power being themselves not bound to any Laws or Customes at all And that is it for which Pomponius b L. 2. Dig. De Orig. jur in print writeth the Roman Common-weal to have been at the first governed by Regal power without use of any Laws Justin c Lib. 2. saith of Athens that there was a time when Nullae civitati leges erant quia libido Regum pro legibus habebatur that the City was without Law because the wills of Kings were Laws And Josephus the Historiographer in his second Book against Appian desirous to shew the most honourable Antiquity of the Hebrews and of their Laws saith that Moses of all others was the first that ever writ Laws and that in five hundred years after the word Law was never heard of alledging in proof thereof that Homer in so many books as were by him written never useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law d Bodin de rep lib. 6. ca. 6. It may therefore well be told us that we have no cause to marvail if we have no Laws at all transmitted unto us from those first times there being then no certain standing Law any where Yet I am sure afterwards when all people saw that to live by one mans will became the cause of all mens misery this did necessitate succeeding ages to come unto Laws established wherein all men might see their duties before-hand and know the penalties of transgressing them e Ut bonesterum ac turpium lex aeterna in memibus unjuscujusque nostrum ab immortali Deo sit inscripta poenae tamen quibus improbi ab injuriosa facinorosaque vita avocentur in animis inscript◠à Deo nullae fuerunt Bodin de rep lib. 6. ca. 6. and be more secure against the irregular passions of their Rulers whom they found by woful experience to be too apt to degenerate into Tyranny And yet they have not rested here neither but have committed the same to writing that their subjects might have them continually before their eyes and to transmit them to posterity also lest they that should come after should vary from those foundations on which the State was first laid and so hasten the downfall of the whole society Hence it has come to pass that the Laws of some certain people have been more famous then the Laws of others and the Authours mentioned with high praise and commendation Solon who made Laws for the Athenians and was accounted one of the seven Sages in Greece is highly commended for his great wisdome in making Laws both by Aristotle and Plato who proposeth him and Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian Law-giver as patterns for all such as shall institute Common-wealths and devise Laws for them Plato also prayseth the Cretensian Laws and Isocrates the Laws of Lacedaemon Zaleucus is upon record too for being a great Law-giver amongst the Locrians and Charondas has got himself a name for the Laws the Thurians had from him And so has Zamolxis Pythagoras his scholar for the Laws he gave the Getae And yet of all these Laws so much extolled and spoken of amongst the Learned there is not one extant to this day in any entire body I say in an entire body because of the Attick Law some fragments may be found which the industry of Petitus has collected out of several Greek Authours as Athenaeus Plato Plutarch Demosthenes and others where they lay dispersed which though they may busie Criticks and those that contemplate upon Antiquity yet are of no use to govern a State by nor to decide differences that arise in common intercourse As it is no small wonder then so does it adde much to the Honour of the Roman Civil Law that it has not been swept away by that common fate under which these and all other ancient Laws have perished but is the sole surviving Law at this time The preservation whereof is the more to be admired if it be considered how by the stormes and persecutions of several ages near it has been to be annihilated and quite supprest as all other Laws besides it have been For as the affairs of State have succeeded and as the Emperours themselves have been vertuously or vitiously inclined so has it fared with this study and the professours of it and indeed after the same manner with all other kind of learning Julius Caesar Augustus Tiberius Claudius Vespasian Trajan Adrian Antonius Pius and Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher Alexander Severus Constantine Theodosius and Justinian that were Emperours vigilant and industrious for the prosperity and weale of the Empire and designed nothing within themselves but actions of vertue and honour well knowing that their true interest lay in the maintaining of the Laws and government without which all things must needs run hastily into disorder and confusion they had the Lawyers of their times in highest esteem preferring them to the publick offices of State both of honour and justice and admitting them into their secretest and most important counsels and seldome was any Law made to which they were not call'd to give their counsel and advise Insomuch as it is written of Alexander Severus one of the before named Emperours that he never established any Law without the presence and assistance of twenty of the most renowned Lawyers and fifty other most judicious and acute men a Baldwin Prolegom ju Givil Forster bist ju civ lib. 2. ca. 77. But there were others that sate in the Empire of a far different nature and disposition who disdaining that their will how vitious and lewd soever should be circumscribed within the bounds of any Law and esteeming it a dishonour that Lawyers who were but private men should undertake to advise Princes or that any thing should be done in State but what themselves absolutely commanded some of them despised the whole Law and slighted those that taught it others proceeded so far in cruelty as to banish some and to put other Lawyers to death for so did Nero Commodus Caracalla Heliogabalus Septimius Severus But to persecute and take away their persons did not satisfie the fury of some implacable Emperours since others did succeed still in their room Therefore it was thought necessary by some that the Law it self should be so dispatch'd as it might be sure it should never renew or rise again b Annae Robert rer judic lib. 2. ca. 1. Caligula therefore put on a more hardy but a most barbarous resolution to burn all the books of the Law that were then extant pretending that equity would run clearer and justice be quicker where the niceties and perplexities of the Law were gone Sed non fuit tam diuturnum ejus imperium ut efficere potuerit quae meditabatur nec passus est Deus rata esse hujus tyranni impia reipublicae perniciosa consilia But his reign did not endure so long as to execute what he did intend neither would God suffer the design of this tyrant that was so
teacheth should be made the subject of a Law is no superfluous but a profitable thing p. 22 CHAP. III. What is here meant and intended by Reason p. 24 CHAP. IV. That Reason is not so strictly required in the Law that orders the affairs of State as in that that settles the differences that arise between man and man p. 33 CHAP. V. That the customes of a Nation ought in like manner to agree with reason p. 36 CHAP. VI. Where Law or custome is wanting to judge by president or example has no defence in reason p. 38 CHAP. VII That they are great advantages which a Nation has by ruling by a such a Law as is rational p. 46 CHAP. VIII That Christian Nations having entertained the Civil Law into their Territories have thereby acquired to themselves the most rational Law that has been ordained as by the constitutions thereof will appear p. 51 The Arguments of the Chapters of the Second Book CHAP. I. THat the greatness and the splendour of the Roman Empire does evidence the singular virtue of the Law it self to which as to its proper cause it may be ascribed page 97 CHAP. II. The fundamentals of the Roman Civil Law were fetch'd from other States which did then excel others most in Policy and Government p. 103 CHAP. III. That time and intervenience of fatal Accidents that has swept away so many States together with all their Laws and has quite abolished the Roman State it self has not yet been of force to abolish the Roman Civil Law but that it is extant still p. 110 CHAP. IV. That forreign Nations in doing of right between man and man do mainly practise and make use of the rules and dictates of the Civil Law p. 128 CHAP. V. The general admittance and use of the Civil Law in forreign parts is acknowledg'd by our selves here in England p. 133 CHAP. VI. The Civilians themselves do not enlarge the use and practise of the Civil Law in forreign parts further then Mr Selden himself in his writtings grants it to extend p. 139 CHAP. VII No Municipal Law is sufficient to meet with the multitude and variety of cases and questions that will happen at Land at Sea and in forreign parts Which has caused so many Nations to make use of the Civil Law where it is proper and pertinent to their affairs to joyn with and help their own rather then to be without any Law at all and to be subject to the mischiefs of arbitrariness folly and violence p. 144 CHAP. VIII That the reasons are strong and weighty upon which so many forreign States do direct and order the business of their Tribunals most by the prescript reason and equity of the Civil Law p. 153 CHAP. IX The admittance and sway of the Civil Law in forreign parts is yet further verified by the testimonies of Sr Tho. Smith and Dr Hakewill the one a Statesman the others a famous learned Divine of our own and by some other remarkable institutions within this Nation p. 159 CHAP. X. The general name of Jus Civile The Civil Law is signally for Honours sake peculiarly ascribed to the Roman Civil Law and to no other Law p. 164 CHAP. XI The Art and knowledge of doing the purest right and most natural justice is laid down in the books of the Civil Law and how it came by degrees to that perfection that now we see it in p. 166 CHAP. XII An Answer to the main Objections that are now adayes made against the continuance of the Civil Law within this Nation p. 173 VVESENBEC Parat Dig. De Just jur nu 17. IN constituendo expoliendoque jus Civile Populus Romanus tantum reliquis Nationibus velut gloria belli praestitit ut si omnia omnium gentium instituta mores leges in unum conferantur nequaquam sint cum his Romanorum legibus institutis prudentia aequitate pondere ubertate ullo modo comparanda The people of Rome did not onely go beyond all Nations in the world besides in renown for their warlike enterprizes but so much in establishing of Laws too That if all the Laws and customes of all other Nations were all laid together they would come far short of the Roman Laws both for wisdom equity weight fulness LEX LEGVM OR THE LAW OF LAWS c. CHAP. I. That a Law ought to be agreeable to true Reason The first Book THere is nothing under the Sun that doth more conduce to the Prosperity and Peace of a Nation then fitting and well-composed Laws In the framing whereof those that have the Ordaining Power most be heedfull to observe many things to make their Lawes proportionable to so happy and so blessed an end A Law must not enjoyne any wicked ignominious or unbeseeming things these being in intendment of the Civill Law impossible Quae factâ— laedunt pietatem existimationem verecundiam nostram ut generaliter dixerim contra bonus mores stunt nec facere nos posse credendum est sayes Papinian a L. 15. Co. de condit Inst Those actions which wound Piety Reputation Modesty or in brief are generally disallowed by the practises of sober men may be reckoned in the number of those things which Nature admits not to be done It must be not obscure but certain in the Intimation just in the Precept profitable in the Execution agreeing with the form of Government customes places and time where and when it is to be applyed It must be sufficient for the defence of Propriety for the encouragement of Labour for the safeguard of the Subjects persons for determining Controversies for reward of noble Actions and excellent Arts and rare Inventions for promoting Trade enriching the People and must wholly advance the publick good But above all things the care of the Legislative Power ought to be solicitous in nothing more then to frame and fashion their Lawes b Plutarch saying that Kings ought to be governed by Lawes explains himself that this Law must be a word not written in Books and Tables but dwelling in the mind a living rule the interiour guide of their manners and monitors of their life by that great and exemplary pattern the Law of Nature and to enact or decree nothing dissonant unto true inbred and Natural Reason whereby a Man worketh according to God according to himself Nature the universal order and policy of the world quietly sweetly and as silently without noise as a Ship that is not driven but by the naturall and ordinary course of the Water For when the Wisdome and Power of God first bestowed upon Man Vnderstanding and Reason he intended them as guides and directors in all the actions of his life and thereby to discerne what was good and what was evill by that very light that shined within him When therefore the commands of a Nation are irrationall and senselesse that light is as it were put out and extinguished and Subjects are made to obey rather like Beasts them Men.
considerations whatsoever much lesse did they look at the particular benefit of any private men But as in publick matters salus populi was suprema lex so in private quod aequum bonumque fuit was that which made up the Law with them the dispensation of true right and pure equity was thought the most effectuall means to preserve the whole And hence it is that the sincere equity of the Roman Civil Law has been owned and the wisdome of it greatly admired by those to whom the exigencies of the Roman State and the interest of the Rulers of it could not be known Ninthly this Law is so well tempered and so indifferently composed that it may be accommodated to any kind or form of government so that be the Supreme power in one or be it in few or be it in the whole people it is equally useful for them all for Rome came under all these severall formes of government and some part of the Civil Law was made under each of them Lastly Triall that is the true Touchstone of Laws as of all things else whatsoever has exalted it above all other Laws of Man First in the general use of it every where about the World Secondly in the continuance of it to this present time after the State and Government of Rome has long ago ceased to be and against all stormes and tempests that have come Thirdly in that all States and Common-wealths have exceedingly flourished that have made use thereof And yet we are not such vain exalters of our own profession as to think or boast that the Civil Law has the force or property of a Law within it so as to prescribe to or bind forreign Nations h Leges non allegantur in curiis Principum aut regum pro authoritate sed prorationc sui Jas in l. 19. co de Collat. nu 10. Non quia sunt leges Imperatorum sed quia sunt naturales bonae non quia lex hoc dicat sed quia Ratio sic vult Bald. in l. 13. co De sent interloc omn. judic But we rather say by any authority of its own it commands and necessitates no where and yet as reason must alwayes prevaile with men that are rational it informes illuminates and perswades every where We say this further that though in matters of publick government the Municipal Law â—ears sway and is practised altogether in every Nation for those must be managed by such prudent wayes and means as the supreme Governours from time to time shall think most necessary without being tied up to any certain rules even of their own much less to any of the Roman Empire yet in private controversial things arising between man and man some special matters of more publick and general concernment excepted the Civil Law is much more practised and more frequently used then the Municipal Because in respect of the great variety and multitude of such cases the Municipal Law can declare but little that is certain in them So that though we cannot say that forreign States are governed by the Civil Law yet the suits and differences their subjects have one with another are for the most part judg'd and ended by it But the admittance of the Civil Law in these cases how general soever they be is voluntary and free without either necessity or constraint And we do so little think that the want of a compulsive and binding power does in any part obscure the lustre of it as in our judgments that very consideration does commend it much more and makes the merit of it much more conspicuous and splendid for to be awed by an imposed Law argues the superiority of the power that imposes it and the servility and subjection of the people that are under it but no worth and excellency in the Law it selfe for peradventure if they were left to their full freedome they would chuse to live under some more natural and more reasonable Law But when a Prince and people shall of their own accord without direction or command from any other freely embrace a Law and desire to be tried and judg'd thereby as forreign States do by the Civil Law it is an evident token that this free assuming of such a Law proceeds from some known singular vertue and rare goodness that is in it for else they would not being at liberty be so unanimously guided and directed by the same CHAP. IX The admittance and sway of the Civil Law in forreign parts is yet further verified by the testimonies of Sir Tho. Smith and Dr Hakewill the one a Statesman the other a famous learned Divine of our own and by some other remarkable institutions within this Nation I Have before told you what a great and renowned King of this Nation and five great Sages of the National Law have said concerning the fame and practise of the Civil Law in forreign Nations I connot pass by what Sir Tho. Smith a most famous Scholar and States-man of this Nation and one who in Queen Elizabeths time went Embassadour to the King of France and so had the opportunity to know more of this matter then those that sit at home has written obiter to the very same purpose in his book De Republica Anglorum Wherein after he has delineated and set forth the true state of the policy and forme of government within this Common-wealth and wherein the Laws thereof do greatly differ from that which other States do observe and follow in his third book ca. 11. he closes in this manner Administrationis Politiae Anglicanae formam quasi in tabula breviter vobis ad intuendum proposui Quid suum habeat quià que ab aliis rebuspublicis Gallorum Italorum Hispanorum Germanorum diversum quae civilibus legibus Romanorum in Pandectas Codicem à Justiniano redactis reguntur enarravi The form of Policy and government of England saith he I have as it were in a Map briefly set down before you to be seen what it has proper to it self and what differing from other Common-wealths to wit of France Italy Spain Germany which saith he are swayed by those Civil Laws of the Romans that Justinian did put into the Digests and the Code I have likewise shewed you The testimony also of Dr Hakewill a great Divine of this Countrey also is as full to the same matter for in his learnned Apologie of the power and providence of God i Lib. 3. ca. 7. sect 3. he does not onely rank the Civil Law next to the Law of God but also avows the professours thereof in some forreign parts to be generally better scholars then their Divines and the Lawyers of this last age to be much more able in their learning and skill then the Lawyers of former ages have been Of the which he will have the reason to be the great sway interest and employment which they have had in the Judicial Courts of Christendome that has given them such
THE Law of Laws OR THE EXCELLENCY OF THE CIVIL LAW Above all Humane Laws whatsoever By Sir ROBERT WISEMAN Knight Doctor of the Civil Laws Together with a Discourse concerning the Oath Ex Officio and Canonical Purgation LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty 1664. The Epistle to the Reader Reader IF this Book were set forth in any other Language for Forreigners to read I were unavoidably driven to give them an account why I had put my self upon so superfluous and so unnecessary an undertaking as to extoll and commend that whose worth and merit is owned by all the World and which every where shines so brightly that it cannot be obscured by any either Tongue or Pen. For it is very well known to them that the Civil Law is the issue and product of that great and mighty State the Roman Empire that led so many Nations and people captive by their Wisdome as much as by their Valour that was once the School of all Moral Honesty and goodness and the stage whereon the whole variety of humane affairs was represented Neither need I tell them that what through the prosperous success of that State for which it was ordained and what through the natural Equity that is to be read all along in it and its being fitted for the general affairs of Europe the Laws of most of the Europaean Nations who indeed all of them anciently were subject to the Roman Government are but as copies drawn from that original borrowing that lustre of goodness they have from it and where their particular Laws faile thither their Judicatories resort to be supplied They cannot be ignorant That though every particular Nation has some few Laws of their own proper for their occasions government and people yet no where beyond the Seas is there any profession or science of Law but this nor any Law accounted the Law of Nations but the Civil Law onely That time practise argument and applying it to the several affairs of so many Nations where it has been used has made it so perfect and so sufficient a body to decide all cases by that are between party and party and do not concern the publick government that they stand in need of very few Laws of their own making and without it no Laws they can make would ever be able to serve their turn To those therefore that make such continual use of this Law in their Courts and who suffer none to sit as Judges nor plead at their Bars but such as have been brought up in that faculty and who strive to imploy those onely in all transactions between themselves and other Nations to them I say to praise and applaud this Law that is dignified by them so many several wayes is so little needful that it were almost impertinent But to make known to the people of this Nation to whom it is rendred now so contemptible how excellent it is in it self how rational what a general approbation it has had with other Nations and how very useful it may be to the publick welfare of this Nation divers wayes it is a work so seasonable and necessary that it may be done without either Apology Preface or reason premised and is no more then the present state of things calls for For when it is considered what an account it has been in amongst us for many hundred years together how many causes Civil Ecclesiastical Maritime and Military it dealt in how the jurisdiction thereof ran through the whole Nation how very little it was beneath the profession of the Common-Law it self how many professours and practisers it maintained and how much it did enrich them what a number of students it encouraged what coercive power it was intrusted withall and the many Courts the employment thereof lay in And when we see that now the causes thereof are cantonized and like a spoyl divided some carried to the Courts of Common-Law some to the Court of Equity others sent into the Countrey some left without any rule or regulation at all and nothing left entire to the Civil Law and when the solid reason of that Law is crowded out by vulgar reason the professours thereof scattered the study thereof discontinued the very Law-books for want of use here all transported beyond sea to other Nations and all coercion taken away It is so much worth the enquiring what the ground of this great change should be that to be silent thereat were great stupidity That the fall of the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction might be a reason to suspend the exercise of that profession in some causes for a time till it were again setled I admit But why it should not under this present form of Government if authority think fit be restored againâ— as to a civil regulation of those very matters under the Civil Magistrate no satisfactory reason can be rendred I am sure it can neither be rational nor convenient that they should be carried from the Civil Law which was the known established and practised Law in those matters unto the conizance of those that have neither Law nor rule nor skill to try them especially when the so doing does inevitably draw after it the certain ruine of that whole profession It is therefore very well worthy the most serious consideration of those that sit at the Helme That since there must be a triall of those matters still and again attending thereupon to one or other which is the Game every body hunts after Whether the Publick is more concerned that the profit of such conisances should flow into the purses of others no way apt or skilful then go to the maintaining and keeping up of such a learned profession which this Nation cannot be without And certainly whensoever we see that profession laid aside which for the publick good I trust I never shall we shall find this Common-wealth of ours made very much inferiour and unequal to other Nations with whom as it is an Island and now become an active one it has and must have many wayes to do In other things as in strength riches and alliances we contend for advantage and superiority with them why should we then suffer them to over-match us in wit dexterity skill knowledge wisdome policy reason or judgment which that learning above all other and experience together gives them The dealings that we may have with them as they are not a few but innumerable even as many as there are things in the World to deal in So some of them are of highest moment and consequence also As Right to Kingdomes or Provinces by Donation last Will Succession or by Marriage community or property of the Sea and the rights of Fishing and trading there freedome from Customes and other immunities granted to forreign Merchants Precedency amongst the Embassadours of Princes and Republicks Promises of protection and aide against enemies Entertainment and harbouring of Traytors or Rebels Interpretation of publick Leagues or
to make a Collection out of the several parts of the Roman Laws whereof the Theodosian Code was the chief and to write Notes and Expositions upon it which after he had done it was published and set forth to be observed as Law in France And Mr Selden writeth e Dissert ad Flet. ca. 5. parag 4. that the same King did the like in Spain too as well as in France So that albeit ruine devastation and violence had buried all that was Roman besides and for the better and more sure keeping of what was gotten clean another government and another Law was also setled yet the Roman Law either out of necessity because they saw the hearts of that people so set upon that Law that they would never have remained quiet or peaceable without it or out of some good esteeme that such a wilde and barbarous people bore to it themselves finding it to be so wise solid and rational was still retained in some use in Italy France Spain and in Germany too as the same Mr Selden affirmeth amidst its very enemies though much diminished corrected and controuled by their own supereminent and over-ruling Law So good a piece of policy and such a special mark of wisdome was it then accounted to have two Laws in the same Territory the one of the Romans for private matters between man and man for which it was so sufficient full and equal the other of their own to direct and steer the publick upon all accidents which they meant should superintend and reign in chief over and above the other But further not onely the use practise and observation of the Roman Law has been in danger to be quite lost and wholly set aside but the very books and writings of the Law have run very hard fates also ut mirum sit vel has qualescunque juris Romani reliquias superesse sayes Baldwine in his Prolegomena that it may be admired we have such parcels thereof extant at this day It was a most unhappy fate and very worthily lamented by all learned men that after Justinians composition of the Law was perfected and set forth with a command that that onely should be the Law of the Empire omnibusque antiquioribus quiescentibus nemoque audeat vel comparare eas prioribus as Justinians own words are f L. 2. Cod. De Veter jur cuucleand all the old Laws being quite put to silence nor that any should dare to make comparisons between them the very Law-books themselves being 2000 Volumes as we said before whereof Justinians new work was but a choice Collection raised out of a confused and an indigested heap and thence put into order did thereby lie neglected so long that in process of time they perished quite and were never seen more Questionless had they been preserved and transmitted unto posterity entire they would have acquainted us with much more of the Roman Antiquities then we now know the Civil Law that we have would have been much better understood when we might have gone to the Original from whence it came and the contradictions now contended about so much would have been easily reconciled The sense of this loss did cast Sabinus Floridus who charges it upon Justinian into such an extasie of indignation that he sayes Justinian died mad with the consciousness and horrour of suppressing these books and judges him not worthy ever to have been born But Franciscus Philelphus goes a strain higher plainly imprecating in this manner O utinam superi si quid mortalibus usquam Justitiae reliquum te Justiniane sub imis Manibus ardenti plectant Phlegetonte jacentem Post quà m tanta Italis millena volumina legum Principe te clades te principe pest is ademit Now though I see not any ground to justifie so much bitterness nor indeed deservedly to make that renowned Emperour authour of such a crime being especially thought by the most not guilty yet since those books of Law that are left us which are but an extract from the other are of such high price and value surely when the other perished there was lost a very great treasure Again as there were three Cities famous above all others for the nourishing and maintaining of the study and learning of the Civil Law to wit Rome Berytus and Constantinople In which three Cities onely by a express constitution of Justinian g Digest Proaem parag 7. it was to be read and taught to others and no where else throughout the Roman Empire so it was not possible but the books and writings thereof must be lost and destroyed as indeed they were in the direful events of those Cities For Rome was often spoiled sack'd and laid waste by rude and savage people who would not spare books or learning that they know would detest condemn and censure them and their barbarous actions Bâ—rytus was so utterly swallowed up in an Earthquake that nothing of the whole City was left above ground Constantinople in Zeno the Emperours time in the year 478 was almost wholly destroyed by fire in which perished amongst othings an hundred and twenty thousand books and is since fallen into the power and hands of the Turks professed enemies to civility and learning the same being taken by Mahomet the Great in the time of Constantine Palaeogolus the last of the Graecian Emperours in the year 1452. Thus has it fared with the very books and writings of the Civil Law but such has been the providence of the Almighty in preserving this necessary piece of learning that neither any nor all of these disasters have been powerful enough to extinguish it For although it seemed sometimes to be buried and no where visible yet at last by one means or other it was restored and brought to light But to none more is the honour of this restitution given then to the Emperour Lotharius the second who undertaking a war against Roger King of Sicily and Naples after he had taken by storm the City of Amalphis in Apulia he there found the chiefest and most authentick part of the Civil Law the Digests which was from thence conveyed to Pisa and afterwards to Florence where they have been kept with the greatest care and had in much veneration and esteem h Mr Selden sayes it is there kept in the Dukes Palace and is never brought forth but with To câ—â—â—ight and other reverence Notes upon Fortejâ—ue ad cap. 17. in tin and this was in or about the year 1137. The other parts of Justinians frame and Collection were found at Ravenna about the same time These books were no sooner pull'd as it were out of the dust but by the same Emperours command they were every where divulged taught in Schools and Universities up and down the Empire the barbarous Laws as it were silenced and these in practise made the rule for all Tribunals And indeed the same and reputation of them so spread all kind of learning reviving with it at the same time
that in a little space of time it got footing also with the other sciences in France Spain and Italy and in all the Western part of Europe where it has been in greatest use and highest account as well in studies as in Judicatories ever since to this very age of ours Nay the Civil Law after it was once restored and taken notice of having long lain hid and concealed drew the hearts and studies of men after it in such wonderful manner and grew to that mighty eminence and power that the most were intent upon the study of it and but few in comparison lookt after any other learning Giraldus of Oxford charges it as a fault upon the students of his time and tells that one Martin a Clergy-man did sharply reprove the University of Oxford at a publick congregation for devoting themselves wholly to that study neglecting all other learning saying quòd leges Imperiales reliqua scientias omnes suffocaverant the Imperiall Laws had swallowed up all the other Sciences Also Daniel Morlaes in the same Century being in Henry the seconds time writes that the Law was so much studied in Oxford quòd pro Titio Seio Aristoteles Plato penitus oblivioni traderentur that Titius and Seius were minded altogether and Aristotle and Plato were quite forgotten And Roger Bacon that had made himself eminent in all the sciences did upbraid the Bishops of the same age for minding Divinity so little adding quòd cavillationes juris defaedarent Philophiam the sophistry of the Law would corrupt the true Philosophy Stephen Langton Arch-Bishop of Canterbury took up the same complaint in Henry the thirds time against the Monks of his time qui relicto agro veri Booz nempe sacra Scriptura ad alium agrum id est scientiam secularem pro cupiditate terrena transirent who through greediness of filthy lucre which was then to be gotten chiefest from the Law did forsake the knowledge of the Scriptures and hunt after secular knowledge The like lamentation was made by Robert Holcot of the order of the Praedicants in Northampton-shire in Edward the thirds time leges canones saith he istis temporibus innumerabiliter sunt foecundae concipiunt divitias pariunt dignitates ad illas confluunt quasi â—ota multitudo scholarum his diebus The Laws and Canons are immeasurably profitable in these times riches and honours spring from thence almost the whole number of Scholars resort thither for indeed the greatest professours in Theologie that were did so little content themselves with that one way of advancement that they did frequently assume degrees in Law to fit and qualifie them for other preferments also But sure it is these complaints and objurgations of private men could so little keep this luxuriant growth of the Law from spreading that the very Edicts and Decrees of Princes could not bring it down Matthew Paris in his History upon the year 1254. and in the Additions pag. 883. Edit Noviss makes mention of a constitution made and published by Pope Innocent the fourth by which it was ordained that no professour of the Laws should be promoted to any Ecclesiastical dignity in France England Scotland Spain and Hungarie and that from thenceforward the Imperial Laws should not be read in those dominions if the Kings and Princes so thought fit Pope Honorius the third forbad the reading or teaching of the Civil Law in Paris in the year 1220. i Ca. super spetuta ext de privileg Those Popes thought that the restraint of the Imperial Law would be a ready means to bring into request the Canon Law which was as it were but new set up Upon design therefore to bring into credith their own Ecclesiastical Law rather then out of any dislike of the Civil were those prohibitorie Decrees made however they very much failed of that effect that was intended them for we may have observed to this very time that all those Christian States that do acknowledge the Popes authority and power have so equally divided their respect between both those Laws that they have appointed to each their proper function designing the one to be serviceable to Civil matters the other to Ecclesiastical and so by such moderation have done very equal right to both At the same time that the Civil Law was publickly read at Bononia by the means of Lotharius the second it was brought into England by Theobald the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and being publickly read in Oxford by Vacarius it grew so general a study and other learning was so much neglected upon it that King Stephen incensed thereat sent forth a peremptory command that it should be read in England no more that Vacarius should forbear to teach it any further nor that it should be lawful for any to keep any books of the Roman Laws by them Sed parùm valuit Stephani prohibitio nam eò magis invaluit virtus legis Deo favente quò eam amplius nitebatur impietas subvertere sayes Mr Selden k Dissertat ad Flet. cap. 7. parag 6. But King Stephens prohibition did prevaile but little for the power of the Law God prospering the same waxed the more vigorous when malice did most strive to destroy it Charles the ninth and Henry the third of France did also by sending forth their Edicts forbid the Civil Law to be taught in Paris or that any Degrees should be taken in that faculty Philip the fair and the Parliament of Paris anciently did straitly charge that no man should dare in any pleading to urge or cite the Roman Law against a special Law of the Nation In Spaine it has been made no less then a capital crime to offer or alledge the Roman Law as compulsive or binding And surely it is a high indignity to any Prince to have any forreigne Law set up against and to beat down his own And therefore in the erection of Universities in France the Kings have alwayes declared that their purpose was to have the Civil and Canon Laws in them publickly professed and taught to make use thereof at their discretion but not that the subjects should be any way bound thereunto lest they should seem to derogate from the Laws of their own countrey by advancing the Laws of strangers l Bodin de rep lib. 1. ca. 8. These and such like edicts declarations of Princes have been alwayes of full force and power as most justly they ought to be to limit the vast and universal power of the Civil Law and to keep it from getting above and prevailing over the Laws and Customes of their own Territories for that were no less then to worship two Suns in one and the same firmament and to call in the Roman Sovereignty which was long ago cast off But that the Civil Law should not be studied publickly taught no degrees taken in it nor cited in their Judicatories in a ministerial and subordinate way to their own municipal Laws and Customes or that
book has by variety of proof so sufficiently made it good already But yet it is worth the setting down what some of our own Countrey-men have in their writings acknowledg'd to the very same purpose and those especially amongst the rest whose interest and high valuation which they pass upon the Laws of their own Countrey will not permit them to ascribe more to the Civil Law then the just truth will bear And it is most observable what King James himself the learnedest of all modern Princes said here in a Speech made to no less solemn assembly then his Lords and Commons of Parliament u 21. Martii 1609. which we have extant amongst his printed works As a King saith he I have least cause of any man to dislike the Common-Law for no Law can be more favourable and advantagious for a King and extendeth further his Prerogative then it doth And for a King of England to despise the the Common-Law it is to neglect his own Crown Yet saith he I do greatly esteem the Civil Law the profession thereof serving more for general learning and being most necessary for matters of Treaty with all forreign Nations And I think that if it should be taken away it would make an entry to Barbarisme in this Kingdome and would blemish the honour of England for it is in a manner lex Gentium and maintaineth entercourse with all forreign Nations But I onely allow it to have course here according to those limits of jurisdiction which the Common-Law it self doth allow it And therefore though it be not fit for the general government of the people here it doth not follow it should be extinct no more then because the Latin tongue is not the mother or radicall Language of any Nation in the World at this time that therefore the English tongue should onely now be learned in this Kingdome which were to bring in barbarisme And in another speech in Star-chamber x 20 Iun. 1616. printed also God forbid saith he the Law of Nations intending thereby chiefly the Civil Law should be barred in this Kingdome and that for two causes one because it is a Law to satisfie strangers which will not hold themselves so well satisfied with other municipal Laws another to satisfie our own subjects in matters of Piracy Marriage Wills and things of like nature And again when he was so mightily pressing to have had an union of England and Scotland under the same policy of Laws as they had but one and the same King in a speech made upon that subject y Ult. Mart. 1607. extant in his printed works he told his two Houses of Parliament that in point of conjunction of Nations the Civil Law ought to bear a great sway it being the Law of Nations These are the expressions of a King the interest of whose Crown and Scepter and the prerogatives thereunto belonging did depend upon the favour of another Law and yet he positively and in down-right termes in the face of all his people avows the Civil Law to be the Law of Nations and that all transactions of Treaty and of Trade with forreign Nations were dispatched by the rule and reason thereof and that the authority thereof was so great in the esteem of strangers that they would rest satisfied therewith when no municipal Law could satisfie them But in that he avers also that when the people of England shall exterminate that Law which must needs be when the practice thereof is quite taken away or thrust into a poor narrow compass their honour will be obscured and they will be in danger to be over-run with barbarisme it was never so well worth the observing as at this present time And it clearly shews that wise and learned King did perfectly understand the true use of the Civil Law for as the language thereof must needs be a means to maintain learning which does civilize soften the minds of men so there is no sort of learning with the which the matter of it does not correspond and participate but above all it does afford more and better rules for civil living and orderly conversation amongst men and for righteous dealing each with other then any other study or learning whatsoever But this practise and usage of the Civil Law in forreign parts is yet better confirmed by the authority of those who studying and professing the Law of England have been alwayes jealous of the rising and growth of the Civil Law in this Nation For though they have desired to keep it low here for what reason I need not mention yet some of them have freely enough owned how much it is in use and practise in other Countreys Sir Francis Bacon in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Queen set before his Maximes of Law after he had told the Queen that Justinian the Emperour did gloriously and yet aptly call the Body of the Roman Laws proprium sanctissimum templum justitiae consecratum a true and a most sacred temple consecrated unto justice he sayes that it is a work of great excellency indeed as may well appear in that France Italy and Spain who have long since shaken off the yoke of the Roman Empire do yet nevertheless continue to use the policy of that Law My Lord Ellesmere Chancellour of England as Sir Francis Bacon was in his speech of the Postnati does expresly deliver that the Civil Law is taken to be the most universal and general Law in the World Sir John Fortescue himselfe Lord chief Justice of England and afterwards Lord Chancellour in King Henry the sixth's dayes in his book wherein he does so highly magnifie and commend the Laws England above the Civil Law yet he could say z De Laud. legum Angliae ca. 9. That Civiles supra humanas cunctas leges alias fama per orbem extollit gloriosa The Civil Laws throughout the whole World are advanced in glory and renown above all other mans Laws Fulbeck also another of the same profession and of great learning does agree with the former in these words a In his parallel part 1. Epistle to the Reader The Roman Laws saith he in the times of Arcadius Theodosius and Justinian recovered their strength and shining to all the Common-wealths of Europe as the Sun to all the climates of the Earth have for their worthiness and necessary use and employment received entertainment countenance and great reward of Emperours Kings and Princes Likewise Mr Sâ—lden a Graduate in the Common-Law but a great Student in all learning and one that seems to have searched narrowly into the state of the Civil Law as it has stood in use and request in other Countreys as well as in England in all times in his additional discourse upon Fleta wholly spent upon that subject owns the entertainment and use of the Civil Law in the Western Countreys of Europe that had left to acknowledge the Roman Empire long before For in that discourse b Ca.
Parliaments accounting what has been once done there quo jure qua injuria right and good and to be deduced into practice even those strange irregular acts in the tumultuous times of Richard the second and Henry the fourth nay we have seen how Spensers Treason distinguishing the person and office of the King so declared to be Treason by Act of Parliament many ages since even urged for right to instance no more Some have advised that such precedents acts and proceedings should have been examined and by publick Declaration by Act of Parliament purged or abolished or declared illegal And that Acts of Oblivion c. if but for that reason of preventing that male construction of citing ill precedents for Law that an inspection should have been made into the Acts of Amnesty and Oblivion passed in the first years of the Long Parliament and also that passed this last Parliament We have seen especially if we looked Northward how soon after such Acts of Indempnity and Amnesty the Delinquents as though they thought themselves justified in their former crimes fell again into the same And that there should in those past and due care be had for the same in the future have been a specification made of the crimes and offences intended there to have been pardoned and put into oblivion lest otherwise implicitely and insensibly they might have been taken not to be crimes and Loyalty and Fidelity tacitly at least accounted crimes and so creep into precedent and example for the future And that the first Paragraphs in the late Act of Pardon Indempnity and Oblivion might if thought fit be considered of where in the first place are pardoned All and all manner of Treasons Misprisions of Treason Murthers Felonies and Offences crimes c. counselled commanded acted or done since the first day of January 1637. by any persons before the 24 day of June 1660 c. by vertue or colour of any command power authority commission warrant or instructions from His late Majesty King Charles or His Majesty that now is Though there might be some obliquity error or abuse in the execution of Commissions from their Majesties yet some stumble at these expressions of Treasons Murther c. to be committed by Commission from the King as without all question was committed by Commissions granted by others and yet here they look like equal and eaven crimes which no loyal man can own It neither hurts nor hinders the pardon but rather more strengthens it that the crimes pardoned are specified and let the application be made onely to them that are guilty of them not to the guiltlesse and such as deserve honour and reward for that which some would at least imply to be criminal much lesse no ignominy or reproach Surely the Loyal party that acted according to the known Laws for so acting needed not His Majesties pardon Facinus quos inquinat aequat Some men cannot think themselves cleared except they can taint others guiltlesse with the imputation at least of these crimes whereof they themselves onely are culpable and it is a question whether their true meaning be not that they would have an Exculpation a term we have more lately had from the North and even a justification from their known crimes at least to be accounted no greater crimes then the actions of those that acted by the Kings authority according to the known Laws of the Land which they well know are no crimes but the contrary It is obvious to every eye how some have sweat to have justified all the illegal Acts of the Long Parliament Some make little or nothing of the endeavours that then were to have killed the late King in Battel but onely of putting him to death in cold bloud And that Restitution of some goods where the property is not altered if thought fit that such goods whereof the property is not altered as Houshold-stuff Plate Furniture of beds Pictures Hangings eminent Jewels or such like plundered or taken away wrongfully either by pretended Sequestrations spoil or otherwise should be restored to the owners or in some cases a just value repaid for them with a just consideration to be had of the parties from whom they were taken and of their actings and not to remain as they do in the view of the owners perhaps purposely in despight exposed to such publick view This works contrary to His majesties pious intention and that Act of Oblivion it continues does not abolish the memory of our former divisions when the spoiled shall see as a continual Eye-sore their proper goods in the possession of the spoiler whilest the spoiled for want of them perhaps is ready to starve and perhaps the spoiler makes his livelyhood out of them if not steps of preferment too The Heathen Poet could say of the Civil wars of Rome Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos But surely this looks like a continued triumph after the Warre Some have wished that that motion in the last Parliament Reparation to persons spoyled or Assembly or Convention that ended in December 1660. made in the Lords House might be renewed that the spoyed party might at least in some good measure be repaired by some publick Tax made for that purpose and due consideration to be had of such suffering spoyled persons that constant never-changing Loyalty may have some encouragement and comfort besides that of a good conscience Some have wished that it might have been by Act of Parliament declared Touching the Long Parliament if thought fit that the Long Parliament notwithstanding that Act for the continuing of it till it should be dissolved by Act of Parliament was dissolved or declared void and null from such a day as should have been by advice of the Judges and learned in the Laws agreed upon And that also if thought fit consideration should have been had particularly from what time that dissolution annulling or making void should have commenced whether from the time that His late Majesty was driven from the Parliament by tumults and riots which as is known some if not many Members especially of the then Commons House in that Long Parliament that took up Arms against the King were so far from causing to be suppressed though His Majesty desired it that they were set on by them as is notorious And also if thought fit that if not from that time yet from the time they voted to live and dye with the Earl of Essex by them voted to be their General against the King and upon the matter causing those Members to leave the House that would not vote with them And whether that His Majesty calling them afterwards a Parliament as they alledged when they were in Arms against him though perhaps His Protestation to the contrary was entred in the council-Council-book could any wayes entitle them to a lawful Parliament And also if thought fitting that it should have been by Act of Parliament declared that any Member of Parliament offending
against 25 E. 3. in raising or bearing Arms or maintaining them against the King ipso facto ceases to be a Member of Parliament for that a Rebel and a Parliament-man are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And also if thought fit that the Judges of the Land consulting together should have declared as they did in King James his time in that case about Watson and Clerk the Seminary Priests that the Kings Coronation was but a Ceremony and that without it the King was a complete King that that Long Parliament was dissolved from such a day as they should have found by Law that it was dissolved or annulled whether it was from the time of His late Majesties expulsion from his Parliament as before or from the time of voting to live and dye with the Earl of Essex or of their Votes of no further addresses to the King who called them to consult with him whether they did not then openly dissolve themselves by refusing to consult with him or from his death when they could consult no more with him And also if thought fit that it should have been so declared and enacted that though the King had passed an Act that the Parliament should sit till they were dissolved by an Act of Parliament and that if it had been expressed that it should be so notwithstanding that His Majesty should dye in the interim yet such an Act could not bind him nor his Successor especially when in that Act for continuing that Parliament till by such Act it should be dissolved there is no such mention that it should continue after his death that called it and that the King cannot be concerned at leastwise concluded any wayes in any Act of Parliament to his damage prejudice or diminution of his royal Prerogative or Authority except at least he explicitely and freely consent to it be specially comprized and named in that Act to that purpose or whether he can though he so consent it following plainly that if by taking up Arms or bearing Arms against the King a Parliament-man ceases to be so nor can sit any longer in the House Then in that case none ought truly to be accounted secluded or excluded Members but onely these that would uot then vote to live and dye with the Earl of Essex nor would assent to the raising of arms against the King but thereupon left the House or were expelled thence either by the Votes of the rest or by menaces just fear that might incidere in constantem virum or by tumultuous force so that if the Parliament if not by the reasons aforesaid yet at least by the death of the King being dissolved as to think the contrary is most void of reason or truth if I say it had not been so dissolved then those secluded or excluded Members they onely ought to have been restored and none of the rest that acted against the King by taking up Arms against him or acting against him ought to have been restored Such offended against the Act of 25 E. 3. raising Arms against the King c. counterfeiting or making a new Great Seal c. and their being Members of Parliament being as before inconsistent and for the void places His Majesty to issue out Writs for free legal and new Elections And also that the keeping of the Records in the Tower The keeping of the Records in the Tower should be in the hands of a known trusty Loyalist and none other in regard of the danger of imbezelling or corrupting them by any person of other principles not affected to Monarchical government by Law established to the great damage of the King and his Subjects And also that the Militia The Militia and all Offices and places of trust and concernment for the peace and safety of the Kingdoms and for the prevention of future Faction Sedition and disturbance of such peace and endangering such safety should be committed onely to the hands and especially for a competent space of time as by such free and legal Parliament or by His Majesty shall be agreed upon of known experienc'd Loyalists and not to any that may be reasonably presumed or suspected to be otherwise That rule may somtimes hold and not be rejected Qui semel est malus semper praesumitur esse malus presertim in eodem genere delicti And also if thought fit Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy explained that the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy should have had some explanation alteration or emendation especially in that point of not resisting the King In the second Homily of Obedience which book is confirmed by Act of Parliament it is there expressed in terminis as the Doctrine of the church of Engl. that it is not lawful in any case to resist the King That this should expresly have been put into these Oaths and that all persons whatsoever which are to take the Oaths of Allegeance or Supremacy or that have taken them may take them with such emendations it being too notorious what strange interpretations have been made of these Oaths as that they were made onely against the Papal power and as though nothing else were to be resisted And in the beginning of the Rebellion in Scotland the orthodox Divines of Aberdeen maintaining according to that Doctrine of the Church of England That in no case the King is to be resisted and that so to do was contrary to Gods Words and to the opinion and practice of the primitive Christians The other Divines fomentors of that Rebellion expresly denied this and alledged that the reason why the primitive Christians resisted not was because deerant illis vires the very same reason that Bellarmine gives for he same so well do these two Factions concur Though by the History of those times it appears and Tertullian openly pleads it against the Emperor that it was not for want of strength for they had enough but that it was contrary to their conscience guided by Gods Word so to resist And therefore why not much need that all persons whatsoever should take this Oath to declare their opinion in this point And also Robbery the law to be â—â—tered if thought fit that the Law concerning Robbery ought to be in many cases and especially for the first offence mitigated and not made capital but that restitution be made to the party robbed and if the Robber be not able to do it then to be forced to work it out Which course some think would probably more terrifie idle persons that turn thieves who had rather dye desperately then lead perhaps a long and wearisom life Hereby many may repent and amend and do good service to their King and Countrey The party robbed also hereby gets restitution which seldom or never happens as the Law now is Our Law contrary to the practice in other parts of the Christian world hereby becomes harder then the Levitical Laws Some have hereupon said that the Gospel the Spirit killeth and the Letter giveth
been writ about that ridiculous contradiction in adjecto of the two Houses coordination with the King the Monarch when as before is specified the King is the Head the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons the three Estates by several Acts of Parliament specified Lippis tonsoribus notum yet urged for designs mischievous abominably as we have felt As also that trayterous distinction of the Spensers Spensers Treason 'twixt the Kings Person and Office by two Acts of Parliament declared Treason yet in these late times maintained by too many Goodwins book for the justification of the murther of the late King and many other of that kind Goodwins book justifying the murther of the King Mr. Bucks book of Richard the third wherein he seems to impugne the right of the King from the daughter of King Edward the fourth wife to King Henry the seventh Mr. Bucks book of Richard 3. too much leaning to if not affirming Richard the thirds right by that monstrous Act of Parliament that illegitimates Edward the fourths issue In Sir Edward Cooks book entituled The third part of the Institutes of the Law of England Sir Edw. cooks Writings concerning High Treason and other Pleas of the Crown 1658. Printed at London by M. Flesher for W. Lee and D. Pakeman § Le Roy pag. 7. he puts it down there for Law upon the Statute of 25 E. 3. c. 2. De proditionibus That if Treason be committed against a King de facto and non de jure and after the King de jure cometh to the Crown he shall punish the Treason done to the King de facto and a Pardon granted by a King de jure that is not also de facto is void Strange would have been the consequence of this if Cromwell had been made King as some desired and a loyal man should have killed him in order to the restitution of the true King de jure our dread Soveraign King Charles the second Or should a loyal man for the same end have killed him though he had but de facto non de jure the title of Protector how far would that have extended by the words in the same § may be considered where he sayes that Statute of E. 3. is to be understood of a King regnant and as follows there and as he sayes most truly a Queen regnant is within these words Nostre Seigneur le Roy for she hath the Office of a King So perhaps it deserves to be examined whether some of note and power in the time of Cromwells Usurpation did not affirm that Cromwell was within these words Nostre Seigneur le Roy. In regard Sir Edward Cooks Writings are by many held in high repute and some have not stuck to style him the Oracle of the Law therefore his Writings require to be more strictly looked into and that if any errors be found therein they may be detected and expunged as being more dangerous then in other mens Writings not of so great repute Corruptio optimi est pessima Also it was advised Illegal and seditious speeches if it shall be thought fit that such Speeches as have been publickly made by any Judges or noted Lawyers upon the Bench or in any publick Assemblies against the Regal or Subjects Right or the Law of Nations which may give just offence to our Neighbours may be taken notice of and publickly declared against Such us that when that Act of 25 E. 3. was alledged to justifie Cromwells Usurpation and that Seigneur le Roy in that Statute included Cromwell the usurping Protector And that speech of a great Lawyer at the tryal of the Portugal Ambassadors brother when it was alledged that he was by the Law of Nations to be sent back cum postulatu to his Master the King of Portugal to be by him punished for his offence committed here and that that Commission for trying him here without the consent of the Portugal Ambassador was the first Commission that ever was granted here to try any Ambassador or his servant without the Ambassadors consent Even the Bishop of Ross Ambassador from Mary Queen of Scotland though she was de facto deposed or forced to renounce the Crown there when he had committed a great offence yet was onely dismiss'd and not further questioned But to all this and much more that Lawyer replied What have we to do with the Law of Nations if it be contrary to the Law of England One pretended afterwards to excuse him and that he spoke but according to the words in the Statute of 21 H. 8.21 where it is said We are free from any subjection to any mans Laws but onely to such as have been devised made and ordeined within this Realm for the wealth of the same c. which words are intended against the Papal Usurpation imposing Laws upon us As also if it be thought fitting The illegal Preface to the Propositions at the Isle of Wight that that Preface to the Propositions sent by the House to the late King at the Isle of Wight which seem to strike at if not to take away the Kings Negative voice in Parliament expresly contrary to many Acts of Parliament the Kings most known Prerogative and the most known Custom and Law of the Land be declared illegal and derogatory to His Majesties Prerogative and just right As also if it shall be thought fitting Rectifying of translation of some words that the translation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Rom. 13.1 to higher powers altered to the supreme powers for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.13 is translated whether to the King as supreme The two Houses and Powers inferior many degrees to them have by some been interpreted to be meant by higher powers and strangely hath it been wrested if not exclusive of the King As also if it shall be thought fitting that that expression about the time of His Majesties coming over Illegal Declaration in one of the Declarations or Remonstrances that the Government was by the King Lords and Commons being derogatory to His Majesties Prerogative and Legislative power and the Government being in him radically and but derivatively and subordinately in any others for and under him Therefore to be considered of altered and amended As also The Printing-press if it shall be thought fit that the Presse be carefully looked into that no seditious Books or Pamphlets be vented to poyson the people or to confirm any in their bad principles The want of this care hath grown into a great Seminary of mischief which if nothing but our sad experience of it should make us more wary for the future As also A body of the Law to be framed if it shall be thought fit that according as was begun by the late Lord Chancellor the Lord Viscount St. Albanes which as 't is said King James put him upon a Body of the Laws should be digested and compiled