to begin the Fryday next after Corpus-Christi-day which in the said year 1614. was the day next before St. John Baptist and so the Term did of necessity begin on Saint John Baptist's day This deceived all the Prognosticators who counting St. John Baptist for a grand day and no day in Court appointed the Term in their Almanacks to begin the day after and consequently to hold a day longer so deceiving many by that their errour But the aforesaid Statute of 32 H. 8. changed the whole frame of this Term For it made it begin sooner by a Return viz. Crastino Sanctae Trinitatis and thereby brought Octabis Trinitatis which before was the first Return to be the second and Quindena Trinitatis which before was the second now to be the third and instead of the three other Returns of Crastino Octabis and Quindena Sancti Johannis it appointed that which before was no Return but now the fourth and last called Tres Trinitatis The altering and abbreviation of this Term is declared by the Preamble of the Statute to have risen out of two causes one for health in dismissing the Concourse of people the other for wealth that the Subject might attend his Harvest and the gathering in the fruits of the earth But there seemeth to be a third also not mention'd in the Statute and that is the uncertain station length and Returns of the first part of this Term which like an Excentrick was one year near to St. John Baptist another year far removed from it thereby making the Term not onely various but one year longer and another shorter according as Trinity-Sunday being the Clavis to it fell nearer or farther off from St. John Baptist. For if it fell betimes in the year then was this Term very long and the two first Returns of Octabis and Quindena Trinitatis might be past and gone a fortnight and more before Crastino Sancti Johannis could come in And if it fell late as some years it did then would Crastino Sancti Johannis be come and past before Octabis Trinitatis were gone out So that many times one or two of the first Returns of this Term for ought that I can see must in those days needs be lost CHAP. XVIII How Michaelmas-Term was abbreviated by Act of Parliament 16. Car. 1. Cap. 6. THE last place our statute-Statute-Book affords upon this Subject of the limits and extent of the Terms is the Stat. 16. Car. 1. Chap. 6. intituled An Act concerning the limitatiom and abbreviation of Michaelmas-Term For whereas by former Statutes it doth appear that Michaelmas-Term did begin in Octabis Sanctae Michaelis that Statute appoints that the first Return in this Term shall ever hereafter be à die Sancti Michaelis in tres septimanas so cutting off no less than two Returns from the ancient beginning of this Term viz. Octabis Sancti Michaelis A die Sancti Michaelis in quindecim dies and consequently making the beginning of it fall a fortnight later than before Wherefore the first day in this Term will always be the 23d day of October unless it happen to be Sunday for then it must be defer'd till the day following upon which account we find it accordingly placed on the 24. for the year 1681. This is all the alteration that Statute mentions and therefore for the end of Michaelmas-Term I refer the Reader to what our Authour has said already in the 15th Chapter It may not be amiss in persuit of our Authour's method to set down the motives of making this abbreviation as we find them reckon'd up in the Preamble to that Statute There we find that the old beginning of Michaelmas-Term was generally found to be very inconvenient to his Majesty's subjects both Nobles and others 1. For the keeping of Quarter-Sessions next after the feast of St. Michael the Archangel 2ly For the keeping their Leets Law-days and Court-Barons 3ly For the sowing of land with Winter-Corn the same being the chief time of all the year for doing it 4ly For the disposing and setting in order of all their Winter husbandry and business 5ly For the receiving and paying of Rents 6ly Because in many parts of this kingdom especially the most northern Harvest is seldom or never Inned till three weeks after the said Feast All which affairs they could before by no means attend in regard of the necessity of their coming to the said Term so speedily after the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel to appear upon Juries and to follow their Causes and Suits in the Law SECT V. Other Considerations concerning Term-Time HAving thus laid out the frame of the Terms both according to the Ancient and Modern Constitutions it remaineth that we speak something of other points properly incident to this part of our division touching Term-Time viz. 1. Why the Courts sit not in the Afternoons 2. Why not upon some whole days as on Grand-days double Feasts and other exempted days and the reason of them 3. Why some Law-business may be done upon some days exempted 4. Why the end of Michaelmas-Term is sometimes held in Advent and of Hilary-Term in Septuagessima Sexagessima and Quinquagessima 5. Why the Assizes are held in Lent and at times generally prohibited by the Church 6. Of Returns 7. Of the Quarta dies post 8. Why I have cited so much Canon Civil Feodal and foreign Laws in this Discourse with an incursion into the original of our Laws CHAP. I. Why the high Courts sit not in the Afternoons IT is now to be considered why the high Courts of Justice sit not in the Afternoons For it is said in Scripture that Moses judged the Israelites from Morning to Evening And the Romans used the Afternoon as well as the Forenoon yea many times the Afternoon and not the Forenoon as upon the days called Endotercisi or Intercisi whereof the Forenoon was Nefastus or Vacation and the Afternoon Fastus or Law-day as we shewed in the beginning And the Civilians following that Law do so continue them amongst us in their Terms at this day But our Ancestours and other the Northern Nations being more prone to distemper and excess of diet as the Canon Law noteth of them used the Forenoon onely lest repletion should bring upon them drowsiness and oppression of spirits according to that of St. Jerome Pinguis Venter non gignit mentem tenuem To confess the truth our Saxons as appeareth by Huntington were unmeasurably given to drunkenness And it is said in Ecclesiastes Vae Terrae cujus Principes manè comedunt Therefore to avoid the inconvenience depending hereon the Council of Nice ordained that Judices non nisi jejuni judicia decernant And in the Council of Salegunstad it was afterward decreed A. D. 1023 ut lectio Nicaeni Concilii recitetur which being done in the words aforesaid the same was likewise there confirm'd According to this in the Laws of Carolus Magnus the Emperour it is ordained L lib. 2. ut
neither because they fall not in the Terms Yet I find a Parliament held at least began on Whitsunday But touching Feasts in general it is to be understood that the Canonists and such as write De Divinis Officiis divide them into two sorts viz. Festa in totum duplicia simpliciter duplicia And they call them duplicia or double Feasts for that all or some parts of the service on those days were begun Voce Duplici that is by two singing-men whereas on other days all was done by one Our Cathedral Churches do yet observe it And I mean not to stay upon it for you may see in the Rationale which Feasts were of every of these kinds The ordinary Apostles were of the last and therefore our Courts made bold with them But the Purification Ascension St. John Baptist with some others that fall not in the Term were of the first and because of this and some other prerogatives were also called Festa Majora Festa Principalia Dies novem Lectionum ordinarily double Feasts and Grand days Mention is made of them in an Ordinance 8. Ed. 3. That Writs were ordained to the Bishops to accurse all and every of the perturbers of the Church C. every Sunday and Double Feast c. But we must needs shew why they were called Dies novem Lectionum for so our old Rituale de Sarum styleth them and therein lyeth their greatest privilege After the Arian Heresie against the B Trinity was by the Fathers of that time most powerfully confuted and suppressed the Church in memory of that most blessed victory and the better establishing of the orthodox faith in that point did ordain that upon divers Festival-days in the year a particular Lesson touching the nature of the Trinity besides the other 8. should be read in their Service with rejoycing and thanksgiving to God for suppressing that Heresie And for the greater solemnity some Bishop or the chiefest Clergy-man present did perform that duty Thus came these days to their styles aforesaid and to be honoured with extraordinary Musick Church-Service Robes Apparel Feasting c. with a particular exemption from Law-Trials amongst the Normans who therefore kept them the more respectfully here in England Festa enim Trinitatis saith Belethus digniori cultu sunt celebranda In France they have two sorts of Grand days both differing from ours First they call them Les Grand jours wherein an extraordinary Sessions is holden in any Circuit by virtue of the King's Commission directed to certain Judges of Parliament Secondly those in which the Peers of France hold once or twice a year their Courts of Faught Justice all other Courts being in the mean time silent See touching this their Loyscean De Seigniors To come back to England and our own grand-Grand-days I see some difference in accounting of them Durandus in his first Chapter and seventh book reckoneth the Purification Ascension and St John Baptist to be Grand-days not mentioning All-Saints but both he in his 34th Chapter and Belethus in his do call it Festum Maximum Generale being not onely the Feast of Apostles and Martyrs but of the Trinity Angels and Confessours as Durandus termeth it And that honour and duty Quod in singulis valet potentiùs valebit in conjunctis As for the Feast of All-Souls neither Durandus nor Belethus nor any Ancient of those times for they lived above 400. years since do record it for a Festival But my Country-man Walsingham the Monk of St. Albans sayth that Simon Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1328. at a Provincial Council holden at London did ordain Quòd die Parasceue in commemoratione Omnium Animarum ab omni servili opere cessaretur Surely he mistook it for neither is it so mention'd in Lindewood reciting that Canon nor in the ancient Copy of the Council it self where the two Feasts canonized by him are the Parasceue and the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Yet doubtless whensoever it was instituted it was a Great Feast with us though no where else For the old Primer Eboracensis Ecclesiae doth not onely set it down in the Kalendar for a double Feast but appointeth for it the whole Service with the nine Lessons for it is as a Feast of the Trinity And though neither the Statute of Edward the 6. nor our Church at this day doth receive it yet being formerly a Vacation-day as it seemeth our Judges still forbear to sit upon it and have not hitherto made it a day in Court though deprived of Festival rites and therefore neither graced with Robes nor Feasting The Feast also of St. Peter and Paul on the 29th of June was a Double Feast yet it is now become single and our Judges sit upon it I confess I have not found the reason unless that by Canonizing St. Paul and so leaving St. Peter single we allow him no prerogative above the other Apostles lest it should give colour for his Primacy for to St. Paul as one born out of time we allow no Festival either in the Statute of Edward 6. or in the Almanacks and Kalendars of our Church And why St. Peter hath it not is the more observable for that he not onely is deprived of the ancient dignity of his Apostleship contrary to the Canons as the other are but of the privilege given him in that place by Pope Nicholas the 2d in a Bull to Edward the Confessour as being Patron of the Paroch and Dedication of Westminster where the Terms are kept and where by right thereof this day was also privileged from Court-business Other Festivals I enquire not after as of St. Dunstan and the rest that stand rubricate in old Kalendars they being abrogated by old Canons of our own Church or the Statute of Edw. 6. whereof I must note by the way that I find it repealed by Queen Mary but not revived by Queen Elizabeth or since It seemeth that the Statute of the 5. and 6. Edw. 6 Cap. 3. notwithstanding the Repeal of it amongst a multitude of others by Queen Mary Anno 1. Sessione 2. Cap. 2. is revived again though not by Queen Elizabeth yet by ◠Jacobi Cap. 25. in these words That an Act made in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary intituled an Act for the repeal of certain Statutes made in the time of King Edw. the 6. shall stand repealed I am carried from the brevity I intended yet all this lyeth in my way nor is it out of it to speak a word of St. George's day which sometimes falleth in Easter-Term and is kept in the Court Royal with great solemnity but not in the Court Judicial Though he stood before in the Kalendar and was the English Patron of elder time yet H. Chichley Archbishop of Canterbury gave him his greatness by canonizing his day to be a Double Feast and Grand day as well among the Clergy as Laity and that both
sheweth it But what Laws soever the Romans made in Britain the Saxons doubtless swept them all away with the Britains There is certain proof of it for Antonius made a Constitution that all Nations under the Roman Empire should be called Romans and this was done when the Northern People brake into the lower parts of Europe and made their habitation there But more plainly Seneca speaking of Claudius the Emperour 's having conquer'd this Island as above Jussit ipsum Nova Romanae Jura securis Tremere oceanum In th' Ocean Isle new Laws he set Which from the Roman Axe were fet The old Inhabitants whom they expelled not but lived mingled with were still called Romans as we see in the ancient Laws of the Saliques and Burgundians in Cassiodorus and others and their Laws distinguished by the Titles of Lex Barbara and Lex Romana But here in Britain after the Saxons had conquer'd we never hear nor find any mention of Lex Romana or of any Roman Which sheweth that both that and the Laws of the Britains were expelled and driven away together or that of the Romans with the Romans and that of the Britains with the Britains What the Laws of the Britains were it remains at this day to be seen by a model of them in an ancient Manuscript under the Title of The Laws of Hoel Dha that is Hoel the good nothing consonant to these of ours at this day or those of the Saxons in time past But we find by the Red Book in the Exchequer that the Laws of Hen. 1. do so concur in many things with them of the other Nations we speak of that sometimes he not onely citeth the Salique Law and the Rubuarian or Belgique by name but deduceth much of the Text verbatim from them And we find also a great multitude of words of Art names of Offices Officers and Ministers in our Law common in old time to the Germans French Saliques Longobards and other Nations as well as to our Saxons Danes and Normans but not one to my knowledge that riseth from the British tongue nor do we to my knowledge retain any Law Rite or Custome of the ancient Britains which we received not from the Saxons or Germans as used also by them of old before they came into Britain For these few words that are found in our Law Chirographer Protonotary c. whereby some argue the antiquity of our Law to be from the Druides whom Caesar and Pliny report to have used the Greek tongue it is doubtless that they come to us from the Civil Lawyers and the one of them being a Mongrel half Greek and half Latine could not descend from the Druides who had neither knowledge nor use of the Latine tongue They therefore that fetch our Laws from Brutus Multnutius the Druides or any other Brutish or British inhabitants here of old affirming that in all the times of these several Nations viz. Britains Romans Saxons Danes and Normans and of their Kings this Realm was still ruled with the self same customes that it is now govern'd withall doe like them that make the Arcadians to be elder than the Moon and the God Terminus to be so fixed on the Capitoline-Hill as neither Mattocks nor Spades nor all the power of men or of other Gods could remove him from the place he stood in And thus I end FINIS a Deinde constituit Guilielmus Conquaestor ut quater quotannis c. Lib. 9. p. 154. l. 16. c. Definition a See Sect. 5. Cap. 6. Greeks †Every month had about 6. more or less of them so called because on them the Prytanaean Magistrates might hold Court * So called from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where their business was to sit onely on things inanimate as when a peice of stone timber or iron c. fell on a man if the party that flung it were not known sentence was past on that thing which slew him and the Masters of this Court were to see that thing cast out of the Territories of Athens See the Attick Antiq. l. 3. Chap. 3. Sect. 4. †The month February or as others would have it March when Sacrifices were most usually offer'd to the Goddess Diana 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cognomen Dianae quod est jaculis cervos figens Romans * Lib. de Moribus Germ. Cap. 40. †De bello Gallico lib. ◠†De Rep. Angl. lib. 3. * Lib. 3. a Caus. 15. quaest 4. C. 1. * Lib. 6. Cap. 245. à Benedict Levit◠†Bin. Tom. 3. Part. 1. Sect. 2. Circa annum Christi 845. * Concil Tom. 3. part 2. pag. 142. In istius Concil Cap. 2. †Decret Cau. 15. quaest 4. C 1. * al. Septuagessimâ †Cau. 22. â— 5. Ca 17. †Cau. 15. q. 4. C. 1. Legum Cap. 3. * Legum Alured Cap. 39. Vide Foedus Eavardi Guâ—â—urni Regum Cap. 9. †See the aforesaid 39. Chapter of the Laws of K. Alured The Synod of Eanham a 'T was held between the years 1006. and 1013. See the Authour's Conc. Britan. Tom. â— pag. 510. b The word Synod here signifies more than Council not as 't is usually restrained to that of the Clergy onely c Concil Eanham Can. 15. c Concil Eanham Can. 15. c Concil Eanham Can. 15. d Can 16. e Can. 17. f Can. 18. Canuti Leg's cap. 17. a Mat. 9. 15. Mark 2. 19. b Leges Ed. Conf. c. 9. * Sect. 2. a In Hen. â— pag. 600. b Legum Anglo Saxon. pag. 137. c Custom Cap. 80. d Lib. 4. c. 1. Lib. 14. c. 1. 2. e Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 31. a Alii legunt Singulo rum b misi primo al. pro. c al. examinationis * Anno Dom. 1142. †Hist. Nov. lib. 1. pag. 179. c In Hen. 2. pag. 600. * Lib. 2. Cap. 11. e Dial. de Scacc. Hilary-Term a Pag. 441. Lin. 18. a Cod. lib. 3. Tit. 12 De Feriis Cap. 7. b Tit. De Feriis Ca. 5. c Cau. 15. quaest 4. d Silvarum lib. 4. Carm. 4. quod inscribitur Ad Victorium Marcellum 1 Sam. 25. 4. 2 Sam. 13. 23. * Swaiumote or Swanimote from the Saxon sÆ¿ang i. e. a Country Clown or Free holder and mot or gemot Conventus is a Court of Free holders within the Forest. See 3 Hen. 8. c. 18. b Lib. 2. cap. 21. * Before the abbreviation by 16. Cat. 1. cap. 6. a Dial. lib. 2. cap. 3. * Utas i. e. Octava the eighth day after any Term or Feast * Anno 1614. in which year this Tract was written * Exod. 18. 14. a Hist. lib. 6. 1. b Cap. 10. 13. a Tit. b Lib. Cau. c Archaed verb. Comes cap. 1. 15. d Et alia cap. Car. 6. 4. * 13 Ed. 1. cap. 30. a An. 5. 6. Edv. 6. cap. 3. a Lev. 23. 21 25. b Ex. 20. 10 11. Lev. 23. 3. * Tabien Feriae Sect. 10. Why on some Festivals and not on others The differences of â—â—stivals a Vide Duraudi lib. 7. c. 1. n 31. b Durand lib 7. Ca. 1. b Rast Excom 5. c Belethus Explicat Cap. 158. Grand days in France Grand days in England a Tho. Walsingham Hist. Angl. pag. 129 The Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul St. George ' s day * parag 7. St. Winifred The 5th of November a Virgil. Georg. lib. 1. v. 268 c. b Lib. Ep. a Cau. 15. q. 4. Tit. de Feriis c. 5. a As An. 1. 27. 1. 26. Hoveden p. 663. a In com ejus * Leges Ethelredi Cap. 93. a Legum Hen. 1. Cap. 41. * Sonius M SS Seld. b M SS Cod. l. intempestas †This Statute was published Anno. 52. Hen. 3. Anno. Salut 1267. a The same with Marleborough in Wilts famous for nothing more than that this Parliament was holden there So Coke Institut part 2. fol. 123. b Coke ut suprà fol. 149. hath it thus Sed si warrantus ille fuerit infra Comitatum tunc c. * Anno. 51. Hen. 3. alâ—ered by the Statute of 32. Hen. 8. Cap. 21. * Anno 21. Hen. 3. †Lib. de morib Ger. manorum Cap. 11. * Senecs Philosoph De morte Cl. Caesaris * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Herodiani Hist. Lib. 3. Cap. 48. * These Laws were made by Hoel Dha King of Wales about the year 940. and since the writing of this Tract have been published to the world by our Authour himself in the first Tome of his Concilia Britannica pag. 408.
OF THE Law-Terms A DISCOURSE Written by The Learned ANTIQUARY Sir HENRY SPELMAN Kt. WHEREIN The Laws of the Jews Grecians Romans Saxons and Normans relating to this Subject are fully explained LONDON Printed for Matthew Gillyflower in Westminster-Hall 1684. SECT I. Of the Terms in general AS our Law-books have nothing to my knowledge of the Terms so were it much better if our Chronicles had as little For though it be little they have in that kind yet is that little very untrue affirming that William the Conquerour did first institute them It is not worth the examining who was authour of this errour but it seemeth that Polydore Virgil an alien in our Commonwealth and not well endenized in our Antiquities spread it first in print I purpose not to take it upon any man's word but searching for the fountain will if I can deduce them from thence beginning with their definition The Terms are certain portions of the year in which onely the King's Justices hold plea in the high Temporal Courts of Causes belonging to their Jurisdiction in the place thereto assigned according to the ancient Rites and Customs of the Kingdom The definition divides it self and offers these parts to be consider'd 1. The names they bear 2. The original they come of 3. The time they continue 4. The persons they are held by 5. The causes they deal with 6. The place they are kept in 7. The rites they are performed with These parts minister matter for a Book at large but my purpose upon the occasion imposed being to deal onely with the institution of the Terms I will travel no farther than the three first stages of my division that is touching their Name their Original and their Time of continuance SECT II. Of the Names of the Terms THE word Terminus is of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the Bound End or Limit of a thing here particularly of the time for Law-matters In the Civil-Law it also signifieth a day set to the Defendant and in that sense doth Bracton and others sometimes use it Mat. Paris calleth the Sheriff's Turn Terminum Vicecomitis and in the addition to the M SS Laws of King Inas Terminus is applied to the Hundred-Court as also in a Charter of Hen. 1. prescribing the time of holding the Court. And we ordinarily use it for any set portion of time as of Life Years Lease c. The space between the Terms is named Vacation à Vacando as being Leasure from Law-business by Latinists Justitium à jure stando because the Law is now at a stop or stand The Civilians and Canonists call Term-time Dies Juridicos Vacation Dies Feriales Days of leasure or intermission Festival-days as being indeed sequester'd from troublesome affairs of humane business and devoted properly to the service of God and his Church According to this our Saxon and Norman Ancestours divided the year also between God and the King calling those days and parts that were assigned to God Dies pacis Ecclesiae the residue allotted to the King Dies or tempus Pacis Regis Divisum Imperium cum Jove Caesar habet Other names I find none anciently among us nor the word Terminus to be frequent till the time of Hen. 2. wherein Gervascius Tilburiensis and Ranulphus de Glanvilla if those books be theirs do continually use it for Dies pacis Regis The ancient Romans in like manner divided their Year between their Gods and their Commonwealth naming their Law-days or Term-time Fastos because their Praetor or Judge might then Fari that is speak freely their Vacation or days of Intermission as appointed to the service of their Gods they called Nefastos for that the Praetor might ne fari not speak in them judicially Ovid Fastorum lib. 1. Ille Nefastus erat per quem tria verba silentur Fastus erat per quem lege licebat agi When that the three Judicial words The Pretor might not use It was Nefastus Fastus then When each man freely sues The three Judicial words were Do Dico Abdico by the first he gave licence Citare partem ream to Cite the Defendant by the 2d he pronounced sentence and by the 3d. he granted execution This obiter The word Term hath also other considerations sometimes it is used for the whole space from the first Return to the end of the Term including the day of Return Essoine Exception Retorn Brev. Sometimes and most commonly excluding these from the first sitting of the Judges in full Court which is the first day for appearance and this is called full-Term by the Statute of 32. of Hen. 8. Cap. 21. as though the part precedent were but Semi-Term Puisne-Term or Introitus Termini The words of the Stat. are these That Trinity-Term shall begin the Munday next after Trinity-Sunday for keeping the Essoines Returns Proffers and other ceremonies heretofore used c. And that the full term of the said Trinity-Term shall yearly for ever begin the Fryday next after Corpus Christi Day Here the particulars I speak of are apparently set forth and the Term declared to begin at the first Return By which reason it falleth out that the eight days wherein the Court of the Exchequer sits at the beginning of Michaelmas-Terms Hilary-Term and Easter are to be accounted as parts of the Terms for that they fall within the first Return the Exchequer having one Return in every of them more than the Courts of Common-Law have viz. Crastino Sancti Michaelis Octabis Hilarii and Octabis or Clausum Paschae And it seemeth that Trinity-Term had Crastino Trinitatis in the self-same manner before this Statute alter'd it SECT III. Of the Original of Terms or Law-days LAW-days or Dies Juridici which we call Terms are upon the matters as ancient as offences and controversies God himself held a kind of Term in Paradise when judicially he tryed and condemned Adam Eve and the Serpent In all Nations as soon as Government was setled some time was appointed for punishing offences redressing of wrongs and determining of controversies and this time to every of those Nations was their Term. The Original therefore of the Terms or Law-days and the time appointed to them are like the Signs of Oblique Ascention in Astronomy that rise together I shall not need to speak any more particularly of this point but shew it as it farther offereth it self in our passage when we treat of the time appointed to Term or Law-days which is the next and longest part of this our Discourse SECT IV. Of the Times assigned to Law-matters called the Terms WE are now come to the great Arm of our Division which spreads it self into many branches in handling whereof we shall fall either necessarily or accidentally upon these points viz. 1. Of Law-days among the Ancients Jews and Greeks 2. Of those among the Romans using choice days 3. Of those among the Primitive Christians using all alike 4. How Sunday came to be exempted
5. How other Festivals and other Vacation days 6. That our Terms took their original from the Canon-Law 7. The Constitutions of our Saxon Kings Edward the Elder Guthurn the Dane and the Synod of Eanham under Ethelred touching this matter 8. The Constitutions of Canutus more particular 9. The Constitutions of Edward the Confessour more material 10. The Constitution of William the Conquerour And of Law-days in Normandy 11. What done by William Rufus Stephen and Henry the 2d 12. Of Hilary-Term according to those ancient Laws 13. Of Easter-Term in like manner 14. Of Trinity-Term and the long Vacation following 15. Of Michaelmas-Term 16. Of the later Constitutions of the Terms by the Statutes of the 51. of Hen. 3. and 36. of Edw. 3. 17. How Trinity-Term was alter'd by the 32. of Hen. 8. 18. And how Michaelmas-Term was abbreviated by Act of Parliament 16. Carol. 1. CHAP. I. Of Law-days among the Ancients THE time allotted to Law-business seemeth to have been that from the beginning amongst all or most Nations which was not particularly dedicated as we said before to the service of God or some rites of Religion Therefore whilst Moses was yet under the Law of Nature and before the positive Law was given he sacrificed and kept the holy Festival with Jethro his father-in-law on the one day but judged not the people till the day after Some particular instance I know may be given to the contrary as I shall mention but this seemeth to have been at that time the general use The Greeks who as Josephus in his book against Appion witnesseth had much of their ancient Rites from the Hebrews held two of their Prytanaean-Days in every Month for civil matters and the third onely for their Sacra Aeschines in his Oration against Ctesiphon chargeth Demosthenes with writing a Decree in the Senate that the Prytanaean Magistrates might hold an Assembly upon the 8. day of the approaching Month of Elaphebolion when the holy Rites of Aesculapius were to be solemnized The Romans likewise whether by instinct of nature or president medled not with Law Causes during the time appointed to the worship of their Gods as appeareth by their Primitive Law of the 12. Tables Feriis jurgia amovento and by the places before cited as also this of the same Tables Post semel exta Deo data sunt licet omnia fari Verbáque honoratus libera Praetor habet When Sacrifice and holy Rites were done The Reverend Pretor then his Courts begun To be short it was so common a thing in those days of old to exempt the times of exercise of Religion from all worldly business that the Barbarous Nations even our Angli whilst they were yet in Germany the Suevians themselves and others of those Northern parts would in no-wise violate or interrupt it Tacitus says of them that during this time Non bellum ineunt non arma sumunt clausum omne ferrum pax quies tunc tantùm nota tunc tantùm amata Of our German Ancestours we shall speak more anon our British are little to the purpose they judged all Controversies by their Priests the Druides and to that end met but once a year as Caesar sheweth us by those of the Gauls I will therefore seek the Original of our Terms onely from the Romans as all other Nations that have been subject to their Civil and Ecclesiastical Monarchy do and must CHAP. II. Of Law-days amongst the Romans using choice days THE ancient Romans whilst they were yet Heathens did not as we at this day use certain continued portions of the year for a legal decision of Controversies but out of a superstitious conceit that some days were ominous and more unlucky than others according to that of the Aegyptians they made one day to be Fastus or Term-day and another as an Aegyptian day to be Vacation or Nefastus Seldom two Fasti or Law-days together yea they sometimes divided one and the same day in this manner Qui modo Fastus erat manè Nefastus erat The afternoon was Term the mâ—rning Holy-day Nor were all their Fasti applyed to Judicature but some of them to other meetings and Consultations of the Commonwealth so that being divided into three sorts which they called Fastos propriè Fastos Intercisos Fastos Comitiales they contained together 184. days yet through all the Months in the year there remained not properly to the Pretor as Judicial or Triverbal Days above 28 Whereas before the abbreviation of Michaelmas Term by the Statute of 16. Car. 1. we had in our Term above 96. Days in Court and now have 86. besides the Sundays and Exempted Festivals which fall in the Terms and those are about 28. or there about Sir Thomas Smith counts it strange that three Tribunals in one City in less than a third part of the year should satisfie the wrongs of so large and populous a Nation as this of England But let us return where we left off CHAP. III. Of Law-days amongst the primitive Christians and how they used all times alike TO beat down the Roman superstition touching the observation of days against which St. Augustine and others wrote vehemently the Christians at first used all days alike for hearing of Causes not sparing as it seemeth the Sunday it self thereby falling into another extreme Yet had they some president for it from Moses and the Jews For Philo Judaeus in the life of Moses reporteth that the cause of him that gather'd sticks on the Sabbath-day was by a solemn Council of the Princes Priests and the whole Multitude examined and consulted of on the Sabbath-day And the Talmudists who were best acquainted with the Jewish Customs as also Galatinus the Hebrew do report that their Judges in the Council called Sanhedrim sate on the week-day from morning to night in the Gates of the City and on the Sabbath and on Festivals upon the Walls So the whole year then seemed a continual Term no day exempted How this stood with the Levitical Law or rather the Moral I leave to others CHAP. IV. How Sunday came to be exempted BUT for the reformation of the abuse among Christians in perverting the Lord's day to the hearing of clamorous Litigants it was ordained in the year of our Redemption 517. by the Fathers assembled in Concilio Taraconensi Cap. 4. after that in Concilio Spalensi Cap. 2. and by Adrian Bishop of Rome in the Decretal Caus. 15. quaest 4. That Nullus Episcopus vel infra positus Die Dominico causas judicare aut ventilare praesumat No Bishop or inferiour person presume to judge or try causes on the Lord's day For it appeareth by Epiphanius that in his time as also many hundred years after Bishops and Clergy-men did hear and determine Causes lest Christians against the rule of the Apostle should goe to Law under Heathens and Infidels This Canon of the Church for exempting Sunday was by Theodosius fortified with an