you urge as necessary and Gospel Truths and because all your Indifferences Prayers and Preachings have been and are more for advancing your own Interest and Factions to hinderance of a blessed Peace betwixt the Two Nations than for the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I therefore upon these Principles do not at all fear that which ye call the dreadful Sentence of Excommunication For either ye are infallible in your Proceedings and Judgments or ye are fallible the first I think you will not arrogate to your selves for that were the highest Point of Popery albeit ye often practise in Deeds what ye deny in Words And your so frequent Changes will prove it to be evidently false If ye be fallible I am not much afraid of your fallible Sentence since I have so great reason to think ye actually erre by urging me to swear That Presbyterian Government as ye use it is the only Government which Christ hath established in his Church So that of late ye have made it the 3d Mark of the true Kirk I acknowledge and receive those words of our Saviour which ye act Tell the Kirk and if he will not hear the Kirk let him be to thee as a Heathen But I do not approve your Interpretation and Application of them for by this means ye assume unto your selves the Name of the whole Kirk as if all others who did not approve your Discipline were false Kirks and thereby ye furnish too strong an Argument to the Papists against Luther and other Reformers who would not hear nor obey the Papistical Kirk albeit there was no other Kirk nor Congregation then setled Therefore I care no more for your Excommunication than you care for the Popes And whereas ye pretend to shew that Presbyterian Government is established by the Word of God citing 1 Tim. 4. 14. May not I as justly cite to you the Chapter immediately going before where the Apostle speaks of the Office and Duty of Bishops and to give you Two for One. He resumes also the same words in the first to Titus which if they be taken according to the words may be as strong an Argument for the Bishops but such Arguments as these are meer Logomachies every one throwing the Word of God to their own Sense and Interest And because ye find the word of Presbytery once in the Scripture ye think ye have won the Point which would make no more for you than for the Papists who call their Priests Presbyters and the Congregation of their Presbytery Ye turn the word Presbyter an Elder and in your Presbytery which should be turned Eldership as it is in my own House Bible printed Anno 1630. as being derived from Presbytery ye admit only Ministers whereas according to the Word they should be all Elders By which it may appear that ye could only act that one place for your selves in the whole Word of God which makes more against you than for you I do not question about Names I doubt only about the thing ye intend by it for I can see no Authority neither in the Word of God nor in the practise of any Kirk as ye use it nor in any approved Author and if you did esteem so much of the Kirk as ye would have me do of your Presbytery ye ought not to have given me such ensample by protesting against the late National Assembly which is the Supream Representative Body of the Kirk in this Land Whereby your selves are liable to censure as Schismaticks and therefore have no power to censure me I acknowledge God is honoured by Oaths yet that must receive some limitation they must be taken in Judgment in Truth and upon necessity Now I appeal to your own Consciences whether you have observed these Conditions in your urging so many dreadful Oaths upon this miserable Nation these years by-past not only in the Covenant but in your Solemn League with your Presbyterian Brethren of England Whereby ye inforced all Men to swear to establish by Arms that Tyranny there as ye had done here how many have ye inforced by threatning and execution of your Kirk-Censure and the severity of the Civil Law falling upon them depriving Men of their Estates to swear and subscribe to all ye enjoyned or could invent albeit ye knew them to be of far contrary Judgment Wherein ye did imitate that feigned and false Mother who before Solomon was contented to have the Child divided by which her Hypocrisie was found out by that most wise Prince By which means ye have made this Nation guilty of horrible Perjury besides many other heynous sins I wish to God ye had remembred or would yet remember how much ye cryed out against the Tyranny of Bishops when they were urging some of your number who were refractory to Episcopacy that there should be had some regard to tender Consciences which were of another Judgment But so soon as ye got the Power into your hands neither Minister nor Laird Man Woman nor Child was spared nor no regard had unto them whatever Quality or Condition they were of all were forced not only to obey you but which is the greatest Point of Tyranny over Mens Consciences they were made to swear that they thought as you would have them albeit to your own knowledge many thought the contrary But there was no regard you would have it so to satisfie your ambition and crooked ends Ye abhorred and detested the Title of Lords in the Bishops but ye have usurped without the Name the Power of Popes which was so much the more inconsequential in you that professing and shewing your selves so often fallible yet ye exacted one infallible Obedience Wherein if you have observed Christs Rule which commands That whatsoever we would that Men should do unto us we should do the same to them ye have reason to look to it and if ye had reason to complain of the Bishops I and many others have had much more reason to complain of you for your little finger hath been heavier than all their hands as woful Experience hath shewed I wonder that ye should write that Presbyterian Government is established by Law in England and that which ye call Independency is only tolerated and connived at this is a matter of Fact well known that Presbyterians have no power of censuring or forcing Men to swear as ye do assume to your selves The Common-wealth of England will never permit such a Tyramy to be established for that were to involve themselves in a greater slavery of Conscience than they were in before under the Bishops Both Reason amd Experience plead against you in this matter and therefore you must pardon me if I do not give credit to your bare Relation without some more proof Whereas you accuse me of Blasphemy for calling your Summons Libels and Pasquills c. because in them ye cited the Word of God I wonder much of your rashness in Judgment that you cannot discern between your
executed and the Soldiers committed great outrages Sir Randâ—l Crew Chief Justice not favouring the Loan was put out of his Place and Sir Nicholas Hide who drew the Dukes Answer in Parliament was preferred to be the Chief Justice The Bishop of Lineoln for speaking words against the Government and for countenancing Non-Conformists was complained of by Sir John Lamb and others and they Informed That Fasts were kept and Money Collected by the Puritans for the Palatinat and that the Bishop would not proceed against them The Bishop got a Copy of the Informations against him Bishop Laud was Jealous that Lincoln Endeavour'd to be reconciled to the Duke Six thousand English in service with the States were commanded thence under General Morgan to join with the King of Denmark Some who refused to lend Money to the King were forced to Serve in the Kings Ships then going forth and refusers in the Country were some of them Committed and the meaner sort pressed to serve as Soldiers Dr. Sibthorp published a Sermon Preached by him to Promote the Kings Affairs wherein he delivered his Opinion That the King might make Laws and do whatsoever pleaseth him Dr. Mainwaring Preached the same Divinity and highly against the power of Parliaments The Papists were forward in the Loan and the Puritans were Recusants in it Abount this time the Earl of Denbigh had one hundred Sayl of Ships under his command in our Seas but his Excellency having no Commission to Fight suffer'd divers English Vessels to be taken away by our Enemies in his view without Rescue by their Countrymen Some Ships taken for Prize being brought before him as Admiral it was wondred at that almost all of them were by him adjudged to be no Prize and so released but one Captain pursued a released Ship and took her again brought her to London and in the Admiralty she was adjudged Prize and he Enjoyed the benefit whatever the Earl of Denbigh did before Distastes and Jealousies were raised about the Government of the Queens Family wherein the King held himself traduced by some French Servants who said that the King bad nothing to do with them he being an Heretick The Queen was brought to Insist upon it as part of the Articles that She should name all Her Servants and some unkindness arose upon it The King was also distasted That her Priests made the Queen to walk to Tyburn on Pennance Upon these passages the King dismist and sent back into France all the Queens French retinue acquainting the French King with it and Excusing it to him but it was ill resented in France and by them held contrary to the Articles of Marriage The Jarring with France brake out to an open War which was fomented by an Abbot here in disfavour with Cardinal Richlieu to put an affront upon the Cardinal and Mr. Walter Mountague Endeavoured to further it and the pretence was to assist those of the Religion in France Our King took that ground and the denial of Count Mansfields Men to land in France and the influence of the Councils of the House of Austria upon those of France and the Imbargo of our Merchants Ships there sufficient causes for a War The Duke of Bucks is appointed Admiral and General of the Sea and Land Forces prepared against France And hath power to make Knights c. He comes before Rochel with one hundred Sayl of Ships and desires them to joyn with him in behalf of the Protestants in France but the Rochellers returning thanks to our King and to the Duke answered That they were bound by Vnion and Oath not to do any thing without the consent of the rest of the Religion The Duke was advised to land his Men at the Isle of Oleron which was weak and ill provided and not at the Isle of Rea which was strong and well provided but he altered his Design and Sailed to Rea and there landed Twelve hundred Men whom the French encountred but the English forced their way and all the Army was landed in the Island Yet did they not take their advantage against the French but suffered the Governor to have five days to recover his loss and to get in as he did new Forces and Provisions in the mean time the Duke published a Manifesto of the Causes of this War particularly the King of France his Imploying our Ships against Rochel contrary to his promise and agreement The Gentlemen here who refused to pay the Loan were confined into other Counties and in close Imprisonment and some of them in common Goals Sir John Elliot one of them in a Petition to the King sets forth the Illegality of the Loan or of any Tax without Parliament taking this way to Inform the King what his Councel did not and he alledgeth his Conscience not to submit to it and prays his liberty but could not obtain it Sir Peter Haiman another refuser was sent upon an Errand as far as the Palatinate The Arch-Bishop Abbot was suspended for refusing to licence Dr. Sibthorps Book a Sermon for Absolute Power and a Commission was granted to several Bishops to exercise the Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction Of all which proceedings touching himself the Archbishop left a grave and ingenious Narrative which may be read at large in Rushworths Collections Five of the Imprisoned Gentlemen by Habeas Corpus were brought to the Kings Bench and by their Councel Assigned took Exceptions to the Return for that it had not the cause of their Commitment but of their detainer in Prison per speciale Mandatum Regis which is no particular cause and the Law being most tender of the Subjects Liberty Noy Selden Brampston Calthrope and others who were of Councel for the Prisoners prayed they might be Released and Discharged Heath the Kings Attourney at another Day argued in Maintenance of the Return Hide chief Justice declared the Opinion of the Court That the Return was Positive and Absolute by the Kings special command and the signification of it by the Lords of the Council is only to inform the Court. And that the Habeas Corpus is not to return the Cause of the Imprisonment but of the detention in Prison that the matter of this Return is sufficient and the Court is not to examine the truth of the Return but must take it as it is So the Prisoners were Remaunded The Report of this Case may be found in Rushworths Collections Anno 1627 The King resolves to send supplies to the Isle of Rea and Souldiers and Mariners are press'd for that purpose but many of them not liking the business run away from their Conductors hereupon it was resolved by all the Judges That If one be retained to serve the King beyond Seas and press money deliver'd to him and by Indenture he be deliver'd to a Conductor to lead him to the Port where he is to be shipped and he run away from the Conductor that this it Felony by the Statutes 7 H. 7. ch
Opinions in these words We are of Opinion that when the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger Your Majesty may by Writ under the Great Seal of England Command all Your Subjects of this Your Kingdom at their Charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victual and Ammunition and for such time as Your Majesty shall think fit for the defence and safeguard of the Kingdom from such peril and danger And that by Law Your Majesty may compel the doing thereof in case of refusal or refractoriness And we are also of Opinion that in such case Your Majesty is the sole Judge both of the dangers and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided This Opinion was Signed by Davenport Denham Hatton Jones Croke Trever Bramston Finch Vernon Berkley Crawley Weston This Opinion and Subscription of the Judges was Inrolled in all the Courts of Westminster and much distasted many Gentlemen of the Country and of their own Profession as a thing Extrajudicial unusual and of very ill consequence in this great Business or in any other The King upon this Opinion of his Judges gave order for proceeding against Hampden in the Exchequer where he pleaded and the King's Council demurring the Point in Law came to be argued for the King by his Council and for Hamden by his Council and afterwards the Judges particularly argued this great Point at the Bench and all of them except Hutton and Croke argued and gave their Judgments for the King The Arguments both at the Bar and Bench were full ofrare and excellent Learning especially in matter of Record and History but they are too voluminous to be here inserted Judge Croke of whom I speak knowingly was resolved to deliver his Opinion for the King and to that end had prepared his Argument Yet a few days before he was to argue upon Discourse with some of his nearest Relations and most serious thoughts of this business and being heartned by his Lady who was a very good and pious woman and told her husband upon this occasion That she hoped he would doe nothing against his Conscience for fear of any danger or prejudice to him or his Family and that she would be contented to suffer want or any misery with him rather than be an occasion for him to doe or say any thing against his Judgment and Conscience Upon these and many the like Incouragements but chiefly upon his better thoughts he suddenly altered his Purpose and Arguments and when it came to his turn contrary to expectation he argued and declared his Opinion against the King But Hampden and many others of Quality and Interest in their Countries were unsatisfied with this Judgment and continued to the utmost of their power in opposition to it yet could not at that time give any further stop or hinderance to the prosecution of the business of Ship-money but it remained Alta mente repostum The Earl of Arundel was sent Ambassador to the new Emperor Ferdinand the Third where he stayed and treated some Months about the restitution of the King's Nephew the Prince Elector but being opposed by the Duke of Bavaria who had gotten possession of part of the Palsegrave's Territories and by others after their Interest and being discontented at the delays they put upon him in the Treaty at the Dyet the Ambassador without taking any leave or effecting any thing for which he was sent returned home in much distaste and choller Anno 1637. Car. 13 The Sickness began to increase in London which caused many to post into the Country and kept others from coming to Town and it was thought fit to adjourn part of the Term. Three Delinquents were sentenced in the Star-Chamber Mr. Burton a Divine for writing and printing two smart and sharp Tracts against Episcopacy Doctor Bastwick a Physician for writing Books reproachfull against the Prelates particularly against Archbishop Laud and Bishop Juxton And in his Answer to the Information against him in the Star-chamber he hath this Passage Anno 1637 That the Prelates are Invaders of the King's Prerogative Royal Contemners and Despisers of the holy Scriptures Advancers of Popery Superstition Idolatry and Prophaneness Also they abuse the King's Authority to the Oppression of his loyalest Subjects and therein exercise great Cruelty Tyranny and Injustice and in execution of those impious Performances they shew neither wit honesty nor temperance Nor are they either Servants of God or of the King but of the Devil being Enemies of God and the King and of every living thing that is good All which the said Dr. Bastwick is ready to maintain c. None of the Doctors friends could prevail with him to expunge this and other the like Passages out of his Answer The third Defendant was Mr. Prynn of Lincolns-Inn a Barrister at Law for writing a Book scandalous to the King and Church who had been there censured before and was now fined five thousand pounds to loose the remainder of his Ears on the Pillory to be stygmatized on both Cheeks with an S. for Schismatick and to be perpetually imprisoned in Caernarvan Castle Burton and Bastwick were fined five thousand pounds apiece to loose their Ears in the Pillory and to be imprisoned the one in Launceston Castle and the other in Lancaster Castle The Prince Elector and his Brother Prince Rupert departed into Holland and having gotten together a small Army marched into Westphalia and besieged Limgea but was fought with by the Emperor's General Halisfeild his Army discomfited two thousand of them slain and his brother Prince Rupert and the Lord Craven taken Prisoners himself hardly escaping by flight The Bishop of Lincoln was brought to a Sentence in the Star-chamber for disloyal words charged to be spoken by him against the King and for suborning Witnesses to conceal a Truth and to stifle a Crime He was at last fined ten thousand pounds committed to the Tower during pleasure suspended ab Officio Beneficio and referred to the High Commission Court for that which concerned their Jurisdiction Mr. Osbaldston was also heavily sentenced in the Star-chamber upon the Business of the Bishop of Lincoln but he got out of the way leaving a Paper in his Study with this Inscription That Lambert Osbaldston was gone beyond Canterbury But Canterbury after this Sentence sends this Warrant to the King's Sollicitor Mr. Sollicitor It is his Majestie 's pleasure that you prepare a Commission to the Prebendaries of the Collegiate Church of Westminster authorising them to keep their Audits and other Capitular Meetings at their usual times to treat and compound with the Tenants for Leases and to pass the same accordingly choose Officers confirm and execute all other lawful Acts for the good and benefit of the College and the said Prebendaries And to take out the Common or Chapter Seal for sealing such Leases and Grants as
Parliament being in great danger by reason of the Malignant party flocking up to London upon some design at the breach of the Treaty and most of them armed with Daggers and Pistols in their Pockets A Committee appointed to confer with the Common Council of London concerning the Security of the Parliament and Kingdom and to report with speed 5. The Streets were full of Bonefires this being the Gunpowder Treason day 6. The Commons concurred with the Lords that the number of the persons to be excepted from pardon should be seven and Voted three of those seven to be the Lord Digby the Earl of Newcastle and Sir Marmaduke Langdale Letters from the Gentlemen of the four Northern Counties that upon Conference with Lieutenant General Cromwel it was held necessary to have twelve hundred Foot in Berwick and six hundred Foot in Carlisle and two Regiments of Horse six hundred in a Regiment to suppress any insurrection and the Moss-troupers They desire in regard of the great sufferings of those Counties that these Forces may be maintained at the general charge of the Kingdom these being frontier Garrisons and those Counties will be willing to pay their proportions With these Letters came a Petition Complaining of the want of bread in those Counties that many Gentlemen of quality and their Families had no other drink but Water of imprisoning their persons dispeopling their Towns destroying their Corn and Goods killing their Neighbors and Country-men driving away their Cattle compelling all betwixt the Age of sixty and sixteen to bear Arms against the Parliament Of bringing in to this Kingdom a foreign Nation and delivering into the Scots hands the two considerable places of Berwick and Carlisle that many of the actors in that horrid design are returned to their homes to plot new Treasons They press for justice against those Delinquents and a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to be sent down for trial of them The House past no Vote upon this letter and Petition Letters from St. Albans of a day appointed for the meeting of the Officers of the Army and that the cry of free-quarter was so great in the ears of the Souldiers that it was to be feared it would occasion some distemper among them By this Petition and by these Letters you may take notice of the miserable effects of Civil War and of the condition of even the victors to be continued full of fears and dangers to themselves A Complaint came against the ill management of the Siege before Pontefract by Sir Henry Cholmely and Lieutenant General Cromwel was come thither 7. Orders touching the winter guard of Ships Vote That Sir Richard Greenvile Judge Jenkins Sir Francis Doddington Sir John Winter should be the rest of the seven Persons excepted from Pardon Letters that Major General Lambert with three Regiments of Horse was still in Scotland and that the well affected there could not act securely without them that they quarter upon the contrary Party Letters from the Hague that the Prince was there sick of the small Pox and that his Seamen were much discontented that the Lord Willoughby and Sir William Batten had left him 8. Upon Letters from Colonel Welden Governor of Plymouth Orders for pay for that Garrison The consideration of the Garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle referred to the Committee of Derby-House and orders for Money for disbanding supernumerary Forces Vote that no more than seven Persons should be excepted from Pardon An Ordinance past both Houses for pay of their Guards Several Lords and Commons came from the Treaty the Earl of Northumberland M r Pierrepoint and M r Holles staid behind divers also of the Kings people came away His Majesty made a further condescention touching the Church but did stick at the word Bishop yet was content he should be in the condition only of a Primer Presbyter and was not willing Bishops lands should be sold Letters from Ireland of the desperate condition of that Kingdom and the distress of Dublin by the Lord Ormonds joyning with the Rebels Letters from St. Albans that the general Council of the Army met and the Officers expressed a great sence of the odium cast upon the Army as they suspect by design to hinder their pay that they might be forced to take free-quarter 9. Upon jealousie of a design to surprise the Tower order that the Committee of the Tower do advise with the Lord Mayor concerning the security thereof and have power to remove and appoint what Guards they please there Order for an Ordinance to authorize the several Committees in the Counties to receive security of all the Delinquents in the respective Counties who have not compounded not to go above five Miles from their dwellings not to act any thing prejudicial to the Parliament and such as shall refuse this to be secured by the Committees The Commissioners returned from the Isle of Wight made report to the House of all their transactions in the Treaty and of the Kings last Concessions touching the Church That he doth not intend to make any more new Bishops during three years nor that after the three years the power of Ordination should be practised in the old manner but with consent that Bishops shall not receive any into Holy Orders without the consent of a limited number of Presbyters to be chosen in such manner as shall be agreed by his Majesty and the two Houses That his Majesty purposed after the agreement and within the three years to have a consultation with the Assembly of Divines twenty being added of his Majesties nomination for the settlement of the Church Government That his Majesty will not insist upon any provision for continuance of the Book of Common Prayer in his Majesties Chappel for himself and his Houshold but declares that he intends to use some other set form of Divine Service That he consents to Acts to be passed for a further course and more strict to prevent the saying and hearing of Mass in the Court or elsewhere That in what he hath not consented he is not really satisfied in conscience and hopes his two Houses will not put further pressures of so tender a nature upon him The Commissioners had the thanks of the House for their good service in the Treaty and a day set to debate upon his Majesties final answer Orders for relief of the maimed Souldiers and for disbanding of Supernumerary Forces 10. Ordinance for repaying mony advanced for the Treaty Order for mony for payment of the Horse-guards of the Parliament Vote that the Lords Goring Capel Loughborough the Earl of Holland Major General Laugherne and Sir John Owen shall be banished out of the Kingdom 11. Vote that his Majesties answer to the discipline of the Church and as to the continuing of Bishops is unsatisfactory The like concerning his laying aside the Common Frayer for himself and his own family The like concerning his mentioning to
Wilde are a person thus qualified and very well deserving from the Common-wealth they have thought fit to place you in one of the highest Seats of Judicature and have Ordained you to be Lord Chief Baron of this Court The freedom of this choice without seeking or other means for promotion this publick consent for your preferment cannot but bring much satisfaction to your own conscience and encouragement to your endeavours against all burdens and difficulties which attend so great and weighty and Imployment Custom and the due Solemnity of this work and the honour of that Authority by which we meet requires something to be said upon this occasion and the Commands of my Lords have cast it upon me for which reasons though I acknowledge my unfitness to speak upon this subject yet I presume upon a fair and favourable interpretation I shall borrow a little part of your time in speaking of the antiquity of this Court and of your Office in it and of the dignity and duty of your place For the Antiquity of this Court my Lord Coke in his Fifth Report and 9 Edward 4. fol. 53. and other Books affirm that the four Courts in Westminster-Hall are of great antiquity and that no man can tell which of them is most antient But if you Credit Lambert in his Archeion fol. 28. this Court was erected here by William the Conqueror after the pattern of his Exchequer in Normandy and for proof hereof he cites Gervasius Tilburicusis but under correction I find in this Author a doubt made by himself whether this Court were not in the time of the English Kings and if so it was before W. 1. time Lambert saith in the same place that this Court is of great Antiquity and the orders and customs of it not to be disobeyed Gervase of Tilbury asserts the great Antiquity and Customs of it and if you reckon the antiquity and customs as we must from the time of his Book which was dedicated to Henry the Second and the Author ackowledgeth that he had conference with the Bishop of Winchester who was son to the Conqueror's sister this Court must be before the Conquest or it will hardly deserve the words great antiquity and Customs when Gervase of Tilbury did write being so near the Conquest Lambert who citeth him also observes that the Exchequer in Normandy was the Soveraign Court for administration of Justice and that it differeth not a little from the Exchequer here the less reason under his favour to have been a pattern for it I find in rot Normanniae 2 Johan a Writ Baronibus de Scaccario in Normannia and the word Baron being Saxon not likely to be brought out of France hither and in France this kind of Court in all the Parliaments is called La Chambre des finances as may be seen in Pasquier recherches and Haillan and so it is called in Normandy at this day the alteration being made there by Lewis the 12. and if we credit him that derives the word Scaccarium from the Saxon words Schats for treasure and Zecherie an Office the word is more likely to be fetched out of England into Normandy than the contrary My Lord Coke in his preface to the Third Report citeth Will. de Rovill his Comment upon the Grand Customier of Normandy and it is in the beginning of it that those Customs were taken out of the Laws of England about the time of Edward the Confessor who he saith was harum legum lator And with this agree Seldens Duello fol. 22. Cambden the Book de antiquis Britanniae legibus and others who also hold that before the Conquest we had Escheats tenures reliefes and Sheriffs in England the principal business of this Court The Register the antient Book of our Law hath divers Writs that were in use before the time of W. 1. and many of the most antient of them are directed The saurario Baronibus de Scaccario and the Mirror of Justices which my Lord Coke saith in his preface to the Tenth Report was for the most part written before the Conquest speaks of this Court and of the deux Chivalier qui solient estre appellez Barons in this Book and in the Register and in the black Book here where there is mention of the Exchequer is also mention of the Barons the principal Judges of the Court. But with this matter I have troubled you too long what hath been said upon it was to clear a mistake touching the Antiquity of this Court and for the honour of our Law and of this Court and of your Office in it being so antient as can scarce be parallell'd in any other Nation With the Antiquity of your Office there hath always gone along great dignity and honour Sir Roger Owen in his manuscript discourseth plentifully on this subject and cites Prudentius who calleth Judges the great lights of the Sphere and Symmachus who stiles them the better part of mankind Indeed in all Nations and times great reverence and respect hath been deservedly given to them we find the Judges often named Lords and Barons in our Books of Law and Records as 14 Henry 4. fol. 6. recites that it was determined for Law in temps Monseigneur Robert Thorpe and in the Stat. 21. R. 2. cap. 12. mention is of my Lord Wi. Rickel who was a puisne Judge of the Common-Pleas the like is in many other places of our Year-Books and Records When magna Charta was made it seems that the Barons of the Exchequer and the Kings Justices were held for sufficient Peers of Barons On this occasion we may observe amongst many others in the Lieger-Book of the Abbey of Peterburgh two notable Records of fines levyed the one 29 Henry 2. before divers Bishops and Ranulpho de Glanvill Justiciario domini Regis Richardo Thesaurar W. Maldunt Camerar and divers others coram aliis Baronibus ibi tum praesentibus And another 6 R. 1. before the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Bishops aliis Baronibus as Justices of the Common-Pleas Hoveden P. 702. noteth of the great Chancellor in R. 1. 's time who was Custos Regni in the Kings absence nihil operari voluit in regimine regni nisi per voluntatem consensum sociorum suorum assignatorum per consilium Baronum scaccarii In these and many the like places the word Baron cannot signifie that meaning wherein it was sometimes taken of the Saxon Idiom for a free-holder as Barones London the Freemen of London Barones quinque portuum the Freemen of the Cinque Ports and Court Baron the free-Suitors Court but it must be taken in the places before cited for the name of Dignity and Title in this Kingdom which hath been so antient and was and is of so great honour and esteem amongst us You see what Dignity and Honours and deservedly the custom of this Nation affords unto their Judges Aristotle in his Politicks tells us that the Magistrate is set above the People
2. and some others in Latine R. 2. H. 4. H. 5. and H. 6. used to write their Letters in French and some of our Pleadings are in French and in the Common-Pleas to our time But Sir our Law it Lex non scripta I mean our Common-Law and our Statutes Records and Books which are written in French are no Argument that therefore the Original of our Laws is from France but they were in being before any of the French Language was in our Laws Fortescue writes That the English kept their Accounts in French yet doubtless they had Accounts here and Revenues before the French Language was in use here My Lord Cooke saith That the Conqueror taught the English the Norman Terms of Hawking Hunting Gaming c. yet no doubt but that these Recreations were in use with us before his time And though D. William or any other of our Kings before or after his time did bring in the French Tongue amongst us yet that is no Argument that he or they did change or introduce our Laws which undoubtedly were here long before those times and some of them when the French Tongue was so much in use here were Translated Written and Pleaded and Recorded in the French Tongue yet remained the same Laws still And from that great Vse of the French Tongue here it was that the Reporters of our Law-Cases and Judgments which were in those times did write their Reports in French which was the pure French in that time though mixt with some words of Art Those Terms of Art were taken many of them from the Saxon Tongue as may be seen by them yet used And the Reporters of later times and our Students at this day use to take their Notes in French following the old Reports which they had studied and the old French which as in other Languages by time came to be varied I shall not deny but that some Monks in elder times and some Clerks and Officers might have a Cunning for their private Honour and Profit to keep up a Mystery to have as much as they could of our Laws to be in a kind of Mystery to the Vulgar to be the less understood by them But the Councellors at Law and Judges can have no advantage by it but perhaps it would be found that the Law being in English and generally more understood yet not sufficiently would occasion the more Suits And possibly there may be something of the like nature as to the Court-hand yet if the more common Hands were used in our Law-writings they would be the more subject to change as the English and other Languages are but not the Latine Surely the French Tongue used in our Reports and Law-Books deserves not to be so enviously decried as it is by Polydore Aliott Daniel Hottoman Cowel and other Censurers But Mr. Speaker if I have been tedious I humbly ask your pardon and have the more hopes to obtain it from so many worthy English Gentle-men when that which I have said was chiefly in vindication of their own Native Laws unto which I held my self the more obliged by the duty of my Profession and I account it an honour to me to be a Lawyer As to the Debate and Matter of the Act now before you I have delivered no Opinion against it nor do I think it reasonable that the Generality of the People of England should by an implicit Faith depend upon the knowledge of others in that which concerns them most of all It was the Romish Policy to keep them in ignorance of Matters pertaining to their Souls health let them not be in ignorance of Matters pertaining to their Bodies Estates and all their worldly Comfort It is not unreasonable that the Law should be in that Language which may best be understood by those whose Lives and Fortunes are subject to it and are to be governed by it Moses read all the Laws openly before the People in their Mother-Tongue God directed him to write it and to expound it to the People in their own Native Language that what concerned their Lives Liberties and Estates might be made known unto them in the most perspicuous way The Laws of the Eastern Nations were in their proper Tongue The Laws at Constantinople were in Greek at Rome in Latine in France Spain Germany Sueden Denmark and other Nations their Laws are Published in their Native Idiom For your own Countrey there is no man that can read the Saxon Character but may find the Laws of your Ancestors yet extant in the English Tongue D. William himself commanded the Laws to be proclaimed in English that none might pretend Ignorance of them It was the Judgment of the Parliament 36 E. 3. That Pleadings should be in English and in the Reigns of those Kings when our Statutes were enrolled in French and English yet then the Sheriffs in their several Counties were to proclaim them in English I shall conclude with a Complaint of what I have met with abroad from some Military Persons nothing but Scoffs and Invectives against our Law and Threats to take it away but the Law is above the reach of those Weapons which at one time or another will return upon those that use them Solid Arguments strong Reasons and Authorities are more fit for confutation of any Error and satisfaction of different Judgments When the Emperor took a Bishop in compleat Armor in a Battel he sent the Armor to the Pope with this Word Haeccine sunt vestes silii tui So may I say to those Gentlemen abroad as to their Railings Taunts and Threats against the Law Haeccine sunt Argumenta horum Antinomianorum They will be found of no force but recoyling Arms. Nor is it ingenious or prudent for Englishmen to deprave their Birthright the Laws of their own Countrey But to return to the Matter in Debate I can find neither strangeness nor foresee great inconvenience by passing of this Act and therefore if the House shall think fit to have the Question put for the passing of it I am ready to give my Affirmative The Question being put It was unanimously carried That the Act should pass for turning the Law-Books and the Process and Proceedings in the Courts of Justice into English 23 Letters from Scotland of the Proceedings of the Army in Mining Edinburg-Castle and that part of the King's House there was burnt 25 Letters That the Scots Officers had sent to break off any Treaty of Accommodation and that they were to have a general Meeting for reconciling all Parties That among some Tories taken in Scotland one was an Elder of the Kirk who confessed the killing of some of the English being instigated by the Ministers That C. Monk had taken in the strong Castle of Roswel That the Scots were agreed amongst themselves and raising Forces to recruit their Army to 30000. 26 Letters That C. Axtel Governour of Kilkenny marched forth with about 800 Horse and Foot to relieve the Parliaments Garrison