Sol. In his other Courts of Justice he hath no voice he is none of the Judges in the Parliament he hath if his presence be not necessary his voice is not nor his assent Ob. 8 The originall prime legislative power of making Lawes to bind the subjects and their posterity Soveraign power of Parliaments 46.47 rests not in the King but in the kingdome and Parliament which represents it Sol. Master Prinne in the same lease affirmes and truly that the Kings assent is generally requisite to passe lawes and ratifie them the King is the head of the kingdome and Parliament how then can a body act without a head Ob. 9 A major part of a Corporation binds therefore the Major part in Parliament and so of by Lawes Sol. The Corporation is so bound either by the Kings Charters or by prescription which sometimes had the Kings concession but prescription and Law and practise alwayes left the King a negative voice Ob. 10 The King cannot alter the Bills presented to him by both houses go. Sol. True but the King may refuse them Ob. 11 Acts of Parliament and Lawes ministred in the Reignes of usurpers bind rightfull Kings go. Sol. What is this to prove the two houses power only which is the question A King de facto must be obeyed by them who submitted to him and they are his Subjects by their submission and not Subjects defacto to the true King 9 Ed. 4.12 and such being Traytors and Rebells to the regent King having renounced the true King when the lawfull Kings is restored may be punished by him for their treason against the usurper But heere is a King still in both cases and the proceedings at law holds The Judges having their patents from the being Kings in the reignes of Kings de facto or dejure for all Kings are bound and sworne to observe the lawes Ob. 12 A King dies without Heyre is an infant non Compos mentis c. the two honses may establish Lawes g o Sol There is no Inter-regnum in England as appeares by all our books of law and therfore the dying without Heyre is a Vaine supposition and by their principle he is considerable in his politique capacity which cannot die at all The protector assisted by the Councell of the King at law his twelve Judges the councell of state his Attorney Solicitor and two Sergieants at law his twelve Masters of the Chancery hath in the Kings behalfe and ever had a negative Voice but what is this to the present question Wee have a King of full age of great wisdome and judgement The power of the two houses in such a case to be over the King cannot be showne Ob. 13 The King cannot disassent to publique and necessary Bills for the common good g o Sol. Nor ever did good King but who shall be judge whether they be publique and necessary The major part in either of the houses for passing of bills so pretended may be but one or two voices or very few and perhaps of no judicious men is it not then fitter or more agreeable to reason that his Majestie and Councell of State his twelve Judges his Sergieants Attorny and Solicitor twelve Masters of the Chancery should judge of the conveniency and benefit of such Bills for the publique good rather then a minor of which sort there may be in the houses or a weake man or a few who often times carry it by making the Major part which involves the consent of all Let reason determine Ob. 14 The Kings of England have beene elective and the King by his Coronation Oath is bound to maintaine justas leges consuetudines quas vulgas elegerit g o Sol. Popery hath beene in the kingdome and therefore to continue it still will not be taken for a good argument when things are setled for many ages to looke back to times of confusion is to destroy all repose The Act of Parliament of the first of K. James Chapter the first and all our extant lawes say that the Kings office is an heritage inhaerent in the blood of Our Kings and their byrth-right And usurpers that come in by the consent of the people 1 Ed. 4. cap. 1. are Kings de facto but not de jure as appeares by the acts of Parliament declaring them so And by all our law books and the fundamentall constitution of the Land Regall power is herditary and not elective For the words vulgus elegerit if vulgus be applied to the house of commons 1 H. 7. they if themselves can make no laws The Peeres were never yet termed vulgus but allowing they be so called the lawes to be made must be just and who is fit to judge thereof is before made evident Ob. 15 Customes cannot referre to future time and both are coupled Lawes and Customes Princes have beene deposed and may bee by the two houses g o Sol. The deposers were Traytors as appeares by the resolution of all the judges of England Cooke Chapter Treason in the second part of the Institutes And never was King deposed but in tumultuous and mad times and by the power of Armies and they who were to be the succeeding Kings in the head of them as Edward the third and Henry the fourth Ob. 16 The appeale to the Parliament for errors in judgements in all Courts is frequent g o Sol. This is only to the house of Lords and that is not the Parliament the house of Commons have nothing to doe therewith and in the house of Peeres if a writt of error be brought to reverse any judgment There is first a Petition to the King for the allowance thereof and the reason of the Law in this Case is for that the Judges of the Land all of them the Kings Councell and twelve Masters of the Chancery assist there by whose advice erroneous judgments are redressed Ob. 17 The Parliaments have determined of the rights of Kings as in Henry the sixts time and others and Parliaments have bound the succession of Kings as appeares by the statute of the thirteenth of Q. Eliza Chapter the first and the discent of the Crowne is guided rather by a Parliamentary Title then by common law g o Sol. If this objection be true that the Title to the Crowne is by Parliament then wee had no usurpers for they all had Parliaments to back them yea Richard the third that Monster All our books of law say they have the Crowne by discent and the Statutes of the Land declare that they have the same by inherent byrth-right And the Statute of the thirteenth of Elizabeth the first Chapter was made to secure Queene Elizabeth against the Queene of Scots then in the Kingdome clayming the Crowne of England and having many adherents And that Statute to that end affirmes no such power in the two Houses which is the Question but in Queene Esizabeth and the two Houses which makes against the pretence of this time Master
Prinne fol. 104. of his booke intituled the Parliaments supreme Power c. Objecting the Statute of the first of Queene Elizabeth and his owne Oath That the King is the only supreame Governour of this Realme Answeres The Parliament is the supreme Power and the King supreame Governour And yet there hee allowes him a Negative Voice And fol. 107. confesseth that Acts of Parliament translated the Crowne from the right heires at Common-lawe to others who had no good Title Then the Parliamentary Title makes not the King so powerfull is Truth that it escapes from a man unawares To make a distinction betweene Supreame Governour and Supream Power is very strange For who can Governe without Power The King assembles the Parliament by his Writt Vide Speede 645. 4 pars Instit 27. 28. Adjournes Prorogues and Dissolves the Parliament by the Lawe at his pleasure as is evident by constant practise the House of Commons never sate after an adjournment of the Parliament by the Kings command Where is the Supreame Power Ob. 18 The King by his Oath is bound to deny no man Right much lesse his Parliament To agree to all just and necessary Lawes proposed by them to the King This is the substance of the discourse against the Kings Negative Voice Sol. The King is so bound as is set downe in the Objection but who shall judge whether the Bill proposed bee just and necessary For all that they doe propose are so pretended and carried in eyther House sometimes by one or two voices or some few as aforesaid and certainly as hath beene shewn the King his Councell of State his Judges Sargeants Attorney Sollicitor and twelve Masters of the Chancery can better Judge of them then two or three or few more Master Prinne fol. 45. In his booke of the Parliaments interest to nominate Privy-Councellors c. calleth the opinion of the Spencers to divide the person of the King from his Crowne a strange opinion Calvins Case 7 pars fol. 11. and cites Calvins Case but leaves out the conclusions therein mentioned fol. 11. Master Prinne saith there But let this opinion be what it will without the Kings Grace and Pardon it will goe very far and two Acts of Parliament there mentioned are beyond an opinion And in his booke of the opening of the Great Seale fol. 17. The Parliament hath no jurisdiction to use the Great-Seale for Pardons Generall or Particular Where is the Supreme power Ob. 19 Master Prinnes opening of the Seale Page 19. saith The Noblemen and State the day after the funerall of King Henry the third king Edward the first his sonne being in the holy Land made a new Great-Seale and Keepers of the same And in Henry the sixts time in the first yeere of his Reigne the like was done in Parliament Sol. A facto ad jus is no good Argument for that in Edward the firsts time it was no Parliament for King Henry the third was dead which dissolved the Parliament if called in his time and it could bee no Parliament of Edward the firstâ— time for no writ issued to summon a Parliament in his name nor could issues but under that new Seale it was so sodainly done after Henry the thirds death King Edward the first being then in the holy-Land it was the first yeere of his Reigne and no Parliament was held that yeere not the second yeere of his Reigne The first Parliament that was in his Reigne was in the third yeere of his Reigne as appeares by the Printed Acts. Also the making of that Seale was by some Lords then present What hand had the Commons in it Concerning the Seale made in Henry the sixts time the Protector was vice-Roy according to the course of Lawe and so the making of that Seale was by the Protector in the Kings name and that Protector Humphry Duke of Gloucester as Protector in the Kings name summoned that Parliament and was Protector made by the Lords and not in Parliament as appeareth plainly for that Parliament was in the first of Henry the sixt and the first holden in his time and power given by Commission to the said Dake then Protector to summon that Parliament Prinne ibid. fol. 19. But the new Counterfeit Seale was made when the King was at Oxford in his owne kingdom and not in the holy-Land Ob. 20 Master Prinue in his Booke of the two Houses power to impose Taxes restrayne Malignants against any Habeas Corpus c. saith that the Parliament is above Magna Charta and folio 15 ibid. The Parliament hath power over Magna Charta to repeale the same when there is Cause Sol. This Argument supposeth that they have the Kings power which hath appeared formerly they have not But suppose they had Magna Charta contaynes many morall Lawes which by the Lawe of the Land a Parliament cannot alter 21. H. 7.2 Dr. Student 2. Dialogue For example it saith cap. 18. Justice shall not be sold dlayed nor denyed to any man but by this Argument the Parliament may make Lawe to delay deny and to sell Justice which surely is a very ill position to maintaine What they would have doth now by the Propositions sent to Newcastle to his Majestie appeare whereby they would have him divest himselfe and settle in them all his kingly power by Sea and Land and of themselves to have power without him to lay upon the people of this Land what Taxes they thinke meete to abolish the Common-prayer booke to abolish Episcopacy and to introduce a Church government not yet agreed but such as they shall agree on His Majesty finding a prevayling party in both Houses to steere this course and being chased away with Tumults from London leaves the Houses for these reasons viz. FIRST Because to alter the Government for Religion is against the Kings Oath Secondly Against their Oathes For every of them hath sworne in this Parliament That his Majesty is the only supreame Governour in all Causes Ecclesiasticall and over all Persons Thirdly This course is against Magna Charta the first Chapter and the last Salvae suis Episcopis omnes libertates suae Confirmed by thirty two Acts of Parliament And in the two and fortieth of Edward the third in the first Chapter enacts If any Statute bee made to the contrary it shall be holden for none and so it is for Judgements at La we in the twenty fift of Edward the first chapter the first and the second The great Charter is declared to be the Common-lawe of the Land Fourthly They indeavour to take away by their Propositions the Governement of Bishoppes which is as ancient as Christianity in this Land and the booke of Common-Prayer setled by five Acts of Parliament and compiled by the Reformers and Martyres and practised in the time of foure Princes Fiftly These Propositions taking away from his Majesty all his power by Land and Sea Rob him of that which all his Ancestours Kings of this Realme have enjoyed That Enjoyment and Usage makes the Lawe and a Right by the same to his Majesty They are against their owne Protestation made this Parliament viz. to maintaine his royall Person Honour and Estate They are against their Covenant which doth say that they will not diminish his just Power and Greatnesse For these Reasons his Majesty hath left them and as is beleeved will refuse to agree to the said Propositions as by the Fundamentall Lawe of the Land hee may having a Negative Voyce to any Bills proposed The result of all is upon the whole matter That the king thus leaving of the Houses and his deniall to passe the said Propositions are so farre from making him a Tyrant or not in a condition to Governe at the present That thereby he is rendred a Just Magnanimous and Pious Prince so that by this it appeares cleerely to whom the Miseries of these Times are to bee imputed The remedy for all is an Act of Oblivion and a Generall Pardon GOD save the KING 28o. Aprilis 1647. David Jenkins Now prisoner in the Tower
To the HONORABLE Societies of GRAY'S Inne and of the rest of the Innes of Court and to all the Professors of the LAW I Have now spent forty five yeares in the Study of the Lawes of this Land being my profession under and by the conduct of which Lawes this commonwealth hath flourished for some ages past in greate splendor and happinesse jam seges est ubi Troja fuit The great and full body of this Kingdome hath of late yeares fallen into an extream sicknesse it is truly said that the cause of the disease being known the disease is easily cured There is none of you I hope but doth heartily wish the recovery of our common parent our native country Moribus antiquis statres Brittannica I call God to witnes that this discourse of mine hath no other end then my wishes of the common good How farr I have been from Ambition my life past and your own knowledge of me can abundantly informe you and many of you well know that I ever detested the Shippe-mony and Monopolies and that in the beginning of this Parliament for opposing the excesses of one of the Bishoppes I lay under three Excommunications and the Examination of seeventy seven Articles in the high Commission Court His sacred Majestie God is my witnesse made me a Judge in the parts of Wales against my will and all the meanes I was able to make and a patent for my place was sent me for the which I have not paid one farthing and the place is of so inconsiderable a benefit that it is worth but 80. l. per annum when paid and it cost me every yeare I served twice as much out of mine own estate in the way of an ordinary and frugall expence That which gave me comfort was that I knew well that his Majestie was a just and a prudent Prince In the time of the Attournyshipps of Master Noye and the Lord Banks they were pleased to make often use of me many referrences concerning suits at Court upon that occasion came to my knowledg as I shall answer to God upon my last accompt this is a truth that all or most of the references which I have seen in that kind I have seen many were to this effect That his majesty would be informed by his Counsell if the suits preferred were agreable to the Lawes and not inconvenient to his people before he would passe them what could a just and pious Prince do more Gentlemen you shall finde the Cause and the Curse of the present great distemper in this discourse and God prsoper it in your hands thoughts and words as the Case deserves Hold to the Lawes this great body recovers forsake them it will certainly perish I have resolved to tender my selfe a Sacrifice for them as Cheerefully and I hope by Gods assistance as constantly as old Eleazer did for the holy Lawes of his Nation Your well-wisher DAVID JENKINS Now Prisoner in the Tower Lex Terrae THE Law of this Land hath three grounds First Custome Secondly Judiciall Records Thirdly Acts of Parliament The two latter are but declarations of the Common-Lawe and Custome of the Realme touching Royall-Government And this Law of Royall-Government is a Law-Fundamentall The Government of this Kingdome by a Royall Soveraign hath beene as ancient as History is The kings prerogative is a principall part of the common Lawe Com. Littl. 344. or the memoriall of any time what power this Soveraignty alwaies had and used in Warre and Peace in this Land is the scope of this discourse That Vsage so practised makes therein a Fundamentall Lawe and the Common-Lawe of the Land is common Vsage Plowdens Commentaries 195. For the first of our kings sithence the Norman Conquest the first William second William Henry the first Stephen Henry the second and Richard the first the Customes of the Realme touching Royall Government were never questioned The said Kings enjoyed them in a full measure In king Johns time the Nobles and Commons of the Realm conceiving that the ancient Customes and Rights were violated and thereuppon pressing the said King to allowe them in the seventeenth of King John the said Liberties were by King John allowed and by his sonne Henry the thyrd after in the ninth yeere of his Reigne confirmed and are called Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta declared foure hundred twenty two yeeres sithhence by the said Charters Now rests to be considered after the Subjects had obtained their Rights and Liberties which were no other then their ancient Customes and the fundamentall Rights of the King as Soveraigne are no other How the Rights of Soveraignty continued in practise from Henry the thirds time untill this present Parliament of the third of November 1640. for before Henry the thirds time the Soveraignty had a very full Power Rex habet Potestatem jurisdictionem super omnes qui in Regno suo sunt Hen. 3. ea quae suut jurisdictionis Pacis ad nullum pertinent nisi ad Regiam dignitatem Bracton temps H-3 lib. 4. cap. 24. Sect. 1. habet etiam coercionem ut Delinquentes puniat coerceat This proves where the supreme power is A Delinquent is hee who adheres to the Kings Enemies Com. Sur. Littl. 261. This shewes who are Delinquents Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum Deo non est inferior sibi Subjectis Sect. 5. Bract. ibid. non parem habet in Regno suo This shewes where the supreme power is Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum satis habet ad poenam quod Deum expectat ultorem Brrcton lib. 5. tract 3. de defaltis Cap. 3. Bracton Lib. 3. Cap 7. This shewes where the supreme power is Treasons Fellonies and other Pleas of the Crowne are propriae causae Regis This shewes the same power By these passages it doth appeare what the Custome was for the power of Soveraignty before that time the power of the Militia of coyning of Money of making Leagues with forreigne Princes the power of Pardoning of making of Officers c. All Kings had them the said Powers huveno beginning Sexto Ed. 1. Edw. 1. Com. sur Littl. 85. Liege Homage every Subject owes to the King viz Faith de Membro de vita de terreno Honore the forme of the Oath inter vetera statuta is set downe We reade of no such or any Homage made to the two Houses but frequently of such made by them It is declared by the Prelates Earles Barrons and Commonalty of the Realme 7. Ed. 1. statuts at large fol 42. that it belongeth to the King and his Royall Segniory straitly to defend force of Armour and all other force against the Kings peace at all times when it shall please him and to punish them that shall doe contrary according to the Lawe and Usage of the Realme and hereunto they are bound to ayde their Soveraigne Lord at all seasons when neede shall be
facultates and so make all mens estates Arbitrary the answere is That in levying of publique aydes upon mens goods and estates which are variable and probably cannot be certainly knowne by any but the owners it is impossible to avoide discretion in the assessâ—ments for so it ever was and ever will be By this appeares that the votes of the two houses against the Commission of Array were against the Law The death of the King dissolves the Parliament H. 5 if Kings should refer to the politique capacity it would continue after his death 4. pars Inst 46. which proves that the King connot be said to be there when he is absent as now he is there is no interregnum in the kingdome the dissolution of the Parliament by his death shewes that the beginning and end thereof refers to the naturall person of the King and therefore he may lawfully refuse the Propositions 2 H. 5. 4 pars instit 46 2. H. 5. Chap. 6. to the King onely it belongs to make Leagues with forreigne Princes This shewes where the supreame power is 8. H. 6. H. 6. numb 57. Rott Parl. Cookes 4. pars instit 25. No priviledg of Parliamenr is grantable for Treason Felony or Breach of the peace if not to any one member nnot to two not to ten not to the Major part 19. H. 6.62 The law is the inherritanc of the King and his people by which they are ruled King and people And the people are by the law bound to ayde the king And the King hath an inheritance to hold Parliaments and in the ayds granted by the Commonalty If the major part of a Parliament commit Trason they must not bee Judges of it for no man or body ean be Judge in his own cause and aswell as ten or any number may commit treason the greater number may aswell The King by his letters pattents may constitute a County palatine and grant Regall rights 32. H. 6.13 Plowd 334. this shewes where the supreme power is 17. Ed. 4. rot parl numb 39. Ed. 4. No priviledge of Parliament is grantable for Treason Fellony or Breach of the peace if not for one not for two or more or a major part The same persons must not be Judge and party A corporat body can commit no treason Calvins Case 7 pars fol. 11.12 nor can treason be committed against a corporate body 21. E. 4 13. and 14. but the persons of the men who make that body may commit treason and commit it against the naturall person of him who to some purposes is a body corporate but quatenus corporate no treason can be committed by or against such a body that body hath no soul no life and subsists only by the fiction of the Law and for that reason the Law doth conclude as aforesaid therefore the stature of 25. E. 3 must be intended of the Kings naturall person conjoyned with the politique which are inseparable and the Kings naturall person being at Holmby Plow com 213. his politique is there also and not at Westminster for the politique and naturall make one body indivisible If all the people of England should breake the league made with a forreigne Prince 19 Ed 4.6 without the Kings consent the league holds and is not broken and therefore the representative body is inferior to his Majesties The King may erect a Court of Common pleas in what part of the kingdome he pleaseth by his letters pattents 22 Ed. 4. Fitz. jurisdiction last placite can the two howses do the like 1. Ed. 5. fol. 8. Ed. 5. 4 Ed. 4.25 5 Ed. 4 29. It cannot be said that the King doth wrong declared by all the Judges and Serjâ—ents at law then there The reason is nothing can be done in this Common-wealth by the Kings grant or any other act of his as to the subjects persons goods lands or liberties but must be according to established lawes which the Judges are sworne to observe and deliver between the King and his people impartially to rich and poore high and low and therefore the Justices and the Ministers of Justice are to be qâ—stioned and punished if the Lawes be violated And no reflection to be made on the King All Counsellers and Judges for a yeare and three months nntill the tumults began this Parliament were all left to the ordinary course of Justice what hath beene done sithence is notorious For great Causes and considerations an act of Parliament was made for the surety of the said Kings person R. 3. 1 R. 3 cap. 15. if a Parliament were so tender of King Rich. the 3. the howses have greater reason to care for the preservation of his Majestie The Subjects are bound by their allegiance to serve the King for the time being against every Rebellion H. 7 11 H. 7. cap. 1. power and might reared against him within this land that it is against all lawes reason and good conscience if the King should happen to be vanquished that for the said deede and true duty and alligeance they should suffer in any thing it is ordeined they should not and all acts of processe of law heereafter to be made to the contrary are to be void This law is to be understood of the naturall person of the King for his politique capasity cannot be vanquished nor war reared against it Relapsers are to have no benefit of this Act. It is no statute 12 H. 7.20 H. 8. 24 H. 8. cap. 12. 25 H. 8. cap. 21 if the King assent not to it and he may disassent this proves the negative voice The King hath full power in all causes to doe justice to all men this is affirmed of the King and not of the two Houses The commons in Parliament acknowledg no superior to the King under God the house of Commons confesse the king to be above the representative body of the Realme Of good right and equity the whole and sole power of pardoning treasons fellonies c. belong to the King 27 H. 8. cap 24. Note as also to make all Justices of Oyer and Terminer Judges Justices of the peace c. This law condemns the practise of both houses at this time The Kings royall assent to any act of Parliament signed with his hand expressed in his letters Patents under the great Seale 33. H. 8 cap. 21 and declared to the Lords and Commons shall be as effectuall as if hee assented in his owne person a vaine act if the King be virtually in the houses The King is the head of the Parliament Dier 38. H. 8. â—â— 59.60 the Lords the principall members of the body the Commons the inferior members and so the body is composed therefore there is no more Parliament without a King then there is a body without a head There is a corporation by the Common law 14 H. 8. fol. 3. as the King Lords and Commons are a corporation in Parliament and
might have farther given these reasons if it had so pleased him for the same first that this Bill destroyes the writt whereby they are made two houses of Parliament the King in the writt to the Lords being Cum praelatis Colloquium habere secondly they have bene in all Parliaments since we had any and voted but in such wherein they themselves were concerned And there have bene Bishops here sithence we were Christians and the fundamentall law of the kingdome approves of them if any of them were conceived offensive they were left to justice and his Majestie would put in in-offensive men in their places but sithence his Majestie hath passed the Bill for taking away their votes in Parliament it is a law that binds us so farr Upon the whole matter the law hath notably determined that Bills agreed by both houses pretended to be for the publique good are to be jâ—dged by the King for in all Kings reignes Bills have been preferred by both houses which allwayes are pretended to be for the publique good and many times are not and were rejected with Roy s'avisera or Roy ne veult This Parliament begunne the third of November 1640 before that time in all the Kings reigne no armed power did force any of the people to do any thing against the law what was done was by his Judges officers Referees and Ministers from that time untill the tenth of January 1641 when the King went from London to avoyd the danger of frequent tumults being a yeare and three months Privy Councellors and all his Justices and ministers were left to the Justice of the law there wanted no time to punish punishable men The Sphaere of the house of commons is to represent the grievances of the Contrey to grant aydes for the King upon all fit occasions extraordinary to assent to the making or abrogating of lawes The Orb of the house of Lords to Reforme eronious judgments given in the kings Bench to redresse the delayes of Courts of Justice to receive all petitions to advise his Majestie with their councell to have their votes in making or abrogating of Lawes and to propose for the common good what they conceive meete Lex non cogit ad imposibilia subjects are not to expect from Kings impossible things so many Judges Councellors Sheriffes Justices of the peace Commissioners Ministers of State that the King should over looke them all cannot be it is imposible The King is virtually in his ordinary Courts of Justice so long as they continue his Courts their charge is to administer the lawes in being and not to delay deferre or sell justice for any commandment of the King Wee have Lawes enough instrumenta boni saeculi sunt boni viri good ministers as judges and officers are many times wanting the houses propose new Lawes or abrogation of the old both induce novelty the law for the reasons aforesaid makes the King the only judge who is assisted therein by a great number of grave learned and prudent men as aforesaid For the considerations aforesaid the Kings party adhered to him the law of the Land is their byrth-right their guide no offence is committed where that it is not violated they found the commission of Array warranted by the law they found the King in this Parliament to have quitted the Ship money Knighthood-money seven Courts of Justice consented to a trienniall Parliament seâ—led the Forest bounds tooke a way the Clerke of the Market of the houshold trusted the house with the Navie passed an act not to dissolve this Parliament without the houses assent no people in the world so free if they could have beene content with Lawes oathes and reason and nothing more could or can be devised to secure us neither hath beene in any time Notwithstanding all this we found the King driven from London by frequent tumults that two thirds and more of the Lords had disserted that house for the same cause and the greater part of the house of Commons left that house also for the same reason new men chosen in their places against law by the pretended warrant of a counterfet Seale in the Kings name against his consent levying warre against him and seizing his Ports Forts Magazines and Revenue and converting them to his destruction and the subversion of the law and land laying taxes on the people never hard of before in this Land devised new oathes to oppose forces raysed by the King not to adhaere to him but to them in this warre which they call the Negative Oath and the Vow and Covenant By severall wayes never used in this kingdome they have raised monies to foment this warte and especially to inrich some among them namely first Excise secondly Contributions thirdly Sequestrations fourthly Fift Parts fiftly Twentieth Parts sixtly Meale-mony seventhly Sale of Plundered goods eightly Loanes ninthly Benevolences tenthly Collections upon their Fast-dayes eleventhly new Inpositions upon Marchandizes twelvethly Guards maintained upon the charge of private men thirteenthly Fifty Subsidies at one time fourtenthly Compositions with such as they call delinquents fiftenthly Sale of Bishops lands c From the Kings party meanes of susistance are taken before any indictment their Lands seised 1 R. 3. cap. 3. Bract li. 3. c. 8. Stanford 192. Sir Ger. Fleetwoods Case 8. pars Cook 7. H. 4. laste leafe their goods taken the law allows a Traytor or Fellon attainted Necessaria sibi familiae snae in victu vestitu where is the covenant where is the petition of right where is the liberty of the subject Frst We have ayded the King in this warre contrary to the negative oath and other votes Our warrant is the twenty fifth of Edward the third the second Chapter and the said resolutions of all the Judges Secondly Wee have maintained the Commission of Array by the Kings Command contrary to their votes We are waranted by the statute of the fifth of Henry the fourth and the judgment of Sir Edward Cooke the Oracle of the Law as they call him Thirdly We maintained Arch-Bishops and Bishops whom they would suppresse Our warrant is Magna Charta and many statutes more Fourthly We have maintained the booke of common prayer they suppresse it Our warrant is five Acts of Parliament in Edward the sixt and Queene Elizabets time 5. Peschae 35. Elizabeth inter placita Coronae in Banco Regis New booke of Entries fol. 252. Penry for publishing two scandalous Libels against the Church government was indicted arraigned attainted and executed at Tyburne Fifthly We maintained the Militia of the kingdom to belong to the King they the contrary Our warrant is the statute of the seventh of Edward the first and many statutes sithence the practise of all times and the custome of the Realm Sixthly We maintained the counterfeiting of the great Seale to be high Treason and so of the usurpation of the Kings Forts Ports Shipping Castles and his Revenue and the Coyning of money against them Wee