Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	baron_n	lord_n	viscount_n	2,690	5	11.4394	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54633	The antient right of the Commons of England asserted, or, A discourse proving by records and the best historians that the Commons of England were ever an essential part of Parliament by William Petyt of the Inner-Temple, Esq.	Petyt, William, 1636-1707.	1680 (1680)	Wing P1945; ESTC R422	80,113	272

THE ANTIENT RIGHT OF THE Commons of England ASSERTED OR A DISCOURSE Proving by Records and the best Historians that the Commons of England were ever an Essential part of Parliament By WILLIAM PETYT of the Inner-Temple Esq Non nulli taedio investigandae veritatis cullibet opini●● potius igna●i succambunt quàm explorandâ veritati pertinaci diligentiâ perseverare volunt Min. Foelix Inter ●ericula veritatis libertatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for F. Smith T. Bassett J. Wright R. Chiswell and S. Heyrick 1680. To the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of ESSEX Viscount MALDON Baron Capell of HADHAM Lord Lieutenant of the County of HERTFORD one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council and First Lord Commissioner of his Majesties Treasury MY LORD THere have been Authors of modern times who have in their Writings concerning the Government of this Kingdom published to the World That the Commons of England as now phrased were no part of the antient Commune Concilium or Parliament of this Nation before the forty ninth Year of H. 3. and then introduced by Rebellion A Position when seriously weighed equally wounds the Peerage of England since the same Authors say that there is no formal Summons of the Lords to Parliament found upon Record before that time After I had often considered so great a point and having often read of the freedom of this Nation that no Englishman could lose his right or property but by Law the Life and Soul of this so famous and so excellently constituted Government the best polity upon Earth which when united in all its parts by prudent Councils made always the people happy at home in Peace and the Crown ever Victorious abroad in War I did resolve to take pains to search if matters thus represented to the highest disadvantage and prejudice of the people of England were true or false which I have industriously and impartially endeavoured and hope with that clearness that will evidence to all unbiassed judgments the unsoundness of those Opinions When I had so done being unwilling my labour should be to my self alone and not to those who search after knowledge in these matters to disabuse and prevent others from building upon such mistaken and dangerous Foundations I thought it not unseasonable to publish this Discourse wherein there is no Record cited but in my opinion equally asserts the right of the Peers of this Kingdom as well as of the Commons and therefore have taken the boldness to send it into the World under your Lordships Protection whom I know to be a great Lover of Truth To which all mankind ought to pay Allegiance I should have had great satisfaction if before it had been put to the Press it might have received your Lordships judicious corrections and approbation whose knowledge and industry in venerable Antiquity and all other useful Learning is well known unto the World But this happiness I could not reasonably expect your Lordships time being so much taken up in the service of the Crown whereof your Lordship is so eminent and so great a Pillar as your Honourable Imployments both at home and abroad do sufficiently demonstrate I most humbly beg your Lordships Pardon for my presumption in this Dedication which fault I hope may be extenuated by the relation I have to your Lordship in my Profession and being deprived of other means publickly to shew my humble gratitude for the many favours your Lordship has been pleased to confer upon My Lord Your Lordships most humble most faithful and most obedient Servant W. Petyt THE PREFACE MY principal design in this following Discourse is impartially to vindicate the just honour of our English Parliament from the calumnies and reproches of some late Authors who have asserted 1. That an essential part of that Great Council viz. the Commons of England represented by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament were introduced and began An. 49 H. 3. by Rebellion 2. That before that time the Commons were never admitted to have any Votes or share in the making of Laws for the Government of the Kingdom nor to any Communication in affairs of State To discover and refute the unsoundness of the second Position and that the contrary may appear to be true I shall before I come to answer the first consider the second and endeavour to prove that during the Brittish Saxon and Norman Governments the Freemen or Commons of England as now called and distinguished from the great Lords were pars essentialis constituens an essential and constituent part of the Wittena Gemot Commune Concilium Baronagium Angliae or Parliament in those Ages 1. Under the Brittish Government THE Brittons called their Commune Concilium or Parliament Kyfr-ythen then because their Laws were therein ordained and upon K. Lucius his Letter to Pope Elutherius to send him the Roman Laws the Pope who could not be ignorant of the constitution and frame of the Brittish Polity writes back to him Habetis penes vos in Regno utramque paginam ex illis Dei gratia per Concilium Regni vestri sume legem per illam Dei potentia vestrum rege Britanniae Regnum But what their Laws and particular Government were is very uncertain by reason that Scripta Patriae as Gildas sayes Scriptorumve Monumenta si quae fuerint aut ignibus hostium exusta aut Civium exulum classe longius deportata non comparent The Histories of our Country if there were any are not to be found being either burnt by the Enemy or carried beyond the Seas by the banished Brittons Yet this is certain and not to be denied that 〈◊〉 their elder time the People or Freemen had a great share in their publick Council and Government For Dion Cassius or Xipniline out of him in the Life of Severus assures us Apud hos i. e. Britannos populus magna ex parte principatum tenet 2. Under the Saxon Government IT cannot be doubted but that the Saxons who made themselves Masters of the Brittish Nation brought with them their Country Laws and Government and that the Commons were an essential and constituent part of their Commune Concilium Tacitus tells us De minoribus rebus Principes consultant de majoribus omnes ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est apud Principes praetractentur After the Saxon Government became united and fixed under a sole Christian Monarch they still continued and kept their antient Wittena Gemots or Parliaments as now phrased wherein they made Laws and managed the great affairs of the King and Kingdom according to the Plat-form of their Ancestors Many Authorities might be given to evidence this I will instance in three or four 1. then We have that famous Parliament summoned by King Ethelbert An. 605. which my Author calls Commune Concilium tam Cleri quam populi 2. About the Year 712. King Ina assembled a great Council or Parliament wherein he