by whose Council and Advice the Kings used in the making Laws are the Witan Wites From Wita which Womner renders Optimas Princeps Sapiens a Nobleman Prince or Wiseman from witan to know and understand So in the Laws of King Ina we read Gethungenes Witan a famous noble or renowned Wite from Gethungen So in the version of Bede by King Alfred Witum is rendred Counsellors so by Sapientes when we meet with it in any Authors that render Witan by it we are to understand not only Judges but sometimes Dukes Earls Prapositi Provosts Thegns the King's Officers or Ministers So in the Charter (i) Histor Privileg Eccl. Eliensis fol. 117. b. of King Edgar to the Church of Ely Anno 970. Alferre Egelwinc and Brithnoth are called Dukes and Hringulph Thurferth and Alfric are called Ministri The first of which in another Charter is called Alderman and the other by the name of Sapientes Upon perusal and collating several Transcripts of Deeds and Councils I am of opinion that where Wites or Sapientes are used for Princes Noblemen and great Personages those are to be understood that were called to the Kings Council had command over Countries as Lord Lieutenants or were Members of the great Councils So that they were of the most wise and knowing of the great Princes Dukes Earls and Barons and where it doth not seem to import such great Men of Birth then it signifies Judges Which as to the first seems to be clear by what is said in the Auctuary (k) Lamb. fol. 147. tit de Heretochiis Qui Heretoches â—pud Angloâ—voâ—abantur se Barones Nobiles insignes sapientes vocati ductores excercituum c. to the 35 Law of Edward the Confessor where it is said There were other Powers and Dignities appointed through the Provinces and all the Countries and several Shires which are called by the English Heretoches in King Ina's Laws Here Thegne i. e. Noble Ministers or Officers and when he reckons up those who were to be understood by this name Heretoges he calls them Barons Nobles and famous Wisemen called Generals or great Officers in the Army and as to the latter Signification Doctor Brady hath sufficiently cleared it in Adelnoth's Plea against the Monks of Malmsbury where it is said that in the Presence of the King subtili disceptatione a Sapientibus suis i. e. Regis audita where by Sapientes must be understood the King's Judges Alderman Alderman or Ealderman was both a general Name (l) Spelman 's Glossary given to Princes Dukes Governours of Provinces Presidents Senators and even to Vice-Roys as also to particular Officers hence Aldermannus totius Angliae like my Lord Chief-Justice Aldermannus Regis Comitatus Civitatis Burgi Castelli Hundredi c. of whose Offices it is not easy particularly to define This being so copiously discoursed of by Sir Henry Spelman I shall refer the Reader to him The word Thane or Thegen was used by the Saxons in their Books variously sometimes it signified a stout Man Thane Soldier or Knight other times Thanus (m) Cyninges Thegen Med mera Thegen Woruld Thegen Maesse Thegen Somner Dial. Regius signified the Kings great Officer a Nobleman or Peer of the Realm other times a Thane or Nobleman of lower degree sometimes we meet with secular or Lay Thanes other times Spiritual Thanes or Priests Some Thanes were as the King's Bailiffs Praefects Reeves of which Doctor Brady gives account in his Argum. Antinorm Page 283. In several of the Councils we find no particular orders denominated but only a division of the whole into the Clergy Clergy and Laity and Laity So in the Council that Sir H. Spelman (n) Spelm. 1. Tom. Concil tells us Ethelbert King of Kent held 685. with Bertha his Queen and Eadbald his Son and the Reverend Bishop Austine Communi concilio tam Cleri quam Populi and the rest of the Optimates Terrae at Christmass having called a Common-Council of the Clergy and People by which it is apparent that both the Clergy o and Laity there understood are comprehended under the name Optimates Terrae the Nobility of Land So in King Ina's Laws as I shall hereafter particularize the command is given to Godes Theowas Gods Servant and eales folces all People So King Edmund held a great Council at Easter in London of Gods (p) Egther ge godcundra hada ge woruld cundra Order and the Secular Order or Worlds Order which Brompton (q) Mandavit omnibus Majoribus Regnorum veniunt Wintoniam Clerus Populus renders Laici in another part of King Edward's Laws So the Majores Regnorum of King Edgar are commanded to come and then it is said There came to Winchester the Clergy and People those were the Majores Regnorum The like was frequently used after the Conquest so at the Coronation of Henry the First Matthew Paris speaks of the gathering of the Clergy and all the People and then saith Clero Angliae Populo universo The Clergy answering him and all the Magnates and in another place Clero Populo favente the Clergy and People favouring Further we find in a great Council held by the King Anno 1102. 2 H. 2. (r) Omnes Principes Regni sui Ecclesiastici secularis ordinis Flo. Wigor fol. 651. lin 21. all the chief Men of his Kingdom of the Ecclesiastic and secular Order So that Plebs Populus Vulgus Incola where by way of Antithesis or contra-Opposition they are used do signify the Clergy and Laity or Lay-Princes not the common People After the Conquest we meet with the Word Regnum sometimes and other times Regnum Sacerdotium As to the first the Sence is to be understood best in the Quadripartite History (s) Quadrilog lib. 1. c. 26. of the Life of Thomas Becket where it is said the King called to Clarendon Regnum universum all the Kingdom and then saith To whom came the dignified Clergy and the Nobles which Matt. Paris puts out of all doubt by the enumeration that he makes of all that appertained to the Kingdom to be the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbats and Priors Installed and the Earls and Barons So the meaning is best understood of the words in the last Chapter of Magna Charta that the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbats Priors Earls Barons Knights and free Tenents and all of the Kingdom gave a fifteenth part of their Moveables and in other places after the Barons it is said Omnes alii de Regno nostro qui de nobis tenent in Capite concerning which the most Learned Doctor Brady hath given plentiful Proofs Magnates Proceres By the words Magnates Proceres frequently found in the Councils after the Conquest are to be understood the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbats and Priors for the Clergy and the Earls and Barons for the Laity only unless afterwards that Dukes were included However they were used always to contra-distinguish
better Condition though Gentiles than the Christians under the Romans or that it is derived from Gens I am more inclined to be of the latter Opinion finding it more agreeable to the common Use For Cicero (b) In Topicis calls those Gentiles qui ex eadem Gente Ingenui qui nunquam Capite sunt diminuti Gens consisting of a multitude which have sprung from one Generation and of many of these Gentes consists a Nation to which agrees that of (c) Gentilis dicitur ex eodem genere ortus is qui simili nomine appellatur Festus ad Verbum Festus that Gentilis is one born of the same Gens or Kindred and who is called by the like Name So we find the Horatii the Corvine Julian Flavian Family c. So the Greeks use the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one nobly descended from great Parentage So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was Nobility which (d) Polit. lib. 4. c. 8. lib. 5. c. 1. Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antient Wealth and Vertue or the (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rhetor. ad Theod lib 2. c. 5. Dignity of the Ancestor The first Authors of it being stiled famous Men and Honourable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the largest acceptation of the Word as it is now used saith the judicious (f) Tiles of Honour p. 852. Selden it denotes one that either from the Blood of his Ancestors or the Favour of his Sovereign or of them that have Power from the Sovereign or from his own Vertue Employment or otherwise according to the Laws and Customs of Honour in the Country he lives in is ennobled made Gentile or so raised to an eminency above the Multitude perpetually inherent in his Person These are stiled the Nobiles minores for distinction sake The use of the word Nobilis the word Nobiles being now appropriated to those of the higher Rank The ancient use of Nobilis especially before the Roman Monarchy was such that it was justly given to none but him that had Jus imaginum or some Ancestor at least that had born some of the great Offices or their Magistratus Curules as (g) 〈…〉 1. cap. 19. Censorship Consulship c. From whose Image kept he had the Jus Imaginum Therefore the preceding Ancestor was called novus Homo or Ignobilis Some Ages after the Romans were under a Monarchy the Title of Nobilis was given to such as by the Emperors Patents of Offices or their Codicilli Honorarii were first raised out of the lowest Rank After that Arms of Ensigns of Distinction born upon Shields grew to be in may Families Hereditary which was about four hundred Years since as Sir Edward Bish in his Aspilogia avoucheth it came into frequent use that he who was either formerly ennobled by Blood or newly by acquisition either assumed or had by Grant from his Sovereign or those deputed by him some special note of Distinction by Arms also to be transmitted with his Gentry to his Posterity Yet (h) 〈◊〉 Mr. Selden notes that in the Proceedings in the Court of Chevalry betwixt Reginald Lord Grey of Ruthin Plaintiff and Sir Edward Hastings Defendant concerning the bearing of a Manch Gules in a◠Field Or in the depositions taken in the Moote Hall at Bedford it is recorded that John Botiler of the County of Bedford and Roger Tenstal Mayor of Bedford having been the Plaintiffs Servants severally deposed Il est Gentilhom d' Auncestrie mas nad point d' Armes Gentlemen without coats of Arms. That he was a Gentlemen of antient time but had no Arms. But I shall pass from this That which I desire the Gentry to observe is Advice to the Gentry That they are the Seminary of our greater Nobility and that from Loyal Wise Learned Valiant and Fortunate Persons of their Order in all Princes Reigns the Nobility have sprung Therefore as some of them are derived from as numerous Ancestors as any in other Kingdoms and have by Hereditary Succession greater Estates than many foreign Counts and as they desire either to conserve the Repute their Ancestors have honourably entailed on them or to transmit them to their Posterities so it will be their Interest and Glory to accomplish themselves in all sorts of useful Learning whereby they may be Serviceable to their King and Country There are Bodily Exercises they should be well skilled in as Fencing Riding the great Horse and all Military Exercises to enable them to serve in the Militia of the Nation and their diligent perusing all sorts of History and the Laws of the Land will fit them for the managing of Civil affairs and dispensing the Kings Laws as Justices of Peace Sheriffs Commissioners Representatives in Parliament as also for the greater Offices of State Since they are born to large Patrimonies and thereby have a more generous Education and derive a more refined Spirit from their Ancestors they can with infinite more Ease enter into publick Employment having none of those sinking (i) Hand facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res angust a domi weights of Poverty and mean Education which enforce others to use extream Diligence e're they can mount the first half Pace the Gentleman is seated on by that time he leaves his tutors It is true the Priviledges of the Gentry of England properly so called are not so great as in some Countries where they have power of Life and Death over their Servants or are exempted from Taxes and enjoy other Immunities which are denied to the Commons yet they have others as beneficial in that they make up a great share of the Ministerial parts of the Government It is required by God and their Prince that they should so deport themselves as they may be singular (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio lib. 2. Examples to their Tenants and Neighbours of Wisdom Temperance Justice Loyalty and all the System of Vertues and by a generous Hospitality without Debauchery preserve their Interest in the affection of their Neighbors and that the Poor may daily and zealously pray for them being made the Voiders and receiving the Sportula of their plentiful Tables By this way of living they will sow among their Neighbours the Seeds of all useful Vertues and enrich their Countries and be able in time of need to serve their Prince with their numerous Dependants It is for the use of the blooming Gentlemen I write this The more sage and ancient need only such Intimations to refresh their Memories I have made Observations how fatal it hath been to themselves and the whole Kingdom when the Gentry have been seduced to sleight at first and after as they have been wrought upon by Designers to over-awe or overturn the Government and either by Piques among themselves or Aemulations Envies and Discontents have been brought into the Combinations and Conspiracies with those who under the specious Pretences
scarce one particular Branch of the Constitution of the Monarchy the black Parliament did not alter I have been obliged under all those Heads to examine their Principles detect their Frauds sinister designs and the mischievous Consequences of those alterations or subversions they made and have treated so much the largelier of those Pests of all Governments Faction Sedition and Rebellion as I conceived the quiet repose and tranquillity of the Government required it Yet I flatter my self that all concerned therein will take my advice reasoning and collections in good part Since I have no other design but to prevent their Personal Rain and the Calamities that have been so wastingly brought upon these Kingdoms by them and may be brought again if ever the like should be attempted For the effectual prevention of which I am in hopes that the right understanding the Constitution of the Government will be an useful Antidote and would wish all Male-contents to consider what the consulting of History and their own Experience may teach them that however the English Monarchy for a time by Faction Sedition or Rebellion may be weakned or Eclipsed yet the just Monarohy like the Sun ever dissipates all the Mists hazy Weather and Clouds and will at last though sometimes not without Thunder and Lightning clear the Air and shine with more Powerfullness and Splendor than before The rude shocks of popular Disturbance do but more securely establish the Throne It being the Prudence of every Governour to make more defensible that part of the Fortress which by any Assault hath been found most weak and untenable As I have endeavoured on the one hand to keep the Subjects in their Duty and by all Dehortments reclaim them from Sedition and Rebellion and have laid open the ancient State of the Government and the absoluteness of our Princes for some Ages after the Conquest nevertheless I would not be understood to intend the reducing the Subject to their Pristine Bondage This is far from my Thoughts What I have done in this kind is not only because the subject matter required the describing the ancient Model of the Government and that of late the Power of our Monarchs hath been endeavoured to be too much restrained but principally upon three Accounts First to discover the gradual Relaxations of the absoluteness of our Princes for the greater case of the Subjects Secondly to let all know that our Liberties Priviledges and Immunities have proceeded from the Grants Benevolences and Gracious Condescensions of our Kings Thirdly to induce the Subjects with due thankfullness to acknowledg the bountiful Favour of our Soveraigns and the Wisdom of our Ancestors in solliciting for and obtaining such Liberties as we enjoy beyond the degree of any Subjects either to Crowned Heads or Republicks There being such Barriers set in England betwixt the Soveraign and his Subjects as neither can remove without fatal Inconvenience For as the Princes greatest Ease Prosperity and Glory is when he Reigns not so much over the bodies as in the hearts of his Subjects and rules by the Laws So the Peoples Profit Plenty and Tranquillity is the most certain and established when they are content with the Enfranchisements the Laws allow and endeavour not to invade the Prerogatives of the Crown as the Houses of Parliament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. Hist p. 452. C. convened 1641. did by their dethroning Propositions and Bills which if they had been granted would not only have unsoveraigned the King but rendred the condition of the Subject more miserable and enslaved than it had been for many centuries of years by-past I have endeavoured in the whole work to discover how much the English Monarchy excells other ancient and modern Governments and even the Utopia and Fictitious Ideas of the Philosophers The judicious Polybius hath a memorable observation That every Monarchy is not to be called a Kingdom but that only which is yielded to by the willing that is which is freely submitted to to distinguish it from Tyranny and which is governed by Counsel rather than by fear or force Also that every Government of few is not to be called the Principality of the Optimacy but that wherein the just and Prudent by Election have the Power That he saith further is not to be called the Empire of the People where every multitude hath Power of doing what they will or purpose but where the Countries Customes flourish where the Gods are worshipped Parents honoured the Elder Persons reverenced and the Laws obeyed All which I hope I have made apparent are better provided for in our Hereditary Monarchy than in any other known Government especially as to the Peoples benefit in the rare Constitution of the Legislative and yet the Soveraign hath retained sufficient Power to secure the Peace of his Countries and be able to bear the Port of a great and just Monarch In this Treatise I meddle not with the Arcana Imperii they have too much of Majesty impressed upon them to be described by such Pencils as I can use and like the Kings Coin are incircled with a Decus Tutamen may neither be clipped nor adulterated Neither have I medled with the Religious part of the Government that not being my Province I write abstractedly of the Soveraign and the Constitution without regard to the Religion of the Prince as being well satisfied that whatever Qualifications the Subjects may wish for in their Prince yet Religion qua Religion should neither influence the Succession nor their Obedience In so great an undertaking I hope it will be considered that as in a great Building all the Rooms are not alike richly furnished There are some Vtensils fit for the Kitchin which are not for the Dining Room Some Pictures suit the Hall others the Stair-case Such as are for Chimney-pieces are not agreeable to the Great Chamber The choicest are fit for the withdrawing Room and the enriched Closets So in this work I am obliged to keep a decorum In some places I have reason to use a more close and contracted in others a more free and loose way of Arguing Sometimes I am forced to use the significant though obsolete Saxon or the crabbed Terms of Law and Arts and intermix the less refined Sentences of old Authors according as the subject matter required so that I could no waies use that politeness of phrase or roundness of Period◠the curious may expect I presume not that every one will be equally delighted with the researches I have made into the usages of remote Ages or with the Censures upon some mens later Actions But most I hope will find good use of either and when they consider I have endeavored to follow great Authors and have faithfully quoted them they will more readily acquit me Therefore I beg that the Ingenious Peruser will not pass his Censure upon parcels but after he hath perused the whole will be so charitable to believe that those Parts which are less acceptable to him
which are all the ways whereby any right can be legally established Therefore we must look upon all such as cast in such Baits for the People to nibble at that they intend to make a prey of them and having fastned the gilded Hook in their Jaws may draw them out of their own Element to a free air indeed but such as will stifle them For when any Subjects by the instigation of such pretended Patriots are excited to put in their claim of Original Power and shake the Government though their Rebellion be prosperous it is not without vast effusion of Blood that the Government can be changed After which how will it be possible that the Community of the People can be put into that pristin state of freedom those State-Mountebanks promise but rather into an Anarchy which is contrary to the end of all Society and to quiet and peace and is the Parent of all confusion which is much worse than the hardest subjection This truth by a most chargeable tryal we experimented in the late War when the Pretended Saviours of the Nation and great Promoters of Spiritual and Temporal Liberty having wheedled the People into a belief of their honest Intentions and by their prosperous Arms overthrown the most temperate Monarchy by the effusion of infinite Blood and Treasure by pretended agreements of the People they assumed the Government to themselves enslaving both the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty more than any Foreign Conqueror would do or ever their Ancestors had been in any Age and the Golden Scepter and that of King Edward with the Dove was turned into a Rod of Iron and a Flaming Sword Basilisks and Fiery Serpents CHAP. IV. The Benefit of Government from the Establishing and Instituting of Laws THe (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rhetor. ad Alex. c. 1. Philosopher describes Law to be the Promulgation of what by the common consent of the City is defined which commands upon Terms how every thing is to be done Which is to be understood after Government is established where the Lawgivers are agreed upon and the Subjects known that are to obey them In another place the same (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic. Nicom c. 5. Philosopher saith Laws are to be declared concerning all things that may respect the common Benefit of all or of the Optimacy viz. the Nobility or Prime Gentry or the Sovereign or be agreeable to Vertue or to any other Necessity of the People and these he calls Common Laws The same (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Repab l. 2. c. 6. Learned and Wise Composer of Politicks tells us That the Law hath no force to compel Obedience but as it receives it from Usage and Custom and this springs not from any thing so much as from length of Time and multitude of Years Of these kind of Laws few Nations make such use as we do in England under the Title of Common Laws and Customs and it is no small Credit to them that so Judicious and Ancient a Writer hath given such a Character of these kind of Laws by which we have something more than a shadow of ours The same (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. Philosopher likewise with great Judgment tells us That to forego Laws received and long used and over-easily to substitute new ones is to make weak and infirm the Laws themselves Yet he is not for tying Posterity to the Laws of their Progenitors too strictly for that it is likely saith he the first Ancestors of them being such as he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sons of the Earth or such as escaped from some great Calamities and Destructions were rude and illiterate such as he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it would be (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. absurd to persist in their Decrees therefore he saith All seek not their (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. Countrys Laws but those onely that are good as generally such are which have had the Approbation of Ages By what hath been noted from so Ancient and Judicious an Author I may easily infer That Laws resulted from Government and were the necessary Products of such Counsels as the first Leaders or Monarchs entertained to order their People by and since he (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. makes the Laws of such like validity and force in the Commonwealth as the Rules and Orders of Parents in private Families we may well conclude That as those had their Origination from the Will of the Father of the Family so the other from the Prince who is his Peoples Common Parent Therefore in Homer Kings are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Givers of Laws or Judges of the People as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pastors or Feeders Conductors Defenders or Shepherds of the People So in Sacred Writ the first Hebrew Captains or Kings were called Judges Therefore Pomponius Laetus saith In the ancientest Times before Laws were agreed upon the King's Will was a Law And (i) Regis nutus Arbitrium pro Legibus lib. 10. Dionysius is express That the intimation of their Mind by Signs and their absolute Wills were in stead of Laws (k) Romulus ad libitum imperitaverat dein Numa Religionibus Divino Jure Populum devinxit Sed praecipuus Servius Tullius sanctor Legum fuit quis etiam Râ—g â—s obtemperarent 3 Annal Tacitus giving an account of the Roman Laws saith of Romulus That he commanded at his own pleasure and after him Numa bound the People with Religion and Divine Laws Some were found under Tullus and Ancus but the principal Institutor of Laws was Servius Tullius to which even Kings should obey that is they thought themselves obliged to observe and keep the Laws they had appointed He then notes That after Tarquin was expell'd the People prepared many Laws for the defence of their Liberty and to strengthen their Concord against the Factions of the Fathers A late Judicious (l) Nalson Common Interest p. 14 15. Author saith That God and Nature investing Primogeniture with the Right of Kings and Magistrates they made Laws and this not being observed or wilfully disowned by some Popular Patrons who would possess the People that the Laws made Kings and Governours hath created the greatest Mischiefs by giving an Inlet to the Changes of Governors and Government For granting this most enormous Doctrine and dangerous Principle Laws being alterable for the Convenience of Prince or People by consequence the Right of the Sovereign if it be onely from the Laws must be precarious also The Opinion is in it self most absurd and unreasonable for there never could be Laws till there was some Form of Government to establish and enact such Laws and give them their energy and vigour For nothing can have the force or power of a Law or oblige men to Obedience unless it proceed from such Person or Persons as have a Right to command and Authority to punish the
bottomed upon the securing of one Faction against another he (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polit. l. 5. c. 6. reckons the keeping up of a standing Army in War and Peace which he saith was by reason of the distrust among themselves whereby they were obliged to commit themselves to the custody of Soldiers and the Commander being by that means impowered to be a Judge or Arbiter betwixt them made himself Lord of both as he instanceth in the time of the Government of the Family of the Alvidi at Larissa and at Samos and Abydus and in Timophanes at Corinth For this reason the Romans fearing Camillus banished him So Julius Caesar for ten years having the command in Gaul was able to master the Senate with more ease If we had never heard of any such thing in the World before yet we had the too late calamitous experience of it in our late Republican Government which was no longer able to subsist but while it had an Army maintained at the charge of the enslaved People to secure them yet they falling into Factions themselves their Army did so likewise and the Houses and Army at last came to have several Interests and to have competitions for Sovereignty which any wise man might have foreseen and at last the Army being divided the happy Restauration of the King was thereby much facilitated Having thus cleared That a Common-wealth cannot so well defend it self against a Foreign Enemy I hope the point That a Commonwealth Government is less conducible than Monarchy to prevent intestine Discords I shall now proceed to discourse how difficult it is in this Form also to defend their Subjects from Foreign Invasions especially without the constituting of Dictators or Generals with unsociable Power which is in effect a temporary Monarchy In all Wars nothing is more requisite than Unity of Councils and Secrecy in the conduct of Affairs which is most difficult to be obtained where many are at the Helm Besides among so many different judgments as there must be in such a Body before they can arrive at a Resolution favourable opportunities for Action are by protractions irrecoverably lost and the fear they have of impowering their General too much lest he should establish himself in the Sovereignty makes them limit and restrain him so as he cannot take advantages when offered and thereby Commanders are cautelous and wary not to offend so many Masters whereby time is lost in procuring new Instructions and sometimes for the reasons aforesaid more Generals than one are appointed that one may be a check to the other So (p) Lib 8. Herodotus observes That the difference of Generals when in equal command hath lost victories as at Isthmus by the dissention betwixt Themistocles and Euribias the Persians had almost mastered all So Thucydides notes that so long as Pericles by his own judgment and will governed the Affairs of Athens so long all things were prosperous but after by the Factions of evil-disposed persons he was opposed he sped as ill Besides in the numerous Masters in a Commonwealth the saving of every one 's own Stake will be the principle of their (q) Nalson's Common Interest c. 3. care and sedulity So that if a Foreign Power give them a defeat they will be easily induced to follow as they of late used to call it Providence in all Revolutions and if they can obtain any assurance of enjoying their private Laws or obtaining an higher pitch of greatness under another power they will not easily resist the temptation of betraying the Liberty of their Country and so quitting the leaking Vessel of the Commonwealth will either fairly tack about in their private Shalop and stand in with the next Shore of safety or by striking Sail come under the Lee of the Conqueror or strike into the assistance of him in hope to have a share of the Plunder Besides in the Multitude of Councellors if there happen any notable miscarriages of State there is safety to themselves In Miscarriages the Authors difficultly known It being difficult to fix it upon any one single person every one shrowding himself in the complex Act of the whole So that though they singly put in for the glory of prosperous Atchievements yet in unfortunate or unlucky Councils and Actions they skreen themselves under the majority of Votes which because they always may do it must necessarily make some more Supine and less Vigilant over the Publick It is in these muddy Pools of Commonwealths the devouring Otters may safelier lodg here the gliding slippery Eel finds Covert the Horseleeches abound the Water-rats lodg in their Banks and the Uliginous parts swarm with Frogs and Toads every one preying upon other Here the Cockatrice breeds and the fiery Basilisks as well as Lizards and Newts Africk is not more fruitful of Monsters than they of Harpyes This is the common Sewer that receives all the sludg and filth of People the hopes and expectation of Liberty alluring all As to the Peoples living freer from oppression in a Republic Great Injustice and Oppression in Commonwealths than under Monarchy it is evidently found the contrary as I shall make it appear in the Chapter of Monarchy And there is strong reason for it since in this form these Lords the States will be continually striving to enlarge not only their Power but their Riches and the more they increase in either the more must the common and middle ranked Men be oppressed and exhausted It hath been from the insolence oppressing and engrossing of Estates by the Governing Party that the Thâ—rians changed their (p) Polit. lib. 5. c. 6. Aristocracy to Democracy that the Messeniac War was occasioned that the Revolutions were at Lygdamus in the Isle of Nexos Maffilia Istria Heraclea and Enidus So the Philosopher says That the unjust Judgments or unusual Severities exercised by the revengeful temper of the Factions caused great Convulsions in the State as he particularly instanceth in Eurition at Heraclea and Archias at Thebes who both being justly condemned for Adultery yet because in an unusual way of Contumely they were tyed to Stakes in the Market place they out of revenge excited their Friends to assist them and overthrew the Oligarchy Besides when Men are thus established in Power few can have Redress for their private injuries and wrongs being that every complaint would but look like contempt of Authority because the Party oppressing being one of the Associates in Power Example in our late Republicans and joynt Rulers he would influence the residue to vindicate him Hence we saw in the late long Parliaments Members yea their Officers and common Soldiers that they were such Tyrants in their Residence and Quarters that none durst question their outrages lest they should be brought before Committees for Malignancy or Delinquency It being a characteristic note of a disaffected Person not to resign up ones self to an absolute slavery to
most uncompounded the Mother of all Governments and that a King is to be a God amongst Men and a King is a living Image of God saith the (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menander Poet. So the Grecian Orator saith God from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did send the Regal Power unto the Earth (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Stob. Serâ— 46. Diotogenes yet raiseth the Character higher according to the Sovereignties of his Age That the King having a Power uncontrollable and being himself a Living Law is the Figure or Adumbration of God among Men And in (f) Idem 121. another place Of all things which are most honourable the Best indeed is God but on Earth and amongst Men the King (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 37. So Agapetus observes That although the King in the Nature of his Body be of the same Mold with every other Man yet in respect of the Eminence of his Dignity he is like unto God over all whose Image he beareth and by him holdeth that Power which he hath over all Men. Hence it was that the Roman Emperors not to make Researches further in their (h) Augustin 's Numismata per totum Coins used some Emblems and Impressions proper to their Gods or their Religion inferring That they derived their Character from them So in the Coins of Julius Caesar we find the Image of Venus from whom he deduced his Extraction So we find the Goddess Victory the Image of Mars and the Caduceus often and Ensigns of the High Priest and not onely in his but in many other Emperors Coins the Thunderbolt to denote they had the same Power upon Earth that their Jupiter had in Heaven according to that of the Poet Jupiter in coelis Caesar regit omnia terris After that Julius Caesar was in Divos relatus we find a Star over his Head or himself sitting in the Habit of a God holding in his Hand a Cornucopia ascribed to the Genii and Hero's and in his Left-hand holding the Goddess Victory So in one of Augustus's Coins we find Victory sitting upon a Celestial Globe holding a Scarf in a Circular Figure in its Hand denoting Eternity In Otho's Coin Jupiter is placed in a Chair with a Spear in his Hand with the Circumscription Jovis Custos Jupiter Custos For it appears out of the Verses of Ennius and out of Hyginus and Apuleius that in the Nominative Case Jovis was used for Jupiter So in a Coin of Titus the Sella Jovis and Thunderbolt are to be found And Trajan holds a Thunderbolt and Spear and is Crowned by the Goddess Victory and in another Jupiter with his Thunderbolt in his Hand is shrowding Trajan under his Pallium according to which (i) Panâ—gy Pliny saith of him Te dedit qui erga omne hominum genus vice tua fungeris So in the same Trajan and Hadrian's Coins the Head of the Sun is figured with a radiated Crown as representing them of which Custom the Tabulae Heliacae may be consulted and although Chrysologus reprehends it as a proud affectation in the Persian Kings that with radiated Heads they place themselves in the figure of the Sun or are effeminate into that of the Moon or assume the form of Stars yet we may suppose such Impresses were to testify to the People from whence they derived their Origination or whose Tutelarship they were under For after Christianity obtained Constantine wore in his great Ensign called the Labarum the Figure of the Cross and the Letters which appeared to him in the Air with the Circumscription sub hoc signo vinces So (k) Octavius Strada de Imp. Rom. p. 294 338. Theophylact and Manuel Comnenius in their Medals have Christ figured putting a Garland upon their Heads Hence a grave (l) Principis potestas publiâ—t est in terris 〈…〉 Majest 〈…〉 Carisburiensis l. 4. c. 1. Author saith The Prince's Publick Power in Earth is a kind of Image of the Divine Majesty in the same sense with that of (m) Com in 13. Rom. St. Ambrose Princes for the correcting of Vice and prohibiting of Evil are erected of God having his Image that the People may be under One. We Christians have the Authority of Holy Scripture That by God Kings reign and that they are his Anointed So Daniel saith to Nebuchadnezzar The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom and to Cyrus God gave to Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom So (n) Cujus jussu homines nascuntur hujus jussa Reges conslimuntur Lib. 5. c. 24. Irenaeus affirms That by whose Command they are born Men by his Command likewise they are ordained Kings Agreeable to which is that of (o) Apolog. cap. 31. Inde est Imperator unde homo antequam Imperator inde porestas illi und spiritus Tertullian Thence is the Emperour whence he became Man before he was Emperour thence he hath his Authority from whence he hath his Breath A late (p) Absolute Power p. 46. Author scornfully confronts the Sentiments of so many Learned and Judicious Persons with that of Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all men are the Off-spring of the Deity Which if we allow in his sense then Pierce Plowman is of as good Divine Authority as any Crowned Heads Whereas St. Paul's Application makes it to be meant quite another way viz. of the Creation of Man by God Almighty But I shall pass to other Remarks The Philosopher makes Four kinds of Kingly Government Aristotle's Division of Kingly Government First That of Sparta where there were two Kings of two Royal Families the one a Check upon another And this was he saith (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polit. lib. 3. c. 14. a Generalship onely of an Army for they had not the Power of Life and Death but in Expeditions of War as he instanceth in Agamemnon whom Homer makes patiently to endure the Reproaches of the Great Men in the Assemblies For he affirms That in Times of Peace the Power of Life and Death was in the Senate and the Ephori So in the Roman Common-weal the Generals having the Style of Praetores and Imperatores when the Republic was changed by Julius Caesar he retained the Military Name of Imperator which the Grecians rendred King And thence it is that Ammianus saith That Valentinian was the first that changed the Roman Empire from a Principality to a Kingdom But to return from this Digression This Laconic Commonwealth had Hereditary Kings with a Power in War and Divine things limited by Law Of which the Curious may read Plutarc de Lycurgo and Xenophon de Republica Lacedaemoniae and (r) Pag. 384. Giphanii Comment in Arist Polit. The second kind of Kingly Government he calls that which was amongst the Barbarous for such the Grecians styled all Nations that were none of their Country and this he saith had a Power equal to the Tyrannical yet was legitimate 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and according to the Use of the Country for that the Barbarous Nations were more prone to Servitude than the Grecians and the Asiaticks endured with less trouble than the Europeans that Command which he calls Absolute as of Masters over Servants This he calls in reality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyrannical Government but Kingly also in that it is firm legitimate and according to the Use of the Country For that he (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polit. lib. 3. cap. 10. Hâ—insii saith Citizens or Subjects defend Kings but Guards of Strangers are employed by Tyrants Kings commanding lawfully over the willing and Tyrants over the unwilling and without Rules of Law The third kind he calls that which among the Grecians was styled the Aesmynetian And this he (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Optiva tyrannis i. suffragio 〈◊〉 saith was an Elective Tyranny either perpetual for Life or for a time And this because it was a Command over the Willing such Persons being elected he styles a Kingly Government and instanceth in the Mitylenians who chose Pittacus to be their King against Alcaeus and Antimenides who were banished Such (u) Halicarnassâ—us lib. 5. Dionysius makes the Roman Dictators Such the Cumaeni by an honester Name styled their Tyrants and such were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Athens Such a Kingdom Timolio held at Syracuse which he as well as Pittacus spontaneously resigned and did not convert into a Tyranny as Dionysius did or as Sylla and Julius Caesar did at Rome and Aratus at Sicyon according to the (w) Lib. 3. de Officiis Orator The last kind he calls (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. Polit. c. 10. Heinsii Heroic because it was used in the Heroick Ages and had three Characteristicks of true Kingly Government That it was a Power exercised over the Willing Fatherly and Legitimate For he saith the first Kings either for the Benefits they conferred on the Multitude by Invention of Arts Conduct in War or leading them out in Colonies or supplying them with Lands governing those who lonies or supplying them with Lands governing those who freely yielded to obey were in that esteem and had that Power and Authority which was requisite These had command in War and in things sacred where there were no Priests and did determine Causes and all these things some Kings administred without Oath others were sworn to the observation of them by the lifting up the Scepter and (y) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. concludes that in ancient times Kings had Rule and were Lords over all affairs of the City and those at home and abroad From whence and from what the Philosopher delivered in the beginning of this work and elsewhere (z) Commâ—nt in lib. 1. Polit. initic Giphanius with Thucydides concludes That these Hereditary Kings had such a Power as was restrained by certain Laws and they did not Reign as they listed and at their Pleasure but by certain Prescripts of Laws such we may presume as they ordained This was that Monarchy which was known in the first Ages of the World All People in all Ages and all places having by constant Experience found it most conducive to their Happiness and well-being For had there been any other form under which Mankind could have rationally promised themselves more or more certain Happiness than under this all humane care would long e're this have hit on it and there would have been an universal Regifugium But supposing we should quit these Topicks of Monarchy Other commendable Qualifications of Monarchy being according to the Law of Nature and that it is venerably for its Antiquity there are other Commodities wherein it excells other Forms As first that it is freest from the Canker of Faction which corrodes and consumes all other Governments Hence the most judicious (a) Tacitus 1. Annal. Historian tells us what Asinius Gallus replied to Tiberius That the Body of the Empire is one and so is to be governed by one Soul and in (b) Arduum sape eodem loci potentiam concordiam esse Idem another place tells us how difficult it is to find Concord among Equals in Power especially where not only as at Sparta there were two races of Kings governing at once but as many of them as there were Senators or Magistrates which by Bands and Confederacies are restlessly making Parties against each other whereby the Administration rowls from one Faction to another whereas Kingly Government is uniform and equal in it self and when by Factions Commonweals have been brought almost to utter ruin a (c) Omnem potestatem ad unum conferri pacis interfuit Tacitus 1. Histor single Persons Conduct hath restored all As (d) Perculsum undique ordinavit Imperii corpus quod ita haud dubie nunquam coire consentire potuisset nisi unius Praesidis nutu quasi anima mente regeretur Lib. 4. c. 3. Florus writes of Augustus Caesar that he ordered the shaken and distracted Body of the Empire which without doubt could never have been united in one Form again unless by the Direction of one President as a Soul and Spirit Even so we experienced in his late Majestie 's admirable yea miraculous Retauration which effected as great Blessings to these Islands as that of Augustus to the Roman Empire Besides it is a strong Argument for the Preference of Monarchical Government to all sorts of Republics that in all popular States we find all great affairs managed by some one leading Man who by the dexterity of his Address Power of his Eloquence or the Strength of his Arguments induceth so many as are necessary to join with him to effect them unless when by contrary renitency they are dissolved into Faction So when the Senate of Rome was in a most critical Debate An delenda esset Carthago Cato shewing them the Grapes which a few Years before grew there illustrated from thence the dangerous vicinity of so potent and opulent a State as had contended with them for the universal Empire and wanted only the skill of an uti Victoria to have effected it By which he cooled the warm Debates of the Senate and brought them to an affirmative Determination So Cicero often prevailed so Demosthenes and so the Daemagogues in popular States who are (e) Nalson's Common Interest pro tempore Monarchs the very head of every Faction in a Republic being a King in Disguise or a Tyrant in the dress of a Private Man The single Government being freed from the prime Cause of all intestine decay viz. Faction It necessarily follows that it must be of longer Duration Monarchy more durable as being built upon stronger and firmer Foundations than any other Model Ambitions Aemulations Hostile Parities popular Insolencies Senatorian Tyranny tumultuous Elections and infinite causes of Discords are the inseparable Associates and close Conomitants of all other Forms But in Monarchy hereditary
(q) Power of the Prince p. 81. Primate is obvious because the inflicting of a punishment is an Act of a Superior to an Inferior and to make one upon Earth Superior to the Supreme Governour would imploy an absolute contradiction though a Father or Master were never so faulty none would be so absurd as to think that their Servants or Children might chastise them When I reflect on that dismal Day when the wicked High Court of Justice arraigned and sentenced the most Innocent Just and Religious King that possibly hath worn a Crown since our Saviours time I always stand amazed and read or meditate on that Tragical Act with a concern next to that of our Saviour's suffering All that black and bloody Scene was acted by Men of and upon the Principles successful Rebels made use of The Preamble to the Treasonable Charge against King Charles the First That Kings are admitted and trusted with a limited Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the Land and not otherwise and by their Trust Oath and Office are obliged to use the Power committed to them for the Good and Benefit of the People and for the Preservation of their Rights and Liberties which they charged that Blessed King to have designedly violated To which I shall give only some k short Heads of his Majesties Answer (r) His Majesty's Speeches and Tryal p. 429. which if they had been weighed were enough to confound all their arguing He demanded by what lawful Authority he was seated there he had a trust committed to him by God by old and lawful Descent that he would not betray Pag. 431. to answer to a new unlawful Authority That England was an Hereditary Kingdom He tells them how great a sin it is to withstand lawful Authority and submit to a Tyrannical or Unlawful That Kings can be no Delinquents That Obedience unto Kings is strictly commanded in the old and new Testament pag. 435. particularizing that one place Where the word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What dost thou Eccl. 8.4 That no Impeachment can lye against him all running in his Name That the King can do no wrong the House of Commons never being a Court of Judicature can erect none He owns an Obligation to God to defend and maintain the Liberties of his People against all such Illegal and Arbitrary Proceedings Pag. 439. But 't was to no purpose to show such Crown-Jewels before such Wolves and Bears that were gaping for his Blood and would not admit his only request to them to be heard for the Welfare of the Kingdom and Liberty of the Subject before they precipitated Sentence against him before the Lords and Commons and pressed it That it may be it was something he had to say they had not heard before Hand But nothing his sacred Majesty could say would move those who under a vile and notorious Lye in the Name of the People the Supreme Authority as they called it passed that barbarous Sentence against that sacred Head to the amazement of the whole World sufficient to raise the utmost Indignation of all good Men against such barbarous Principles and Proceedings CHAP. XIX That the Sovereign may dispense with the Execution of the Laws of his Country in several Cases HAving discoursed of the Kings being unaccountable to any but God Almighty when he governs not according to the Laws of God Nature or his Dominions The Connexion of this with the foregoing Chapter upon that Foundation That there cannot be two Supremes here upon Earth in one Kingdom I come now to discover what Power Kings in general and our Kings in particular have to dispense with the Execution of the Laws upon some cases for it is far from my thoughts ever to suggest any such dangerous assertion That Princes in general may dispense with the Execution of the Laws Plutarch (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compar Flaminii Philopaemenis setteth this down as a chief point of that natural skill which Philopoemen had in Government That he did not only rule according to the Laws but over-ruled the Laws themselves when he found it conducing to the Weal publick For as the (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Jun. Imp. praef Constit 3. Emperor saith whilst the Laws stand in force it is fit that sometimes the Kings Clemency should be mingled with the severity of them especially when by that means the Subject may be freed from much Detriment and Damage Princes according to the (c) Princeps est supra legem adeo quod secundum conscientiam suam judicare potest Cyrus in L. Rescript c. Judgment of great Lawyers have Power to judge according to their own Conscience and not according to the Letter of the Law and no doubt it was such written Laws as these that (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justinian Novel 105. Justinian the Emperor meant when upon the enacting of a Constitution of this kind he added thereunto this Limitation From all these things which have been said by us let the Emperors State be excepted whereunto God hath subjected the very Laws themselves sending him as a living Law unto Men who therefore in another place assumeth to himself the Title of a Father of the Law Whereupon the (e) Nota Imperatorem vocari patrem Legis under c Leges sune ei subjecte Gloss in Novel 12. c. 4. Glossator maketh this Observation Note That the Emperor is the Father of the Law whereupon the Laws also are subject to him So the great (f) Princeps est supra legem in quantum si expediens est potest legem mutare in ea dispensare pro loco tempore Vid. Thom. in 1.2 q. 96. Artic 5. ad 3. Schoolman saith The Prince is above the Law so far that if it be expedient he may change the Law and dispense with Time and Place as when a Man is condemned to banishment the Prince if he see cause may revoke him from thence and therein saith (g) Gloss in lib. 4. de Poenis Accursius his own Will is accounted a great and just cause Magna justa Causa est ejus Voluntas The Reason of these Assertions is couched in what Aeneas (h) Convenit Imperatori Juris rigorem aequitatis fraeno temperare cui soli inter aequitatem jusque interpositam interpretationem licet incumbit inspicere De Ortu Authoribus Imperii Sylvius observes That there is a certain other thing to which the Emperor is more obnoxious than to the Law and that is Equity which is not always found written Now if the Law doth command one thing and Equity perswade another It is fit the Emperor should temper the Rigor of the Law with the Bridle of Equity as he who alone may and ought to look unto that Interpretation which lyeth interposed betwixt Law and Equity since no Law can sufficiently
Manners or Government of the Britans before the Romans Arrival we can find very little of them but what is related of the Druids Peter Ramus in his Book de moribus Veterum Gallorum hath Collected out of the antientest Authors a parallel betwixt the Customs of the Gauls the Germans and Britans there being found in Caesar and Strabo's description of their manner of Living strength of Body Temperance Marriages Habitations and many other Particulars a great affinity of which I shall touch some Particulars hereafter At present I shall speak of the original of the Gauls and of the Druids Discipline and Government of the Gauls and Britans The fabulous Berosus published by John Annius of Viterbium a City in Tuscany saith that Dis or Pluto was the Founder of the Celtick Colonies Celto Gallatia comprehended what was within the River Rhine the Alpes the Mediterranean Sea the Pyrenean Hills Gascoign and the Brittish Ocean and Ptolomy (h) 2. Geog. 2. Quâ—drip Pausan l. 1. comprized all Europe under the name of Celtica This Berosus calls this Dis Samothes and makes him Son of Japhet Caesar countenanceth that of Dis from whence he saith they reckon by Nights The best Authority we have for the Samnothei is that of Laertius (i) In vitis Philos who saith that amongst the Celtae and Gauls the Semnothei as saith Aristotle in his Book of Magick and Sotion in his Twenty third Book of Succession were But there is no mention of their being skilled in Laws Divine and Humane as the fabulous Berosus saith Here Stephen in his notes upon Laertius thinks them to be called Semnothei for having the worshipful Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Mouths or that they themselves were accounted amongst Men as a kind of worshipful Gods (k) In Achaicis So in Pausanias we meet with the Chappels of the Goddesses whom the Athenians stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Worshipful Ramus (l) De moribus veterum Gallorum p. 71 72. De Gall. Imp. lib. 1. out of Berosus saith Philosophy proceeded in the beginning from the Semnothei of the Gaules and that Magus succeded him then Sarson their third King who saith Stephanus Forcatulus reduced the Laws of his Grandfather and Father into one Volume and with severe Threats gave order for the keeping of them and Ramus saith he was the first that appointed the Study of Learning Their fourth King he makes Druis or Druidus from whence the Druids of whom I shall hereafter discourse and their fifth Bardus whose Glory is celebrated by the Bards their Poets and Orators (m) Lib. 15. De Oirgine Gallorum Marcellinus out of Timagenes makes the Aborigines of Gaul to be the Celtae and some part of them to be Peopled by the Dorienses who followed the elder Hercules and possessed the Ocean Shore So Marseilles a City of France was a Greek Colony of the Phocians The Drasidae were another part of the Indigenae or home-bred People and others saith he Q. Whether he mean Britain and Ireland have flowed hither from the remote Isles and from the tract of Land beyond the Rhine and some few after the Destruction of Troy flying from the Grecians being every where dispersed seated themselves in the empty Countries Where we may note by the by that then the Opinion of the Trojans setling in several Countries was believed But Marcellinus saith Quod etiam nos legimus in monumentis incisum the Inhabitants do affirm which he had also seen cut in their Monuments that Hercules the Son of Amphitrio having overcome Geryon the cruel Tyrant of Spain and Turiscus of the Gauls begot upon their noble Women several Sons and called them by the names of the Countries they commanded Also that some came from Phocaea in Asia flying the cruelty of Harpalus the President of Cyrus I am larger upon this Matter because the Britains had the Doctrine and Discipline of the Druids in Perfection as hereafter I shall shew and we find in Caesar a great part of Britany once under the Government of Divitiacus King of the Soissons a People of France and often the customs of the Gauls Britains and Germans are compared or their Manners are near a-kin as appears by Caesar Tacitus Strabo and others Concerning the Laws of Samothes we find nothing in ancient Authors for that of Basingstoke (n) Seldeni Janus Ang. c. 3. Count Palâ—â—â—n is but a very modern Authority that Samothes defined the Spaces or Intervals of all time not by the number of Days but of Nights and he observed Birth-days and the Commencements of Months and Years in that order that the Day should come after the Night Only I cannot but observe that both Caesar saith the same thing of the Gauls and Tacitus of the Germans and the Britains do yet observe it So we call the seventh Night for the seventh Day in our usual Speech such or such a day Senight which is agreeable to Nature and Scripture where we find the Evening and the Morning were the first Day and so Aristotle reckons Privation as the first of the three Principles I pass by the rest of the Story of Phranicus who about nine hundred years after Samothes if we will believe Jeofrey of Monmouth being to reside in Pannonia intrusts the Druids with the Government of Britain and how Brutus the Grand-Child of Aeneas got the Kingdom and about six Hundred Years after Dunwallo Molmatius being King made Laws according to our Jeofery and Ralph Monk of Chester that their Ploughs Temples and Roads that led to Cities should have Priviledge to be places of Refuge and many other things which Gildas mentions and Polydore Virgil hath gathered and how he was buried in Troynovant near the Temple of Concord which (o) Britanniae Speculum Norden will have to be the Temple of London All these wanting the Confirmation of sound Authority as also doth the whole Series of Brittish Kings and the Title of the Trojan Laws that Brutus brought in for there is but one specially mentioned that the Eldest Son should inherit the whole Right and Estate of their deceased Father This indeed might be taken from Herodotus (p) In Euterpe that writes it of Hector Son and Heir of Priamus and this if we believe the Brittish Story was sometimes broken as when the three Brothers Locrinus Camber and Albanactus divided the Land betwixt them as also the Shares that Fenix and Porrix Brennus and Belinus had It is no wonder that we have no better account of those Ages since we find in (q) Neque sas esse exisâ—â—mant ea literis mandare cum in reliquis sere rebus public is privatisque rationibus Graecis literis utantur Caesar That the Druids committed not their Learning to Writing but taught a certain number of Verses and some spent twenty Years in the Discipline and (r) Quamvâ—â— literarum secreta ignoraverint attamen celebrabant carminibus Antiquos suns Deos
(f) Glossar p. 362. Leges pristinas longa receptas consuetudine abolevit Britannisque novas dedit Sir Henry Spelman's Glossary I find that the Manuscript saith That he abolished the old Laws received by long Custom and gave to his Britans new ones which from the Makers Name are called the Laws of Hoel Dha Who over reads these Laws saith a judicious (g) Sacred Laws p. 76. Author will have little reason to think our Common Law ran from any such Fountain and it seems the old Laws and Customs of this People were far worse and more rude yet as the Proem informs us I know some will be displeased that I take no notice of the Mulmutian or of the Mercian Laws concerning which the Abbat (h) Jo. Bromp Coll. 956. num 10. of Jorval and the Monk (i) Lib. 1. c. 50. Concerning the Mercian Laws not British See for this and against it what the Judicious Selden hath writ in his fourth fifth and sixth Chapters of his Janus Anglorum in which the Story of Brute is judiciously confuted of Chester give this account That Dunwallo Mulmucius a British King who lived 430 years before our Saviour made those Laws which continued in esteem till Edward the Confessors days by the Name of the Leges Molmucinae in which he appointed Cities the Temples of the Gods and the Ways leading to them and the Ploughs of the Country Men to be Sanctuaries and after Mercia a Queen of the Britans Wife of Gwithelin whom Leland calls Mercia proba in the Minority of her Son saith the Monk of Chester who ruled in the Country of the Mercians published a Law full of Discretion and Justice called the Lex Mercia which two Laws Gildas the Historian translated out of the British Language into Latin and these in the Saxons time were called Merchena Laga or the Law of the Mercians which Alured the Saxon saith the Monk of Chester from the Latin turned into the Saxon Language and added the West Saxon Law and Canutus added the Danelga or Danish Law all which three being joyned together by Edward the Confessor made those we call the Common Law or King Edward's Laws To which I shall only give Sir Henry Spelman's answer in his Glossary That it is true that King Alfred did write the Mercian Laws into his own West Saxon Laws but as appears by the Preface to his Laws that he collected what ever he found in the Laws of King Ina his Countryman Offa King of the Mercians or Ethelbert who was first baptized and those that were just he collected others being rejected It is not probable that Offa a Saxon King the cruellest Enemy to the Britains having driven them out of all the Confines of his Kingdom into Wales should carry back their Laws as his Spoils especially the Laws being so wicked that in the next Age they should be expunged and juster Laws be chosen as we see in the Preface to those of Hoel Dha I shall offer but one Argument more and so conclude with Sir Henry Spelman's opinion When Ethelbert King of Kent made his Laws Anno 613. as in the next Chapter I shall relate Bede saith he framed them after the Roman Example after Romana Bisena by which we may understand either according to the Laws then used by the Civil or Ecclesiastic State of the Romans As to Sir Henry Spelman (k) Glossar tit Lex Whence most Laws after the breaking of the Roman Empire he saith when the Goths Saxons Longobards Danes Normans and other Inhabitants about the Baltic Sea and Northern parts of Germany had made great Conquests in Europe they imposed their Laws every where upon the conquered and their Country Riâ—â— hence the Agreement betwixt the Laws of the Germans French Italians Spaniards and Sicilians and who ever boast of the Antiquity of their Municipal Laws can deduce them no higher For (l) Quis enim victor populus sub victi legibus conquiniscet saith he What conquering People will bow the neck under the Laws of the conquered especially when they have ejected a great part of them out of the Country So that if the Britains had any Laws of their own after the Roman Conquest they must be preserved in the remotest parts of Scotland and after in Wales but England had other Laws as I shall make appear hereafter CHAP. XXIII Of the German Government and Laws of several Countries after breaking of the Roman Empire and an Introduction to understand the Saxon Law-makers HAving treated of the State of the Britans under the Romans I now in order should immediately treat of the Saxons great Councils and discover by what Authority Laws were made in their time who made up the great Council and whose advice was implied in the framing of their Laws But before I enter upon Particulars it may be needful to say something of the German Polity a Member of which most famous Country though we find not them mentioned during the time of the twelve Caesars no doubt the Saxons were Caesar tells us The Gods the Germans worshipped The Germans had no Druids * Germani neque Druidas habent qui rebus divinis praesint neque sacrisiciis student which attended Divine Matters nor did they study Sacrifices and that they accounted among the Gods those they see and from whom they are manifestly helped in their works as the Sun Vulcan and the Moon the rest they have not received as much as by report But Tacitus mentions their God Tuisto born of the Earth and his Son Mannus and that they worshipped Mercury most to whom they sacrificed Men but to Hercules and Mars other Animals Although the Germans Gauls and Britans were Barbarous yet they were Valiant and capable of great Improvement and that some worshipped Isis When I read in Caesar Tacitus Diodorus Strabo and others of the Barbarousness of the Germans Gauls and Britans their homely Diet poor Cottages and Clothing their Habitations dispersed according as there was convenience of Water or Wood and that uncultivated Disposition they describe I am ready to think before the Roman Attacques upon them they had lived something like the Savage Indians and had little of Arts or Industry among them but when I consider on the other side their great Armies their Weapons the Chariots of the Britans and Gauls called Esseda the (a) Lanceo ferreo cubitali longitudine latitudine duorum palmorum Aerea Galea caput muniâ—bant paulatim eminentiore in qua aut cornua impressa essent aut avium vel quadrupedum essigies sculptae Caesar l. 3. Lances of the Gauls with Heads of Iron a Cubit long and two Palms broad their large Shields and Brass Helmets the German Spears called Framâ—â—â— and the Ornaments of their Shields and Helmets with Figures of Birds or four-footed Beasts in Brass their orderly raising of such and such numbers of Men in such and such Circuits and Jurisdiction of Cities and their training up
the Prince's Liberality (m) Exigunt enim Principis sui liberalitate illum bellatorem equum illam cruentam victricemque â—rameam Id. 538. Sir Henry Spelman derives Vassal from the old German Gessel Comes vel simpliciter vel qui pro mercede servit Glossar Fidelis the Warlike Horse and the bloody and conquering Framea or Spear For plentiful Food and Entertainments are to them in stead of Wages Thus far Tacitus Methinks in this description of the Comites and Comitatus there appears something like the Feudal dependence of the Milites upon the Prince they are bound by Oath to defend him they have Horse and Lance or Spear have liberal entertainment both in constant Food and Banquets for Wages and that they had also Lands set out for the service the following words seem to imply viz. That one cannot so (n) Nec arare terram aut expectare Annum tam facile persuaseris quam locare hostes vulnera mereri pigrum quinimo inters videtur sudore acquirere quod possis sanguine parare Id. P. 538. easily perswade them to plough land or expect the Fruits of the Year as to provoke the Enemy and to deserve wounds for it is sluggish to them and dull to acquire that by Sweat that they may obtain by Blood Whether this imply'd a Feudal Tenure or not I will not determine but it shews a rudiment of it And in Scotland not only in the Highlands but the Lowlands that which they call the Great-back i.e. to be attended whereever they travel when they please to command it with a great train of their Vassals and Tenants especially in military expeditions is yet in use and till the Law of H. 7. against Retainers this was as much used by the ancient English Nobility Their Princes presented with Gifts (o) Mâ—s est civitatibus ultro ac viritim conferre Principibus vel armentorum vel frugum quod pro â—â—nore acceptum etiam necessitatibus subvenit publice mittâ—â—tur electi equi magna arma phalerae torquesque Idem Tacitus further saith concerning their Princes That it was a custom for their Cities of their own accord and Man by Man to bestow upon their Princes Cattle and Corn which is received as an Honorary Gift and serves them for their House-keeping and the Princes most rejoyce in the Gifts of the neighbouring Nations which are not sent by single persons but as Publick Presents viz. Chosen Horses great Armes Horse-trappings and Collars or Chains and of late Money Here we may note that where Tacitus mentions Civitates he means some distinct Government or Country under one Government For he is positive that the Germans had not such places as were called Vrbes Cities nor did they endure conjoyned Seats of Habitation but did inhabit severally as a Fountain a Field or Wood pleased them their Cities being only fenced Woods or Morasses They went always armed I might note many other things in which the Saxons agreed with the description (p) Nihil neque publiâ—â— neque prâ—vaâ—â—â— râ—i nisi armati agunt tum ad negoâ—â—â— nec minus sape ad conviâ—ia procedunt armati Tacitus gives of the Germans and some usages we retain still but I shall only add two particulars more and so conclude He saith that they neither went about publick or private Affairs unarmed not only where business required but to their Feasts they went armed and to drink at them a Day and Night was no disgrace and often at these were quarrels which seldom passed without reproaches but often with death and wounds At these Feasts they consult saith he of reconciling Enemies De reconciliandis invicem iâ—imicis jungendis affinitatibus adsciscendis Principibus de pace denique aâ— bâ—â—â— plerumque in conviviis consulcant tanquam nullo magis tempore aut ad simplices cogitationes pateat animus aut ad magnas incale cat Deliberant dum â—ingere ne ciunt constituunt dum errare non possunt Id. 642. De minoribus rebus Principes consultant dâ— majoribus omnes ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum pâ—nes plehem arbitrium est apud Principes pertrectentur Id. 636. Their Consultations of joyning Affinities and chusing Princes and for the most part of Peace and War as if at no other time either the Mind is more open to receive simple thoughts or is more warmed to great ones yet however upon these occasions they unbosom themselves the next day they treat again of these matters deliberating when they know not how to dissemble and firmly resolve on a thing when they cannot err As to their publick Consultations Tacitus observes further That of lesser matters such as I suppose concerned not the Publick State of Affairs in War or Peace but the particular ordering the matters of their private Jurisdictions the Princes consult about greater business all yet so as those things of which the lowest sort of the People are Judges are first treated of by the Princes By which I understand Tacitus means by greater matters the Consultations about the defending themselves against their Enemies especially against the Romans where the unanimous suffrage of the greatest multitude was requisite By all which it is apparent that there were several Principalities in Germany and that the Souldiery made up a great part of the People and where we read of suffrages it is to be understood of theirs and whatever freedom of Votes c. we read of was principally in debating Military Affairs and that Germany doth yet retain free Princes and free Cities though under one Emperour De Moribus Germanorum as ancient Germany did is well known Another of their laudable Customs is thus remembred by Tacitus Insignis Nobilitas aut magna Patrum merita Principis dignationem etiam adolescentulis assignant which I render Great Nobility or the great merits of their Fathers gives the dignity of Princes even to their Youth In this we may note the propagation of Gentry through true Virtue deserving Honour to whose Memory is dedicated that Worship which is often bestowed on unworthy Posterity Haec debeamus virtutibus ut non praesentâ—s solum illas sed eâ—â—am ablatas eâ—conspectu colamus Senec. lib. 4. de Benef. c. 30. Dotem non uxor marito sed uxori maritus affert Idem Tacitus 〈◊〉 supra Accisis criâ—ibus nudatam Adulâ—eram coram propinquis expellit dâ—mo maritus ac pâ—r omnem vicum verbera agit Idem This saith Seneca we owe to Virtues that we do not only worship them present but worship them taken out of our sight Another of the German Laws or Usages was as Tacitus mentions That the Wife doth not bring the Husband a Portion but the Husband gives the Wife a Dowry Yet we find the Husbands severity in case of abusing his Bed thus The Husband if the Wife prove an Adultress cuts off her Hair strips her naked and turns her out of doors in presence of her
as well as Norway which was the reason why William the Conquerour understanding that the Danish Law was used in that part where the Danes had settled themselves he preferred them before other Laws because his Country of Normandy was sprung from the Danes and Norwegians and it was with much difficulty that he was perswaded against imposing them upon the whole Kingdom saying the Danes and Norwegians were as sworn Brothers with the Normans These Danes entred about the year 790. and were at last overcome by King Alfred and by agreement betwixt him and Guthrun King of the Danes who governed the Kingdom of the East Angles and Northumbrians Guthruns People enjoyed the Danish Laws which differed from the other in nothing so much as the proportion of the Mulcts King Edward the Elder Aethelstan Edmund and Edgar made Laws but from the time of Edgar to Edward the Confessour the Danes having the principal Command the Danish Laws mostly prevailed But Edward the Confessour of these three Laws composed one which saith the Monk of (d) Lib. 1. c. 50. Edward the Confessor 's Laws composed of all Chester are called the Common Laws and to his Days were called the Laws of King Edward By all I have hitherto noted concerning the Laws either made in Germany France Lombardy Burgundy Bavaria or other Countries after they came to have any established Government of their own or in England during the Heptarchy It is apparent whoever was Soveraign imposed the Laws which as to the Saxons in the next Chapter I shall make particularly appear When the Roman Imperial Law began to be disused That the Roman Laws begun to be disused as soon as their Empire declined and was broken is as manifest for these several Nations by the appointment of their Soveraigns had their unwritten Customs and Laws revised and according to the suitableness of them to the Government of their People had them writ into Books and enjoyned them to be observed by their Subjects To make it evident that the Imperial Roman Law was much disused after Justinian's time upon the account of other Soveraignties being established which acknowledged not that dependence upon the Empire as formerly I shall offer something from Mr. (e) Notes upon Fortescue p. 20. Selden who if any other is to be credited in this kind of reading after I have said something of Justinian The Emperour Justinian (f) Proaem de Consirmatione Institutionum Of Justinian 's Laws in the year of our Lord 565 by the help of Tribonian Master and Exquaestor of the Sacred Palace and Exconsul and of Theophilus and Dorotheus Illustrious Men of whose Skill and Knowledge in the Laws and their Fidelity in observing his Commands the Emperour had manifold experience of Although he had commanded them by his Authority and Perswasions to compose those Institutions that the Subjects might not learn the Law from (g) Non ab Antiquis Fabulis discere sed ab Imperiali splendore appetere Breviter expositum quod antea obtinebat quod postea desuetudine inumbratum Imperiali remedio illuminatum est Legimus recognovimus plenissimum nostrarum constitutionum robur eis accommodavimus Ancient Fables but from the Imperial Splendor as he calls it desire them and after fifty Books of Digests or Pandects and four Books of Institutions were made in which were expounded whatever before-time was used and what by disuse was obscured by the Imperial Remedy was Illuminated and he had accomodated to them his fullest Authority and had appointed them to be read and taught at Rome Berytus and Constantinople and no where else Yet the body of the Civil Law was so neglected that till Lothar the Second about the year 1125. took Amalsi and there found an old Copy of the Pandects or Digests it was in a manner wholly disused Under that Lothar the Civil Law began to be profest at Bologna and one Irner or Werner made the first Glosses upon it about the beginning of Frederick Barbarossas's time in Anno 1150. and Bologna was by Lothar constituted to be Legum Juris Schola una sola (h) Sigon de Regno Italiae lib. 11. 7. This Book Lothar gave to the Pisans by reason whereof saith Mr. Selden it is called Litera Pisana and from thence it is now removed to Florence where in the Dukes Palace it is never brought forth but with Torch-light and other Reverence By this account we may note That even before Justinian's time some Laws had been rather by old Traditions which he calls old Fables than by certain Authority received others were by long disuse forgot and after they were thus established by Imperial Authority yet the succeeding Barbarity of the Ages and the new Kingdoms erected caused other Laws to obtain Force the first of which we find very rude All the first Laws we read of in any Nation seem either so comparatively to the refinedness of the Laws in these Ages or else the Digesters and Authorizers of them complain how obscure rude or indigested those were out of which they extracted theirs The great Subversion the Saxons made by their Conquest The Saxons made so great and universal a Subversion in the State that scarce any City Dwelling River Hill or Mountain retained its former Roman or British name so that we have less reason to expect any satisfactory account either of British History Polity or Laws when we only know where they had Camps Stations or Cities Palaces or Fortifications or Temples by the Coyns Brick tessellated Pavements Glass Earthen or Jett Fragments of Cups and other Houshold-stuff or Urns and Sacrificing Dishes which by chance have been found in the Rubbish of many Towns that have been certainly fired and totally demolished which sufficiently disâ—â—ver the noble Structures and rich Furniture the Romens and Britans had before the Saxon Invasions Besides which we may consider not only the continual Wars and Depredations the Saxons made one upon another but that the Daves like a fatal Hurricane or Whirlwind tore up Root and Branch every where overturning ransacking burning and destroying all that they could not peaceably possess Having thus far treated of the State of the Britans and something of the Laws in general A short Glossary of the Names or Titles of the Constituent Parts of Great Councils as a Praeliminary to the better understanding who are meant by the Persons who we find do constitute the great Councils I shall out of Sir Henry Spelman Somner and Doctor Brady give a very short Glossary referring the curious Reader to the Books themselves The most common Words in the Saxon Laws that are used besides the Bishops The Witan or Wites Einhard divides the Germans into four sorts of Degrees the Noble Free-men those made free and Servants his words are Quatuor differentiis gens illa consistiâ— Nobilium sâ—iliâ—et Liberorum Libertorum atque Servorum Adam Brem Hâ—â—t Eccles c. 5. to express the Persons
the Nation but are drawn to promote private Animosities under (h) King's Speech 6 March 1678. pretence of the Publick and are so far from proceeding calmly and peaceably to curb the motions of unruly Spirits that endeavour to disturb them that they expose the King to the Calumny and danger of those worst of men who endeavour to render him and his Government odious to the People I shall now touch upon some of the Artifices used to bring in such Members in the Parliament of 1678. and some succeeding ones whereby their Conventions were rendred useless for the King and People and inglorious to themselves though they pretended to as much Loyalty and Publick good as those in 1641. did at their first sitting The King having dissolved the long Parliament and summoned this to sit the 6th of March 1678. The Artifices used by designing People to get such as they desired to be elect ed. the industry of the Dissenters Male-contents and we may suppose Common-wealths men was extraordinary great as now hoping they should be able to chuse such Members as would be more favourable to them They had been long instilling into the Peoples Heads The Characters they gave Men of the Court-party that in the former House there had been a Court and Country Party the former were for Arbitrary Government fleecing the People Persecution and such as gave no great credit to the Tragical representation of the Popish Plot The latter were moderate men and not so much for Ceremonies as the purity of Religion would stand for the Peoples Liberties and Properties by riding night and day about the Villages and trudging about Corporations and the weekly Conventicles they spread this Character abroad and with all the Arts imaginable endeavoured to proselyte (i) Address part 2. p. 2 3. all that were not sharp-sighted enough to pierce into their designs If any seemed not to believe those Characters or declared himself for the Government Civil or Ecclesiastical established by Law and neither for Popery or Arbitrary Government nor yet for a Commonwealth or Dissenters they run them down with noise traduced them behind their backs as Papists in Masquerade and men of Arbitrary Principles Papists in Masquerade And if any were so bold as to scruple the coherence of the Narratives of the Popish Plot he was vilified as a Defamer of the Kings Evidence as stifler of the Plot and from hence they concluded to insinuate into the Populace that those Loyal Gentlemen who had been Members of the late long Parliament had joyned with the Court to hinder the Discovery of the Plot and if any gainsaid them they used such questions What Are you for Popery Will you give your Voice for a Papist Are you willing to have your Throat cut Are you for Arbitrary Government By which means they won over too many to joyn with them Excluding Loyal and Orthodox Gentlemen to exclude many Loyal and Orthodox Gentlemen from being chosen Members of Parliament Their design was advantaged because some were their friends of old others had come the half way over to gain the reputation of moderate men others had been disgusted by the Government The Conventicle Teachers rallied up their Flocks and they all joyned to slander the Clergy as if they had a kindness for Popery in their hearts though they durst not discover it for the present And generally blasted all the Loyal Gentry as Popishly affected the Court-Party Pensioners c. So that if any one bore any Publick Office Military or Civil he was eo nomine to be rejected The Persons they recommended to the People to be chosen were first all those Gentlemen who called themselves the Country (k) Idem p. 5. Party who had appeared most zealous against his present Majesty the Queen Dowager and Ministers of State To these they added as many as they could of the reliques of the old Rebellion or their Children and made up the number out of the moderate and discontented Gentlemen Burgesses and Tradesmen It was sufficient recommendation if the Government had displaced any for these were looked upon as not to be corrupted or bought off and here and there they took in an honest Gentleman in hopes to win him to their side by this kindness After the dissolution of this Parliament when his late Majesty issued out his Writs for another to convene 17 Oct. 1679. they added to their former Arts the loud clamours against French Pensioners French Pensioners Popery Arbitrariness and all those who voted against the Bill of Exclusion as Popishly affected or downright Papists traducing his Majesty the Court the Ministers of State and almost all the Loyal Gentry and Clergy for endeavouring to have those men chosen The second advantage they made was the pretended discovery of (l) Address part 3. p. 5. Sir Stephen Fox of the Pensioners of the late long Parliament which discovery being hastily made and no Record of it being entred Pensioners to the King they took the confidence to add to it whomsoever they pleased to have so thought They made the People believe they knew who would be Pensioners likewise and led the diffidence to that height as to exclude as far as they could possibly not only all the Courtiers and other Persons who had any places of profit and advantage under his Majesty but their Relations too and wanted not much that they had excluded all those who bore any Honorary Imployment So that nothing recommended a man so effectually for a Parliament man as that he had not been thought fit to be trusted in the least by his then Majesty or their Neighbour Gentry these they cried up as true Friends to the Protestant Religion and the Country and he was an hard-hearted Man in their Dialect who called the Sincerity of their Loyal Intentions in question However by their Actings many of them have been discovered to be but cold Friends to the Government But Intending to discourse more fully of the several Arts us'd by designing Men in the Chapter of Factions I shall at present quit this Subject and only desire Kings to consider that they can condescend no lower to gratifie Importunities of Parliament or People in yielding up any of their Privileges The Philosopher of old hath noted how Kingly Authority was lessened among the Grecians which was no ways profitable to them He speaking of Kings in the Heroick times (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polit. l. 3. c. 14. That then they had the Government and Administration of Matters in the Cities and the adjoyning Territories within their Dominions and what extended without the Limits of the Empire viz. to preserve and protect their Subjects against their Enemies make War and Peace c. But after partly by the spontaneous Concessions of the Princes and partly by the Encroachment of the People they came to be lessened in Power and in some Cities had only the Power of Sacrificing left in others