the Advowson and Presentation of Churches Estates not to be given to Monasteries without the Kings leave Clergymen to answer in the Kings Court A Clergyman convict out of the Churches Protection None to go out of the Realm without the Kings leave This Repealed by King John Excommunicate Persons to find Surety Laymen how to be impleaded in the Ecclesiastical Court A Lay-Jury to swear there in what case No Homager or Officer of the Kings to be Excommunicated till He or his Justice be acquainted AT length though late first Henry the Son of Jeoffry Plantagenet Count of Anger 's by the Empress Mawd came to his Grandfatherrs Inheritance Having demolished and levelled to the ground the Castles which had in King Stephen's time been built to the number of eleven hundred and fifteen and having retrieved the right of Majesty into its due bounds he confirmed the Laws of his Grandfather Moreover at Clarendon in Wiltshire near Salisbury John of Oxford being President by the Kings own Mandate there being also present the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and Peers of the Realm other Laws are recognized and passed whilst at first those who were for the King on one side those who were for the Pope on the other with might and main stickle to have it go their way these latter pleading that the secular Court of Justice did not at all suit with them upon pretence that they had a priviledge of Immunity But this would not serve their turn for such kind of Constitutions as we are now setting down had the Vogue 44. If any Controversie concerning the Advowson and Presentation of Churches arise betwixt Laymen or betwixt Laymen and Clergymen or betwixt Clergymen among themselves let it be handled and determined in the Court of the Lord our King 45. The Churches which are in the Kings Fee cannot be given to perpetuity without his assent and concession Even in the Saxons times it seems it was not lawful without the Kings favour first obtained to give away Estates to Monasteries for so the old Book of Abington says A Servant of King Ethelred's called Vlfric Spot built the Abby of Burton in Staffordshire and gave to it all his Paternal Estate appraised at seven hundred pounds and that this donation might be good in Law he gave King Ethelred three hundred Marks of Gold for his confirmation of it and to every Bishop five Marks and over and above to Alfric Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Village of Dumbleton 46. Clergymen being arighted and accused of any matter whatsoever having been summoned by the Kings Justice let them come into his Court there to make answer to that of which it shall be thought fit that there answer ought to be made So that the Kings Justice send into the Court of Holy Church to see after what manner the business there shall be handled 47. If a Clergyman shall be convicted or shall confess the Fact the Church ought not from thenceforth to give him protection 48. It is not lawful for Arch-Bishops Bishops and Persons of the Kingdom to go out of the Realm without leave of our Lord the King And if they do go out if the King please they shall give him security that neither in going nor in returning or in making stay they seek or devise any mischief or damage against our Lord the King Whether you refer that Writ we meet with in the Register or Record NE EXEAS REGNVM for Subjects not to depart the Kingdom to this time or instance or with Polydore Virgil to William Rufus or to later times is no very great matter Nor will it be worth our while curiously to handle that question For who in things of such uncertainty is able to fetch out the truth Nor will I abuse my leasure or spend time about things unapproachable An sit hic dubito sed hic tamen auguror esse Says the Poet in another case And so say I. Whether it be here or no Is a Question I confess And yet for all that I trow Here it is too as I guess Out of King John's great Charter as they call it you may also compare or make up this Repeal of that Law in part Let it be lawful henceforward for any one to go out of our Realm and to return safely and securely by Land and by Water upon our Royal word unless in time of War for some short time for the common advantage of the Kingdom excepting those that are imprisoned and out-lawed according to the Law of the Kingdom and any People or Nation that are in actual War against us And Merchants concerning whom let such Order be taken as is afore directed I return to King Henry 49. Excommunicate Persons ought not to give suretiship for the Remainder nor to take an Oath but only to find Surety and Pledge to stand to the Judgment of the Church that they may be absolved 50. Persons of the Laity ought not to be accused or impleaded but by certain and legal Accusers and Witnesses in the presence of the Arch-Bishop or Bishop so that the Arch-Deacon may not lose his right nor any thing which he ought to have therefrom 51. If they be such Persons who are in fault as no one will or dare to accuse let the Sheriff being thereunto required by him cause twelve legal men of the Voisinage or of the Village to swear before the Bishop that they will manifest or make known the truth of the matter according to their Conscience 52. Let no one who holds of the King in capite nor any one of the Kings Officers or Servants of his Domain be excommunicated nor the Lands of any of them be put under an Interdict or prohibition unless first our Lord the King if he be in the Land be spoke with or his Justice if he be out of the Land that they may do right by him And so that what shall appertain to the Kings Court may be determined there and as to what shall belong to the Ecclesiastical Court it may be sent thither and there treated of CHAP. XI Other Laws of Church affairs Concerning Appeals A Suit betwixt a Clergyman and a Layman where to be Tryed In what case one who relates to the King may be put under an Interdict The difference betwixt that and Excommunication Bishops to be present at Tryals of Criminals until Sentence of Death c. pass Profits of vacant Bishopricks c. belong to the King The next Bishop to be Chosen in the Kings Chappel and to do Homage before Consecration Deforcements to the Bishop to be righted by the King And on the contrary Chattels forfeit to the King not to be detained by the Church Pleas of debts whatsoever in the Kings Court Yeomens Sons not to go into Orders without the Lords leave 53. COncerning Appeals if at any time there shall be occasion for them they are to proceed from the Arch-Deacon to the Bishop and from the Bishop to
breeding of their Children the Marrying of their Wives the Governing of their Families burning Women that killed their Husbands and burning some Servants with the dead Master for company Together with some Remarks of their publick Government p. 16 CHAP. XII Women admitted to publick debates A large commendation of the Sex together with a vindication of their fitness to govern against the Salick Law made out by several examples of most Nations p. 18 CHAP. XIII Their putting themselves under protection by going into great mens service Their Coins of money and their weighing of it Some sorts of flesh not lawful to be eaten by them p. 21 CHAP. XIV Community of Wives among the Britans used formerly by other Nations also Chalcondylas his mistake from our Civil Custom of Saluting A rebuke of the foolish humour of Jealousie p. 22 CHAP. XV. An account of the British State under the Romans Claudius wins a Battel and returns to Rome in Triumph and leaves A. Plautius to order affairs A Colony is sent to Maldon in Essex and to several other places The nature of these Colonies out of Lipsius Julius Agricola's Government here in Vespasian's time p. 24 CHAP. XVI In Commodus his time King Lucy embraces the Christian Religion and desires Eleutherius then Pope to send him the Roman Laws In stead of Heathen Priests he makes three Arch-Bishops and twenty eight Bishops He endows the Churches and makes them Sanctuaries The manner of Government in Constantine's time where ends the Roman account p. 27 CHAP. XVII The Saxons are sent for in by Vortigern against the Scots and Picts who usurping the Government set up the Heptarchy The Angles Jutes Frisons all called Saxons An account of them and their Laws taken out of Adam of Bremen p. 29 CHAP. XVIII The Saxons division of their people into four ranks No person to marry out of his own rank What proportion to be observed in Marriages according to Policy Like to like the old Rule Now Matrimony is made a matter of money p. 30 CHAP. XIX The Saxons way of judging the Event of War with an Enemy Their manner of approving a proposal in Council by clattering their Arms. The Original of Hundred-Courts Their dubbing their Youth into Men. The priviledge of young Lads Nobly born The Morganheb or Wedding-dowry p. 32 CHAP. XX. Their severe punishments of Adultery by maiming some parts of the body The reason of it given by Bracton The like practised by Danes and Normans p. 33 CHAP. XXI The manner of Inheriting among them Of deadly Feuds Of Wergild or Head-money for Murder The Nature of Country-Tenures and Knights Fees p. 36 CHAP. XXII Since the return of Christianity into the Island King Ethelbert's Law against Sacriledge Thieves formerly amerced in Cattel A blot upon Theodred the Good Bishop of London for hanging Thieves The Country called Engelond by Order of King Egbert and why so called The Laws of King Ina Alfred Ethelred c. are still to be met with in Saxon. Those of Edward the Confessor and King Knute the Dane were put forth by Mr. Lambard in his Archaeonomia p. 37 CHAP. XXIII King Alfred divides England into Counties or Shires and into Hundreds and Tythings The Original of Decenna or Court-leet Friburg and Mainpast Forms of Law how People were to answer for those whom they had in Borgh or Mainpast p. 39 CHAP. XXIV King Alfred first appointed Sheriffs By Duns Scotus his advice he gave Order for the breeding up of Youth in Learning By the way what a Hide of Land is King Edgar's Law for Drinking Prelates investiture by the Kings Ring and Staff King Knute's Law against any English-man that should kill a Dane Hence Englescyre The manner of Subscribing and Sealing till Edward the Confessor's time King Harold's Law that no Welch-man should come on this side Offa's Dike with a weapon p. 41 CHAP. VXX The Royal Consorts great Priviledge of Granting Felons Estates forfeited to the King Estates granted by the King with three Exceptions of Expedition Bridge and Castle The Ceremony of the Kings presenting a Turf at the Altar of that Church to which he gave Land Such a Grant of King Ethelbald comprized in old Verse p. 43 THE CONTETNS BOOK II. CHAP. I. WIlliam the Conquerour's Title He bestows Lands upon his followers and brings Bishops and Abbots under Military service An account of the old English Laws called Merchenlage Danâ—lage and Westsaxen-lage He is prevailed upon by the Barons to govern according to King Edward's Laws and at S. Albans takes his Oath so to do Yet some new Laws were added to those old ones p. 47 CHAP. II. The whole Country inrolled in Dooms-day Book Why that Book so called Robert of Glocester's Verses to prove it The Original of Charters and Seals from the Normans practised of old among the French Who among the Romans had the priviledge of using Rings to seal with and who not p. 51 CHAP. III. Other wayes of granting and conveying Estates by a Sword c. particularly by a Horn. Godwin's trick to get Boseham of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Pleadings in French The French Language and Hand when came in fashion Coverseâ— Laws against taking of Deer against Murder against Rape p. 54 CHAP. IV. Sheriffs and Juries were before this time The four Terms Judges to act without appeal Justices of Peace The Kings payments made at first in Provisions Afterwards changed into Mony which the Sheriff of each County was to pay in to the Exchequer The Constable of Dover and Warder of the Cinque Ports why made A disorder in Church-affairs Reformed p. 56 CHAP. V. William Rufus succeeds Annats now paid to the King Why claimed by the Pope No one to go out of the Land without leave Hunting of Deer made Felony p. 59 CHAP. VI. Henry the First why called Beauclerk His Letters of Repeal An Order for the Relief of Lands What a Hereot was Of the Marriage of the Kings Homagers Daughter c. Of an Orphans Marriage Of the Widows Dowry Of other Homagers the like Coynage-money remitted Of the disposal of Estates The Goods of those that dye Intestate now and long since in the Churches Jurisdiction as also the business of Wills Of Forfeitures Of Misdemeanors Of Forests Of the Fee de Hauberk King Edward's Law restored p. 60 CHAP. VII His order for the restraint of his Courtiers What the punishment of Theft Coyners to lose their Hands and Privy members Guelding a kind of death What Half-pence and Farthings to pass The right measure of the Eln. The Kings price set for provisions p. 63 CHAP. VIII The Regality claim'd by the Pope but within a while resumed by the King The Coverfeâ— dispensed with A Subsidy for marrying the Kings daughter The Courtesie of England Concerning Shipwrack A Tax levied to raise and carry on a War p. 65 CHAP. IX In King Stephen's Reign all was to pieces Abundance of Castles built Of the priviledge of Coining Appeals to the Court of Rome now set
JOHANNES SELDENâ—S Armig. R. White sculpsit THE Reverse or Back-face OF THE English JANUS TO-WIT All that is met with in STORY Concerning the COMMON AND STATUTE-LAW OF English Britanny From the first MEMOIRS of the two NATIONS to the Decease of King HENRY II. set down and tackt together succinctly by way of Narrative Designed Devoted and Dedicated to the most Illustrious the EARL of SALISBURY Written in Latin by JOHN SELDEN of Salvinton Student of the Inner-Temple in LONDON and Rendred into English by REDMAN WESTCOT Gent. Haec facies Populum spectat at illa Larem London Printed for Thomas Basset and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII To the Right Honourable and truly Noble Lord Robert Earl of Salisbury Viscount Cranborn Baron Cecil of Essenden Knight of the Illustrious Order of the Garter Lord High Treasurer of England Master of the Court of Wards and Privy Counsellor to His Most Excellent Majesty JAMES King of Great Britain France and Ireland Heartily according to his high desert I devote and dedicate AND as it were with consecrated Flowr and crackling grain of Salt I offer up in Sacrifice I am not in condition to do it with a costly Victim or a full Censer GREAT SIR deign with favour to receive these scraps of Collection relating intirely what they are and as far as the present Age may be supposed to be concerned in ancient Stories and Customes to the English-British State and Government and so far forth to Your most Honoured Name Which Name of Yours whilest I one of the lowermost Bench do with dazzled eye-sight look upon most Noble Lord and great Support of your Country I devoutly lay down Upon its ALTAR This small Earnest and Pledge of my Obedience and Duty THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE READER Reader THOU canst not be such a Stranger to thy own Countrey as to need my commendation of the Learned Worthy and Famous AUTHOR of these following Sheets or that I should tell thee what a Scholar a Philologer a Humanist a Linguist a Lawyer a Critick an Antiquary and which proves him an absolute Master of all these and many other Knowledges what a Writer the Great SELDEN was Since it is liberally acknowledged by every body that knows any thing not only at home but abroad also among Foreigners that Europe seldom hath brought forth His Fellow for exquisite Endowments of Nature Attainments of Study and Accomplishments of Ingenuity Sagacity and Industry And indeed to save me the labour of saying any more concerning this Non-pareil in all kinds of Learning His own WORKS which are now under a Review and will e're long be made Publick in several Volumes will sufficiently speak his Character and be a more prevailing Argument to indear Him to thy good Opinion and firm Acquaintance than mine or any other Words can My business now is only to give thee some Account of the Author's design in this little Treatise and of those measures I took in Translating Him that is in restoring him to his own Native Language though his great Genius had made the Latin and several other Tongues as natural and familiar to Himself as the English was To speak first of the Author I do take this Piece to have been one of his first Essays if not the very first wherein he launched into the World and did not so much try the Judgement as deservedly gain the Approbation of the Learned which was certainly one Reason why though the whole matter of the Book be of an English Complexion and Concern yet he thought fit to put it forth in a Latin dress That this was his first Specimen or at least one of the first I gather from the time of his Writing it viz. in the Six and Twentieth year of his Age when I suppose he was not of any very long standing in the Temple I mean in all likelihood whilst he was on this side the Bar. For having fraught himself with all kind of Learning which the University could afford him which could be we must imagine no small time neither as I may be allowed to guess from that passage of his in this Book where he so affectionately recognizeth his Duty and Gratitude to his dear Mother OXFORD who if she had no other Antiquity to boast of is and ever will be Famous for This Her Scholar our great Antiquary who hath also such a Monument to be seen in her publick Library as will make her Glory and his Memory ever to flourish I say having after some competent time taken leave of Academical Institutions and being now engaged into the Study of Law he thought he could not do his Profession a better service than by looking back into former times and making a faithful Collection of what might be Pertinent and Useful to bring down along through all Changes and Vicissitudes of State the Light and Strength the Evidence and Reputation of old Institutes and Precedents to our present Establishments under our Gracious and Happy Monarchy May It as it is in its Constitution to the English people Gracious so be ever in its Success to It self and consequently to Us all Happy Here then thou wilt find the Rights of Government through all Ages so far as our Histories will help us Here thou wilt see from the first our KING setled in his just Power even in his Ecclesiastical surisdiction against the Papal Usurpation one shrewd Instance whereof is the forbidding Appeals to the Pope at such a time when the Popish Religion was at its Zenith in this Island that is when People in all probability were most Ignorant Here thou wilt easily be brought to acknowledge the Antiquity and Usefulness of Parliaments though under other Names till after the Conquest when all the Barons that is as that Title did at first import all Lords of Mannors all Men of Estate assembled together for the determination of publick Affairs which Usage because it produced too numerous and cumbersome a confluence was afterwards for better convenience retrenched into a popular Election by the Kings Writ to chuse some of the Chiefest to act for all the rest And sure enough if we in Duty keep up the Royal Prerogative and our Kings as ever they have done and ever I hope will in Grace and Clemency oblige the Peoples Consent in their Representatives we shall alwayes have such Laws such a Government such a Correspondence betwixt Prince and Subjects as must according to the Rules of Humane Prudence adding our Piety to it make this Kingdom of Great Britanny maugre the malice of the Devil and his Agents whatever Jesuits or Fanaticks a flourishing and impregnable Kingdom Having said this in General of the Author's design I shall not descend to Particulars which I leave to thy self Reader to find out in the perusal that may be of good Use and great Consequence to the Publick but fearing thou maist think I am so much taken up with the Author that I have forgot My self I have two or three words to
saith another old Latin Poet that is such stories as are Antique buried in rubbish old and musty Which make one verst in customs old and new And of Laws Gods and Men giving a view Render the careful Student skill'd and trusty Some spare hours have been spent by me in reading over Historians Chronologers Antiquaries Foreigners and our own Countrey-men those of Ancient date and the more polite of the Modern sort those especially who seem'd to make out the quickest course to that Goal and design I spoke of I have carefully cull'd out whatsoever I met with that lookt like the Orders and Decisions of Praetors or Lord Chief Justices and whatsoever concerns the Civil or Prophane Law Prophane I call that which is not held by the Religion of the Church as â—â—xtus Pompeius hath taught me I did judge that there were a great many things in those Writers worth the knowing and which might deserve to be digested into a kind of Volume according to order of Chronology I did in the first place advise and took that special order with my self that as to this undertaking I might with the greater ease have my Attendants ready at hand to wait upon my Studies I went about to 〈…〉 and cement such as it is i. e. some method and connexion to the scattered and disjointed bulk and I brought it to a conclusion and assoon as it came into my mind to publish it I endeavoured according to that meanness which it appears in to finish it that I may make use of a Mathematick term with its Complement I have set the model and frame upon a sure account not upon mine own credit neither who am too apt to take on trust things suspected and in a compendious way I have writ my self compendiously and succinctly I have transcribed out of others faithfully I do on set purpose vouch the credit I go upon to be none of mine but the Authors I have taken out of that I may not be accused of false dealing by unskilful or careless Readers I have applyed my self not only to the meaning of the Writers or to their historical account but even to the very words and syllables which they spoke and have inserted them printed in a different character those I confess unless it be from them of the middle age many times sufficiently barbarous that miserably want polishing such as Criticks cannot away with and do very well agree with the Records and Reports of Law which we converse with However I would not have thee disdain in the mean time brimful and wholsome draughts of liquor because the Bowl was not made in a Potters shop of Colias a place in Athens or in cold Winter to slight a garment which is not made of Attick Wooll as Plutarch hath admonished the hearers of Philosophy Let young Ladies speak finically with their golden Flower-amours and let them who have store and leave at once court the graces of words and beauties of expression 'T is true the care of exact speaking is a thing befits the Muses yet how the most abstruse Mysteries even of the highest Urania of Divinity it self are laid open without it the Thomists the Scotists and what other Sects and Parties of School-men there are know well enough And there are some others also that think they know I mean the inquirers into Heavenly Calculations Astrologers and the Weather-wise-men Almanack-makers who in good deed for the most part rely too much upon the trifling stories of their Masters Now they and not without good reason have preferred the Arab Writers barbarously translated and slovenly Bonatus before Julius Firmicus and modern Pontanus as spruce as they are These two may rather be termed Grammarians than Astrologers Nor do Aristotle's crabbed Lectures of natural Pâ—â—losophy discourage Interpreters or procure to themselves any discredit â—y reason of the affected obscurity of speech they are delivered in and as to neatness of Poetry Apollo himself hath been out-done by Sappho Homer Hesiod Though the Matter doth often surpass the Workmanship yet who is there is so rigid or so fond a Censurer as to disparage and debase the Matter upon the account of the Workmanship Which I would not have be said only of those passages which I have brought into this Piece out of those fore-mentioned Authors but also of the whole Body of our Common-Law I have I hope not unluckily begun with the very first Inhabitants of this Isle as far as we can come to the knowledge of them Those Authors whom I have followed in the original of Story I have as it was meet set down and remark'd adding the Judgement and Censure of the Learned Afterward besides Caesar and Tacitus there are but few that afford us any help and that â—ut in few things too For the name of Brittany was known but of late to the Greeks but of late to the Romans and the Britans were truly for a long while divided from all the world besides But among â—â—reigners the latter Ages have enquired after them I speak of Strabo Pliny Ptolomy others and a certain Writer of Asia Marcianus Heraclâ—otes not yâ—t that I know of turned into Latin saith thus Albion the Brittish Isle hath in it Thirty Three Nations Fifty Nine remarkable Cities and then he subâ—â—us other things concerning the number of Rivers Promontories Havens and Creeks or Bays I have stretched out this Piece to the death of King Henry the Son of Mawd the Empress by Jeoffrey the Count of Anger 's in France In whose time or near thereabout are the first beginnings of our Law as our Lawyers now account There come in by the way Richard called Coeur de Lion and King John but there is scarce any thing in that interim to our purpose I have on purpose passed by Mr. Lambard's Archaeonomia or Antiquites of Law without medling with it at all only when some obvious accasion did sometimes suggest it for the explaining of what is set down by us I have divided the whole into two Books the first closes with the Saxons the second begins with the Norman Conquest the most famous Aera or Date of the English Government in the reckonings of time But however to refer the original of our English Laws to that Conquest as some make bold to do is a huge mistake forasmuch as they are of a far more ancient Date For it is a remark amongst Statesmen That new acquired Empires do run some hazard by attempting to make new Laws and the Norman did warily provide against this danger by bestowing upon the yielding conquered Nation the requital of their ancient Law a requital I say but more as it should seem for shew than use and rather to curry favour with the people at the present than in good deed for the advantage of the English Name Wherein he in some measure followed well near the practice of Alaricus who having conquered the Romans and finding that they took it in dudgeon to
to brighten things that are grown out of use to furnish things obscure with light to set off things that are disdained with credit to make things doubtful pass for probable to assign to every thing it s own nature and every thing to its own nature and that it is a very brave and gallant thing as he sayes for those that have not attained their design yet to have endeavoured it when the Will as we say is accepted for the Deed. But I know too that every Cone or point of vision in the Opticks differs from a right angle and I know how odious a thing a Train or solemn Procession is in the publick Games Therefore dear Reader I bid thee heartily farewel and with a fortunate endeavour fetch out hence what may make for thy turn Why do I delay all this while to let thee in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go thy wayes in o' Gods name Laudamus veteres sed nostris utimur annis Mos tamen est aeque dignus uterque coli We praise old times but make use of our own And yet 't is fit they both alike be known Go in and welcome heartily and be not unkind to thy Entertainer From the Inner Temple London Decemb. 25. 1610. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In laudem dignissimi Authoris politioris literaturae candidati Carmen CUm Jovis effoeti Pallas foret orta cerebro Vagitus teneros virgo patrima dedit Accurrit tacitéque novam subducere prolem Tentat abstrusis abdere Juno locis Jupiter ingenuam solerti indagine natam Quaeritat celeri permeat astra pede Stat cerebrique tuam cernens Seldene Minervam In natae amplexus irruit ille tuae Atque suam credit parilique ab imagine formae Illa fuit suavis suavis illa fuit Lisque foret nisi quae quondam Lucina fuisset Musarum testis turba novena fuit Quam cognata Jovis tua casta Minerva Minervae est Cum tantum fallax lusit imago Deum ALIUD DUm tuus ambiguâ Janus facieque biformi Respicit antiqua posteriora videt Archivos Themidis canos monumentaque legum Vindicat à veteri semi-sopita situ Hinc duplex te Jane manet veterane corona Gratia canitie posteritate decus Gulielmus Bakerus Oxon. ASTRAEAE BRIT ULtima caelicolûm terras Astraea reliquit Tu tamen alma redi terras Astraea revise Astraea alma redi tuis Britannis Et diva alma fave tuis Britannis Et diva alma fove tuos Britannos Et diva alma regas tuos Britannos Cantemus tibi sic tui Britanni Foelices nimium ô tui Britanni Tu tandem alma redis divum postrema Britannis Ultima coelicolûm terras Astraea revisit Alma redi sacro redolent altaria sumo Et tibi sacratis ignibus Alma redi Alma redi posuit Liber hic primordia juris Anglos quo poteris tu regere Alma redi Alma redi tibi templa struit Seldenus at aram Qui tibi nil potuit sanctius Alma redi E. Heyward In Epigraphen Libri Carmen QUisnam Iò mussat Posuisti Enyo Arma jam doctos Iber haùt Batavos Marte turbat Foedere jam Britannus Continet Orbem Clusium Audax quis reserat latentem Falleris Diae Themidis recludo Intima Haec portâ meliùs feratâ Pandit Eanus I. S. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS BOOK I. CHAP. I. THE counterfeit Berosus with the Monk that put him forth both censured The Story of Samothes the first Celtick King The bounds of Celtica From Samothes say they the Britans and Gauls were called Samothei For which Diogenes Laertius is falsly quoted the word in him being Semnothei page 1. CHAP. II. An Account of the Semnothei Why so called the opinion of H. Stephen and of the Author Old Heroes and Philosophers went by the names of Demy-gods The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Venerable Goddesses the same as Eumenides dispensers of Justice And by Plutarch and Orpheus they are set for Civil Magistrates Judges in Scripture so called Elohim i. e. Gods These Semnai theai the same as Deae Matres in an old British Inscription p. 3 CHAP. III. One Law of Samothes out of Basingstoke concerning the reckoning of Time by Nights Bodinus his censure of Astrologers for otherwise computing their Planetary Hours A brief account of some of Samothes his Successors Magus Sarron Druis from whom the Druids c. p. 5 CHAP. IV. K. Phranicus 900. Years after Samothes being to reside in Pannonia intrusts the Druids with the Government In the mean time Brutus Aeneas his Grand-son arrives and is owned King by the Britans and builds Troynovant i. e. London Dunvallo Molmutius 600. years after is King and makes Laws concerning Sanctuaries Roads or High-wayes and Plow-lands K. Belin his Son confirms those Laws and casts up four great Cause-wayes through the Island A further account of Molmutius p. 6 CHAP. V. A brief Account of Q. Regent Martia and of Merchenlage whether so called from her or from the Mercians Annius again censured for a Forger and his Berosus for a Fabulous Writer p. 7 CHAP. VI. The story of Brutus canvast and taken to be a Poetick Fiction of the Bards Jeoffry of Monmouth's credit called in question Antiquaries at a loss in their judgements of these frivolous stories p. 8 CHAP. VII What the Trojan Laws were which Brutus brought in That concerning the Eldest Sons Inheriting the whole Estate confuted In the first times there were no Positive Laws yet mention made of them in some very ancient Authors notwithstanding a remark of some ancient Writers to the contrary p. 10 CHAP. VIII An Account of the DRUIDS out of Caesar's Commentaries whence they were so called Their determining in point of Law and passing Sentence in case of Crime Their Award binds all parties Their way of Excommunicating or Outlawing They have a Chief over them How he is chosen Their Priviledge and Immunity p. 12 CHAP. IX The menage of their Schools without Writing On other occasions they might use the Greek Letters as Caesar saith yet not have the language The Greek Letters then were others than what they are now These borrowed from the Gauls as those from the Phoenicians Ceregy-Drudion or the Druids Stones in Wales This Place of Caesar's suspected Lipsius his Judgement of the whole Book p. 13 CHAP. X. The Druids reckoning of time An Age consists of thirty Years What Authors treat of the Druids Their Doctrines and Customs savour of Pythagoras and the Cabbalists They were the eldest Philosophers and Lawyers among the Gentiles Some odd Images of theirs in Stone in an Abby near Voitland described p. 15 CHAP. XI The Britans and Gauls had Laws and Customs much alike and whence that came Some things common to them both set down in relation to the
been no people in Europe before the destruction of Troy and as if there had been no one among the Trojans themselves of ignoble birth He who made the Alphabetical Index to Jeoffry of Monmouth who was Bishop of St. Asaph too as he is printed and put forth by Ascensius propt up the Authors credit upon this account that as he sayes he makes no mention any where in his Book of the Franks by reason forsooth that all those things almost which he has written of were done and past before the Franks arrival in France This was a slip surely more than of memory Go to Jeoffry himself and in his Nineteenth Chapter of his first Book you meet with the Franks in the time of Brennus and Belinus among the Senones a people of France a gross misreckoning of I know not how many hundred years For the Franks are not known to have taken up their quarters on this side the River Rhine till some Centuries of years after Christs Incarnation For howbeit by Poetick license and Rhetorical figure Aeneas be said to have come to the Lavinian Shores which had not that name till some time after yet it were much better that both in Verse and Prose those things which appertain to History should be expressed according to that form of Ovid where at the burning of Rhemus his Funeral Pile he sayes Tunc Juvenes nondum facti flevere Quirites that is The young men then not yet Quirites made Wept as the body on the Pile they laid And at this rate Jeoffry might and ought to have made his Translation if he would have been a faithful Interpreter But as to our Brutus whence the Britans Saxo whence the Saxons Bruno whence those of Brunswick Freso whence those of Friseland and Bato whence the Batavians had their rise and name take notice what Pontus Heuterus observes as others have done before him Songs or Ballads sayes he and Rhymes made in an unlearned Age with ease obtruded falshoods for truths upon simple people or mingling falsehoods with truths imposed upon them for three or four hundred years ago there was nothing that our Ancestors heard with greater glee than that they were descended from the adulterous Trojans from Alexander of Macedonia the Overthrower of Kingdoms from that Manqueller Hercules of Greece or from some other disturber of the World And indeed that is too true which he sayes Mensuraque fictis Crescit auditis aliquid novus adjicit auctor which in plain English speaks this sence Thus Stories nothing in the telling lose The next Relater adding still to th' News But I will not inlarge To clear these points aright Antiquaries who are at see-saw about them will perhaps eternally be at loss like the Hebrews in their mysterious debates for want of some Elias to come and resolve their doubts CHAP. VII What the Trojan Laws were which Brutus brought in That concerning the Eldest Sons Inheriting the whole Estate confuted In the first times there were no Positive Laws yet mention made of them in some very ancient Authors notwithstanding a remark of some ancient Writers to the contrary WEll Suppose we grant there was such a Person ever in the World as Brutus He made Laws they say and those taken out of the Trojan Laws but what I pray were those Trojan Laws themselves There is one I know well enough they speak of concerning the Prerogative of the eldest Sons by which they inherited the whole Right and Estate of their deceased Father Herodotus writes it of Hector Son and Heir to King Priam and Jeoffry mentions it but did this Law cross the Sea with Brutus into Brittany How then came it that the Kingdom was divided betwixt the three Brothers Locrinus Camber and Albanactus betwixt the two Ferrix and Porrix betwixt Brennus and Belinus and the like of some others How came it that in a Parliament of Henry the Eighth provision was made that the Free-holds of Wales should not thence-forward pass according to that custom which they call Gavelkind And anciently if I be not mistaken most Inheritances were parted among the Children as we find in Hesiods works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. We had already parted the Estate And to the same purpose many like passages there are in old Poets and in Holy Writ But as I said what are those Trojan Laws Perhaps the same with those by which Nephelococcygia the City of the Birds in Aristophanes or as we use to say Vtopia is Governed The gravest Writers do acknowledge that those most ancient times were for the most part free from positive Laws The people so says Justin wee held by no Laws The Pleasures and Resolves of their Princes past for Laws or were instead of Laws Natural Equity like the Lesbian Rule in Aristotle being adapted applied and fitted to the variety of emergent quarrels as strifes ordered over-ruled and decided all Controversies And indeed at the beginning of the Roman State as Pomponius writes the people resolved to live without any certain Law or Right and all things were governed by the hand and power of the King For they were but at a little distance from the Golden Age when vindice nullo Sponte suâ sine lege fidem rectumque colebant That is to say when People did not grudge To be plain honest without Law or Judge That which the Heresie of the Chiliasts heretofore affirmed concerning the Sabbatick or seventh Millenary or thousand years of the World And those Shepherds or Governors of the people to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Into whose hand Jove trusts his Laws and Scepter for Command did Govern them by the guidance of vertue and of those Laws which the Platonicks call the Laws of second Venus Not out of the ambition of Rule as St. Austin hath it but out of duty of Counsel nor out of a domineering pride but out of a provident tenderness Do you think the Trojans had any other Laws Only except the worship of their Gods and those things which belong to Religion It was duty says Seneca not dignity to Reign and Govern And an Eye and a Scepter among the Aegyptians were the absolute Hieroglyphicks of Kings What that there is not so much as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Law to be met with in those old Poets Orpheus Musaeus or Homer who was about an hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Troy as Josephus against Appio Plutarch and several modern Writers have remarked I confess if one well consider it this remark of theirs is not very accurate For we very often read in Homer and Hesiod the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Laws and in both of them the Goddess Eunomia from the same Theme as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being interpreted is But they by legal methods bear the
Besides is it rational to imagine that the King whose absolute right by Law it is to convene the Estates when and where he thinks fit to call and dissolve Parliaments as he pleases in a word that He in whose Name all Justice is administred in whose Hands the Militia is and by whose Authority alone the Subjects can take up Arms should stand only in a Co-ordination of power with any other persons whatsoever or however assembled or associated within his Dominions This flaw I could not but take notice of in our Great Author and that only with an intention to undeceive the unwary Reader and not to reflect upon his Memory who though he kept along a great while with the Long Parliament yet never appeared in action for them that ever I heard much less used or owned that virulence and violence which many others of that ill Body of men judged necessary for their proceedings CHAP. XX. Pag. 96. lin 15. Alderman of England The word Alderman in Saxon Ealdorman hath various acceptions so as to signifie all sorts almost of Governours and Magistrates So Matth. 20. 25. the Princes of the Gentiles in the Saxon translation are called Ealdormen and Holofernes I remember the General of the Assyrian Army is in an Old English Translation called the Alderman of the Army So Aethelstan whose younger Son this Ailwin was being Duke or Captain General of the East-Saxons is in this Book of Ramsey styled Alderman The most proper importance of the word bears up with the Latin Senator i. e. Parliament-man as the Laws of S. Edward make out In like manner say they heretofore among the Britons in the times of the Romans in this Kingdom of Britanny they were called Senators who afterwards in the times of the Saxons were called Aldermen not so much in respect of their Age as by reason of their Wisdom and Dignity in that some of them were but young men yet were skilled in the Law and beside that were experienced persons Now that Alderman of England as Ailwin here was had to do in affairs of Justice appears by the foresaid Book of Ramsey where it is said that Ailwin the Alderman and Aedric the Kings Provost sate Judges in a certain Court The Alderman of the County our Author makes to be the same as the Earl or Lord of the County and Spelman saith it is hard to distinguish but at length placeth him in the middle betwixt the Count and Viscount He and the Bishop kept Court together the one for Temporals the other for Spirituals The Title goes lower still to denote a Mayor or Bailiff of a Corporation a Bailiff of a Hundred c. Lin. 30. Healf-koning It was an oversight or slip of memory in our Author to say that Ailwin was so called when the Book of Ramsey tells us it was his Father Aethelstan who was of that great power and diligence that all the business of the Kingdom went through his hands and was managed as he pleased that had that Nick name given him therefore Lin. 36. The Graves Our Author makes them subordinate to the Aldermen of Counties but in the Laws of the Confessor they appear to be muchwhat the same There we read And as they are now called Greves who are put in places of Rule over others so they were anciently among the English called Ealdermen Indeed the word Greve or Reev for it is all one is of as various use as that other of Alderman is In Saxon it is gerefa from gerefen and reafen to take or carry away to exact or gather Whence this Officer Graphio or Gravius from the Saxon is in other Latin called Exactor regius and by reason that the Sheriff gathered the Kings Fines and other Duties and returned them to the Exchequer he was called the Shire-greve or Shire-reev that is the Gatherer of the County But the truth is that Greve or Reev came at last in general to signifie any Ruler or Governour set over any place almost whatever as the same word Grave doth among the Dutch So a Shire-greve or bihgerefa the High Sheriff of a County a Port-greve the Governour of a City or Port. So the Lord Mayor of London was called formerly Tun-greve the Bailiff of a Town or Mannor Sometime Greve is taken for a Count or Earl as Alderman is CHAP. XXI Pag. 98. lin 22. For Toll and Gabell In the Latin pro theolonio gablo Now telonium from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies the place where the Officers of the Customs receive the Kings duties but is used also for a duty paid for the maintenance of Bridges and River-Banks So Hotoman But in our Law it is taken for the Toll of a Market or Fair. And Gablum or Gabellum a Gabell from the Saxon gafol or gafel signifies any Impost upon Goods as that in France upon Salt c. also Tribute Custom any kind of Tax or Payment c. Lin. 32. Through the Streets of Coventry There is a famous Tradition among the people of that Town concerning this matter that the Lady being to ride naked only covered all over with her hair had given order for the more decent performance of her Procession that all the Inhabitants should that day keep their Shops and Doors and Windows shut But that two men tempted by their Curiosity to do what fools are wont to do had some such penalty I know not what it was inflicted upon them as Actaon had for the like offence And they now stand in some publick place cut out of Wood or Stone to be shewn to any stranger that comes thither like the Sign of the Two Logger-heads with the same Motto belike Nous sommes trois Pag. 99. lin 7. Brought in my Court a certain Toper In the Latin attulit in curiâ meâ quandam Toper I know what the adverb Toper signifies among the ancient Latines but what the word means here I confess I am in the dark It doth certainly stand for some thing I was thinking a Taper which he brought with him into Court and sware upon it as he should have done upon the holy Gospels I cannot imagine that by quandam Toper shold be intended some Woman or Girl whose Name was Toper whom he brought along with him and in defiance to the Court laying his hand upon her took his Oath as formally as if he had done it upon the holy Evangelists Reader ONe thing I forgot to acquaint thee with in the Preface that whereas the Author himself had divided each Book into several Sections which were very unequal and incommodious I thought it much more convenient for thy ease and profit to distribute them into Chapters together with the Argument or Contents of each Chapter at the beginning and withal that no one may complain that I have injured the Author by altering his Method I have left his Sections also marked with a Numeral Note 1 2 3 c. on the side of the inner or outer Margin