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time, when though sixty-seven priests and Jesuits were then executed, and fifty-three banished, discovered and defeated in every enterprise; yet no sooner was one design made abortive, but they presently hatched and attempted another, and so went on all her days; and how good they have been at it since, through the three succeeding kings reigns to this very day, the St. Omer's Records, Kalendar of Newgate, and Parliament Rolls can fully tell you.] And with what horrid impudence [as in the Powder Treason, Paris and Irish massacres] they can out-face the fullest and clearest discoveries (though brought as now so undeniably out of their own bowels and so multiplied upon them, [witness their atheistical, astonishing, lying deaths, and those swarms of insolent and audacious papers, daily, like their fire-balls, flung amongst us, and which, like wild-fire, take place with some persons, as in their houses formerly] sometimes as though a Protestant plot to destroy them. And again, so hellishly and jesuitically subtle in managing their de signs [that, when the bare-faced Papist cannot do it, the Protestant in masquerade shall] the stratagem of this very day and above all to be watched against.) As, Coleman's declaration for the church of England, at that very time when they so designed its extirpation; being, as you will also find, the very devilism of Savage and other priests in Queen Elisabeth's time; who, the better to lull in security, and to cover Babington's treasons in killing the queen, which they had engaged him and others at that time to perpetrate, do at the same time write a book, exhorting the Papists in England to attempt nothing against their prince, and to use only the Christian weapons of tears, prayers, watching, and fasting. And, at another time, the better to divert the stroke so unavoidably coming upon them, they fall upon their old method to divide the Protestants among themselves; and therefore, putting on a vizard of conformity, cry loudly out against the Presbyterians, as being only a plot of their devising, who, under pretence of suppressing of Popery, have no other design than to cast down the mitre and the crown (being poor hearts so tender of heretical kings and bishops); so villainous are these miscreants, who, with their father the devil, can transform themselves into any shape to accomplish their ends, and accommodate their mischievous purposes.

Therefore, whether all true-hearted English Protestants, though of different forms and persuasious, as they value their bodies, souls, estates, posterities, religion, peace and prosperity of king and country, are not thoroughly engaged by all ways and means to preserve and deliver themselves from such a hellish and intolerable yoke and bondage; and in order thereto to preserve peace and union amongst themselves, so eminently struck at in this very juncture; without which it is not to be attained, and which the common enemy knows right well.

Query V. Whether for any pretending protestantism (after such undeniable demonstrations of their hellish and damnable plottings and actings, as before) having seen our cities and boroughs so often fired and refired, Sir Edmondbury Godfrey butchered, Coleman's and the treasurer's letters (so signally brought to light), two parliaments repeated votes, the kings reiterated proclamations, the publick fasts, and bishops prayers; who can now at last be made so drunk with the

cup of their fornications, and bewitched with their lying inchantments and forgeries; (so as giving the lye to king and parliament, and their own senses) to defraud and invalidate the witnesses, mince or deny the plot; and call it with them a Protestant or Presbyterian project, pleading for a Popish successor; ought to be esteemed others than betrayers of their king and country, runagadoes from their religion (if ever Protestants at all) and the worst of Papists; and that, whatever otherwise they might pretend, yet to be so marked and dealt with in city and country.

Query VI. Whether the Protestant interest in these nations, in the feeling sense of their most imminent danger, would, as one man, petition and beseech his majesty, as he tenders his own life and safety, the preservation of the Protestant religion, the lives and liberties of his people, security and peace of his kingdoms and governments; and to be secured not only from the restless attempts of such an inveterate, implacable enemy within us, but from the present threats, and great preparations, of a successful potent enemy without us: That he be not prevailed with by any, either to retard the parliament's sitting, or when sat, to hinder the passing of such good laws as may naturally tend to the common safety of these nations, and therein of his own person and Protestant religion.

Query VII. Whether it may not well become the wisdom of the parliament, at their next meeting (the better to secure the Protestant cause and interest, so eminently struck at in this juncture both at home and abroad) to petition his majesty not only for a right ordering of a Protestant league and association within ourselves in these three kingdoms, but to further and promote the same amongst all the Protestant princes and countries, as well within themselves, as one with another; as the most hopeful way to frustrate the usurping attempts not only of the old Pretender, but the new rampant designer to the universal monarchy, the better to inslave the bodies and souls of the nations.

THE

ANTIQUITY and DIGNITY of PARLIAMENTS,

WRITTEN BY SIR ROBERT COTTON.

Printed Anno Domini 1679. Folio. Containing thirteen pages.

That the Kings of England have been pleased, usually, to consult in the great Council of Marriage, Peace and War, with their Peers and Commons in Parliament.

To search so high as the Norman conquest, that is necessary to

lay down the form and government of those times, wherein state affairs were led in another form of publick councils: for the people wrought, under the sword of the first William and his followers, to a

subjected vassalage, and could not possess, in such assemblies, the right of their former liberties, division and power having mastered them, and none of their own nobility and heads being left, either of credit or fortunes.

What he retained not in providence (as the demesnes of the crown) or reserved in piety (as the maintainance of the church) he parted to those strangers that sailed along with him, in that bark of his adventure; leaving the natives for the most part (as appeareth in his survey) in no better condition than villanage: he moulded their customs to the nature of his own country, and forbare to grant the laws of holy Edward, so often called for.*

To supply his occasions of men, money, and provision, he ordered,† that all those, that enjoyed any fruit of his conquest, should hold their lands proportionable by so many knights fees of the crown, admitting them to enfeoff their followers, with such parts as they pleased of their own portions; which, to ease their charge, they did in his and his son's times, by two enfeoffments, the one de novo, the other de veteri.

This course provided him the body of the war; the money and provision was by headage assessed on the common people, at the consent of the lords, who held in all their seigniories such right of regality, that to their vassals, as Paris § saith, quot domini, tot tyranni, and proved to the king so great a curb, and restraint of power, that nothing fell into the care of his majesty after, more than to retrench the force of his aristocoited, that was in time like to strangle the monarchy.¶

Though others foresaw the mischiefs betimes, yet none attempted the remedy, until King John, whose over-hasty undertaking brought in these broils of the barons wars.

There needed not before this care, to advise with the commons in any publick assembly, when every man in England, by tenure, held himself to his great lord's will, whose presence was ever recognised in those great councils, and in whose assent his dependent tenant's consent was ever included.

Before this king's time then, we seek in vain for any commons called; they were ever called for making of laws, but not to consult touching war or peace: he first, as may be gathered (though darkly by the records) used their counsels and assents, in the sixth year of his reign.(a)

Here is the first summons on record to the peers or barons: tractatur de magnis et arduis negotiis: it was about a war of defence against the French, and at that time the commons were admitted. At this time that may fitly be gathered by this ordinance, provisum est communi assensu archiepiscoporum communium, baronium, et omnium fidelium nostrorum Angliæ quod novem milites per Angliam inveniend. de com. muni re.(b) And this was directed to all the sheriffs in England, the ancient use in publick laws.

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From this there is a break, until 18 Hen. III. where the next sum. mons extant is in a plea-roll of that year, but the ordinances are lost; from thence the record affords no light, until the 49th of the same king*, where then the summons to bishops, lords, knights and bur. gesses are much in manner, tho' not in matter, alike to the use of our times. This parliament was called to advise with the king, pro pace asseveranda & firmanda, they are the words; and where advice is required, consultation must be admitted.

To this king succeeds Edward I, his son, a wise, a just, and a fortunate prince: In his reign we have no light of any publick counsel in this kind, and so along to the fourth of his grandchild's reign, but what we borrow in the rolls of summons, wherein the form stood various according to the occasions†, until that grew constant in the form that is now about the entering of Rich. II; the journal-rolls being spoiled by the injury of time, or private ends.

The king, in the fifth of his reign, called a parliament, and therein advised with his lords and commons, for the suppressing Lluellin, Prince of Wales ‡; and, hearing that the French King intended to some pieces of his inheritance in France, summoned a parliament, ad tractandum, ordinandum, & favendum cum prælatis, proceribus, & aliis incolis regni quælibet hujusmodi periculis, & excogitatis militüs sic abjurand., inserting in the writ, that that was lex justissima provida circumspectione stabilita; that that which omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur, in the thirty-fourth of his reign, super ordinatione & stabilimento regni Scotia, he made the like convention §.

His son, the second Edward, pro solemnitate sponsalium & coronationis, consulted with his people in his first year; in his sixth year, super diversis negotiis Statum Regni & expeditione Guerram Scotia specialiter tangentibus, he assembled the state to advise; the like he did in his eighth year (a).

The French King having invaded Gascoigne, in the thirteenth year, the parliament was called, super ordinis negotiis statum Ducatus Gasconiæ tangentibus; and in the sixteenth to consult, ad refrænandum Scotorum obstinantiam & malitiam (b).

Before Edward the Third would resolve in his first year, whether peace or war should be with the Scots King, he summoned the peers and commons, super præmissis tractare et consilium impendere (c).

The chancellor, Anno 5, declareth from the king the cause of that assembly, and that was to consult and resolve, whether the king should proceed with France, for the recovery of his seigniories, by alliance of marriage or by war; and whether, to redress the disobedience of the Irish, he should go thither in person or no (d).

The year following he re-assembled his lords and commons, and required their advice, whether he should undertake the holy expedition (e) with the French King or no; the bishops and protectors of the clergy would not be present, as forbidden by the commons such coun

Claus. 49. Hen. III. in Dorso. † Ex Rot. in Dorso. Claus. 7. Edw. I. m. 3. in Dorso. Claus. 1. 19. m. Claus. 6. 3. m. Claus. 8. s. m. (c) Edw. III. Claus. 1. (d) Rot. Parl. 5.

Parl. in Archivis London. Claus. 5. Edw. I. § Claus. 34. Edw. I. in Dorso. (a) Edw. II. Claus 13. m. 13. in Dorso. (b) Claus. 16. m. 27. (e) To fight the Turks, and recover the Holy Land.

sels; the peers and commons consult, applauding the religious and princely forwardness of their sovereign to this hard enterprise; but humbly advise forbearance this year, for urgent reasons *.

The same year (though another sessions) the king demanded the advice of his people, whether he should pass into France, to an interview, as was desired, for the expediting the treaty of marriage. The prelates by themselves, and the earls and barons by themselves, and the knights of the shires by themselves, consult a-part (for so is the records) and in the end resolved, that, to prevent some dangers likely to arise from the north, it would please the king to forbear his journey, and to draw towards those parts where the perils were feared, his presence being the best prevention; which advice he followed.

In the following parliament at York, the king sheweth, how, by their former advice, he had drawn himself towards the north-parts, and now again he had assembled them, to advise further for his prcceedings. To which the lords and commons, having consulted a-part, pray further time to resolve, until a full assembly of the state; to which the king granting, adjourneth that sessions.

At their next meeting, they are charged upon their allegiance and faith, to give the king their best advice t. The peers and commons (consulting a-part) delivered their opinions, and so that parliament ended.

In the thirteenth year, the grandees and commons are called to consult and advise, how the domestick quiet may be perserved, the marshes of Scotland defended, and the sea scoured from enemies; the peers and commons (having a-part consulted) the commons, desiring not to be charged to counsel in things, des queux ils neut pas Cognisaux, answer, that the guardians of the shire, assisted by the knights, may effect the first (if pardons of felony be not granted) the care of the marshes they humbly leave to the king and council; and, for the safeguard of the seas, they wish that the Cinqueports and maritime-towns (discharged, for the most part, from many burthens of inland-parts) may have that left to their charge and care; and that such, as have lands near the sea-coasts, be commanded to reside in those possessions. The parliament is the same year re-assembled to advise, De expeditione Guerra in partibus transmarinis ||. At this assembly ordinances are made for provision of ships, arraigning men for the marshes, and defence of the isle of Jersey, naming such in the record, as they conceived for the employments.

The next year, De la Poole accounteth the expences of the war; a new aid is granted, and by several committees (in which divers were named that were not peers of parliament) the safeguard of the seas, and defence of the borders, are consulted of §.

In the fifteenth year, Assensu prælatorum, procerum, & aliorum de consilio, the king's passage into France is resolved of (a).

In Anno 17, Badlesmore, in the place of the chancellor, declareth

Parl. 6. Edw. III. † Rot. Parl. 6. Edw. III. Sess. 2. m. 6. 2. Parl. 7. Edw. III. m. 6. Rot. Parl. 13 Edw. III. Sess. 2. Edw. III. (a) Parl. 17. Edw. III.

Rot. 7. Edw. III. Sess. Parl. 14 Edw. III. Parl. 15

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