CR HONI SOIT x MAL Y PENSE royal blazon or coat of arms ΒΆ BY THE KING. His majesty's Proclamation forbidding the tendering or Taking of the late Vow or Covenant, devised by some Members of both Houses to engage His majesty's good subjects in the maintenance of this odious Rebellion. Whereas We have lately seen a Vow or Covenant pretended to be taken by some Members of both Houses of Parliament, whereby after the taking notice of a Popish and traitorous Plot for the subversion of the true Reformed Protestant Religion, and the Liberty of the Subject, and to surprise the Cities of London and Westminster, They do promise and covenant, according to their utmost power, to assist the Forces pretended to be raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament, against the Forces raised by Us, and to assist all other Persons that shall take the said Oath, in what they shall do in pursuance thereof; Which Oath as the same hath been taken without the least colour or ground, the contrivers thereof well knowing that there is no Popish Army within this Kingdom, that We are so far from giving countenance to that Religion, that We have always given, and always offered Our consent to any Act for the suppression of Popery and the growth thereof; and that the Army raised by Us is in truth for the necessary defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion established by Law, the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and Our own just Rights according to Law, all which being settled and submitted to, or such a free and peaceable convention in Parliament being provided for, that the same might be settled, We have offered and are still ready to disband Our Armies; and as the said Oath was devised only to prevent Peace, and to preengage the Votes of the Members of both Houses (directly contrary to the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament) & to engage them and Our good Subjects in the maintenance of this horrid and odious Rebellion; so it is directly contrary, as well to their natural Duty as to the Oaths of Allegiance & supremacy established by Law, which obliges them to bear to us Truth and Faith of Life, Members and Earthly Honour, and to defend Us to the utmost of their powers against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall be made against Our Person, Our Crown and Dignity, and to do their best endeavours to disclose and make known to Us all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies which shall be against Us, and to their power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions, privileges, preeminences, and Authority belonging to Us, or united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm. And whereas We are informed that some desperate seditious Persons do endeavour to persuade and seduce others of Our Subjects to take the said Oath, thereby to engage them & this Kingdom into a continuance of these miserable and bloody distempers, We do therefore out of Grace and Compassion to Our people, and that they may not by any craft or violence suffer themselves to be seduced against their Duty and Conscience, warn them of their natural Allegiance, and their Obligations by oaths lawfully administered to them, and with them to remember the great blessings of God in peace and plenty which the whole kingdom hath received, whilst that Duty and these oaths were carefully observed, and the unspeakable miseries and calamities they have suffered in the breaking and violation thereof. And We do straightly Charge and Command Our loving Subjects of what degree and quality soever, upon their Allegiance, that they presume not to take the said seditious and traitorous Vow or Covenant, which endeavours to withdraw them from their natural Allegiance which they owe unto Us, and to which they are or aught to be sworn, and are bound by the known Laws of the Land, albeit they are not sworn, and engages them in Acts of High Treason by the express letter of the Statute of the 25. year of King Edward the third. And We do likewise hereby forbid and inhibit all our Subjects to impose, administer, or tender the said Oath or Covenant: And if not withstanding this Our gracious Proclamation any person s; hall presume to impose, tender, or take the said Vow or Covenant, We shall proceed against him or them with all severit, according to the known Laws of the Land. Given at our Court at Oxford the one and Twentieth day of June, in the nineteenth year of our reign. God save the KING. Printed at Oxford by Leonard Lichfield, Printer to the University. 1643.