THE humble PETITION of Mr. Prynne, late exile, and close Prisoner in the I'll of Jersey.  
Presented TO THE honourable The Knights, Citizens and Burgesses, of the Commons House of Parliament.  
Printed Anno Dom. 164●   

TO THE honourable The Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, of the Commons House of Parliament.  
The humble Petition of William Prynne, late exile and close Prisoner in the I'll of Jersey.  
In all humbleness showeth.  
THat your Petitioner, though not conscientious to himself of any voluntary or apparent offence against the laws of the realm (to which he ever studied to conform himself) through the malicious practices and persecutions of some Prelates and churchmen (especially the now Archbishop of Canterbury, and Peter Heylin, Doctor in Divinity) whose errors and innovations, contrary to the doctrine & discipline of the Church of England, & extravagancies, in the High commission & other ecclesiastical Courts, your Petitioner for his own relief, being there unjustly prosecuted (had to his wo●ke power oppugned) hath within eight years' last past, undergone two heavy Censures in the star-chamber Court.  
The first upon an Information there exhited against your Petitioner, by Mr. Noy, deceased, than attorney general, for some misconstrued passages, inoffensive in themselves, and in your Petitioners true intention, being for the most part the words of other approved authors, comprised in a book, styled histriomastix, written by the Petitioner, against common Interludes, and lycensed for the press by M. Thomas Buckner, household chaplain to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, authorized by the State to lycense books, and by him exactly perused and approved both in the written and Printed Copy, before its publication, and so confessed in the Information; for which authourized book and passages, your Petitioner before the hearing of the cause, was not only imprisoned in the Tower of London without bail of Manuprise, for a whole years' space, denied access to his counsel, convenient time to examine witnesses, and make breviates to instruct his counsel (the information being general, and reciting no particular Clauses of the book excepted against) this exhibits, the only means of his defence, Illegally sppressed: some of his council Tampered with to make no justification, contrary to your Petitioners instructions, and desire, whereby his cause was miscarried: But also at the Hearing, by reason of those malicious and perverse glosses on the said passages, which the said Heylin had collected and presented to his majesty's learned counsel, who repeated his Instructions only; your Petitioner was fined 3000l. to his majesty, expelled the university of Oxford, and Lincolns-inn, degraded from his profession of the Law, wherein he never offended, Set in the Pillory in the palace-yard at Westminister, where he lost one of his ears; And two days after on the Pillory in Cheapside, where he lost the other ear, and had his said Lycensed books there publicly burnt before his face, by the hangman, in a most disgraceful manner; and aiudged after to remain a prisoner during his life.  
That after the said censure, to defame and injure your Petitioner the more, he was charged wrongfully in the Decree, as censured for perjury, (though not taxed for it by the Court) and between his sufferings in the Pillory, the books of his Study (twice surveyed, and restored to him by order from the Lords) before any (fine estreated) by a warrant out of the High-Commission signed by the said Archbishop & others, were seized by on cross a messenger, who carried them to his house, with which your Petitioner charging the said Archbishop upon occasion, in the open Court of Star-chamber; he there publicly disavowed the same (though your Petitioner can yet produce it under his own hand) promising withal, that the Books should be restored forthwith; which notwithstanding were all still detained by his means, till they were extended and sold for your Petitioners fine: Who shortly after by an order out of the said Court, sent to the Tower to be executed, was there shut up close prisoner, and Doctor Rheeves sent thither to search his Chamber for the Pamphlet, which the said Arch Bishop would wrongfully have Fathered upon your Petitioner, whose friends have been unjustly prosecuted in the Exchequer, and elsewhere sundry years, for his Fine aforesaid.  
And your Petitioner further saith, that about Faster was three years, during his imprisonment in the Tower, by means of the said Arch-B●shop, a new information was exhibited in the said Court against your Petitioner, and others, with certain books thereto annexed; Denying the prelates jurisdiction over other Ministers, to be jure-divino. Charging them with money errors and Innovations in Religion, usurpation upon his majesty's Prerogative, and Subucts liberty, Abuses, and extortions in the High-Commission, And other ecclesiastical Courts, suppressing Preaching, And painful Ministers without a cause; Lycensing Popish, Armintan, and other Erroneus books against the Sabbath, setting up Altars, Images and Crucifixes, Removing and railing in Communion Tables, and bowing down to them, Altering the book of Common Prayer, The books for the Gunpowder Treason, And late Fast in some material passages in favour of Popery and Papists.  
Which thing (though very notorious, and oft complained against by this Honourable House, in former und late Parliaments) were yet reputed Scandalous. And though neither of the said books was particularly charged on your Petitioner, in the said Information, nor any witness produced to prove him either author or disperser of any of them, yet by denying your Petitioner liberty to draw up his own answer, (though once a Baristor at Law) when as his assigned counsel refused to do it, by close Imprisoning your Petitioner, and his Servant, by debarring him Pen, ink, and Paper, whereby to answer, or instruct his counsel, searching his chamber, and taking away part of his answer there found, denying him access, to his counsel, and conference with his codefendants, even at counsel, though jointly charged with him, Rejecting the cross Bill exhibited by him for his defence; threatening Master Holt, one of your Petitioners assigned council, sent by the than Lord Keeper to the Tower, to draw up your Petitioners answer, and commanding him not to sign it, after it was engrossed: Whereupon he refused to subscribe it, contrary to his promise to your Petitioner, and by refusing to accept your Petitioners Answers to the said Information, signed with his own, and Master To●●lins, the other of his counsels hands, though tendered by your Petitioner, both at the Star-chamber Office, and in the open Court at the hearing the said Information, for default of answer, (though two Answers were thereto tendered by your Petitioner) was taken Pro confesso against your Petitioner, and he thereupon fined five thousand pounds to his majesty, Pillored, stigmatised on both cheeks, Mutilated and dismembered, in a most barbarous manner, and the small remainder of his ears, left after his first execution, out off, to the hazard of his hearing, and life, adjudged to perpetual close imprisonment in the Goalt of Carnarvan castle in North-wales, a Nasty. Dog-hole, far remote from your Petitioners Friends. Which sentence was undu'ly drawn up and executed upon your Petitioner, as his attorney's clerk informed him, before it was entered into the book, or your Petitioner could get any copy of it, to except against the same, as he had just cause.  
That immediately after the execution of the same sentence, your Petitioner sent to the said Archbishop to desire him to release, or bail his servant (who was detained close prisoner for ten weeks' space in the messengers hands, and oft examined and solicited by fair promises, and threatenings causlessely to accuse your Petitioner, against whom they wanted evidence) that so he might attend him during his sores, which the said Archbishop out of his Grace and Charity, utterly refused: saying that he intended to proceed against his said servant in the High Commission, where he hath ever since vexed, censured and banded him from Prison to Prison, only for refusing to accuse and betray your Petitioner.  
That after the said heavy sentence, your Petitioner by an order in the said Court, (by way of addition to the said Censure) was inhibited the use of Pen, ink and Paper, and all books, except the Bible, and the book of commonprayer, and some few books for private Devotion, and before his wounds were perfectly cured, he was by order removed from the Tower to Carnarvan; and some of his friends in Chester, who visited him there in his passage, in the presence of his Conductors, who had no order to restrain any person from resorting to him, were for this very cause sent for by a Messenger, to appear before the Lords of the Privy counsel, and likewise cited into the High-Commission at York, where they were imprisoned, and fined, to the ruin of their estates, enjoined to make a public Recantation in the cathedral Church, and in the forlorn-hall of Chester. The said Commissioners further decreeing that three pictures of your Petitioners found in Chester, should be publicly burnt at the high cross there, which was done accordingly.  
That your Petitioner since his said sentence, hath been publicly reviled at, and libelled against, both by the High Commissioners at York, and in sundry Churches, both at Chester, and else where, and in divers licenced printed books compiled by the said Heylin, and published by the archbishops privity or command, and that sundry of his friends houses, studies, books, and writings have been violently broken up, ransacked and taken away, and themselves prosecuted in the High Commission, out of malice, for the relation they had to your Petitioner.  
That after your Petitioner had continued some ten weeks' space close prisoner in Carnarvan, he was about three years since by a warrant from the Lords of the counsel, made in the summer vacation (to which the said Arch Bishops hand was first subscribed) ordered by way of Exile, to be embarked and transported with all privacy into one of the Castles in the Isle of Jersey, and his conductors thereby charged not to admit any person whatsoever, but themselves only, to speak with your Petitioner in his passage: whereupon after some injuries there received by Mr. Griffith, the King's attorney in those parts (who endeavoured to seize upon the furniture of his chamber for his own use) your Petitioner was embarked amongst Papists, in a bruised shipwrecked vessel, full of leaks, and after fourteen weeks' voyage in the Winter season, through dangerous storms and seas, which spoiled most of his stuff and bedding, and threatening often shipwreck to him, he arrived at the said Isle, and was conveyed close prisoner into Mount Orgatile Castle, there where the Lieutenant governor by an other extrajudicial Order, to which the said archbishops name was first ordered, to keep your Petitioner close prisoner in a chamber, suffer none but his keepers to speak with him, to intercept all letters to him; to permit him neither Pen, ink nor Paper, either to write to his friends for necessaries, or to petition for relief, and to permit him no book but the Bible, and those aforenamed books, without giving any order for his diet there, so that being deprived of his calling and estate, exiled and shut up close prisoner among strangers, remote from all his friends, denied all address to him by person or letters, he had certainly perrished in his almost three years close imprisonment there, had not the extraordinary providence and goodness of God (which he shall ever adore) & the noble charity of those, under whose custody he did remain, furnished him with such diet and necessaries, as diet him both in health and life, in this his close imprisonment and exile.  
May it therefore please this Honourable House, to take these your Petitioners almost eight years tragical grievances, of new and dangerous example, into your most sad and just cosiderations, that so they may not become precedents to the prejudice of posterity; to grant him liberty to send for, and examine all necessary witnesses: to order all Clerks, Registers, and other officers of the Star-Chamber, or elsewhere, speedily and freely to grant him the copies of such orders, decrees and writings, as his cause shall require, to release him upon bail, (being now but a prisoner upon an extrajudicial order of the Lords, and not by virtue of any sentence or decree in Court) to grant him liberty to plead and prosecute his own cause, since counsel hath so often failed him, and to give him such satisfaction and relief as the justice and equity of his cause shall merit.  
And your Petitioner shall ever pray for you safeties, WILLIAM PRYNNE.