TO THE Supream Authority of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, & IRELAND, & The Dominions and Territories thereto belonging, the Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT,
The Humble Petition of the peaceable and Well-affected People of the said three Nations,
THat for as much as William Prynne Bencher of Lincolnes Inne, hath for many yeers last past been an indefatigable and impertinent Scribler, and hath almost nauseated the sober part of these Nations with the stench of his Ca [...]ion Pasquils, and Pamphlets, for some whereof he hath suffered under the Hierarchy in the time of the late King, how justly we know not, and for some others since; and for as much as he is arrived at such an Athletick Habit in the carreer of writing, that if he may not scrible and print too, he cannot live, and if he live, he must write, and if he write, it must be against Governments under which he may live peaceably; and for as much as for fear of the brand of Idlenesse, and of Ignorance of the State and Condition of every present Government, under which he lives, he must scrible something against that Government, what ever it be; the best, or indifferent, or the worst of Governments; and for as much as he is old, and not only unfit but unwilling to be taught better manners; & for as much as he thinks himself wise, & we otherwise; and for as much as Snakes, Toads, and other venemous vermine are by the wise providence of God usefull and necessary to many good purposes; and for as much as Prisons, Fetters, & Pillories, or worse, are those things he aimes at, or deserves as the only rewards of his sc [...]iblings;
We Humbly Pray,
1. THat Mr. Prynne may have an Act of Amnesty and Pardon for all his Treasons, Seditions, Jesuitismes, contempts of Governments, misunderstanding of Scripture, Law and Reason, misquotations and misapplications of authorities to his Pasquils, and for his nonsence, contradictions, uncharitablenesse to good men, and generally for all the willful and other villanies committed and perpetrated by him from his birth to this day, as farr as they are pardonable by man, and that they may be pardoned whether he will or no.
2. That if his Conscience dare give him leave, (and you in your wisdoms think fit to permit it) he may have free leave and liberty to run at the mouth, (though it be not natural that excrements should come up stairs) and to scrible still without check or controll, because (as we humbly conceive) all the danger of him is want of vent, the more he is prohibited the more he will do that which he is forbidnen by Lawful authority, and the more he will think himself considerable, if opposed by them that he rails at: for we remember an old Rule, Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret.
3. That no Subjects of this Common-wealth may waste or consume their money in buying his books, their time in reading or answering them, except only Asinegos of the like female reason, and unhallowed principles with himself.
4. That in case your Honours should enact the particulars before mentioned, and Mr. Prynne should grow angry, that he hath no Antagonist, or that such a famous scribler, and such a Cock of the Game as he is, should not have opportunity to become bloody with the blood of others, and no man regard him, he may have liberty to draw his own blood, and to write against himself, as he hath allready often done, (viz.) That William may have Liberty to write against Prynne, Prynne against the Esquier, the Esquier against the Vtter Barrister, the Vtter Barrister against the Bencher of Lincolnes Inne, and retrograde, till he himself (when he shall become himself) thinks fit to have leasure to desist and to be quiet.
In the year of Mr. Prynnes latest excrements, and in Anno Domini, 1659.And your Petitioners shall ever Pray, &c▪