Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	ancient_a	custom_n	king_n	5,031	5	3.9587	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87640	The new Returna brevium or the law returned from Westminster and restored in brief to its native, antient, and proper habitation, language, power, puritie, integritie, cheapness, briefness, plainness. Rescued out of the sacrilegious hands, barbarous disguises, ænigmatical intricacies, lucrative constructions, extorted verdicts, fals judgments, & bribeful executions of her perjured impostors, fals interpreters, iailers, catchpols, attorneys, &c whereunto is added the Petition of Right, granted by Parliament in the 3 year of King Charls, and confirmed by this (although to bee found in larger volumes) for cheapness to the generalitie to inform themselvs what is their rights. Written by John Jones of the Neyath in com. Brecon Gent.	Jones, John, of Neyath, Brecon.	1650 (1650)	Wing J972; Thomason E1411_2; ESTC R202637	18,638	94

to bee pronounced there accordingly by the Judges called the Kings or States A Writ to command them to proceed to Judgement and an aliàs plur and Attachment ought to bee granted by the Chancery-States as you shall finds in Fitz nat br fo 143. to imprison them till they do it which is not usually don by themselvs in every caus in Court but by the protonotarie of cours entred upon Record unless respite bee required upon good caus shewed And the execution vvhich ever issueth in the name of King or State relateth to the Judgment Conviction vvhich implyeth both the Judgements of Kings or States and people as aforesaid Would not therefore the common practice of the Lavvs and their pleadings in English as at first they vvere bee more commodious and usefull to instruct all understanding English men for their ovvn good to becom experimental sufficient Lavvyers in their ovvn causes then the modern custom of hotch potch French and Latine imposed by Lavvyers for their ovvn gain to instruct fevv others of their ovvn generation to cheat the universalitie of the Nation of their rights and understandings and make themselvs and their Counsels most learned in others affairs And again That every one have a Remedial Writ from the Kings Chancery according to his plaint without difficultie and that every one have process from the day of this plaint without the Seal of Judg or partie And again pa. 10. That after a plaint of wrong bee sued that no other have Jurisdiction in the same Caus before the first plaint bee determined c. And again that al the King's Courts should bee open to all plaints by which they had original Writs without delay aswel against the King or the Queen as against any other of the People for every Injurie but in case of life where the plaint held without Writ Why all at Westminster sit not betvveen terms And all elsvvhere all the year long Certiorari's Corpus cum caussa suppersedias c. issued thence till the Judges at Westminster can bee there at leisure to determine all matters vvhich the multiplicitie of rich mens causes so monopolized thither cannot afford the poor to end theirs vvhile they live commonly And again page 11. That all Free Tennants shall bee obedient and appear at the summons of the Lord of the Fee And if a man caused another to be summoned elswhere then in Fees of the Avowants or oftner then from Court to Court they were not to obey such Summons Why then should any Free-holder of the Countie of Middlesex or any libertie thereof except Westminster and St Martins legrand London appear upon Summons at Westminster-Hall vvhich lately vvas the Fee of the Dean and Chapter of St Peters and novv is at the States dispose to vvhom they pleas And again page 12. That the Lords of Fees might summon their Tenants by the Award of their Peers to the Lord's Court or the County or the Hundred at all times that they detein or denie their services in deed or word and there they shall hee acquitted or forfeit their allegiance and all their Tenancie with the appurtenances by the judgement of the Suitors And per contra the Lords doing wrong to their Tenants shall forfeit their Fee to the Chief Lord by the same judgement Observ the Freemen of every libertie then were as still they ought to bee Judges of their Lords for their fees aswel as their other neighbors for their tenancies and to end their differences there within their proper Fees respectively and why not so still And so let the chief Officers Justices of Peace and others of the Libertie of Westminster suffice for Judges for that precinct And page 13. That offendors guilty of death should not be suffered to remain among the guiltless Why Convicts for felonies c. in Newgate c. amongst prisoners for debt And that the Goods and Chattells of Vsurers should Escheat to the Lord of the Fee This law restored would enrich the Common-wealth purge it of many moths Cankerworms and teach men to live by their own labors and not by others And pa. 14. That none should bee ordeined Ministers above the number of Churches and that the poor should be susteined by Parsons Rectors and Parishioners so that none should die for want How many die so daily now adaies within every parish and parsons view So much and more affirmed by Master Horn to bee the Common unwritten Lawes and Customs of England before Magna Charta the Lord Coke in his preamble to his Institutions upon it saith It is but a written Charter or Declaration in writing of the antient laws of this Land agreed upon by King and People to bee published and preserved inviolable on both parts for ever and no new law made Hereby further appeareth what hath been said of the agreement between King and People that none should be judged by the Kings Judges but by verdict of their Peers called in this Charter due process of Law In and by the 9th Chap. of which Charter it is declared That the City of London shall have the old Liberties and Customs which it hath used to have Moreover wee will and grant that all other Cities Burroughs Towns and the Barons of the 5 Ports and all other Ports shall have their Liberties and free Customs Are not all these Liberties and Customs grown obsolete and daily over-ruled at Westminster And in the first confirmation of the said Charter 25. Ed. 3. ca. 2. It is further declared That all Instices Sheriffs Majors and other Ministers having the Law to guid them viz. Mag. Chart. Forest then written and published shall allow the said Charter to be pleaded before them in Judgement and cap. 2. That if any judgement shall bee given henceforth contrarie to the points of the great Charter it shall be undon where upon saith the Lord Coke the Laws of the Realm have the office to guid the Judges in all causes that come before them in the wayes of right Justice which never yet misguided any that certainly knew them and truly followed them By these Collections of Mr. Horn before Magna Charta and Confessions of the Lord Coke since sufficiently appeareth That the Laws if published to the people as they ought would bee sufficient to guid them all in all the right wayes of Justice But the Justices at Westminster that would guid the Laws as Popes Scriptures by their own Interpretations having purposely disguised them in Pedlers French and barbarous Latine that few but themselvs can construe and forms so errorable as they can devise for themselves to mend when they list which hapneth somtimes for the rich but rare or never for the poor and thereby denying delaying and selling Justice at their own rates And their Frye sitting in the hous are the subverters of the Laws as their Predecessors alwaies were and thereby the continual causers of all the Civil Wars of England and besides all that under color of Justice murtherers

reserving Appeals to such as shall have caus to Parliament or Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer to bee assigned as Fitz H. and Cromp. affirm anciently lawful and usual proof being made first of the partialitie or injustice of the proper Court and no bare accusation allegation or presumption to serv for the issuing of such Commissions as now is used Except causes proper for Coroners Escheators Pipe powder Courts Clerks of the Market of whose misdemeanors Justices of Peace have power to hear determine but not to hinder in due execution of their Offices which are all necessarie in their kinds in every Countie and specially Coroners and Clerks of the Market the first for discovering of murthers c. whereof God requireth an exact account as Scriptures and Reynolds History sufficiently witness And the other for the punishing of frauds in weights and measures which Solomon saith are abominations to God yet nothing more common amongst us the more fearfull his judgements upon us without timelie repentance and future amendment And for the superintending of the defaults of those that have power to correct such offences and do not All these Courts Officers and Offices that are thus necessarie will bee no more chargable to the Common-wealth hereafter then alwaies they have been hrretofore but as useful now as ever and more profitable to the Common-wealth now then ever before becaus that in this time of Reformation these Officers as others beeing chosen of approved persons for their Integritie will endeavour like their Superiours the amendment of all offences which they have power to chastize whereas their Predecessors imitating their Superiors to their own ruine intended their own private gain by publick transgressions and to that end increased iniquities in themselvs and others If any offer to plead or object the customs and usages modernly observed time out of minde against this reducement and restauration of the Law and its practice to their antient usages I ansvver Mala Consuetudo non est observanda An evil custom is not to bee continued and Customs against Lavv are unlavvfull to be used And to vvhat end is Reformation but to take avvay such customs And Statutes lately made to support them by those that raised and used them for their own gain others dammage contrarie to all the Laws of God and Man and especially of Magna Charta and its confirmations vvherein appear the right and Primitive customs and usage of this land agreeable to them claiming therefore to bee restored as in Justice they ought and the other to bee abolished as likevvise they ought And being com to speak of antient Customes to bee restored modern to bee abolished I cannot chuse but remember the Poor as most men do in the last place for it vvas a custom as antient as Christianitie for Christians to give lands moneys and goods in a large measure to relieve the poor till Monks Friers and other Abbey-lubbers as unsatiable as idle dulled mens charities with their continual beggings in the name of the poor and grew sacrilegious robb'd spittles made that which was common to the poor as well as themselvs proper to themselvs and gave out of that which was none of their own for assistance to countenance that Sacriledge the first Fruits Tenths c. to the Pope who had as much right thereunto by their gift as the Devil and consequently King Henry the 8th as much as the Pope and his successors whether Kings or States as much as hee Whosoever conceive's I write too boldly or speak too plainly herein let him read not onely Histories forraign and domestick but the Records and Statutes extant and in force amongst us videlicet That of Carlile de Asportatis Religiosorum 35 to Ed. 1. And that de terris Templariorum 17o. Ed. 2 And those of the dissolutions of Henr. the 8th between which first last hee may finde manie more to inform his conscience so that his heart may think his tongue speak and pen write much more then I do in this matter All that I desire is that the poor may be looked upon if not with an eie of pitie yet with an eie of wisdom taking notice that if the wedg of Achan bee not enquired for discovered and recovered the Nation may rue it And that Popes Kings Bishops c. that cared not how lean they made the poor while they might make themselvs fat with their provisions and those that exspected their reversions have caus by this time to bee sensible of their Sacriledg And that therefore the Spirit of Reformation would bee manifested in the works of Charitie and if such as have griped the patrimonie of the Church into their claws can finde in their hearts to restore to the poor no part of that interest which all the said Statutes and manie more and all the writings of the Fathers and manie of our own modern Bishops who unjustly detained all they could from them abundantly confess and testifie they ought to have in all Ecclesiastical possessions not as the Alms of the Incumbents but as their own rights by the express wills and donations of of the Primitive Founders of Churches Hospitals c. and other devout Donors and Benefactors to such places from time to time so excessively bountiful to the Clergie and Corporations for the poors sake that the Statutes of Mortmain were made to restrain them All which notwithstanding the Clergie possessed no less then a third part of England and France as Sir Walter Rawleigh and Sir Nathanael Brent have written but not to their own uses as they wickedly converted it but as Administrators to and for the poor as the same Autors all the Fathers and Littletons Tenures de frank Almonie and Tenant in common sufficiently witness Yet may the Parliament bee pleased that Commissions for charitable uses bee granted to discreet persons throughout England and Wales not without Fees wages and accommodations for themselves and their Officers competent for their attendance in that service and loss of time in their own affairs being Charitiie beginneth at home and no man can or ought to neglect his own charge to follow others profit gratis which mkaeth the Commission now in London and elswhere ill executed as the distressed of Ireland by wofull experience can lamentably verifie Nor let the number for a Court exceed 3 for the eas of the charge which must bee either charitably allowed and paid by the State or deducted as the late Lord Privie Seal in the book of order approved by the Councell Table 6 to Car. and the Additional Act for the Sabbath c. declare to be lawfull for prosecutors out of the poor's right Nor let such Commissions be limitted by the Statute of 43 Eliz. 4. as now it is which Statute appeareth by its exceptions and jurisdictions reserved to Bishops and Chancellors to bee a Prelatical Chancerized confederacie to delude and defraud the poor at their pleasures witness the heaps of lost labored decrees made

That no Freeman may bee taken or imprisoned or bee disseised of his Free-hold or Liverties or his free Customs or bee outlawed or exiled or in anie manner destroyed but by the lawful Iudgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And in the eight and twentieth yeer of the reign of king Edward the third it was declared and enacted by autoritie of Parliament that no man of what estate or condition that hee bee should bee put out of Land or Tenements nor taken nor imprisoned nor dis-herited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due Process of Law Nevertheless against the tenor of the said Statutes and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realm to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without ante caus shewed and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Iustices by your Majesties Writs of Habeas corpus there to undergo and receiv as the Court should order and their Keepers commanded to certifie the causes of their detainer no caus was certified but that they were deteined by your Majesties special command signified by the Lords of your Privie-Councel and yet were returned back to several prisons without being charged with ante thing to which they might make auswer according to the Law And whereas of late great Companies of Souldiers and Mariners have been dispersed into divers Counties of the Realm the inhavitants against their wils have been compelled to receive them into their houses and there to suffer them to sojourn against the Laws and Customs of this Realm and to the great grievance and vexation of the people And whereas also by autoritie of Parliament in the five and twentieth year of the Reign of King Edward the third it is declared and enacted that no man should bee fore-judged of life or limb against the form of the Great Charter and the law of the Land and by the said Great Charter and other the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm no man ought to bee adjudged to death but by the Laws established in this your Realm either by the customs of the same Realm or by Acts of Parliament And whereas no offender of what kinde soever is exempted from the proceedings to bee used and punishments to bee inflicted by the Laws Statues of this your Realm Nevertheless of late time divers Commissions under your Majesties great Seal have issued forth by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners with power and untoritie to proceed within the land according to the Iustice of Martiall Law against such Souldiers or Mariners or other dissolute persons jeyning with them as should commit anie murther robberie felonie mutinie or other outrage or misdemeanor whatsoever and by such summarie cours and order as is agreeable to Martial Law and as is used in Armies in time of War to Proceed to the tryal and condemnation of such offenders and them to caus to bee executed and put to death according to the Law Martial By pretext whereof som of your Majesties Subjects have been by som of the said Commissioners put to death when and where if by the Laws and Statutes of the land they had deserved death by the same Laws and Statutes also they might and by no other ought to have been judged and executed And also sundrie grievous offenders by color thereof claming an exemption have escaped the punishments due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm by reason that divers of your Of ficers and ministers of Iustice have unjustly refused or forborn to proceed against such offendors according to the same Laws and Statutes upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable only by Martial law and by autoritie of such Commissions as aforesaid Which Commissions and all other of like nature are wholly and directly contrarie to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent Majestie that no man hereafter bee compelled to make or yield anie Gist Loan Benevolence Tax or such like Charge without common consent by Act of Parliament And that none bee called to make answer or take such Oath or to give attendance or bee confined or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same or for refusal thereof And that no Freeman in anie such manuer as is before mentioned bee imprisoned or detained And that your Majestie would bee pleased to remove the said Souldiers and Mariners and that your people may not bee so burthened in time to com And that the foresaid Commissions for proceeding by Martial Law may bee revoked and annulled And that bereaster no Commisions of like nature may issue forth to ante person or persons whatsoever to bee executed as aforesaid lest by color of them ante of your Majesties Subjects bee destroyed or put to death contrarie to the Laws and franchise of the Land All which they most humbly pray of your most Excellent Majestie as their Rights and Liberties according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And that your Majestie would also vouchsafe to declare that the Awards doings and proceedings to the prejudice of your people in anie of the premisses shall not bee drawn hereafter into consequence or example And that your Majestie would bee also graciously pleased for the further comsort and saretie of your people to declare your Royall will and pleasure That in the things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serv you according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as they tender the Honor of your Majestie and the prosperitie of this Kingdom Which Petition beeing read the second of June 1628. the Kings Answer was thus delivered unto it THe King willeth that Right bee don according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm And that the Statutes bee put in due Execution that His Subjects may have no caus to complain of anie wrong or oppressions contrarie to their just Rights and Liberties To the preservation whereof Hee hold's Himself in conscience aswel obliged as of his Prerogative But this Answer not giving satisfaction the King was again petitioned unto that hee would give a full and satisfactorie Answer to their Petition in full Parliament Whereupon the King in person upon the seventh of June made this second ANSVVER My Lords and Gentlemen THe answer I have alreadie given you was made with so good deliberation and approved by the Judgments of so manie wise men that I could not have imagined but that it should have given you full satisfaction but to avoid all ambiguguous interpretations and to shew you that there is no doubleness in my meaning I am willing to pleas you in words as well as in substance Read your Petition and you shall have an answer that I am sure will pleas you And then causing the Petition to bee distinctly read by the Clerk of the Crown The Clerk of the Parliament read the Kings Answer thereto in these words *

THE NEW Returna Brevium Or the LAW returned from WESTMINSTER And restored in brief to its Native Antient and Proper Habitation Language Power Puritie Integritie Cheapness Briefeness Plainness Rescued out of the Sacrilegious hands barbarous disguises aenigmatical intricacies lucrative constructions extorted verdicts fals Judgments bribeful Executions of her perjured Imposlors fals Interpreters Iailers Catchpols Attorneys c Whereunto is added the Petition of Right granted by Parliament in the 3 year of King Charls and confirmed by this Although to bee found in larger Volumes for cheapness to the Generalitie to inform themselvs what is their Rights Written by John Jones of the Neyath in Com. Brecon Gent. Micha 6. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O Man what is good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God LONDON Printed by William Du-gard Anno Dom. 1650. TO The right Honorable Oliver Crumwell LORD Lievtenant of IRELAND c. Heroïck Sir LOng and earnest have been the desires and praiers of many thousands of faithfull hearts for your safe and happie return into England which God for his own glorie your honor and our comforts hath now opportunely brought to pass with such testimonies of his blessings upon your actions manifested by your successes in his battails as may beejustly terrible to all his and your Enemies and truly joyfull to all his servants and your friends of whom it is to be feared that as God hath but few firm in his election so you have but few faithful in your assistance Be pleased therefore that it may bee inquired in the Assembly vvhose promises to your self and your dependants vvhose Votes in publick and Vovves in private have most vvilfully failed you and yours I shall not presume to inquire vvhat breaches have bin made of performances in matters most nearly concerning you and your Armie best knovvn to your self but vvhat hath been performed of those promises made to you and your Armie for the relieving of your daily Orators Prisoners for Debt vvrongfully restreined contrary to Magna Charta and all the true Lavvs of the Land vvhich men sitting in Parliament publickly profess and have often svvorn to maintein what ridiculous Acts even those men have made to delude you and your Orators their own and all Gods people to cross those Laws more then before and to support their extortions mercenarie practices in all the waies of Injustice in an higher measure than their Predecessors what Justice can be expected from such Justicers what merci can bee exspected from God to continue upon that Land that shall suffer such Mountibanck-mock-lawes to live much more to sit and bee Legis-lators amongst them oh let such buyers sellers of Law Justice bee thrown out of the Temple and the Hous of the Lord bee purged of such abominations The valiant and Religious Patriot Colonel Pride in your absence indeavoured to work som proportion of grace into those men to foresee and prevent their own confusion but the Adders would not hear O make them Sir make these subtile Serpents innocent against their wills unsting them unskin them for their Cases are far more precious then their Carkases I have here following demonstrated their uselessness in this Common-wealth which may it pleas your honor to peruse at your leisure protect in your favor correct in your wisdom and Act in your Justice so God shall further prosper you your posteritie the Commonwealth honor you and them and with the rest of your Orators and theirs I shall bee ever yours to Command during life John Jones THE NEW Returna Brevium OR The Law returned from WESTMINSTER c. DIvers are the Speeches of divers Contrivers of a pretended Reformation of the Law of England according to the diversitie of their opinions and self-ends premised therein for the effecting whereof they would have their several Propositions disputed som for Alterations others for Additions others for Substractions all for Corrections but few or none knowing how to mend Magna Chart. more then Magnificat nor really studying but how to marr both Observ how the work directeth it self how it would bee don For as saith the Mirrour of Justice written by Horn in King Ed. the 1. his time pa. 8. It was ordeined viz. by King Alphred long before Mag. Chart. or the Norman Conquest that Right should be don from 15 dayes to 15 dayes before the King and his Iudges and from moneth to moneth in the Counties if their largeness required not a longer time And that every three weeks right should bee administred in other Courts And every free Tenant had ordinary Iurisdiction c. And before pa. 1. The Sheriffs and Bayliffs caused the Free Tenants of their Bailywicks to meet at the Counties and hundreds at which Justice was so don that every one so judged his Neighbor by such judgement as a man could not els-where receiv in the like cases until such time as the Customs of the Realm were put in writing and certainly established And although a Free-man commonly was not to serv without his assent neverthe-less it was assented unto that Free Tenants should meet together in the Counties Hundreds and Lord's Courts if they were not specially exempted to do such Suits and there they judged their Neighbors And again pa. 8. It was ordeined That every Plaintiff have a remedial Writ from the King who reserved all Pleas of the Crown and above 40 s to himself to his Sheriff in this form Questus est nobis c. viz Complaineth to us A. that B doth him such and such wrong Wee therefore committing to thee our Turn in this behalf command thee to hear and determine that caus Their Jurors were Iudges And why do Judges now at Westminster that can bee no more absolute Judges by their Commissions then Recorders of Cities by their Charters Sheriffs in Counties and Stewards in liberties were by their Writs at this time when Free English men understood their laws then known and practised in English usurp more then those Judges did or these ought viz. to bee more then onely pronouncers of the substance of Jurors verdicts aswell for Law as Fact which pronunciation is and ought to be but as a Declaration of Kings assents to the due execution of that Law which they and their people agreed upon in the great Charter and its confirmation to let the people know by these Judges that then were and still are and ought to bee called the Kings or the States as authorised by their Writs and Commissions to pronounce their Masters consents for their parts to convict the partie guiltie as the Judges of the people viz. the Jurors do by their verdicts which are or ought to bee their true sayings both for Law and fact for the peopl'es part their own which consents of Kings or States now called Judgements because a ful conviction of the guiltie of both parts if denied or delayed after verdicts

of more English men then all the Wars Plagues and Famine vvhich reigned in their times destroyed vvithout them Witness their Statutes made and mainteined against Magna Charta for their murthering of Debtors in Prisons vvith tortures and famine vvhen their extortions and their Gaolers have left them no means to buy bread And for the unlavvfull divorcing scattering and starving of their Wives and Children by the bargain and robbing their Creditors of those means that should pay their Debts in part or all and for protecting of Cheators that take their Prisons for Sanctuaries to leav so much of other mens estates with the right owners curs and their heirs to their posteritie as their Judges and Gaolers extortions and their own riot cannot consume in their owne time As also their last Acts formerly mentioned for releas of Prisoners which intangle their bodies and souls more then before And many other Statutes to intricate the Laws with such contrarieties as none but such as have the Genius of their makers can reconcile which when it is don tendeth wholly to make themselvs great and rich and the People their slaves and beggers For Remedie whereof it is to be desired in the name and right of the publick that the Hous would bee pleased to bee swept and clensed of such cobs and cob-webs and to vote and vomit out of the sanctifi'd bowells of that sacred Senate those execrable excrements that poison their intrailes and deliver them to publick Justice which their ravenous lives and extorted possessions suffice not to satisfie but may in Gods mercie appeas his wrath stay his Judgement and expiate this Land of that wickedness which they have wrought among us and accumulated upon us This don The work followeth and teacheth it self how it would be don as aforesaid declaring it self that frustrà fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauclora vain is the labor of many workmen where few may serv the Turn with far less charge and more conveniencie And breiflie vain expenceful and too burthensom to this Common-wealth are the severall Courts hereafter mentioned upstarted over us one after another since the first publishing of Magna Charta as Heresies sprung immediately after if not with the first preaching of the Gospel viz. Out of the Court lately called the King's Bench issued the Common-Pleas and the Eschequer which took their leav of it in Magna Charta and left it to follow the King and so I conceiv it ought to do still for that there is no use rightly to bee made of it but to hear and determine the Pleas of the Crown which the Lord Coke upon Magna Charta saith were wont to bee determined by Stewards in their Leets Sheriffs in their Turns Recorders in Corporations and countrey Judges in Signiories which had jura Regalia all which now Justices of Peace having more power in matters determinable by common Law then Justices in Eire had if rid of the sovereigntie usurped over them by their fellow-Justices their Certioraries c. may eas of much labor Moreover the chief Justice of this Court ought to bee but the King's deputie by writ and no King in beeing no such Deputie can bee Hugh de Burgo Earl of Kent chief Justice under King Henry the 3d took his oath with his Master to observ and maintein Magna Charta and soon after persuading the King to break it became the first Perjurer of his place in that point as the Lord Cook upon Art sup Chart. declareth at large Since which time the practice of this Court beeing but to murther debtors over whom it hath no jurisdiction and consequently perjurie and injurie to the Common-wealth why may it not bee spared as well as the King While as saith the Lord Cook afore-said all Majors c. have the Law to guide them and now Englished unto them where then can bee the desect of Justice but in the Justices as before that will not execute them since it is Law it self that the Laws are to bee interpreted so that there shall bee no failer of Justice to the people And few or no Laws besides Magna Charta and it's confirmations will serv to do that without those superfluous number of volumes which Lawyers have contrived for their own Reports of Cases and crastie disputes arguments and cavils pass'd among them but to bee used by such as have minde and leisure to read them as Divines may the Works of the wantonest Poëts to pick out their flowers for their Pulpits and leav their scurrilities to others of their Autor's genius Or as Interludes in which all parts were not all bad and though all prohibited to bee publickly acted yet may Terence bee read in Schools And may not those Statutes that relate to the Justices of either Bench c. bee executed without them aswel as those that relate to the Bishops are without them And this Court thus spared will spare the Common-wealth in fees and extortion above five hundred thousand pound per Annum besides unknown bribes and their known salarie of 4000 ll per Annum as Sir John Lenthal and his 4000 prisoners or thereabouts between Thule and Callicute and Mt Henley with his hoste of Scribes whose Van is at Michaël's mount and Rear at Barwick if convented and compell'd to consess truth can declare at large The Chancerie was no Court of Judicature nor personated by a Lawyer but commonly by a Monk or Bishop as wee have seen lately in England and Ireland whose office was to follow the King with the Seal and to seal Writs gratis at the King 's cost as the Lord Coke affirmeth and Rast fol. 65. citeth the Statute of Art super chart and sheweth that the breaches of those Articles were the first thing given to the power of the Chancellor to judg of who beeing likely a a Bishop had charge as a Bishop by virtue thereof to excommunicate the breakers thereof In the 36th year of the reign of King Edward first cap. 4 to from which little fountain sprung that Nilus that ever since overfloweth all England not onely once every seven years but seven times at least in every year The Chancerie a Court of Conscience forsooth raised upon pretence of equitie and relief to such as complained of oppressions against the breakers of this Statute which vvas the first confirmation of Magna Charta and no sooner thus raised but it despised both its raiser and the caus extolled it self and overtopped all the Courts of England disusing to grant the antient Commissions in Eire to vvhom their Counties chose and of Oyer and Terminer to any that had occasion to use them as lavvful vvas according to Fitz Herbent Nat. brev fo 112. and Cromp. s p. fol. 51. and all Writs to any vvithout excessive sees and extortion contrarie to all laws the Oath of a Judg and the practice of the office it self as it was formerly gratis and neglecting to send Magn. Char. to every Sheriff yearly to bee read

four times in full Counties and to every Church to bee read twice yearlie And the writ set down by the Lord Cook to bee issuable to all Sheriffs to apprehend all subverters of the Law and to commit them to the common Gaol which I consess is politickly forborn least Chancellors and and the rest of their brother Judges should bee taken for the chiefest delinquents in that kinde and carried from Westminster to Newgate as I dare swear they have often deserv'd But when I consider how ready their supersedease's are to Sheriffs Justices of Peace c. when they pleas and their Injunctions to stay Suits at common Law most proper to bee determined there and the disregard they make of the late Statute of 15 to Hen. 6. 4 to which forbiddeth them such matters I confess no need they have to fear Sheriffs to displeas them but marveil how they can bee so uncharitable as to separate mercie which they call equitie from Justice beeing that as Justice without equitie is merciless rigor so Equitie without Justice if any such could bee would bee an unjust iniquitie and both these notwithstanding they would seem to divide Equitie from Justice are found individuals in Chancerie as Equitie and Justice were in Courts of common Law before Chancerie was and so ought to bee still as Mercie and Justice ever were and will bee in the individual trinumine chief Justice of heaven and earth whose mercie is above all his works but Chancellor's works are commonly above all mercie when they can finde no time normeans to end any Caus till both parties finde the end of their money and their time lost to gain Lordships to Chancellors and their Heirs for who saw a Lord Chancellor but had a Lord Baron at least to his heir except Sr Francis Bacon and who saw againer to himself or his heir by a Suit in Chancerie except it might bee John Johns the cunning Merchant or one that had less right to land then Keeper Coventrie could think fit to purchase in his man's name and yet gained a precious decree against the right owner Wherefore this two door'd ordoubleleav'd Court of Chancerie and Rolls beeing most pernicious to this Common-wealth which it generally beggereth to enrich it self by encroaching upon all mens liberties and drawing all those matters to Westminster which might bee decided at home with far more speed justice equitie and conveniencie and less charge pains and attendance to both parties where they are best known or to bee known in their own Court Let this Court bee spared with the other and the Common-wealth will bee further spared of the treble charge of the former yearly as the Warden of the Fleet and his prisoners as numerous as the Kings-bench men and the numberless Armado of Chancerie Caterpillars can sufficiently witness if they pleas whereof one thousand pounds per annum would bee a competent salarie for a Keeper of the Seal and fiftie pounds per annum for his man to attend it And another thousand pounds per annum to ten Clerks to do the office of six antiently blew bonnets two thousand pound per ann a piece or more with allowance of Parchment ink wax candles firing lodging and a fit office to write all necessarie Writs for all the Common-wealth And the Clerkships of the Crown and Hanaper may bee united in one person as in Ireland they were in Mr Edgworth and since in Mr Carleton who may bee thought worthie of five hundred pound per annum and all accommodation for his office without anie fees and fortie pound per annum a piece for three under Clerks to assist him to dispatch all businesses belonging to either of the said offices without fees likewise The Court of Common pleas at Westminster would bee as wel spared as anie for that all Common-pleas are common to all Courts in Cities and Counties and ought to bee tried there as the Lord Co. upon Magn. Char. on the Countie Court confesseth which sparing would spare the Common wealth per annum no less then the greatest of the former two The Court of Exchequor reduced to it's proper jurisdiction officers and fees concerning the publick Revenues may bee continued for that service onely and suffice to maintein the Warden of the Fleet and som of his men to walk between the Fleet and the Court to guard Chequer-Accomptants to their Quietus and this would spare the Kingdom another Ten thousand pound per an as the Wardens of the Fleet the two Remembrancers and Mr Long can tell Courts and Justices of Assizes Nisi priùs and Gaole-deliveries are as necessarie for England as Landlopers for the Netherlands where the Boars claw their backs and their dogs bite their shins for their intrusions or as droans are to Bee-hives whence the Bees have good caus to chace them for devouring their honey For all matters of Assizes and Nisi priùs belong to Countie Courts Hundred-Courts Courts Baron and Corporation Courts as the Lord Coke confesseth as aforesaid and Cromp. affirmeth in his jurisdiction of Courts fo 240. and matters of Gaole-deliverie belong to Sheriffs turns Leets and Sessions of the peace as the said Autors affirm and the Commissions of the peace and Charters of Corporations can prove and warrant Wherefore those three Courts spared as well they may and ought the Common wealth will bee further spared of two annual Visitations of severall swarms of Westminster locusts the charge whereof I refer to the consideration of them that bear it and usually pay it The Court of the Marshalsey raised to that exorbitancie that King James and King Charls did may and ought to follow their fortunes and their housholds and more I shall not say of it but that it is full of extortion and injustice being never owned by Law beyond the verge and that being vanished with the Kings person so ought that Court. The sparing of this Court would spare the Commonwealth a great deal of charge more then I can calculate but Mr Say an honorable Member of the House may advertise the rest thereof with the advice of Mr Serjeant Green and others late Judges and officers of that Court. The sparing of all these Courts and the charge thereof amounting to if not surmounting three millions per annum and the confirmation of Mag. Cart. and the Petition of Right once more by this Parliament would also spare to the Commonwealth and its better service the lives and imployments of many thousands of able men wrongfully imprisoned for debt and convert the lives and imployments many thousands of Attornies Sollicitors Gaolers Catchpols Decoyes Setters c. to better uses both for their souls and bodies and for the publick benefit Then Sheriffes Turns Hundred Courts Leets Court Baron Sessions of peace and Corporation-Courts restored to their ancient and right jurisdiction which fall to them of themselvs which when those aforesaid are taken away would be all-sufficient and onely necessary to hear and determine all the causses of England

thereupon remaining unexecuted in the Petty-bag Office And Philip Thomas his experiment in the carriage of many thereof in Abbots Lauds Coventries and Littletons reigns which hee may declare the freer since the death of those Lions Nor let the Clerk of they Crown for such damnable Fees and extortion of 50 s or more as is now used for a Commission for every County be allowed but as it is used for Commissions of the peace which if don gratis would bee more charitably don for the poor then for Justices and hee may shorten his labor by making one Commission for severall Counties for charitable uses which he may not do for the peace for divers reasons Nor let such Commissioners want power in their Commission to put their Orders Judgements and Decrees in execution as all other Oyers and Terminers have without relation to any other Court then Parliament for any alteration whatsoever Nor power to punish vagrants c. and set such as are able to work This granted the poor of England which to the shame thereof beyond all other Countries Christian or Heathen daily perish in streets fields and ditches defrauded of larger provisions made for them by Lawes and Legacies then any other Nation can parralel and deluded like Tantalus for his apple may by this meās be inabled to catch into their emptie vain gaping begging mouths and hungrie panches some crums of some Alms-houses to prolong their daies to direct their praiers for their benefactors to ascend like sweet incense to the Lord in stead of the unsavouriness of their putrified members to annoy their oppressors and offend others And such as are able to work may bee imploied for benefit to themselvs and others and so the streets and fields bee cleared of those loathsom sights and importunate clamors which Forrainers admire and Domesticks abhor yet neither help All which I humbly submit to all honorable charitable and religious considerations which God guide for his own Glorie and their own good Amen Postscript I Hear I am charged with using other heads then mine own in these my poor labors Truly I cite my Autors as the onely heads I dare trust to defend mee and mine from the hands of their degenerate successors and such others as regarding their ill-gotten wealth more then their souls malign my endeavours in seeking to restore those springs that flow from my said Autors the pure heads thereof to their proper Chanels and dismay such heads and hearts as might and would give mee helps or write better themselvs so that all the helps I can get of them is but to tell mee that they would not write so plain as I do in this m̄atter for thousands of pounds Whereto I answer they have so much to lose and I but my life and labor which for truth and its plainness I am ready to sacrifice to Gods providence which I finde not careless of my protection having raised mee honorable friends without any merit or exspectation of mine but onely of their own worthiness amongst whom the Right nobly-minded as well as descended Gentleman William Steward of Laken Heath in the County of Suff. Esq affecteth mee for my affection in particular to himself in general to al hearteneth mee more then many to proceed in my work not for its workmanship but its meaning not for its plansibility at present but its possibility in future not for its dictaste to angel-tong'd Lawyers corrupt-lung'd Gaolers c whose exorbitances not persons are distastefull to him and all good Christians but for its seasonableness timously to inform them to mend themselvs speedily or submit to be mended by more indifferent judgments not for any profit that may thereby redound to him in private more then shall to all in publick not for any prais hee desireth which I must witness hee deser veth above many thousands to himself but for the glorie of God which hee zealously intendeth in all his studies actions honor of most worthily-honored personages of his kindred and alliance which hee conceiveth will bee much improv'd by their accumulating their merits in the accomplishment of this work of Reformation religiously begun and indefatigably pursued by them continually promised by others universally exspected by all except those promisers that never meant to bee performers and particularly pointed at in this Treatise and my former so far as I humbly conceiv necessarie for Law Officers needfull for the Commonwealth For which vigeat floreat duret shal bee my daily praiers Amen again Anno III. Caroli Regis THE PETITION Of Right granted in the third year of the late King and confirmed this present Parliament for the good of the Common-wealth To the Kings most excellent MAIESTIE HUmbly shew unto our Sovereign Lord the king the Lords Spiriual and Temporal and Comtmons in Parliament assembled that whereas it is declared and enacted by a Statute made in the time of the reign of king Edward the first commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo That no Tallage or Aid shall bee laid or levied by the king or his Heirs in this Realm without the good will and assent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other the Freemen of the Commonaltie of this Realm And by Autoritie of Parliament holden in the five and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the third it is declared and enacted That from benceforth no person should bee compelled to make anie Loans to the King against his will becaus such Loans were against reason and the Franchise of the Land And by other Lawes of this Realm it is provided that none should bee charged by anie charge or Imposition called a Benevolence nor by such like Charge by which the Statutes before mentioned and other the good Laws and Statutes of this Realm your Subjects have have inherited this Fráedom That they should not bee compelled to contribute to ante Tax Tallage Aid or other like Charge not set by common consent in Parliament Yet nevertheless of late divers Commissions directed to sundrie Commissioners in several Counties with instructions have issued by means your people have been in divers places assembled and required to lend certain sums of money unto your Majestie and manie of them upon their refusal so to do have had an Oath administred unto them not warrantable by the Laws or Statutes of this Realm and have been constrained to becom bound to make appearance and give attendance before your Privie Councel and in other places and others of them have been therefore imprisoned confined and sundrie other waies molested and disquieted And divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people inseveral Counties by Lord Lievtenants Deputic-Wievtenants Commissioners for Musters Iustices of Peace And others by Command and Direction from your Majestie or your Privie-Councel against the Laws and tree Customs of the Realm And where also by the Statute called The great Charter of the Liberties of England It is declared and enacted