l. a yeare out of all other annual pensions ratably leaving the remain if any to the Pattentees Hen 6. annis 28. 29. 33. resumeth in England all Lands offices liberties and grants from annis primo and the like anno 21. in Ireland So did Edward 4 annis 4. 7. 12. And Henry 7. anno 2. resumed all grants made by Edward 4. or Richard 3. Particular by Lones Or Benevolences Voluntary Or Compulsive First upon Lones voluntary as upon assurance of Bond of the Nobility So was William de la Poole bound for Edward 3. anno 13. in great summes and the. Duke of Glocester anno 20. Henry 6. and the Cardinal pawned Ws silver Vessels for Henry 6. debt Vpon pawn of Jewels Thus did Henry 3. anno 26. to the Archbishop of York and when his own were at gage he took Aurum et Jocalia faeretri sancti Edwardi Confessor and pawned them Edward 1. imployed one Andevar ad jocalia sua impignoranda Edward 2. pawned his Jewels to the Lord Beaumont Edward 3. pawned Magnam Coronam Angliae to Sir John Wessingham for 8. years Richard 2. pawned vasa aurea et diversa jocalia to Sir Robert Knolls Henry 4. Invadiavit tabellam et tresellas suas argenteas de Hispania Henry 5. pawned his great Crown to the rich Bishop of Winchester Henry 6. to the same man then Cardinal pawned many parcels of his Jewels in the 10 12. and 29. of his reign and the like to many others And the late Queen to ease her people did the like with her Jewels in the Tower besides the often morgage of her land Lones voluntary upon Assignments of Customes and Subsidies So did Cardinal Beauford lend 10000. l. to Henry 6. anno 22. upon security of the Customes of London and Southampton the King indenting to turn the course of most trade thither And Henry 6. anno 15. and Edward 4. anno 12. did secure their debts by assignment over of the next Subsidie or aide that shall be granted from the Church or Laity to them being a devise in truth to draw on a supply the sooner from the State Lones voluntary upon the Great Seal or the Privy Seal The Great Seal under which they should have without paying Fee a Patent sealed for repayment of their dues by a day certain The Privy Seal which is of late the most in use and it is worthy of observation to see the willingness of former times in respect of these In the 13. of Henry 4. there is a Roll intituled les nomes de ceux que ont da prester an Roy les somnes escrits The Arch-bishop of Canterbury lent 1000. Marks the Bishop of Lincoln as much the Bishop of Norwich 600. l. the Bishop of London 500. Markes the Bishop of Bath 400 Marks the Lord Privy Seal 200. l. the Clerks of the Chancery 1000. Markes Particular Grants of the Subject by Lone compulsive So were the Merchants of Florence Venice and Luke compelled by an order in Councel 3 Henry 3. because they had by grace et sufferance du Roy graunts priviledges et reportants grand lucre pour le exercise de leur Merchandre en le Angle terre And the persons that refused to lend were committed to the Fleet neither were the English more free in anno 30. Henry 6. divers being enjoyned to attend the Councel-table or else to pay the demanded Lone In the time of Henry 8. anno 14. of his Reign he exacteth by way of Lone ten pounds in the hundred of all goods jewels utensils and land and according to the extreamest rate revealed by Oath of the possessors Notwithstanding there is a Law 2. Richard 2. that none shall be denyed in demand of any Lone his reasonable excuse Particular Grants of the subjects by contribution or Benevolent gifts These were of old usual and free and therefore called Liberalitas populi by Richard 1. and Curialitas by Ed 1. Ed. 3. Henry 4. and Henry 5. confessed to proceed ex spontane voluntate nec de jure vendicare potest Yet did Henry 6. anno 20. in an instruction to Commissioners imployed in procuring a Benevolence say that for so much as by the Law he might compel all his Subjects and at their own charge to attend his yet he was contented to spare such as would but contribute asmuch after his degree and reputation as two days in his personal service would stand him in thereby implying a necessity in them to give to escape a further expence This Law upon which Henry 6 grounded himselfa was by a Statute in Queen Maries time repealed And that since repealed this last year hath made are reviving of the former whereby the King is readmitted into his old advantages and the subject in the former mischief And Henry 8. anno 17. Although he entituleth the benevolence he sought with no other stile then an amicable grant yet he threatened the refusers with convention before his Councel imprisonment and confiscation of Goods THe Kings raise money and improve and revenues of the Crown By power absolute in the Soveraign in disposing 1. Lands 2. Merchandize 3. Regalities 1. Lands as by selling which hath been often the old if they were not of the Antient demeasne-land which our forefathers held impious to alienate from the Crown and those were such Lands as go under the title of Terra Regis in the Book of Domesday and were the Lands of Edward confessor of other Lands I never observed question neither do ever find that Acts of Resumptions ever reached to Lands that were sold for valuable consideration By passing in Fee-farm except places of the Kings Residence Parks spacious Wastes or Forrests all the Lands of the the Crown which remain either in the annexation custody lands or Queens jointure and exceed not yearly 32000. l. These although largely estated out in several natures some for lives some for years will one with the other be advanced to a treble rent which amounting to 96000. l. leaving an annual improvement of 64000. And if the offer be not made restrictive for the new Tenant there is no doubt but his Majesty shall find ready and hearty undertakers amongst the Gentry and Nobility too who have any place of Residence neer any his Majesties Mannors and the Kings security the better since their abilities will settle the Pre-farm rent upon more Land then the purchase If any shall object against this a loss by Fines and Profits of Courts a prejudice in not serving necessity as of late by sales or diminution of Regalities in seisure of so many Royalities It may be answered to the first that the casual profits of Courts never defrayed to the present Officers their fees and expences and this appeareth from a collection made the 44. year of the late Queen where the total issue of such certain charge exceeded the receipt of such chances above 8000. l. To the
Parliament a solemne protestation for himself and the whole Clergie of his Province entered by word the effect whereof was That albeit they might lawfully be present in all Parliaments yet for that in those Parliament matters of treason were to be intreated of whereas by the Canon law they ought not to be present they therefore absented themselves saving their liberties therein otherwise And in the 21. of Richard the 2. for that divers judgements were heretofore undon for that the Clergie were not present the commons prayed the King that the Clergie would appoint some to be their common Proctor with sufficient authority thereunto The Bishops and Clergie therefore being severally examined appointed Sir Thomas Piercy their Proctor to assent as by their Instruments appeareth And the same year upon the devise of Sir Thomas Bussey most of the Bishops and Lords were sworne before the King again upon the Cross of Canterbury to repeal nothing in this year enacted So did sundry the Proctors of the Clergy and most of the Commons by holding up one of their hands affirmed that they the same would do In the judgement of the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Warwick the same year the name and assent of the Procurator of the Clergy alleadged And in the first of Henry 4. the Bishop of Assaph for Arch-bishop and Bishops the Abbot of Glassenbury for all Religious Persons the Earl of Gloucester for Dukes and Earls the Lord of Barkley for Barons and Barronets Sir Thomas Irpingham Chamberlain for Batchelors and Commons of the South Sir Thomas Gray for Batchelors and Commons of the North Sir William Thirming and John Mekham Justices for the whole Estates came to the Tower to King Richard to whom Sir William Thirming for and in the name of them all pronounced the sentence of deposition and the words or resignation of homage and loyalty And when it was enacted anno 6. Henry 6. by the King Lords Temporal and Commons that no man should contract or marry himself to any Queen of England without the special licence and assent of the King on pain to lose all his Goods and Lands The Bishops and all the Clergie to this Bill assented so far as it was not against the Law of God And thus far for answer to the second part The third Reason Ecclesiastical Lawes enacted in Parliament The last which they granted from Presidents Parliaments since the Conquest they infer out of the Phrase and out of the practise The first by these words Rex Wintoniae celebravit magnum Concilium coram Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus mistaking the word as intending a Provincial Synod whereas it was in those dayes equal and usual for their Parliament that French Phrase never having admission in that sence here untill the time of Henry 2. and then but rarely That great assembly being formerly instiled Magnum Consilium and until of late often enjoyed the same name And this is evident out of the words of Benedictus Abbas in the life he wrote of the 2. 2. Henry Circa festum sancti Pauli venit Dominus Rex usque Northampton magnum ibi celebravit Consilium de Statutis Regni sui coram Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus terrae suae per Consilium Militum hominum suorum Here the intent manifesteth the nature of that assembly and the fuller in that the same Author in the same year saith that Richardus Cantuar. Archiepiscopus and Rogerus Eboracensis cum Sufraganeis suis congregatis apud Westmonasterium in Capella Monachorum infirmiorum tenuerunt Consilium or their convocation which had been needless if in their first they might have done their Church-affaires Here might I enter into a large and just discourse as well of the authority as antiquity of their Convocation or Synod Provincial no less antient as Beda mentioneth then in the year 686. when Austin adjutorio Regis c. assembled in Councel the Brittain Bishops from which unto this day there is successive Record of Councels or Convocations less interrupted then of Parliament Practice Now touching our practise to ordain in Parliaments Lawes Ecclesiastical either meer or mixt although it be by Record evident yet must it admit this difference First that it sprung not from our dispute or desire but solely from the Petitions of the Church as usual is in all the Rolls of Parliament receiving their distinct Title from those of the Commons And this they did to adde Seculare Brachium to their former Cannons too weak to reach to corporal punishments as in the fifth of Richard 2. when to suppress the Schismes the Clergy became in Parliament the Petitioners to the Kings Laity where these words of their assistance are excluding the Commons from any Power of advice Habita prius bona matura deliberatione de communi Consilio ipsius Archiepiscopi Suffraganeorum suorum aliorumque Clericorum super quo idem Archiepiscopus supplicavit ut pro debita castigatione illorum qui conclusiones Schismaticas praedicare voluerint animo obstinato dignaremur apponere brachium Regiae potestatis â—idem And this aide was in order in the Conquerors time who by edict commanded that every Marshal Episcope Deo faceret rectum secundum Canones Episcopales leges Which if he doth not after excommunication Fortitudo et Justitia Regis adhibeatur And this even in the Primitive Church was thought convenient because as Saint Ambrose saith for the like intent to the Emperor Valentinian Non tantas vires sermo mecus habiturus est pro Trinitate bellum gerens quantum edictum tuum Hence it is that at this day the King's authority is annexed ever to the Convocation as in the antient Church were the like decrees of Kings as those of Eruigius ratifying the twelfth Councel of Toledo Nemo illiciator vel contemptor vigorem his Institutionibus subtrahat sed generaliter per cunctas Regni nostri provincias hoec Canonum instituta nostrae gloriae temporibus acta et autoritatis debitae fastigia praepollebunt irrevocabili judiciorum exercitie prout constituta sunt in omnibus Regni nostri Provinciis celebres habebuntur Si quis autem haec instituta contemnat contemptor se noverit damnari sententia Id est ut juxta voluntatem nostrae gloriae et excommunicatas à nostro caetâ—resiliat in super decimam partem facultatis suaefisci partibus sociandam amittat But that the Church-laws ever moved from the Lay-members I take it as far from President as it is besides nhe nature of their Commission The Bishops and Clergy being onely called in the Writ to that service the word being to come in fide delectione ad declarandum Consilium avisamentum ad consentiendum iis quae tunc de avisamento assensu Cleri nostri and not the Commons cotigerit affirmari But if any shall object unto me that many Laws as that of the Supremacy
instructions warrant to restore that right again to the Imperial Throne Charls will follow him from Barcellona with an Army but before he must call a Parliament at Toledo whether by election or affection I dare not divine that Assembly maketh Protestation against their Masters Marriage with England and assign him Isabella of Portugal for a wife the Instruments are sent signed by the Imperial Notary to Henry the 8th And Charls bemoneth the streight he is forced into by them but before all this he had wrought from Rome a Dispensation for his former out-hand Marriage sending not long after Gonzado Ferdinando his Chaplain to invite the Earl of Desmon to rebell in Ireland And to invite James the First by promise of a Marriage to Christian of Denmarks Daughter his Neece to enter the English Borders to busie the English King for asking a strict accompt of that indignity Henry the 8th with Providence and good success over-wrought these dangers and by the League of Italy he forced him to moderate Conditions at the Treaty of Cambray 1529. He being made Caput foederis against the Emperour I may end your Honours trouble with this one Example and with humble prayers That the Catholique may have so much of Princely sincerity as not to intend the like or my good gracious Master a jealous vigilancy to prevent it if it should c. THAT THE SOVERAIGNS PERSON is Required in the Great COUNCELLS OR ASSEMBLIES OF THE STATE As well at the Consultations as at the Couclusions Written by Sir Robert Cotton Knight and Baronet LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. THAT THE SOVERAIGNS PERSON is Required in the Great COUNSELS OR ASSEMBLIES OF THE STATE c. SInce of these Assemblies few Diaries or exact Journal Books are remaining and those but of late and negligently entred the Acts and Ordinances only reported to Posterity are the Rolls this question though clear in general reason and conveniency must be wrought for the particular out of such incident proofs as the Monument of Story and records by pieces leave us And to deduct it the dearer down some essential circumstances of name time place occasion and persons must be in a general shortly touched before the force of particular proofs be laid down This noble body of the State now called the houses in Parliament is known in several ages by several names Consilia the Counsels in the old times after Magnum Commune and Generale Consilium Curia Magna capitalis and Curia Regis sometimes Generale Placitum and sometimes Synodi and Synodalia decreta although aswell the causes of the Common-wealth as Church were there decided The name of Parliament except in the Abbots Chapters not ever heard of until the raign of King John and then but rarely At the Kings Court were these Conventions usually and the Presence Privy Chamber or other room convenient for the King in former times as now then used for what is the presenst House of Lords but so as at this time and was before the fyring of the Pallace at Westminster about the seventeenth of Henry the eighth who then and there recided Improbable it is to believe the King was excluded his own Privie Chamber and unmannerly for guests to barre him the company who gave to them their entertainment It was at first as now Edicto Principis at the Kings pleasure Towards the end of the Saxons and in the first time of the Norman Kings it stood in Custome-Grace to Easter Whitsontide and Christmas fixed The Bishops Earls and Lords Ex more then Assembled so are the frequent words in all the Annalls the King of course then revested with his imperial Crown by the Bishops and Peers assembling in recognition of their pre-obliged faith and present service until the unsafe time of King John by over-potent and popular Lords gave discontinuance to this constant grace of Kings and then it returned to the uncertain pleasure of the Soveraigns summons The causes then as now of such Assemblies were provisions for the support of the State in Men and Money well ordering of the Church and Common wealth and determining of such causes which ordinary Courts nesciebant judicare as Glanvill the grand judge under Henry the second saith where the presence of the King was still required it being otherwise absurd to make the King assentor to the Judgments of Parliament and afford him no part in the consultation The necessity thereof is well and fully deduced unto us in a reverent monument not far from that grave mans time in these words Rex tenetur omni modo personaliter interesse Parliamento nisi per Corporalem agritudinem detineatur Then to acquaint the Parliament of such occasion of either house Causa est quod solebat Clamor Murmur esse pro absentia Regis quia res damnosa periculosa est toto Communitati Parliamenti Regni cum Rex à Parliamento absens fuerit Nec se absentare debet nec potest nisi duntaxat in Causa supradicta By this appeareth the desire of the State to have the Kings presence in these great Counsels by express necessity I will now endeavour to lead the practise of it from the dark and eldest times to these no less neglected of ours From the year 720. to neer 900. during all the Heptarchy in all the Councels remaining composed Ex Episcopis Abbatibus Ducibus satrapis omni dignitate optimatibus Ecclesiasticis scilicet secularibus personis pro utilitate Ecclesiae stabilitate Regni pertractand Seven of them are Rege praecedente and but one by deputy and incongruous it were and almost non-sence to bar his presence that is president of such an Assembly The Saxon Monarchy under Alfred Ethelred and Edgar in their Synods or Placita generalia went in the same practise and since Thus Ethelwald appealed against Earl Leofrick From the County and generale Placitum before King Ethelred and Edgira the Queen against Earl Goda to Eldred the King at London Congregatis Principibus sapientibus Angliae In the year 1502. under Edward the Confessor Statutum est placitum magnum extra Londinum quod Normanni ex Francorum consuetud Parliamentum appellant where the King and all his Barons appealed Goodwin for his Brother Alureds death the Earl denyed it and the King replyed thus My Lords you that are my liege men Earls and Barons of the Land here Assembled together have heard my Appeal and his Answer unto you be it left to do right betwixt us At the great Councel at Westminster 1072. in Easter week the cause of the two Archbishops Lanfrank and Thomas ventilata fuit in praesentia Regis Willielm And after at Winsor finem accepit in proesentia Regis At the same feast in the year 1081. the usual time of such Assemblies the King the Archbishops Bishops
Abbots Earls and chief Nobility of the Kingdom present for so are the words of the Records the cause between Arsast Bishop of Norway and Baldwyne Abbot of Bury was also argued Et ventilata in publica jubet Rex teneri Judicium Causis auditis Amhorum The diligence of his Son the Learned Henry the first in executing of this part of his kingly function is commended to posterity by Walter Mape a Learned man trained up and in favour with Henry the second in these words Omnia Regali more moderamine faciebat neminem volebat agere justitia vel pace Constituerat autem ad tranquilitatem omnium ut diebus vacationis vel in domo magna subsidio copiam sui faceret usque ad horam sextam which was till twelve as we now accompt secum habens Comites Baronet Proceres Vavasores to hear and determine causes whereby he attained the surname of Leo Justitiae in all stories and so out-went in quiet guidance of the State his best progenitors The next of his name that succeeded is remembred every where for his debates and his disputes he had in person with Thomas the Archbishop and others of his part at the great Counsels both at London Clarendon and Northampton for redress of the many complaints of the Commons against the outrages and extortions of the Clergy one thousand five hundred and fifty seven Die Penticostis apud sanctum Edmundum the same King Diademate Insignitus with the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons of the Kingdome sate daily himself and heard all the debates concerning the Liberties and Charters of Battle Abbey The interlocutory Speeches as well of the King as Lords and parties are at full related in a Register of that Church The sute between the Church of Lincolne and Saint Albanes in praesentia Regis Henry Archepiscop Episcop omnium Angliae Comitum Baronum Regni was at Westminster debated and ended And had alone of memory and truth been a protector of the publick Records of the State as awe of the Clergies sensure was a guard to theirs in tempestuous times we had not been now left to the only friendship of Monkes diligence for example in this kind At Lincolne the Archbishops some Bishops but all the Earles and Barons of the Realme una Cum Rege Johanne Congregati ad colloquium de concordia Regis Scotiae saith the Register of that Church This use under King Henry the third needeth no further proofe than the Writ of summons then framed expressing that Kings mind and practise It is Nobiscum Praelatis Magnatibus nostris quos vocari fecimus super praemissis tractare Consilium impendere which word Nobiscum implieth plainely the Kings presence what the succeeding practise was from the fifteenth year of the second Edward the proper Records of this inquiry the Journall Books being lost I am enforced to draw from out the Rolls of Acts wherein sometimes by chance they are remembred Edward the second was present in Parliament in the fifteenth year of his Raigne at the complaint against the Spencers and at the second Parliament that year for the repeale of that banishment In the fourth of Edward the third the King was present at the accusation of Roger Mortimer but not at the Tryall And the next year in the treaty of the French affaires In the sixth year Intererat Rex in Causa Johannis de Gray Willielmi de Zous The same year the second day in Parliament the King was present at the debate about his Voyage into Scotland In the fifteenth year the King in the Painted Chamber sitting with the Lords in consultation the Archbishop after pardon prayed that for better clearing himself he might be tryed in full Parliament by his Peers which was granted In the seventeenth in Camera Alba now the Court of requests Rex cum magnatibus conveniunt Communes super negotiis Regni In the tenth of Richard the second the King departed from the Parliament in some discontent when after some time Lords are sent to pray his presence and informe his Majesty that if he forbear his presence amongst them fourty dayes that then Ex antiquo Statuto they may returne absque doâ—igerio Regis to their severall homes Henry the fourth began his first Parliament the first of November and was the twenty seventh of the same moneth at a debate about the Duke of Brittany the thirtieth day the Cause of the Archbishop of Canterbury was before him proposed only The third of November he was at the debate whether the Commons had right of Judicature yea or no. On the tenth he was with the Lords in their consultation about the expedition against the Scots the creation of the Duke of Lancaster and prohibition of a new sect for entring his Kingdom Some Ordinances were at this time consulted of before him about the staple and the sentence against Haxey after dispute revoked This King began his second Parliament the twentieth of January and on the ninth of February was present to make agreement betwixt the Bishop of Norwich and Thomas of Erpingham On the twentieth day of the same moneth he was present at Counsell for repressing the Welch Rebells for revocation of stipends and concerning the Priors Aliens On the 26. they advise before the King of the Cistertians order On the second of March of the Statute of Provisions the Keeper of the privy Seal of relieving the two Universities And on the ninth of March they mediate before the King a reconciliation betwixt the Earl of Rutland and the Lord Fitzwater He also began a Parliament in the fifth year upon the fifteenth of January and on the twentieth they advise before the King of guarding the Seas and the Welsh rebellion On the eighth of February the Earl of Northumberland is charged before the King and in his presence and by his permission divers of whom he knew no harme were removed from the Court. The next day at the Petition of the Commons he took upon him to reconcile the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland And on the two and twentieth of February of the Earles of Northumberland and Dunbarre In a Parliament of 27 of Hen. the 6. a Challenge of seate in Parliament betwixt the Earles of Arundell and Devonshire was examined and appointed by the KING with the advice of the Lords In that great capitall cause of the Duke of Suffolke the 28 of Hen. 6. I finde not the King once present at the debates but the Duke appealing from his tryall by Peerage to the King is brought from out of the house of Lords to a private Chamber where the King after the Chancellor in gross had declared his offence and his refusall the King himself but not in place of judgement adjudged his banishment By the Rolls of Edward the fourth it appeareth that he was many dayes
but his Officers and some few excepted to carry any Sword or long Bastard under pain of forfeiture and Imprisonment The same King in the 19th of his raign and upon the Marriage with the French Kings daughter commanded by Proclamation Ne quis Miles Armiger seu alius Ligeus aut Subditus suus cujuscunque status aliquem Francigenam seu quemcunque alium qui de potestate obedientia regis existerit Vpon what pretence soever ad aliqua facta Guerâ—â—rum seu actus armorum exigat sub forisfactura ominum quae Regi forisfacere poterit And as in the Kings power it hath ever rested no forbid Combates so it hath been to determine and take them up Thus did R. 2. in that so memorable quarrel between Mowbray and Hereford by exiling them both And when Sir John de Anestie and Tho. de Chatterton were ready to fight candem quaerelam Rex in manum suam recepit saith the Record And De mandato Regis direptum est praelium inter Johannem Bolmer Bartramum de Vesana in the time of Henry the fourth Sir John Fitz-Thomas being produced before the Earl of Glocester Deputy of Ireland and there Challenged by Sir William deVessy to have done him wrong in reporting to the King that Sir William aforesaid should have spoken against the King defamatory words of which Sir John there presented a Schedule Willielmus audito tenore Schedulae praedictae dementitus est praedictum Johannem dicendo mentitus est tanquam falsus proditor denegavit omnia sibi imposita tradidit vadium in manum Justiciarij qui illud ad misit Et Praedictus Johannes advocavit omnia dementitus est simil dictum Willielm Whereupon the Combat was granted and the time and place inrolled but the Process was adjourned into England before the King who with his Counsell examining the whole proceeding and that Quia Willielmus attachiatus fuit ad respondend Johanni praedicto super diffamatione principaliter non sit citatus in Regno isto placitare in Curia Regis placita de diffamationibus aut inter partes aliquas Duellum concedere in placitis de quibus cognitio ad curiam Regis non pertinet And for that the Judge vadia praedictorum Johannis Willielmi cepit priusquam Duellum inter eos consideratum adjudicatum fuit quod omnino contra legem est consuetudinem Regni Therefore per ipsum Regem Concilium concordatum est quod processus totaliter adnulletur And that the said John and Willlam eant inde sine die salva utrique eorum actione sua si alias de aliquo in proedicto processu contento loqui voluerint In a Combat granted in a Writ of right Philip de Pugill one of the Champions oppressus multitudine hominum se defendere non potuit Whereupon the People against him in perpetuam defamationem suam in eodem Duello Creantiam proclamabant which the King understanding Assensu Concilii statuit quod praedict Philippus propter Creantiam praedict liberam legem non omittat sed omnibus liberis actibus gauderet sicut ante Duellum gaudere consuevit What penalty they have incurred that without law or license have attempted the practise of Arms or their own Revenge may somewhat appear by these few Records following William Earl of Albemarle was Excommunicated Pro Torniamento tento contra praeceptum Regis To which agreeth at this day for the Duell the Councel of Trent and that held at Biturio in Anno 1584. John Warren Earl of Surrey was fined at a thousand marks pro quadam transgressione in insultu facto in Alanum de la Zouch Talbois was committed to the Tower for attempting to have slain the Lord Cromwell And because Robertus Garvois insultum fecit percussit Edwardum filium Williel mi inquisitio facta est de omnibus tenementis catallis praedicti Roberti Edw. Dallingrige accused by Sir John St. Leger before the Kings Justices Prâ— venatione aliis transgressionibus answered that these accusations were false and threw down his Glove and challenged disrationare materias praedictas versuâ— praedictum Johannem per Duellum Sed quis contra legem terrae vadiavit inde Duellum he was committed to Prison quousque satisfaceret Domino Regi pro contemptu Sir Nicholas de Segrave a Baron Challenged Sir John de Cromwell and contrary to the Kings prohibition because he could not fight with him in England dared him to come and defend himself in France therein as the Record saith subjecting as much as in him lay the Realm of England to the Realm of France being stayed in his passage at Dover was committed to the Castle brought after to the Kings Bench and there arraigned before the Lords confesled his fault submitted himself to the King de alto basso Wherefore judgement is given in these words Et super hoc Dominus Rex volens habere avisamentum Comitum Baronum Magnatum aliorum de consilio suo injunxit eisdem in homagio fidelitate ligeantia quibus ei tenentur quod ipsi considerent quails poena pro tali facto fuerit infligenda Qui omnes habito super hoc consilio dicunt quod hujusmodi factum moeretur poenam amisionis vitae Whereupon he was committed to the Tower Ro. Archerd that attended him into France was committed to prison arraigned fined at 200 marks In the end aftermuch intercession the L. Segrave was pardoned by the King but could not obtain his liberty until he had put in security for his good behaviour But this course holdeth proportion with an ancient law made by Lotharius the Emperor in these words De hiis qui discordiis contentionibus studere solent in pace vivere noluerint inde convicti fuerint similiter volumus ut per fidejussores ad nostrum Palatium veniant ibi cum nostris fidelibus considerâ—bimus quid de talibus hominibus faciendum sit A BREIF ABSTRACT Of the Question of PRECEDENCIE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAINE Occasioned by Sir Henry Nevill The Queen of Englands Ambassador and the Ambassador of Spain at Calais Commissioners appointed by the French King who had moved a Treaty of Peace in the 42. year of the same QUEEN Collected by Robert Cotton Esquire at the commandment of her Majesty Anno Domini 1651. LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. A BRIEF ABSTRACT ACT Of the Question of Precedency between England and Spain c. Precedency of the King in respect of place Antiquity as a Kingdom or a Christian Kingdom or Eminency of the Throne Royal or person Nobility of bloud or Antiquity of Government Precedencie of England in respect of the Antiquity of the Kingdome TO seek before the decay of the Roman Empire the antiquity of any Kingdome is meer vanity when as the Kingdomes of Christendome now in being had their rising from the fall thereof at which
the short account yielded the King of such Ecclesistiacal tenths and duties as were often or Annually paid unto the Pope in former times and now by Statute invested in the Crown for in former times the See of Rome received them not as only out of the meer Spiritualities but also from out of all the Temporalities of Spiritual persons which Land being now divided from the Church into the hands of the Laity yet ought they to pay this duty since they were settled in the Crown by a former Law and no subsequent ever hath discharged them AN ANSVVER TO CERTAIN ARGUMENTS Raised from Supposed Antiquity And urged by some MEMBERS of the lower HOUSE of PARLIAMENT To prove that Ecclesiastical Laws Ought to be Enacted by Temporal Men. Written by Sir ROB. COTTON Knight and Barronet LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. AN ANSVVER TO CERTAIN ARGUMENTS Raised from Supposed Antiquity And urged by some Members of the Lower House of PARLIAMENT To Prove that Ecclesiastical Lawes Ought to be Enacted by Temporal Men. WHat besides self-regard or siding faction hath been the main reason of the lower Lay-house labour in Parliament to deal with Lawes of the Church the milder Members have yielded a Right which they would maintain by former Presidents raising the same from 1. Primitive use 2. Middle practise 3. Interrupted continuance Professing the same by the Laws of 1. The Roman Empire 2. The Saxon Kings 3. The English Parliaments so to do Which since it may raise a prejudice to the Church's peace or to the Soveraign's power unopposed I will make way in a word or two to the better answer of some other Pen. What they say is not to be denied that in course of civil Laws under the Christian Emperours there be often constitutions Ecclesiastical and in the Councels of the Church frequent the Soveraign's power and sometimes the presence of lay-Ministers yet may their assertion admit to the first this answer of Justinian Principes Sapientes Episcoporum monita pro fide Religione Christiana Leges Synodicis Canonibus conformes edidere recte judicantes Sacerdotum Sanctiones merito Majestatis Regiae nuturoborari So that those decrees of the Civil Lawes will prove but confirmative of former Canons as may be gathered by that of Volentinian and Martian Emperours who wrote unto Paladius their Praefectus Pratorii that all constitutions that were against the Canon of the Church should stand void And to the second that their presence was to dignifie and not to dispute the direction proveth that the Emperor Theodosius gave to Candidianus an Earl by him to the Ephesian Councel sent Non ut Quaestiones seu Expositiones communicaret cum sit illicitum quia non fit in ordine sanctissimorum Episcoporum Ecclesiasticis tractatibus intermisceri And Valentinian the elder though petitioned by the Bishops to be present at their Synod said Sebi qui unus e Laicorum numero esset non licere hujusmodi negotiis se interponere And by the Council of Carth. and Affrican likewise it appeared that even Princes would intermeddle with these matters but Saepius rogati ab Episcopis And the Emperor Gratian taught as Zozimus saith Omnes Laicos nihil potestatis inres Ecclesiasticas posse sibi vindicare And the former Emperor enacted In causa Ecclesiastici alicujus ordinis cum judicare debere qui nec manere impar est nec jure dissimilis Sacerdotes de Sacerdotibus judicare According to that Saying of Constantine the Great Vos enim a Deo nobis dati estis Dii conveniens non est ut homo judicet Deos. Thus then stood the practice of the primitive Church which when it was in those times otherwise as under Constantius the Arrian Athanas saith of him Haereseos veneno imbutos milites Sicarios Eunuchos Comites faciebat Sacerd. Judices cogebat umbratiles Synodas quibus ipse cum monstris illis praesiperet Whereas otherwise that Emperor even in the height of Pagan Greatness ascribed to their Pontifices and Sacerdotes in Common Right Propter Religionem comitia habere propria and that Stabili Sententiâ rarum erat quod tres Pontifices communi decreto statuissent The second Objection Ecclesiastical Laws enacted in Parliament To the second as it is in the former true that many Canons of the Church are interlaced with the Common-wealths although the Saxon Laws and that the establishment should be by Parliament which they infer out of the Frontispian of Inas Statutes in these words Ego Inae Rex ex tractatione Episcoporum et omnium Aldermannorum meorum seniorum sapientu◠Regni mei confirmatione Populi mei do ordain c. Yet may receive this answer First that the Commons did but confirm and not dispute which to this day is in their summons comprized only ad consuet udinen But whosoever shall collate the transcript copy with the original called Textus Roffensis will find these ordinances not called Leges but Synodalia and almost all by the King and Church-men onely made Neither was it new in this Isle that Priests directed alone the government when as the best Record of our eldest memory saith that the Druides a religious Pagan order not only divinis intersunt Religiones interpretantur but de omnibus as Caesar saith controversis publicis privatisque confirment sive de heridet amento sive de finibus praemia paenas constituunt And if any sive privatus aut populus decreto eorū non stererit sacrificiis interdicunt And this excommunication amongst them was paena gravissima Neither did the times of Christianity here bereave the Church of all such will For in the Saxon time they intermedled in the framing of the Temporal Lawes and ought as appeareth by an Ordinance of that time de Officiis Episcopi Cum seculi judicibus interesse ne permittent si possint ut illinc aliqua pravitatum germina pullulaverint And surely since these time until of late the inferiour Ministers of the Church aswel as Bishops had suffrage in Parliament For John de Rupescissa a story as old as King John's time saith Anno 1210. Convocatum est Parliamentum Londoniae Presidente Archiepiscopo cum toto Clero tota secta Laicali And in the 8. of Edward the 3. the Members of Parliament defective in their appearance the King chargeth the Arch-bishop to punish the defaults of the Clergie as he would the like touching the Lords and Commons And in third of Richard the second against a Petition in Parliament contradicting Provisions the Prelates and whole Clergy make their protestations And to a demand of the Lay-Commons for the King's aide the year following the whole Clergy answered that they used not to grant any but of their free will And in the eleventh of the same King the Archbishop of Canterbury made openly in
entaile of the Crown by King Henry 4. in the 8. year of his Reign for all the Commons The Banishment of the two Spencers in 15. E. 2. Praelati Comites Barones les autres Peeres de la terre Commons de Roialme give Consent and Sentence to the Revocation and Reversement of the former Sentence the Lords and Commons accord and so it is expressed in the Roll. In the first of Edward the third when Elizabeth the Widdow of Sir John de Burgo Complained in Parliament that Hugh Spencer the younger Robert Baldock and William Cliffe his Instruments had by duress forced her to make a writing to the King whereby she was dispoiled of all her inheritance Sentence was given for her in these words Pur ceo que avis est al Evesques Counts Barones autres Grandes a tout Cominalte de la terre que le dit escript est fait contre ley tout manere de raison si fuist le dit escript per agard delparliam dampue elloques al livre ala dit Eliz. In the 4th of Edward 3. it appears by a Letter to the Pope that to the Sentence given against the Earl of Kent the Commons were parties as well as the Lords and Peers for the King directed their proceedings in these words Comitibus Magnatibus Baronibus aliis de Communitate dicti Regni as Parliamentum illud congregates iuâ—unximus ut super his discernerent judicarent quod ratione justitiae conveniret habere prae oculis solum Deum qui cum concordi unaenimi sementia tanquam reum criminis laesoe majestatis morti abjudicarent ejus sententia c. When in the 50th of E. 3. the Lords had pronounced the Sentence against Richard Lyons otherwise than the Commons agreed they appealed to the King and had redress and the Sentence entred to their desires When in the first year of R. 2. William Weston and John Jennings were arraigned in Parliament for surrendring certain Forts of the Kings the Commons were parties to the Sentence against them given as appeareth by a Memorandum annexed to that Record In I H. 4. although the Commons refer by protestation the pronouncing the sentence of deposition against King Richard the Second unto the Lords yet are they equally interessed in it as appeareth by the Record for there are made Proctors or Commissioners for the whole Parliament one Bishop one Earl one Abbot one Barronet and Two Knights Gray and Erpingham for the Commons and to infer that because the Lords pronounced the sentence the point of Judgment should be only theirs were as absurd as to conclude that no authority was left in any other Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer than in the person of that man solely that speaketh the Sentence In the Second of Hen. the 5th the Petitions of the Commons importeth no less than a Right they had to act and assent to all things in Parliament and so it is Answered by the King And had not the Journal Roll of the Higher House been left to the sole entry of the Clerk of the upper house who either out of neglect to observe due form or out of purpose to obscure the Commons right and to flatter the power of those he immediately served there would have bin frequent examples of all times to clear this doubt and to preserve a just Interest to the Commonwealth And how conveniently it suits with Monarchy to maintain this form lest others of that well-framed body knit tinder one head should swell too great and monstrous it may be easily thought For Monarchy again may sooner groan under the weight of an Aristocracy as it once did then under a Democracy which it never yet either felt or feared R C B. FINIS Titus Livius 2. doc Livius Acta Triden Concil August de legibus Antiq. Roman Benedict in vita Hen. 2. Record in Scaccar Wâ—st Claus Edw. â— Lewes in the Paper Chart. 1523 William the Conqueror Malmsbury Ex lib. feod in Scacc. Hen. 1. Ex lib. pub in Scacc. Chron. de Dunstable Mat. Paris Benedictus Monachus in vita Hen. 2. Gervas Dorch Roger Wendâ—ver King John Claus 6 Iob. in 3. Dorso Petit. 18. Hen. 3. Claus 49. Hen. 3. in 11. Dors Edw. 1. Ex Rot. Parl. in Archivis London Claus 9. Edw. 1 in 12. Rot. Parl. Anno 7 Edw. 1. Claus 7 Edw. 1. in 3. Dors Claus 34. Ed. 1. in dors Edw. 2. Claus 1 Edw. 2. in 19. in dors Claus 6 Ed. 2. in 3. in dors Claus 8. in 3. in dors Claus 13 E. 2. in 13. in dors Claus 16. E. 2. in 27. in dors Ddw 3. Claus 1 Ed. 3. in dors Rot. Parl. 5 Edw. 3. Parl. 6 Ed. 3. Rot. Parl. 6 Ed. 3. Saff 2. in 6. Rot. Parl. 7 Ed. 3. Rot. Parl. 7 E. 3. Sess 2. Parl. 7 E. 3. in 6. Rot. Parl. 13 E. 3. Rot. Parl. 13 E. 3. Sess 2. Parl. 14. E. 3. Rot. Parl. 18 E. 3. Ro. Parl. 21 E. 3. Parl. 25 E. 3. Parl. 27 E. 3. Parl. 27 E. 3. Parl. 29 E. 3. Paâ—l 36 E. 3. Parl. 40 E. 3. King John Parl. 43 E. 3. Parl. 45 E. 3. Parl. 46 E. 3. Par. 50 Ed. 3. Rich. 2. Par. 1 Rich. 2. in 5 6. Parl. 1 Rich. 2 in 7. Parl. 3 Rich. 2. in 4. 5. Par. 4 Rich. 2. n 2 3. Parl. 5 Rich. 2. in 3. Parl. 5. Sess 2. Parl. 6. Rich. 2. Parl. 6 Sess 2. Par. 7 Rich. 2. Parl. 7 Sess 2. Par. 8 Rich. 2. Claus 9 Rie 2. Par. 10 Rich. 2. Parl. 13 Ric. 2. Rot. Claus 13. Ric. 2. Far. 14 Ric. 2. Parl. 17 Ri. 2. Henry 4. Parl. 5. Hen. 4. Parl. 6. Hen. 4. Parl. 7. 8. Hen. 4. in 19 20. Claus 7 H. 4. ln 33. In 57. In 59. Hen. 5. Parl. 1 Hen. 5. In 2. In 4. Parl. 2 Hen. 5. Parl. 3 Hen. 5. Parl. 4 5. Hen. 5. Parl. 5 Hen. 5. Parl. 7 Hen. 5. Hen. 6. Rot. Parl. 2 Hen. 6. Rot. Pa 3 H. 6. Rot. Pa. 9 H. 6. Rot. Parl. 14 Hon. 6. Rot. Parl. 15 Hen. 6. Parl. 20 H. 6. Parl. 23 H. 6. Rot. Parl. 25 Hen. 6. in 3. N. 6. Parl. 27 H. 6. Parl. 29 H. 6. Parl. 33 H. 6. Edward 4. Parl. 7. E. 4. Parl. 12 E. 4. Henry 7. Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. 7. Henry 8. Parl. 3 H 8. Rot. Parl 32. Hen. 8. Ex iustrumen Orig. Tractat. matrimonial 1510. Ex literis orig legator Ex tract Hen. 8. Maximilian 1511. Ex tract orig Ex tract orig Ex liiteris Ric. Pace Legat. Reg. Anglia Ex literis Car. Sedunensis Ex literis Carol Reg. Hisp Ex literis Car. Imperat. original Extract Wind. 1522. Ex instru orig jurament Ex literis Richardi â—ace lohannis Russel Ex tract Madristensi 526. Ex Rot. Com. Russel Pace Ex iustru orig Carol. 5. Ex instru H. 8. Bryano Gardinen Ex