Essex and Edmund Earl of March the true and undoubted Heir of the Crown of England both condemned unheard and without tryal in Parliament when as he might have instanced twenty Sir Thomas Seimer Admiral of England and Brother to the Protector Anno 1549. the third year of Edward the Sixth was condemned to death unheard by a Law in Parliament Henry the Third after all the Acts of Grace of Magna Charta Charta de Foresta c. instead of means Good Governors are the Preservers or enlargers of the Government Parliaments have ever been the bane of the greatness of the English Monarchy given him by Parliament for the recovery of his right of the Dutchy of Normandy usurped and taken by the French King from his Father King John and the Dutchy of Guienne and Earldom of March the year before usurped and taken from him by the French King had all the exercise of Regal Government taken from him and given to the Twelve Peers by the * Insanum Parliamentum Mad Parliament whereof ensued the Barons Wars to the destruction and confusion of so many English-men as nothing but a Parliament could have done Henry the Fourth in the first year of his usurped Reign had the Crown entailed upon him and his Heirs in Parliament from whence ensued all the Wars of the Houses of York and Lancaster At a Parliament holden Anne Dom. 1470. begun at Westminster 26 November the Crowns of England and France were entailed upon Henry the Sixth and the Heirs male of his body lawfully begotten and for want of such Heirs unto George Duke of Clarence being the yonger Brother of Edward the Fourth the undoubted Heir of the Crown of England whereby a double injustice was done first to Henry the Sixth excluding his Heirs general then to Edward the Fourth to prefer his yonger Brother Clarence before him in case of want of Heirs male to Henry the Sixth See the Factious Conspiracy of the Commons together with the consequence against the Duke of Suffolk Speeds History Henry 6. p. 675. Para. 47 48. The Parliament in the First of Richard the Third his Reign though a bloody Usurper presented a Bill for the entailing the Crown upon his Heirs Ann. 1 Hen. 7. Nor was the Act of Parliament less injurious which entailed the Crown upon Henry the Seventh and the Heirs of his body he having no colour of title to it but in right of his Wife and because he suspected his title and reigned in his own right to the wrong of his Wife and after her decease to the wrong of his Son Henry the Eighth in the eleventh year of his Reign he got an Act of Parliament to pass which should protect all Subjects who should assist the King be he so by right or not for the time being So that other offences should be punished but he that perpetrates the highest villany by invading a Crown should be protected by Law Henry the Eight by authority of Parliament an 1533. Bastardized Queen Mary and so soon as he had cut off Anne Bullens head by authority of Parliament Bastardized Queen Elizabeth smally to his credit one would think Add hereunto the ridiculous yet cruel Act of Hen. 8 his Headship of the Church So that a stranger being one day in Smithfield and seeing one burnt for denying the Six Articles and another hanged for denying his Headship cried out Bone Deus quo modo hic agunt vivi hic comburuntur Papistae ibi suspenduntur Antipapistae The bloody Laws passed in Parliament in prosecution of the Six Articles in the time of Henry the 8. and the bloody Parliamentary Laws for Religion in Queen Mary's reign c. and all those Sacrilegious Acts made in the reigns of Hen. 8. and Ed. 6. and sure no man can imagine such horrid acts could be perpetrated but by Parliaments Nor have the General Assemblies in France who were wont to be assembled once or twice a year demeaned themselves much better then the Parliaments in England but in stead of providing good Laws fell into such Factions and used such affronts to the Regal power that Lewis the Eleventh a most subtile and cunning Prince was wont to say It was time to put the French Kings horce de page out of their minority and from being Pages any more and so he did And since his time they have been rarely convented in France For since the General Assembly at Bloys anno 1587. by Henry the Third where the famous Duke of Guise was killed there hath been but one anno 1614. in the fourth year of the reign of Lewis the Thirteenth and that succeeded so ilfavoredly that there is no probability of ever being another 4. Besides the general and particular Customs and Acts of Parliament there are almost infinite Corporations Colledges and Companies who have divers and sundry priviledges which are granted by the Kings Letters Patents and are observed as Laws and to all intents and purposes have the effect of Laws 5. But in all Maritime cases the Kings of England being Soveraigns of the Narrow Seas whatsoever Grotius says to the contrary and all actions done upon a Navigable river are judged by the course of Civil law and so the Probate of Wills and Letters of Administration are determinable by the Civil law Judge Jenkins a learned Gentleman and a stout Champion for the Laws of this Nation in the first page of his Lex terrae divides the Laws of this Nation into three grounds or species viz. 1. The Customs 2. Acts of Parliaments and 3. Judicial Records and that the two latter are declarations of the former touching Royal government so that he makes Custom to be the ground of Royal government and Acts of Parliament to have but a declaratory power of the Common Law touching Royal government and Judicial Records to be equivalent to Acts of Parliament In all which he is most manifestly mistaken For first there are an exceeding many Acts of Parliament which have no manner of dependence or affinity with the Common-Law and so cannot be declarations of it nay there are many Acts of Parliament which are so far from being declarations of the Common-Law that they do annihilate it and create other things in lieu thereof as the Statute of West 2. cap. 1. called the Statute de donis conditionalibus annihilated all the Conditional estates in Fee at Common-Law and created estates in Tail in lieu thereof At Common-Law no Lands or Tenemers were deviseable by Will but the Acts of 32 34 H. 8. create a power of devising Lands and Tenements in Fee by Will and Tenants at Common-Law might choose whether they would attorn to any Grant of the Lord but now the Lords Grant is good without it by 27 H. 8. cap. 10. Sir Ed. Coke com on Lit. sect 574. says Stat. 32. H. 8. takes away the reason of the Common-Law so that that cannot be a declaration of what it takes away the reason It were tedious
this Act shall be certified into the Chancery by such Parties before whom the same shall be made within three moneths after such submission upon pain of forfeiture of 100 l. for every such offence to the Queen If any person so submitting himself shall within 10. years after come within 10. miles of the place where her Majesty shall be without speciall licence had from her Majesty under her hand that then such person to have no benefit of such submission Enacts That every Feofment Gift Grant Conveyance Alienation Estate Stat. 29 Eliz. cap. 6. Lease Encumbrance Limitation of use of or out of any Lands Tenements Hereditaments whatsoever had or made since the beginning of the Queens Reign or after by any person who had not repaired or shall not repair to some Church Chappel or usuall place of Common-prayer or which is or shall be revokable at the pleasure of such offendor or in any wise directly or indirectly intended or meant to or for the behoofe or disposition of such offendor or in consideration whereby his Family may be maintained shall be deemed and taken for utterly void c. Every conviction heretofore recorded for any offence before mentioned not already estreated or certified into the Queens Court of Exchequer shall from the Justices before whom the record of such conviction shall be remaining be estreated and certified into the Exchequer before the end of the next Easter Term in such convenient certainty for the time and other circumstances as the Court may thereupon award out processe for seisure of the Lands and Goods of every such offendor as hath not paid their forfeitures according to Statutes in such case provided And every conviction hereafter for any offence before mentioned shall be in the Court called the Kings Bench or at the Assises or generall Goal-delivery and not elsewhere and shall from the Justices before whom the Record of such conviction shall remain be estreated and certified into the Exchequer before the end of the Term next ensuing after every such conviction in such convenient certainty as is aforesaid Every offendor in not repairing to Divine Service and hath been heretofore convict and not made his submission and been conformable according to the true intent of this Statute shall without other indictment or conviction pay into the receipt of the Exchequer all such summes of money as according to the rate of twenty pounds for every moneth since the same conviction in manner following viz. one Moity before the end of Trinity Term the other Moity before the end of Hilary Term or at such other times as the Lord Treasurer Chancellor and Chief Baron or any two of them shall by composition upon good security be limitted before the end of the said Trinity Term if any such composition shall happen to be And shall also in every Easter and Michaelmas Term untill such time as the same person do make such submission pay into the Exchequer 20 l. for every moneth which shall incur in all that mean time For default of Payment of the said 20 l. a moneth in every Easter and Michaelmas Term after such conviction the Queen by processe out of the said Exchequer may take seize and enjoy all the Goods and two parts as well of all the Lands and Tenements c. of such offendor as of all other Lands and Tenements liable to such seisure by the true intent of this Act leaving only a third part for the reliefe of the offender his Wife Children and Family For the more speedy conviction of such offendor the Indictment shall be sufficient although it be not mentioned that the offendor was or is inhabiting within the Realm of England or any other of the Queens Dominions But if it shall happen that any such offendor were not within any of the Queens Dominions that in such case the party shall be relieved by plea to be put in in that behalf and not otherwise And upon Indictment a Proclamation shall be made the same Assises or Goal-delivery that the party indicted shall yeeld his body to the Sheriff and if at next Assises or Goal-delivery the said party shall not make appearance of Record that then such default shall be deemed a sufficient conviction in Law If any such offendor shall make submission and become conformable according to the form of the Statute made in the 23 of Eliz. or shall fortune to die that then no forfeiture of 20 l. a moneth nor seisure of Lands from and after such submission and conformity or death and full satisfaction of all arrearages of 20 l. monethly before such seisure due or payable shall ensue or be continued against such offendor so long as he shall continue in coming to divine Service according to the intent of the Statute The Lord Treasurer of England Chancellor and chief Baron or any two of them may assigne and dispose of the full third part of the twenty pounds for every moneth paid into the receipt of the Exchequer towards the relief of the Poor of Houses of correction and of impotent and maimed Souldiers This Act or any thing contained in it doth not in any wise extend to make void or impeach any Grant or Lease made bonâ fide without fraud or covin and not revocable at the will and pleasure of the offendor This Act or any thing contained therein shall not in any wise be construed to continue any seisure of any Lands or Tenements of such offendor in her Majesties hands after the said offendors death which Lands or Tenements he shall have or be seised of only for term of life or in right of his wife For the preventing of such great inconveniences and perils as may happen Stat. Anno 35 Eliz. cap. D. and grow by the wicked practices of seditious Sectaries and disloyall persons it was enacted That every person above sixteen years of age that shall obstinately refuse to come to Divine Service established by Law and shall forbear the same by the space of a moneth without lawfull excuse or shall at any time after fourty dayes after the Session of that Parliament by word or writing advisedly goe about to move or perswade any of the Queens Subjects or any other within her Realms or Dominions to deny or withstand her Majesties power or authority in causes Ecclesiasticall united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm or shall advisedly perswade any person to forbear coming to Church to hear Divine Service established or to come to or be present at any unlawfull Assemblies Conventicles c. upon pretence of Religion contrary to the established Lawes Or if any person shall obstinately refuse to repair to some usuall place of Common-prayer and shall forbear to hear Divine Service by the space of a moneth or shall after fourty daies willingly joyn in any such Assemblies Conventicles c. under colour of exercising Religion contrary to the Laws of this Realm That every person so offending and being thereof lawfully
seized into the Kings hands for his Recusancy or any part thereof Every covicted Popish Recusant not married in some open Church or Chappel or otherwise then according to the Church of England by a Minister lawfully authorized shall be disabled to have any estate of Freehold by Curtesie of England And every woman being a popish Recusant convict which shall be married in other form then as aforesaid shall be disabled not only to claim any Dower or Joynture but also the Widowes Estate and Frankbanck in any customary Lands whereof her Husband died seized and likewise from having part of her husbands goods by virtue of any custome of any County City or Place And if a man be married contrary to the true intent of this Statute to a woman who hath no Lands or Tenements whereby he may become Tenant by Curtesie he shall forfeit 100 l. to be paid as aforesaid Every Popish Recusant which shall have a child born and shall not within a moneth after cause it to be baptized by a lawfull Minister according to the Lawes of the Realm in some usuall place of Baptisme or if by infirmity the child cannot be brought to such place then to be baptized by some Minister within the moneth if he beliving by the space of a moneth or if he be dead then Mother of such Child shall for every such offence forfeit one hundred pound one third part to the King the other to the Informer who will sue for it the other third part to the poor of the said Parish to be recovered in any of the Kings Courts wherein no Essoine c. shall be allowed If any Popish Recusant not being excommunicated shall be buried in any place other then the Church or Church-yard or not according to the Ecclesiasticall Lawes of the Realm That the Executors or Administrators of every such person so buried knowing the same or the party that so burieth him shall forfeit twenty pounds to be paid as aforesaid If the children of any of the Subjects within this Realm the said children not being Souldiers Mariners Merchants or their Apprentices or Factors shall be sent or goe beyond seas without licence of the King or six of the Privy Councell whereof the principall Secretary to be one under their hands and seals that very such child shall take no benefit by any gift conveyance descent devise or otherwise untill he being above the age of eighteen years take the oath mentioned in an Act made that Session intituled An Act for the better discovery and repressing Popish Recusants c. before some Justice of Peace of the County where such Parents of such Children as shall be sent did or shall inhabit In the mean time the next of kin who is no popish Recusant shall enjoy all the said Lands c. untill the person so sent shal conforme himself and take the said oath receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and then he who hath received any profit as aforesaid shall restore the goods or value to him who shall so conform himself He that shall so send his child beyond seas shall forfeit one hundred pounds to be recovered as aforesaid No convict popish Recusant shall present to a Benefice with Cure Prebend or grant an Advowson or collate or nominate to any Free-school or Donative whatsoever The Chancellor and Scholars of the University of Oxford when any such become void shall have the nomination presentation collation and Donation of any such Benefice Prebend or Ecclesiasticall Living School Hospitall and Donative in the Counties of Oxford Kent Middlesex Sussex Surrey Hampshire Barkshire Buckinghamshire Gloucestershire Worcestershire Staffordshire Warwickshire Wiltshire Somersetshire Devonshire Cornwall Dorcetshire Herefordshire Northamptonshire Pembrokeshire Carmarthenshire Brecknock-shire Monmothshire Cardiganshire Montgomeryshire and the City of London so long as the Patron shall remain a Recusant convict The Chancellor Scholars of the University of Cambridge shall have presentation c. to all such Benefices aforesaid being in the Counties of Essex Hertfordshire Bedfordshire Cambridgshire Huntingtonshire Suffolk Northfolk Lincolnshire Rutlandshire Leicestershire Derbishire Notinghamshire Shropshire Cheshire Lancashire Yorkshire the County of Durham Northumberland Cumberland Westmorland Radnorshire Denbyshire Flintshire Carnarvonshire Angleseyshire Merionethshire Glamorganshire so long as the Patron shall continue a Recusant convict If the Chancellor and Shollars of either University shall nominate or present Quaere who shal have the next presentation nomination to any such Benefice c. any person who hath any other Benefice with cure of souls every such nomination and presentation shall be void A convicted Recusant shall neither be Executor or Administrator nor Gaurdian in Chivalry or Socage The next of kin of the children of Recusants convict to whom the Estate cannot descend who shall usually resort to Divine Service according to the Lawes and receive the Sacrament shall have the Guard and education of the children and of the Lands and Tenements holden in Knights-service untill the full age of 21 years and of the Lands in Socage as Guardian in Socage and of Customary Lands by copy of Court Roll so long as the custome shall permit the same and in every of the said places shall yeeld an account of the profits to the Ward All Grants of Wards either of the King or any other to any Popish Recusant shall be void No person shall bring from beyond Sea print sell or buy any Popish Primers Ladies Psalters Manuels Rosaries popish Catechisms Missals Breviaries Portals Legends and lives of Saints containing superstitious matter upon penalty of fourty shillings to be forfeited as aforesaid viz. one third part to the King an other to the Informer who will sue the other to the poor of the Parish where such book shall be found Justices of peace in their Limits Mayors Bayliffs chief Officers in Corporations may search the hous of every popish Recusant convict the hous and lodging of every person whose wife is a popish Recusant convict for popish books and Relicks of Popery And if any Altar Pix Beads Pictures or such like popish Reliques or any popish books shall be found as in the opinion of such Officers shall be thought unmeet for such Recusants they shall presently be defaced and burnt if meet to be burnt All Armour Gunpowder and Munition whatsoever any popish Recusant convict hath or shall have in his own house or in the hands of others shall be taken from them by warrant of four Justices of peace at their Generall or Quarter-sessions other then such necessary weapons as the four Justices shall think meet for defence of the said Recusants in defence of their houses and the said Armour and Munition so taken shall be kept at the costs of the said Recusants in such places as the four Justices shall appoint If any such Recusant which hath such armour c. or any person who hath any such armour c. for the use of such Recusant shall refuse to declare unto the
another if the other accepts of any thing in acknowledgement that he will do that thing both parties are obliged by the Law or upon the giving or doing of one party the Law obligeth the other 4. Absolute promises receive their obligation from a precedent or Wherein a bare promise and a Contract differ present consideration or condition as if for a benefit received or any present consideration I promise c. Contracts from a subsequent as if I promise to another that if he will do for or give me or another such a thing that then I will do for him or give him such a thing this being a conditional promise or contract upon the performance of the others consideration or conditions being subsequent to my promise I am obliged by Law to performe my promise made to him and therefore ex nudo pacto non oritur actio for I am not obliged by any act of the other to performe any thing All contracts are made by words of the futuretense as si aliquis dederit aut fecerit dabo aut faciam 5. A contract differs from a meere obligation in this a single obligation Wherein a Contract differs from a single obligation is when one or more for such a sum of Mony Lands Houses c. had and received from another acknowledgeth him or themselves liable to such a penalty to the other if they perform not such a condition as is specified in the obligation A Contract or Pact is when both or all parts are obliged to performe All Promises Vows Contracts and Obligations ought to be only of Annotat. things in possession and that are mens so as by an act of their wills they may be anothers as they are theirs and therefore where any man hath a meere right to any thing this being a shadow another having the substance or as our Lawyers say A chose in Action he cannot by any Contract or otherwise alien his right to another but he can only release it to him in possession otherwise the right remains still in him notwithstanding any Contract c. that he would alien it And I would gladly be satisfied how Mr. Hobbs in the generation of his Civitas can make meere rights to be tranferred and aliened by the Pacts of men and those natural rights too This being granted Mr. Hobbs may by his Contract with another Man make himself no Man but a Horse or an Asse notwithstanding that by nature he is a Man 6. Every Oath is either a calling God to witness that what a Man testifies is true or false or else a speech added to a promise whereby the What is an Oath promiser does renounce Gods mercy if he performs not what he promises But if a Man Promises Vows Contracts or swears to do any thing which is unlawful he ought not to performe it for it is ill done to promise c. but worse to do any thing unlawful 7. A League is when two or more do mutually give their faith to Foedus how different from a Pact observe such conditions as are agreed between them and herein it differs from a Pact or Contract A Contract or Pact is when there is a precedent humane Law obliging the parties contracting to performe all the conditions specified in the contract A league is where there is no humane Law obliging but only the Law of Nature And therefore all stipulations made by Princes one with another are confederacies or leagues not Contracts or Pacts because there is no precedent humane Law obliging them to performe their leagues 8. A Gift is what I do give to another so as it is mine do and Donum though a gift be alwaies in the present or preterperfect tense yet the Habendum may be in the future as if I make a lease freehold or create a State in taile to one and grant the reversion to another and his heires here though the deed or gift be in the presenttense yet the reversion or Habendum is in the future But no Man can give another any thing but what depends upon his will and is his so by some positive humane law that by his giving he may so make it anothers For whatsoever is mine by the Law of Nature cannot be aliened or made anothers by my Will nor by the Will of all the Men in the world for it is impossible natural causes and relations should be dissolved by Mans Will 9. Feoffment is derived of foedum a Fee quia est donatio foedi and this A Feoffment is the most ancient and necessary Conveyance which is used by the Common Law that is that Law which concerns tenures and estates used only here in England and this deed or conveyance is either of absolute estates of corporeal inheritances absolutely passed to another by livery and seisin made according to the intent and purport of such Feoffment he which conveys such estate of inheritance being called the Feoffor he to whom such inheritance is conveyed is called the Feoffee or of absolute estates of inheritance which are not corporeal as Advousons Commons rents issuing out of lands which do lye in grant and do not pass by livery and seisin but by delivery of the deed or feoffment 10. Do or dedi as our Lawyers say which implies a warranty to A Estates-Taile and his heirs for ever makes a Feoffment Do or Dedi to A. and the heires of his body lawfully begotten or to A. and the heires male or female of his body lawfully begotten or to A. and the heirs male or female on the body of such a Woman or to a Woman and the Heirs of her body lawfully begotten or heirs male or female of her body lawfully begotten by such a man creates a state taile and he which creates such an estate is called Donor he to whom such estate is granted Donee 11. Do or Dedi to such a man or woman for term of either of their Freehold lives or to such a man or woman during the life of another creates a freehold 12. Do or Dedi or concedo or concessi to such a man if he shall live so Lease long an estate for years or to such a man and his heirs for such a term reserving or not reserving such a rent or service creates a lease In both the latter he who gives is called Lessor he who takes Lessee and humane Laws oblige as well to gifts as contracts For natural Laws oblige in conscience only but men are obliged by mulcts and corporal punishments to contracts and gifts So that in most proper speaking In every gift it is the Law which gives the property to another by an act of the Donors will and the Donor is the instrument by which the Law conveys the property of any gift to another 13. Humane Laws therefore obliging men to the performance of No Law or Legislative Right arises from any Pact or Contract their Pacts Contracts and Gifts
to the prejudice and dishonor of it for sure no man can imagine that because a Man is a King that therefore he should divest himself of Nature and neglect to use some means to get an Estate for his Posterity where there is none provided If it be objected that the Crown descends to the Heir not to the posterity if more then one I answer That no Crown but hath many Offices and Dignities appertaining to it which descend to the Heir he probably will not reject his own flesh and blood to advance strangers whereas in an Elective Kingdom it cannot be hoped for 10. The Government in Britain and England untill 1641. was Monarchy The Government of Britain was ever Monarchy Hereditary before 1641. hereditary If you believe Mr. Selden in the First Book cap. 1. of his Analecton Anglo-Britanicon he will tell you upon the Faith of Jeoffrey of Monmouth the stem and progeny of Brutus the Nephew of Aeneas and give you a series of the Government of his posterity to Cassivellanus King of the Trinobantes when Cesar first made his invasion here and cap. 5. from Cassivellanus Essex and Middlesex to King Lucius Now I trowe our Author for the honor and reverence of the Apostolick sea will not deny Lucius to be a King and the first Christian King of the Britaines who and whose subjects were baptised Plat. in vit S. Eleutherii p. 21. about anno 176. by Fugatius and Damianus sent to this end by Pope Eleutherius And see Tacitus Lips pag. 457. in vita Agricolae Ii Britanni scilicet his atque talibus invicem instincti Voadicâ generis regii faemina duce neque enim sexum in imperjis discernunt sumsere universi bellum c. with these and the like speeches inciting one another by common consent they resolve to armes under the conduct of Voadica a Lady of the blood royal for in matter of governing in cheif they make no distinction of sex It is not my purpose here to relate a series and Catalogue of all the Brittish Kings to the Saxon Monarchs nor of the Saxon to the Dane and Norman I deny that in any of these times there was any other Government but Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy never nor was ever any of those Kings chosen by the people Here by the way though I affirm the Government of England and Brittaine to be Monarchy yet I do not affirm that part of this Island which is called England was governed by one Monarch only till King Athestan reduced it about the yeare 938 nor the whole Island under one King before it was united under James anno 1602. And this Monarch not a thing in abeiance an aiery title but an absolute free and independent Monarchy Stat. 24. H. 8. cap. 12. It is resolved and declared that by sundry and old antick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realme of England is an Empire and so has been accepted in the world Publick Notaries made by the Emperor claimed de Jure to exercise their office here in England but were prohibited because it was against the dignity of a supream King see Sir Ed. Coke Instit 4. fo 342. Omnis sub rege ipse sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub hominibus sed sub Deo And Rex autem qui vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc constitutus ut regnum terrenum populum domini super omnia sanctum veneretur ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis defendat maleficos ab ea evellat destruat penitus disperdat ibid Now would I fain know what higher power can any man upon earth claim then is here by the Law acknowledged to be in the Kings of England Nor hath any Subject any property in his estate but what he claims from the King for all Lands and Tenements in England in the hands of Subjects are holden mediately or immediately of the King Sir Ed. Co. Com. on Lit. fol. 1. Inst part 4. pag. 363 364. Nor have the Lords and Commons a concurring power with the King in making Statute-Laws for the King makes the Law the Lords and Commons consent Co. Lit. 159. b. And what concurring power of Lords and Commons is there in Magna Charta but only Henry by the grace of God King of England c. We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever c. And Charta de Foresta hath nothing which makes it a Law but Edward by the grace of God c. We will that all Forests c. Stat. Hiberniae made at Westminster 9 Feb. ann 14 H. 3. Henry c. commands that the Customs recited in that Statute and used in the Realm of England be proclaimed in Ireland and straightly kept and observed there And Stat. de Anno Bissextili made at Westm. ann 21 H. 3. ann 1236. is The King unto his Justices of the Bench greeting The Statute entituled Assisa panis cerviciae is made by the King The Statute de Scaccario is nothing but what the King commandeth And so let any man peruse all the antient Statutes of this Realm and he shall not find any so much as Consent of the Lords and Commons named in the making of them though it may be it was implied Nor had the Lords and Commons in the Parliament Anno 1641. any more power de jure then their Predecessors had before them And therefore the Common-Law and Statute-Law of this Realm were nothing but the declared Will of the King Nor hath any City or Borough c. any Priviledge but what they claim and hold immediately from the Kings Grant Customs I take to be those Usages which the Kings have permitted Sir Ed. Co. comment on Littleton 113 to divers of their Subjects in several places of this Realm time out of mind distinct and not the same with the Common Law And herein they differ from Prescription because this refers to the person that to the place so Prescription is what such an individual Man and his ancestors have done in such a place and Custom is what divers Men at once have used in such a City Borough Mannor or Village Add hereunto the Militia of the Kingdom the Mint the power of making War or Peace which were always in the King and for the manageing of which he hath usually taken the Results of his Ordinary Council and who will deny the Kings of England to have been Absolute Soveraigns What the Government since 1641. hath been I cannot tell nor do I care If you believe the Instrument it will tell you It is in One Person and the Freeborn People of this Nation so in Two and divided But who are the Freeborn People of this Nation Every man hath as much right to this Freedom as another here is no Vassalage no Civitate donatus in
with the Opinion of Learned men That the marriage with his Brothers wife was contrary to the Law of God and void The King not expecting the Popes sentence anno 1533. marries his beloved Anne but such love is usually too hot to hold for about two years after he cut off her head yet the King did not wholly renounce the Papacy but still expecting the Popes sentence The Pope for the reasons aforesaid not desiring to end the business The slow proceedings of the Pope but to expect advantage from time reduces the matter into several points or heads which he would have particularly disputed and at the time of the Kings marriage with Anne was not got further then the article of Attentates in which the Pope gave sentence against the King that it was not lawful for him to put away his wife by his own authority without the Ecclesiastical Judge For which cause the King in the beginning of 1534. denied the Pope his obedience commanding his Subjects not to pay any money to Rome nor to pay the ordinary Peter-pence This infinitely troubled the Court of Rome and they daily consulted of a remedy Some thought to proceed against the King with censures and to interdict all Christian nations all commerce with England But the moderate counsel pleased best to temporise with him and to mediate a composition by the French King K. Francis accepted the charge and sent the Bishop of Paris to Rome to negotiate a Pacification with the Pope where they still proceeded in the cause gently and with resolution not to come to censures if the Emperor did not proceed first or at the same time with his forces They had divided the cause into twenty three articles and then they handled whether Prince Arthur had had carnal conjunction with Queen Katherine in this they spent time till Midlent was past when the 19. of March news came that a Libel was published in England against the Pope and the whole Court of Rome and besides a Comedy had been made in presence of the King and Court to the great disgrace and shame of the Pope and every Cardinal in particular For which cause all being inflamed with choler ran headlong to give sentence which was pronounced in the Consistory the 24. of the same month That the marriage between Henry and Katherine was good that he was bound to take her to wife and that in case he did not he should be excommunicated But the Pope was soon displeased with this precipitation For six days His rash censure repented of after the French Kings letters came That the King was content to accept the sentence concerning Attentates and to render obedience upon condition that the Cardinals whom he mistrusted should not meddle in the business and that persons not suspected should be sent to Cambray to take information â—and and the King had sent his Proctors before to assist in the Cause at Rome Wherefore the Pope went about to devise some pretence to suspend the precipitate sentence and again to set the cause on its feet But the King so soon as he had seen it said It was no matter for the Utterly loses the obedience of England Pope should be Bishop of Rome and himself sole Lord of his Kingdom And that he would do according to the antient manner of the Eastern church not leaving to be a good Christian nor suffering the Lutheran Heresie or any other to be brought into his Kingdom From that time forward Henry the Eighth of a zealous Assertor of the No anger lost between the King Pope Papacy both by pen and purse became the first and greatest Opposer of it of all the Western Christian Princes for the Eastern Christian Princes except sometimes the Emperors of Greece and the Kings of Holy Land did seldom or never submit to the Papacy in her Spirituals yet did he afterwards seed to be reconciled to the Pope even by means of his Nephew Charls the Fifth Nor were the Popes much behind hand with him For besides Clement's petty Excommunication Paul the Third Anno 1538. thundred out such a terrible Excommunication against him as the like was never heard of which deprived him of his kingdom and his adherents of whatsoever they possessed commanding his Subjects to deny him obedience and Strangers to have no commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against and persecute both him and his followers granting them their states and goods for their prey and their persons for slaves But the Popes anger ended in words whereas the Kings deeds took place against the Pope But what there was in all the Kings reign which might be called Reformation What was the Kings Reformation I do not understand For whatsoever the King took from the Pope except Peter-pence he ascribed to himself If the Pope would be Head of the Catholique Church the King would be Head of the Church of England If the Pope challenged Annates and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy the King would do no less If the Pope did give Abbots and Priors power being Ecclesiastical persons to make divers Impropriations to their benefit the King will take a power to take them all away and convert them into Lay-fees and incorporate them so into particular mens estates that they shall never return to the Church more Nor had he any love or desire of Reformation of the Church but only to the church-Church-lands for all the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of the Church of Rome was continued and that with such bloody cruelty that a Stranger going over Smithfield one day and seeing two men there executed one for denying the Kings Headship of the Church and another for subscribing to the Six Articles cryed out Bone Deus quomodo hic agunt vivi hic suspenduntur Papistae ibi comburuntur Antipapistae And so zealous did he continue herein that Pope Paul the Third after he had fulminated so dreadfully against him Hist Conc-Trid fol. 90 proposed him for an Example to be imitated by Charls the Fifth Although such was the temper of this Prince that he never spared man The exclusion of the Papai jurisdiction was an act of the King Kingdom and Church of England in his rage woman in his lust nor any thing which might be called sacred in his avarice yet so absolute was he that his Divorce was attested by both the Universities at home besides that at Paris abroad his freeing himself and the Nation from the jurisdiction of the Pope was not only assented to by a Synod and Convocation of all the Clergy of England but the English and Irish Nobility did make their submissions by an Indenture to Sir Anthony Sellinger then chief Governor of Ireland wherein they did acknowledge King Henry to be their lawful Soveraign and confessed the Kings Supremacy Bram. Vind. of the Church of England p. 43. in all causes and utterly renounced the Pope But Divorce banishing the Papal authority
said Justices of peace or any of them or shall hinder or disturb any such Justices or any person authorised by them to seize the same shall forfeit all such armour and amunition to the King and beimprisoned by warrant from any of the Justices of the County during the space of three moneths without bayl or mainprize This Act nor any thing therein shall not abridge the authority and jurisdiction of Ecclesiasticall censures See Statute 6 anno 7 Jacobi who shall take the oath of obedience to the King and by whom it shall be ministred and within what time If any married woman being lawfully convict as a popish Recusant for not coming to Church shall not within three moneths after such conviction conform her self and repair to Church and receive the Sacrament according to Law then shall shee be committed to prison by one of the Kings Privy Councell if she be a Baroness or if she be under that degree by two of the Justices of the peace of the County whereof one of the Quorum without Bail or Mainprise untill she conform her self to come to Church and receive the Sacrament unlesse the Husband shall pay to the King ten pounds a moneth or the third part of his Lands and Tenements so long as the Wife remaining out of prison shall continue a convicted Recusant during which time and no longer she shall have her liberty If the giving of the temporall powers cognizance of crimes meerly spirituall Annot. be objected to Edw. 6. Queen Elizabeth and King James I think no man will undertake to answer for all things done by men yet thus much may be answered that it was no new thing for the Statute of 2 H. 5. cap. 7. gives Justices of peace and Justices of assise full power and authority to enquire of these who hold Errors Heresies and Lollardy and of their maintainers and that the Sheriff and other Officers may arrest and apprehend Anno 1. Sess 2. cap. 2. them and that this was done by Queen Mary See Mary Of King James AS there was never any Prince who had a more clear and undoubted King James his Title and Reception right and title to the English Diadem then King James for besides that he was Heir to both Houses of York and Lancaster as is most truly acknowledged by both Houses of Parliament Anno 1. cap. 1. Jac. he was derived by a long descent of Royall Ancestors from Malcolm Conmor or Cammore King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret being the name of her from whom the united Title of both Houses of York and Lancaster descended upon him Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling Son and Heir of Edward eldest son of Edmond surnamed Ironside so that all titles as well of right of blood as of conquest might so truly be ultimately resolved into him that in the whole world no just exception could be taken against them so never was any Prince received with so little opposition and contradiction by all sorts of his Subjects both in England and Ireland where all those long rebellions and commotions did expire with Queen Elizabeth and in both Kingdomes all became so pacate and calme that during all his Reign in neither Nation was any sword drawn in opposition to him There was such havock made in the Reign of H. 8. Ed. 6. of all Church His care of the Church Lands upon pretence forsooth of Reformation that to stay it there was a Law made in the first of Queen Eliz. cap. 19. that all Gifts Grants Feofments Fines and other Conveyances made by any Arch-bishop or Bishop of any Honours Castles Manors Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments being parcell of the possession of his Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick or united or appertaining or belonging to any of the same to any person other then the Queen her Heirs and Successors whereby any Estate should or might pass from the Arch-bishop or Bishop other then for the term of 21 years or three lives reserving the old Rent or more shall be utterly void Cambden Eliz. Reg. pag. 36. takes notice of the great abuse made by the Courtiers of that clause or exception of the Queen c. And indeed William of Burley had by the Queens permission so gelt the Bishoprick of Ely by virtue of this clause that it lay void above twenty years before any man of abilities or honesty would take it so pol'd and maimed although some were conunitted to prison for refusing of it But King James as his first and chiefest care by an Act of Parliament in the first year of his Reign cap. 3. made a Law that all assurances afterward made to the King of any of the Lands of Arch-Bishops or Bishops should be void so that the rapine and prey made upon the Church was first restrained totally by him King James was not only a devout observor of the Government Rites His care of Religion and Ceremonies of the Church of England but made it one of his chiefest cares to have brought an Uniformity as well in Scotland as in England and proceeded so far as to settle Episcopacy among them naming thirteen new Bishops for so many Episcopall Sees as had been anciently in that Church three of which received consecration from the Bishops of England and conferred it on the rest of their Brethren at their comming home Which Bishops he armed also with the power of an High Commission the better to keep down the insolent and domineering spirit of the Presbyterians In order to the other he procured an Act to be passed in the Assembly at Aberdeen 1616. for composing a Liturgy and extracting a new book of Canons out of the scattered Acts of their old Assemblies At the Assembly held at Perth anno 1618. he obtained an Order for the receiving the Communion kneeling for the administring Baptisme and the Lords Supper in private houses in cases of extreme necessity for Episcopall confirmation and finally for the celebrating the Anniversaries of our Saviours birth his Passion Resurrection and Ascension and the coming down of the Holy Ghost all which he got confirmed in the following Parliament So far did this wise King advance the work of Uniformity before his engaging in the cause of the Palatinate his breach with Spain and the warre which issued thereupon did divert his thoughts To his peacefull disposition and his care of the Church and Religion His great learning and clemency in the next place may be truly added his great abilities in learning so far transcending not only the Kings of the present age his contemporaries but all his predecessors and surely scarcely to be paralled by any of his time as his many learned works testifie To these other virtues may be added a mind no wayes vindicative although sometimes transported with present passion yet of some small continuance that in person or estate he was never noted to punish any man rashly or extrajudicially And although he was no great lover
of the Commons Lawes of this Land yet a great assertor of them and in disgrace with him would oftentimes affirm that there was no time whenever he could speak reason but the King would hear him With the reputation of these virtues he governed these Islands in greater peace then posbly in the ordinary nature of things could be expected In the 3. year of his Reign viz. Anno Dom. 1605. was a most hainous and The cause of the many Laws made against Popish Recusants vile attempt intended not only against the very Person of the King but even of his Posterity which had not advanced the designe of the conspirators and the Church and all the Nobility not of their faction with the Commons in Parliament assembled And the conspirators had proceeded so far that they had not only made provision to have effected their purpose and intended the fifth of November being the day for the convention of the Parliament after their Proroguement and therefore probably expecting not only a more then usuall convention both of the Lords and Gentry but even of the King himself to have blown up the Parliament House But the designe being as foolish as desperate was discovered the night before it should have been executed although it is thought that it was known even to the King himself and the Earl of Salisbury before as by accident and so had no other effect then what the conspirators might reasonably have expected had it succeeded viz. ruine to themselves for their faction being so very few in proportion to the rest of the Nation and without either money Forts or Army in reason they could not have done any thing considerable in order to their further designes and severe Lawes against all which might be suspected to be of their faction to prevent any such further attempts It is true where Tacitus observes that the conspiracies of Subjects where His defects and frailties they succeed not doe advance the Soveraignty and verefied in this attempt of the Gunpowder-Treason for how many Lawes were that Parliament and afterward enacted against all Popish Recusants we have before shewed yet so it happened and so usually happens when not carefully minded by Princes that another faction far more formidable both to King and Church openly pretending assistance to the King and Church in persecuting this faction secretly acquired strength to themselves in so doing Nor was this unseen by this wise King being naturally a greater enemy to the Faction persecuting the persecuted but either not having that magnanimity which is so requisite in a Soveraign or apprehending he had not means sufficient to goe through he neglected to apply such medicines as were necessary to the curing of this Gangrene so dilating it self both in Church Court and State but desiring Peace especially at home although almost upon any termes he rather sought to repell the breaking out of Puritanisme during his Reign then to eradicate it for the future Add hereunto that being excessively addicted to Hunting and not greatly loving the Common Lawes and finding it impossible to govern this Nation otherwise and minding controversies in Divinity more than the management of his temporall affaires and though free from Sacriledge and Corruption in his person yet carelesse of it in his Favourites and Countrymen and nothing so prudent a Manager of the Revenues of the Crown as his Predecessor whereby being forced to recede from many of his Regalities the Reins of Government both in Church and State became so loose that in the ordinary nature of things it was very difficult they should be reassumed by his Successor Ecclesiasticall Laws made by King Charles THere were some few Lawes made against Interludes c. on the Lords day and 10. groats penalty for offence to be levied by Justices and Constables which a man may read in the first Car. 1. 3 Car. 1. There had never in any time been before this Kings Reign so long Peace The state of the Church State in the beginning of K. Charles his Reign viz. for neer 80 years in this Nation as in the beginning of his Reign but neither doth peace make mens minds peaceable nor were things otherwise well disposed for the continuance of it for not only the zealous and obsequious duty which the Subjects paid to the Royall name in the person of Queen Elizabeth was quite dead and almost forgotten the great wisedome and learning of his Father not to be hoped for in the tender years of the Son the Exchequer without money and yet the King engaged in a Warre against the Spaniard for recovery of the Palatinate but the Puritan Faction which Queen Elizabeth desired so much to suppresse and so much hated by his Father was grown so farre up in Church State and Court that in all they were far more numerous both in England and Scotland and all forein Plantations then all his other Subjects Nor was the condition of Ireland better for not only the Protestant party were jarring among themselves but the Popish intent upon their destruction which after they did execute in a terrible manner To these may be added the government both in Church and State so neglected that the exercise of any Lawes to reduce them to conformity would be imputed to have been Innovations and Tyranny The Kings Councell either uncapable of giving counsell or not faithfull to their Prince Nor was there any thing left to oppose all these growing calamities but the hopefull virtues of a young Prince unacquainted in Temporall affaires and a stranger to all worldly calamities which are of no more power to protect him against seditious and rebellious Subjects then the Lawes of God and all which may be called sacred will retain men in obedience where they are not restrained by a present coercive power But these stormes which after brought this Saintlike Prince and this wofull Church State to so lamentable a condition as they lately lay under did not breake out in the very beginning of his Reign but in all three Nations did gather into such black clouds in all his reigne that almost at once breaking forth in such a terrible Tempest as upon the matter it so overwhelmed King Church and Government that there was scarce any footsteps of them left I had here designed to have inserted a short History of the chiefe occurrences of his Reigne and by what degrees this saint-like Prince became a victim to the rage and lust of his seditious subjects and have the papers now by me but in regard it must needs rub soares which may rather in their tendernesse anger then ease them and also because the History of his life hath been by others more fully written but most of all because it is his Majesties pleasure to have the memory of things rather buried in oblivion then renued I shall forbeare and doe no more then give the description of him and shew the consequence of his calamities The Description of King