against King Kingdom Parliament to be no Treasons and Loyalty Allegiance due Obedience to our known Laws and consciencious observing of our Oaths and Covenants the breach whereof would render us actual Traytors and perjurious Persons to be no lesse than High Treason for which they may justly imprison dismember disfranchise displace and fine us at their wills as they have done some of late and confiscate our Persons Lives to the Gallows and our estates to their new Exchequer a Tyranny beyond all Tyrannies ever heard of in our Nation repealing Magna Charta c. 29. 5 E. 3. c. 6. 25 Ed. 3. c. 4. 28 Ed. 3. c. 3. 37. E. 3. c. 18. 42 E. 3. c. 3. 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. 11 R. 2. c. 4. 1 H. 4. c. 10. 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. N. 60. 1 E. 6. c. 12. 1 Mar. c. 1. The Petition of Right 3 Caroli the Statutes made in the begining of the Parliament 16 Caroli c. 1 7 8 10 12 14 20. and laying all our * Laws Liberties Estates Lives in the very dust after so many bloody and costly years wars to defend them against the Kings and others invasions raise and keep up what forces they will by Sea and Land impose what heavy Taxes they please and renew increase multiply and perpetuate them on us and on Scotland and Ireland too which no English Parliament ever did before as often and as long as they please to support their own encroached more then Regal Parliamental Super-transcendent Arbitrary power over us and all that is ours or the Kingdoms at our private and the publick charge against our wills judgements consciences to our absolute enslaving and our three Kingdoms ruine by engaging them one against another in new Civil wars and exposing us for a prey to our Forein Enemies All which with other particulars lately acted and avowed by the Imposers of this Tax and sundry others since by colour of that pretended Parliamentary Authority by which they have imposed it I must necessarily admit acknowledge to be just and legal by my voluntary payment of it on purpose to maintain an Army to justifie and make good all this by the meer power of the Sword which they can no waies justifie and defend by the Laws of God or the Realm or the least colour of reason justice honesty religion conscience before any Tribunal of God or Men when legally arraigned as they may one day be Neither of which I can or dare acknowledge without incurring the guilt of most detestable Perjury and highest Treason against King Kingdom Parliament Laws and Liberties of the people and therefore cannot yield to this Assesment Thirdly the principal ends and uses proposed in the pr●tended Acts and Warrants thereupon for payment of this Tax and other Taxes since are strong obligations to me in point of Coùscience Law Prudence to withstand it which I shall particularly discusse The First is the maintenante and continuance of the pr●sent Army and Forces in England under the Lord Fairfax Cromwell and other Commanders since To which I say First as I shall with all readinesse gratitude and due respect acknowledge their former Gallantry good and faithfull Services to the Parliament and Kingdom whiles they continued dutifull and constant to their first Engagements and the ends for which they were raised by both Houses as far forth as any man so in regard of their late monstrous defections and dangerous Apostacies from their primitive obedience faithfulnesse and engagements in disobeying the Commands and levying open war against both Houses of Parliament keeping an horrid force upon them at their very doors seising imprisoning secluding abusing and forcing away their Members printing and publishing many high and treasonable Declarations against the Institution Privileges Members and Proceedings of the late and being of

conceit to the contrary till they be setled in the Throne in peace upon just and honourable terms and invested in their just possessions Which were far more safe honourable just prudent and Christian for our whole 3. Kingdoms voluntarily and speedily to do themselves than to be forced to it at last by any forein Forces the sad consequences whereof we may easily conjecture and have cause enough to fear if we now delay it or still contribute to maintain Armies to oppose their Titles and protect the Invaders of them from publick Justice And therefore I can neither in conscience piety nor prudence ensnare my self in the guilt of all these dangerous treasonable consequences by any submission to this illegal Tax Upon all these weighty Reasons and serious grounds of Conscience Law Prudence which I humbly submit to the Consciences and Judgements of all conscientious and judicious persons whom they do or shall concern I am resolved by the Assistance and strength of the Omnipotent God who hath miraculously supported me under and carried me through all my former sufferings for the Peoples publick Liberties with exceeding joy comfort and t●e ruine of my greatest Enemies and Opposers to oppugn these unlawfull Contributions and the payment of them o● the uttermost in all just and lawfull waies I may And if any will forcibly levy them by distresse or otherwise without and against all Law or Right as Theeves and Robbers take mens Goods and Purses let them do it at their own umost peril being declared all Traytors and to be proceeded against capitally as Traytors by the Junctoes own late Knack and Declaration However though I suffer at present yet I trust God and men will in due time do me justice upon them and award me recompence for all injuries in this kind or any sufferings for my Countries Liberties However fall back fall edge I would ten thousand times rather lose my Life Libertie and all that I have to keep a good Conscience and preserve my own and my Countries native Liberty than to part with one farthing or gain the whole World with the losse of either of them and rather dye a Martyr for our Antient Kingdom than live a Slave under any New Republick or remnant of a broken dismembred strange Antiparliamental House of Commons without King Lords or the major part of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Realm in being subject to their illegal Taxes and what they call Acts of Parliament which in reality are no Acts at all to bind me or any other Subject in point of Conscience or Prudence to obedience or just punishment for Non-obedience thereunto or Non-conformity to what they style the present Government of the Armies modeling and I fear of the Popes Spaniards Campanellaes Father Parsons and other Jesuites suggesting to effect our Kings Kingdoms and Religions ruine as I have * elsewhere clearly evidenced beyond all contradiction Psalm 26. 4 5. I have not sate with vain Persons neither will I go in with Dissemblers I have hated the Congregation of evil Doers and will not sit with the wicked WILLIAM PRYNNE SWAINSWICK June 16. 1649. FINIS A POSTSCRIPT SInce the drawing up of the precedent Reasons I have met with a printed Pamphlet intituled An Epistle written the 8th day of June 1649. by Lieut. Colonel John Lilbourn to Mr. William Lenthal Speaker to the remainder of those few Knights Citizens and Burgesses that Col. Thomas Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster as most fit for his and his Masters designe● to serve their ambitious and tyrannical ends to destroy the good old Laws Liberties and Customes of England the badges of our Freedom as the Declaration against the King of the 7th of March 1648. p. 23. calls them and by force of Arms to rob the people of their lives estates and properties and subject them to perfect vassallage and slavery c. who and in truth no otherwise pretendedly style themselves The Conservators of the peace of England or the Parliament of England intrusted and authorised by the consent of all the people thereof whose Representatives by Election in their Declaration last mentioned p. 27. they say they are although they are never able to produce one bit of Law or any piece of a Commission to prove that all the people of England or one quarter tenth hu●dred or thousand part of them authorised Thomas Pride with his Regiment of Souldiers to chuse them a Parliament as indeed he hath de facto done by his PRETENDED MOCK-PARLIAM●NT and therefore it cannot properly be called the Nations or Peoples Parliame●t but Col. Prides and his Associates whose really it is who although they have beheaded the King for a Tyrant yet walk in his oppressi●g●st steps if not worse and higher This is the Title of his Epistle In this Epistle this late great champion of the House of Commons and fitting Junctoes Supremacy both before and since the Kings beheading who with his Brother a a His Petition and Appeal his Arrow of Defiance See Mr. Edwards Gangrena 3. part p. 154. f. 204. See My 〈…〉 for the 〈…〉 to Overton and their Confederates first cryed them up as and gave them the Title of The supreme Authority of the Nation The onely supreme Judicatory of the Land The onely formal and legal supreme Power of the Parliament of England in whom alone the power of binding the whole Nation by making altering or abrogating Laws without either King or Lords resides c. and first engaged them by their Pamphlets and Petitions against the King Lords and Personal Treaty as he and they print and boast in b● this Epistle and other late Papers Pag. 11 29 doth in his own and his parties behalf who of late so much adored them as the onely earthly Deities and Saviours of the Nation now positively assert and prove First That c c Pag. 34 35. Commissary General Ireton Colonel Harrison with other Members of the House and the General Councel of Officers of the Army did in several Meetings and Debates at Windsor immediately before their late march to London to purge the House and after at White-hall commonly style themselves the pretended Parliament even before the Kings beheading A MOCK PARLIAMENT a MOCK POWER a PRETENDED PARLIAMENT and NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL And that they were absolutely resolved and determined TO PULL UP THIS THEIR OWN PARLIAMENT BY THE ROOTS and not so much as to leave a shadow of it yea and had done it if we say they and some of our then FRIENDS in the House had not been the principal Instruments to hinder them We judging it then of two evils the least to chuse rather to be governed by THE SHADOW OF A PARLIAMENT till we could get a real and a true one which with the greatest protestations in the world they then promised and engaged with all their might speedily to effect then simply solely and onely by the will of

these illegal Taxes or the undue manner of imposing them without the Lords concurrence had they been present And I my self being both an unjustly imprisoned and secluded Member and neither of the Knights of the County of Somerset where I live present or consenting to these Acts or Taxes both of them being forced thence by the Army and sitting Members and one of them now dead and the other excluded I conceive neither my self nor the Countie where I live nor the Borough for which I served nor the people of these Kingdoms in the least measure bound by these Acts or Taxes but clearly exempted from them and obliged with all our might and power effectually to oppose them If any here object That by the custome of Parliament forty members onely are sufficient to make a Commons House of Parliament and there were at least so many present when this Tax was imposed Therefore it is valid obligatory both to the secluded Members and the Kingdome I answer First That though regularly it be true that forty members are sufficient to make a Commons House to begin praiers businesses of lesser moment in the beginning of the day till the other Members come and the House be full yet 40. were never in any Parliament reputed a competent number to grant Subsidies Taxes passe or read Bills or debate or conclude matters of greatest moment which by the constant Rules and usage of Parliament were never debated concluded passed but in a free and sull House when all or most of the Members were present as the Parliament Rolls Journals Modus tenendi Parliamentum Sir Edward Cooks 4 Institutes p. 1. 2. 26. 35. 36. Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts f. 1. c. 39. E. 3. 7. Brook Parliament 27. 1 Jac. c. 1. and the many Records I have cited to this purpose in my Levellers Ievelled my Plea for the Lords and Memento p. 10. the exact Abridgement of the Records in the Tower p. 11. 13 14. 19. 31. 36. 43. 46. 50. 51. 66. 69. 73. 74. 78. 90. 92. 96. 105. 120. 144. 152 154. 167. 169. 173. 182. 188. 193. 195. 202. 281. 286. 287. 290. 298. 308. 318. 318. 331. 335. 371. 373. 392. 426 427. 428. 430. 439. 440. 450. 454. 555. 464. 465. 665. 750. abundantly prove beyond contradiction for which cause the Members ought to be fined and lose their wages if absent without special Licence as Modus tenendi Parliamentum 5 R. 2. Par. 2. c. 4. 9. H. 8. c. 16. and A Collection of all Orders c. of the late Parliament p. 224. 357. with the frequent summoning and fining absent Members evidence Secondly though forty Members onely may peradventure make an House in case of absolute necessity when the rest through sickness and publick or private occasions are voluntarily or negligently absent and might freely repair thither to sit or give their Votes if they pleased yet forty Members never yet made a Commons House by custome of Parliament there being never any such case till now when the rest being above four times their number were forcibly secluded or driven thence by an Army raised to defend them through the practice connivance or command of those forty or fifty sitting of purpose that they should not over nor counter-vote them much lesse an House to sequester or expell the other Members or impose any Tax upon them Till they shew me such a Law Custome or President not to be found in any age all they pretend is nothing to purpose or the present case 3ly The visible horrid armed force upon both Houses of Parliament suppressing and secluding the whole House of Peers a against their undoubted hereditary and most ancient right to sit and vote in all Parliaments of England ratified by the first Act made this Parliament 16 Car. c. 1. and the Act for the continuance thereof 17 Car. c. 7. by pretext whereof the Members now sit their forcible seclusion of the far greatest part of the House of Commons onely for their Vote of Dec. 5. 1648. to settle the peace of the Kingdoms after a long-lasting intestine war upon most safe and honourable terms by the Army raised for their defence to sit and vote in safety as it totally subverts all the rights Priviledges and Constitution of our Parliaments so it utterly nalls all their Votes Orders Ordinances Taxes and Impositions whatsoever to all intents as I shall evidence beyond contradiction 1. By b the Declaration of WILLIAM LENTHAL Esquire SPEAKER of the Honourable HOUSE OF COMMONS Printed July 29. 16 7. by his direction then and rising up in Judgement gainst him and all his sitting Conventicles ever since the forcible exclusion of the most of their fellow-Members and the Lords by their expresse order and confederacy A Declaration of William Lenthall Esquire Speaker of the Honorable House of Commons ALthough it may happily be contrary to the expectation of some that I attend not the service of the House of Commons at this time as I have constantly done for 7. years last past yet can it not be reasonably expected by any that well consider the 1 violence offered to both Houses of Parl. and to my self in particular on Monday last insomuch that I can safely take it upon my conscience and so I doubt not may all the Members of both Houses also they sate in continual fear of their lives and by terrour thereof were compelled to passe such Votes as it pleased an unruly multitude to force upon them which as I did then openly declare in the House so I cannot but believe that they are all void and null being extorted by force and violence and in that manner that they were and 2 I cannot any longer dispence with my self to be an instrument in passing such Votes or to give any colour or shadow of Parliamentary authority unto them which are not the Votes of the representative body of the Kingdom but of a tumultuous multitude as those must needs be accompted that seemed to passe the House on Monday last and which shall passe hereafter untill better provision be made for the safe and free sitting of the Houses of Parliament there being no effectual * course taken by the City since the last adjournment of the Houses to prevent the like tumults for the future no nor so much as a Declaration from them to shew their dislike thereof But on the contrary it is generally voyced in the Town that there will be a far greater confluence of Apprentices Reformadoes and others on Friday at the Parliaments doors and particularly notice was given to me that after they 3 had made the House Vote what they please they would destroy me I had likewise information given me that there would be a great number of Apprentices of a contrary Opinion and affections to the other about the Parliament doors on Friday morning which I fore-saw must of necessity cause a great combustion and in probability occasion much blood-shed

by the particulars so fully clearly expressed in the Declaration of the army may appear shal receive condigne punishment or at least the Parliament put in such a condition as that they may be able to bring them thereunto And 10 we trust in God through his accustomed blessing up●n this Army and their Assistants in their honest and just undertakings the Parliament shall speedily be put into a condition to sit like a Parl. of England and we hope that 11 every true hearted Englishman will put his helping hand to so necessary so publick and so honourable a work as is the vindicating the freedom and honour of Parliament wherein the freedome and honour of all the free born people of this Nation are involved Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers * Sarisbury Denbigh Northumberland Gray of Wark Mulgrave Kent Howard Say and Seal 1 William Lenthal Speaker of the House of Commons 2 Lord Lisle Tho. Gray Will. Pierpoint 3 Henry Mildmay Nathaniel Fiennes John Fiennes 4 Arthur Haslerigg William Armyn 5 James Temple Edm. Prideaux 6 Miles Corbet John Danvers Francis Allin John Evelin 7 George Fleetwood George Fennick John Blackstone 8 Tho. Scot Tho. Scot Major 9 Roger Hill 10 Henry Martin 11 Cornelius Holland 12 Oliver Saint-Johns 13 William Lemmon 14 William Mounson Humphry Edwards 15 John Weaver 16 John Corbett 17 Thomas Lister 18 Henry Smith 19 Nich. Love Francis Pierpoint Henry Lawrence 20 Tho. Ougain Godfrey Boswell 21 Henry Darley 22 Tho. Boon 23 Peter Temple 24 Philip Smith 25 Michael Livesey Henry Hamond Gregory Norton Thomas Jarvice William Constable 26 William Say 27 Edward Ludlow 28 Edward Dunce 29 John Bingham 30 Augustine Skinner 31 John Trenchard 32 Sam. Mayn Benjamine Weston Francis Thurnow Rowland Wilson Laurence Whitacr● John Crowder 33 George Piggots John Bamfield In all but 58. Some 10 or more of which sate in the House in the Speakers absence and went not to the Army Of these 33. are yet living and sitting now and then excluding the Majority of the House by force and voting them out 5. of them now living are secluded who subscribed this engagement the rest since dead How these Subscribers and secluders can look God or men in the face or justify Taxes Knacks and Proceedings to be legal and Parliamentary whiles most of the Members are kept out by force after this their subscription and publication to the contrary under their own hands let themselves resolve It will be also worth the Enquiry who was the Pen-man and Contriver of this Engagement Whether it be not more dangerous and treasonable in those Members who have since confederated with the Army to seclude the Lords House and their own Members than that Engagement of the Citizens which the subfcribers hereof voted to be Treasonable And whether it makes not these sitting Members who subscribed it pre-ingaged parties and incompetent Judges of the secluded ejected and imprisoned Members who continued sitting in the House according to their trust and duty and of the accused and imprisoned Citizens who did but defend the Parliament then sitting according to their own Votes Ordinances Covenant and their duty 3ly By Sir Thomas Fairfax Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common-council of the City of London My Lord and Gentlemen YOu may please to remember the former complyance of this Army with your desires to remove to this distance and that upon the assurance you gave them of your concurrence with their declared desires for the setling the liberty and peace of the Kingdom against which you never yet offered us one exception or anie ground of dissent as also of your great tendernesse and resolution to secure the Parliament and their privileges from any violence or attempt the reason given us of your late listing of new forces and wherein we did most acquiesce That upon this confidence we had disposed the Armie into several parts of the Kingdom for the ease of the whole to above 100. miles distance we had given up our selves to the effecting of such Proposals as might tend to the comfortable settlement of this poor Kingdom and a hopefull way for the speedy relief of Ireland We cannot then but be deeply sensible of the 1 unparalleld violation acted upon the Parliament upon Mondy last by a rude multitude from your City because therein the Guards sent from the City did not only neglect their duty for the security of the Parliament from such violence and the whole Citie to yield anie relief to the Houses in that extremity but I am assured from eye and ear-witnesses that divers of the Common-council gave great encouragement to it which doth not only 2 gain-say your former professions but doth violence to those many Obligations that by your Charter Protestation and sundry other waies lye upon you to protect the Parliament For my part I cannot but look on your selves who are in authoritie as accountable to the Kingdom for your present interruptions of that hopefull way of peace and settlement things were in for this Nation and of relieving Ireland occasioned by the late Treasonable and destructive Engagement Especially the lately prodigious and horrid force done upon the Parliament 3 tending to dissolve all Government upon which score we and the whole Kingdom shall have cause to put every thing of the like nature that may happen to the Parliament or to any who are friends to them and this Armie except by your wisdom care and industry the chief actors may be detected 4 secured and given up to the procuring of justice for the same and the best endeavors used to prevent the like for the future And so I rest Your most assured friend to serve you Tho. Fairfax Bedford 29 July 1647. 4ly By a Declaration of Sir Tho. Fairfax * and his Council of War August 3. 1647. concerning the Apprentices force upon the Houses wherein are these observable passages Monday July the six and twentieth the Common-Council of the City presents their Petitions to both Houses for changing the Militia whereon the House of Lords refuse to alter their resolutions the House of Commons answered they would take it into consideration the next morning Notwithstanding which the City and Kingdome cannot be ignorant with what rage and insolency the tumult of Apprentices the same day forced both Houses They 1 blockt up their doors swearing they would keep them in till they had passed what Votes they pleased they threatned the Houses if they granted not their desires knocking whooting and hallowing so at the Parliament-doors that many times the Members could not be heard to speak or debate not suffering the House of Commons to divide for determining such Questions as w●●e put crying out 2 That those that gave their Votes against them should be sent out to them very often and loudly saying Agree agree dispatch we 'l stay no longer and in this outragious manner they continued at the

of Parliament shall be quietly permitted without any legal impeachment hearing tryal or cause alleged but only for one just single Vote Decemb. 4. 1648. carryed in a full House after long debate without any division forcibly to seclude and Vote out the greatest part of their Fellow-Members of greatest integritie interest ability and faithfulness to the Publick against all rules of Law Justice and Parliamentarie proceedings and their Electors wills and by new heterogeneal Writs derived from another power and varying in form from those by which themselves were chosen to enforce whole Counties Cities and Boroughs to elect new Knights Citizens and Burgesses to recruit their empty House upon such pernicious Qualifications and Engagements as themselves prescribe both to the Electors and Members to be elected of which themselves will be the only Judges ere they admit them to sit when chosen on purpose to carry on their own private designs and force what Government they please upon the people against their publick Interest and desires to perpetuate our Confusions Oppressions Unsettlements and to disable whom they please to elect or be elected without any publick opposition by the secluded Members and people then endeavoured then farewell Parliaments Laws and Liberties for ever Fourthly The coercive power and manner of levying this contribution expressed in the Act is against the law of the Land and libertie of the Subject which is threefold First Distresse and sale of the Goods of those who refuse to pay it with power to break open their Houses which are their Castles doors chests c. to distrain which is against Magna Chart. c. 29. The Petition of Right 3 Car. The Votes of both Houses in the case of Shipmony 1 R. 2. c. 3. and the resolution of our Judges and Law-books 13 Edw. 4 9. 20 E. 4. 6. Cook 5 Report f. 91 92. Semains case and 4 Inst. p. 176 177. Secondly Imprisonment of the bodie of the party till he pay the Contribution which is contrarie to Magna Charta c. 29. The Petition of Right The resolution of both Houses in the Parliament of 3 Caroli in the case of Loans and 17 Caroli in the case of Shipmony the judgement of our Judges and law-books collected by Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Inst. p. 46 c. the Statute of 2 H. 4 rot parl. n. 6. 16 Car. c. 1 8 10 12 14 20. most expresse in point Thirdly Levying of the contribution by souldiers and force of arms in case of resistance and imprisoning the person by like force adjudged High Treason in the case of the Earl of trafford and a levying of war within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. by the last Parliament for which he lost his head and proved to be High Treason at large by Master St. John in his Argument at Law at the passing the Bill for his attainder Printed by order of the Commons House Fourthly which heightens the illegality of these illegal means of levying it if any person whose goods are distrained or person imprisoned for these illegal caxes shall bring his Action at Law or an Habeas Corpus for his relief or action of false imprisonment as he may justly do not onely those who now stile themselves Judges forgetting the cases of Judge Thorp Tresilian and others of old and the impeachments of the late Shipmony Judges in the beginning of this Parliament with Mr. St. Johns Speech and Declaration against them worthy their perusal will deny or delay to right and release them for which they deserve Thorps and Tresilians punishments but if these fail them at least wise the new illegal Committee of Indempnity will stay his legal proceedings award costs against him commit him anew till he pay them and release his Sut es at Law and upon an Habeas corpus their own sworn Judges created by them without any Oath to do equal Justice c. to all but onely to be true and faithfull to their new ere●ted State and sitting amongst them as Members dare not bail but remaund him against Law An oppression and Tyranny far exceeding the worst of the Beheaded Kings under whom the Subjects had Free-Liberty to sue and proceed at Law both in the cases of Loans Shipmony and Knighthood without any Council-Table or Committee of Indempnity to stop their sutes or force them to release them and therefore in all these respects so repugnant to the Laws and Liberty of the Subject I cannot submit to these illegal Taxes but oppugn them to the uttermost as the most Destructive to our Laws and Libertie that ever were Fifthly The time of the imposing of this illegal Tax with these unlawfull wayes of levying it is very confiderable and sticks much with me it is as the imposers of it declare and publish in many of their new kind of Acts and devices in the first year of Englands Liberty and redemption from thraldom this last after its new revival after 6. years interruption and inter-regnum by Oliver his Son Richard And if this unsupportable Tax thus illegally to be levied be the first frui●s of our first years Freedome and redemption from thraldom as they stile it how great may we expect our next years thraldom will be when this little finger of theirs is heavier by far than the Kings whole loins whom they beheaded for Tyranny and Oppression 6ly The Order of this first Tax if I may so term a disorder or rather newn●ss of it engageth me and all lovers of their Countries Liberty unanimously to withstand the same It is the first I find that was ever imposed by any who had been Members of the Commons House after a Parliament dissolved the Lords House voted down and most of their fellow Commoners secured or secluded by their connivance or confederacy with an undutifull Army at first and this latter the first doubled Tax upon the people for the very moneths they advanced ● aid in beforehand by the expresse command and orders of the sitting Members to exclude the secluded ones not only out of the House it self but Lobby too into which the meanest Footboyes and Porters have free accesse Which if submitted to and not opposed as illegal not onely the King or Lords alone without the Commons but any forty or fifty Commoners who have been Members of a Parliament gaining Forces to assist and countenance them may out of Parliament now or any time hereafter do the like and impose what Taxes and Laws they please upon the Kingdom and the secluded Lords and Commons that once sate with them and on Scotland and Ireland too being encouraged thereto by such an unopposed president Which being of so dangerous consequence and example to the constitution and Privileges of Parliament and liberties of the people we ought all to endeavour the crushing of this new Coc●atrice in the shell lest it grow up to a Fiery Serpent to consume and sting us to death and induce the imposers of it to l●de us with new and