Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 3.djvu/249

 A. D. i66o. Amio duodeciino Caroli II. C. 30. 201 CAP. XXX. An A6t for the Attainder of feveral Perfons guilty of the horrid Murther of his late Sacred Majelly King C/&«r/f J the Firft. « I Subjefts the Lords and Commons in Parliament affembled, That the horrid and execrable Murther ^"""^""^'^^ ' ' of your Majefty's Royal Father, our late moft gracious Sovereign Charles the Firft, of ever Bleffed andtheK.rft, how ' Monarchy, and with it, of the true Reformed Proteftant Religion, which had been fo long protecftcd ' thereof, they did firft feduce fome Part of the then Army into a Compliance, and then kept the reft ' Treaties with the Perfon of the King, even then while a Treaty by Advice of both Houfes of Parlia- ' ment was in Being, remonftrate againft the Houfes of Parliament for fuch Proceedings, feize upon ' feclude and imprifon fome Members, force out others, and there being left but a fmall Remnant of ' tence, under the Name and Authority of a Parliament ; (3) and in that Name laboured to profecute ' what was yet behind and unfiniihed of their long intended Treafon and Confpiracy. To this Purpofe ' an Act of the Commons, and in the Name of the Comtnons of England; (4) and having gained the ' Majefty was brought unto a Scaffold, and there publickly murthered before the Gates of his own ' Royal Palace : (j) And becaufe by this horrid Adtion the Proteftant Religion hath received the greateft ' Wound and Reproach, and the People of England the moft unfupportable Shame and Infamy, that it ' was poflible for the Enemies of God and the King to bring upon us, whilft the Fanatick Rage of a ' few Miicreants (who were as far from being true Proteftants, as they were from being true Subjefls) ' ftands imputed by our Adverfaries to the whole Nation :' (6) We therefore your Majefty's faid dutiful and loyal SubjefVs, the Lords and Commons in Parliament aflembled, do hereby renounce, abominate i and proteft againft that impious Fadt, the execrable Murther and moft unparalleled Treafon committed j againft the Sacred Perfon and Life of our faid late Sovereign your Majefty's moft Royal Father, and all I Proceedings tending thereunto, and do befeech your moft Excellent Majefty that it may be declared ; (7) and be it hereby declared, that by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom, neither I the Peers of this Realm, nor the Commons, nor both together in Parliament or out of Parliament, nor the People colledtively or reprefentatively, nor any other Perfons whatfoever, ever had, have, hath or ought to have, any coercive Power over the Perfons of the Kings of this Realm : (8) And for the better •Vindication of our felves to Pofterity, and as a lafting Monument of our otherwife inexprelTible Deteltation and Abhorrency of this villanous and abominable Facl, We do further befeech your moft Excellent Majefty, that it may be enafted ; (9) And be it hereby enaded by the King's moft Excellent Majefty, by A yearly Anni- and with the Advice and Confent of the Lords and Commons, in this prefent Parliament aflembled, ^|[*;fo° "" ,'he That every thirtieth Day of January, unlefs it falls out to be upon the Lord's Day, and then the Dayjothofjanuaiy next following, (hall be for ever hereafter fet apart to be kept and obferved in all the Chu-ches and tor ever. Chapels of thefe your Majefty's Kingdoms oi England and Ireland, Dominion oi IVaUs and Town of Berwick m^ou. Tweed, and the Ifles oijerfey ^.nAGuernfey, and all other your Majefty's Dominions, as an Anniverfary Day of Fafting and Humiliation, to implore the Mercy of God, that neither the Guilt of that Sacred and Innocent Blood, nor thofe other Sins by which God was provoked to deliver up both us and our King into the Hands of cruel and unreafonable Men, may at any Time hereafter bevifited upon us or our Pofterity, (10) And whereas Oliver Cromwell ' ' ■ -- - ' r, ^ r.r Bradjhaw deceafed, and Tbo. Pride deceafed, John Lifle, Will. 8a Thomas Harrifon, Edward TVhalky, William Heveningham, Ifaac j „ , , . ^ Gilbert Millington, Edmond Ludlow, Sir Michael Livefey, R^ohert Tichbourn, Owen Row, Robert Lilbourn, M"'-'!'^. °f '« Adrian Scroop, John Okey, John Heivfon, William Goffe, Cornelius Holland, Thomas Chnlloner, John C(7;vw, '^•^"^J"'*^- John Jones, Miles Corbet, Henry Smith, Gregorv Clement, Thomas Wo^an, Edmond Elarvey,^ Thomas Scot, iViUiam Cawley, John Downs, Nicholas Love, Vincent Potter, Augujline Garland, John JDixwel, George Fleetwood, Simon Meyn, James Temple, Peter Temple, Daniel Blagrave, Tbtmas Wayie, John Cook, Atidrr.v Broughton, Edtvard Dendy, William Hcwlet, Hugh Peters, Francis Hacker, Daniel Axtel, are notoriouily known to have been wicked and active Inflruments in the Profecution and Compa(ring that traiterous Vol. IIL D d i'^'ur-
 * JN all humble Manner (hew unto your inoft Excellent Majefty, your Majefty's moft dutiful and loyal The fiorrid
 * Glorious Memory, hath been committed by a Party of wretched Men, defperately wicked, and hardnedfi^ft conrived
 * in their Impiety, who having firft plotted and contrived the Ruin and Deftrudion of this exce'lent*"^*' '
 * by it and flouriflied under it, found it neceflary in order to the carrying on of their pernicious and
 * traiterous 'Defigns, to tlirow down ail the Bulwarks and Fences of Law, and to fubvert the very Be-
 * ing and Conftitution of Parliament, that fo they might at laft make their Way open for any further
 * Attempts upon the Sacred Perfon of his Majefty himfelf; (2) and that for the more eafy Effefting
 * in Subjeftion to them, partly for Hopes of Preferment, and chiefly for Fear of lofing their Imploy-
 * ments and Arrears, until by thefe, and other more odious Arts and Devices, they had fully ftrengthned
 * themfelves both in Power and Faffion j which being done, they did declare againft all Manner of
 * his Royal Perfon while the CommifTioners were returned to the Houfe of Parliament with his Anfvvrer ;
 * and when his ConcefTions had been voted a Ground for Peace, feize upon the Houfe df Commons,
 * their own Creatures (not a tenth Part of the Whole) did feek to fhelter themfelves by this weak Pre-
 * they prepared an Ordinance for ereding a prodigious and un-heard of Tribunal, which they called
 * An High Court ofjujlice, for Trial of his Majefty ; and having eafily procured it to pafs in their Houfe
 * of Commons, as it then ftood moulded, ventured to fend it up from thence to the Peers then fitting,
 * who totally rejefted itj whereupon their Rage and Fury increafing, they prefume.to pafs it alone, as
 * Pretence of Law made by a Power of their own making, purfue it with all poflible Force and Cruelty,
 * until at laft, upon the thirtieth Day oi January one thoufand fix hundred forty and eight, his Sacred