Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	call_v	law_n	life_n	4,826	5	4.9748	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90520	Jus fratrum, The law of brethren. Touching the power of parents, to dispose of their estates to their children, or to others. The prerogative of the eldest, and the rights and priviledges of the younger brothers. Shewing the variety of customes in several counties, and the preservation of families, collected out of the common, cannon, civil, and statute laws of England. / By John Page, late Master in Chancery, and Dr. of the Civil Law.	Page, John, LL.D.	1657 (1657)	Wing P164; Thomason E1669_3; ESTC R203096	43,631	124

Jus Fratrum THE Law of Brethren Touching the power of Parents to dispose of their Estates to their Children or to others The Prerogative of the Eldest and the Rights and Priviledges of the younger Brothers Shewing the variety of Customes in several Counties and the preservation of Families collected out of the Common Cannon Civil and Statute Laws of England By John Page late Master in Chancery and Dr. of the Civil Law LONDON Printed by I. M. for Henry Fletcher at the three gilt Cups near to the West end of S. Pauls 1658. To the Reader DIscordia fratrum inter se Amarissima wofull and long continued experience tells us with what bitterness enmity amongst brethren is carried on if we cast the least glance of our eye amongst the many violent Law-suits daily prosecuted by brother against brother so that we see the saying of the Poet complaining of the Iron age near two thousand years ago verified in the superlative degree in our age Concordia fratrum Rara est Filius ante diem patris inquirit in annos Love amongst brethren saith he is rare to be found and the son goes to the Oracle to enquire how long his father shall live that he may inherit his estate The eldest would have all to be his and the younger thinks the elder hath too much and while they strive who gets most use of his fathers estate commonly a third person carrles all from them both This Treatise will discover the Rights of both Elder and Younger if they will be contented with their portion fully answering the Apologer for the younger brother or the younger brothers Plea This book called the Apology or Plea for the younger brother being a Treatise so intituled was Printed at Oxford in the year 1636. Hereby brethren may learn to know their Right and that being known and obtained I could wish them to be therewith content and observe the Apostles divine command Let brotherly love continue The fathers power and Prerogative in disposing his estate A Fathers free power disputed as that he may dispose of his Lands or other his Fortunes to his son sons or any of them as right reason the Laws of God and man the civil cannon and municipal Laws of this kingdome do command 2 I will prove by the Laws of God and man that a fathers freedome is such that he may lawfully and religiously give his lands or goods or other his fortunes to any of his children for the preservation of his name and comfort of his posterity as right reason or the better deserts of a son shall perswade him 3. Nature never set it down as a Law that the estate should be left to the elder brother or younger or to any one in particular or to all but to whom the father being true and free Lord thereof should best devise by will guided by reason 4. Neither is there in Scripture nor in any other written Law under heaven any command to restrain the fathers power but rather the contrary for such is the Law of Nature that they who are ex aequo one mans children should if not ex aequo yet not ex iniquo be provided for 5. Children during their fathers lives have only jus ad rem not jus in re to a fathers goods whereupon the Law calleth them quasi bonorum patris dominos which their right only takes effect after their fathers death for during life he hath power to alter alien sell and give as it shall please him 6. The Cannon and civil Laws give no precedency or superiority of right to eldest sons but command it as a thing in equity the father either to divide his inheritance amongst his sons or to give to one more then to another as it shall please him yet with this proviso that he who hath the least hath his childs part except on just cause he disinherit him 7. The Common Laws of our Realm allow every father to give his land in fee either by deed in his life or will at his death to any of his children yea to a stranger without rendring a reason why he doth so 8. The Imperial or Civil Laws gave Parents at the first a power of life and death over their children and the Jews had the same power given them by the divine Laws An Advertisement to the Reader YOu may see here with what a merciless immanity this wild Apologer falls upon elder Brothers for no Laws either divine or humane allow them as he sayes any right of inheritance at all above other sons nor any other sons can claim any thing of their Parents as of right but what is their Parents pleasure to bestow of them and daughters are in the same or in a worse taking for he insers that they may lawfully be disinherited and the estate conferred by the father if he hath no sons to any one of the same name because the name of the family is extinct in the daughter and the Hebrew word Zacar which signifies a male child doth signifie also a memoriall because the fathers memory is preserved in the son But this is not all for it is not enought that Parents have a free power to make their children beggers unless they have also a free power over their childrens lives It is strange that the Apologer who pretends so much learning and honesty should be so fair in his Epistle and so fowl in his Treatise which thanks be to God is no Gospel for there he protests that it was not upon any the least presumption of a self-sufficiency to confront thereby any received custome nor to diminish the natural reverence due by younger brothers to their eider nor to enkindle emulation in families nor to innovate any thing to the prejudice of publick or private quiet that he made publick his Treatise but his principal motive or aim was the singular respect which as a Patriot he bears to the glory of Gentlemens houses and to the general good of great Brittain which how well he hath performed or whether he had any such intention or no let any man judge who shall read his Treatise And though he seems in some places a little to confine the parental power by saying that Fathers are to dispose of their estates as right reason and the better deserts of a son shall perswade them or chiefly for the preservation of their families which every wise and good man must and will have a care of yet this is but a seeming restriction for all is left to the fathers ther 's affection and will and the eldest son hath no more right to inherit then the youngest and either of them none at all but at the courtesie of the Parental Monarch As for his vain suppositions that if the eldest son be a natural fool or madman or turns Turk or be extreamly and desperately vitious they shall have no serious part of my Answer because they are no material parts of the charge of his Tratise The questions

Christian and good subject to conform himself to the Laws he lives under and not to wretch and stretch them to wicked ends by their false constructions nor yet too curiously to search into them which is alwayes an argument of a proud and rebellious spirit So that in all this fair flourish the Apologer hath proved nothing to purpose but only shewed the antiquity of Cicero who lived he sayes many hundred years ago Proof 14. That by the Civil Law Parents had at first a power of life and death given them over their children and a free disposition of all their fortunes to any of them in his life but if he died intestate then the estate was to be divided among the children egually as well sons as daughters Answ I might here answer him with his own two sayings Cessante ratione cessat lex summū jus est summa injuria and he also sayes that it is no Law but tyranny which wholly disagrees with the Law of Nature what can be more against Nature and natural equity then that Parents should have a power to destroy their own flesh and blood which are their children and he sayes that these Laws were first invented and practis'd by the Romanes when they were heathens and he needs no other answer then this that it was very heathenishly done of them but why should the Apologer urge this himself saying that this Law was rigorous and afterwards altered upon good grounds And concerning the division of the estate equally amongst the children for so sayes he the Civil Laws ordain It is well known that the practise is much otherwise where the Civil Laws are in most force as in Spain France Germany Italy c. for there the chief house and the greatest part of the inheritance is usually conferred upon the eldest son and it is a Maxime amongst them Seniores honores juniores labores the Arts Arms A munities and the more noble trades as Merchandize and the like and not lands of inheritance are the more proper portions for younger brothers Proof 15. That in natural justice children during their fathers lives have jus ad rem not jus in re to their fathers goods Whereupon the Law calleth them quasi bonorum patris dominos which their right only takes effect after their fathers death for during life he hath power to alter alien sell and give as it shall please him according to form of Law but being dead without will or disposition thereof they fall upon his children according to the Law of Nations hat the Cannon and Civil Laws command it as a thing in equity the father either to divide his inheritance amongst his children or allow his children according to his affection by giving to one more then unto another as it shall please him Answ The Apologer speeks generally and cites neither authority nor Authour and so deserues to be neither credited nor answered but I will not deal so unkindly with him There is no question but that children have not only jus ad rem but jus in re to their fathers goods in his life time as plainly appears by the claim which Esau made and by the parable of the prodigal for the prodigal came to his father and boldly said Pater da mihi portionem substantiae meae give me that portion of goods which belongs to me pater divisit and the father gave him his portion and Esau came as boldly to his father and demanded the due of his Birthright because he was the eldest son And for all the large soveraignty which as the Apologer sayes the Civil Laws give Parents over the children the Apologer confesseth that fathers unless they can give a just cause to the contrary are bound by the Civil Laws to leave every child a portion called a Legitimate or Patrimony which makes clearly against his so absolute a power of Parents for if they are bound how can they be said to be free Proof 16. That even to this present day the engrossing all by primogeniture hath not been so much as heard of or at leastwise never admitted in the Civil Law as by many Text in the same Law it well appears Answ The Apologer is still upon his generalities and gives neither reasons nor authority but the best is we may believe him as we list I confess that no good Law either Civil or Cannon or any other Law whatsoever allows the engrossing all by Primogeniture as that the eldest son should have all the estate the other children nothing but it is false that there is no mention at all in the Civil Law of the rights of Primogeniture for the great Lawyer Baldus in his Book De justitia jure faith semper fuit semper erit it alwayes hath been and alwayes shall be that the first-born doth succeed and inherit And the arcient Historian Herodotus in his Polihim thus saith it is the general custome amongst all men that the first born doth succeed and inherit And if we will believe Sir John Heywood a late and learned Doctour of the same Laws he tells us that all the best and most approved interpreters of the Civil and Cannon Laws do jointly hold that Parents have no lawful power to invert or pervert the due course of inheritance unless there be some such great cause as was in the case of Ruben and the word Senior say they which signifies priority of birth is often times taken for Lord and not without cause for sayes on Apostle 1 Timoth. 5. Seniorem ne increpaveris sed obs●cra ut patrem Do not disrespect thy elder but honour him and treat with him as if he were thy father and indeed the Senior or eldest of our sons as is manifest Gen. 27.49 Gal. 4. c. is to be as a Lord over the rest of his brethren But the Apologer it may be being himself a Divine cannot rellish any other authority but from Divines I will therefore for his better instruction and satisfaction if it can be present him with the opinions of two very authentique Divines and of great antiquity S. Chrysostome and S. Jerom S. Chrysostome in his fift Sermon against Iulian saith that the first-born is is to be esteemed more honourable then the other children and S. Jerom in his Epistle to Onogron and upon the 49. Gen. saith that the right of inheritance is only due to the first begotten or eldest son living Proof out of the Common Law THat our Common Laws give power to a father and free will to dispose of his own as far as reason shall guide his will without all obligation to his heir all Lawyers agree that such Parents who have estates in Fee simple may alien sell and give by power of our Law their lands to whom they will without respect of person or Eldership for it is lawful for every man to dispose his own as far as the Law shall permit him Answ You see here how the Apologer layes down the

it is alledged to as little purpose as the other for neither Bruce nor Roderic did disinherit their eldest sons but gave them a better and greater part then unto the rest and surely no man can think they did well to make such divisions because their actions did not prosper but now God be thanked they are again reunited into one glorious Monarchy and may they ever so continue as long as the world shall continue in the Koyal Line of our Gracious Soveraign who is descended to his Imperial Diadem by the most noble and only rightful way of inheritance which is from the next of blood to the next of blood or from one eldest son unto another Proof 35. That there is a Law or custome in Ireland called Tanistrie by which the land and Chiefty of a name after the Predecessours death is not awarded to the eldest son but to the worthiest the judgment whereof is left to the people and such Tennants as have interest and right of suffrage as Alexander the great though as 't is apparent in the Macchabees very falsly said to have left his Empire And that the tenure or custome of Gavell kind allows every son to have an equal share in the estate Answ It is marvel that the Apologer will acknowledge the Book of the Machabees to be Apocrypha because it seems to make something for his pretended free power of Parents and it is marvel he doth not condemn this Irish custome to be Apocrypha for there is nothing can make more against his power because upon the matter the futhers authority and the fortunes of the family are in the power of the Tennants he sayes that all customes which are against Law are void by the civil Law and he knows also that a great part of this prople are still called the wild Irish and surely such customes are fitter for wild Savages then for civil Christians And concerning the tenure or custome of Gavell kind it is true that it gives an equal share of the estate to every son but as I take it this custome was chiefly and I think only in Kent and the Apologer grants that some have altred it in their private Families by Act of Parliament and doubtless the cause hath been for the preservation of their Families which by such divisions could not chuse but come in short time to nothing and level the best and greatest of our Gentry to the degree of the meanest Vulgars Proof 36. That Briand Lyle or Fitzt earl Lord of Abergavenny having two sons both leaprous built for them a Lazaretto or Spittle and gave to Miles Earl of Hereford the greater part of his Patrimony from his children Jane daughter of Hugh Courtney and heir to her Mother wife of Nicholas Lord Carew disinherited her eldest son Thomas quoniam minus reverenter matrem haberet and parted her lands which were goodly among her three younger sons of whom are sp●…ng three worshipful Families of the Carews called Haccomb Ancony and Bury So that God by the success crowned the fact and confirmed the lawfulnesse of partage Answ The Lord Abergavenny did well in giving away a great part of his lands away from his two sons for a Spittle was more fit for such sons then an inheritance yet he left them a great part of his lands and doubtless would have left them all had they not been leprous and unfit And the Lady Carew did well in giving her lands to her younger sons her eldest son being heir to his father and having as may be thought a sufficient competency of estate but the true cause was because he was undutiful which had he not been it is likely she had given him the greatest part if not all of her inherited lands And you know Mr. Apologer there is a different case betwixt an eldest son who inherits an estate from his father and a daughter who is an inheritrix for the son is to do that which hath been done to him and as he received an inheritance from his father because he was the eldest son so is he bound conscience not to disinherit his eldest son because he would have been loth to have been disinherited himself and that which we would not that others should do to us we are not to do to any other Matth 7. Luke 6. This is the very corner stone as I may well call it of the Law of Nature and of the Law of Grace especially for so much as concerns morality and distributive justice but women who are no fit presidents for men have a greater freedome then men in this case for they inherit by way of Parcenary and every daughter hath an equal share in the estate though the eldest by reason of her Seniority hath the priviledge to chuse first and an inheritrix hath the name of her Family extinct in her self and therefore may at her pleasure disperse her lands amongst her sons the better to preserve the memory of her self and Ancestours from whom she is descended and no marvel though God did bless with good successe the good acts of this Lady for she did both justly and wisely But who hath known an estate long prosper where a dutiful and deserving eldest son was disinherited by his father I must confesse I never did such unrightful and lawlesse heirs may be likened to the Bastard plants which the Wise man speaks of Wisd 3. and 4. that cannot take deep root nor lay sure foundation So that all these examples by the Apologer alledged are like his other arguments they either make against himself or serve to no purpose To the Reader I Have here answered as well as I can all the Apologers proofs and reasons on the behalf of his younger Brothers and I confess that according to the best of my poor judgement I have not found any one firm or sinewy argument which may satisfie any reasonable understanding in proof of his so absolute a free power of Parents or against the impregnable rights and prerogatives of eldest sons But I must not usurp upon anothers right the censure belongs to the impartial and judicious Reader unto whom I humbly commend it THE Second Part Wherein is Treated of The preservation of Families The free power of Parents The Rights of eldest sons Printed for H. Fletcher 1548. The preservation of Families ELder Brothers sayes the Apologer either seated in their fathers wealth or possessions or having more then hopes to enjoy their fortunes do sometimes love truly neither themselves nor any body else but abusing that which indeed might gain the love of God and man and easily maintain their hereditary honour lose themselves in vanity and most idle courses yea in their fathers lives so strangely carry themselves presuming rather on precedence of birth then worth as though the Law of God and Nature and all other Cannon Civil and National Laws and constitutions and customes sprung from them could not either in reason or religion bar them of that which they expect or