A SUBMISSIVE AND PETITIONARY LETTER SUBSCRIBED.  
To the Right Honourable the Lords of Parliament, in the upper House of Parliament Assembled. Octob: 24 1642  
And Entitled The humble Submission and Supplication of the Lord LITTLETON, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.  
IT may please your Lordships: I shall humbly crave at you r Lordships hands a benign Interpretation of that which I shall now write, for words that come from wasted spirits, and an oppressed mind are more safe in being deposited in a noble construction than being encircled with any reserved caution.  
This being moved, and as I hope obtained in the nature of a Protection, to all that I shall say, I shall now make into the rest, wherewith I shall at this time trouble your Lordships, a very strange entrance, for in the midst of a state of as great affliction, as I think mortal man can endure, honour being above life, I shall begin with the profession of gladness in some things.  
The first is that hereafter the greatness of a judge or Magistrate shall be one sanctuary or protection of guiltiness which in few words is the beginning of a golden world.  
The next is, that after this example it is likely that judges will fly from any thing, that is in likeness of corruption, though it were at a great distance as from a serpent, which tendeth to the purging of the Courts of justice, and restoring them to their true honour and splendour.  
And in these two points, God is my witness, though it be my fortune to be the Anvil upon which those good effects are beaten and wrought, I take no small comfort.  
But to pass from the motions of my heart, whereof God is only judge, to the merits of my cause, whereof your Lordships are judge next under God, and his Lieutenant, I do understand there hath been heretofore expected from me some justification. And therefore I have choson one only justification of job, for after the clear submission and confession which I shall now make unto your Lordships, I may say, and justify with job, in these words: I have not hid my sin, as did Adam, nor concealed my thoughts in my bosom.  
This is the only justification which I will use.  
It resteth therefore that without fickleness, I do ingeniously confess and acknowledge that having understood the particulars of the charge, not formally from the house, but enough to inform my conscience, and memory, I find matter sufficient and full, both to move me to desert the defence, and to move your Lordships, to condemn and censure me, neither will I trouble your Lordships by singling out those particulars, which I think may fall off.  
Quid te extempta juvat spinis de pluribus uva? neither would I prompt your Lordships to observe upon the proofs, where they come not home, or the scruple touching the credit of the witnesses, nor will I represent unto your Lordships how far a defence might in divers things extenuate the offence in respect of the time, or manner of the gift, or the like circumstances, but only leave those things to spring out of your noble thoughts and observations of the evidence and examinations themselves, and charitably to wind about the particulars of the charge here and there, as God shall put into your minds, and so submit myself wholly to your piety and grace.  
Now as I have spoken to your Lordships as judges, I shall say a few words to you as Peers, and Prelates, humbly commending my cause to your noble minds and magnanimous affections.  
Your Lordships are not simply judges but Parliamentary judges, you have a further extent of arbitrary power, than other Courts, and if your Lordships be not tied to the ordinary course of Courts, or precedents in the points of strictness, and severity much less in the points of mercy and mitigation. And yet if any thing that I shall move, be contrary to your Honourable and worthy ends to introduce a reformation, I should not seek it. But herein I beseech your Lordships to give me leave to tell you a story, TITUS MANLIUS took his son's life for giving battle, against the prohibition of his General. Not many years after, the like severity was pursued against QUINTUS MAXIMUS by PAPIRUS CURSER, the Dictator, who being upon the point to be sentenced, by intercession of some principal persons of the Senate was spared; whereupon TITUS LIVIUS maketh this grave, and gracious observation: Neque minus firma est disciplina militaris, periculo QUINTI MAXIMI, quim miserabili supplicio TITI MANLII. The discipline of war was no less established by the questioning of QUINTUS MAXIMUS, than by the punishment of TITUS MANLIUS; and the same reason is of the reformation of Justice, for the questioning men of eminent place hath the same terror, though not the same rigour with the punishment.  
But my case stayeth not here, for my humble desire is, that his Majesty would be pleased to take the Seal into his hands, which is a great downfall, and may serve, I hope, in itself for an expiation of my faults.  
Wherefore if mercy and mitigation be in your power, and do no ways cross your ends; why should not I but hope for your Lordship's favour and commiseration.  
Your Lordships will be pleased to behold the chief Pattern, the King our Sovereign, a King of incomparable clemency, and one whose heart is inscrutable for wisdom and goodness; your Lordships will remember that there sat not these hundred years before, a Prince in your House, and never such a Prince, whose presence deserves to be made memorable with Records, and Acts mixed with mercy and justice; yourselves are either Nobles, and compassion ever breatheth in the veins of Noble blood, or Prelates, who are servants to him, that will not break the bruised Reeds, nor quench the smoking Flax.  
You all sit under one high Stage, and therefore cannot but be more sensible of the changes of the world, and of the fall of any in high place; neither will your Lordships forget that there are vitia temporis, as well as vitia hominis, and that the beginning of reformation, hath the contrary power of the Pool of Bethesda, for that had strength to cure only him that was first cast in, and this hath commonly strength to hurt only him that is first cast in, and for my part I wish it may stay there, and go no further.  
Lastly, I assure myself your Lordships have a noble feeling of me as a member of your own body, and one that in this very Session had some taste of your loving affections, I hope it was not a lightning before the death of them, but rather a spark of that grace, which now in the conclusion will more appear. And therefore my humble suit unto your Lordships, is, that my penitent submission, may be my sentence, and the taking away of the Seal my punishment, and that your Lordships will spare any further sentence, but recommend me to his Majesty's Grace, and pardon for all that is past. God's holy Spirit be amongst you.  
September 28. 1642. Your Lordship's humble servant and Suppliant, E. L.  
FINIS.