which were written many things concerning the lawe of nature and the influence and motions of the starres that if the bricke pillar were destroyed by water the stone pillar should reserue and keepe safe their lawes theyr seruice and sacrifice to God which the Patriarkes vsed as instructions to their posteritie after the floud which continued vntill Iosephus time which as Iosephus himself writes he sawe in Syria Moses at his death deliuered to the Hebrewes the booke of the lawe and he commaunded them to lay vp those lawes in the Arke within the Tabernacle where it was lawfull for none to come to them but the high Priest which continued from Moses time vntill Ierusalem was destroyed by Nabuchodonozer at what time Ieremie tooke the Tabernacle the Arke and the Aultar of Incense and brought them to Mount Nebo where Moses dyed where he found a hollow caue wherein he layed the Tabernacle the Arke the Aultar of Incense and so closed and stopped the caue Among the Egiptians their lawes were so reuerenced and honoured that none but onely the Priests of Memphis had the keeping thereof in the Temple of Vulcan The Lacedemonians in like sort so reuerenced and kept their lawes that their kings and the magistrates called Ephori came once a moneth to the Temple which they dedicated to the goddesse Feare and there in the porch of the temple the Senators of Lacedemonia which were 28. in number did minister an oath both to the King and the Ephori before the people to serue keep Licurgus lawes in the which Temple their lawes were lockt vp and kept with great care The Romaines made so much of the lawes of their Sybils that they were so kept and so strongly lockt with such care and diligence in a stony Arke in the Capitoll vnder the ground where none might come to them see nor read them but the officers called Duumuiri who had the charge ouer them neither they vntill the Consuls and the Senate had occasions to conferre with the lawes which continued from Torquinius Priscus time vntill Lu. Syllas time at what time the Capitoll was burnt and withall the lawes of the Sybils and if any of these officers would reueale any secrets out of the lawes of the Sybils hee was punished like a murtherer sowed aliue in a sheete and throwne into Tiber. So the Athenians very carefull of their lawes written first by Draco and after by Solon in Tables of wood called Syrbes that they were set vp to bee kept in theyr chiefe court place which the Athenians named Prytanion where Magistrates should sit and iudge causes of lawes The lawe of the Turkes is that the Priests after some ceremonies done should haue a sword and a speare which is set by him in the Pulpit and to shewe the same to the people saying see that you haue these weapons in a readinesse to defend the lawes and religion of Mahomet the penaltie of the Turkes lawe is that if any man speake against their law his tongue should be cut out in so much that the booke called Muzaph wherein their lawe is written is so reuerenced and honoured among the Turkes that no man may touch it with bare hands Thus were lawes in all countries reuerenced and with great care and diligence obserued After lawes decrees and statutes were made in euery Countrey with such circumstances as agreed with the time with the place and with the people for without law no Common-wealth nor Kingdome can be gouerned as Aristotle saith In legibus salus ciuitatis si ta est Iudges were appointed to execute the same in all countries and magistrates in euery citie as among the Hebrewes the Elders called Synadrion Iudges and yet in euery citie of Iudah was a seuerall Iudge Among the Egiptians they had 30. Iudges which they elected from Eliopolis Memphis Thaebes Alexandria and other citties of Egipt of the which 30. they elected one to be chiefe Among the Aethiopians the sage Philosophers the Gymnosophists executed theyr lawes among the Indians likewise the Brachmaines called also Sacerdotes solis Among the Grecians the generall Iudges called Amphictions which sate twise in the yeare once at Trozaena in the spring time and in the Autumne in the Temple of Neptune in Isthmos In many countries women for their wisedome and knowledge were admitted to sit in counsell as among the Persians with King Xerxes who in any great cause of counsell would sende for Artemisia Queene of Caria whose counsell he found so wise that chiefly among all the Princes of Persia in many causes he allowed and followed her counsell So the Queenes in Egipt altogether ruled and gouerned the whole estate of the kingdome to whom greater honour and homage was giuen rather then to the kings of Egipt for that the whole state of their kingdome was rather gouerned by the Queenes then by the Kings Women among the Lacedemonians were not only admitted in publike counsell to sit and determine in courts but also sent for to cōsult in secret matters of state with the Senators The old Gaules in the time of Haniball in any contention betweene them and the Carthagineans if the breach of the lawes or any league broken were committed by the Gaules the women should determine a satisfaction to the Carthagineans if any offence grew by the Carthagineans the Senators of Carthage should satisfie the Gaules It is as well saith Aristotle if men gouerne like women that women should gouerne Quid inter est vtrùm faeminae an qui gubernant gubernentur à faeminis The Romaines though they had a lawe that no woman nor young man should bee admitted to counsell yet suffered they such graue and wise women as Agrippina Meza Cornelia and others to sit in some secrete place where they might see and not bee seene Solon therfore forbad by law that young men should neither giue counsell nor be magistrates in a common-wealth So Plato saith Concilium eius est qui rei cunisque peritus est Yet Deberah and Hebrew woman was a Iudge in Israel gouerned and ruled the Hebrews for fortie yeares To this woman came all the children of Israel for iudgement and she gouerned them wisely and discreetly ministred vnto them in all points the lawes of Moses and deliuered them out of the hand of Iabin King of Canaan who had sore oppressed Israel for the space of twentie yeares But among the Athenians it was not lawfull that women should sit and determine in matters of state in Athens as the women in Sparta did or as the women of Persia. The Athenians sent to Delphos to know what lawe and religion were best to bee obserued among the people It was answered the auntient lawes and religion of their Elders The second time they sent againe saying that the lawes of the Elders were often chaunged It was by the Oracle answered that they should take the best lawes of diuers
of 20. of the best learned Ciuilians with the aduise and consent of 50. of the grauest and wifest councellors that were within his Empire to examine whether the lawes were iust profitable for the people before they should be published but being once published as a lawe extreame punishment was appointed for the breach thereof as is before spoken without any appeale frō the lawe without some great extraordinary cause of appeale As among the Hebrewes in any citie of Iudah that if they could not rightly iudge nor discerne throughly the cause according to iustice by the Magistrates of the citie they might appeale to the Iudges named Sinadrion in Ierusalem from whence no appeale could be had So among the Grecians they might appeale from the Areopagites in Athens from the Ephories in Sparta and all other cities of Greece to the Amphictions at Trozaena which were appointed general Iudges for the vniuersall state of Greece in martiall and military causes and there to sit and determine twise a yeare of the whole state of Greece and further to heare and to iudge of some other great causes and capitall crimes from whose sentence no other appeale was to be had for out of euery citie in Greece in the Spring and in the Autumne to the Amphictions at Trozaena they sent Embassadors whom the Greekes called Pytagorae So among the Romanes a lawfull appeale might be had from the Consuls to the Senators from the Senators to the Tribune of the people and from the people to the Dictator which continued vntill the time of the Iudges called Centum viri for Sententia Dictatoris iudicia centum viralia were both lawes of life and death from whose iudgement and sentences there were no greater Iudges to appeale vnto of the like authoritie were the Decem viri from whom also there was no appeale during their gouernment So in diuine causes we may appeale to mount Sion from Mount Sinai from the lawe to the Gospell from Moses to Christ our perpetuall Dictator from whom we haue no place to appeale vnto for our eternall saluation In the fift Regiment is declared the choice of wise Gouernours to gouerne the people and to execute the lawes among all Nations and also the education and obedience of theyr children to their Parents and Magistrates ALl Nations made their choise of the wisest and chiefest men to rule and gouerne their countrey imitating Moses who was by the Lord commanded to choose seuentie wise graue men to be Iudges among the Israelites called Synadrion which continued from Moses time who first appointed these Magistrates vntill Herods time who last destroyed them for in euery citie of Iudah seuen Magistrates were appointed to gouerne and to iudge according to the law of Moses and for their further instructions in the lawe they had of the Tribes of the Leuites two in euery citie to instruct and assist the Magistrates in all actions according to the lawe The Egiptians being next neighbours to the Hebrewes though they mortally hated the Hebrewes yet theyr gouernment of Dinastia vnder thirtie Gouernours elected and chosen out of Eliopolis Memphis Pellusium Thaebes and other chiefe cities of Egipt seemed to imitate Moyses lawe vnder Aristocratia So Solon appointed in Athens certaine wise men called Areopagitae as Iudges to determine of life and death and of other criminall causes Among the old Gaules the Druydes sage and wise religious men had authoritie both in warre and peace to make lawes and to determine of the state of theyr countrey The lawes of all Nations against disobedient children to theyr parents are manifest not onely the lawe of nature among all Nations vnwritten but also the diuine lawe of the Lorde written commaundes children to bee obedient to theyr parents as the lawe sayeth Whosoeuer curseth his father or mother shall dye and his bloud bee on his owne head for that hee curseth his father or mother If a man hath a sonne that is stubborne or disobedient let his parentes bring him vnto the Elders of the Cittie and there accuse him of his faultes saying my sonne is a Ryotour a Drunkarde and disobedient vnto his parentes the lawe is that all the men of that Cittie shall stone him with stones to death This commaundement was esteemed among all Nations euen among wicked men as Esau beeing a reprobate so the Lorde saide Esau haue I hated and Iacob haue I loued yet Esau hating his brother Iacob in heart saying that the dayes of his fathers sorrowes were at hande for I will kill my brother and most like it is that he would haue done so had not the Lorde which appeared to Laban the Syrian in a dreame by night for that hee followed Iacob from Mesopotamia said to Laban Take heed to thy selfe that thou doo or speake to Iacob nothing but good as the Lorde kept Iacob from Laban so he kept him from his brother Esau. Notwithstanding Esau came to his father and said hast thou any blessing for me see that obedience and feare was in Esau towards his father Isaac though hee was a wicked man he determined not to kill his brother before his father died least Isaac his father should curse him The sonnes of Samuel the Prophet Ioel and Abiath which were made Iudges in Bersabe by rheyr father Samuel beeing olde they turned from theyr fathers wayes tooke rewards and peruerted the right the people complained to Samuel that his sonnes followed not his steppes and therefore they would haue a King to gouerne them as other nations had See the ende of Iudges in Israel by the wicked Iudges Ioel and Abiath two wicked sonnes of a good and godly father and the cause of the ouerthrowe of the Iudges in Israel The two sonnes of Eli their offences were such that their father being an olde man was rebuked of the Lord for suffering their vnthriftinesse and wickednesse which was the cause that the Priesthood was taken from the house of Eli for euer so that the gouernment of Iudges in Iudah and also of the Priesthood were taken away by the corruption and disobedience of wicked and vngodly children Obserue likewise the end of kings and kingdomes by wicked kings by Ahaz who offered his sonnes in fire to Moloch by Ioachim and his sonne wicked fathers which brought vp wicked sonnes The kings which were 21. in number continued fiue hundred and odde yeares Who would haue iudged that three such good Kings of Iudah should haue three such wicked children As Dauid had Absolon who sought most trecherously to dispossesse his father of his kingdome As Ezechias had Manasses who offered his sonne in fire to Moloch and filled Ierusalem with bloud Or as Iosias had Ioachim whose wickednesse together with Zedechiah was so disobedient to the Lord and his Prophets that he lost the kingdome of Iudah Who would haue iudged that Salomon the onely wise king of the world hauing
fellowe and companion of Senators to whom he was scarce worthie to be a seruant For the wise prudent Emperors of Rome were wont to haue learned graue men with thē as well in warres in their camp as also for counsell at home For Augustus would not allow in Rome that libertie which the Indian Philosophers allowed to the Indians for they thought it fond and foolish sith the lawes were equall to all but that euery man should be equally gouerned by the law sith the lawe made all men free that there should be no seruants in that part of India Farre from the Athenians who made so much of their freedome for Pericles lawe was that none might be free in Athens vnlesse they were borne and their parents before them in the citie of Athens And it was the lawe of Solon that no stranger borne should haue Ius ciuitatis vnlesse hee with his house and houshold goods were for euer banished out of his country or had comen to Athens alicuius artis causa But among the Lacedemonians the maner was that they that should be made free should be crowned with greene branches made of boughes of trees and should goe round about the Temples of that citie where they were made free The ceremonies and manners of making free men among the auncient Romanes was that the seruants or bondmen should come with their heads shaued before the Romane Praetor and there the Serieant at the commaundement of the Praetor should strike them on the head three times with a little rodde or wande called Virgula vindictae and they that were so made free were called Manumissi vindicta But if they were souldiers taken by the enemie and had lost the libertie of their freedome if afterwards they returned to Rome they should againe receiue their freedome Iure Postliminij But both those which were made free Cum virga vindictae the rod of reuenge and they which were taken by the enemies should goe vnto the Temple of Feronea and there they should receiue Libertorum munia After that the Romaines became Lords of Italy they graunted Ius latij vnto the Italians which was the lawe then vsed within the citie of Rome and after they had conquered the most part of Asia and Affrike both Affrike and Asia had Ius latinitatis which was the auntient law among the old Italians to be ruled gouerned by for the Romans would haue their Romaine lawes and Romaine magistrates to gouern those prouinces which they got with the sword Among the Romains during the time of their kings they had no law but the sentence and iudgement of the king in any great cause and this lawe was called Lex curiata by Romulus and by the rest of his successors continued during the time of kings this lawe was without the consent of the people but with the counsell consent of the king and of the Senators and for that Papirianus a learned Romane gathered these lawes together and recorded them into one volume they were called Ius Papirianum But when the name of Kings was banished out of Rome and Consuls created to be chiefe gouernours in Rome then the lawe was betweene the Consuls and the Senators called Senatus Consultus then came in the authoritie of the people and no lawe was allowed and ratified but by consent of the people but when the people had voices to make lawes so many lawes were made in Rome as one lawe confounded an other against Platoes rule who euer preferred fewe lawes before many lawes for said Plato Corruptissima Respub vbi plurimae leges That lawe which was made by the Senators and Consuls in Rome was not accepted vnlesse it were allowed by the people for whatsoeuer the Consuls and Senators had determined the people should be Iudge thereof So Plyni with Plato saide that multiude of lawes were hurtfull Videat princeps nè ciuitas legibus fundata legibus euertatur So it was among the Lacedemonians by Licurgus law that the people had authoritie and power to iudge of that which the Kings and Senators did determine Of these thus saith Homer Popliuorus princeps populoiudice cuipecuniam eripere idem quod vitam There was a lawe decreed in Aegina that hee that went about to inuent and bring in new lawes by abrogating the former should die for it for oftentimes Specie aliqua legum leges euertunt It is not so among the Achaians as it was among the Romaines and the Grecians for in Achaia there was no other lawe but what Aratus set downe and in Syracusa no other lawe but what Timoleon said Yet the Senators of Rome might without the consent of the people call a Senate and make election of Senators they might also gouerne and rule the Romane prouinces abroad they might dispense and distribute the money of the cōmon treasurie but for making of lawes creating of magistrates to make warres or to conclude peace the Senators had no authoritie to do it without the consent of the people So that in time lawes were rather authorized in Rome by force weapons in the market place then in the Senate house by the Senators for Populus Comitiorom Princeps bare sway euer in Rome So Pompey by force of armes authorized Caesars law to please the people with diuision of lands and distribution of corne though Cato spake bitterly against it yet could hee not bee heard but was by Caesar beeing then Consul commanded to prison They pleaded Ius in armis as Pompey and Lysander said Non cessabitis nobis gladio accinctis leges praedicare Lex agraria was the most dangerous lawe among the Romaines for that the Tribune of the people sought euer to please the people by lands by corne or by any meanes to become strong by the people which had the chiefest voyce in Rome that the Tribune would often cōtroll the Consuls resist the Senators as Tiberius and Cai. Gracchus Marius and Fuluius with others preferred alwaies this lawe to please the people but Gracchus and Fuluius lost their heads for it were carried vpon a pole to Opimius the Consul who was then commaunded by the Senators to resist the Tribunes and people-pleasers for at that commaundement were slaine three thousand at Rome whose bodies were throwne into Tiber. No Common-wealth can bee without armes no armes without stipend no stipend without tribute and therefore saith Plato Quemque opes suas in censum deferre ad multa vtillia Neither were the magistrates called Ephori opposed against the kings in Sparta without cause by Theopompus neither were they remoued afterwards without cause by king Cleomenes Plena enim periculi aula Neither were the Tribunes of the people in Rome without cause appointed to resist the Consuls and Senators though sometimes they were reiected and suppressed sometimes slaine for so was the old law of the twelue tables Salus populi suprema lex esto The