Chap. VIII. IiSe HISTORY of'the PURITANS. 349 On the 13th of May they were brought before the STAR-CHAMBER, Queen which was a court made up of certain noblemen, bifhops, judges, and cows- Elizabeth, fellors of the queen's nomination, to the number of twenty or thirty, with her majefty at their head, who is the foie judge when prefent, the0 :Ithecourt other members being only to give their opinion to their fovereign by hamber. way of advice, which he [or the] difallows at their pleafure: but in L. of wbic- the abfence of the fovereign the determination is by a majority, the lordgift, p. 365. chancellor or keeper having a coiling vote. The determinations of this court, (lays Mr. Rufhworth) were not by the verdiét of a jury, nor ac- cording to any ftatute law of the land, but according to the king's [or Vol. L 4i5. queen's] royal will and pleafure, and yet they were made as binding to the fubjel`t as an aft of parliament. In the reign of king Henry VII. the practice of that court was thought to intrench upon the common law, though it feldom did any bufinefs; but in the latter end ofthis, and during the two next reigns, the court fat conflantly, and was fo unmer- ciful in its cenfures and punifhments, that the whole nation cried aloud againfl it as a mark of the vileft flavery. Lord Clarendon lays, " There Hi/1. fthe " were very few perlons of quality in thole times that had not (offered grand rebel " or been perplexed, by the weight and fear of its cenfures and judgments on Vob$' " for having extended their jurifdiétion from riots, perjuries, and the t'-. " mott notorious mifdemeanors, to an afì'ertingof all proclamations; and " orders of date, to the vindicating illegal commiffions and grants of mo- " nopolies, no man could hope to be any longer free from the inquifition " of that court, than he refolved to fubmit to thofe and the like extraor- " dinary courfes." When Cartwright and his brethren appeared before the court, Mr.Cartwrighr Attorney General inveighed bitterly againft them for refuting the oath, and his brr and when Mr. Fuller, counfel for the prifoners flood up to anfwer, hebefareappear was commanded filence, and told, that far lefs crimes than theirs had been punifhed with, the gales or perpetual banijhment, which latter he L. of Whit. thought proper for them, provided it was in Tome remote place from gift, p. 360. whence they might not return. From the Star-Chamber they were re- manded back to the high comm/ion, where Bancroft had a long argu- ment with .Cartwright about the oath ; from thence they were returned Ibid. B. IV., again to the Star-Chamber, and a bill was exhibited againft them withRec. twenty articles ; . in anfwer to which they maintain, that their affociations were very ufefiil, and not forbidden by any law of the realm e that they exercifed no jurifdktion, nor moved any (edition, nor tranfafted any affairs in them, but with a due regard to their duty to their prince, and to the peace of the church ; that they had agreed upon tome regulations to render their miniftry more edifying, but all was voluntary, and in breach:
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