The humble Desires and PROPOSITIONS OF THE Lords and Commons in Parliament, tendred to His Majestie, Febr. 1. AND HIS MAIESTIES Gracious ANSWER and PROPOSITIONS, FEBR. 3. 1642.
Die Lunae, 6. Februar. 6. 1642.
IT is this day Ordered by the Commons in Parliament assembled, That the Propositions from both Houses, and His Majesties Answer unto them this day received, be forthwith printed and published:
London, Printed for Edward Husbands, and are to be sold at his shop in the Middle-Temple. Febr. 7. 1642.
WE Your Majesties most humble and faithfull Subjects, the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, having in our thoughts the glory of God, Your Majesties Honour, and the prosperity of Your people; and being most grievously afflicted with the pressing miseries and calamities which have overwhelmed Your two Kingdoms of England & Ireland, since Your Majestie hath by the perswasion of Evil Councellours withdrawn Your self from Your Parliament, raised an Army against it, and by force thereof protected Delinquents from the Iustice of it, and constraining us to take Arms for the defence of our Religion, Laws, Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament, and for the sitting of the Parliament in safety; Which Fears and Dangers are continued and encreased by the raising, drawing together & arming of great numbers of Papists under the Command of the Earl of Newcastle, likewise by making the Lord Herbert of Ragland, and other known Papists, Commanders of great Forces, whereby many grievous Oppressions, Rapines, and Cruelties have beene and are daily exercised upon the Persons and Estates of your People, Much innocent blood hath been spilt, and the Papists have attained means of attempting, with hopes of effecting their mischievous Designe of rooting out the Reformed RELIGION, and destroying the Professors thereof.
In the tender sence and compassion of these Evils under which the People and Kingdom lye, according to the Duty which we owe to God, Your Majestie and the Kingdom, for which we are trusted, Do most earnestly desire that an end may be put to these great Distempers and Distractions, for the preventing that Desolation which doth threaten all Your Majesties Dominions, [Page 4]& as we have rendred, and still are ready to render to Your Majestie, that Subjection, Obedience and Service, which we owe unto You; So we most humbly beseech Your Majestie to remove the Causes of this War, and to vouchsafe us that Peace and Protection which we and our Ancestors have formerly enjoyed under Your Majestie and Your Yoyall Predecessors, and graciously to accept and grant these our most humble Desires and Propositions:
I. THat Your Majestie will be pleased to disband Your Armies, as we likewise shall be ready to disband all those Forces which we have raised; and that You will be pleased to return to Your Parliament.
II. That You will leave Delinquents to a Legall Tryall, and Judgement of Parliament.
III. That the Papists may not onely be disbanded, but disarmed according to Law.
IV. That Your Majestie will be pleased to give Your Royall assent unto the Bill for taking away Superstitious Innovations; To the Bill against scandalous Ministers; To the Bill against Pluralities; To the Bill for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors and Commissaries, Deans, Sub-Deans, Deans and Chapters, Arch-Deacons, Canons and Prebendaries, and all Chantors, Chancellors, Treasurers, Sub-Treasurers, Succentors and Sacrists, And all Vicars, Chorall and Choristers, old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedrall or Collegiate Church, and all other their under-Officers out of the Church of England; And to the Bill for Consultation to be had with godly, [Page 5]religious, and learned Divines; That Your Majestie will be pleased to promise to passe such other good Bills for settling of Church-Government, as upon Consultation with the Assembly of the said Divines shall be resolved on by both Houses of Parliament, and by them be presented to Your Majestie.
V. That Your Majesty having express'd in Your Answer to the Nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament, a hearty Affection and Intention for the rooting out of Popery out of this Kingdom. And that if both the Houses of Parliament can yet finde a more effectuall course to disable Jesuits, Priests, and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State or eluding the Lawes, that you would willingly give your consent unto it.
That You would be gratiously pleased, for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants, that an oath may be established by Act of Parliament, to be administred in such manner as by both Houses shall be agreed on, wherein they shall abjure and renownce the popes supremacie, the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Worshipping of the consecrated Hoast, crucifixes and images; and the refusing of the sayd oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by Act of Parliament, shall be a sufficient conviction in law of Recusancie.
And that Your Majestie will be Gratiously pleased to give Your Royall Assent unto a Bill, for the education of the Children of Papists, by Protestants, in the Protestant Religion.
That for the more effectuall execution of the Lawes against Popish Recusants, Your Majesty would be pleased to consent to a Bill for the true leavying of the Penalties [Page 6]against them, and that the same Penalties may be leavyed and disposed of in such manner as both Houses of Parliament shall agree on, so as Your Majesty be at no losse: And likewise to a Bill whereby the practises of Papists against the State may be prevented, and the Laws against them duely executed.
VI. That the Earl of Bristoll be removed from Your Majesties Councells, and that both he and the Lord Harbert, eldest son to the Earl of Worcester, may likewise be restrained from coming within the Verge of the Court, and that they may not bear any Office, or have any imployments concerning the State or Common-wealth.
VII. That Your Majesty would be graciously pleased by Act of Parliament to settle the Militia both by Sea and Land, and for the Forts and Ports of the Kingdom, in such manner as shall be agreed on by both Houses.
VIII. That Your Majesty will be pleased by Your Letters Patents, to make Sir John Brampston Chiefe Justice of Your Court of Kings-Bench, William Lenthall Esquire, the now Speaker of the Cōmons House Mr. of the Rolls, and to continue the Lord Chiefe Justice Banckes, Chiefe Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas, and likewise to make Master Serjeant Wilde, Chief Baron of Your Court of the Exchequer, and that Master Iustice Bacon may be continued, and Master Serjeant Rolls, and Master Serjeant Atkins made Iustices of the Kings-Bench; that Master Iustice Reeve, and Master Iustice Forster may be continued, Serjeant Pheasant made one of Your Iudges of your Court of Common-Pleas; That Mr. Serjeant Creswell, Mr. Samuel Brown, and Mr. John Puleston may be Barons of [Page 7]the Exchequor, and that all these and all the Judges of the same Courts for the time to come, may hold their places by Letters Patents under the Great Seale, Quamdiu se bene Gesserint, and that the severall persons not before named, that do now hold any of these places before mentioned, may be removed.
IX. That all such persons as have been put out of the Commissions of peace, or of Oyer and Terminer, or from being Custodes Rotulorum since the first day of Aprill, 1642. (other then such as were put out by the desire of both or either Houses of Parliament) may again be put into those Commissions and Offices, and that such persons may be put out of those Commissions and Offices as shall be excepted against by both Houses of Parliament.
X. That your Majesty will be pleased to passe the Bill now presented to Your Majesty, to vindicate and secure the Priviledge of Parliament, from the ill consequence of the late president in the charge and proceedings against the Lord Kimbolton now Earl of Manchester, and the five Members of the House of Commons.
XI. That your Majesties Royall assent may be given unto such Acts as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament, for the satisfying and paying of the debts and dammages wherein the two Houses of Parliament have engaged the Publike Faith of the Kingdom.
XII. That your Majesty will be pleased according to a gracious Answer heretofore received from you, to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes, and States of the Protestant Religion, for the defence and maintainance [Page 8]thereof, against all Designes and Attempts of the Popish and Jesuiticall Faction to subvert and suppresse it, whereby your Subjects may hope to be free from the mischiefes which this Kingdom hath endured through the power which some of that party have had in your Councells, and will be much encouraged in a Parliamentary way, for Your aid and assistance in restoring Your Royall Sister and Prince Elector to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them, and relieving the other Protestant Princes, who have suffered in the same Cause.
XIII. That in the generall Pardon which Your Majestie hath been pleased to offer to Your Subjects, all Offences and Misdemeanours committed before the 10. of Jan. 1641. which have been, or shall be questioned, or proceeded against in Parliament upon complaint in the House of Commons, before the 10. of Jan. 1643. shall be excepted, which Offences and Misdemeanours shall neverthelesse be taken and adjudged to be fully discharged, against all other inferiour Courts.
That likewise there shall be an exception of all offences committed by any person or persons, which hath or have had any hand or practise in the Rebellion of Ireland, which hath or have given any councell, assistance, or encouragement, to the Rebells there for the maintainance of that Rebellion, as likewise an exception of William Earle of Newcastle, and George Lord Digby.
XIIII. That Your Majesty will be pleased to restore such Members of either House of Parliament to their severall places of service and imployment, out of which they have been put since the beginning of this Parliament, that [Page 9]they may receive satisfaction and reparation for those places, and for the profits which they have lost by such removall, upon the Petition of both Houses of Parliament: And that all others may be restored to their Offices and Employments, who have been put out of the same upon any displeasure conceived against them, for any assistance given to both Houses of Parliament, or obeying their Commands, or forbearing to leave their Attendance upon the Parliament without License, or for any other occasion arising from these unhappy differences betwixt Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament, upon the like Petition of both Houses.
These things being granted and performed, as it hath alwayes been our hearty prayers, so shall we be enabled to make it our hopefull endeavour, That Your Majesty and Your People may enjoy the blessings of Peace, Truth, and Iustice, The Royalty and Greatnesse of Your Throne may be supported by Your loyall and bountifull Affections of Your People, Their Liberties and Priviledges maintained by Your Majesties Protection and Iustice, And this publike Honour and Happinesse of Your Majesty and all Your Dominions, communicated to other Churches and States of Your Alliance, and derived to Your Royall Posterity, and the future Generations of this Kingdom for ever.
❧ His Majesties Answer.
IF His Majestie had not given up all the Faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavor of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People, Or if He would suffer Himself by any provocation to be drawne to a sharpnesse of Language, at a time when there seems somewhat like an Overture of Accommodation, He could not but resent the heavy charges upon Him in the Preamble of these Propositions, and would not suffer Himself to be reproached with protecting of Delinquents by force from Justice (His Majesties desire having alwayes been, That all men should be tryed by the known Law, and having been refused it) with raising an Army against His Parliament: And to be told, That Arms have been taken up against Him for the defence of Religion, Laws, Liberties, Priviledges of Parliament; And for the [Page 12]sitting of the Parliament in safety, with many other particulars in that Preamble, so often and so fully answered by His Majesty without remembring the world of the time, and circumstances of raising those Arms against Him; When His Majestie was so farre from being in a condition to invade other mens Rights, that He was not able to maintain and defend His own from violence. And without telling His good Subjects, That their Religion (the true Protestant Religion in which His Majestie was born, hath faithfully lived, and to which He will dye a willing Sacrifice) their Laws, Liberties, Priviledges, and safety of Parliament, were so amply settled and established, or offered to be so by His Majestie, before any Army was raised against Him, and long before any raised by Him for His defence, That if nothing had been directed, but that Peace and Protection which His Subjects, and their Ancestors had in the best times enjoyed under His Majestie, or His Royall Predecessors, this misunderstanding and distance between His Majesty and His People; and this generall misery and distraction upon the face of the whole Kingdom had not been now the discourse of Christendome; But His Majestie will forbear any expressions of bitternesse, or of a sense of His own sufferings, That if it be possible the memory thereof may be lost to the world; And therefore though many of the Propositions presented to His Majestie by both Houses appear to Him very derogatory from, and destructive to His just power and prerogative, and [Page 13]no way beneficiall to His Subjects; few of them being already due to them by the Laws established (And how unparliamentary it is by Arms to require new Laws, all the world may judge) yet (because these may be waved, or mollified, and many things that are now dark, or doubtfull in them, cleered and explained upon debate) His Majestie is pleased (such is His sense of the miseries this Kingdom suffers By this unnaturall Warie, and His earnest desire to remove them by a happy peace) That a speedy time and place be agreed upon for the meeting of such Persons as His Majestie and both Houses shall appoint, to discusse these Propositions, and such others here following, as His Majestie doth propose to them.
I. THat His Majesties own Revenue, Magazines, Towns, Forts, and Ships, which have been taken or kept from Him by force, be forthwith restored unto Him.
II. That whatsoever hath been done or published contrary to the known Laws of the Land, or derogatory to His Majesties Legall and known Power, and Rights, be renounced and recalled, that no seed may remain for the like to spring out of, for the future.
III. That whatsoever Illegall Power hath been claimed and exercised by, or over His Subjects, as Imprisoning their Persons, without Law stopping their Habeas Corpusses and imposings upon their Estates without Act of Parliament, &c. Either by both or either Houses, or any Committee of both or either, or by any Persons appointed [Page 13]by any of them, be disclaimed, and all such Persons so committed forthwith discharged.
IV. That as His Majestie will readily consent, having done so heretofore) to the Execution of all Laws already made, and to any good Acts to be made for the suppressing of Popery, and for the firm settling of the Protestant Religion now established by Law; So He desires that a good Bill may be framed for the better preserving of the Book of Common Prayer, from the scorn and violence of Brownists, Anabaptists, and other Sectaries, with such Clauses for the ease of tender Consciences as His Majesty hath formerly offered.
V. That all such Persons as upon the Treaty shall be excepted out of the generall pardon, shall be tryed per Pares, according to the usuall Course and known Laws of the Land; and that it be left to that either to acquit or condemn them.
VI. And to the intent this Treaty may not suffer Interruption by any intervening accidents, That a Cessation of Arms, and free trade for all His Majesties Subjects may be first agreed upon.
This Offer and desire of His Majestie He hopes will be so cheerfully entertained, that a speedy and blessed Peace may be accomplished: If it shall be rejected, or by insisting upon unreasonable Circumstances be made impossible (which He hopes God in his mercy to this Nation, will not suffer) the guilt of the Bloud which will be shed, and the desolation which must follow, will lye upon the Heads of the refusers; However His Majestie is resolved, [Page 15]through what Accidents soever, He shall be compelled to recover His Rights, and with what prosperous successes sover it shall please God to blesse Him, That by His earnest constant Endeavours to Propogate and Promote the true Protestant Relion, and by His governing according to the known Laws of the Land, and upholding the just Priviledges of Parliament, according to His frequent Protestations made before Almighty God, which He will alwayes inviolably observe; the world shall s [...]e, That He hath undergone all these difficulties, and hazards, for the defence and maintenance of those; The zealous preservation of which, His Majestie well knows, is the onely foundation and means for the true happynesse of Him and His People.