declared enemies of that part of mankind, whom they have been pleaſed to call heretics: for it is the eſtabliſhed doctrine of their church.
Having diſproved Laud’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 Edward 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[1], 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
- ↑ Knyghton, col. 2523. Et ad ejus obſervationem conſilium ſuum & auxilium fidele praeſtabunt in perpetuum.
