thereof duly convicted or attainted by the laws underwritten, that then every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged felony, and the offender or offenders therein shall suffer pains of death, and lose and forfeit all his and their goods, lands, and tenements as in cases of felony.

XXI. And it is also enacted by the authority abovesaid, that the said commissioners and every of them shall, from time to time, have full power and authority, by virtue of this Act, to take into his or their keeping [or] possession all and all manner of books which be and have been, or hereafter shall be, set forth, read, or declared within this realm, or other the king's dominions, wherein is or be contained or comprised any clause, article, matter, or sentence repugnant or contrary to the tenor, form, or effect of this present Act, or any of the articles contained in the same. And the said commissioners, or three of them at the least, to burn or otherwise destroy the said books, or any part of them, as unto the said commissioners, or unto three of them at the least, shall be thought expedient by their discretions.

155. The Attainder of Queen Katherine Howard

(1542. 33 Henry VIII. c. 21. 3 S. R. 857.)

IN their most humble wise beseech your most royal Majesty the lords spiritual and temporal and all other your most loving and obedient subjects the commons of this your most high court of parliament assembled; that where, besides any man's expectation, such chance hath happened, by Mistress Katherine Howard which Your Highness took to your wife, both to Your Majesty chiefly and so consequently to us all that the like we think hath scarce been seen, the likelihoods and appearances being so far contrary to that which by evident and due proof is now found true;

of and for which treasons being manifestly and plainly proved, as well by the confession of the said queen and other the said parties as by divers other witnesses and proofs, the said Francis Dereham

and Thomas Culpepper having been lawfully and truly and according to the laws of the realm convicted and attainted, and the said queen and Jane, lady Rochford, be lawfully indicted, insomuch that Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham have justly suffered therefor pains of death according to their merits as by the records thereof more plainly at large may appear; it may therefore please Your Highness of your most excellent and accustomed goodness, and for the entire love, favour and hearty affection that Your Majesty hath always heretofore borne and yet beareth to the commonwealth of this your realm of England, and for the conservation of your most excellent Highness and posterity, and of the good peace, unity and rest of us your most bounden and obedient subjects, to grant and assent, at the most humble desire and petition of your loving and obedient subjects the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons in this present parliament assembled, that this their lawful indictment and attainders of such as have lately suffered may be approved by the authority of this present parliament and that it may be enacted that the said queen Katherine and Jane, lady Rochford, for their said abominable and detestable treasons by them and every of them most abominably and traitorously committed and done against Your Majesty and this your realm, shall be by the authority of this present parliament convicted and attainted of high treason; and that the same queen Katherine and Jane, lady Rochford, and either of them shall have and suffer pains of death, loss of goods, chattels, debts, farms and all other things as in cases of high treason by the laws of this your realm hath been accustomed granted and given to the crown: and also that the said queen Katherine, Jane, lady Rochford, Thomas Culpepper, and Francis Dereham, and every of them, shall lose and forfeit to Your Highness and to your heirs all such right, title, interest, use and possession, which they or any of them had the twenty-fifth day of August in the thirty-third year of your reign or any time since, of, in or to all such their honours, manors, meases, lands, tenements, rents, reversions, remainders, uses, possessions, offices, rights, conditions and all other their hereditaments of what names, natures or qualities soever they be; and that all such rights, title, interest, use and possession, which they or any of them had or of right ought to have the said twenty-fifth day of August or any time since, of, in or to the same honours, castles, manors, meases, lands, tenements, rents, reversions, remainders, uses, possessions, offices, rights, commodities, and hereditaments, by the authority aforesaid shall be deemed vested and judged to be in the actual and real possession of Your Majesty, without any office or inquisi

tion thereof hereafter to be taken or found according to the common laws of this your realm.

156. Ferrers' Case

(1543. 3 Holinshed's Chronicle, 824-826.)

N the Lent season, whilst the parliament yet continued, one George gentleman,

a burgess for the town of Plymouth in the county of Devonshire, in going to the parliament house, was arrested in London by a process out of the king's bench, at the suit of one White, for the sum of two hundred marks or thereabouts, wherein he was late afore condemned, as a surety for the debt of one Weldon of Salisbury which arrest being signified to Sir Thomas Moyle, knight, then speaker of the parliament, and to the knights and burgesses there, order was taken, that the sergeant of the parliament, called St. John, should forthwith repair to the Compter in Bread Street (whither the said Ferrers was carried) and there demand delivery of the prisoner.

The sergeant (as he had in charge) went to the Compter, and declared to the clerks there what he had in commandment. But they and other officers of the city were so far from obeying the said commandment, as after many stout words they forcibly resisted the said sergeant." The sheriffs of London, called Rowland Hill and Henry Suckliffe, came thither, to whom the sergeant complained of this injury, and required of them the delivery of the said burgess, as afore. But they, bearing with their officers, made little account either of his complaint or of his message, rejecting the same contemptuously.* **

The sergeant thus hardly entreated, made return to the parliament house, and finding the speaker, and all the burgesses set in their places, declared unto them the whole case as it fell, who took the same in so ill part, that they altogether (of whom there were not a few, as well of the king's privy council, as also of his privy chamber) would sit no longer without their burgess, but rose up wholly, and repaired to the upper house, where the whole case was declared by the mouth of the speaker, before Sir Thomas Audley, knight, then lord chancellor of England, and all the lords and judges there assembled, who, judging the contempt to be very great, referred the punishment thereof to the order of the com

mons house. They returning to their places again, upon new debate of the case, took order, that their sergeant should eftsoons repair to the sheriff of London, and require delivery of the said burgess, without any writ or warrant had for the same, but only as afore.

And yet the lord chancellor offered there to grant a writ, which they of the commons house refused, being in a clear opinion, that all commandments and other acts [of] proceeding from the nether house, were to be done and executed by their sergeant without writ, only by show of his mace, which was his warrant. But before the sergeant's return into London, the sheriffs having intelligence how heinously the matter was taken, became somewhat more mild, so as upon the said second demand, they delivered the prisoner without any denial. But the sergeant having then further in commandment from those of the nether house, charged the said sheriffs to appear personally on the morrow, by eight of the clock before the speaker in the nether house, and to bring thither the clerks of the Compter, and such officers as were parties to the said affray, and in like manner to take into his custody the said White, which wittingly procured the said arrest, in contempt of the privilege of the parliament.

Which commandment being done by the said sergeant accordingly, on the morrow the two sheriffs, with one of the clerks of the Compter (which was the chief occasion of the said affray) together with the said White, appeared in the commons house, where the speaker charging them with their contempt and misdemeanour aforesaid, they were compelled to make immediate answer, without being admitted to any counsel. Albeit, Sir Roger Cholmeley, then recorder of London, and other of the counsel of the city there present, offered to speak in the cause, which were all put to silence, and none suffered to speak, but the parties themselves: whereupon, in conclusion, the said sheriffs and the same White were committed to the Tower of London, and the said clerk (which was the occasion of the affray) to a place there called Little Ease, and the officer of London which did the arrest, called Taylor, with four other officers, to Newgate, where they remained from the eighth and twentieth until the thirtieth of March, and then they were delivered, not without humble suit made by the mayor of London and other their friends.

And for so much as the said Ferrers being in execution upon a condemnation of debt, and set at large by privilege of parliament, was not by law to be brought again into execution, and so the party without remedy for his debt, as well against him as his

principal debtor; after long debate of the same by the space of nine or ten days together, at last they resolved upon an act of parliament to be made, and to revive the execution of the said debt against the said Weldon which was principal debtor, and to discharge the said Ferrers. But before this came to pass, the commons house was divided upon the question: howbeit in conclusion, the act passed for the said Ferrers, won by fourteen voices.

The king then being advertised of all this proceeding, called immediately before him the lord chancellor of England and his judges, with the speaker of the parliament, and other of the gravest persons of the nether house, to whom he declared his opinion to this effect. First commending their wisdoms in maintaining the privileges of their house (which he would not have to be infringed in any point) he alleged that he being head of the parliament, and attending in his own person upon the business thereof, ought in reason to have privilege for him and all his servants attending there upon him. So that if the said Ferrers had been no burgess, but only his servant, yet in respect thereof he was to have the privilege as well as any other.

For I understand (quoth he) that you not only for your own persons, but also for your necessary servants, even to your cooks and housekeepers, enjoy the said privilege; insomuch as my lord chancellor here present hath informed us, that he being speaker of the parliament, the cook of the Temple was arrested in London, and in execution upon a statute of the staple. And forsomuch as the said cook, during all the parliament, served the speaker in that office, he was taken out of execution, by the privilege of the parliament. And further we be informed by our judges, that we at no time stand so highly in our estate royal, as in the time of parliament, wherein we as head, and you as members, are conjoined and knit together into one body politic, so as whatsoever offense or injury (during that time) is offered to the meanest member of the house, is to be judged as done against our person, and the whole court of parliament. Which prerogative of the court is so great (as our learned counsel informeth us) as all acts and processes coming out of any other inferior courts must for the time cease and give place to the highest.

Whereupon Sir Edward Montacute, lord chief justice, very gravely told his opinion, confirming by divers reasons all that the king had said, which was assented unto by all the residue, none