Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A88918
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Match me these two: or The conviciton [sic] and arraignment of Britannicus and Lilburne. With an answer to a pamphlet, entituled, The parliament of ladies.
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1647
(1647)
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Wing M1077; Thomason E400_9; ESTC R201743
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8,685
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16
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Match me these two OR THE CONVICITON AND ARRAIGNMENT OF Britannicus and Lilburne WITH An Answer to a Pamphlet entituled THE Parliament of Ladies Printed in the Yeere 1647. The Conviction and Arraignment of Britannicus and Lilburne WITH An Answer to a Pampulet entituled The Parliament of Ladies THe well-affected party in and about the city of London finding by too common experience that the fames of divers upright and honest men were daily bespattered and the faithfulnesse of divers reall Patriots weekly calumniated by divers envious depravers and presumptuous over-weening Libellers to take away so great a reproach and for the future to impede the inevitable rents and distractions that would happen occasioned by these mens lying reports petitioned His Majesty that a body of learned men might be admitted to assemble together in a Court of Judicatory there to summon before them the chief broachers of vaine and altogether unsufferable leasings and that having examined them on strict interrogatories they might according to their deserts receive censure and suffer condigne punishment His Majesty cheerfully assenting these men were chosen as Members of the Court Philoparthen a Poet Sozimus a Lawyer Soranzo a Philosopher and Philo as Antiquary with divers others The Members being assembled they had some debate about choosing their Judge some pitched upon Bathillus but it was objected that his fancie was wholly taken up in compiling the third part of his Night-Search and that it was likely if his expression were to be measured with his muse he would bestow many houres in talke and yet utter but few words and therefore he was utterly uncapable of the place Then they thought of electing Mantuan but it was soone waved on consideration that he might be imployed in finishing his Pastoralls of Britannia and his Muse having hitherto but sung of Pan and of imaginarie Groves he could not be acquainted with a refined dialect At last they concluded that the golden-mouth'd Linus who had so sufficiently manifested his Oratory in his excellent Madagascar and his Albovine was the fittest man on earth to be their Judge and therefore they ordered that Catzius who had so profoundly shadowed himselfe in Emblems should be dispatched with Letters into France imploring Her Majesty of Great Britaine to part with her Poet one Moneth the time limited for the sitting of that Court. Her Majesty was graciously pleased to dismisse her beloved Bard who was as welcome to the Members of this imaginary Court as ever Apollo to the Heliconian Damsells he being invested on the Bench they ordained Catullus to be Clerk of the Assize John Taylor to be Doore-keeper and Martin Parker to be Subfizer and carry out the offall All things being conveniently disposed of meet for the effecting of those affaires ready to be taken into consideration the Court sate and first fell into debate what penalty ought to be inflicted on those that should derogate from the honour or cast aspersions on the names of any either noble or vertuous then Sozimus after a silence commanded began to say Sozimus his Speech Reverend Sirs IN this last and worst of ages time being growne sickly and humerous it is not sufficient that we have each man sharpened a sword to slay his brother and have tired our selves with destroying eveay man his friend but now wee set on foot a worser fiercer warre a warre of the pen every man that hath but sufficient ability to spell his owne name right and to subscribe to an acquittance summons his wits and hee will needs bee invective against some one and divulge his folly in print Divers wholsome Lawes have been enacted by our Predecessors to remedy this evill and to curbe the boldnesse of Libellers See the Lawes of King Alfred Chap. 28. where it is said that the Authour and spreader of false rumours among the people had his tongue cut out if hee redeemed it not with the price of his head And againe by the Statutes at Westminster first made 3 Edw. 1. c. 33. 2 Rich. 2. c. 5. 12 c. and Eliz. Chap. 7. which Statutes yet remaine in their full force and vertue it is enacted and strictly defended upon grievous pain that from henceforth none shall be so hardy as to contrive speak or set forth any false newes lies or tales of Prelates Earls Dukes Barons or great men of the Realme whereby debates discords or slanders may arise betweene the King his people and the Lords Nobles Commons to the ruine and quick destruction of the Realme if remedic were not provided and he that shall offend therein shall be kept in prison untill he brought him forth in Court that first did speak and report the same and if he cannot bring him forth then he shall be grievously punished according to the nature of the offence c. by which it appeareth how hainously our Ancestors the States of this Land in former time were offended with Slanderers and Libellers and what an infallible president we have before our eyes to prosecute with all vigour against the Revilers and Calumniators of our dayes Let us therefore with all convenient speed summon before us the persons of those the most notoriously known to be active in this kinde and proceed against them impartially handling them so severely that the after-times may wonder at the severity of our justice The Court allowed of Sozimus his Speech and ordered Catullus the Clerk of the Court the next day should exhibit a Bill including the names of the remarkable offenders in that kinde with the nature and quality of their crimes and so for that day adjourned their Court. Next day the Court met againe and the Judge received three Bills from the Clerks against Lilburne and the other against an Author then unknowne the Writer of a Pamphlet entituled The Parliament of Ladies the Court commanded them to be read and the Clerk began to read these ensuing Articles of high Treason drawn up against Britannicus Articles of high Treason charged on the exorbitant Reviler Britannicus 1. That hee the said Britannicus contrary to his Oath of Allegeance had proclaimed the King to have forfeited his power and that none ought to yeeld him subjection 2. That hee the said Britannicus vilified his Soveraignes wife mentioning her name in an unseemly and unruly Dialect 3. That he the said Britannicus had taken away the good names of many eminent and worthy persons and upon all occasions reviled abused and contemned many right honourable Personages of His Majesties Privy Counsell 4. That for many moneths he was a constant Shimei a Rabshekah and an Aretine and in some respects was as great an Incendiary as the most perverse and evill Counsellour about His Majesty After the Clerk proceeded and began to read the Articles drawne up against the obstinate and refractory Col. Iohn Lilburne 1 That he the said Iohn Lilburne advanced to a Commander from being a Servitor had not dealt so punctually nor mannaged his actions so faithfully as was requisite
for the attaining of those immunities for which he went forth as otherwise he might have done 2 That he the said Lievt Col. Lilburne according to his demerits justly shut up in prison ceased not continually to divulge Pamphlets and Papers of very dangerous and evill consequence and tending to steale away the hearts of the people from their Rulers and to make the high Court of Parliament as odible in their eyes as ever was the High Commission or Star-Chamber 3 That the said Col. Lilburne had revolted from his principles and of a seeming helper was become a furious demolisher and that he had showne himself a perfect temporizer 4. That he the said Col. Lilburne had assayed to eradicate even the very fundamentall Lawes of the Land to root out Monarchy and set up Anarchic as in his Free-mans Freedome vindicated pag. 11. where he desperately inveigheth against all power and authority what soever both divine and humane and therefore in so doing his fact was treasonable 5. That he the said Colonell Lilburne in a book intituled A Remonstrance of the free-borne people of England maintaineth a doctrine never before heard of which overturneth all Law and breaketh in pieces the sword of Justice and openeth a gap to all licentiousnesse exorbitancie and prophanenesse saying that the body of the People may do that of themselves which their Deputies Trustees Representators chosen ones doe for them onely for greater conveniency they depute them and they may go no further in any thing nor sit no longer nor dispose of any thing but according to their commission and power received from the represented and that the State universall the body of the common People is the earthly Soveraigne Lord King and Creator of the King Parliament all Officers Ministers of Justice underived Mejesty and Kingship inherently resides in the State universall the common People c. 6. That the said Col. Lilburne hath most traiterously and vilely spoken against the Kings Majesty in his late printed book called Regall Tyranny discovered as in Page 14. We may see he saith The office of a King is not in the least of Gods institution neither is it to be given to any upon earth And p. 56 57. he saith of the King in these words Charles Stuart hath committed Treason against the Kingdome of England c. and that he is guilty of all the innocent blood shed in England Scotland and Ireland since the Wars which is the blood of thousands for which if all the sons of men should be so base and wicked as not to doe their duty in executing justice upon him which legally may and ought to be done by those especially who have power and authority in their hands yet undoubtedly the righteous God will and I am confident in an exemplary manner in despight of all his wicked protectors and defenders 7. That the said Col. Lilburne now arrived at the height of impudence layeth the cause of the Parliament against the King in the one scale and the cause of the oppressed people of England enslaved by them in the other scale and censureth that the Commons of England are now more burthened by them then ere they divulged they were by the King and have the same and greater reasons to fight against them who have entred themselves into a conspiracie and are become a company of lawlesse unlimited unbounded men setters up of the highest Tyrannie that can be set up in the world who have no rule to walke by but their owne corrupted and bloody wills and are a company of devouring Lions ravening Wolves and crafty Foxes as pag. 7. of his last Book intituled Oathes unwarrantable 8. That he the said Col. Lilburne to the disgrace of Christianity and all inlightned men who know that they are forbidden to raile on those that are in authority no although their Government were vitious and tyrannicall according to the example of Saint Paul who excused himselfe when he had but in a slight manner something taunted Ananias hath avouched he will maintaine the Parliament to be degenerated into the most notorious pack of tyrants that ever in the world were assembled together since Adams Creation minding visibly nothing in the world but pleasure oppression cheating and cozening the whole Kingdome of its treasure and revenues trades lives bloods liberties and properties for which he censureth them to deserve nothing but to be pulled out by the eares and throwne out to the dunghill and be trodden under foot by all men c. as in his Book aforesaid pag. 38. 9. That he the said Col. Lilburne hath endeavoured to perswade the people the Parliament of England are no longer a Parliament and in his Book afore-mentioned pag. ibid. have forfeited their essence and absolutely nullified the end of their sitting and are from a company of faithfull Shepherds become a company of devouring Lions and rauenous Wolves and because they are so he adjudgeth them to be worried to death with mastiffe-dogs which alas cannot but be too weak to encounter them and that by them they should be worried and pulled in pieces The Court taking into consideration the substance and import of the several Articles Ordered the principal Heads of them to be drawn up and a Messenger to be dispatched with plenary power to bring the bodies of the three Libellers before-mentioned to answer each of their offences at their Bar the next ensuing day and so for that day adjourned The next day the Court being sate Britanicus and Lilburne were at hand to shew themselves but the Author of The Parliament of Ladies could not be found although diligent search was made for him The Messenger related to the Judge and the Judge to the Bench that they had brought the two Incendiaries Britanicus and Lilburne who were ready to attend at their Bar and that they had more to doe to bring Lilburne then to find Britanicus for the one alledged that it was a breach of Magna Charta for any free-man of England to render an account of his actions or to suffer punishment for any crime were it never so hainous and therefore they were inforced to ravish his person and bring him perforce before them That they found Britanicus in his bed in to deep a studie that at their approach he scarcely credited his eyes that they guessed by the papers which they then had seized on that he was deeply projecting how to find a clew which might guide him out of that labyrinth in which he had involved himselfe and that his papers imported that he had a purpose so he could slip his owne neck out of the coller to leave others therein though they were strangled to lay his guilt on them that had hired him to raâ—le and proclaime himselfe a transcedent Rebel a reviler of his Soveraigne for money The Judge then commanded Britanicus to be brought to the Bar and caused the Clerk of their Court to read his Charge upon which Philo thus inferred Behold the man before