Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	act_n	authority_n	enact_v	904	5	10.1864	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26144	The power, jurisdiction and priviledge of Parliament and the antiquity of the House of Commons asserted occasion'd by an information in the Kings Bench by the attorney general against the Speaker of the House of Commons : as also A discourse concerning the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the realm of England, occasion'd by the late commission in ecclesiastical causes / by Sir Robert Atkins, Knight ...	Atkyns, Robert, Sir, 1621-1709.	1689 (1689)	Wing A4141; ESTC R16410	69,431	78

or lawfully may be Reformed Redressed Corrected c. In Sir Edw. Cokes 12 Rep. fol. 49 It was Resolved Trin. 6. Jae Per totam Curiam in the Court of Common-Pleas there being then Five Judges of that Court Coke being Chief Justice That the High Commissioners by vertue of their Commission and that Act of Parliament ought to proceed according to Ecclesiastical Law. Secondly If their Commission gave them any Power which was not allowed or warranted by that Act of Parliament it was not Legal which proves that such Power cannot be exercis'd by a Commission under the Great Seal merely without an Act of Parliament See Drakes Case in Justice Croke's Reports of the time of King Charles fol. 220. There it is also Resolv'd That the King by his Commissioners cannot alter the Ecclesiastical Law nor the Proceedings of ☞ it And if the Word Lawfully had not been in that Act of 1. Eliz. yet it must have been so intended and the Judges of the Common Law who are proper Judges Expositors and Interpreters of Acts of Parliament would have so understood it as appears by the Resolution of the Judges in the Case in the same 12. Rep. of the Lord Coke fol. 84 85. and little regard therefore was given by the Judges to Commissions under the Great Seal which the Arch Bishop of Canterbury Abbot said had been made in like Cases in the Times of King Hen. VIII and Ed. VI. In the last Case ibidem fol. 85. the Chief Justice Coke says He had seen the Commission made to Cromwell by King Hen. VIII to be Vice-gerent and other Commissions to others by his appointment and he refers to the Commission at large inserted in his Book of Precedents See in the same 12. Rep. of Sir Edw. Coke f. 88. Excellent Rules to be observ'd upon such extraordinary Commissions viz. They ought to be solemnly read for they may possibly contain many things against the Law as the Commission in that Case mentioned did The Commissioners may every one of them require Copies of the Commission The Commissioners ought to Sit in an open Place and at certain Days Note also That such Commissions ought not to be kept secret but they ought to be Enrolled in the Chancery That the Subjects may be under a known Authority See Sir Coke's 4. Instit. fol. 332. the middle of that fol. And upon irregular and illegal Commissions in Ecclesiastical Causes the Remedy is by Prohibition out of the Courts at Westminster In the same 4 Instit. fol. 340. the Author hath this Note Nota Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was depriv'd at Lambeth by Commission from King Edward the VI. made to Ten Persons proceeding upon it ex Officio mero mixto vel promoto omni appellatione remotâ summarie de plano absque omni forma figura Judicii sola Facti Veritate inspecta The Author passes no Opinion upon it Quaere by what Law this was warranted It must be rare and extraordinary otherwise Sir Edw. Coke would not have so specially mention'd it but a Facto ad Jus non valet Argumentum Note That part of the Act of 1 Eliz. viz. the 18th Paragraph before verbatim transcribed viz. of the Queen Eliz. and her Successors granting such Letters Patents or Commissions in Ecclesiastical Causes is repealed by the Act made 16 Car. 1. cap. 11. See it in Mr. Keeble's Book of Statutes at large See the last Paragr or Clause in that Act of Repeal of 16 Car. 1. It is Enacted That no new Court shall be erected or appointed which shall have The like Power or Jurisdiction as the High Commissioners had or pretended to have but that all such Letters Patents Commissions and Grants and all Powers and Authorities thereby granted and all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by vertue or colour of them shall be Void Note The late Act of 13 Car. 2. cap. 12. in Mr. Keeble's Book of Statutes does declare that the Ordinary Power of Arch-Bishops and Bishops was not taken away by that Repealing Act of 17 Car. 1. cap. 11. as this last Act dates it But by this Act of 13 Car. 2. cap. 12. in the second Paragraph The aforesaid Repealing Act of 17 Car. 1. and all the Matters and Clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such like Court by Commission are Repealed See the third Paragraph also of the Act of 13. Car. 2. That the High Commission Court shall not be Revived So that I conceive no such Commission nor Letters Patents can now be granted but the Repealing Act of 16 or 17 Car. 1. stands in force against it By what Law or Rules Cromwell in the Time of King Henry VIII and by what Instructions he acted does not appear the Commissions to make him Vicar General which was surely in Imitation of what had been used by the Pope in the time of his Usurpation or that of Vice-gerent in Ecclesiastical Matters which seems to be new and prime Impressionis are not now to be found of which Dr. Burnet in the History of the Reformation of the Church of England makes some probable conjectures fol. 181. and wherein consisted the difference between those two Authorities and Titles and the Commissions for the exercise of them is not easy to find out But the thing then principally design'd was to suppress the religious Houses belonging to the regular Clergy which were great Supports to the Popish Hierarchy not at all to impeach the Lawful Power and Jurisdiction of Episcopacy for we find at the same time as Cromwell's Commissions were in force and had been then but newly passed That Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made his Metropolitical Visitation under which as I conceive most properly falls the Conusance of any contempt or abuse committed by any of his Suffragan Bishops if not in a Provincial Synod Archiepiscopi Jurisdictioni subsunt immediate suffraganti See Lind. Provin The exclusion of the Pope in the Time of King Hen. VIII made no diminution of the Power or Jurisdiction of the Clergy as to determining of Ecclesiastical Causes or making Canons Constitutions and other Synodical Acts as is rightly observ'd by Dr. Heylin in his Introduction to the History of Laud late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury upon this ground it is that to this day they exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in their own Names and under the distinct Seals of their Offices the Statutes that made some Alteration in the matter being all repealed See Dr. Heylin's Introduct aforesaid ibid. fol. 341. The Legislative Power in Matters Ecclesiastical continues in the Convocation for making Canons and Constitutions confirmed by the King and Parliament Discipline and the Admonition still resides in the Bishops and those under them In Case of any Irregularity in the Metropolitan Resort must doubtless be to the Head of the Church upon Earth the King as it was in the Case of Arch-Bishop Abbot who shooting at

have been from the first Constitution of the Kingdom certain Courts and Jurisdictions erected within this Realm for deciding and determining of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Causes Selden's History of Tithes fol. 412. All this is excellently well set forth by the Preamble of the Statute of 24 H. 8. cap. 12. concerning Appeals That as the King hath ever been the Supream Head of the Realm which Word Head is by way of Metaphor and must have relation to some Body therefore the Statute in the Preamble proceeds to tell you what the Body is to which the Head relates viz. The Body Politick of the Realm consists of all sorts and degrees of People within this Realm divided by Names of Spiritualty and Temporalty The Statute proceeds to mention the plenary Power Authority and Jurisdiction the King hath within this Realm in all Causes It shews us how that Power is distributed and by whom to be exercised Not by the King in Person nor at his Will and Pleasure in any arbitrary Way but as that Preamble further iustructs us The Body Spiritual hath Power in all Causes Divine and Spiritual to determin and to administer all such Offices and Duties as to their rooms Spiritual doth appertain the like is declared as to Temporal Causes to be in the other Part of the said Body Politick call'd the Temporalty And both their Authorities and Jurisdictions do concur in the due Administration of Justice the one to help the other The Preamble of this Stat. of 24 H. 8. c. 12. of Appeals further shews how that this Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Jurisdiction had been confirmed and defended by several antient Acts of Parliament against the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome and that long before the Reformation of Religion Then comes the Enacting Part which does Ordain That all Causes determinable by any Spiritual Jurisdiction whether they concern the King himself as the Case of the King's Divorce or any of the Subjects shall be heard examined discussed clearly finally and definitively adjudged and determined within the Kings Jurisdiction and Authority and not elsewhere in such Courts Spiritual and Temporal of the same as the nature of the Cases shall require Then the same Statute shews us in what Courts and by what Steps and Method Suits and Proceedings concerning Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Matters ought to be handled See Paragraph 5 6 7 8 9 10. It begins with the Arch Deacon's Court which is infimi gradus and proceeds gradually from the Arch-Deacon to the Diocesan from him to the Metropolitan and at last it mentions the Convocation as the Supreamest Note That further Appeals have been given by several Acts of Parliament as by 25 H. 8 c 19. from the Arch-Bishop or Metropolitan to the King in Chancery which is by Commission of Delegates c. And it hath been Resolved That though the Acts of 24 H. 8. cap. 12. and of 25. H. 8 cap. 19. do upon certain Appeals make the Sentence definitive as to any further Appeal yet the King as Supream Head may grant a Commission of Review See the Case of Halliwell against Jervois Sir Francis Moores Reports fol. 462. and in the same Reports fol. 782. in the Case of Bird against Smith and in Sir Edw. Cokes 4th Institutes fol. 341. And as the Kings Ecclesiastical Power and Jurisdiction are by the Fundamental Laws of the Realm distributed into several Courts which are mentioned and confirmed by the said several Acts of Parliament and may not therefore be exercised by any other but by such Courts and in such Method and Manner as by Law and the said Acts of Parliament it is provided So also those Courts cannot proceed Arbitrarily but by the known and setled Ecclesiastical Laws Constitutions and Canons that are in force By the Act of 1. Eliz. cap. 1. Entituled An Act for restoring to the Crown the Antient Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual c. the seventeenth Paragraph in Keeble's Book of Statutes It is Enacted That such Jurisdictions c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errors c. Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this Present Parliament be united to the Crown By the 18th Paragraph of that Act the Queen and her Successors have Power by vertue of this Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal to assign c. as often as they shall think meet and for such time such Person or Persons as the Queen c. shall think meet to exercise all manner of Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical or Spiritual and to Visit Reform Redress Order Correct and Amend all such Errors c. Abuses Offences Contempts and Anormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction can or lawfully may be Reformed Ordered Redressed Corrected Restrained or Amended and such Person or Persons so to be named c. shall have full Power by vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents to exercise use and execute all the Premises according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Letters Patents See Sir Edw. Cokes 4. Inst. in his Chapter of Ecclesiastical Courts fol. 324 325. and see the 3d. Observ. fol. 326. observe the Words viz. It was Enacted out of necessity c. and ibid. Necessity did cause this Commission and it was not to be Exercis'd but upon necessity for it was never intended That it should be a continual standing Commission c. That the main Object of that Act was to deprive the Popish Clergy Almere's Case and Taylor and Massie's Case left to the proper Diocesan Upon the last recited Clause in that of 1. Eliz. was grounded the late Court call'd The High Commission Court From which Act it may be observed and collected That it needed an Act of Parliament to give such Authority to the Queen to grant such Letters Patents or Commission and that without an Act of Parliament such Commission could not have been granted For if the Queen by her meer Prerogative and Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Causes could have granted such Commission an Act of Parliament had been unnecessary And the express Words of the Act are That the Queen c. shall have power by vertue of this Act and the Law had as hath been before observ'd distributed the Kings Ecclesiastical Power and Jurisdiction into several Courts So that without a new Law the like Power could not be put into any other hands in Derogation of those ordinary Ecclesiastical Courts Secondly Note This Act makes no new Crimes nor Offences but gives the Commissioners or Patentees Power to Visit Reform Redress c. all such Errors c. Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power can

Nobilis in our times is generally restrain'd to Peers whom we call the Nobility our New Writers as Mr. Pryn and Sir Robert Filmer and several others ascribe all to the Earls and Barons and other Peers of our times which they read in the Translations of the Saxon Annals to be acted by those that are called Nobiles in those Annals Altho' in truth in those Saxon times they were acted by the middle sort of Persons as well as by those of the highest sort of Dignity under the King. Those Translators misled our new Authors For the Norman Writers translate the Word Thanes into Barones and these new Authors of ours whatever they find in these Translations to be related of the Barones they limit it as a Peculiar to our present Barons and so ascribe all judicial Power antiently used in Parliament to the Barons only And they bring those Historians and Translators for a Proof For Example The Saxon Title Thanes was in the Saxon times applyed to all Lords of Mannors But the Translators of the Saxon Annals translating the Title Thanes into Barones Our Innovators apply all that in Saxon Writers is said to be done by the Thanes that is all Lords of Mannors as peculiarly belonging to the Power of the Barons in our times Hence it is that Sir E. C. cautions us against taking Reports of Law from Historians in his Preface to the 3d. Rep. he calls it Chronicle Law. The Word Baro was not in use in England till the Normans times and the Root of it as Mr. Seld. and Camd. and Sir H. Spelm. teach us is from the Northern Language Barn which signifies the Male Sex as when we put Cases of Baron and Feme or it signifies a Freeholder hence come the Words Courts Baron Nomine Baronagii says Camd. Eliz. Edit Lond. An. 1600. fol. 137. omnes quodammodo Regni Ordines continebantur It comprehended the Gentry as well as the greatest Persons After this manner Godwin in his Roman Antiquities speaking of the Roman Magistrates Translates the Words Triumviri capitales into 3. High Sheriffs but this affords no Argument that what was done by the Triumviri among the Romans may therefore lawfully belong to the power of High Sheriffs among us And so the Words Proceres Magnates Optimates Nobiles and such like were not in the Writers of the Saxons times restrain'd to Men of the highest rank then such as our Earls and Barons are now but to all Persons of the better sort tho' not of the highest rank not only to Patricians and those of the Senatorian order but to those also that were Equestris ordinis Excluding none but the Ignota capita or sine Nomine turba such as the Romans styled Plebeians Magnates Proceres are said to make the Stat. of Mortmain but we all know that the Parliament that made it consisted then of King Lords and Commons The great Charter made 17 of K. John appears by the body of the Charter it self to have been made per Regem Barones liberos Homines totius Regni so that it is most plain it was not made by the King and the Barons only as Mr. Seld. observes in his Tit. of Honour fol. 709. and there he refers to the Close Rolle 17 Johannis dorso memb 22 Yet K. H. 3. speaking of this Meeting calls it Baronagium Angliae and rot claus 28 H. 3. Pars unica membr 12. dorso it is call'd Parliamentum de Runni-meade quod fuit inter Dominum Regem Johannem Barones suos Angliae As for the other gross mistake That the Power of making Laws rests only in the King as Sir Robert Filmer would have it which he proves from the Titles of Acts of Parliament and the Forms of those Acts being by way of Charter and Grant from our Kings in ancient times as that of Magna Charta DOMINVS REX CONCESSIT and the Stat. De donis conditionalibus DOMINVS REX statuit sure he was no Lawyer that used this Argument and he never read the Prince's Case Nor Sir E. C. 2. Inst. nor shall I need to labour in the consutation of this Errour the fallacy of it being so well known to every Man that wears a Gown As for that Stat of Mag. Char. whereby the King only seems to speak and all that is ordain'd by that Stat. runs in the language of the King's Concessions only yet we know the Stat. of 15 E. 3. c. 1. which confirms it says of it that it was ordain'd by the King Lords and Commons The Stat. of 28 E. 1. c. 8. and c. 13. hath these words viz. The King hath granted unto his People that they shall have Election of their Sheriffs every year if they list One would take this to be a most gracious Liberty and an high Condescension if it should be granted now adays And our Innovators would be apt to conclude from the words of this Act and from the Penning of it that the People once had this mighty Priviledge meerly as a Boon from the King and by virtue of his Grant. Whereas there is nothing more certain and clear than that the Freeholders who are often call'd the People and are the true Proprietors of the Nation and Land had originally and from the very first Constitution of the Nation the Election not only of all Sheriffs but of all other Magistrates Civil or Military that had any Authority over them under the King so that they had a mighty Freedom in the very Constitution of the Nation and this overthrows all the wild Fancies of Sir Robert Filmer and Dr. Heylin and some later Doctors as if all were deriv'd from meer Grace and Bounty and many other Deductions might be made from the knowledge of this The Freeholders had originally the Election of the Conservators of the Peace who are become out of date by introducing our present Justices of Peace who have their Power not by the Elect. of the Freeholders or are they of their Nomination as anciently but nominated by the King and have their Power by special Commission under the great Seal and how and by what means and in what tempered times this came about and that this freedom was gain'd from the Freeholders of England you may read in Mr. Lambard in his Eirenarcha fol. 16. 19. 20. 147. It was done by Act of Parliament in the beginning of K. E. 3d and in his Infancy when his Mother Q. Isabel ruled all The Freeholders originally and from all antiquity did likewise by Writ at the County-Court styled in pleno Folkmote chuse the Heretochii What were those that sounds like a strange word I will imitate our Norman or English Translators in the translation of the Saxon Annals and render it into the English style you may by that rule call them Lords Lieutenants or Deputy Lieutenants for the Saxon Laws tell you their duty or office they were the Ductores Exercitus See Lamb. de priscis Anglor Legibus in his ch de