of Laws but that he might get the more into his Snares and so have thereby the more plentiful incomes and fines for Dispensations and Condemnations And this take for the up-shot of this Dance for as the old Comedies used to end in Weddings so all the enterprises of the Pope ended in money Study of Ecclesiastical Laws corrupts Protestants Divers Weights and Measures Ad aliud Tribunal aliud Exmen alias Leges Circuit Subornation Perjury Interfering of Courts 4. The study of the Popish Canons corrupts the choicest Protestant Wits in their Education with Popish principles in which rest the whole hopes of the gains of their profession 5. They introduce divers Weights and divers Measures of justice in the same people 6. They compel the Subjects ad aliud Tribunal then Caesars Judgment Seat ad aliud examen then per legem Terrae ad aliud judicium then legale judicium parium 7. They cause endless Circuits of Action Delays and Costs Subornation and Perjury of Witnesses and grind the people between two Mill-stones of interfering Jurisdictions as appears in the Statute following The Recital of the Statute 9 H. 6.11 following concerning the contention of the Heirs of Edmund Earl of Kent in Parliament relating to a Marriage without a Priest and Temple ITem Whereas by a supplication delivered in this present Parliament by the Commons of the same it was declared by Margaret Dutchess of Clarence Joan Dutchess of York Sisters and amongst others Heirs to Edmund Earl of Kent Richard Duke of York Richard Earl of Salisbury and Alice his Wife Ralph Earl of Westmorland John Lord of Typtost and of Powis and Joyce his Wife and Henry Gray Cousins and other of the Heirs of the said Edmund late Earl as in the same supplication is supposed That is to say the said Duke Son to Ann Daughter of Eleanor another of the Sisters of the said Edmund the said Alice Daughter to Eleanor another Sister of the said Edmund the said Ralph Son to Elizabeth another Sister of the said Edmund the said Joyce Daughter to the said Eleanor Mother of Ann and the said Henry Gray Son to Joan Daughter of the same Eleanor That whereas Eleanor Wife to James Lord Audley pretending calling and affirming her self Daughter and Heir to the said Edmund late Earl of Kent and begotten and born in Marriage pretensed had betwixt him and Constance late Wife of Thomas Lord Dispenser whereby the said supplication is supposed That the said Eleanor Wife to the said James is Bastard and never was any Marriage made had nor solemnized betwixt the said Edmund and Constance but the said Edmund by the Ordinance Will and Agreement of King Henry the Fourth Grand-Father to our Lord the King that now is after great notable and long Ambassage had and sent to the Duke of Millain for a Marriage to be had betwixt the said Edmund and Luce Sister to the said Duke of Millain did take to Wife and openly and solemnly Married the said Luce at London The said Constance then living and being there present not claiming the said Edmund to be her Husband nor any other Dower of his Lands after his decease which Marriage betwixt the said Edmund and Luce so had and solemnized continued without any interruption of the said Constance or of any other during the life of the said Edmund as divers Lords and other credible and notable persons of the said Realm do well remember And how after the decease of the said Edmund the said Luce was endowed of his Lands as his Lawful Wife continuing thereof her Estate peaceably all her life Nevertheless the said Eleanor the Wife of James upon great subtilty and process imagined Privy-labour and other means and coloured ways to the intent that she ought to be certified Mulier by some Ordinary in case that Bastardy should be alledged in her person hath brought as it is said in examination before certain Iudges in the Spiritual-Court not informed nor having knowledge of the said Subtilty Imagined Process Privy-labour and coloured ways certain suborned proofs and persons of her Assent and Covin deposing for her That the said Eleanor the Wife of James was begotten within Marriage had and solemnized betwixt the said Edmund and Constance The said Dutchess the Duke of York and Earl of Salisbury and Alice Earl of Westmerland John Lord of Typtost Joyce and Henry nor any of them thereof warned nor knowing untill long time after the deposition so made whereof the said suppliants do fear them to be grieved and impeached of their Inheritance had by the said Edmund by another subtilty and labour in the Temporal Law to be practised and wrought by the said Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife As if they will commence any Action against any persons of their own assent and covin or otherwise will cause such persons of such assent and covin to pursue an Action against them as is supposed they intend to do in which action by the covin and assent aforesaid Bastardy ought to be alledged in the person of the said Eleanor Wife of James and thereupon by the assent and covin an Issue is to be taken and a Writ to be sent to some Ordinary where it please them not advertised of the said subtilty assent and covin to certifie if the said Eleanor the Wife of James be Mulier or not before which ordinary the same Eleanor Wife of James will alledge and prove her self Mulier by the said depositions of the said suborned Witnesses And then the party reputed as adversary against the Lord of Audley and Eleanor his Wife in the said action taken or to be taken by assent and covin aforesaid will alledge no proof nor matter nor make any defence before the Ordinary against the same Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife but suffer the matter before the said Ordinary to proceed according to the meaning of the said Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife So that it is very likely that the same Ordinary will certifie the said Eleanor the Wife of James Mulier which Certificate so had and made ought by the Law of England to disherit the said Dutchess Duke of York Earl of Salisbury Earl of Westmerland John Lord of Typtost Joyce and Henry and their Issue forever of the whole Inheritance aforesaid Whereupon the premises tenderly considered and to Eschew such subtil disherisons as well in the said Case as in other Cases like in time to come By the Advice and Assent of all the Lords Spiritual and also at the special Request of the said Commons in this present Parliament assembled It is Ordained and Established by Authority of this Parliament That if the said Eleanor the Wife of James be certified Mulier in any Court before this time that no manner of Certificate heretofore made for the said Eleanor Wife of James shall in anywise put to prejudice indamage nor conclude any person or persons but him or his Heirs that was party to the Plea And that from
the Servandes of the House or other famous Witnesse and sall execute their Offices and Charge and thereafter sall offer the Copie of the saidis Letters or Precept to ony of the Servands quhilk gif they refuse to do that they affix the samin upon the Èœett or Dure of the Persones Summoun'd and siklike gif they get na entress they first knockand at the Dure Sex Knockes they sall execute their Office before famous Witnesse at the said House and dwelling place and affix the Copie upon the Èœett or Dure thereof as said is quhilk sall be leiful and sufficient Summounding and delivering of the Copie and the Party and Officiar sall not be halden to give ony usher Copie bot at their awin pleasure And every Officiar in his Indorsation sall make mention of his awin Execution in manner fore said and the Partie at quhais instance the Letter or Precept is direct sall pay to the Officiar Executour the Expenses of the Copie affixed as said is and sall be taxed and given again to him the giving of the Decreet or Sentence gif he happenis to obteine And gif the Officiar heis foundin culpable in the Execution of his Office he sall be put in our Soveraine Lordis Prison and punished in his Person and Gudes at the Kingis Grace Will. Coke 4. part 99. saith The Common Pleas may in many cases proceed against their own Officers by Bill without Writ and why may not all the Subjects have the same Right as well as the Officers of the Common Pleas In London before the Mayor and Aldermen Debt and Personal Actions are determined by Bill without Writ City-Law 3. And so are Assises of Nusance ib. 4. and why may they not by Copy of the Bill be commenced better than by Writ over all the Kingdom The mischiefs of Original Writs from the Chancery Besides the Delays of Original Writs and Process by remoteness of Courts whither they are to be sent for and by the multiplications of Aliases and Pluries and the manifold dangers when gotten and executed to be again overthrown and nullified by Abatements for a multitude of frivolous Causes and Formalities and likewise for so many sorts of Variances as before mention'd of all which the Declaration might have been free if no Writ had preceded 1. It is excepted against Writs that Declarations are not amendable and it costs many times so much in amending the Misprision of Clerks in their Writs that the Plaintiff if he is not so poor as not to be able were better abate his own Writs and Declaration himself and pay Costs and buy Twenty new Writs than get one of the old amended 2. Writs Original are altogether useless except to get Money for nothing 3. They are saleable contrary to Magna Charta Nulli vendemus Justitiam and the Civil Law for Lege Julia tenetur repetundarum qui accepit aliquid ob Judicem delegatum dandum mutandum vel ob non dandum c. And what doth a Writ of Right a Justicies or any Original do besides but assign a Delegat Judg to hear the Cause in the Kings-Bench or Common-Pleas or Lords-Court or County-Court Then 't is contrary to Equity the Plaintiff should be compell'd to buy a Writ which is not only useless but pernicious to his Declaration and puts it in ten times more danger to be overthrown than if he might as he ought be permitted to use it without a Writ and the Plaintiff being to deliver a Copy of his Declaration Expensis Actoris to the Defendant 't is no reason he should be at any expence to pay Clerks for Writs impertinent 4. As to the Writ in Chancery of Subpaena Mischiefs of the Chancery Writ of Subpaena which is to be distinguished from the Writs to the Common Law Courts it is contrary to Magna Charta Nulli negabimus Justitiam for if a Poor man Sue a Noble-man there a Chancellour will deny a Poor man his terrible Writ which he uses to grant under a Hundred Pound Penalty in Terrorem Pauperum and he shall get no more of him if he do that at a greater price than the Writ would have cost but a poor begging Letter to the Noble-man to send his Answer to the Complaint against his Oppression which is no other than to bring into England the old Slavery of Rome whereby no Slaves were permitted to Sue their Lords before the Pretor or any other Judg were their Tyranny over them never so great and unjust What a wretched dishonour is it to Publick Justice which heretofore was blind to the Person that she turns now blind to the Cause and who heretofore carried the Sword in her hand Parcere Subjectis debellare superbus to have now lost her Sword and got a Crutch to become only a blind Beggar when she is to approach the Gates of Nobles neither is there any Law of God or man in England to justifie a Chancellour that he shall presume to use a different process of Concumacy against the Commons Chancellour hath no Power to Imprison Commons any more than Lords which he dares not use against the Lords for if it be not lawful for him to Issue Attachments or Commissions of Rebellion against the Lords or to imprison them then is it not lawful for him to Issue Attachments or Commissions of Rebellion against the Commons for both are equally Interested in Magna Charta and the Petition of Right not to be imprison'd without the lawful Judgment of their Peers and they being both Allies and Confederates by the said Acts to maintain the Commons Liberty The Liberty of the Commons is the Out-work which preserves the Liberty of the Lords if the Commons be Invaded though for the present such Invasion touch not the Lords yet when it hath destroyed the Liberty of the Commons the Lords will not be able to defend theirs when their Allies are lost The Liberty of the Commons is the Outwork which preserves the Liberty of the Lords the Liberty of the People is the Outwork which preserves the Liberty of the Parliament the Liberty of the Subjects is the Outwork which preserves the Safety of the King and as Solomon saith Prov. 20.28 Mercy and Truth preserve the King and if contrariorum contraria est ratio Cruelty and Fictions of Writs of Subpoena's in Chancery Latitats in Kings-Bench and Capiases without Summons in Common-Pleas wherewith they abuse the Kings name in false imprisonments of his Subjects without Crime or Cause destroys the prisonments of his Subjects without Crime or Cause destroys the Safety of the King himself and in a Case between the Duke of Lenox and the Lord Clifton M. 10. Jac. Though a Lord was not to be Committed for Contempt in a Poor mans Case yet in this Case between two Lords Chancellour Egerton said If Noble-men will commit Contempts they are to be Committed Now that the Imperial Power which hath been usurped by Chancellors to imprison the
may be easie for the Priests to put Apples Grapes and Nuts in a Coffin and by Night to make fearful Noises Shrieks Groans and Counterfeit Apparitions about Graves and Tombs whence the horror of the very place and darkness make such impressions on timorous Fancies as they shall not dare to approach much less examine the matter and take out the new Body out of the Coffin and put in one had been Buried Seven Years and then a Vault made of purpose to make a noise under ground in the Church and Sofronio know nothing of all this 5. But whether it were Witchcraft or Cheat it is most horrible wickedness to make Use of either under pretence of Church-Discipline or the Worship of God seeing they both come from the Devil Alvarez a Portugal Priest Relates of himself That at the Town of Barva in Ethiopia there appeared a Terrible Cloud of an infinite number of Locusts which at length fell and Devoured the Countrey and that he and another Portuguez Priest took a Consecrated Stone and the Cross and sung the Letany and in this manner went in Procession through the Corn-Fields for the space of a Mile unto a little Hill and there he caused them to take a quantity of the Locusts and made of them a Conjuration which he carried with him in writing which he had made the Night before Requiring them Charging them and Excommunicating them Willing them within Three Hours space to begin to depart towards the Sea or towards the Land of Morez or towards the Desart Mountains and to let the Christians alone and if they obey'd him not he called and adjured the Fowls of the Air the Beasts of the Field and all the Tempests to scatter destroy and consume their Bodies And for this purpose he took the quantity of Locusts and made this Admonition to them that were present in the name of themselves and those which were absent and so let them go and gave them liberty The Locusts began forthwith to depart and in the mean while a mighty Tempest and Thunder arose toward the Sea which drowned all the Locusts in the River and the dead Locusts remained in heaps two Fathom high on the Banks so by the Morning there was not one Locust left alive This Excommunication if true were Conjuring and Witchcraft Flies Excomunicated Peter de Nathal in vita Bernhardi Relates That St. Bernhard denounced the Sentence of Excommunication against Flies Whether this may be call'd Witchcraft or a Silly Prank of St. Simplicius I cannot say but if he could Excommunicate Flies without a Magical Telesme or Inchantment Fishes Excommunicated he shall be the Domitian of Divinity Mere. Gallo lib. 6. p. 592. saith That Anno Domini 1593. The Bishop of Conagtion very malitiously Excommunicated the Innocent Fishes Theodosius a Bishop of Alexandria Dead Excommunicated Excommunicated Origen Two Hundred Years after his Death if he is censur'd only for a Cheat 't is less than so wicked a practice deserves Now though God may permit wicked men to Excommunicate and Daemons Witches wild Beasts and Tyrants to abuse the Bodies of the best men after they are dead they have no Power to touch the Soul And we ought not to fear but contemn their Excommunication for so saith Christ Matth. 10.28 Fear not them that can kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Excommunication of the Devil Devils Excommunicated Mengus de Flagell Daemon Describes part of the Form of the Romish Exorcism to be I Command you Oh Davils who are come to the help of those that vex this Creature of God N. upon pain of Excommunication and Immersion into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for a Thousand Years that ye yield no Aid and Assistance to these Devils It seems the Devil is of the Society of these Romish Priests otherwise he could not be Excommunicated To grant a Bishop Power of Excommunication is to grant him the Legislative Judicial and Executive Power Excommunication gives the Pope the Legislative Power over all Nations for by this he made his Canon-Law whensoever he pleased to be observed through Christendom by no other Obligation than his Command they should be observed on pain of Excommunication By granting the Power of Excommunication the Legislative Power is granted and the Clergy in Convocation used anciently without asking the Royal Assent to make Canons touching matters of Religion to bind not only themselves but all the Laity without Assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament It was used in ancient time for Creditors besides other Security to procure Debtors to Swear they would pay them and thereupon there being then no Arrest in the Temporal Courts for Debt they Sued them in the Spiritual Courts on their Oaths and they granted an Excommunicato Capiendo to Arrest them without Bail which were so frequent that E. 1. could not keep his Servants free from Arrest in his Court till to prevent it he caused a Writ De Promulgantibus Sententiam Excommunicationis Capiendis Imprisonendis Commanding to Imprison such as Excommunicated any of them Rot. Parl. 25. E. 1. Intus Henry the Second according to Hovedon would That all such of the Clergy as were Deprehended in any Robbery Murder Felony Burning of Houses and the like should be Tried and Adjudged in the Temporal Courts as Lay-men were But Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbury stood proudly on the Pontificial Prerogative of the Clergy That no Clergy-man ought to be Tried but in their own Spiritual Courts and by men of their own Coat And if they were Convicted before them they ought only to be deprived of their Office but if they after offended they should be Judged in the Kings Courts This Power of Judgment he drew to his own Court only by his Power of Excommunication A Copy of a Prohibition of Excommunication A true translated Copy of a Writ of Prohibition granted by the Lord Chief Justice and other the Judges of the Common-Pleas in Easter-Term 1676. against the Bishop of Chichester who had proceeded against and Excommunicated one Thomas Watersfield a Church-Warden for Refusing to take the Oath usually tendred to Persons in such Office to Present such who absent from Church by which Writ the Illegality of all such Oaths is Declared and the said Bishop Commanded to Release and take off his said Excommunication c. CHarles the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To the Reverend Father in Christ Ralph by Divine Providence Lord Bishop of Chichester or any other competent Judg in his behalf whatsoever Greeting We are informed in our Court before our Justices at Westminster on the behalf of Thomas Watersfield That whereas by the Laws of this our Realm of England no Person ought to be Cited to appear in any Court Christian before any Judg Spiritual to