Servanda est cum mansuetudine humilitas ut bicet vix ferendum ab illa sancta sede imponatur jugum tamen feramus pia devetione toleremus Let us in memorie of S. Peter honour the holy Romane and Apostolike See Humility with meeknesse is to be observed that although a yoke hardly to be borne be put upon us by that holy See yet let us beare and endure it with pious devotion By which words saith Scioppius thou mayest know him to be a true Ishachar of whom it is written Gen. 49.14 Ishachar is a strong Asse couching down between two burdens he bowed his shoulder to bear And our Kings he calls refractory Asses without understanding because they would not submit their backs and shoulders to these burdens but did pedibus recalcitrare kick against these horsekeepers and muletors the Popish Clergie which would put these burdens upon them And in particular he calls our late Lord and Soveraigne King Iames whom I mention with singular reverence a very Asse without understanding because he would neither suffer the bridle to be put into his mouth nor any burden to be put upon him by that chiefe horse-keeper and Arch-muleter the Pope of Rome and was moreover a ringleader to the Romish Asses to do the like both by his example and also by his exhortation unto them in these words of the third Psalme Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us And though my Lord I do not charge either the High-Commissioners your Lp. this Court the Barons of the Exchequer or the Lords of the Counsell with those shamelesse and immodest words of Scioppius which even impudency and insolency would blush to utter against the Lords Anointed and his immediate deputies and Vicegerents Yet I must tell your Lordship that all of you have a great part and share in the matter it selfe The High-Commissioners by two finall sentences as I have formerly shew'd have advanc'd the Apocryphall uncanonicall anticanonicall antidiplomaticall antiprerogative antisuprematicall postscript private letter and message of M. Doctor Ringsley Arch-Deacon of Cant. above the Canons of this orthodox Church above his Majesties Letters Patents above his royall Prerogative above a royall Prerogative invested in the Crown by God himself acknowledged by Article by Statute by Canon nay above a royall Prerogative which every one that hath taken the oath of Supremacy is bound to the utmost of his power to defend and maintain And they have fin'd imprison'd depriv'd degraded and excommunicated me for my obedience to the Canons of this Church to his Majesties Leters Pat. and to his royall Prerogative and so vertually by consequence and by necessary implication they have fin'd imprison'd depriv'd degraded and excommunicated the King himselfe for requiring such obedience of me And your Lp. and the Court by affirming the Commissioners second finall sentence the sentence of deprivation and degradation have approved of all this and the Barons of the Exchequer by imprisoning me for the 500 l. fine impos'd upon me by the Commissioners first finall sentence have done as much and the Lords of the Counsell by imprisoning me for a Petition wherein I justly complain'd both against the High-Commissioners for their former presumptions and also against your Lordship and this Court for your disobedience to his Majesties most just mandate have approved of both So that you * Quilibet homo doctus potest debet toti concilio resistere si videat illud ex malitia vel ignorantia errare Gerson 1. parte de examinatione doctrinarum Cosider 5. all joine together Regem fraenare to put a bridle upon the King yea Regem loro alligare to raine in the King and his supreame jurisdiction nay in very deed Regi jugum onus imponere to put a yoke and burden upon the King and such a yoke and burden as was never yet put upon any of his royall Predecessors If the first of the first of Eliz. 19. of 25. of Hen. 8. and Sir Edw. Coke in Cawdries Case deceive me not For by all these it appears that the Crown had ever a jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and now you all do not only exempt the state Ecclesiasticall from the jurisdiction of the Crowne but also subordinate the jurisdiction of the Crown to the state Ecclesiasticall and do both advance the postscript private Letter and message of every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop above the Canons of this Church above his Majesties Letters Patents and royall Prerogative and thereby also elevate the person of every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop above the person of the King according to this rule Cum duo Domini contraria jubent qui obedit minori resistit majori is minorem majori proefert proeponit which is an intollerable injury indignity and injustice the King himselfe but also against not only against God himselfe from whom the King hath receiv'd his Supreame jurisdiction and whose immediate Deputy the King is And therefore as my most reverend Diaecesan and Provinciall my Lords Grace of Canterbury in his Epistle before his Speech in the Starchamber termino paschae 1637. doth rightly observe against Scioppius and such as he is that blasphemy against God and slandering the footsteps of Gods Anointed are joyned together Psa 89. Because he that blasphemes God will never stick at the slander of his Prince and he that gives himselfe liberty to slander his Prince will quickly ascend to the next highest and blaspheme God So I may as truly observe against his Grace the High-Commissioners your Lordship this Court the Barons of the Exchequer and the Lords of the Counsell that justice towards the King and justice towards God are both joyned together by our Saviour in one verse Mat. 22. because he that out of conscience is just towards one will be just towards both and he that is wittingly unjust towards one will easily be unjust towards both Nay my Lord seeing the King receives his supreame jurisdiction immediately from God he that is unjust towards the King by depriving him of any part of his supreame jurisdiction must of necessity ipso facto be unjust towards God for as hee that renders unto Cesar that which is Cesars by the gift of God doth eo ipso render unto Cesar that which is Cesars and unto God that which is Gods so he that takes from Cesar that which is Cesars by the right of God doth eo ipso take from Cesar that which is Cesars and from God that which is Gods And therefore my Lord when the High Commissioners your Lordship this Court the Barons of the Exchequer and the Lords of the Counsell doe all in the former manner regem fraenare put a bridle upon the King yee doe all eo ipso Deum fraenare put a bridle upon God himselfe when ye doe all in the former manner regem loro alligare raine in the King and his supreame jurisdiction yee doe all eo ipso Deum loro
of the Exchequer my Lord chiefe Baron sir Humphrey Daverport and the other Barons of the Exchequer refusing to grant me a certiorarj to the High Commition Court to command them to certfie the cause to permit mee to pleade to the foresaid fine did the 10. of May 1633. commit me to the Fleet in execution of the foresaid fine there detained me a full yeare untill I to procure my liberty paid the fourth part of the said fine to Mr. Motershed pecunijs numeratis and stal'd the other three parts to the Kings use And for which and also for a Petition delivered at the Counsell Table to crave justice therein according to his Majesties mandate under sir Edward Powels hand to my Lord chiefe Justice sir Iohn Bramston and the other Judges of the Kings Bench court dated the 29. of December 1635. and delivered with mine owne hand to the said Judges in open Court the first day of Hilary Tearme 1635. I was by my most reverend Diocesan and provinciall William Lord Archbishop of Cant. his Grace and other right Honorable Lords of his Majesties most honorable privie Councell on the third day of February 1636. committed to custodie of the Warden of the Fleet by a warrant wherein no cause of commitment was exprest and there detain'd a prisoner by him untill Trinity Tearme 1639. and then upon an habeas corpus issuing out of the Kings Bench Court I was brought to that court in Trinity Tearme 1639. and the foresaid warrant for my commitment returned and then I was presently bayled and thereby tyed to appeare in court divers daies both that Tearme and the Tearme thence next following and because none of the Kings Counsell in all that time came in against me I was on the last day of that Michaelmas Tearme 1639. delivered from the said baile and imprisonment by the joynt consent of all the Reverend Judges then of that court As I formerly had beene in the same court Termino paschae 1629. after the first two yeares imprisonment upon the foresaid originall matter returned to an habeas and fully debated by Counsell on both sides and Mr Justice Bertley then the Kings Sergeant in open court professing himselfe fully satisfied And for the former originall matter onely may for nothing at all in the judgement of the Law even for the foresaid sentence of deprivation and degradation charging mee with grievous and enormous crimes excesses delicts mentioned in the said Articles and those Articles not given in evidence nor found by the Jury in the speciall verdict betweene Allen and Nash entred upon record in the Kings Bench court termino Sancti michaelis 8. Car. rot 508. my Lord chiefe Justice of that court sir Iohn Bramston did for himselfe and his brethren Termino Trinitatis 1637. affirme the foresaid sentence and deliver his opinion against me for the intruder Robert Carter Whence it followeth that if the Commissioners aforesaid first finall sentence against me the 500 pounds fine thereby imposed upon me the two yeares imprisonment thereby sustained by me be just legall then all the other sentences censures and punishments following and depending thereupon may be just and legall But if the former the only ground of all the rest be unjust and illegall then all the other must of necessity be unjust and illegall And whether the former be just or unjust let the indifferent reader judge impatially upon the perusall of the following argument MY Honoured Lord cheife Iustice and my Honored Iudges the first thing in this Controversie concerning the points of the Canon law in question whereunto cheifly I am to speake is the very stating of the controversie it selfe between me my adversaries And for that purpose in the first place I humbly desire your Lordship the Court to observe that the defendants charge me with faults of severall degrees some principall and especiall others inferiour and accessory· The Principall and Especiall are two as appeares by their first finall sentence alleaged in their plea wherein they say that upon the opening of the cause they found the aforesaid George Huntley charged in the said Articles with these two perticulers principally (a) This word specialiter in this sence is 3. times used in the defendants plea. twice in the first part of their first finall sentence and once in the Commission of 14. Articles obiected against me 12. doe expresly mention my refusall to Preach the Visitation sermon as a fault or prepare the way theieunto and the fourth saith that I offered two or three peeces to the Arch-deacon to procure one to preach that sermon only the sixth and thirteenth Articles doe not mention it or especially first that he refused to preach a visitation sermon at the Arch-deacons of Cant. Doctor Kingsleys command contrary to his Canonicall obedience and secondly that he raised an opinion amongst the Clergy that the said Arch-deacon had no power to command him the said Huntley or any other incmbent to preach the said visitation Sermon The Inferiours or Accessories are foure first that the said Huntley came unsent for or uncal'd for to Master Arch-deacon aforesaid he being in his visitation amongst the Clergie and sitting there to heare causes Secondly that the said Huntley did then and there very malepertly and irreverently charge the said Arch-deacon of falsehood or injustice thirdly that the said Huntley did at the same time and place in a very arrogant irrespective manner lay downe an hundred pounds in Gold upon the table and offered to lay wagers with him the said arch-deacon that he had done him the said Huntley wrong or the like in effect and fourthly and lastly that the said Huntley refused to performe his submission conceptis verbis as was enioyned him by the Commissioners and therein gave a great affront and contempt both against his Maiesties supreame power and authority in matters and causes Ecclesiasticall and also against the high commission court to whom the same by letters patents under the great seale of England is delegated and committed And for these six particulers the defendants confesse that they imprison'd me two yeares namely from the nineteenth day of Aprill 1627. to Aprill 1629. In which moneth upon my appearance in this court the first day of that Easter Terme 1629. to save my baile you Master Iustice Heath then the Kings Attourney Generall were first call'd for by the Court in the Kings behalfe against me and you came and confest that you had nothing to say against me and then Master Iustice Bertley being then the Kings Sergeant whose (b) Master Iustice Bertley at this time was in the custody of the Sheriffe of London absence I much lament whose presence I much desire was called for by the court for the same purpose against mee and hee came and confest that he had formerly spoken twice against mee upon the matter return'd to the habeas corpus which was the very same for substance that is now pleaded
the very Letter and text of some Commissions that I have seene have this power that they may punish a Minister for any fault committed in his owne cure or else where that is punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land By which words my Lord it appeares that first there must bee some fault Secondly that that fault must be against some law Thirdly that it must bee against some Ecclesiasticall law of the land or else that Honorable Court by the very Letter and text of the largest commissions that I ever saw have no power to punish a Minister And though this their Commission my Lord doth much outstrip the first of the first of Eliz. the statute whereon it is grounded for that statute extends not to every fault punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land for then it would swallow up all the ordinary jurisdictions over England but onely to greivous and enormous crimes punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of the land as the Counsell on both sides in the speciall verdict betweene Allen and Nash have confest and the wordes of the statute as I before have shewed doe necessarily enforce Yet in this case of mine to shew mine owne innocency and the goodnesse of my cause not to make a precedent in other mens cases I will give the defendants free leave and liberty to exceed both the statute and their Commission I will not coope them up and confine them within the lists and limits of the Ecclesiasticall lawes as the most indulgent and munificent Commissions that ever I saw doe yea and must doe unlesse they will make their Commission as well Temporall as Ecclesiasticall no my Lord I will not require an Ecclesiasticall law let them produce an law canon civill common statute or divine nay my Lord I will once againe deale more Nobly and generously more heroically and munificently with that Honorable court with those Augustins Hieromes Gregories Ambroses with those Nazianzens Chrysostomes Origens Basils with those reverend right reverend most reverend Prelates and Patriarchs of our church I will not require a whole law noe not a full period of a law Let them onely produce some colon nay some comma of law onely nay my Lord I will once againe deale more Nobly and generously more heroically and munificently with that Honorable court I will not require a whole colon no nor a whole comma of law neither that were too too an Herculean labour for that Honorable Court for those Canonists Civilians and Divines for those commissaries chancellours Arch-deacons Deanes Bishops Arch-bishops let them onely produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some shaving some scraping some paring some shred peece particle or fragment of Law nay let them onely produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unum unum apicem one jot one apex one tittle one pricke or point of law of any law my Lord and I doe most willingly and most instantly submit And now my Lord as the defendants doe pretend a fault so likewise they doe pretend a law the pretended fault is my refusall to Preach the Archdeacons Visitation Sermon the pretended law is the Law of Canonicall obedience They say that my refusall to preach the Arch-deacons visitation sermon at the Arch-deacons command is a breach of Canonicall obedience And now my Lord we are come to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad statum causae ad caput controversiae for this Canonicall obedience is the whole and sole ground and foundation and supportation of the whole sentence against mee and it cannot be understood and determined whether my refusall to preach the visitation sermon be a breach of canonicall obedience or not unlesse it be first knowne and understood what this Canonicall obedience is so that in the first place my Lord there is a necessity imposed upon mee breiflly to present unto your Lordship what this Canonicall obedience is The high Commissioners in the first part of their finall sentence as it was given in their owne Court make Law custome and Canonicall obedience three different and distinct thinges For therein they say that the Archdeacon in injoyning Huntley to preach his visitation sermon hath commanded him no more than the said Huntley was bound to doe by law custome and by his Canonicall obedience and herein by making Canonicall obedience a third and distinct thing from law and custome they shew that they onely use the name of Canonicall obedience but intend arbitrary or blind obedience that is a generall and universall obedience to all the Arch-deacons commandes though they swarve both from law custome whereby they make every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop a law-maker within his owne jurisdiction and every of their commands binding and compulsive though fortified neither by law nor Custome But your Lordship as it seemes not content herewith steps a degree further and makes Canonicall obedience not onely a third and distinct thing from law and custome but also a thing opposite and contrary to law and custome for termino trinitatis 1637. when when your Lordship delivered your opinion in the speciall verdict betweene Allen and Nash your Lordship said that if the Arch-deacon did owe me an 100. pounds by bond he might by vertue of my Canonicall obedience command mee to deliver up that bond the money not being yet paid Or he might command me by vertue of my Canonicall obedience to send him a yoke of fat oxen a couple of good Coach-horses or a score of fat weathers which I am sure is not onely beyond but contrary to law and custome and more than either his Majesty or any of his royall predecessours did ever chalenge of any freeborne subject either by the oath of allegiance or oath of supremacy whether your Lordship have altered this your opinion or no I know not the high Commissioners I suppose have altered theirs For certaine it is that the former wordes of the first part of their first finall sentence as it was given in their owne Court are altered in the defendants plea wherein they make Canonicall obedience not a third and distinct thing from law and custome as before but a subordinate relative and a proportionable thing to law and custome by changing these their former wordes law custome and his canonicall obedience into these law and custome according to his Canonicall obedience And this alteration as I suppose proceeded from the acute and polite wit of you Master Justice Heath at that time the Kings Attourney Generall and Commissioners counsell who seeing that the Commissioners by the former wordes did make canonicall obedience a third and distinct thing from law and custome that thereby they did under the name of canonicall obedience chalenge arbitrary and blind obedience to and for every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop that thereby they made themselves all lawmakers within their severall jurisdictions and that so at once by two wordes they gave two deadly woundes one to his Majesties supreame jurisdiction who under God is the onely lawmaker within this land