Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/187

Rh declared enemies of that part of mankind, whom they have been pleaſed to call heretics: for it is the eſtabliſhed doctrine of their church.

diſproved ’s firſt charge againſt Magna Charta, That it had an obſcure birth, as if it had been baſe-born, illegitimate, or upſtart; I proceed to the ſecond, That it was foſtered by an ill nurſe. In anſwer to which, it would be ſufficient to ſay, that it was foſtered by a ſucceſſion of king’s, and above thirty parliaments; and if that be an ill nurse, let all the world find a better. But I ſhall be ſomewhat more particular, and ſhew what great care was taken of it in after-ages. In the firſt’s time, after it had been confirmed three times, ordered to be twice a year read in churches, was ſealed with the biſhops’ and barons’ ſeals as well as the King’s own, and ſworn to by the barons and others, that they would for ever afford their counſel and faithful aid towards their having it kept; I ſay, after all this which was good nurſing on the parliament’s part, it had like to have been overlaid by the pope: for when the King thought his whole buſineſs in Scotland