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tons, he did deliver the realm to men more humble and fimple, of the counties adjoining, to wit, the Saxons, which came from the parts of Almaign to conquer this land, of which men there were forty fovereigns, which did rule as companions; and those princes did call this realm England, which before was named the Greater Britain. Thofe, after great ⚫ wars, tribulation and pains, by long time fuffered, did choose a king to reign over them, to govern the people of God, and to maintain and defend their perfons and their goods in quiet, by the rules of right; and at the beginning they did caufe him to fwear to maintain the holy Christian faith, and to guide his people by right, with all his power, without refpect of perfons, and to obferve the laws. And after, when the kingdom was turned into an heritage, king Alfred, that governed this kingdom about an hundred and feventy-one years before the conqueft, did caufe the great men of the kingdom to affemble at London, and there did ordain for a perpetual ufage, that twice in the year, or oftner, if need fhould be, in time of peace, they should assemble at London in parliament, for the government of God's people, that men might live in quiet, and receive right by certain ufages and holy judgments.

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In which parliament (faid our author) the rights and prerogatives of the kings and fubjects are diftinguished and fet apart:' and particularly by him expreffed, too tedious here to infert; amongft which ordinances we find, That no man fhould be imprifoned, but for a capital offence. And if a man

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fhould detain another in prifon by colour of right (where there was none) till the party imprisoned died, he that kept him in prifon fhould be held guilty of murder,' as you may read, p. 33, and 36. He is declared guilty of homicide, by whom a man fhall die in prifon, whether it be the judges, that fhall too long delay to do a man right, or by cruelty of jailers, or fuffering him to die by famine; or when a man is adjudged to do penance, and fhall

• be

be furcharged by his jailer with irons, or other pain, whereof he is deprived of his life.' And p. 149. That by the ancient law of England, it was felony to detain a man in prifon, after fufficient bail offered, where the party was appealed of treafon, murder, robbery, or burglary.' Page 35. None ought to be put in common prifons, but only fuch as were ' attainted, or principally appealed, or indicted, of 'falfe or wrongful imprisonment; fo tender have the ancient laws and conftitutions of this realm been, of 'the liberty of their fubjects perfons, that no man ought to be imprisoned but for a capital offence, as treafon, murder, robbery, or burglary.'

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. Sect. II. Nor is LAMBARD fhort, in his excellent tranflation of the Saxon laws, from king Ina's time, 712, to Hen. 3. 1100. in defcribing to us the great obligation, and ftrong condition the people were wont to put upon their kings, To obferve the ancient fundamental laws, and free customs of this land,' which were handed down from one age to another. And in the 17th chap. of king Edward the Confeffor's laws, the mention there made of a king's duty, is very remarkable, that if he brake his oath, or performed not his obligation, Nec nomen regis in eo conftabit. The fame Lambard farther tells us, that however any ⚫ may affirm William of Normandy to be a conqueror, he was received by the people as Edward's fucceffor, and, by folemn oath taken, to maintain unto them the fame laws that his kinfman Edward the Confeffor did.' This doctrine remained in the general unqueftioned to the reign of king John; who imperiously thought that voluntas regis, and not falus populi, was fuprema lex; or the king's will, and not the people's prefervation, was the fupreme law; till the incenfe barons of that time betook themfelves to a vigorous defence of their ancient rights and liberties, and learned him to keep thofe laws, by a due reftraint and timely compulfion, which his former invasion of them evidenced to the world he would never have done willingly.

VOL. I.

S

Sect.

Sect. 12. The propofals and articles of agreement, with the pledges given to the barons, on the behalf of the people, by the king, were confirmed in Henry the Third's time, his fon and fucceffor; when the abused, flighted, and difregarded law by his father, was thought fit to be reduced to record, that the people of England might not for ever after be to feek for a written recorded law, to their defence and fecurity: for Mifera fervitus eft ubi jus eft vagum aut incognitum. And fo we enter upon the grand charter of liberty and privilege, in the cause, reason, and end of it.

Sect. 13. We fhall firft rehearse it, fo far as we are concerned, (with the formalities of grant and curse) and fhall then fay fomething as to the cause, reason, and end of it.

A rehearsal of the material parts of the GREAT CHARTER of ENGLAND.

ENRY, by the grace of God, king of England, &c. to all archbishops, or earls, barons, fheriffs, provofts, officers, and to all bailiffs, and our faithful fubjects who fhall fee this prefent charter, greeting. KNOW ye, That we, unto the honour of Almighty God, and for the falvation of the fouls of our progenitors, and our fucceffors, kings of England, to the advancement of holy church; and amendment of our realm, of our mere and free will, have given and granted to all archbishops, &c. and to all freemen of this our realm, those liberties underwritten, to be holden and kept in this our realm of England for evermore.

We have granted and given to all freemen of our realm, for us and our heirs, for evermore, thofe liberties underwritten, to have and to hold to them and to their heirs, of us and our heirs fore-named.

A freeman fhall not be amerced for a small fault, but after the quantity of the fault: and for a great fault, after the manner thereof; faving to him his contenements or freehold. And a merchant likewise

fhall

shall be amerced, faving to him his merchandize: and none of the faid amercements fhall be affeffed, but by the oath of good and honeft men of the vicinage.

No freeman fhall be taken, or imprifoned, nor be diffeifed of his freehold, or liberties, or free cuftoms, or be outlawed or exiled, or any other ways deftroyed; nor we thall not pafs upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land: we fhall fell to no man, we fhall deny nor defer to no man, either juftice or right.

And all these customs and liberties aforefaid, which we have granted to be holden within this our realm, as much as appertaineth to us, and our heirs, we shall obferve; and all men of this our realm, as well fpiritual as temporal, as much as in them is, fhall obferve the fame against all perfons in like wife. And for this our gift and grant of thofe liberties, and for other contained in our charter of liberties of our foreft, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, freeholders, and others our fubjects, have given unto us the fifteenth part of their moveables and we have granted unto them, on the other part, that neither we, nor our heirs, fhall procure or do any thing whereby the liberties in this charter contained fhall be infringed or broken: and if any thing be procured by any perfon contrary to the premises, it fhall be held of no force or effect. Thefe being witneffes, Boniface archbishop of Canterbury, &c. we ratifying and approving thofe gifts and grants aforefaid, confirm and make ftrong all the fame, for us and our heirs perpetually, and by the tenor of these prefents do renew the fame willingly; and granting for us and our heirs, that this charter, in all and fingular its articles, for evermore shall be ftedfaftly, firmly, and inviolably obferved. And if any article in the fame charter contained, yet hitherto peradventure hath not been observed, nor kept, we will, and by our authority royal command, henceforth firmly they be observed. Witnefs. &c.

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The Sentence of the CURSE given by the bishops, wita the king's confent, against the breakers of the great charter.

IN

N the year of our Lord 1253, the third day of May, in the Great Hall of the king at Westminfter, in the prefence, and by the confent, of the lord Henry, by the grace of God king of England, and the lord Richard, earl of Cornwall, his brother; Roger Bigot, earl of Norfolk, marfhal of England; Humphry, earl of Hereford; Henry, earl of Oxford; John, earl Warren; and other eftates of the realm of England: We Boniface, by the mercy of God, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of England; F. of London; H. of Ely; S. of Worcester; E. of Lincoln; W. of Norwich; P. of Hereford; W. of Salifbury; W. of Durham; R. of Exeter; M. of Carlife; W. of Bath; E. of Rochefter; T. of St. Davids, bishops, apparelled in pontificals, with taper burning, against the breakers of the church's liberties, - and of the liberties and other customs of this realm of England; and namely, thofe that are contained in the charter of the common liberties of England, and charter of the foreft, have denounced fentence of excommunication in this form: By the authority of Almighty God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, &c. of the bleffed apoftles Peter and Paul, and of all apostles, and of all martyrs, of bleffed Edward, king of England, and of all the faints of heaven, we excommunicate and accurfe, and from the benefit of our holy mother the church we fequefter, all thofe that hereafter willingly and maliciously deprive or fpoil the church of her right; and all thofe that by any craft, or willingness, do violate, break, or diminish, or change the church's liberties, and free customs contained in the charter of the common liberties, and of the foreft, granted by our lord the king to archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of England, and likewife to the earls, barons, knights, and other free

holders

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