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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	court_n	judge_n	king_n	3,392	5	4.2214	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61093	Of the law-terms, a discourse wherein the laws of the Jews, Grecians, Romans, Saxons and Normans, relating to this subject are fully explained / written by ... Sir Henry Spelman, Kt.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.	1684 (1684)	Wing S4929; ESTC R16781	31,761	92

this particular branch there is nothing not agreeable to some former Constitution The word Bellum here signifieth Combats which among our Saxons are not spoken of and by those of Ferri vel Aquae are meant Ordal King Stephen by his Charter recited at Malmesbury confirmed and established by a Generality bonas leges antiquas justas consuetudines Henry the 2d expresly ratified the Laws of Edward the Confessour and William the Conquerour as Hoveden telleth us saying that he did it by the advice of Ranulph Glanvill then newly made Chief Justice of England which seemeth to be true for that Glanvill doth accordingly make some of his Writs returnable in Octabi or Clauso Paschae where the Laws of Edward the Confessour appoint the end of Lent Vacation And Gervascius Tilburiensis also mentioneth the same return CHAP. XII The Terms laid out according to these ancient Laws TO lay out now the bounds of the Terms according to these Canons and Constitutions especially that ancient Law of Edward the Confessour it thus appeareth viz. Hilary Term began then certainly at Octabis Epiphaniae that is the thirteenth day of January seven days before the first Return is now and nine days before our Term beginneth and ended at the Saturday next before Septuagessima which being movable made this Term longer some years than in others Florentinus Wigorniensis and Walsingham in his Hypodigma Neustriae saith Anno 1096. in Octabis Epiphaniae apud Sarisburiam Rex Gulielmus Rufus tenuit Consilium in quo jussit Gulielmo de Anco in duello victi oculos eruere testiculos abscindere Dapiferum illius Gulielmum de Alderi filium Amitae illius suspendi c. proceeding also judicially against others Though Walsingham calleth this Assembly Consilium with an s and Wigorniensis Concilium with a c the word Term perhaps not being in use in the days of William Rufus yet it may seem to be no other than an Assembly of the Barons in the King's Court of State which was then the place of Justice to proceed judicially against these offenders For the Barons of the Land were at that time the Judges of all Causes which we call Pleas of the Crown and of all other belonging to the Court of the King So that the proceedings being Legal and not Parliamentary it appeareth that it was then no Vacation and that the Term was begun at Octabis Epiphaniae whereby it is the liklier also that it ended at Septuagessima lest beginning it as we now do some years might happen to have no Hilary-Term at all as shall anon appear And this our ancient use of ending the Term at Septuagessima is some inducement to think the Council of Ertford to be depraved and that the word there Quinquagessima should be Septuagessima as the gloss there reporteth it to be in some other place And as well Gratian mistakes this as he hath done the Council it self attributing it to Ephesus a City of Ionia instead of Ertford a town in Germany where Burchard before him and Binius since hath placed it It comes here to my mind what I have heard an old Chequerman many years agoe report that this Term and Trinity-Term were in ancient time either no Terms at all or but as reliques of Michaelmas and Easter-Terms rather than just Terms of themselves Some courses of the Chequer yet encline to it And we were both of the mind that want of business which no doubt in those days was very little by reason Suits were then for the most part determined in inferiour Courts was the cause of it But I since observe another cause viz. That Septuagessima or Church-time one while trode so near upon the heels of Octabis Epiphaniae I mean came so soon after it that it left not a whole week for Hilary-Term and again another while Trinity-Sunday fell out so late in the year that the common necessity of Hay-seed and Harvest made that time very little and unfrequented For inasmuch as Easter-Term which is the Clavis as well to shut up Hilary-Term as to open Trinity-Term may according to the General Council of Nice holden in the year 922. fall upon any day between the 22. of October exclusively which then was the Aequinoctium and the 25 of April inclusively as the farthest day that the Sunday following the Vernal Full-Moon can happen upon Septuagessima may sometimes be upon the 18. of January and then they could not in ancient time have above 4. days Term and we at this day no Term at all because we begin it not till the 23. of January which may be six days after Septuagessima and within the time of Church-Vacation But what Hilary-Term hath now lost from the beginning of it it hath gained at the latter end of Trinity-Term And I shall speak more of this by and by CHAP. XIII Easter-Term EAster-Term which now beginneth two days after Quindena Paschae began then as the Law of Edward the Confessour appointed it at Octab. This is verified by Glanvill who maketh one of his Writs returnable thus Summoneo per bonos summonitores quatuor legales milites de vicineto de Stock quod sint ad Clausum Paschae coram me vel Justiciariis meis apud Westmonasterium ad eligendum supra sacramentum suum duodecim legales milites But as it began then nine days sooner than it now doth so it ended six or seven days sooner viz. before the Vigil of Ascension which I take to be the meaning of the Law of Edward the Confessour appointing the time from the Ascension inclusive to the Octaves of Pentecost with Ascension-Eve to be dies pacis Ecclesiae and Vacation CHAP. XIV Trinity-Term TRinity-Term therefore in those days began as it now doth in respect of the return at Octab. Pentecostes which being always the day after Trinity-sunday is now by the Stat. of 32 of Hen. 8. appointed to be called Crastino Trinitatis But it seemeth that the Stat. 51. of Hen. 3. changed the beginning of this Term from Crastino Trinitatis to Octab. Trinitatis and that therefore the Stat. of Hen. 8. did no more in this point than reduce it to the former original As touching the end of this Term it seemeth also that the said Stat. of 51. Hen. 3. assigned the same to be within two or three days after Quindena Sancti Johannis which is about the twelvth of July for that Statute nameth no return after Bnt for ought that hindreth by the Canons it is tanquam Terminus sine termino for there was no set Canon or Ecclesiastical Law that I can find to abbridge the continuance thereof till Michaelmas-Term unless the 7. days next before St John Baptist were according to the Canon of Ertford used as days of intermission when they fell after the Octaves of Pentecost as commonly they do though in the year 1614. four of them fell within them And except the Ember-days next after Holy Rood for

Judices jejuni causas audiant discernant and again in the Capitulars Caroli Lodovici nè placitum Comes habeat nisi jejunus Where the word Comes according to the phrase of that time is used for Judex as elsewhere we have it declared to the same effect in the Capitular ad Legem Salicam And out of these and such other Constitutions ariseth the rule of the Canon Law that Quae à prandio fiunt Constitutiones inter decreta non referuntur Yet I find that Causes might be heard and judged in the afternoon for in Capitulars lib. 2 33 and again lib. 4. Cau. 16. it is said Causae viduarum pupillorum pauperum audiantur definiantur ante Meridiem Regis verò Potentiorum post Meridiem This though it may seem contradictory to the Constitutions aforesaid yet I conceive them to be thus reconcilable That the Judges sitting then but seldom continued their Courts both Forenoon and Afternoon from Morning till Evening without dinner or intermission as at this day they may and often do upon great Causes though being risen and dining they might not meet again yet might they not sit at night or use candle light Quòd de nocte non est honestum judicium exercere And from these ancient Rites of the Church and Empire is our Law derived which prohibiteth our Jurours being Judices de facto to have meat drink fire or candle light till they be agreed of their verdict It may here be demanded how it cometh to pass that our Judges after dinner do take Assizes and Nisi prius in the Guild-hall of London and in their Circuits I have yet no other answer but that ancient Institutions are discontinued often by some custome grating in upon them and changed often by some later Constitution of which kind the instances aforesaid seem to be For Assizes were ordained many ages after by Henry the second as appeareth by the Charter of Beverly Glanvill and Radulphus Niger and Nisi prius by Edward the first in the Statutes of Westminster 2 though I see not but in taking of them the ancient course might have been continued if haste would suffer it CHAP. II. Why they sit not at all some days THough there be many days in the Terms which by ancient Constitutions before recited are exempted from Law-business as those of the Apostles c. and that the Statute of Ed. 6. appointed many of them to be kept Holy-days as dedicated not unto Saints but unto divine worship which we also at this day retain as Holy-days Yet do not the high Courts forbear sitting in any of them saving on the Feast of the Purification the Ascension St. John Baptist All-saints and the day after though not a Feast called All-souls When the others lost their privilege and came to be Term-days I cannot find it sufficeth that Custome hath repealed them by confession of the Canonists Yet it seemeth to me there is no provision made for it in the Constitutions of our Church under Isleep Archbishop of Canterbury in the time of Edward the third For though many ancient Laws and the Decretals of Gregory the 9th had ordained judicialem strepitum diebus conquiescere feriatis yet in a Synod then holden wherein are all the Holy-days appointed and particularly recited no restraints of Judicature or Forensis strepitus is imposed but a cessation onely ab universis servilibus operibus etiam Reipublicae utilibus Which though it be in the phrase God himself useth touching many great Feasts viz. Omne servile opus non facietis in iis yet it is not in that when he instituteth the seventh day to be the Sabbath Non facies omne opus in eo without servile Thou shalt doe no manner of work therein Now the act of Judicature and of hearing and determining Controversies is not opus servile but honoratum planè Regium and so not within the prohibition of this our Canon which being the latter seemeth to qualifie the former Yea the Canonists and Casuists themselves not onely expound opus servile of corporeal and mechanical labour but admit 26 several cases where even in that very kind dispensation lieth against the Canons and by much more reason then with this in question It may be said that this Canon consequently giveth liberty to hold plea and Courts upon their Festivals in the Vacations I confess that so it seemeth but this Canon hath no power to alter the bounds and course of the Terms which before were setled by the Statutes of the Land so that in that point it prevaileth not Why but there ariseth another question how it comes to pass that the Courts sit in Easter-Term upon the Rogation days it being forbidden by the Council of Medard and by the intention of divers other Constitutions It seemeth that it never was so used in England or at least not for many ages especially since Gregory the ninth insomuch that among the days wherein he prohibiteth Forensem strepitum clamorous pleading c. he nameth them not And though he did the Glossographers say that a Nation may by Custome erect a Feast that is not commanded by the Canons of the Church Et eodem modo posset ex consuetudine introduci quòd aliqua quae sunt de praecepto non essent de praecepto sicut de tribus diebus Rogationum c. To be short I find no such privilege for them in our Courts though we admit them other Church rites and ceremonies We must now shew if we can why the Courts sitting upon so many Ferial and Holy-days do forbear to sit upon some others which before I mention'd the Purification Ascension St. John Baptist All-Saints c. For in the Synod under Isleep before mention'd no prerogative is given to them above the rest that fall in the Terms as namely St. Mark and St. Philip and Jacob when they do fall in Easter Term St. Peter in Trinity-Term St. Luke before the late abbreviation by 16. Car. 1. did fall and St. Simon and Jude doth always fall in Michaelmas-Term It may be said that although the Synod did prohibit onely Opera Servilia to be done on Festival-days as the offence most in use at that time yet did it not give licence to doe any Act that was formerly prohibited by any Law or Laudable Custome And therefore if by colour thereof or any former use which is like enough the Courts did sit on lesser Festivals yet they never did it on the greater among which majoris cautelae gratiâ those Opera Servilia are there also prohibited to be done on Easter-day Pentecost and the Sunday it self Let us then see which are the greater Feasts and by what merit they obtain their privilege that the Courts of Justice sit not on them As for Sunday we shall not need to speak of it being canonized by God himself As for Easter and Whitsunday we shall not need to speak of them

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