A New Magna Carta
The source for this document is https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A74790.0001.001
Project Note
This is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
The source of this document is the Early English Books Online (EEBO-TCP) website. Those books were transcribed in a character for character manner and can be very cumbersome to read since there was no standard spelling during that time. Many spelling variations such as "unlesse", "vnlesse", and "vnles" regularly appear.
This project was conceived to clean up those books as much as possible and make them more accessible to the interested reader, leading to the creation of a massive list of variant spellings and their corrections. This was used to clean up the text, but is of course only as complete as the list itself. Because of the nature of the original transcription, some words have missing characters or places where the original language (e.g., Greek) was not transcribed. This effort does not change that. Be aware that the original transcription can also be faulty and in some cases entire sentences may be missing.
Although this is no substitute for a properly compared, proofed, and scholarly edition, I believe that the result is a document which is far more accessible, particularly for searching for terms using standard spelling. The document has been cleaned and presented in what I hope is a pleasing and useful format for the vast majority of Christian brothers and sisters who just want access to read these spiritually nourishing works.
However, a word of warning: The Puritans were a very diverse group of people and their age was characterized with godliness, but also much upheaval, disputation and strife. They disagreed on many doctrines and some of these works contain less orthodox or Scriptural views than others. The reader is strongly advised to read with discernment, particularly if it is unknown whether author is trustworthy.
This project took a huge amount of time and skill to bring to fruition. I would particularly like to thank David Jonescue for the initial list of Puritans he found on EEBO and the concept behind this project as well as the continuous, unceasing efforts toward seeing this complete. Without his labor, this would not be available. Alex Sarrouf was invaluable in providing the initial list of over 7,000 spelling variations he had identified and corrected, as well as continuing to review more than 16,000 additions to that list for any typos.
Logan West
(with David Jonescue and Alex Sarrouf)
www.puritansearch.org
A New Magna Charta: Enacted and confirmed By the High and Mighty States, the Remainder of the LORD'S and COMMONS, now sitting at Westminster, in Empty Parliament, under the Command and Wardship of Sir Thomas Fairfax, Lieutenant General Cromwell, (our present Sovereign Lord the King, now residing at his Royal Palace at White-Hall) and Prince Ireton his son, and the Army under their Command.
Containing the many new, large and ample Liberties, Customs and Franchises, of late freely granted and confirmed to our Sovereign Lord King Charles, his Heirs and Successors; the Church and State of England and Ireland, and all the Freemen, and Free-borne People of the same.
New Magna Charta, Cap. 29.
Omni vendemus, omni negabimus, aut differemus Iustitiam, vel recium.
Printed in the Yeere 1648.
A new Magna Charta.
FIrst for the honor of Almighty God, and in pursuance of the solemn League and Covenant which we made in the presence of Almighty God for the Reformation and defense of Religion, the honor and happiness of the King, and the peace and safety of the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, we have granted, and by this our present Charter have confirmed, That the Church of England shall be free to deny the perpetual Ordinances of Jesus Christ, to countenance spreading heresies, cursed blasphemies, and general looseness and profaneness, and that all Laws and Statutes formerly made against the aforesaid offenses for the punishment and restraining thereof shall be utterly repealed, that so all men may freely enjoy and profess what Religion soever they please without restraint: And we will that all Archbishops, Bishops, and their dependents shall be eternally suppressed, and all their Mannours, Lands and possessions sold to defray and advance the Public Faith. That all Ministers shall be plundered and thrust out of their livings and freeholds by our Committee of plundering Ministers without Oath or legal trial, upon bare informations of such of their Parishioners who are indebted to them for Tythes, or have any Kinsman to prefer to their livings. And to supply the want of Ministers, That all Officers, Soldiers, Cobblers, Tinkers, and gifted Brethren and Sisters, shall freely preach, and propagate the Gospel to the people, and new dip and rebaptize them without punishment.
Item. We will that the Kings Majesty's person be maintained, and his Authority preserved, by seizing his Person at Holdenby with a party of horse, and imprisoning him in the Army, endangering his life at Hampton Court, and by color thereof conveying him secretly into the Isle of Wight, removing from him all his Attendants, disposing of his Revenue, Children, Forts, Ships, Castles, and Kingdoms, and by this putting in execution these our Votes, That no more addresses be made from the Parliament to the King, nor any Letters or Message received from him: That it shall be Treason for any persons whatsoever to deliver any Message to the King, or receive any Messages or Letters from him, without leave from both Houses of Parliament: That a Committee draw up a Declaration to be published, to satisfy the Kingdom of the reason of passing these Votes, That so the world may bear witness with our consciences of our Loyalty, and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesty's just power and greatness, according to the words of the solemn League and Covenant.
Item, We give and grant to the Freemen of the Realm these Liberties under written.
First, that no Sheriffs shall make due returns of the Citizens and Burgesses elected to serve in Parliament, nor make due Elections of Knights, nor in convenient time, nor the ablest wisest, nor discreetest shall be returned, but all fraud and deceit shall be used in Elections, and persons not duly elected, nor elegible by Law shall be Members of the House of Commons, and those to be our sons, kindred, servants, officers and such as will comply with us.
Item, No Member shall sit in the House of Commons with freedom and safety that endeavors to settle Religion in the purity thereof, according to the Covenant, to mantaine the ancient and fundamental Government of the Kingdom, or to preserve the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, or that lays hold on the first opportunity of procuring a safe and well-grounded peace in the three Kingdoms, or that keeps a good understanding between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland, according to the grounds expressed in the solemn League and Covenant.
And whoever offends against this Article, we will that such Members be impeached of High Treason by the Army, suspended the House before any particular impeachment, forced to accuse themselves by stating their cases for want of an accuser, and witnesses to prove them criminal, and at the last cast out of the House without answer, hearing the evidence, or privity of those that elected them whose persons they represent.
Item, We grant, that neither we nor any by color of Authority derived from us shall interrupt the ordinary course of Justice in the several Courts and Judicatures of the Kingdom, nor intermeddle in causes of private interest otherwhere determinable, save only our Committees of Indempnities, plundered Ministers, Complaints, Sequestrations, Excize and the Army, who shall judge and contradict the Laws and Statutes of the Realm, vacate and repeal all Indictments, Verdicts, and Judgments given in Courts of Justice, imprison all manner of persons, and turn them out of their Freeholds, Estates, Goods, and Chattels without the lawful judgment of their Peers, and against the fundamental Laws of the Land.
Item, we will and ordain that the great and unusual payments imposed upon the people, and the extraordinary ways that were taken for procuring monies, shall (contrary to the trust reposed in us) be still burthensome, and daily increased more and more upon the people by our bare Votes and Ordinances, without the common consent by Act of Parliament; and in case of refusal, forcibly levied by Troops of horse and soldiers, according to the law of decolled Strafford, of all which monies ourselves and Members will be sole treasurers and disposers: Free-Quarter shall be still tolerated, and countenance given by us to the exactions and extortions of the soldiers, to whom we have granted an Ordinance of Indemnity for all murders, fellonies, rapes, robberies, injuries and trespasses committed by them, and all such offenses as they shall commit, to the end they may protect us against the clamours and complaints of the oppressed people either by Sea or Land: and we ordain, that all Free-men shall henceforth be tried only by Martial and Committee Law, and impeached of new high Treason at our pleasure, to consiscate their estates to our Exchequer.
Item, We will that such persons as have done valiantly, and dealt faithfully in the Parliaments cause according to the Declaration of England and Scotland, shall be publicly disgraced and dishonored, and without cause thrust from their commands and employments both Civil and Martial without pay, hearing conviction or reparation for their losses, and that the several and respective Lievtenants, Governors, and old Garrison Soldiers of the Tower of London, Newcastle, York, Bristol, Plymouth, Gloucester, Exeter, Chester, Pendennis Castle and the Isle of Wight be removed with disgrace by our new Generalissimoes mere arbitrary power, notwithstanding our former Votes and Ordinances for their particular settlement, and new mean seditious Sectaries of our confederacy put into their places.
Item, We will that a just difference be made between such persons as never departed from their Covenant and duty, and such as were detestable Newtralists and oppressors of the people, and to that end we will, that the Commission of the Peace be renewed at the pleasure of our flying Speakers, who are to provide, that such be omitted as agree not with the frame and temper of the Army and us their Lord's and Commons sitting at Westminster, and others be added in their places who have complied with the enemy, and oppressed the people, and to that end we agree, that the Earl of Suffolk, Earl of Middlesex, William Lord Maynard, William Hicks, Knight and Baronet, John Parsons Knight, Richard Pigott Knight, Edward King Esquire, Thomas Welcome Esquire, and divers others be omitted, and that John Lockey, Thomas Welby, William Godfrey, Richard Brian, Sir Richard Earl Baronet, and others of that stamp be added, of whose integrity and faithfulness Quere.
Item, We will that for the perpetual honor of the Lord's and Barons of this Realm, whose Ancestors purchased for us with the expense of their lives and bloods from King John and Henry the third, the great Charter, that they shall from henceforth be impeached of High Treason, committed, imprisoned, and put out of the House of Peers, and forfeit their lives and estates to our disposing, if they defend that great Charter, the lives and Liberties of the Subjects and Parliament against a perfidious and rebellious Army, and us the fugitive Lord's and Commons, who fled from our Houses to the Army without cause, and there entered into a traiterous Covenant and Ingagement, to live and die with the Army, and to destroy the faithful Members that stayed behind at Westminster, and all the freedom of this and future Parliaments. And we will that henceforth there shall be no House of Peers, distinct from Commons, but that all Peers and Peerage be forever abolished, and all great and rich men's estates levelled and made equal to their poorest neighbors, for the better relief and encouragement of the poor Saints.
Item, We will that the City of London shall have all her ancient Liberties and Customs in as full and ample manner as her Predecessors ever had, and for that end we will that the Army shall march in a Warlike manner towards that City, and pass like Conquerors in triumph through the same. That all the Fortifications and Line about it shall be slighted and thrown down, the Tower taken out of their hands, and put into our Generalls, and fortified to over-awe them; the Militia of the City changed and divided from that of Westminster, and Southwarke, the Lord Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and some leading men of the Common Counsel, by crafty, sinister, and feigned informations, impeached of high Treason, and other great Misdemeanours imprisoned and disabled, and others by our appointment and nomination put into their places, and the Citizens and Common Counsel-men shall henceforth make no free Elections of Governors and Officers: That White-Hall, the Muse, Minories, Eli-house and other places shall be made Citadells, that the Posts and Chaines in the City and Suburbs be taken away, their Gates and Purcullices pulled down, their Arms delivered into a common Magazine by our appointment, to disable them from all future possibility of self-defense, or disobedience to our imperial commands, that so they may willingly deliver us up the remainder of their exhausted treasures and estates, when we see cause to require the same, and made as absolute Freemen for all their expense of treasure and blood in our defense, as our English Gally-slaves now are in Algier.
Item, We will that the command of the Navy and all ships at Sea, for the honor of this Nation and our own, be committed into the hands and government of a Vice-Admiral, (without and against the consent of the Lord's) of late but a Skippers Boy, a common Soldier in Hull, a I eveller in the Army, impeached by the General for endeavoring to raise a mutiny at the late Rendevouz, and since that taken with a Whore in a Bawdy house, who rode down in triumph to the Downes to take possession of his place in a Coach and four horses, with a Trumpeter and some Troopers riding before and after it, sounding the Trumpet in every Town and Village as they passed, to give notice of his new Excellencies arrival, and make the common people veil Bonnet, and strike sale to his Coach, and at his late return from the Isle of Wight to the Downes was rowed from the ship to the Town of Deale with the Ensign in the stern, the Boatswaine and all the Rowers bare headed, like so many Gally-slaves, (a new kind of state which never any Lord-Admiral in England, though the greatest Peer, yet took upon him, but the King only:) and to maintain this new pomp and state of his we will and ordain, that all Merchants, as well Natives as Foreigners, shall pay such new Customs, Impositions, and Excize for all manner of goods and Merchandize whatsoever imported, or exported, as we in our arbitrary wisdoms shall judge meet, under pain of forfeiture of all their said goods and Merchandize, and such other penalties as we shall impose.
Item, We will and ordain for the ease and relief of the almost famished poor in these times of dearth and decay of Trade, that Excize shall still be paid by them, and every of them for every drop of small beer they drink, and for all oils, dying stuffs, and Mercers wares they shall have occasion to use about their Trades and Manufactures, and that the lusty young soldiers, who are able to work and get their livings by the sweat of their brows, shall ramble abroad through all the Kingdom, and like so many sturdy rogues, take Free-quarter for themselves, horses and companions from place to place, refusing to work, shall eat up all the provisions in Gentlemens, Yeomens, Clothyers, and other rich men's houses, who formerly relieved the impotent poor with their Alms, and the able with work.
Item, We will that William Lenthall our Speaker for the time being, shall have a Monopoly and plurality of all kind of Officers, for the maintenance of his state and dignity, and recompense of his infidelity, in the deserting the true House of Commons, notwithstanding the self-denying Ordinance to the contrary, and to this end we ordain, that he shall be our perpetual Speaker, and eternally take five pounds for every Ordinance that passeth the Commons House, with all other incident (new exacted) fees and gratuities; that he shall with this his office enjoy the custody and profits of the great Seal of England, the Duchy of Lancaster, together with the Mastership of the Rolls, and as many other places as we shall be able to confer upon him or his son; and that his honored brother Sir John Lenthall for his great affection to and care of the Subjects Liberties committed to his custody, shall have free license to suffer what prisoners he pleaseth to escape out of prison, and Sir Lewis Dives though Voted by us to be arraigned and tried for high Treason this Terme, and all persons lying in execution for debts to go and lie abroad at their own houses, and make escapes at pleasure to the defrauding of Creditors, without being prosecuted, or put out of his office for the same, provided they always give him a good gratuity for this their liberty of escape.
Item, We will that our distressed Brethren in Ireland may enjoy the benefit of this our new great Charter, and all the liberties therein comprised, and that by virtue thereof the supplies, reliefs, men, monies, and the monthly Tax of sixty thousand pounds designed for them, shall be totally interrupted, misemployed, and diverted by King Crumwell and Prince Jreton his son-in-law, to maintain, pay and recruit their Supernumeraries and the Army here: That the noble and valiant Lord Inchequin who hath done such gallant service against the Rebells, shall be accused and blasted in both our Houses and Pamphlets, and mercenary Diurnall men for a Traitor, and Confederate with the Rebells, by the Lord Lisle and his confederates, who wears much of Ireland's imbezelled treasure on his back, and hath much more of it in his purse, taking no less then 10. l. or 15. l. a day, as Lord Deputy of that Realm, only for riding about London streets in his Coach in state, and victorious honest Col. Jones discountenanced, discouraged, and both of them removed this Spring from their commands, to advance the Independent cause, and godly party in that Realm.
Lastly, all these new Customs and Liberties aforesaid, which we have granted to be holden in our Realms of England and Ireland, as much as appertaineth to us we shall observe: and all men of these Realms, as well Nobles as Commons, shall enjoy and observe the same against all persons in likewise. And for this our Gift and Grant of these Liberties, the Nobles and Commons are become our men from this day forward, of life and limb, and of earthly worship, and unto us shall be slaves and vassals forever; and we have granted further, that neither we nor any of us shall procure or do anything, whereby all or any the Liberties in this Charter contained, shall be ever hereafter infringed or broken: and further we ordain, that our Postmaster Edmund Prideaux, one of our fugitive & Army-engaged Members, who byfraud got into that office, and keeps it by force against common right, do send Posts with Copies of this our Charter into all Counties, Cities and Places of our Dominions, for recompense of which service he shall still conciously enjoy that office, and that our Sheriffs, Committees, and newmade Justices cause the same to be speedily published accordingly in all our Country-Courts, these being our witnesses to this Charter.
- William Lawd L. Archbishop of Canterbury,
- Thomas Earl of Strafford,
- Sir John Hotham Knight, Governor of Hull,
- Lieutenant-General John Hotham,
All four beheaded by our command at the Tower Hill for the breach of old Magna Charta and treachery.
Nathanael Fines, condemned to lose his head by a Council of War for delivering up Bristol to our enemies, by us to be one of the Grand Committee forth safety of this and yet spared Kingdom and Ireland, instead of the exploded Scotch Commissioners.