of his Reign for the punishment of such as committed Murder or Man-slaughter in the Kings Court or did strike any man there whereby Bloodshed ensued the Trial of such Offenders was not thought fit to be within the Cognisance or Jurisdiction of any of the Courts of Westminster-hall or of any Court inferior unto them but ordained to be by a Jury of 12 of the Yeomen Officers of the Kings Houshold before the Lord Steward or in his absence before the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings Houshold And the Parliament in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary repealing the aforesaid Act of the 32 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth did touching the Great Master of the Kings House notwithstanding understand it to be reasonable that the Name Office and Authority of the Lord Steward should be again established And so little the Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary seemed to be a Grievance or illegal to be first complained of to the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold which Honourable Office and Place about the King appears to have been before that Great Office of Chamberlain of England by the mention of Hugoline Chamberlain to King Edward the Confessor and the Subscription of Ralph Fitz Stephen as a Witness to a Charter of King Henry the Second granted unto the Abby of Shirburn before they were to be subjected to Arrests or Imprisonments for Debt and other Personal Actions before Execution or Judgment had against them upon their appearance and not claiming or pleading their Priviledge for then or in such a case they have not sometimes been priviledged although the cause and reason of their Priviledge was as much after Judgement and Execution as before which a submission to the Jurisdiction of another Court and not claiming their Priviledge should not prejudice or take away no more than it doth in the Case of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and their Servants who by their Priviledge of Parliament are not to be disturbed with Executions or any manner of Process before and after Judgment as Queen Mary did in a Case depending in the Court of Common Pleas betwixt Huggard Plaintiff and Sir Thomas Knivet Defendant direct her Writ to the Justices of that Court which was but as one of the old and legal Writs of Protection or something more especial certifying them That the said Sir Thomas Knivet was by her command in her Service beyond the Seas and had been Essoined and therefore commanded them That at the time appointed by the said Essoin and day given for his appearance he should not have any default entred against him or be in any thing prejudiced which the Judges were so far from disallowing as having before searched and finding but few and that before-mentioned Privy Seal in the 35 year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth in the Case of the Kings Yeoman of the Buttery being held by them to be insufficient but declared not whether in substance or Form howsoever there may be some probability that it was allowed by the entring of it upon Record they did as the Lord Chief Justice Dier hath reported it advise and assist in the penning and framing of the Writ for Sir Thomas Knivet whereby to make it the more legal Queen Elizabeth who was as tender of her Peoples Liberties as of her own yet was upon some occasion heard to say That he that abused her Porter at the Gate of her House or Palace abused her did cause a Messenger of her Chamber to be sent unto a Defendant in the Court of Requests commanding him in her Name not to vex sue or trouble the Complainant but suffer him to come and go freely unto that Court until such time as other Order be by the Council of the said Court taken therein And in the second year of her Reign an Injunction was awarded to the Defendant commanding him to permit the Complainant to follow his Suit in that Court without Arrest upon pain of one hundred pounds In the same year Sir Nicholas Bacon that great and well-experienced Lawyer and Statesman Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and a man highly and deservedly valued both of Prince and People did in the Case between Philip Manwaring Complainant Henry Smallwood and others Defendants so well understand the aforesaid Priviledges of the Kings Servants to be just and legal as upon a Bill exhibited in Chancery by the Plaintiff to stay a Suit in the Marches of Wales he ordered That if the Complainant should not by a day limited bring a Certificate from the Officets of the Queens House or otherwise whereby the Court might credibly understand that his Attendance in the Queens Service was necessary that Cause should be determined in the Marches of Wales In the eighth year of her Reign Thomas Thurland Clerk of the Queens Closet being Plaintiff in the Court of Requests against William Whiteacres and Ralf Dey Defendants an Order was made That whereas the Complainant was committed to the Fleet by the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas upon an Execution of 600 l. the Debt being only 300 l. it hath been given this Curt to understand by divers of the Queens Highness most Honourable Privy Council that Her Majesties pleasure is to have and use the present and speedy Travel of the said Thomas Thurland in and about divers of Her Highness weighty affairs in sundry places of England and Wales for and about the Mineral Causes there to the very likely Commodity and benefit of Her Majesty and all her Subjects It is therefore Ordered and Decreed by Her Majesties Council of this Court that the said Thomas Thurland shall and may with his Keeper appointed by the Warden of the Fleet Travel into any part of the said Realm about the affairs aforesaid without the disturbance Let or Interruption of the said Defendants And to that purpose an Injunction is granted against the said Defendants their Attornies and Solicitors upon pain of one Thousand pounds and commanded that neither they nor any of them shall vex sue trouble molest or implead the said Complainant or Richard Tirrel Esq Warden of the Fleet or any other person whatsoever for the Travelling or departing of the said Thomas Thurland from the said Prison of the Fleete with his Keeper appointed as aforesaid from the day of the making of this Decree until the feast of all Saints next ensuing if the said Complainant so long shall have cause to attend about the said affairs And many Cases might be instanced where that great Supporter of Monarchy Regality and Honour in Her best of Governments would not suffer the Just Priviledges of Her Court and Servants to be violated but would be sure severely to punish the Contradictors and Infringers of them About the eighteenth year of her Raign the Earl of Leicester Master of the Horse unto that Excellent Queen and great preserver of Her Peoples
which was complained of being not always likely to be true would not think it just to give them leave to Arrest or Hurry the Defendants to Prison as their Pride Malice Cruelty or oppressing Designs should incite them without some pause or Interval which many times cooleth the fury of mens rage and Impetuosities in the pursuit of their causeless anger or malice or by some other way or means lays aside their intended Law Sute our Laws in the favour shewed to Defendants imitating therein the Civil Law from whose Excellent and largly streaming fountain much of their reasons and Maxims are borrowed and derived which in it's Practice and Tenets is favorabilior reo quam Actori respects more the Defendant than the Plaintiff Actor quippe potuit omnia negotia ex consilio componere antequam reum vocaret for that the Plaintiff hath commonly made all his matters readie before he complains of the Defendant or cites him to appear to his Action reus vero quadam necessitate comparendi sibi imposita ita facile saepe non potest sibi consulere ut pro voluntate quae vult exequatur but the Defendant having a necessity put upon him to appear when he is summoned cannot in that time so well provide for his defence as to do or perform what he otherwise would do which may be the cause that apud Romanos Lege cautum ut Accusatori which was then in Civil as well as in Criminal Cases in foro horae sex ad dicendum reo vero novem ad defendendum darentur a Law was made by the Romans that the Accuser should be allowed six hours at the Barrâ— or in a Court of Justice to charge the Defendant but the Defendant was for his defence to have nine that apportionment of time being afterwards contracted and abridged by Cn. Pompey unto two for the Plaintiff and three for the Defendant and long before that amongst the Athenians and Lacedemonians fuit constitutum ut aequalibus votis super vindicando facinore in diversa trahentibus pro reo judicium staret quod videbatur aequissimum it was their Law or Custom that where in a Case betwixt the Accuser or Plaintiff and the Defendant the Votes of the one side and the other sell to be equal they held it most just or equitable to absolve or free the Defendant and for that or the like reason it was that Judge Hengham said in the Reign of King Edward the first quod Curia Domini Regis neminem decipere vult that the Kings Court of Justice would not have any Defendant to be surprized or deceived that by the Statute of the 51. of King Henry the third the dayes or Retourns in the Court of Common Pleas in Real Actions for Lands had so long a time allowed as from the Octaves or eight dayes after Michaelmas which as to the day of appearance is about the 9 th day of October unto the Octaves or eight dayes of St. Hillary which is as to the day of appearance the 23. day of January next following and of five Retourns in Dower which concerned only an Estate for life from the Octaves or eight dayes of St. Hillary which is the 23. day of January unto quindena Paschae or fifteen daies after Easter which in most years doth happen about the middle of April next following and by the Statute of 32 H. 8. cap. 2. daies were given in real Actions retornable in Octabis Sancti Hillarii unto Crastino Sanctae Trinitatis which is more than four months And that there are and have been to the intent that according to our Magna Charta the Defendant as well as the Plaintiff should be heard before Sentence or Judgement given those Indulgencies of Essoins de malo vemendi that a Defendant could not coveniently come or of malo lecti that he was sick c. Such Licences or kind of leave before Actions begun or prosecuted being so essential to a right distribution of Justice as antiently the parties could not compound or agree an Action or Suit depending without a Licence from the King to agâ—ee as it is yet in praxi in the course or manner of leavying Fines upon Writs of Covenant for a certain sum of money called by the name of the Kings Silver paid to the King upon the prae-fine and another sum of monie also upon the Post-fine and sometimes though now altogether dis-used upon an Action of Debt for no greater a sum of monie than 11 l. and some odd monie nor could the Plaintiff upon any mistake in his Action amend the matter or bring another Writ without a Petition or Request ut recedat a brevi that he might forsake that Writ or Action to purchase a better all the pleadings at Law where the obtaining of a Writ is mentioned alledging that the Plaintiff impetravit breve did Petition for that Writ and the special awarding of very many of the Writs and Process of Law being in the word petit breve de inquirendo de dampnis c. that the Plaintiff prayeth that he may have a Writ to inquire of Damages c. And was not without the pattern of ancient daies and the reasons that guided or conducted them unto it when in King Davids time as we may read in the Conspiracy and Rebellion of his Son Absolom the people were coming to David with with their Petions for Justice and there were amongst the Hebrews or people of Israel God in his most righteous Laws to that Nation which Moses afterwards told them farr surpassed the Laws of other Nations ordaining ut ex praescripto res Judicarent that matters of Controversie should be judged according to certain praescript forms and rules a certain sort of Magistrates called Grammatoisogogei which prefided over the Judges qui causas quae ad se deferrentur who received Petitions for Justice recipere vel rejicere possent quas recepissent ad Judices introducerent and having authority to receive or reject them did deliver to the Judges those which they approved to which custom or course that speech of our Saviour Christ in the 12 th Chapter of St. Luke alludeth Cum vadis cum Adversario tuo ad Principem in via da operam liberari ne forte trahat te ad Judicem when thou goest with thine Adversary to the Prince or Magistrate as thou art in the way give diligence that thou may'st be delivered from him lest he hale thee to the Judge And the Athenians having afterwards used the like the Romans their wise Imitators considering that hominem homini Lupum esse verissime dici solet men are too often Wolves to one another cum vita nostra ob corruptam naturam sine litibus transigi non posset melius erat Judiciorum formulas introducere quibus Judice cognitore homines disceptarent quam ferre quod quotidianis dissidiis ad arma rixas prosilirent and the life of mankind by their corrupt
such Causes as all the Kings and Princes of the civilized Part of the World have used to do And of small or no force or avail would be that Clause in our Magna Charta so hardly obtained by our Fore-fathers that the King Nulli negaret Justitiam vel Rectum should not deny Justice or Right unto any who demanded it and little deserving to be called or thought a Liberty if it were not within the reach of his Power and it would be a kind of Injustice to oblige or require him to do that which he could not Which the Reverend Judges and Sages of the Law in the eighteenth year of the Reign of King Edward the First were so unwilling to interpret to be out of his Power As when John Bishop of Winchester having granted unto him free Chace in all the Demesn Lands and Woods of the Prior and Covent of St. Swithen in Winchester and their Successors and being in the Kings Service in the Parts beyond the Seas and having his Protection for all his Lands Goods and Estate brought his Action wherein he did set forth the Kings Protection and his being as aforesaid in his Service against Henry Huse Constable of the Kings Castle at Portcester for that he had hunted in his aforesaid Chace and Liberty in contempt of the King and contrary to his aforesaid Protection whilest he was in his Service as aforesaid To which the said Henry Huse pleading that what he had done was lawful for him to do by reason of a Privilege belonging unto his said Place or Office of Constable of the Castle aforesaid and Issue being joyned thereupon the Court stayed it and delivered their Opinion That no Jury ought to be impannelled nor any Inquisition taken thereupon in regard that Inquisitio ista Domino Rege inconsulto tam propter Cartam ipsius Domini Regis porrectam quam nemo per inquisitionem patrie vel alio modo judicare debet nisi solus Dominus Rex quam ratione Ballivae predict ' que est ipsius Domini Regis ad quam predictus Hâ—nricus dicit libertatem predictam pertinere that such an Issue or Inquiry ought not to be the King not consulted or made acquainted therewith as well in respect of his Charter produced which none but the King by any Jury or Trial ought to Judge as in regard of the Liberty alledged by the said Henry to be belonging to the King Et dictum est partibus quod sequantur versus Dominum Regem quod precipiat procedere ad predict ' inquisitionem capiend ' si voluerit vel quod alio modo faciat voluntatem suam in loquela predict And the Parties were therefore ordered to attend and petition the King to command the Judges if he please that they proceed in the said Action or by some other way declare his Will and Pleasure concerning the said Action and is a good direction for Subjects to ask leave of the King before they Arrest or any way endeavor to infringe the Priviledge of his Servants In the twentieth year of the Reign of that King in a Case in the Court of Common-Pleas where William de Everois being Demandant had complained to the King that the Judges of that Court did delay to give Judgement and the Judges acknowledging that he had been long delay'd in regard that the said William required Seisin to be delivered unto him by a Contract made in the time of War which he denied Dictum est prefatis Justic ' quod ad judicium procedant prout facere consueverunt Et faciend ' est de seisina contractibus factis in tempore partes Guerre the King ordered the Judges that they should proceed to Judgement as they used to do and make an Order concerning the Seisin and Contracts had between the parties thereunto in the time of the War In the same year a Complaint being made to the King that Sir John Lovel Knight being Plaintiff before the Justices of the Court of common-Common-Pleas in a Writ which had long depended and was made in an unusual Form of the Chancery and the Defendant in the beginning of the Plea before Thomas of Weyland and his Associates the Justices of the said Court had put in his Plea of Abatement and Exceptions to the said Writ and prayed that it might be Entred upon the Rolls and Recorded which afterwards could not be found but in regard that Elias de Beckingham one of the Judges remembred the said Plea to whose onely memory a greater Credit is to be given than to the Rolls of the said Thomas of Weyland who with the rest of his Fellow Judges except the said Elias of Beckingham were formerly Fined and punished for other Misdemeanors Et idem Elias semper fideliâ— extiterit in servicio Regis fideliter se gesserit and the said Elias was always faithful and in the Service of the King did well behave himself And all the then Judges did agree that if a Writ of that Form should be brought unto them and pleaded in Abatement they would immediately quash it And for that non est Juri consonum quod per maliciam predict Thome sociorum suorum sibi adherentium qui Exceptiones Tenentis admittere noluerunt cum ipsum proposuerit tempore Competenti non allocaverunt per prout prefatum Eliam recordatum est It is not agreeable to Law that by the malice of the aforesaid Thomas and his Fellow Judges confederating with him who would not admit or allow of the Tenants Exceptions when it was in due time pleaded as by the said Elias was witnessed Dictum est Justic ' quod procedant ad Judicium super exceptione Tenentis prout fuerit faciend ' ac si in Recordo inveniretur The Judges were ordered to proceed to Judgment upon the Tenants Exception as it ought to be done if it had been recorded In the year next following William de Mere Sub-Escheator of the King in the County of Stafford and Reginaldus de Legh who was one of the sworn Justices of the King having an Information brought against them before the King and his Council the Justices of the Court of Kings-Bench for that after the death of Jeffery de Howâ—l who held Lands of Ralph Basset by Knight-service and the death of the said Ralph who had seized all the Lands of the said Jeffery and had in his life time the custody and marriage of William the son of Jeffery and dying seized of Lands holden of the King in Capite and of the custody of the said William and the Heir of the said Ralph being likewise under age and with the Lands of the said Ralph seized by the said Sub-Escheator he suffered the Heir of the said Jeffery without the Kings Writ to enter upon the Lands of the said Jeffery And the said Reginald de Legh by fraud and collusion betwixt him and the said Sub-Escheator took away the Heir of the said Jeffery and
Bracton will not allow the priviledge where it is ex voluntaria causa when the party that would excuse his absence was voluntarily absent and not in the Kings service or will of his own accord without the Kings command go along with his Army yet he cannot but say that talibus non subvenit dominus nisi de gratia unto such the King would not be aiding unless he should be otherwise gratiously pleased to do it By an Act of Parliament made in the 52 year of the Raign of our King Henry the third all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and religious men and women except that their appearance be specially required for some other Causes are excused from appearing at the Sheriffs Turn Sir Edward Cook extending it to the Courts Leete and view of Franck-pledge which with the Sheriffs Turns were instituted for the Conservation of the Kings peace punishment of Nusances and where all men within the Jurisdiction of it might be summoned to take the Oath of Allegiance By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Raign of King Edward the first providing a remedy where an Officer of the Kings which by common intendment were then understood to be the Sheriffs Escheators or Bayliffs of the King not his menial Servants doth disseise any It is in that only case left to the Election of the Disseisee or party disseised whether that the King by office shall cause it to be amended which the parties grieved were more likely to choose when besides their just satisfaction they might be a means to punish or affright the Kings Officers so offending with the losse of their gainful as well as not smally reputed Offices or places at his complaint or that he will sue at the Common Law by writ of novel disseisin And by another act of parliament made in the same year enjoyning severe penalties against the Kings Purveyors not paying for what they take and of such as take part of the Kings debts or other rewards of the Kings Creditors to make payment of the same debts and of such as take Horses and Carts more than need a trick wherein Tacitus saith the Roman Cart-takers whilst the Romans governed here were wont to abuse the old Britains and take rewards to dismisse them it was provided that if any of Court so do he shall be grievously punished by the Marshalls and if it be done out of the Court or by one that is not of the Court and be thereof attainted he shall pay treble damages and shall remain in the Kings prison forty dayes by which it is evident that the intention of that Act of Parliament was not to deliver any of the Purveyors the Kings Servants in ordinary to any other Tribunals than that of the Marshals or other the Officers of his Houshold Britton who like the Emperor Justinians Tribonianus in compiling or putting together the pieces of the Civil Laws did by Command of that wise and Valiant Prince King Edward the first in the fifth year of his Raign write his book in the name of that King concerning divers Pleas Process and proceedings in the Kings Courts saith in the Person of that King and French of those times Countes et Barons Dedans nostre verge the Kings Palace or 12 miles round about trovesnequedent estre destreint that Earls Barons found within the virge should not be attached or distrained as ordinary men which were Debtors Et nos Serjeans or Servants de nostre hostel soient avant summons pour dette que destreyntz et attaches par leur cors les uns pour reverence de lour persones et les Autres pour reverence de nostre service of our House shall be summoned for debt before they be destreyned or Attached by their bodies the one in reverence and respect to their persons and the other in reverence to our Service By an Act of Parliament made by that prudent Prince about that time entituled Prohibitio formata de Statuto Articuli Cleri where a prohibition was framed against certain matters which concerned the Clergy and the limitting of their Jurisdiction It was declared thaâ— Proceres et magnates et alii de eodem regno temporibus Regis predecessorâ—m Regum Angliae seu Regis Authoritate alicujus non consueuerunt contra consuetudinem illam super hujusmodi rebus i. e. matters Civil or Temporal except matters of Testaments or Matrimony in causa trahi vel compelli ad comparendum coram quocunquè Judice Ecclesiastico the Noble men and others of the Kingdome in the times of the Kings Predecessors or by Authority of any of the Kings did not use contrary to the said custome in such cases to be compelled to appear before any Ecclesiastical Judg whatsoever In the 18th year of his Raign in an Action brought at the Kings Suit in Banco Regis in the Kings Bench against Robert the Son of William de Glanville and Reginald the Clark of the said William de Glanville for delivering at Norwich a panel and certain of the Kings Writs which the Kings Coroner ought to have Brought the said Reginald demurring for that Dominus Rex motu proprio de hujusmodi Imiuriis privatis personis illatis sectam habere non debet ex quo aliena actio sibi competere non potest unde petit Judicium et si hoc non sufficiat dicet aliud et si actio in hujusmodi caesu Domino Regi posset competere dicit quod hoc deberet esse per breve originale et non de judicio unde petit Judicium the King was not to bring an Action for injuries done to private persons and is not concerned in another mans suit and demanded the judgment of the Court. And if that Plea will not be sufficient will plead somewhat else And if such an Action did belong to the King it ought to have been by Writ Original and not by a Writ Judicial whereof he pray'd the Judgment of the Court but Johannes de Bosco who followed for the King dicit quod quelibet injuria ministris Regiis licet minimis illata vertitur in dedecus ipsius Regis Et licèt hujusmodi minister Justitiam assequi de injur sibi illat contempsit tamen cum hujusmodi Injuria ministris Regis illata ipsi Regi fuit ostensa competit sibi actio ad amend consequend de contemptu pleaded that every wrong or injury done to the Kings Servants though it be unto the least is a disparagement to the King And if such a Servant will not take care to prosecute such an injury yet when the King shall be informed thereof he is concerned to punish the Contempt and vouched a late President for it in a Case betwixt Robert of Benhale and Robert Baygnar and others in a Writ of wast and prayed Judgment for the King In the same year John de Waleis complaining against Bogo de Clare for that some of
three four or five of them are yearly to set the prices of Wines And upon refusal to sell after those rates the Mayor Recorder and two antient Aldermen of the City of London not being Vintners shall enter into their Houses and sell their Wines according to those rates By an Act of Parliament made in the 7th year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th no person having not Lands or Tenements or which cannot dispend above 100 Marks per annum or is not worth 1000 Marks in Goods or Chattels not being the Son of a Duke Marquess Earl Viscount or Baron shall keep in his house any greater quantities of French Wines then 10. Gallons By an Act of Parliament made in the same year the offenders in the Assise of Wood and Fuell if they be poor and not able to pay the Forfeiture may be by a Justice of Peace or any other of the Kings Officers put on the Pillory By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary if the Justices of Peace do not put the Act of Parliament in execution touching the repair of the Causway betwixt Sherborn and Shaftsbury in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper shall upon request grant Commissions to certain discreet persons to do it And by an Act of Parliament made in the 43th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the mis-imployment of Lands Goods Chattels or Money given to Hospitals and Charitable uses are to be reformed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster for the time being in their several Jurisdictions Which amongst many other may be some of the causes or reasons that the People of England and Commons in Parliament giving in former times as they ought to do those grand and more then ordinary respects and many more not here repeated unto the Great Officers of the Crown Royal Houshold and other the Servants of our Kings and Princes and lodging so many of their grand concernments in their care and trust did not trouble themselves or any of our Parliaments with any Petitions there being none to be found amongst the Records thereof against those antient rational just and legal Priviledges of the Kings Servants in Ordinary nor any Lord Steward Lord Chamberlain or other Officers of the Kings most Honourable House for allowing or maintaining it although there were some against Protections granted to some that were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary nor hath there been any Statute or Act of Parliament made to take away or so much as abridge those well deserved Priviledges which have in all ages and by so good warrant of right reason Laws of Nations and the Laws and reasonable Customes of this Kingdom appeared to be so much conducing to the Weal publique and the affairs and business of the Head or Soveraign For surely if there had been but the least suspicion of any Grievance in them meriting a remedy there would not have been such a silence of the peoples Petitioning or Complaints against it either by themselves or their vigilant and carefull Representatives in the Commons House in Parliament which heretofore seldom or never omitted the eager pursuit and Hue and Cry after any thing of Grievance which molested them And if there had been any such Petitions and Complaints in Parliament that Great and Honourable Court not giving any order or procuring any Act of Parliament against the Priviledges of the Kings Servants is and may be a convincing argument that such Complaints or pretended Grievances were causeless unfitting or not deserving the remedies required and will be no more an evidence or proof against what is here endeavoured to be asserted then the Petition of the Commons in Parliament in the 21th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. against the payment of 6 d. for the seal of every Original Writ in Chancery and 7 d. for the sealing of the Writs of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas which hath ever since been adjudged reasonable and fitting to be paid then the many Petitions against the antient legal and rational payment of Fines upon Original Writs in Chancery then the Petitions of Non-conforming Ministers then the many designed and desired Acts of Parliament not found to be reasonable or convenient and therefore laid by and miscarried in the Embrios or multitudes of other Petitions in our Parliaments or then the many late Petitions for an imaginary liberty of Conscience can or will be for what was desired and not thought fit at those or any other times to be granted Which antient Priviledge of the Kings Servants not to be Arrested without leave was not so limited to their Persons but that their Lands Estates and Goods participated also of that Privilege not to be molested by any Process or Suit of Law without Licence first obtained of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings most honourable Houshold or unto such other great Officers therein to whose Jurisdiction it belonged CAP. IV. That the Priviledges and Protections of the Kings Servants in Ordinary by reason of his Service is and ought to be extended unto the Priviledged parties Estate both Real and Personal as well as unto their persons FOr if we may as we ought believe antiquity and its many unquestionable authorities and our Records which as to matters of fact judgements pleas writs therein allowed Records of Parliament and the Grants of our Kings by their Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England being the Publique Faith of the Kingdome from and under which most of the peoples Real Estates and Priviledges have had their originals and establishments not the falsely called Publique Faith which afterwards proved to be Bankrupt and was until then the Medea or Witch of the late incomparably wicked Rebellion were alwayes so impartial and credited as not to have their truth so much as suspected That Priviledge was not only indulged and allowed to their Persons but to their Lands and Estate also as will plainly appear by the course and Custome of the Law in former ages and amongst many others not here enumerated was not understood to have been either unusual or illegal in that which was granted to Sir John Staunton Knight By King Edward the 3 d. in the 29th year of his Raign in these words Omnibus ad quos c. Salutem considerantes grata laudabilia obsequia tam nobis quam Isabellae Reginae Angliae Matris nostrae charissimae per dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem-de Staunton impensa proinde Volentes personam ipsius Johannis suis condignis meritis exigentibus honorare ipsum Johannem Camerae nostrae militem familiarem quoad vixerit tam tempore quo extra curiam nostram absens quam tempore quo ibidem presens fuerit duximus retinendum Ac de gratia nostra speciali ipsum Johannem Terras Tenementa
course of Law its Process may inform us that the King hath notwithstanding such a power superintendency of Justice inherent in him over all the Courts of Justice high or low in the Kingdome as upon the Sheriffs retorn quod mandavit Ballivo libertatis that he made his Warrant to the Bayliff of such a Liberty to arrest such a Defendant and that the Bayliff nullam sibi dedit responsionem had made him no retorn nor answer he may thereupon by his Justices cause a Writ to be made to the Sheriff commanding him quod non omittat propter aliquam libertatem Ballivi libertatis c. quin capiat that he do not omit to enter into the said Bayliffs liberty and arrest the Defendant and may also when a Defendant is outlawed cause at the instance of the Plaintiff a Capias Vtlegat Writ to be made to take arrest the utlawed person with a non omittas propter aliquam libertatem power and authority to enter into any Liberty under the name of his Attorney General as an Officer intrusted with the making of the said Writs of Capias Vtlegatum and that Offices either granted by the King for term of Life or in Fee or Fee-Tayle are forfeitable by a Misuser or non user by not executing that part of the Kings Justice committed to the care and trust of the Officers thereof And so necessary was the Kings Supreme Authority heretofore esteemed to be in the execution and administration of Justice as in the Case between the Prior of Durham and the Bishop of Durham in the 34th year of the Reign of King Edward the first where amongst other things an information was brought in the Kings-Bench against the Bishop for that he had imprisoned the Kings Officers or Messengers for bringing Writs into his Liberty to the prejudice as he thought thereof and that the Bishop had said that nullam deliberationem de eisdem faceret sed dixit quod ceteros per ipsos castigaret ne de cetero literas Domini Regis infra Episcopatum suum portarent in Lesionem Episcâ—patus ejusdem he would not release them but would chastise them or any other which hereafter should bring any of the Kings Letters or Writs within his Bishoprick to the prejudice of the Liberties thereof And in the entring up and giving the Judgment upon that Information and Plea saith the Record Quia idem Episcopus cum libertatem praedictam a Corona exeuntem Dependentem habeat per factum Regis in hoc minister Domini Regis est ad ea quae ad Regale pertinent infra eandem libertatem loco ipsius Regis modo debito conservanda exequenda Ita quod omnibus singulis ibidem justitiam exhibere ipsi Regi ut Domino suo mandatis parere debeat prout tenetur licet proficua expletia inde provenientia ad usum proprium per factum praedictum percipiatur in regard that when the Bishop had the liberty aforesaid by the Kings Grant or Charter from the Crown and depending thereupon he is in that as a Servant or Minister of the Kings concerning those things which do belong unto the Kings Regality within the Liberty aforesaid to execute and preserve it in a due manner for and on the behalf of the King so as there he is bound to do Justice to all men and to obey the King and his Commands as his Lord and Soveraign although he do by the Kings Grant or Charter take and receive the profit arising and coming thereby Wherein the Judges and Sages of the Law as in those Ancient Times they did not unfrequently in matters of great concernment have given us the reason of their Judgment in these words Cum potestas Regia per totum Regnum tam infra libertates praedictas quam extra se extendant videtur Curiae toti Consilio Domini Regis quod hujusmodi imprisonamenta facta de hiis qui capti fuerunt occasione quod brevia Domini Regis infra libertatem praedictam tulerint simul cum advocatione acceptatione facti Et etiam dictis quae idem Episcopus dixit de Castigatione illorum qui brevia Regis extunc infra libertatem suam portâ—rent manifeste perpetrata fuerunt when as the power and authority of the King doth extend it self through all the Kingdome as well within Liberties as without it seemed to the Court and all the Kings Counsel that such imprisonments made of those which brought the Kings Writs within the Liberty aforesaid the Bishops justifying and avowing of the Fact and the Words which the Bishop said That he would punish all such as should bring any Writs to be executed in his Liberty were plainly proved Et propterea ad inobedientiam exhaereditationem Coronae ad diminutionem Dominii potestatis Regalis Ideo consideratum est quod idem Episcopus libertatem praedictam cujus occasione temerariam sibi assumpsit audacim praedicta gravamina injurias excessus praedictos perpetrandi dicendi toto tempore suo amittat Cum in eo quo quis deliquit sit de Jure puniendus Et eadem libertas Capiatur in manus Domini Regis Et Nihâ—lominus corpus praedicti Episcopi capiatur Wherefore because it tended to disobedience and a disherison of the Crown and diminution of the Kings Power and Authority It was adjudged that the Bishop for his rash presumption and boldness and for committing the aforesaid wrongs and injuries should forfeit his Liberty aforesaid for that every man is to be punished according to the nature of his offence And it was ordered That the Liberty should be seized and taken into the Kings hands and that the Body of the Bishop notwithstanding should be taken into Custody For the Kings Justice to which his Coronation Oath is annexed is inseparable from his Person so fixed to his Diadem and Regal Authority as it is not to be absolutely or any more then conditionally deputed and intrusted to any other or otherwise then with a reserve of the last Appeal and his Superiority and therefore King Edward the first in some of his Writs Commissions or Precepts saith that he but not his Judges was Deâ—itor Justitiae so a Debtor to Justice as not to deny it to any of his People complaining of the want of it and ad nos pertinet the care thereof belongeth to the King and to that end appointed his high Court of Chancery and his Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and required all the Officers Clerks of that Court to take care that pro defectu Justitiae nullus recedat a Cancellaria sine Remedio no man for want of Justice do go away from the Chancery destitute of remedy from whence also lyes an Appeal to the King himself in Parliament and in the Case of Sir William Thorpe Chief Justice of England in the 24th year of the Reign of King Edwardâ— the third being put