State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
History
State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
Trials -- Great Britain
Brook, of whom I will speak nothing, Lord Treasurer. The great
Secretary must be Markham; _Oculus patriæ_. A hole must be found
in my Lord Chief-Justice's coat. Grey must be Earl-Marshal, and
Master of the Horse, because he would have a table in court;
marry, he would advance the earl of Worcester to a higher place.
All this cannot be done without a multitude: therefore Watson
the priest tells a resolute man that the king was in danger of
Puritans and Jesuits; so to bring him in blindfold into the
action saying, That the king is no king till he be crowned;
therefore every man might right his own wrongs: but he is _rex
natus_, his dignity descends as well as yours, my lords. Then
Watson imposeth a blasphemous Oath, that they should swear to
defend the king's person; to keep secret what was given them in
charge, and seek all ways and means to advance the Catholic
Religion. Then they intend to send for the Lord Mayor and the
Aldermen, in the king's name, to the Tower; lest they should
make any resistance, and then take hostages of them; and to
enjoin them to provide for them victuals and munition. Grey,
because the king removed before Midsummer, had a further reach
to get a Company of Sword-men to assist the action: therefore he
would stay till he had obtained a regiment from Ostend or
Austria. So you see these Treasons were like Sampson's foxes,
which were joined in their tails, though their heads were
severed.
RALEIGH--You Gentlemen of the Jury, I pray remember, I am not
charged with the Bye, being the Treason of the priest.
ATTORNEY--You are not. My lords, you shall observe three things
in the Treasons: 1. They had a Watch-word (the king's safety):
their Pretence was _Bonum in se_; their Intent was _Malum in
se_: 2. They avouched Scripture; both the priests had _Scriptum
est_: perverting and ignorantly mistaking the Scriptures; 3.
They avouched the Common Law, to prove that he was no king until
he was crowned; alledging a Statute of 13 Elizabeth.
He then proceeds to mention other cases of treason where the accused had
considered that their acts were _bonum in se_, and, defining treason,
lays down that--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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