his Priviledges was to be free from the Justies of either Bench and of Assize Which is one of the first Records for the antient Benches But it may not be impossible to trace them thorow some Elder times For the Saxon Law so often repeated and confirmed that none should complain to the King but want of Right or against summum jus at Home might in modern Language be translated Thus. The Writ of Right must abide the Baron or Bayliffe For it cannot fall to a Copyhold Steward except the Lords default or consent or the Tenants suit procure a Tolt to lift it up to the County Court Or a Pone place it in the Common Pleas. That such a course was antient may be gathered from the Mirror Asser and others of Alfred Edgar Canute Ethelred and of the Tolt before in King William To which I may add the Writ of Right in the third Book of Reports brought by I. de Beverlace against Walter of Fridastern and by a Tolt removed from the Court Baron to the County and for default of the Baron how it must be falsified we may touch anon it was concluded before Ranulph de Glanvil Sheriff of Yorkshire Glanvil is clear enough for the course of removing to higher Courts and of the Writ de Pace stepping between the Combat on the Writ of Right and Assize Coram justitiis in Banco sedentibus and although this Book intituled Glanvil was not written till about Henry the 2d yet it is plain enough that he speaketh of Antient Custom His words are very considerable The grand Assize saith he is a Royal benefit granted by the Parliament Clementia principis de Concilio procerum populis indultum as being that which saved blood and did oft prevent the Combat on the Writ of Right and of this he speaketh in the third of the same Book as of a very old and antient Custom Secundum jus consuetudinem Regni antiquam A weighty expression from so antient an Author which may possibly lead us higher than the Saxon times For we may find the Duel or Combat among the Gaules from British Druides as among the Germans also whence our Fathers came Nonnunquam etiam armis de principatu contendunt So of the Gauls or British Druids He that was like to know it and of those and Germans Tacitus and Diodorus Siculus before Aventinus Some observe it in the Salique Law and among the Laws of Charlemaign and that the Longobards did bring it into Italy where it was also setled by Law But of our Ancestors combats in another place I know not any Fines upon Record till Richard the First But Stowels Case in Plowden may inform us that they were before the Norman And we need not doubt the Books of Edward the third speaking of Benches settled in Henry the first but I do not remember the phrase of Capitalis Iusticiarius noster till great Charter which repeateth elder Customs Goodwin the famous Earl of Kent among the Saxons had two Sons that in as good an Author as Huntington are stiled Regni Iusticiariis the phrase is common in Hoveden and others of the times of Clarendon Assizes And K. Edgar had a Cosin Ailwin who was totius Angliae Aldermannus which is supposed Lord Chief Iustice by a Learned man besides the best though yet imperfect Glossary But it might denote the Lord High Constable Of which before in William the first And William the 2d found great Odo of Baieux setled L. Ch. Justice of England Iusticiarius totius Angliae So Matth. of Westminster and Huntingdon calleth him Iusticiarius and Princeps and Moderator totius Angliae in Wigornensis He is Custos Angliae And the phrase of Iusticiarius is also in Matth. Paris of William the first Iusticiarii in Banco Regio of after times as also placita de Nova disseissena before Justices in Eyre But he speaketh of placita lethifera the Pleas of Life and Death yea even in Bishops Courts about the Normans coming in But in Polydore we find out 4 Terms with divers other elder Customes ascribed to the first Norman But that which he addeth of the place for these Courts to be at the Kings appointment might be true till the Law fixed the Pleas which may be long before our Charter of Henry 3d. where it is confirmed not created But for the Kings Bench the Return was coram Nobis ubicunque c. and for the Pleas coram Iusticiariis nostris apud Westmon That which Virgil addeth of the Iudges in Westminster and of those higher beyond appeal and of Iustices of Peace setled by the Conqueror as he saith Sheriffs were in every County may be more considered For it may be as much too late as some have thought it too early They which presume to make K. Henries Cubit the first Standard of Winchester must refute the old Saxon Laws of which before For those may seem to deserve as much credit as Malmsbury other marks That he did confirm the Curtesie d' Angletterre I may yeild to the Mirror and other Authors but not that he first began it For the Statute of Kentish Customs and those that treat of Gavel-kind may shew us an Older Tenure by Curtesie there also where the Tenant had no Issue And this may teach us whence the like Custom came into Ireland as also to be Curialitas Scotiae which our master seemeth to forget when he saith Que ne'st use en auter Realm forsque tant solement en Engleterre But his Commentator he lyeth in this and in divers other things In case Entails this English Curtesie is very remarkable in which the Book of Cases have great diversity But those that perswade us there was no Land in Tayles before the 2d of Westminster in King Edward the first which are all that subscribe to Littleton must interpret the Laws of King Alfred much otherwise than I can do For the 37th Chap. of his Laws is to me much clearer for Lands Entail'd then is all the Statute de Donis Conditionalibus One Case of the Courtesie may be considered for the Militia If Land in Capite descend to a Woman who upon Office found intrudeth on the King and taketh an Husband and by him hath Issue and then dieth yet cannot the King eject or detain the man but he shall be Tenant by the Kingdoms Curtesie although he came in upon Intrusion Which seemeth to hint that Our Law did chiefly intend the Kingdoms good defence and service which might be performed by such an intruder rather than the Kings pleasure or his bare Prerogative in this which is thought so great a Prerogative of Tenure in Capite For which the Comments on Magna Charta and the Statute of Prerogative with Littletons Dower and Curtesie are clear enough To Henry the first they also ascribe the Curtesie of saving the wreck from his Exchequer if there were so much as a Cat or a breathing Creature let in the Ship I do not deny him to be
I am now grown wiser and do now see I may absolve my self from that which I would not have taken but by force or fraud But can the World this vain and frail and foolish World command controll and over-awe my Soul to take an Oath the Oath of God to what I think unjust It may be so for I am Man and frail with those that are the weakest for He knoweth my foolishness but it should not be and when it is I must be very tender lest I adde more Sin to Sin as bad or worse to that which is too Bad already For by breaking such an Oath I may do worse much worse than first I did in making it except I Swore to sin and then I may not keep my Oath And I believe the Iews might not have pleaded Force or over-awing Arguments in Swearing Homage to the King of Babylon and yet 't is known how God did charge and chasten that said Perjury nor is it altogether inconsiderable that good Lot's or at least the men of Sodom's freeing themselves from Chedorlaomer is stiled by God himself plain downright Rebellion Yet there was another King of Sodom and Chederlaomer seemeth but a kind of Tyrant that had but little Right but Conquest and his Might The Catholicks may seem too free in dispensing with Oaths to Protestant Kings but some there are with them Sacred Persons And because I now dispute ad Hominem I shall touch on that in which we know them most Religious Their solemn Obligation to the Pope which yet is such they will not deny as doth not secure or free him from being Iudged or Coerced in cases of Distraction Natural in Raving or Moral in Raging so that danger be apparent to those about him or in some Spiritual Frenzie of notorious Heresie Convict the Chair in Conclave not the Person is exempt or much suspected while himself refuseth Legal Tryal by a Council or the like The Case is argued in Occhams Dialogues with others Our Oath of Fealty comes next upon the Test although I might interpose as a Parallel to the Pope the Iewish High Priest a very Sacred Person and the Lords Anointed also but yet such as must still submit to the Sentence of the Great Sanhedrin nay and that for his Life also if they so adjudged him For which of the Sanhedrins Power over the Jewish King in Criminals and in War except only what God had commanded against Amaleck or the seven Nations I might cite several clear passages from the Talmud and those that expound it long before Cochius or Sanhedrin or Schickards Ius Regium Our Land seemeth to Mourn because of Oaths but I must only touch the civil Part or what is Legal and our Law seemeth Deficient in this of Oaths for there is scarcely any Law since the Star Chamber to punish Perjury but only where it is before a Court of Justice and there also the Punishment of Witnesses is very light and exceeding short of Attaint on Jurors by the Common Law Our Customs seem to overgoe our Laws in much of Oaths They were but Attestations though most Solemn in the Name and Presence of God As the Lord doth Live But they are now brought to Imprecations or a kind of Curse So help me God and the Contents of this good Book Yet so it was of old at Combat on Appeal the Appellè did first devote himself Again some force a Kissing of a Book the Law requireth but a Sight and Touch. For ought I find the Saxon Jurors were Sacra Tenentes In the first Norman times it was Sacris Tactis and in later writs Evangelijs Tactis Nay the Priests hand was upon his Breast in Matthew Paris not upon the Book and the Villain seemeth forbidden to touch the Book The Statute saith he shall hold his Hands over it but the Freeman upon it and from this Touch with the Body such an Oath was called Corporal The Iews and eldest Christians in their Swearing Blessing Praying lifted up the Hand and sometimes Bowed the Head or Knee for In his Name shall all Knees bow seemeth but Parallel to that of the Psalmist In thy Name will I lift up my Hand and the Grecian or Trojan Princes lifted up their Scepters in Swearing but others held Earth and Water in Allusion perhaps to the sacred Styx Most if not all publick Officers were tyed to their Dutyes by some Oaths but they were made by Parliament in all Ages This being a Pillar in our Laws that none can make alter or impose an Oath without an Act of Parliament or Custom by the Common Law 'T is strange how much in all we degenerate from our good Ancestors So that with us to break ones Oath even in the greatest Office is but a kind of Petty Aggravation as they call it rather than a Crime because such Oaths be now accounted but meer Forms or Ceremonious Shaddows But it was not so ab initio and among other Precedents I find the old Mirrour speaking of a Chancellour of England charged with Perjury for taking a small Summe of Money half a Mark for Sealing of a Writ which was against his Oath being neither to Deny Delay or Sell Justice or Remedial Writs Yet Six Pence was allowed to the King for Sealing of a Writ How great a Crime they did account such Perjury I need not say to Lawyers or to any that have read the Saxon Parliaments But of all our Oaths those seemed to be most content to be counted Formal That they were imposed on meer Children of a dozen Years old how many such we have or had in great Schools or Universities may be known and felt too much I fear And the Oath of Allegiance was twelve Years old and so pressed at the Leets or Turns but did they mean we should Observe it but as Children not as Men or Christians It is true the Saxons also had a twelve-Year-old Oath but against Theft and how the Laws of Henry the first did Annul the Oaths of Children was observed and the fifty ninth Chapter of those Laws forbiddeth any to Plead or to be Pleaded in Iudicio till the Age of fifteen It was also a Maxim in our Law Books that Minors could not Essoyn because they could not Swear and that Homage might be done in Nonage but not Fealty For although Homage was the more Honourable done upon the Knee yet Fealty was the more Sacred being ever done by Oath and from hence is the usual Phrase in all Lawyers and Historians to Do Homage but to Swear Fealty Must our Allegiance only run before our Reason or Discretion which yet was our great Fealty for it differed little from Homage with the Oath of Fealty to Mean Lords but in the Salvo which I touched before and must again being one good help to explain our Allegiance I shall acknowledge that Allegiance ought to have been kept by all Subjects although they never took that Oath which it may be many did not especially
Parliamenti sedebunt nullus stabit sed quando loquitur ut omnes audiantur à Paribus And again Nullus solus potest nec debet recedere à Parliamento sine Licentia Regis omnium Parium Parliamenti hoc in pleno Parliamento Ità quod inde fiat mentio in Rotulis Parliamenti It may be possible That Bracton and Fleta with others may use the Phrase Pares in such a sence when they say That the King or his Commissioners should not judge and determine of Treason but Pares Which may be added to the 25 th of Edw. 3. reserving Treason to Parliament where of Old it seemeth only determinable so that The Mirror would not have it Endicted but by Accusation and in full Parliament as in King Edmund's Time c. Cap. 2. Sect. 11. and in Edw. the 3 d it was enacted That Offences of Peers and great Officers and those who sued against the Laws should be tryed in Parliament And although now the Phrase be given to all the Lords of Parliament yet it was most or only proper to the Earls whom by Law and custom the King styleth Consanguineos and he might style them his Peers or Companions as in Latine Comites So Bracton Comites dicuntur quasi Socii Regis qui habet Socium habet Magistrum and in another place A Societate Reges enim tales sibi Associant ad consulendum regendum Populum Dei and the like is in Fleta Comites à Comitiva dicuntur qui cum viderint Regem sine Freno Frenum sibi apponere tenentur c. which is also in Bracton The Mirror is yet clearer although the King had no Equals yet because himself or his Commissars might not be Judge it was provided by Law that he should have Companions to hear and determine all his Torts c Aux Parliaments and those Companions were called Countees Earls from the Latine Comites So also Sarisberiensis cited before in Hen. 2. Comites à Societatis participatione dici quisquis ignorat ignarus est literarum c. some will have them Comites Socii in Fisca because of old some Earls had a third part of profits accrewing by Pleas and Forfeitures in their Counties as the Laws of the Confessor and Mr. Selden in his Comes but he will also grant their name à Comitiva potestate rather than from such Communion of profits That the old Sheriffs also who were Vice-Comites did come to Parliament appeareth in the Ancient Writs and Histories and yet the Barons seem to be the Kingdoms Iudges and the present Earls may seem to sit in Parliament but onely as Barons who are now all Peers and Lords and Parliament But although the Lords were the great Iudges of the Kingdom and of all Members thereof yet it is well known that in full Parliament as old as Edw. 3. they did not only acknowledge but protest that they were not to Iudge the Commons in Cases of Treason and Felony being not their Peers How it was in Rich. the Second may be seen at large in the Rolls and Records now printed in Edward the Second the Commons proceeded by the Judgment of the Lords for which also the Fructus temporum cited before may be added to all in the Road. Appeals and Writs of Error were from the King to the Lords in Ecclesiasticals that touched the King they were to the Spiritual Prelates Abbots and Priors of the Upper House by Act of Parliament in 24 Hen. 8. till which it may be Temporal Lords had also Cognizance of such as well as Temporals And Writs of Error in the Parliament were Judged by the Lords for they came from the Kings Court his Bench or his Exchequer and if Errors had been in the Common Pleas or below it they should not be brought into Parliament but to the Kings-Bench and from the Kings-Bench as from the King not otherwise they came to the Lords and although there was a formal Petition for removing the Record from the King it was but of Course and the King could not deny it Which we found granted by all the old Lawyers and Historians as I shewed before and by the grand Master and Patron of Law King Edw. 1. in Britton because none may Judge in his own Cause Therefore in Causes where our self shall be Party we do consent que N. Court soit judg Sicome Counts Barons in Temps de Parliament In the Laws of Hen. 1. one of the Chapters beginneth thus Iudices sunt Barones Comitatus qui liberas in eis terras habent for in those times Barons were by Tenure only not by Patent that I know till Beauchamp of Holt in Rich. 2. nor by Writ that I can find till the Barons Wars but K. Johns Charter is to Summon Comites Barones Regni majores sigillatim per literas N. But all that hold in Capitae by general Summons forty days before the Parliament and that Negotium procedat ad diem assignatum secundum consilium eorum qui presentes fuerint quamvis non omnes submoniti venerint and the Summons of Delinquents or Suitors in Parliament was to appear and abide the Judgment of the Court not of the King but of his Court for the King is Father and not Judge of his People in his proper Person as was shewed before and all the Books agree that he must Commit his Jurisdiction unto Judges in the Courts of Justice and when he might assume great Offices into his own Hands by Parliament in Edw. the third all Judges were expresly excepted and the Judges Oaths and several Acts of Parliament require them to proceed according to the Law notwithstanding the Kings Command or Seal against it and the Register affordeth a Writ to Supersede or Revoke any such Seal from the King himself to any of the Judges And the Lord Chief Justices as the Lord Chancellor and Treasurer were Chosen by the Kingdom as we found before in the time of Hen. 3. how much more then should the Lords of Parliament be made by Parliament for else they be the Kings Commissioners So the Roman saith our German Fathers chose their Lords in Common Council to be Judges in iisdem Conciliis Eliguntur Principes qui Jura reddunt De Minoribus consultant Principes de Majoribus Omnes And Caesar also observeth that their Princes or Lords were their great Judges sed Principes Regionem atque Pagorum inter suos jus dicunt Controversiasque minuunt Yet Tacitus will also tell us that with those Princes they did joyn Commons Centeni ex Plebe Comites which were perhaps the Fathers of our County Hundreds And in K. Williams Edition of the Confessor's Laws when he inclined so much to them of Norwey Universi Compatriotae Regni qui Leges Edixerant came and besought him not to change their Old Laws and Customs of their Ancestors because they could not judge from Laws they understood not quia durum valde foret sibi suscipere
full and clear Parliament We need not suspect or doubt it for in those very times there were such Parliaments and such degrees Nay Caesar himself found such degrees among the Britains a King and Druyds which were as Bishops and Archbishops as we may clear anon Dukes and Nobles besides the Commons So civil was our British Ancestors Of whom much more ere long And for the very first times of Christian Religion which was much higher than Austin the Father who might have been great Grandfather to Austin the Monk King Alfred's own Laws acknowledge that in this Island the Laws were then made by a Common Council of Bishops and other Wise men or elder men of the Wytan Old Bede seemeth plain enough for this in several places Servabant Reges Sacerdotes Privati Were the Commons before the Lords Optimates suum quique Ordinem And of the Saxons called in by Common Council Initum est Concilium quid agendum c. placuitque omnibus cum suo Rege Vortigorno ut Saxonum gentem in auxilium vocarent And of Ethelbert King of all the South to the River Humber Among other good works saith he quae consulendo conferebat etiam decreta Iudiciorum juxta exempla Romanorum Concilio Sapientiunt constituit And among other Laws of his in the same Bede that is one in special for Priviledge Ecclesiae Episcopi Reliquorum ordinum That this might also extend to the great Priviledge of Parliaments I could the rather believe from the Laws of the said King Ethelbert yet to be found in the old book of Rochester Textus Roffensis of which Sir Henry Spelman unto whom we owe so much for all Antiquities Where after provision for the things of God and the Church to which St. Edward's Laws allude the next Act is for Priviledge of Parliament it seems being for the punishing and sore fining of those that should do any damage Gif Kyning his Leode to him gehateth c. And in the old Chronicle of Canterbury we read of this King Ethelbert being at Canterbury with his Queen and Son and the Archbishop Austin Caeterisque Optimatibus convocato ibidem Communi Concilio tam Cleri quà m Populi With divers other proofs for Parliaments in Charters to that Church in print And Spot deserves as much One thing I must not omit that Bede observing how Religion was preached both to the King and to the Counts omnibus Comitibus saith there was a License granted for publick Preaching but when the King and divers great men were converted and baptized yet there was no force used to compel others to be of that Religion because he saith they were taught that Christs service must be voluntary and not forced But the Mirrour telleth us the King was bound to compel men to Salvation O happy men or unhappy King But the Britains would not be forced from their Rites by Austin the Monk Absque suae gentis imprimis Senatorum suffragio as a learned man translates King Alfred's Saxon Bede Which is also very clear in several places for setling of Christian Religion when it was freely chosen with destruction of Pagan Idolatry with Lent and other things confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament in time of Ercombert and King Edwin Mid his Witum mid his Ealdormanum So is the old Book of Peterburgh for a Parliament or Heatfield With which we may compare somewhat in Ingulph and more in Bede Ethelward and Huntingdon about the Parliaments which received and consirmed the General Councils and that which established the Division of Parishes and Patronage of Churches Of which Stow and the Antiquities of Canterbury but especially a Manuscript in Camdridge cited by Mr. Wheelock on the fourth or fifth of Bede I should not digress to Sigesberts founding the Vniversity of Cambridge had not King Alfred himself in this added good Notes to Bede By which we may see whence he learned what so many say he did to Oxford the younger Sister For which Polydore is plain enough besides so many better elder Authors It is also considerable that King Alfred calleth Cambridge or Grantacestre a City which Bede would make a Civitatula How little it might then be made by the Danes or others I know not But in old Nennius of the British Cities I find Cair Granth next before Cair Londen And Sir Simon d' Ewes affirmeth it to be ranked before London in Gildas Albarius and an old Saxon Anonymus besides that of the old but not the oldest book of Doomsday Nor must I omit the Records of Richard the First for the Customs of the City of Cambridge found by a Jury in an Assize of Darrein Presentment for the Church of St. Peters in Cambridge Of which the great Judge in his Reports or Commentaries To which I might adde what the Saxon Chronology speaketh of Grante Briege at the year 875 and 921 where we also find an ancient Military Sacrament or great Oath of Fealty more to be marked than may seem at first view Come we to the Saxon Laws extant in print They begin with King Ina whom some will have to be a Britain But in the Confessors Acts he is stiled Optimus Rex Anglorum qui electus fuit in Regem per Angelum qui primum obtinuit Monarchum Totius Regni hujus post adventum Angliorum And that himself and others of his People matched with the Britains But per Communae Concilium assensum omnium Episcoporum Principum Comitum omnium Sapientum Seniorum Populorum totius Regni Not onely a clear proof for Parliaments in King Ina's time but a good Comment on his Laws in print Providing about Matches Dowries and Women's Thirds and all by Parliament as the Proem it self expresses beside King Edward's Laws And for the Saxon Militia a Phrase used by Bede himself Nam egressi contra Gevissorum gentem omnes pariter cum suà Militia corruerunt King Ina's Laws afford us divers Acts of Parliament providing against Thieves Riots Routs and all unlawful Assemblies in several degrees and branches As also for Officers of the Militia to be ready on a great Fine to march upon all just occasions With which we may compare Mr. Lambert's Custos Paganus Sithecundman which some would have to be the Father to our Side-men See Whithred's Military Dooms Egbert is by all esteemed a great if not the first Monarch of the Saxons a great Warriour and a Conquerour But yet he neither made or managed the Militia without a great Common Council or Parliament For which besides all others we have a clear proof in the old Abbot of Croyland to which there was a great Charter confirmed Coram Pontificibus Proceribus Majoribus totius Angliae which were all together at London consulting how to provide against the Danish Pirates Pro Concilio capiendo contra Danicos Piratas c. That also Majores in this place might denote some lower than Earls or Lords may not onely be gathered from
the Subscriptions to that Charter but from Bede or other old Authors that use the Phrase Majores of such Officers or Magistrates as Mayors in Cities now seem to be Of which I might give divers Examples It is worth observing how in these Danish storms all Historians make the Counts or great Shireeves to be Generals or Commanders of the Militia And of these I know none more famous than Dorsetshire Reeve Ethelhem in the great Battel of Hampton or in that about Port of which so many write at the Danes first landing thereabouts Danigeld is scarce so ancient Yet this also was granted for provision against Danish Pirates as St. Edward's Laws affirm Who first remitted this Tax but it came up again about forty years after it had been diverted from its first institution and paid as Tribute to the Danes But this was also by Parliament Of which Ingulph and Hoveden with all about Etheldred and Edward I must not digress to the Parliament of Winchester in King Egbert's Sons in which Tenths of Lands as other Tythes were confirmed for Church-Glebe Of which the Saxon Chronologie with Ethelward Hoveden the Abbot of Croyland the Monk of Malmsbury and Matthew of Westminster with divers others before Polydore To which we may adde King Edgar's Oration to St. Dunstan which is known enough As also the Wednesday Masses one for the King and the other pro Ducibus c. Consentientibus The Charter being subscribed by the King Archbishops Dukes Earls and Procerum totius Terrae Aliorumque fidelium infinita Multitudine I should not omit the Parliaments confirming Rome-Scot much mistaken by divers It was granted by King Ina then by Offa and again by King Ethelwoolf not to the Pope as it is generally thought but to the English School or Alms-house for Pilgrims at Rome Yet it was called Peter-pence because fixed on Peters-day A famous day in our Law as may appear by the second of Westminster and other Parliaments But it might be called Peter-pence from King Ina whom at his Baptism in Rome the Pope name Peter as the Saxon Chronicles others Or there might be as much reason for Peter-pence as there was for Peterburg which was Medhamsted but Vows might be performed or absolved here as well as at St. Peter's Threshold in Rome And hence the name of Peterburg But of Peter-pence before Polydore we read in much older Historians especially the Author of King Offa's Life now printed with Matthew Paris Beside the Laws of King Edgar Canutus Edmund and the Confessor where it is called Eleemosynae Regis But in the Saxon Chronology 't is Kynninges and West Seaxena Almessan And in King Alfred's Life by Asser Menevensis Eleemosynae Regis and Anglo-Saxonum Being confirmed by common Assent or Parliament I must omit the Parliament at Kingsbury where among other divers matters a great Charter was confirmed to Crowland Vnanimi Consensu totius Concilii pro Regni Negotiis Congregati Subscribed by the King of Mercia Archbishops Bishops Earls c. And among others by Offâ—at who was Pincerna Regis Ethelwoolphi Legatus Ipsius filiorum Nomine Illorum Omnium West-Saxonum as we are told by the old Abbot who knew it well I might pass over King Alfred's Parliaments so the famous in all Historians and Lawyers But in none I know clearer than in the old Mirrour Of which before for Alfred and his Parliaments twice every year in London With which we may compare one passage in the Confessors Laws touching this great and old City But of this hereafter This was the learned King who perused all the old Trojan Grecian British Molmutian Mercian Danish and Saxon Laws especially those of Ina Offa and King Ethelbert Cum consulto Sapientum partim innovanda curavit as himself speaketh And his Laws were established by Parliaments by his Witan or Witena Atque eis omnibus placuit edici eorum Observatione As learned Lambert translateth the Saxon. But I may not omit King Alfred's doomsday-Doomsday-book made by such Common Council the great Roll of Winchester which was again renewed by the Confessor and then again by King William the First and then also called the Roll of Winchester and Doomsday as before Of which old Ingulph with Natura Brevium Yet it seemeth that before King Alfred's time there was such a Doom-book made by Ethelwoolf at the time of the Church-Glebe of which Book the Saxon Chronology at the year 854. But this might rather be a Land-book whence the Phrase of Booeland See King Alfred's Will annexed to Asser. But we also find an ancient Doom-book for their Laws and matters Iudicial Of which Doom-book we read in several places of the Laws of Edward the Senior strictly charging all the Judges and Magistrates to be just and equitable Nec quicquam formident quin jus Communae audacter libereque dicant according to the Doom-book And again in Edgar's Laws we find the Doom-book for Tythes and the famous Kyricseat These succeeded King Alfred But long before his time among the Dooms of Withred made about the year 697. by the King and Bishops Cum caeteris Ordinibus and Military-men or Milites at Berghamsted a Fine is set upon a Commander found in Adultery Spretta Sententia Regis Episcopi Boecâ—-Doom I could believe King Ethelbert's Parliaments were Authors to this Doom-book Of which the Roll of Rochester tha Doomas dhe Athelbirth Cyning with Rihtra Dooma in the fore-cited place of Ethelbert in the Saxon Bede of King Alfred How severe his Dooms were to the Counts old Shireeves and Iudges we find in Asser more in Horn and his Kirk-dooms in his Laws which do also speak of Kiric-Ealdor a Church-Elder But again to the Saxon Militia In Alfred's time there was a League made with the Danes Then the Title was Foedus quod Aluredus Guthrunus Regis ferierunt ex Sapientum Anglorum consulto confirmed by Act of Parliament And the Saxon Chronologer addeth That the Dane swore to the Peace and promised to be baptized as he also was and King Alfred was his Godfather naming him Ethelstane Some adde a Daughter of King Alfred's for his Wife which may be worth enquiring more than now may seem The Articles of this League were again renewed and enlarged by Parliament in Edward the Elder A Sapientibus recitata sapius atque ad Communem Regni Vtilitatem Aucta atque Amplificata In the Preface to those Statutes In this Edward's Reign there was an Insurrection and Ethelwald seized on Winborn c. whose Charge and Crimes was this That he did such an Act without permission of the King and Parliament but an tdes Kynings leafe ac his Witena So the Saxon. And Malmsbury addeth That à Proceribus in Exilium trusus Piratus adduxerat But the King summons a Parliament at Exon and there Mid his Witan consulted how the Kingdoms Peace might be restored and preserved Orabat vehementer obtestabatur such was his Mean to the Parliament hoc unum Curent ne
the Close is Acta haec confirmata apud Londonium Communi Concilio omnium Primatum meorum c. I should be unjust to our Laws if I should omit the Process and Plea of Morgan Hen against Howell Dha the good Prince of Wales Upon complaint they were both summoned by King Edgar Ad curiam suam and their Pleas were pacately heard In Pleno Concilio repertum est justo Iudicio curiae Regis quod Howell Dha nequiter egisset extra Morgan Hen filium sui Huwen depulsus est Howell Dha ab his duabus Terris the Lands then in question sine recuperatione Postea Rex Edgarus dedit concessit Hueno Morgan Hen illas duas Terras Istradum Euwias in Episcopatu Landas constituas sicuti suam Propriam Hereditatem illas easdem duas Terras sibi Heredibus suis Per chartam suam sine Calumpnia alicujus Terreni hominis confirmavit communi nostro assensu testimonio omnium Archiepiscoporum Episcop Abbatum Comitum Baronum totius Angliae Walliae factum est coram Rege Edgaro in pleno concilio c. This Record of King Edgar is in Codicae Landavensi fol. 103. I find it cited by the great Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman and it may be compared with the Monk of Malmsbury and Matthew of Westminster I must not relate the Visions or Predictions of the Fates of this Kingdom which Historians record about the Reign of King Edgar they are in print and may be read of all Besides the Prophecies of both the Merlins for the Scottish Merlin was fuller and plainer than the British in Vortigers time That I say nothing of Cadwalladers Vision or Alans Council which was long before the other Alane wrote on Merlin or of the famous Eagle of Shaftsbury that agreed with others in the Britains recovering their Kingdom again after their grand Visit at Rome whence they must bring Cadwalladers bones This leadeth me also to the Sybils Prophecy of three British Princes that should conquer Rome Brennus was one King Arthur some make the second Et quis fuit alter And of these Sybils or one of them sending a book to King Bladud so famous for the Bath and Greek-Schools or University at Stamford the Scotish Merlin seemeth to have written if among others I mistake not Baleus But of Edgar's Parliaments one was at Salisbury so we read in Chaucer or the old Fructus Temporum by Iulian Notary at St. Albans And of another of his Parliaments at Bath the Saxon Chronology at the year 973. His Laws are now printed and their Title is The Acts of King Edgar and his Parliament Mid his Witena Getheate gerred c. Here we find much considerable of Thanes which all will have to be Noble-men but it must be with them a Saxon word And Dhenian is to serve whence the Princes Motto Ic Dhaen For so it should rather be than in Dutch Ich Dien But why should Noble-men or those that were the freest have their name from serving Here they flie to Knights-service King-service or I know not what most proper as they say to free and Noble-men But from a Judge or Fleta we may be taught that the Saxon Dhaen or Thaen is a Servant but Thayn a Free-man And in this sence it seemeth to be used here As also in Denmark and Ireland Nor did the Britains differ much whose Haene or Hane is an Eldar although Hyne be sometimes used for a Servant And so the Irish Tane is Elder whence their Tanistry or Eldership the cause or sad occasion of such bloudshed These British Hanes the Saxons in compliance called Ealdermen St. Edward's Laws afford so much and it may be Thanes although with them they had the name of Greeues or Graves suiting well with Elders Hanes or Senators With which we may compare the Phrase of Seniores which we read so oft in Gildas Nennius Monmouth and others of the British and first Saxons times in Britain I should be tedious in but glancing over the Acts of Parliament in Edgar's time That of the Standard at Winchester is considerable and that of one Coyn through all the Kingdom The Mirrour is plain in making it an Act of Parliament in Saxon times That no King of this Realm should change his Money or embase or enhanse it or make other but of silver Sans l' assent de tout ses Counties Which the Translator is bold to turn Without the Assent of the Lords and all the Commons We may not omit the Act against unjust Judges or Complaints to the King except Justice could not be had at home For which also the Hundred-Courts were again confirmed and the Grand Folkmootes or Sheriffs Turnes established by Act of Parliament Of which and of their relation to Peace and War more in Edward's Laws which may afford a Comment for the Saxon Militia I need not speak of the Parliament at Calna it is famous enough where Considentibus totius Angliae Senatoribus the Roof fell down and hurt them most but St. Dunston Of which Wigornensis Iornalensis Malmsbury Matthew of Westminster and so many others may be cited King Ethelred's Laws have this Title in Lumbard Sapientum Concilium quod Ethelredus Rex promovendae pacis causa habuit Wodstoci Merciae quae legibus Anglorum gubernatur aefter Aengla-Lage Post Anglis Lagam as an old Author turneth it In those Acts we read of Ordale Sythan the Gemot waes aet Bromdune Post Bromdune Concilium It seems a Parliament And again Iussum ac scitum hoc nostrum si quis neglexerit aut profuâ quisque virili parte non obierit ex nostra omnium sententiâ Regi 100 Dependito By which it appeareth to be a Parliament and not the King only that made those Laws That which Sir Henry Spelman calleth Concilium AE 〈…〉 e Generale was clearly one of King Ethelred's Parliaments and the very Title is De Witena Geâ—ednessan and tha Geraednessa the Englaraed Witan gee 〈…〉 c. And divers Chapters begin Witena Geraednesse is enacted by Parliament And the old Latin Copy of this Parliament telleth us that in it were Vniversi Anglorum Optimates Ethelredi Regis Edicto convocato Plebis multitudine collectae Regis Edicto A Writ of Summons to all the Lords and for choice of the Commons a full and clear Parliament In this Parliament were divers Acts for the Militia both by Land and Sea as most Parliaments after King Edgar and among others for Castles Forts Cities Bridges and time of the Fleets setting out to Sea It is made Treason for any to destroy a Ship that was provided for the State-service Navem in Reipublicae expeditionem designatam as a learned man translateth the Saxon. And no Souldier must depart without leave on forfeit of all his Estate None may oppose the Laws but his Head or a grievous Mulct according to the Offences quality must recompence It was here also enacted That Efferatur
And where-ever these are found released as to Peterburg Canterbury Westminster but especially to Glassenbury the first and oldest Church in Britain Fons origo totius religionis It may be a clear Demonstration of the Parliaments assent to such a Charter For otherwise they could not be dispensed with by the King as we may find expressed in divers Charters as in those of Crowland which yet had great immunities And of that Restriction Matth. Paris may afford us the true reason because those three were setled for the Kingdom Propter Publicam Regni Vtilitatem ut per ea resisterent hostium in cursibus And K. William's Laws Castel Burg. Civit. fundatae aedificatae ad tuit Gent. Popul Regni ad Defens Regni idcirco observari debent cum omni libertate integritate Ratione Private Castles for habitation may be given in Dower and divided by Pacerners but so may none for publick defence Yet of such also may a man be Tenant by the Curtesie being able to guard them for Publick service of the Common-wealth One grand Objection must be removed but we need not fear it for it will flie or run away of it self 'T is that of the Conquest as many are pleased to call it not attending how little in this they be the Kings Friends for if this were his onely or his main and best Title there might be found in future ages some that may come to think it as lawful to conquer him as it was or could be to conquer them It must be considered for if the foundation be not sure and low the higher the building is the nearer its fall And it hath been observed that the higher Skale got up by accident is more ready to pop down again than it was before while it hung in due poize It seemeth a great weakness to be apt or prone to Suspition and therefore I shall not say I do suspect some that are most zealous for Prerogative or the Title of Conquest to be least acquainted with the Laws or Histories of England But I cannot be wholly free from wonder that any Lawyer or Historian that was friend to the King should be passionate in these which were so clearly quitted by that King whom they call the Conquerour He stood on Stilts or Patents or Pantofles but on plain English ground with two feet as other men The left and the weakest was Succession to Edward whose Kinsman he was and Heir by Will as appeareth by divers Passages in these very Laws of Saint Edward and William which may be seen and read of all But the right Leg with the strongest and best Foot he had to stand upon was the Peoples Assent Consent Acceptance and Election which we shall yet more fully clear when we discuss the Right of Succession or Election to this Crown and Kingdom But for the present it may suffice to observe That all these Laws we now have of King Edward's come to us through the Hands and Grant and Confirmation of King William the Norman and no otherwise Which I need not prove to any that have either read or seen the Laws themselves of which we speak For in the very Title and Preface thereof besides divers other passages in them all this and much more is fully related and recorded For it is there also further added That all those Laws were so presented to the said King William by a sworn Iury out of every County Who did also assert That these which they did present as the Laws of St. Edward were the undoubted Laws and Customs of the Kingdom that had also been collected into a Body by King Edgar and continued though sopite through the Troubles of succeeding Kings till Edward had the leisure to renew or rather confirm what was the Law before Nay when among all those Laws King William did most encline to those which came from Norway whence his Ancestors and Lords had issued forth and where a Bastard might inherit all the Patriarchs of England Compatriotae Regni qui Leges edixerant did so move and press him with such Arguments as may again be well considered that at length in Parliament Concilio habito precatis Baronum the King himself consented as they did desire This is expressed in his own Laws And by his own desire the Archbishop of Canterbury was one of those entrusted with enrolling or recording of those Laws Which to that very King and to his Successors to this very day became one special Clause of the Coronation-Oath Which was To confirm all the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom but especially the Laws of St. Edward called the Confessor And one of King William's own Laws is That all men observe and keep the Laws of King Edward in all things Adauctis his quas constituimus ad Vtilitatem Anglorum If this be not yet clear enough for the Laws themselves which are now extant and may be read and known of all we might confirm it much by Ingulph living at the same time and bringing those Laws with his own hands from London to his Crowland with such an Endorsement or Title of his own making Leges aequissimi Regis Edwardi quas Dominus meus inclitus Rex Willielmus Autenticas esse perpetuas per totum Regnum Angliae inviolabiliterque tenendas sub poenis gravissimis Proclamarat suis Iustitiis commendarat c. He was like enough to know it And the old Book of Litchfield cited in the great Reports besides that of the Iury from every County addeth also That the same King William did by the Counsel of his Barons call by Writ of Summons Summoniri fecit all the Nobles Wise-men Elders of the Witan and learned Lawyers in each County And in that great Parliament Ad Preces Communitatis Anglorum Rex acquievit c. confirming all by Common Council This of Litchsield is now printed in several places and Roger Hoveden agreeth in Henry the Second Nor did he onely confirm but in some things mitigate and in divers explain and clear what might seem obscure or heavy to the People Ad Vtilitatem Anglorum His Laws are now printed both with Mr. Selden's Notes on Eadmerus and with Mr. Wheelock's Impression of the Saxon Laws and History with a very good Preface of Sir Roger Twisden They do oblige us much that love and clear our Laws so far as just and good What Emendations and Additions King William made to St. Edward's Laws in this also of the Militia we have observed before at our unexpected enterance on this Question Which was not at all intended to be once so much as touched but in one Parenthesis Which was past Recovery before this Discourse was so much as designed But now having wandred so much and so far beyond my own purpose as well as my Subject I could almost be perswaded to step a little further and to touch I must no more upon some few passages between the Conquest as they
with the Statutes of King William after the Saxon Laws I must but run and glance His Charter acknowledgeth his Crown to the Mercy of God and the Common Councel Communi Concilio assensu Baronum Regni Angliae It confirmeth King Edwards Laws with all those Emendations which King William added for the profit of the Kingdom It forbiddeth all Levies nay the Monetagium Commune but what was agreed and setled in King Edwards Reign And the Test of that Charter is by Arch-Bishops Bishops Barons Comitatibus Vice-Comitatibus optimatibus totius Regni Angliae apud Westmonasterienses quando Coronatus fui This was copied out into every County and kept in every Abby So much also we find in Matthew Paris Of his Charter to London I may touch in another place This I must not omit in his Laws Sive agenda proecipiat levia permittat hortatur maxima vitanda prohibeat yet still the Laws must be Manifesta Iusta Honesta Possibilis a kind of sacred Tetragram It is the 4th Chapter And the next is the Basis or Foundation of our Law process and of all Judicials In all Causes Accusers Parties or Defenders Witnesses and Iudges be and must be distinct Nec perigrina sint judicia vel a non suo judice vel loco vel Tempore celebrata nec inâ—e dubia vel absente accusato dicta sit sententia c. Nihil fiat absque Accusatore nam Deus Dominus Noster Iesus Christus Iudam furem esse sciebat sed quia non accusatus ideo non abreptus Testes Legitimi sint presentes absque ulla imfamia vel suspicione vel manifesta Macula Recte Sacerdotes accusare non possunt Laicos Nec oportet quemquam Iudicari vel dampnari priusquam Legitimos Accusatores habeat presentes Locumque Defendendi accipiat ad abluenda crimina c. And again Pulsatus ante suum judicem si voluerit causam suam dicat non ante suum Iudicem pulsatus si voluerit taceat Si quis Iudices suspectos habeat advocet aut contradicat Appellantem vitiatam causam appellationis Remedio sublevantem non debet afflictio vel detentionis injuriare Custodia Unusquisque per PARES suos Iudicandus est ejusdem Provinciae Quicquid adversus Adsentes vel non a suis judicibus penitus evacuetur Chap. the 5th and the 31th Iuramentum debet habere Comites Voritatem Iustitiam Iudicium si ista defecerint non juramentum sed perjurium est Qui per lapidem falsum Iurat perjurus est Deus ista accipit sicut ille cui juratur accipit Iuramenta filii filiae nesciente Patre vota Monachi nesciente Abbate juramenta pueri irrito sunt Are These the Laws of England or of Nature rather These we owe to Beauclerck which he owed much to Cambridge See Malms of Plato's Kings Touching the Militia beside that in General confirming King Edwards and King Williams Emendations There are some particular as of Tenants by Knights Service to be freed from Gilds c. That so they might be more ready for the Defence of the Kingdom and in it the Kings Service This agreeth with the old Writ de essend Quiet de Tallagio Which the Tenant in Chivalry might require of Right And Tenants in Dower or Widows had the like Priviledge of which the Old Register natura brevium That also of Edgar or Canute for Cowards in Land or Sea-fight is renued with that of Boocland as before Much also of Helfeng Releifs are agreed and setled For Earls and the Kings Thaynes with others called Meane Thaynes But in some Chapters Thaynes are equal to Barons And all Tenants En chief at Clarendon were stiled Barons and Relief is Cosin German to the Saxon Heriot Being for the Heir or Militia whence Heretoche in King Edwards Laws But the Dutch Here is also Dominus as Senior in so many Nations since the time of Charles the Great And some will have the Saxon Heregeat to be the Her 's Geat or Beast of the Lord or Here which of old was paid before or rather than the Mortuary And from this Here som would derive Haeres So that all Heirs should be Her 's or Lords as Homines were Yeomen You Men or Young Men but Homines in Law as with us Men are Servi Such they say were Yeomen and none Gentlemen but such as came from Barons or at least the Tenants in Capite if not in Antient Demesn But for this see Edw. 1. Tit. Attorney 103 And the Learned Ianus Dane-geld is here also reduced to 12 d. the Hyde as of Old from which it rambled to 3 4 6 8 10 or 12. strict provision is also made for keeping of Arms and against using or lending them for the dammage of Others Nay a mulct is set upon him whose Lance or Sword doth much Trespass though against his will He is to be severely punished that disarmeth any unjustly and must answer all the mischief that ensueth such disarming To this Kings time belongeth the case of William the Kings Chamberlain de Londonia who refused to find a man for the Army as his Tenour required But the Abbot of Abbingdon of whom he held in presentia sapientum in a Witen Moot rem ventilari fecit c. Unde cum Lege Patriae decretum processisset ipsum exortem Terrae merito deberi fieri c. by Friends it was composed and the Tenant enjoyed his Land I find it from Sir Robert Cottons inestimable Treasury cited by Mr. Selden on Hengham Nor can I deny but this with divers other cases might forfeit the Land But as in case of Alienation of such Tenures a Statute of Edward the 3d. provided that the King shall not retain the Forfeits but shall only take a Fine Reasonable which the Chancery must also assess by due Process So is our Law very tender in all cases of Forfeit And among the old Wytes Wardwyte was for the Militia being an acquittance of Mercy to him that had not found a man for the Servise according to his Tenure Of which old Fleta with others The Laws of this King do evince the Tryal per PARES to be long before the great Charter Nor would it be hard to shew it before King Henry and besides all other hints through Elder times the case is well known of Roger Fitz Osborn apprehended by Tiptoft Sheriff of Worcestershire and condemned for Treason in King William the Norman per judicium parium suorum Of which antient Historians before the Commentator on Magna Charta I should not omit King Henry's Charter to the Abbot of Bee confirming his antient Customs and Priviledges prescribed for St. Edmonds time for Grand Assizes c. yet to be found in the Book of Assizes lib. 26. Pl. 24. and in the 3d. or 8th part of the great Reports and in the Comment on Magna Charta cap. 11. but here it is from Ethelred and Edward the Confessor One of
ab omnibus approbetur Which is one clause in the Writ of Summons to Parliament about a War with France in Edward the First Which seemeth to speak a necessity of Parliaments for matters of War Not only for Money as some have pleased to speak or at the Kings choice to call them if he please The Writ speaks an Act of Parliament Lex justissima provida circumspectione stabilita not let at loose to the Kings pleasure but as Fortescue or long before him the old Modus of Parliament maketh it necessary for the King and his Duty to Call a Parliament in all such Cases Nor shall I need to add what Paulus Iovius Froisard Comineus de Serres and the Duke of Rohan with many other strangers have observed of our Parliaments in this which is the Law of Nature rather than of England For as in the Heavens or great World we did before observe Mars or the Genius of War to be there placed immediately under Iupiter the great Councel and not under the Sun So in the Microcosm or little World of Man we find both Spleen and Gall within Hands and Feet without at a good distance from the Head and never joyned to it but in Monsters Yet it is true that some Creatures have Horns on their Heads but they are Beasts and not Men. Much less Kings I hope But did we Labour Toyl and Sweat so much to keep a little River in its bounds that so we might be drowned by the boundless Ocean Or be swept away at once by a destroying and devouring Deluge Did we scruple at a little Gravel or a Pebble that we might be crushed by a Mountain Would we strain at a Gnat that we might be choaked by a Camel or be swallowed whole by Behemoth It may not be at least it may not seem enough to quiet trembling minds to say or prove by arguments there shall be nothing done but what is just except we also see or know the way and means and usual course our Governours will please to take in doing that which may or is and ever shall I hope be just The way must be both Right and Clear as well as is the End And of the two Unjust and Arbitrary Power doth seem to be in Processe or in ways and means much rather than in Ends or Things that be effected by it Sure it was at least it might be good to build a gallant Fleet of Ships and so it might be just that each should contribute a part to such a publick work Nor was it only that which then was taken from us for a Ship that made us sigh and groan and cry or fear our Ruine or a universal deluge of Oppression But it much or mainly was we did not see the way or mean or Legal Process which the Court did take in Taxing or Assessing such a Place a County or a Person And it was but thus in Loans and so in divers if not all the things we so abhorred in the Crown the thing did not so much displease as did the way or means to such or such an End I need not say how curious or how scrupulous and tender still our Laws have been in pointing out the Way as well as End the Process in the Courts of Justice as the Final Iudgements So that indeed the very Form and Life and Power or Substance of the justest Laws doth much consist in Processe which by some may be thought a shadow or a Ceremony left at pleasure for a blustring Wind or any furious hand to shake as much as long as it shall please And then to salve it up by saying to the Root We mean you Good and do but lay you bare that so you may the more behold and more admire our Iustice in the End when all the Boughs and Branches shall be gone that do but hinder all your Prospect I must but Touch and glance There is a Trinity which all our Laws do seem to Worship here on Earth Estate Liberty and Life Of all Estate the Dower of Widows hath the greatest priviledge For which the Comments upon Littletons first and fifth with the Statutes of Merton and some clauses of the great Charter it self for Quarentine and Dower are good glosses on the Saxon Laws or those already touched and I shall not add one syllable All Estates have priviledge in Law and all Amercements must be such as may consist with mens Estate from Alfred Edgar Ethelred Canute or Edward it did come to Henry the first and thence to the Great Charter Where the Law is plain and clear No Free man shall be Amerced but according to his Default and Estate Salvo sibi Contenemento suo Which is so branched that it reacheth to Villains also though it speak at first but of Free-men Hence the Name of Amercement because it was and ought to be an Amerciament or a merciful Fine In which the Saxons went beyond us in their Weregylds and Divers Wytes for which Fleta may be a Comment to the Laws of Ethelstane and others of the Saxons All this for End but what must be the Way How shall it be imposed so that it may as it should be merciful 'T is miserecordiu Regis as the Laws and Books do speak but the King doth not may not Fine or Amerce any but in and by his Courts of Justice So that to render ones self to the Kings Judgment is to no effect and so adjudged For as the Father judgeth no man so the King who is or should be Father of the Country but he hath committed all judgment unto Men that are our Fellows Pares in the Courts of Justice VVhere indeed the King did sometime sit in Person yet the Court did Judge and not the King as Fortescue doth plainly tell us And the Judgment still is entred from and by the Court and not the King Ideo consideratum est per Curiam And so the great Charter saith we will not go upon him nec ibimus nec mittemus but by Legal Judgment of his Peers vel per Legem Terrae and of this last clause I never saw a fuller Comment in a few words than in Mr. Seldens Notes on Attaint in Fortescue But of all Iudgments to be made by Peers somewhat was said before in Henries Laws and more again ere long And for Fines by Courts of Justice not by the King and Amerciaments by Peers besides the Comments on Magna Charta there are divers Book Oases cited from Henry the fourth Henry the sixth Richard the third in the fourth part of Institutes Kings Bench To which may be added Greislies Case in the eighth part of Reports And the first of Westminster doth add to the great Charter or at least explain it in this But the Mirror will tell us it was an abuse not to expound it so largely before And although the VVrit de moderata misericordia in the Register and N. B. be founded on the Statute yet it seemeth clearly but
the Militia For in such a Case the Sheriff or Bayliff shall not only force his Entry by the Posse-Comitatus into such a Castle on the suit of a Subject but it may also come so far that the said Fort or Castle may be beaten down without recovery And although it be said it shall be done by the Kings Command yet it is well known and seen by experience that it is and always was by Order of the Courts of Justice and for this Semain's Case in the fifth part of Reports may be very well added to the Comments on the First of Westminster By which we see how much the very Forts and Castles or Militia must be subject to the Courts of Iustice Not the King only but in and by his Courts especially the Parliament that may Command Controul and Over-rule all other Courts How tender the Law is in Case of Estate Forfeit by Alienation I have touched before much is to be added Nay in the worst and lowest Estates by Tenure of Will of which somewhat also before for a Fine Reasonable c. as by Copy where Alienation and Wast against the Custom with other Cases in the fourth part of Reports may Forfeit to the Lord but he cannot Out his Tenant at pleasure especially him that sweareth Fealty but the said Tenant may sue his Lord or bring his Action of Trespasse For Offices Forfeited by Bargain and Sale or Brocage the Statutes are clear and just To which may be added the Comments of Littletons Estates Conditional as also for Forfeitures of Conditions It is expresly provided by Act of Parliament that no Sheriff or any other Person do take or seize any mans Goods much less may he take his Lands for Treason or Felony until he be duly convicted or Attainted by Trial Confession or Outlawry upon pain to Forfeit double to the party grieved nor is this only in Richard the third but in the first great Charter and before it also as was touched before Among the Saxons none were Outlawed but for Capital crimes we find it often in the Mirror and in such the Out-law might be killed by any that met him as might any man Attainted of Premunire that vast Chaos of confusion till Queen Elizabeths Time I do not find any outlawry below Felony till about the Barons Wars and then it came not below an Action of Forceable Trespass Vi Armis But in the Common Pleas it came to lie upon Account Debt Detinue Covenant and other petty Actions which the Mirrour would pronounce a most great abuse But in Edw the third there was some amends in providing that none should kill an Out-law but a Sheriff only with lawful Authority Yet in inferiour Cases Land Issues might be sequestred in the Kings Hands till Appearance or Reversal Only in Treason and Felony it forfeiteth as much as Attainder by Judgment But it may be Pleades and Reversed divers ways And a Petty Misnomer or a misdate is ground enough to Reverse it by a Writ of Errour And of this the Books are full But Nimin's case is a criticism in Chronology One of the Sheriffs Returns was dated on the 8th of Iuly in the second and third of Phil. and Mary but it was declared there could be no such day but in the 2d and 4th year which was only between the 6th and 25th of Iuly yet this was enough to Reverse an Attainder of Treason by Writ of Errour And in Favour of Life our Law admitteth Pleas to Out-Lawries in Capitals there where in other Cases must be brought a formal Writ of Error I cannot deny but even by the common Law upon Indictment for Treasom or Felony the Goods and Chattels might be Inventored but not seized as Forfeit till Conviction Nor are Lands and Tenements Forfeit till Attainder by Judge And in case of Appeal which related no time that is only Forfeit which is possessed at the Iudgment But upon Indictment dating the crime the Forfeiture will reach to the crime committed although there be Alienation before Judgement But no Forfeiture before Conviction no seizure before Indictment And the Book of Assizes telleth us the Judges took away a Commission from one that under the great Seal had power to arrest and seize on Goods before Indictment And how tender our Law was in this for Estate it may be seen at large in Bracton and Fleta with the old Writ not only in them but in the Register also relating to the great Charter forbidding all Disseisin till Conviction Yet it requireth the Sheriff per visum suum legalium hominem to Apprise and Inventory all the Offenders Chattels but with a double Salvo both for safe keeping them and for this Security was to be given by the Bailiffs or the Township and for maintaining the person in Prison with all his necessary Family Salvo tamen eidem Capto familiae suae necessariae quamdiu fuerit in prisona Rationabili Esto verio suo Which was not only Meat but Cloathing c. as hath often been adjudged in Edward the third Henry the fourth and other Times See the third part of Institutes cap. 103. It will not be long I hope before God stirreth up our Governours to Reform the crying sins of this Kingdom and not only Gaolers in our oppressing grinding Prisons But the Heathen Moralist hath also told us that Divine wheels are also grinding and will grind to powder though they be slow in motion as unwilling to revenge It is true that Prisons should be by Law both safe and strait Custodies nor should they admit such wandring abroad as some mens Mony doth procure But although Recoveries on Record much lesse Discents do not bind men in Prison or conclude them for want of claim yet upon motion Prisoners may and ought to be brought to the Court in Suits or Actions against them in case of Judgement or where ever else they ought to be in person present And for this I may only referre to the Commentator on the continual claim and the Cases by him cited How unwilling our Law was to empair our Liberty was touched before in the Capias on Debt And although some latter Statutes do out-go our Common Law for Imprisonments yet it is still received for a general maxim in Law that Prisons should be Custodiae not Poenae And where ever any man is unjustly in Prison the Law affordeth him more ways of getting out than his Enemies had to get him in He may have an Habeas Corpus and he may have a Writ de Homine Replegiando He may have an Action of False Imprisonment And may found an Action on the Great Charter Or on it may cause his unjust friend to be Endicted And the Writ de Odio Atia was again revived though by Statute once it was forbidden And for these with Bayl by Judges or Justices Replevins by Sheriffs c. We have the Judgement of all the Judges on Articuli Cleri and the Comments on the great
in Parliament Which was the Receiving of Petitions As the Rolls of most times witness It being the old Mode and others accounted it somewhat against Reason that Petitions should be taken and brought into the House by those that were to debate and determine them and so might at pleasure keep them Out or too hastily might press them in Whereas they were to be filled up in course and so to be debated as they were received which was therefore entrusted to the care of known and sworn Officers of the Kingdom Although of late their work in Parliament be so strangely degenerate from that it was of old when also beside Receivers there were some appointed for Tryers of Petitions who as it seemeth were to enquire of matter of Fact expressed in the Petition that it might be cleared and rightly stated before it came to be debated in full Parliament I do not deny but these Triers of Petitions were most frequently some of the Bishops and other Barons But by this I am not convinced that the Lords had by Right and Legislative Power or were the sole Determinors of all Petitions as some would infer or that they were the sole Judges except also the Petty Jury that are Tryers of Fact shall be esteemed the sole Judges of Matters of Law And yet I shall not deny but Petitions concerning abuses or errors in Judicature were often deermined by the Lords as the great Judges but of error in the King's Bench as Judges above the King as was shewed before or from the Exchequer In Queen Ellzabeths Time for the seldom meeting or great Affairs of Parliament the Writs of Error from the King's Bench were by special Act of Parliament to be brought before the Judges of the Common Pleas and Barons of the Exchequer and by them to be determined But with these express Limitations as the Law shall require other than for Errors to be assigned or found for or concerning the Iurisdiction of the said Court of Kings Bench or for want of form in any Writ Process Verdict c. and that after all the Records and all concerning them be remanded to the King's Bench as well for execution as otherwise as shall appertain and with this express Proviso That any Party agrieved by such Iudgment in the Exchequer shall and may sue in Parliament for a further and due Examination By which I do not see such Parties agreed were absolutely tied to Petition the Lords onely although it were onely in a Case judicial Yet I deny not but in Edward the 3d. there was a Committee made of a Bishop two Earls and two Barons to hear and determine all Petitions complaining of Delays or Grievances in Courts of Justice But with great Limitations so that they must send for the Records and Judges which were to to be present and be heard and then by good advice of the Chancellor Treasurer Judges and other of the Council to make an Accord yet so that all be remanded to the Judges before whom the Cause did first depend who were then to proceed to Judgment according to the Accord of the said Committee And in Case it seemed to them to be such as might not well be determined but in full Parliament that then the said Records or Tenors should be brought by the said Commitee to the next Parliament it being the Common Law of the Kingdom and so expressed in all the old Books that all new unwonted difficult matters of consequence should still be brought and submitted to the Judgment of full Parliament so that all our Iudges did and ought to respit such Causes till the next Parliament of which there be almost innumerable Precedents in all the Rolls Nay in Richard the 2d there was a Committee of Lords and Commons appointed to hear and determine all Petitions present in that Parliament But afterwards it was adjudged and declared That such a Commission ought not to be given committing or betraying the High Power of Parliament into a few private hands as we may learn out of Henry the 4th beside other times Yet the Modi of Parliament admit that some extraordinary Cases where the Estates could not agree or the greater part of the Knights Proctors Citizens c. There by consent of the whole Parliament the Matter might be compromised to 25. chosen out of all Degrees and to fewer till at length it might come to 3. who might determine the Case except that being written it were corrected by Assent of Parliament and not otherwise And this seemeth to be the Law of Nature and right Reason That Delegates should not delegate others which was one reason why the Commons never made Pracies as the Lords did Nor might any Committee so determine but there might be Appeal from it to the Parliament Nor doth the Parliament it Self conclude so but that there may be Appeal from its self to its self even to its Iustice if it erre or at least to its mercy by some motion or Petition In one Parliament of Richard the 2d it was Enacted that no man condemned by Parliament should move for Pardon but another Parliament 10 years after did annul this Branch as unjust unreasonable and against the Law and Custom of Parliament For from this which is the highest here there still lieth Appeal from its Self to its Self For which also by the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom there were to be frequent Parliaments that so the errors or omissions of one being still human and therefore errable might be corrected and amended in another By express Statutes of Edw. the 3d. we are to have Parliaments once every year and oftner if need be They were of Old three or four times a year as may be found in all the Old Historians speaking of the great Feats in the Militia in King Alfred's Time they were to be twice a year and that at London as the Mirror affirmeth which we compared with the Laws of the Confessor And I speak also of King Edgars and Canutes Laws for the Celeberrimus Conventus ex qualibet Satrapta which the Great Iudg applieth to the Parliament Eternity it self would be a Burthen unto him that is not pleased with his Being so would Omnipotence to him that is unhappy in his acting It was therefore goodness in God to limit man as well in Doing as in Being It was also the Wisdom of our Ancestors to bound and limit out the Being Acting and continuing not onely of other Judges but also of Parliaments Yet the Old Modi of Parliament agree in this That a Parliament should not be Dissolved till all Petitions were discussed and answered and that after all there should be Proclamation made in some open place whether any had a Petition or just Address to the Parliament and if none replied then it was to be Dissolved I need not shew the Care of our Ancestors or former Parliaments for most strict observation of their own good Orders and Customs of Parliament which are such so just and reasonable that they well deserve a peculiar Discourse by themselves and suppose it not impossible to clear them more by the practice and consent of most Ages in this Kingdom which might also be useful for the Times to come And although it might be possible to find some of their old custome fit to be changed yet my hope is they will retain and observe such Rules of right Reason good Orders and Customs as may still make this an Happy Nation and that they will be mindful of their great Trust for which they are accountable And however it may be in this World yet they also must be judged at his coming who shall bring every Work into Iudgment with every secret Thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And I am not ashamed both to long and pray for his coming who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords The Prince of Salem that is Peace as well as King of Righteousness Melchizedek the Lamb upon the white Thone All the Creation groaneth and the Spirit and the Bride saith come Lord Iesus come quickly FINIS