Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	king_n	lord_n	message_n	2,536	5	9.9777	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56353	The speech or declaration of John Pymm, Esquire, to the Lords of the upper House, upon the delivery of the Articles of the Commons assembled in Parliament, against VVilliam Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, in maintenance of their accusation, whereby he stands charged of high treason. Together with a true copie of the said Articles	Pym, John, 1584-1643.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.; Bower, Edward, ,artist.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Lords.	1641 (1641)	Wing P4295A; ESTC R203308	8,796	31

Reade in this Image him whose dearest blood Is thought noe price to buy his Countryes good Whose name shall flourish till the blast of Fame Shall want a Trumpet or true Worth a name Edw. Bower pinxit G. Glouer fecit THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF JOHN PYMM Esquire To the LORDS of the upper House upon the delivery of the Articles of the Commons assembled in Parliament AGAINST WILLIAM LAVD Archbishop of Canterbury in maintenance of their Accusation whereby he stands charged of High Treason TOGETHER With a true Copy of the said ARTICLES London printed for Ralph Mabb 1641. A TRVE COPY OF THE Articles of the Commons assembled in Parliament against WILLIAM LAVD Archbishop of CANTERBVRY in maintenance of their Accusation whereby he stands charged with HIGH TREASON TOGETHER With a true Copy of the Speech or Declaration of IOHN PYMM Esquire upon the same My Lords I Am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses now assembled for the Commons in Parliament to deliver to your Lordships these Articles in maintainance of their Charge against the Archbishop of Canterbury Their desire is that first your Lordships would bee pleased to heare the Articles read and then I shall endeavour to present to you the sense of the Commons concerning the nature of the Charge and the order of their proceedings Articles of the Commons assembled in Parliament in maintenance of their Accusation against WILLIAM LAVD Archbishop of Canterbury Whereby he stands charged with high treason I. THat he hath trayterously endeavoured to subvert the fundamentall Lawes and Government of this Kingdome of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and tyrannicall Government against Law and to that end hath wickedly and traiterously advised his Majesty that hee might at his owne will and pleasure leavie and take mony of his Subjects without their consent in Parliament and this hee affirmed was warrantable by the Law of God II. Hee hath for the better accomplishment of that his traiterous designe advised and procured sermons and other discourses to be preached printed and published in which the authority of Parliaments and the force of the Lawes of this Kingdome have bin denied and absolute and unlimited Power over the persons and estares of his Majesties subjects maintained and defended not onely in the King but himselfe and other Bishops against the Law And hee hath beene a great protector favourer and promoter of the publishers of such false and pernicious opinions III. He hath by Letters Messages Threats and Promises and by divers other wayes to Iudges and other Ministors of Iustice interrupted and perverted and at other times by meanes aforesaid hath indeavoured to interrupt pervert the course of Iustice in his Majesties Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the subversion of the Lawes of this Kingdome whereby sundry of his Majesties subjects have beene stopt in their just suits deprived of their lawfull rights and subjected to his tyrannicall will to their ruine and destruction VI That the said Archbishop hath traiterously and corruptly sold Iustice to those who have had causes depending before him by colour of his Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction as Archbishop High Commissioner Referee or otherwise and hath taken unlawfull gifts and bribes of his Majesties subjects and hath as much as in him lyes endeavoured to corrupt the other Courts of Iustice by advising and procuring his Majesty to sell places of Iudicature and other offices contrary to the Lawes and Statutes in that behalfe V. He hath traiterously caused a Booke of Canons to bee composed and published without any lawfull warrant and authority in that behalfe in which pretended Canons many matters are contained contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamentall Lawes and Statutes of this Realme to the right of Parliament to the propriety and liberty of the subject and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence and to the establishment of a vast unlawfull and presumptuous power in himselfe and his successors many of which Canons by the practice of the said Archbishop were surreptitiously passed in the late Convocation without due consideration and debate others by feare and compulsion were subscribed by the Prelates and Clerkes there assembled which had never beene voted and passed in the Convocation as they ought to have beene And the said Archbishop hath contrived and endeavored to assure confirme the unlawfull and exorbitant power which he hath usurped exercised over his Majesties Subjects by a wicked and ungodly oath in one of the said pretended Canons injoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Laity of this Kingdome VI He hath traiterously assumed to himself a Papall tyrannicall power both in Ecclesiastical temporal matters over his Majesties subjects in this Realme of England in other places to the disherison of the Crowns dishonour of his Majesty derogation of his supremeauthority in ecclesiastical matters the said Archbishop claimes the Kings Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal office in this kingdome and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crowne of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his royall Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the Kings liege people in their persons and estates VII That he hath trayterously endeavoured to alter and subvert Gods true Religion by Law established in this Realm and in stead there of to set up popish superstition and Idolatry And to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and printed Bookes divers popish doctrines and opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion established by Law He hath urged and injoyned divers popish and superstitious ceremonies without any warrant of Law and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by corporal punishments Imprisonments and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conforme thereunto by Ecclesiasticall censures of Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Laws of this Kingdome VIII That for the better advancing of his traiterous purpose and designe he did abuse the great power and trust his Majestie reposed in him and did intrude upon the places of divers great officers and upon the right of other his Majesties Subjects wherby he did procure to himselfe the nomination of sundry persons to Ecclesiasticall Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majestie and divers of the Nobility Clergie and others and hath taken upon him the commendation of Chaplaines to the King by which meanes hee hath preferred to his Majesties service and to other great promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or otherwise unsound and corrupt both in doctrine and manners IX He hath for the same traiterous and wicked intent chosen and employed such men to bee his owne domesticall Chaplaines whom he knew to be notoriously disaffected to the reformed Religion grosly addicted to Popish superstition and erroneous and unsound both in judgement and practice and to them or some of them hath he

being the intention of the House of Commons which they have commanded me to declare to make them more certaine and particular by preparatory Examinations to be taken with the helpe of your Lordships house as in the Case of my Lord of Strafford I shall now runne through them with a light touch onely marking in every of them some speciall points of venome virulency and malignity 1 The first Article my Lords doth containe his endeavour to introduce into this Kingdome an Arbitrary power of Government without any limitations or Rules of Law This my Lords is against the safety of the Kings person the honour of his Crowne and most destructive to his people Those Causes which are most perfect have not onely a power to produce effects but to conserve and cherish them The Seminary vertue and the Nutritive vertue in vegetables doe produce from the same principles It was the defect of Justice the restrayning of oppression and violence that first brought government into the World and set up Kings the most excellent way of Government And by the maintenance of Justice all kindes of government receive a sure foundation and establishment It is this that hath in it an ability to preserve and secure the royall power of Kings yea to adorn and increase it 2. In the second Article your Lordships may observe absolute and unlimited power defended by Preaching by Sermons and other discourses printed and published upon that subject And truely my Lords it seemes to be a prodigious crime that the Trueth of God and his holy Law should be perverted to defend the lawlessnesse of men That the holy and sacred function of the Ministery which was ordained for instruction of mens soules in the wayes of God should bee so abused that the Ministers are become the trumpets of sedition the promoters and defenders of violence and oppression 3 In the third Article my Lords you have the Judges who under his Majestic are the dispersers and distributers of Justice frequently corrupted by feare and solicitation you have the course of justice in the execution of it shamefully obstructed And if a willfull Act of injustice in a Judge bee so high a crime in the estimate of the Law as to deserve death under what burthen of guilt doth this man lye who hath beene the cause of great numbers of such voluntary and wilfull Acts of unjustice In the fourth Article he will bee found in his owne Person to have sold Justice in Causes depending before him And by his wicked counsell endeavouring to make his Majesty a Merchant of the same commodity onely with this difference that the King by taking money for places of Judicature should sell it in grosse whereas the Archbishop sold it by retalle 5 In the fifth Article there appeares a power ufurped of making Canons of laying obligations on the Subjects in the nature of Lawes and this power abused to the making of such Canons as are in the matter of them very pernicious being directly contrary to the Prerogative of the King and the liberty of the People In the manner of pressing of them may be found fraud and shuffling in the conclusion violence and constraint Men being forced by terrour and threatning to subscribe to all which power thus wickedly gotten they laboured to establish by perjury injoyning such an Oath for the maintenance of it as can neither be taken nor kept with a good conscience 6 In the sixt Article you have the King robbed of his Supremacy you have a Papall power exercised over his Majesties Subjects in their consciences and in their persons You have Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction claimed by an Incident right which the Law declares to proceed from the Crowne And herein your Lordships may observe that those who labour in civill matters to set up the King above the Lawes of the Kingdome do yet in Ecclesiasticall matters endevour to set up themselves above the King This was first procured by the Archbishop to be extrajudicially declared by the Judges and then to be published in a Proclamation In doing whereof he hath made the Kings Throne but a footstoole for his owne and their pride 7 You have my Lords in the seventh Article Religion undermined and subverted you have Popery cherished and defended you have this seconded with power and violence by severe punishment upon those which have opposed this mischievous intention and by the subtile and eager prosecution of these mē hath the power of Ecclesiasticall Commissioners of the Starre Chamber and Councell Table beene often made sub servient to his wicked designe My Lords 8 You may observe in the eight Article great care taken to get into his owne hand the power of nominating to Ecclesiasticall Livings and promotions you have as much mischievous as much wicked care taken in the disposing of these preferments to the hinderance and corruption of Religion And by this meanes my Lords the Kings sacred Majesty instead of Sermons fit for spirituall inftructours hath often had invectives against his people incouragement to injustice or to the overthrow of the Lawes Such Chaplaines have beene brought into his service as have as much as may bee laboured to corrupt his owne Houshold and beene eminent examples of corruption to others which hath so farre prevailed as that it hath exceedingly tainted the Universities and beene generally disperst to all the chiefe Cities the greatest Towner and Auditories of the Kingdome The grievous effects whereof is most manifest to the Commons House there being divers hundred complaints there depending in the House against scandalous Ministers and yet I beleeve the hundred part of them is not yet brought in 9 The ninth Article sets out the like care to have Chaplaines of his owne that might bee promoters of this wicked and trayterous designe Men of corrupt judgements of corrupt practice extreamely addicted to superstition And to such mens cares hath beene committed the Lycensing of Bookes to the Presse by meanes whereof many have beene published that are full of falshood of scandals such as have beene more worthy to be burnt by the hand of the Hangman in Smithfield as I thinke one of them was then to be admitted to come into the hands of the Kings people 10 In the tenth Article it will appeare how he having made these approaches to Popery comes now to close and joyne more neerely with it hee confederates with Priests and Jesuites Hee by his instruments negotiates with the Pope at Rome and hath correspondence with them that be authorized from Rome here He hath permitted a Romane Hierarchie to be set up in this Kingdome And though he hath beene so carefull that a poore man could not goe to the neighbour parish to heare a Sermon when he had none at home cou● not have a Sermon repeated nor prayer used in his owne Family but hee was a fit subject for the High Commission Court yet the other hath beene done in all parts of the Realme and no notice taken of it by any

Ecclesiasticall Judges or Courts My Lords 11 You may perceive Preaching suppressed in the eleventh divers godly and orthodox Ministers oppressedin their persons and Estates you have the Kings loyall Subjects banished out of the Kingdome not as Elimeleck to seeke for bread in forraigne Countries by reason of the great scarcity which was in Israel but travelling abroad for the bread of life because they could not have it at home by reason of the spirituall Famine of Gods Word caused by this man and his partakers And by this meanes you have had the trade the Manufactury the industry of many thousands of his Majesties subjects carried out of the Land It is a miserable abuse of the spirituall Keyes to shut up the doores of heaven and to open the gates of hell to let in prophanenesse ignorance superstition and errour I shall need say no more These things are evident and abundantly knowne to all 12 In the twelfth Article my Lords you have a division endeavored betweene this and the forraigne reformed Churches The Church of Christ is one Body and the Members of Christ have a mutuall relation as members of the same body Unity with Gods true Church every where is not onely the beauty but the strength of Religion of which beauty and strength he hath sought to deprive this Church by his manifold attempts to breake this union To which purpose he hath suppressed the priviledges granted to the Dutch and French Churches Hee hath denyed them to be of the same Faith and Religion with us and many other wayes hath he declared his malice to those Churches 13 In the thirteenth Article as he hath sought to make an Ecclesiasticall division or religious difference between us and forraign Nations so he hath sought to make a civill difference betweene us and his Majesties subjects of the Kingdome of Scotland And this hee hath promoted by many innovations there prest by himselfe and his owne authority when they were uncapable of such alterations He advised his Majestie to use violence He hath made private and publike Collections towards the maintenance of the warre which he might justly call his owne warre And with an impudent boldnesse hath struck Tallies in the Exchequer for divers sums of money procured by himselfe pro defensione Regni when by his counsels the King was drawne to undertake not a defensive but an offensive warre 14. He hath lastly thought to secure himselfe and his party by seeking to undermine Parliaments and thereby hath laboured to bereave this Kingdome of the Legislative power which can onely be used in Parliaments and that we should bee left a Kingdome without that which indeed makes and constitutes a Kingdome and is the onely Meane to preserve and restore it from distempers and decayes He hath hereby endevoured to bereave us of the highest Judicatory such a Judicatory as is necessary and essentiall to our government Some Cases cannot be tried in any inferiour Court as divers Cases of Treason and others concerning the Prerogative of the Crowne and liberty of the People It is the supreame Iudicatory to which all difficult Cases resort from other Courts He hath sought to deprive the King of the Love and Councell of his People of that assistance which hee might have from them and likewise to deprive the People of that reliefe of grievances which they most humbly expect from his Majesty My Lords The Parliament is the Cabbinet wherein the chiefest lewels both of the Crowne and Kingdome are deposited The great Prerogative of the King and the liberty of the People are most effectually exercised and maintained by Parliaments Here my Lords you cannot passe by this occasion of great thankes to God and his Majesty for passing the Bill whereby the frequent course of Parliaments is established which I assure my selfe he will by experience finde to bee a strong foundation both of his honour and of his Crowne This is all my Lords I have to say to the particulars of the Charge The Commons desire your Lordships that they may have the same way of Examination that they had in the Case of the Earle of Strafford That is to examine members of all kindes of your Lordships House and their owne and others as they shall see cause And those Examinations to be kept secret and private that they may with more advantage be made use of when the matter comes to tryall They have declared that they reserve to themselves the power of making Additionall Articles by which they intend to reduce his Charge to be more particular and certaine in respect of the severall times occasion and other circumstances of the Offences therein Charged And that your Lordships would be pleased to put this Cause in such a quicke way of proceeding that these great and dangerous Crimes together with the offendors may be brought to a just Judgement FINIS

committed the licencing of books to be printed by which meanes divers false and superstitious Bookes have beene published to the great scandall of Religion and to the seducing of his Majesties subjects X. He hath traiterously and wickedly indeavoured to reconcile the Church of England with the Church of Rome and for the effecting thereof hath consorted and confederated with divers popish Priests and Iesuites and hath keptsecret intelligence with the Pope of Rome and by himselfe his Agents and Instruments treated with such as have from thence received Authorty and instruction he hath permitted and countenanced a popish Hierarchie or Ecclesiasticall government to be established in this Kingdome by all which traiterous and malicious practices this Church and Kingdome hath beene exceedingly indangered and like to fall under the Tyranny of the Roman Sea XI Hee in his owne person and his Suffragans Visitors Surrogates Chancellors and other Officers by his command have caused divers learned pious and Orthodox Ministers of Gods word to be silenced suspended deprived degraded excommunicated and otherwise grieved without any just and lawfull cause and by divers other meanes hee hath hindred the preaching of Gods word caused divers of his Majesties loyall Subjects to forsake the Kingdome and increased and cherished Ignorance and profanesle amongst the people that so hee might the better facilitate the way to the effecting of his owne wicked and traiterous designe of altering and corrupting the true Religion here established XII Hee hath traiterously indeavoured to cause division and discord betwixt the Church of England and other Reformed Churches and to that end hath supprest and abrogated the Priviledges and Immunities which have beene by his Majesty and his royall Ancestors graunted to the Dutch and French Churches in this Kingdome and divers other waies hath expressed his malice and disaffection to these Churches that so by such disunion the Papists might have more advantage for the overthrow and extirpation of both XIII Hee hath maliciously and traiterously plotted and indeavoured to stirre up war and enmity betwixt his Majesties two Kingdomes of England and Scotland and to that purpose hath laboured to introduce into the Kingdome of Scotland divers Innovations both in Religion and government all or the most part of them tending to Popery and superstition to the great grievance and discontent of his Majesties Subjects ofthat Nation And for their refusing to submit to such Innovations he did traiterously advise his Majesty to subdue them by force of Armes and by his owne Authority and Power contrary to Lawe did procure sundry of his Majesties Subjects and inforced the Clergie of this Kingdome to contribute towards the maintenance of that war and when his Majesty with much wisedome and Iustice had made a Pacification betwixt the two Kingdomes the said Archbishop did presumptuously censure that pacification as dishonorable to his Majesty and by his counsells and indeavors so incensed his Majesty against his said Subjects of Scotland that hee did thereupon by advice of the said Archbishop enter into an offensive warre against them to the great hazard of his Majesties person and his Subjects of both Kingdomes XIIII That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and others his traiterous courses he labou●ed to subvert the rights of Parliament and the ancient course of Parliamentary proceeding and by false and malicious slanders to incense his Majesty against Parliaments By which words counsells and actions hee hath traiterously and contrary to his Allegeance laboured to alienate the hearts of the Kings liege people from his Majesty and to set a division betweene them and to ruine and destroy his Majesties Kingdomes for which they doe impeach him of high Treason against our Soveraigne Lord the King his Crowne and dignity The said Commons doe further averre that the sayd William Archbishop of Canterbury during the times that the crimes aforementioned were done and committed hath beene a Bishop or Archbishop of this Realme of Eng land one of the Kings Commissioners for Ecclesiasticall matters and one of his Majesties most honorable Privy Councell and hath taken an Oath for his faithfull discharge of the said Office of Councellor and hath likewise taken an oath of supremacy and Allegeance And the said Commons by protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Im●peachment against the said Archbishop and also of replying to the Answers that the said Archbishop shall make unto the said Articles or to any of them and of offering further proof also of the Premises or any of them or of any other impeachment or Accusation that shall be exhibited by them as the cause shall according to the course of Parliament require doe pray that the said Archbishop may bee put to answer to all and every the Premises and that such proceedings examination tryall and Iudgement may be upon every of them had and used as is agreeable to Lawe and Iustice The Articles being read hee proceeded as followeth My Lords THERE is an expression in the Scripture which I will not presume either to understand or to interpret yet to a vulgar eye it seemes to have an Asspect something sutable to the Person and Cause before you It is a description of the evill Spirits wherein they are said to be spirituall wickednesses in High Places Crimes acted by the spirituall faculties of the Soule the Will and the Understanding exercised about spirituall matters concerning Gods Worship and the Salvation of Man seconded with power authority learning and many other advantages doe make the party who commits them very sutable to that description Spirituall wickednesses in high places These Crimes my Lords are various in their Nature haynous in their qualitie and universall in their Extent If you examine them Theologically as they stand in opposition to the Trueth of God they will be found to be against the rule of Faith against the power of godlinesse against the meanes of Salvattion If you examine them Morally as they stand in opposition to the light of Nature to right reason and the principles of humane saciety you will then perceive pride without any moderation such a Pride as that is which exalts it selfe above all that is called God Malice without any provocation Malice against vertue against innocency against pietie Injustice without any meanes of restitution even such injustice as doeth robbe the present times of their possessions the future of their possibilities If they be examined my Lords by Legall Rules in a Civill way as they stand in opposition to the Publique good and to the Lawes of the Land He will be found to be a Traytour against his Majesties Crowne an Incendiary against the Peace of the State he will be found to be the highest the boldest the most impudent oppressour that ever was an oppressour both of King and People This Charge my Lords is distributed and conveyed into foureteene severall Articles as you have heard and those Articles are onely generall It