Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/151

Rh it: and being ſtill of the ſame mind, they are ready prepared to die for the ſaid oath. Wherefore they require the legate to recall his ſentence of excommunication, otherwiſe they would appeal to the apoſtolic ſee, and even to a general council, or if need were, to the ſovereign judge of all.”

they that had this ſenſe of their duty, and of the public good, though they were loſt men in the eye of the world, could not chuſe but ſtand upon their terms; neither could they abate one jot of a righteous cauſe, which was all they had left to ſupport them. And that was enough; for he that is in the right, is always ſuperior to him that is in the wrong.

parliament at Wincheſter ſeems to have ſat in hot blood, but that King’s ſucceeding parliaments were far from ſuffering him to be abſolute and arbitrary, “though there was never a rebel amongſt them.” For the parliament at Bury gave nothing but very ſmart denials to his and the legate’s ſcurvy petitions, petitiones peſſimas, as they called them, which were contained in eight articles. The firſt was, “That the prelates and rectors of churches ſhould grant him the tenths for three years