therefore as a further mischief or kindness to the Publick by way of Caution they lay down the Evils that attend this dreadful thing of Excommunication which is viz. And to the end that all His Majesties Subjects may know what Inconveniences do attend that Punishment this Court thinks fit to publish That no Excommunicated Person may be a Witness or Returned upon Juries or to Sue for any Debts c. Really if this be so what a miserable condition shall His Majesties Subjects be in that go to Conventicles if they must both lose their Estates and then their Souls and be neither Jury-men Witnesses nor sue for Debts What shall they do then if this be true But as good Luck is the Justices have as little Law here to back them in these Assertions as they have Law for their Orders For with their good leave there is no Law to bar any Man that is Excommunicated from suing for his Debt Nor is there any Law that disables a Man from being a Jury-man that is Excommunicated unless he be taken upon the Writ and then indeed he cannot be a Jury-man until he be at Liberty No more can a Prisoner which is a Prisoner for Debt be a Jury-man until he have his Liberty to come out and with or without the leave of the Justices a Person Excommunicated may be as well a Witness as any other Person nay a Person Outlawed may be a Witness So that it appears this Order was made without Book as well as without Law There is another Passage in the Order which I cannot pass over and that is more Gall yet but before I take notice of that I must take leave to tell these worthy Justices of the Court that made this learned Order that they have implored help of those that are as Lame and Insufficient in Spiritual Jurisdiction as to Excommunication as they the Justices are in their Temporal Punishments for that in truth the Bishops in their Spirtual Courts or Courts Christian have no power by Law to Excommunicate any person let the Crime be what it will unless by the King's Authority and with His Commission under the Broad Seal â—ee Stat. 〈◊〉 Eliz. â—ee the â—ook calâ—â—d the Biâ—â—ops â—ourts â—issolved This will appear most plainly by the several Acts of Parliament that relate to Spiritual Jurisdiction a short Account thereof with the Arguments were published some time since in a Book Intituled The Bishops Court dissolved Printed in 1680. And see Mr. Hickeringill's Books one of their own Tribe But not to build upon those Books look into the several Statutes since the 21 of Henry VIII and you will find their whole coercive Power taken from them And if you compare the Statutes of Hen. 8. 1 Eliz. Edw. 6. and so all along to 16 Car. 1. and the 13 of this King you will find not only their whole Power taken from them as to their administring of Oaths but that all they have done and acted since the last Act of Indempnity is against Law and the Bishops and Judges of Spiritual Courts throughout England are all guilty of a Praemunire if the King of England shall question them for it and they are at this day liable to be Indicted or Sued by Action at the Suit of the Party grieved for Damages by all such as they have at any time Excommunicated in their Courts since the last Act of Grace But to leave the further discourse of this matter till another opportunity And since the Justices have desired my Lord Bishop of London to Excommunicate at his Pleasure or as his Wisdom shall think fit it may not be amiss for the Bishop to take notice of their unkind treating of him in their very next desire for as if they distrusted his understanding in the ways and methods of Excommunication they go on and lay down Rules for him to observe that is viz. That the Lord Bishop will direct that such Excommunications may be published in the Parish-Churches where the Excommunicated live Now what is this but to tell the Bishop they doubt he doth not understand his Trade so well as they which sure is a very great piece of Incivility to their Ghostly Fathers for the good Father well knows that no man can be fully Excommunicated but it must be read in the Parish-Church where the Excommunicated live But I doubt not but the Bishop will be pleased to forgive this their Sin of Ignorance in the Ecclesiastical Laws when they appear so ignorant in their own Trade of the Common or Statute Laws as to make such Orders as these But least we draw the anger of the next Sessions upon us we will mind but one thing more in their Order so resembling the King's Proclamation and that is so excellent a thing that it far surmounts all the rest for in the next place they tell you viz. And for the further promoting of the Vnion of all His Majesties Protestant Subjects Ay there it is it is Ordered by this Court That the Justices of the Peace in their several Divisions take care that the Statutes 1 Eliz. and 3 Jacobi be put in due Execution for levying One shilling upon those persons that do not come to their Parish or some other Church or Chapel c. which is to be applied for the Relief of the Poor c. It is hoped by this Court that this pious and charitable Work will not be neglected c. For Answer to this last Part we must consider both the Care Charity and Good-will of the Justices here towards the Protestants for till now you hear not a word of Protestant Subjects and if they had missed it here I cannot well tell how this Order could have escaped the sentence of a Popish Order but this clears the Point However for these Justices Order to advise one another to put the Laws of 1 Eliz. and 3 Jacobi in Execution against Conventiclers as if those Acts related to the Conventicle Act is something strange but I suppose we shall find they did this by guess too as all the rest of the Order hoping it may be they never read those Acts or at least it being so long since they have read them that they have totally forgot them for if they had remembred the substance of those 2 Acts they could not have been so mistaken as to bring them in play to punish Conventicles those Laws being only made against the Papist and none else as will appear by and by But first it will not be amiss to take notice how the Justices in this Order interweeve one Act with another and not only so but endeavor all the Punishments both that the Church and the State can inflict upon the Conventiclers double and treble Punishments and all is because but a few Subjects as they call them do differ from the Church of England in some Ceremonies not in Doctrine at all But that which I mean is this the Justices are not satisfied with a single
colour the laying the other Acts upon them That then these Protestant Sectaries Conventiclers or Protestant Recusants shall not be Prosecuted upon those Laws made only against Popish Recusants for if it should be then you leave the Protestant Recusants in a far worse Condition than the Papist the one being provided for and not the other But that I have said about this Act comparing it with the other made against Popish Recusants is only to shew the unreasonableness of the Justices opinion for the Reader must know that I have only mentioned this Act of the 35th of Eliz. but to shew the nature of the one as well as the other for that this Act of the 35th Eliz. is not in force now although it is confessed it was thought to be in force until the expiration of the Conventicle Act made in the 16th Year of this King but both expired about one Year since for that of Eliz. and the Act of the 16th of this King were in nature one and the same And that of the 16th of this King did as some think revive the 35th of Eliz. by declaring it in force but how long Why it could not be declared for a longer time than it self lived which dyed about the time aforesaid both being but Temporary Acts. And indeed it was a happy turn for this Nation for had those two Acts been in force which were sanguinary Laws much mischief might have accrued to the People of this Kingdom but God be thanked they are gone and have left none behind them to punish the Conventiclers and the Nonconformist Ministers who did not conform to the Act of Uniformity made in this Kings Reign But the Conventicle Act made the twenty second of this King and the Act commonly called the Five Mile or Oxford Act which is all can be raked up against the Dissenting Protestants by Law as I conceive at this day which two Acts I shall a little consider and first for the Oxford or Five Mile Act made in the 17th of this King Cap. 2. Intituled Car. 2. 〈◊〉 2. An Act for restraining Nonconformists from Inhabiting in Corporations by this Act all such Persons as are in Holy Orders Ecclesiastical Persons as well as others that did not conform to the Act of Uniformity made the 14th of this King and shall take upon them to Teach or Preach c. in any Meeting Parish-Church c. shall forfeit for every such Offence the summ of 40. l. to be inquired of in any Court at Westminster or Oyer and Terminer Great Sessions of Wales or Justices of the several Quarter-Sessions of the Peace the forfeiture one third to the King one third to the Poor and one third to the Informer and in the same Act Sect. 3. and 4. No such Minister Teacher c. shall teach School or live inhabit or abode in any Corporation or within five Miles of the same or where he last had a Benefice or near any Borrough that sends any Members to Parliament upon the Penalty of 40. l. c. But note that if on a Jury he may pass or live in any such Corporation or appear upon Summons or Sub-pena In the 5th Section two Justices together in any County where the Offence is committed upon Oath to them made of the Offence against this Act to commit the Offender to Prison for six Moneths without Bayl c. unless the Party so brought before the Justices will take the Oath mentioned in the Act which is viz. I A. B. do swear that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Trayterous position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commissions and that I will not endeavour any alteration of Government either in Church or State These are the Penalties of this Act and if a Person be so convicted before the Justices if he takes this Oath he saves himself from their Power and from the Imprisonment which is all they can do out of a Court of Sessions the two Justices having not Power to convict as to the 40. l. Penalty And as for the Act of the twenty second of this King for suppressing seditious Conventicles under pretence of Religious Worship where the Conventiclers meet together under a pretence of Religious Worship and not according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England if any such there be the Justices knowing such by the Oath of two Witnesses may make a Record thereof and the Persons so offending and convicted before them the Justices have power to Issue out their Warrants to the under Officers to levy the summ of 5. s. a piece upon each Hearer and 20. l. upon the Preacher and 20. l. upon the House and in case of Insufficiency of the Hearers 10. l. upon any Person present at the same Meeting in lieu of such conceived not able to pay and it must appear upon Oath before those Justices by two Witnesses or confession of the Parties that it is a seditious Conventicle met together for the disturbance of the Peace under pretence of Religious Worship and it must also be sworn before any Conviction can be had against any man or Woman that the People that were met together was not according to the Liturgy and Practise of the Church of England which is next to impossibility to do in the Case of most Meetings in London and Middlesex and whoever acts upon that Act must be sure he goes not beyond the last but they that shall act as the Order of the Justices Commands outruns both the Law and the Constable that must answer for the same at the pleasure of him or her that is agrieved and all the Wit in the Justices head cannot save them that do act such things as in that Order is contained for the Law will find them out though for a time they may save themselves from the Power of a Parliament whom they seem to affront and scorn by acting contrary to the very sence of the Nation declared by their Representatives I shall only add some small Notes of Directions to the Constables and Vnder-Officers who may easily be led into a Snare by such Orders and General Warrants and when they are in will find it hard to get out And first I affirm That no Constable ought to execute any Order at all as an Order of Sessions or a General Warrant from the Sessions in prosecuting this Conventicle-Act for the Law has plainly prescribed another Prosecuon and they must exactly follow it and not meddle with any other form or manner than as the Law directs and the Constables are not to be afraid of the Justices for they are as well punishable if they act contrary to Law as the Constables and Under-Officers are either by Indictment or Action of the Party grieved And as for their General Warrants printed and dated the 21 of
THE Ignoramus Iustices Being an ANSWER to the ORDER of SESSIONS at Hicks's-Hall Bearing Date the 13th of January 1681. Wherein it plainly appears the said ORDER is against Law ALSO A short Account of all the ACTS that relate to Protestant Dissenters At this day in force against them which will appear only two viz. The Act made in the 22 year of this King intituled An Act against Conventicles The other called The Oxford Act or Five mile Act made in the 17 of this King AND ALSO An Account of such Acts as are in force against Popish Recusants which are now so industriously endeavoured by those Justices as well as others to be turned against the Protestant Dissenters And wherein it will plainly appear there is no ground for such Proceedings And hereunto is also added A brief Account of the Penalties and Forfeitures of those Acts and some Directions to the Officers that may be threatned or persuaded to Act by such Unwarrantable Orders from such Ignoramus Justices By Drawde Kekatihw London Printed for Ab. Green 1681. THE Ignoramus Iustices Being an ANSWER to the ORDER of SESSIONS at Hicks's-Hall Bearing Date the 13th of January c. THE Author hath no other Design in publishing these Sheets than what the worthy Justices of Middlesex pretend by their ORDER The good Peace and Welfare of the Countrey And here because the ORDER comes out in Form of a Proclamation with the King's Arms in the Front I shall treat it with all the Modesty and Civil Terms imaginable yet I must needs reflect in the Latine as the Form For the Title though it be not above three lines yet one of them is lame Latin it saith in the second line viz. Post festum Epiphanie fcilicet tertio decimo die Januarii c. Now with Mr. Adderly's good leave that drew up the learned ORDER it might better have been decimo tertio die Januarii And that in an ORDER published in this Magisterial Form Mr. Adderly should take no more care but stumble at the very Threshold is very strange something like his being heretofore mistaken in a Cause of his own against the Earl of Shaftesbury wherein he as ignorantly confesses in open Court that he had bought the place of Clerk of the Peace some time ago for a great Sum of Money which the Court observing Michael Term Car. told him That instead of helping himself by the abusive Action he had brought against the Lord he had now abused himself by that confession of buying his Place for now by Law he could not hold it having forfeited it as by the Act made in the 5th and 6th of Edw. VI. cap. 16. But to let Mr. Adderly alone and come to the order in Substance having done with the title and therefore not to medle with what has been said before in a late paper Intituled An Answer to the Justices of Middlesex Order as to their insinuating to the people their tender care of his Majesties Gratious Order which the Justices made as a preamble to theirs nor to mention what was there hinted in that paper of the Justices Acting contrary to the Vote of Parliament and the many other absurdities in their former Order of which that paper sufficiently as well as justly condemns But my design is to lay these Gentlemen more open as their Merits deserve from the second excellent Order The first Order I suppose was put forth as a Tryal of Skill or more properly an experiment was intended to be made by them whether or no the Constables and other Officers would willingly be made Informers by Intreaty Force or Compulsion at their Arbitrary will and pleasure of these Worthy Justices under a pretence of Law and it may be 't was to try how fit the Officers backs were for a Pack-Sadle or their Feet for wooden Shoes against the time that some men fear should be tried upon English Bodies if the Justices had this reach with them it was most excellent and rare tho it did not absolutely satisfie their full desires as indeed by this Order now they seem to own in part that is that full Obedience was not paid to the former Order of the 22 of December last by some which appears by their own shewing in this second Order viz. To which Order obedience was given by many of the said Officers but others appearing in Court did contemn their Authority for which contempt several fines were by the Court set upon them c. So thus it appears by their own shewing a kind of party perpale some did obey and some did not some did pin their Faith upon the Justices's Sleeves where no Law commanded them so to do as the By-gott Church men do upon the Popes and Priest Sleeves but others did not therefore they were fined for their Obstinacy and for not learning more Manners and Obedience to the Justices Order I had almost said Bulls Well then since it is so that some did obey and some did not in charity to those that did not I must take leave to consider the Point for these Non-Conforming Officers for their Comfort I may assure them that neither the Justices at the Sessions when that Order of December was made nor the Justices at the quarter Sessions when this Order of the Thirteenth of January was made had any power by the Conventicle Act of the 22 of this King to medle or make therewith as a Court either by such Orders as these or any other wayes as a Court at the Sessions and that appears thus in the 22d of this King viz. It shall and may be Lawfull to and for any one or more Justices of the Peace of the County c. Wherein the Offence aforesaid shall be committed And he and they are hereby required c. Upon Proof to him or them respectively made of such Offence either by Confession of the party or Oath of two Witnesses c. 22 sect To make a Record of every such Offence under his or their hands and Selas respectively which Record so made c. Shall to all intents and purposes be in Law taken and adjudged to be a full and perfect Conviction of every such Offender c. Now what agreement the Reader can find in this Clause with this Order is worthy the Consideration for this Clause saith expresly One or more Justices of the Peace shall act upon the Oath of two Witnesses and so make a Record and thereupon Act. And the Order saith That for not executing their Order grounded upon the Act as the Justices would have the World believe they have fined those Officers for not obeying the same though there is not one word in the Order that makes mention of a Conviction of any particular person upon Oath or a Record made before them of the Offenders which ought to have been done before any Constable or other Officer can or ought to obey them upon this Clause In the next place it appears not in this Clause nor
are not only intrusted with the Peace of the Kingdom but more than probable are endowed from above with the Spirit of Prognostication too or at least a very great foresight far beyond our late Parliaments for they could not see one half so far though I dare not mention that too much for fear of the snarling Popish Curs the word Parliament or House of Commons being but once named unless to Ridicule it is enough in our days to be Termed a Whigg or a Phanatick at least But may not this question be put without offence to any that is Why how come this jealousie now all of a sudden or Alamode de France more now than it hath been these 19 or 20 years last past can the Justices instance in one Riot or Disturbance of the Government either in Church or State all this while they have been Tollerated both before and since the Declaration for Indulgence by the Conventiclers and pray how comes it The Justices at the Court of Hicks's-Hall did not foresee it sooner but it may be the late Blazing Star hath now enlightned their eyes which before were darkened however if it be so the Conventiclers have cause enough for ought I see to be very angry at the Blazing-Star for enlightning their eyes now against them when a Parliament is so far off from helping them however the Justices are very modest for they only give it as their opinion but this their opinion they tell us makes them not sit still indeed if they should sit still it might be a thing of dangerous Consequence even no less than the hazard of the Church and the whole Kingdom if their Prognostications be true but I do not wonder if they cannot sit still themselves when all is in danger for by and in another part of the Order you will finde they cannot so much as let the Bishop sit still neither as we shall see hereafter But let us proceed further as to this part of the Order and you will finde that all the great cause of these Justices fear arises but from a very small thing next to nothing for they tell you They cannot sit still because of a few obstinate Persons rather by noise than number do disturb the Peace Now if it betrue that it be but a few it may be answered then what need all this noise of the Justices sure a few of these Conventiclers may easily be dealt with without all this ado as if the King and Kingdom were at Stake And if it be true that they make more a noise than number methinks the Justices should by the course at the Common Law silence their noises and not be beholding to the Act that gives the Court of Sessions no power at all to act by and how is it possible that such a few making a noise can disturbe the Peace of the whole Kingdom and bring ruine upon it as the Order affirms But to make a full mends for all their Jealousies and Fears in the next place they tell us viz. They do esteem in a Duty incumbent upon them to use all lawful Experiments which may beget Vnion amongst His Majesties Subjects c. Now here they have hit the Point Vniting of Subjects that is prosecute the Constables and Under-Officers because they will not turn Informers contrary to Law and Present and Convict the sober Protestant Dissenters that go to Meetings in a peaceable manner this is the Justices way or rather the Courts Order to have Union among His Majesties Subjects but I suppose the Order means Popish Subjects for no Man of Sense can say this is to unite the Protestant Subjects Well but what follows in the next place that the Justices at the Court may be both amiable and admirable and a Pattern and good Example to all Justices of other Counties as well as their own as they were in the late Addresses and Presentment they have gone a great deal further than the common sort of Loyal Subjects for being jealous I suppose of their own power by the Law of the Land you will find in the next place to shew their great Zeal for the Uniting of His Majesties Subjects they have not stuck to set the Bishops Courts to work to Excommunicate these few noise Hereticks for in the next Part of the Order it follows viz. It is therefore by this Court desired That the Lord Bishop of London will please by such methods c. to direct c. as in wisdom he shall c. within his Jurisdiction to use his utmost endeavors that all such Persons may be Excommunicated who shall commit Crimes deserving Ecclesiastical Censure c. So that by this it seems the very Justices themselves then believed they had not Law enough to punish those Conventiclers or else by the Order it shews them most cruel and inhumane What must the Conventiclers be punished both ways at once both Common Law and Canon Law Lose their Estates by the Act and their Souls by the Spiritual Court too This is sure more inhumane than France to their Dissenters that are fled over here they do but take away their Estates and Children but not their Souls that they escape over here with Well since it is so that the English Dissenters must be thus dealt with it is time to look about them and consider the Bishop's power as well as the Justices But before we say any thing of that we must consider the Order a little more as to this Head and that is how the Clergy came to be stirred up by the Lay-men to prosecute the People about their Souls health It is true we often find in the Popish time that the Clergy and great Bishops have often incited and stirred up the Magistrates and Lay-men to burn the Hereticks and keep them in Prison up the Writs De Heretico Comburendo and De Excommunicato Capienda and to supplicate the Courts for these Writs and Process against the Excommunicated but never was it heard before that the common Lawyers or Justices sued to the Bishops for their Fellow-Subjects and Brethren to be sent to Hell If this be Law and to keep the Peace of Middlesex then pray let us complain no more of the French King using his Protestants hardly for sure to any unbyass'd Man this looks ten times worse than the French Persecution being little less than to incite the Bishops to disturb the Publick Peace and to use an Arbitrary Power like their own designs But now after this malicious incitation of this Order to shew the reason of their instructing or inciting the Bishop to send the Souls of Hereticks to Hell they make this further improvement of it in case they can get the thing done and they have this great design in it that all such as are so Excommunicated do not only lose their Souls being given up to Satan but also they lose all their earthly Freedom and Enjoyments as English-men as the Justices by this learned Order conceive and