THE DEFINITION OF A PARLIAMENT OR, A Gloss upon the Times.  
Jan: 21 LONDON, Printed for J. F. 1642.   

The Definition of a Parliament.  
I Must entreat the Readers patience, whilst I present unto him a ruff drawn Mast of the jurisdiction of the high Court of Parliament.  
And in doing it, I shall imitate a Lands Cape: first show it you remote and in its primitive times, scarce discernible whether Land or no Land, whether a Parliament or no Parliament, than we shall sail nearer until we come within certain cognizance of our own times, nay to this present; and than if we Shipwreck in the haven, if having been befriended in the course of our Navigation by our sails, we shall split in our anchor; I mean, if in the computation of all times we have had a Parliament unquestionable in substance, in form, in all necessary adjuncts, and now in our own time, even at this present, (when eclipsed justice, like the sun imprisoned under a cloud, breaks out with lustre) be concluded in defect of judicature, I shall say the stars have had malignant aspects in our Horizon.  
But first I shall do my best endeavour to satisfy them that hold the House of Lords to be only interressed, so that the House of Commons might be thought to make an inroad upon their privileges, and be pregmaticall without precedent, though not without presumption: Let those know, that anima est tota in toto, & tota in qualibet parte: and judicature is the soul of this great compacted body, the times were when, both Houses sat in one place and had one Speaker; and since the power of judicature must be founded upon a preparatory impeachment, and this preparatory impeachment must be framed by the Commons House; we must justify them not guilty of the Title of fools by the wiseman, to lay a foundation and never consider by what means the structure is to be finished, nay excuse them from that general Remonstrance of a general grievance, extravidiciall proceed.  
The Lords are under his Majesty the chief, but the Commons must be admitted for Members; and the help of those doth much advantage the preservation of the whole compound; nay on the contrary, the Gout is as mortal as the Headache.  
Besides, the Commons commenced proceed against the parties impeached of high Treason (though seasoned with much moderation and temper) are of ripe age, and blush to be kept in long Coats, though now unhappily suspended by reason of unfortunate intervening occasions: and now by reason of a misinterpreted rumour of their jurisdiction, which is by some drawn into question; Let it be proclaimed on their behalf to all the world, that facts of Treason are above the cognizance of ordinary reason, and sometimes above the punishment of the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom, and yet never above the power of a Parliament.  
And it being in my apprehension out of dispute, that the Commons are deeply interested in that particular of judicature, I shall survey that high Court of Parliament.  
Parliament did I say? from what Radix? Parlour le ment, to speak one's mind. This must be attended with judgement and reason, but surely the House of Commons speak with none of them, if they be not able to maintain their jurisdiction, and know not their own power; this is its Etymology, which is warranted by the best Antiquary of his time; Vetusto nomine e Gallia mutata Parliamentum dicitur.  
This high Court hath not been confined to this individual appellation, but hath been christened by several Godfathers: Majores nostri Anglo saxons, entitled it Prudentum Conventus, concillium, & magnus conventus; succeeding Historiographers Commune concillium, Curia altissima, Generale placitum, commune totius Regni concillium presentia Regis: But certainly if they intended these flourishing Titles to a Parliament without judicature, they spoke of their riding to Parliament not sitting in it, an unhappy Parliament, like the City Myndas, whose gates were so wide, that the City might run out of them.  
To allow these to be Synonia's of Parliament, and to disallow judicature, were but Jewish like to say all hail King of the Jews, and in the mean time crucify him: Mulmuccius of some called Donwallo, did writ two books of the Laws of the Britain's, the one called Statuta Municipalia, the other Leges Judidiariae, for so the same do signify in the British tongue, which is as much to say as the Statute Law and Common Law, which books were written 441 years before the incarnation of Christ, and how should there be Statute Laws without a Parliament? King Alfred ordained for a perpetual usage that twice in the year or oftener if need be, they should assemble themselves at London to treat in Parliament of the government of the people of God, how they should keep themselves from sin, live in quiet, and receive right by holy Laws and judgements.  
In the Heptarchy, the Parliaments had their continuance; witness the Style of Parliaments in the time of Ina King of the Westsaxons: Ego Ina dei gratia, etc. Congregatione servorum dei, etc. Constitui rectum conjugium & justa judicia pro stabilitate, etc. Et nullo Aldermano vel alicui de toto regimine nostro liceat conscripta abolere judicia: So did Osfa King of the mercians, and Ethbert King of Kent.  
In the Reign of King Ethelston his Acts of Parliament are styled thus: Haec sunt judicia Exoniae quae sapientes consilio Ethestam Regis instituerunt, & iterum apud Frefresham, & tertia vice apud— ubi haec definita simul & confirmata sunt. Here I find a Parliament summoned, concillia Regis, prorogued in those words iterum & tertia vice, the royal assent in those words confirmata sunt, and the dissolution in those words definita simul.  
The Parliament of King Canutus at Winchester bore this Title, Haec sunt Statuta Canuti Regis Anglorum, Danorum, Norvegarum, venerando ejus sapien●em concillio, habita in Sancto natali Domini apud Wintonian.  
Here we begin to make Land, and descry a visible Title to a Parliament, being in substance and form nearly allied unto the precedents of these very times: In one word, time out of mind this high Court and its Judicature hath flourished before the Conquest; in the Conquest although silent leges inter arma, and ever since the Conquest until this present hour.  
Bu● now some may say to me, what need you waken so many sleepy Records, to prove that Parliaments have been? who is it of so desperate an opinion, that offers it in question? truly I cannot name him or them, but whosoever they were that enstilled this jealousy of Judicature into His MAIETIES thoughts, did ipso facto subvert Parliaments, and the undoubted rights thereof. Arictotle bids us not to dispute utrum nix sit alba, and the like visible and apparent truths: but if any man of an obdurate judgement, would have denied that there was anima rationalis, then Aristotle must have proved there was homo, and than anoma rationalis will be drawn in by consequence: prove homo, that is, prove a Parliament, and anima rationalis which is Judicature, will be drawn in by consequence; Besides Judicis off●cium est ut res, ita temporarerum quaerere.  
Next I must show that which the Law hath a tender respect unto, even the ends of Parliaments exitus acta probat, and those I find thus capitulated by Sir Edward Cook; primo, ad subditos a delinguendo declinandos, hoc est, ut delicta tam bonis cautisque legibus, tam debita earundam executione anticiparentur; now if debita executio legum can be in Parliament inflicted upon Delinquents subditos, without legal proceed and trial (except they will say nothing, and so be pressed to death) I leave it to be argued amongst Children.  
2. Ut tuta tranquillaque sic vita hominum; but certainly the the life of man is not preserved by the impunity of offenders, which must pass sublata judacatura.  
3. Ut vixis quibusdam sanctionibus sanctisque judicijs vis unieunque fieret, but whether jus implies not punishing malefactors, as well as relieving the oppressed (credelitas parcens being more destructive to the Commonwealth than credulitas pumiens) let puisnies be the judges.  
A Parliament in its Etymology is altissima curia, but how illfavouredly this name becomes it; if one Justice of Assize may hear and determine capital offences, and this altissima curia not have the power of a Grand-jury to him to find billa vera.  
The first man that ever suffered for Treason, if want of a precedent would excuse him, might have begot Traitors to the third and fourth generation with impunity; but we will impute it unto the integrity of those times that have not fostered such unbounded spirits to attempt such crimes as might leave precedents of this nature.  
And thus I have mustered some few arguments in vindication of the Judicature of the Parliament, and I think they are vallid enough for the intricacy of the question; where tacks will serve what need is there of tenpenny-nayls? and now I have spent some time in scanning a Parliament with Judicature, I will cast an eye upon that pretty silken Bugbear of State, a Parliament without Judicature; for contraria contrariis opposita magis clucescunt.  
Curia altissima if that be wanting, must be curia infima magna, becomes curiaminimas; whereas all Courts were derived from it, all Courts may insult upon it; the high prized tincture of the Lords Robes gins to fade, the Eumins lose their complexion, if they lose their Judicature; their Speaker may study silence, and report to himself that which he never heard nor read off, a Parliament without Judicature; the reverend Judges that sit Attendants on the Lord's House, in respect of those intricate mysteries in Judicature, that happen to be discussed before this Tribunal (though most venerable in their own Sphere) may sit like so many Plovers pricked down for stales, with this motto, videntur & non sunt; and the House of Commons that were hitherto styled prudentum conventus, may impeach with little wit, and be remedied with as little power.  
The Common-Laws speaks on Parliament and its Judicature, as you have seen; your Statute Law confirms it, precedents strengthen it, reason even undeniable reason fortifies it; what magic is there then, that the case is thus altered; if it lies in the degrees of the persons impeached, hear then the Statute of Marlebrige, Provisum est concordatum & concessum quod tam majores quam minores justitiam habeant, & recipiant in curia domini Regis; out of which and the rest that I have told you, this may be drawn for a maxim to posterity, concerning the high Court of Parliament; Si vitustatem spectas est antiquissima, si dignitatem est honoratissima, si jurisdictonem est capacissima.  
And by this time I suppose all men will be ready to confess that Judicature doth belong to that high Court of Parliament, but some will say with that Pamphleteer, in his book entitled a Complaint to the House of Commons, is no Court of Record, and therefore why should they commit men to prison, seeing they have no right to Judicature?  
To whom I return this answer, That both Houses make but one Court, so one Court of Record; 'tis true, 'twas moved in the first Parliament of Henry the Fourth, and debated, whether the Commons had right of Judicature? and 'twas resolved afterwards in the fixed year of Edward the Fourth, that they had; for in that year the Duke of Clarence was sentenced by the Lords, the Duke of Buckingham being then High-Steward, but the Commons Protested against it, which showeth that they had right; and though in the first of Henry the 4. the Commons referred by protestation the pronouncing of Sentence of deposition against Richard the 2. to the Lords, yet they were equally interressed in it, as appears by the Record; for there were made Commissioners for the whole Parliament, one Bishop, one Abbot, one Earl, one Baron, and two knighs, Grey and Erpingham for the Commons; and to infer, That because the Lords pronounced the sentence, the point of judgement should be only theirs, were as absurd, as to conclude that there was no authority in any other Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer, then in the person of that man solely that gave the Sentence.  
In the second Hen. 5. The Petition of the Commons implied no less than a right they had to assent to all things in Parliament, and so it was answered by the King, when Adamour that proud Prelate of Winchester the King's half Brother had grieved the State by his overdaring power, he was exiled by just sentence from the King, the Lords and Commons; and this appears expressly by the answer sent to Pope Alexander the fourth, who sent a letter for his revocation, because he was a Churchman, and therefore not subject to any censure, the answer was Si dominus Rex & Regni majores hoc vellent, communitas tamen ipsius ingressum in Angliam nubatentus sustineret; the Peers subsigned this Answer with their names, and Petrus de Mountford vice totius communitatis as Speaker of the Commons: And this is sufficient that there is a power of Judicature belongs to that Court, and that both Houses are equally interressed in it.   
FINIS.