Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	case_n	court_n	reverse_v	2,041	5	12.2818	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88211	The lawes funerall. Or, An epistle written by Lieutenant Col. John Lilburn, prisoner in the Tower of London, unto a friend of his, giving him a large relation of his defence, made before the judges of the Kings bench, the 8. of May 1648. against both the illegal commitments of him by the House of Lords, and the House of Commons, ...	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1648 (1648)	Wing L2130; Thomason E442_13; ESTC R210612	38,933	34

Prison for nothing as clearely appeares by the whole return which only consists in generals generals are no crim● in Law therefore Sir J beseech you tell me whether the Law of England be so imperfect that it hath provided no remedy to preserve a man from destruction by lust will and pleasure but if it have not then Sir I must ingenuously tell you so much am I an Englishman and free from the principals of slavery that though I have suffered and undergone with some kind of patience almost two yeares imprisonment without any cause but onely by the power of lust will and pleasure that I professe before you both and this whole auditory that were I this day put to my choise I had rather chuse to combate one by one with 20. of the stoutest men that steps upon English ground though I were sure to bee cut in a thousand pieces thereby then willingly to be Captived in Prison two yeares longer by the power of Lust will and pleasure without the hopes of any remedy but from those that tyrannize over mee FOR TO BE A SLAVE IS BELOWE ME or any man that is a man but if this be good Law which you declare unto me then perfect slaves are we indeed Again Sir is for that Law of Parliament you talk of I had thought England had had but one Law to be governd by hat that had bin a visible and a declared Law and not a Law in mens breasts not to be knowne till they please to declare it and then when they do it shall every day crosse it self and ebbe and slow according to successe Sir this is no Law at all and therefore here can bee no transgression against it but if you mean a Law in being but yet kept so close in holes and corners that none can come to see it or read it but only the executors of it this is as bad as no Law at all and as good living in Turky as under such an unknown Law But Sir to lay aside all these dubious disputes about Jurisdiction and Parliament Laws and Laws in the ordinary Courts of Justice and suppose the Lords have a power of Jurisdiction in the present case to sentence me if really I had committed a crime and suppose but no more that you are an inferiour Court and cannot legally reverse or take cognizance of their Judgments yet I desire to keep you close to my return which shew clearly that I am imprisoned for nothing and thereby rondred an innocent and just man and therefore I demand positively your judgments in that whether it be so or no And secondly whether the Law hath not provided a remedy for me and for my deliverance from under any power in England in case I be imprisoned by them for nothing unto which as I remember both the Judges spoke to it in the foregoing manner and if I wrong them not which I would be very leath to do in the conclusion of their spaeches both of them ingenuonsly confessed that by my return it did appear I was imprisoned without any crime in law laid unto my charge but yet being committed by a superiour Court the Lords and that upon a sentence they could not in Law relieve me Whereupon I earnestly pressed to be heard but a few words more which was granted and I very soberly said Mr. Justice Bacon I have been forth in service to fight for the Laws and Liberties of England against those men that the Parliament made me and divers others believe would have destroyed them and I was I confesse very zealous to presse others to do as I did But Sir had it then been told me by those that set me at work or had I in my own breast believed i● that the issus of all our fightings should have beene contured in making the people of the Kingdom slaves or that all our fighting should have contributed to nothing so much as to inable a company of men sitting here at Westminster called LORDS and COMMONS arbytrarily by their lusts wils and pleasures to have raigned and ruled over us I would have been so far from killing of Cavaseers that I would rather with my own hand have beene my own executioner then to have murdered men to satisfie the lusts of others But seeing it is as it is and that I have been so grosly mistaken in these mens promises oathes Declarations and ingagements which now they judge as nothing but have throwns them all behind their backes I shall recant my error in beleeving of them and perswading others to doe i● and shall desire to be setled in that which is truth which is now to beleeve them noemore and instead of being zelous to provoke the People to stand up for there Lawes at their commands I shall be very sorry for that error or mistake or I clearely see thore is none in England of any more strength then a piece of soft wax nor the People by there great Lordly promises were never intended other then to be Vassels and slave * Yea the most miserablist of slaves b●ing first in sabjection to a Statute Law and if they transgresse that then the Judges of the Law are ready to distroy both life and Estate therefore secondly to a Law of Ordinances and if they transgesse that which is sufficiently contradicttory in it selfe then they shall by one Arbitrary Committee or other hazard the loss● of all they have with out any witnesses sworne against them or any Jury pinnelld or it may be any complaint in writting preferrd against them but they shall be distroyed by the will and descration of the Committes for such proceedings contrary to the fundamentall Law of the Land both Dudley and E●son Privie Cou●cellers were hanged though they had an Act of Parliament to autherize their doings as appears 2. part insti fo 51.3 part insti fo 2●8 and 4. part insti fo 41.196.197.198 but yet if a man be never so observiant of both the Law and Parliament Ordinances yet thirdly Parliament Lords and Commons have a Law paramount above them both and which as pleasure shall null them both and neither of them shall be any protection unto you and that it their law of will lust and pleasure more exercised put in use by them then both the former so that of necessi●ie slaves in the highest are all Englishmen now being under 3. distinct Lawes for their destruction but can injoy the benefit of never a one for their preservation and therefore for the Parliament to make Judges of the Law to executed is but a mooking and cheating of the people for they have left them none to execute but have superseded it every line with the Law of thir lusts wills and pleasures for all their lying promises in all their Declarations to the contrary therefore all ye true hatted Englishmen awake awake looke wel about before the midnight of slavery sease upon you and therefore Sir I shall now

am that the dealings of the Lords and Commons with me demonstrated by their orders of committments flowes not from any power given them either by the Law of the Laud nor from the Indentures betwixt them and their chusers no nor yet from any word or clause in the Writ of there summons or Elections and therefore fourthly it must flow from there CROOKED IVSTS DEPRAVED VVILLS and ARBITRARY PLEASVRES by which with naked faces they declare themselves to be limitted by no boundary unaccountable and obnoxius to no censures for any possible abuse whatsoever that can becommitted by them for by these committments they evidently declare there is no rule whereby to measure the rectitude or obliquitie justice or injustice of their Government and actions and by consequence they are under an impossibilitie to render an account of their wayes and doings and so by consequence the people of England are in the absolutest road way of perfect slavery that is upon the earth this the Parliament or the Lords and Commons would have the World to beleive they abhord in the King as appeares by there last declaration against him in which they shew the reasons of their votes not to make or to receive any addresses to or from him for in Page 12 they s●y the King hath laid a fit foundation for all tiranny by that most destructive maxime of his viz. that he oweth no account of his actions to any but to God alone but by the warrants of my cōmitments it seemes this wicked and heathenish Maxim is Iudged by the makers thereof not to be to sweete a morsell for their own Pallets though in their said declaration they judge it to sweet for the Kings and therefore to conclude this point if this honorable Court of Justice the Judges whereof are sworne to Judge according to the Law and not lust will nor pleasure will Judge these arbitrary Committments of mine to be legal then I make my humble desire unto you the Judges thereof that you would cousen and deceive the people of the Kingdome no longer by assuming unto your selves the name of Judges of the Law but rather translate your Titles into the name of Judges of lust will and pleasure that so the people may expect the legall administration of the Law no longer from you and so I have done with the Fift and last ingredient to a legall Mittimus Now Mr. Justice Bacon seeing it is objected both by you and Mr. Justice Roll that my Commitment from the Lords is rather a Sentence Judgement or Decree hen a bare Mittimus and therefore being a judgement by the Lords a higher Court for 7. yeares imprisonment I cannot be delivered by this Court which being inferiour to it cannot reverse it nor be Judges of it To which Mr. Justice Bacon I answere First I doe not seeke unto you at present for reversement of my Sentence which is 4000. l. fine and perpetuall disfranchisement of the Liberties of an Englishman as well as seven yeares imprisonment But I come unto you as Judges of the Law who are sworne impartially to doe me Law and Justice notwithstanding any command whatsoever by any whatsoever to the contrary for my personall liberty which is my undoubted right by Law for any thing that judicially appeares before you upon the Warrants of my commitments For I have already fully proved unto you there is not legally the least crime in the world laid unto my charge and therefore no rules in Law for you to send me backe againe to prison But secondly I answer that I have already proved the Lords are none of my legall Judges and therefore all their proceedings with me from first to last are corum non judici Yea even their Sentence and Commitment it selfe for being it is against the 29. Chap. of Magna Charta it is void and null in Law which expressely saith That no Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be dissesed of his Freehould or Liberties or free Customes or be Outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed nor past upon nor condemned by the lawfull judgement of his equals or by the Law of the Land which Law of the Land is expounded by the Statute of the 25. Ed. 3.4 37. Ed. 3.18 and Sir Edward Goke in his 2. part instit fo 50.51 to be by due Processe of Law viz That none shall be taken and past upon c. by Petition or suggestion made to our Lord the King or to his Counsell undesse it be by indictment or presentment of good and lawfull men where such deeds be done in due manner or by Writ originall at the Common Law being brought in to answere by due Processes according to the common and olde Law of the Land all which c. is confirmed by the Statute that abolished the Starre-Chamber this present Parliament 17. C. R. and all Acts Ordinances Orders Judgements and Decrees made contrary thereunto or in diminution thereof are thereby declared ipso facto to be null and voide in Law and are to be holden for errors and false judgements which totally barrs and overthtowes all Presidents whatsoever to the contrary yea although the Lords had a million of them And excellent to this purpose is Sir Edward Cookes Commentary upon the 3. Ed. 1. chap. 15 but especially his Commentary upon these words viz. Or Commandement of the King First faith he the King being a body politique cannot command but by matter of Record for the King commands and the Law commands are all one for the King must command by matter of record according unto the Law Secondly When any Judiciall Act is by Act of Parliament referred to the King it is understood to be done in some Court of Justice according to the Law And the opinion of Gascoine Chiefe Justice is notable in this point that the King hath committed all his power judicall to divers Courts some in one Court some in another c. and because some Courts as the Kings Bench are Coram Rege and some coram Justiciariis therefore the Act saith by the commandernent of the King or his Justices Hussey Chiefe Justice reported that Sir John Markham said to King Ed. 4. that the King could not arrest any man for suspition of Treason or Fellony as any of his Subjects might because if the King did wrong the party could not have his action if the King command me to arrest a man and accordingly I doe arrest him hee shall have his action of false imprisonment against me albeit he was in the Kings presence resolved by the whole Court in 16. H. 6. which authority might be a good warrant to defend his said opinion to Ed. 4. The words of the Statute of the 1 R. 2. chap. 12. are unlesse it be by the Writ or other commandement of the King and it was resolved by all the Judges of England that the King cannot doe it by any commandement but by Writ or by order or Rule of some of his Courts