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<DATE>2009-09-03</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B090116.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<OPENER><DATELINE>Elmston <DATE>the 9. of the 11. Month, 1656.</DATE></DATELINE></OPENER>
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<DIV1 TYPE="document">
<HEAD>For <HI>Thomas Munnings, John Durance,</HI> and the re&s;t of the Commi&s;&s;ioners &s;ometimes &s;itting at <HI>Canterbu|ry</HI> about tythes.</HEAD>
<HEAD TYPE="sub">The Plea and Prote&s;t of <HI>Robert Winter</HI> of <HI>Elm&s;ton</HI> in the county of <HI>Kent,</HI> for his non-payment of tythes.</HEAD>
<OPENER><DATELINE><DATE><ADD>May 8 1657</ADD></DATE></DATELINE><LB>
<SALUTE>My Friends and Countreymen,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_IN my ab&s;ence &s;ome dayes ago there came a man to my hou&s;e (as I am informed) with a Note, Paper, or pretended War|rant, to require me to appear before you (as I judge) the Commi&s;sioners about tythes, &s;itting at the Red Lyon at <HI>Canterbury</HI> upon the twelfth day of this pre&s;ent eleventh month, 1656.</P>
<P>But by way of righteous and con&s;ciencious Plea and Prote&s;t again&s;t your &s;o &s;ummoning of me, I &s;olemn|ly and deliberately declare and &s;ay:</P>
<P N="1">1. That <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> the true &s;ervant of the Lord, who was faithful in the Hou&s;e of God under the fir&s;t Co|venant, <HI>Heb.</HI> 3. in his admini&s;tration by the infallible unerring &s;pirit of the Lord, profe&s;sed unto old I&s;rael then the church of the living God, That the time &s;hould come, that the Lord their God would rai&s;e up unto them a Prophet from the mid&s;t of them&s;elves of their Brethren like unto <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> &amp; that he will put his words into his mouth, and he &s;hall &s;peak unto them all that the Lord &s;hall command him; and it &s;hall come to pa&s;s, that who&s;oever (&s;aith God) will not hearken to my words which he &s;hall &s;peak in my name, I will re|quire
<PB N="2" REF="2"><!-- PDF PAGE 105 -->it of him (<HI>Deut.</HI> 18.15, 18, 19.) or he &s;hal be de&s;troyed from among&s;t the people, or declared a Fu|gitive and Vagabond from God, yea, and a rebel a|gain&s;t him.</P>
<P N="2">2. That when the fulne&s;s of time was come appoin|ted of the Father, he &s;ent and manife&s;ted his Son the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t, born under the Law or fir&s;t cove|nant, and made &s;ubject to the Law, yet annointed with the oyle of gladne&s;s above mea&s;ure, in whom the God-head dwelt bodily, whom with great maje&s;ty, power, and glory he declared, and by his faithful and true witne&s;ses, witne&s;sed him to be that great Prophet that <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> many hundreds of yeers before prophe&s;ied of, whom the people under the &s;econd or new cove|nant of life, and peace, and power, were to hear in all things what&s;oever he &s;hall &s;ay unto them, upon pain of being de&s;troyed from among&s;t the people, <HI>Acts</HI> 3.22, 23. <HI>&amp;</HI> 7.37.</P>
<P>That this great Prophet, being &s;o manife&s;ted, was the real &s;ub&s;tance of all &s;hadows, types and figures, in whom, and at who&s;e death they all cea&s;ed, and by which there really was made a change of the fir&s;t or Levitical Prie&s;thood, and &s;o of the whole law, wages and maintenance thereunto belonging, and &s;o the pay|ment of tythes thereby for ever wholly cea&s;ed, <HI>Heb.</HI> 7:</P>
<P>In all which regards for me to pay tythes now under the go&s;pel, or &s;econd and new covenant of life and peace, is as much as in me lies to deny the Son of God manife&s;ted in fle&s;h, and life, and power; and al&s;o to &s;et up again the fir&s;t and changeable prie&s;thood, and &s;o to be a real rebel, or a bla&s;phemous Antichri&s;t again&s;t the Lords annointed great and true Prophet, the Lord Je|&s;us Chri&s;t, which to do I dare not for all the world, though I cau&s;e my life and e&s;tate thereby.</P>
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And be&s;ides, by the &s;tanding and binding Parliament-Laws of England, as the 24. of <HI>Henry</HI> the 8. chap. the 12. the Rights of tythes are plainly declared to apper|tain to the &s;piritual Juri&s;diction of the Eccle&s;ia&s;tical courts.</P>
<P>Yea, By the la&s;t Statute (as I under&s;tand) that ever was made in England for the paying to, and receiving of tythes by any Eccle&s;ia&s;tical per&s;on, Vicar, Curate, Proprieter, Owner, or other Farmer or Deputy, it is plainly declared, That they, or any of them &s;hall &s;ue for tythes onely before the Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Judges in Ec|cle&s;ia&s;tical Courts, and no where el&s;e, as clearly appears by the &s;tatute of the &s;econd &amp; third of <HI>Edward</HI> the &s;ixt, chap. 13.</P>
<P>But all Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Juri&s;diction being as I under&s;tand, for ever in this nation anihilated &amp; aboli&s;hed by &s;pecial and &s;olemn act of parliament made in or about the yeer 1641. and was never &s;ince, as <HI>I</HI> am certainly in|formed, by any act of parliament pa&s;t &s;ince revived.</P>
<P>And therefore you have no Engli&s;h humane legall juri&s;diction to hold plea for tythes before you, nor &s;o much as ju&s;tly to &s;ummon me before you to &s;hew cau&s; wherefore J wil not now under the Go&s;pel-admini&s;tra|tion pay tythes.</P>
<P>And therefore J hereby &s;olemnly prote&s;t before <HI>God</HI> and <HI>Man</HI> again&s;t your unrighteous mole&s;tation of me, in requiring me to appear before you, who have no Engli&s;h humane legal parliamentary juri&s;diction re&s;i|ding in you, to hold plea for tythes, or trouble me, or a|ny other that con&s;cientiou&s;ly and rationally judge our &s;elves freed from paying of tythes, both by the divine declared Laws of God, and the humane declared par|liamentary laws of England, and to-this the 9th day of the 11th month 1656. J &s;ub&s;cribe my name, <HI>Robert
<PB N="4" REF="3"><!-- PDF PAGE 106 -->Winter,</HI> and &s;ubmit my body and e&s;tate in patience to your meer wils, &s;o far as the Lord thinks fit to give you power over them,</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>R. M.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
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<P>A copy of the fore-going paper the &s;aid <HI>Robert Win|ter</HI> delivered in at the day of his appearance before the Commi&s;&s;ioners at Canterbury unto them&s;elves, and although they di&s;mi&s;&s;ed him then, yet they have &s;ince cau&s;ed him and his neighbour and friend <HI>Abiezer Bo|kins</HI> to appear before them for the non-payment of their tythes, although them have not the lea&s;t &s;hadow of pretence of any legal juri&s;diction (nor no more hath any of the called Judges in <HI>Westmin&s;ter-hall,</HI> or the Ba|rons of the Exchequer) to hold plea for non-payment of tythes before them.</P>
<P>And therefore in their forcing and compelling of people without the lea&s;t &s;hadow of Parliamentary law to pay them, they really commit the &s;ame high trea&s;on in its kind, that the called Earl of <HI>Strafford</HI> lo&s;t his head for, which was for endeavouring by the late Kings com|mand, or formal commi&s;&s;ion again&s;t law, to &s;ubvert the laws, liberties and properties of the people of Eng|land, and by his will and plea&s;ure to introduce and arbi|trary tyrannical government above law.</P>
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