Brief Historical Notices of the Interference of the Crown with the Affairs of the English Universities (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839. Excerpt: ... same effect also, the speech of Mr Glanvil, in the reign of Charles the First, as expressing the sentiments of the then House of Commons a--"There is a trust inseparably reposed in the person of the Kings of England; but that trust is regulated by law: for example--when Statutes are made to prohibit things not mala in se, but only mala quia prohibita, under certain forfeitures and penalties to accrue to the King, and to the informers that shall sue for a breach of them, the Commons must, and ever will, acknowledge the Regal and Sovereign Prerogative in the King touching such Statutes, --that it is in his Majesty's absolute and undoubted power, to grant dispensations to particular persons with the clause of non obstante, to do as they might have done before those Statutes wherein his Majesty conferring grace and favour on some, doth not do wrong to others3." si One can understand, therefore, that James might feel well warranted to observe with regard to the case of- Magdalene College, Oxford, that "It was ridiculous to dispute the King's power in dispensing with the local Statutes of a College, which had been so frequently practised in former reigns, after it had been decided in His Majesty's favour that he might dispense with certain standing Laws of the land4." So, also, with regard to the Ecclesiastical Commission which that Monarch issued, he considered himself to be fully warranted, by the doctrine of the Prerogative Lawyers, who held that so much only of the 1 Eliz. 1. was repealed by the 16th Chas. I., as authorised the Crown to appoint Commissioners who could fine, imprison, or tender the oath ex-ojficio; and that consequently the 13th Chas. II. . 12. gave the King full power to commission whom he pleased, for the purpose of infl...