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A66733 The law of laws, or, The excellencie of the civil law above all humane laws whatsoever by Sir Robert Wiseman ... ; together with a discourse concerning the oath ex officio and canonical purgation. Wiseman, Robert, Sir, 1613-1684.; Lake, Edward, Sir, 1596 or 7-1674. 1664 (1664) Wing W3113A; ESTC R33680 273,497 368

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contra fecerint quam polliciti professique sunt quidvis potius tulisse quam leges They that did promulgate to the people pernicious and unjust Laws since they did clean contrary to that that they alwayes promised and professed to doe they might better be thought to enact any thing else then Laws And though it be never or very rarely seen that any State doth suffer any law to passe them which doth directly crosse the chiefe and fundamentall Lawes of Nature or which opposes the first and main principles of common Reason as to give direct licence to Atheisme Theft Adultery Homicide invading of the rights or possessions of others Breach of Faith or Covenants Rebellion against Magistrates Disobedience to Parents abandoning of Children or such like for this were too odious and detestable and would presently dissolve all society and government Yet the care of a Legislator doth not determine here but must extend further also if they will have their Laws to be of one complexion and likenesse and all to agree with the Lawes of Nature and the Dictates of sound Reason for to each of those first and fundamental principles there are divers inferiour things and actions appertaining which doe mediately or immediately depend upon and refer unto them standing some in a nearer others in a remoter distance from them but all so knit and conjoyned with the first and main principle to which they are subordinate and do as it were wait upon that if any of them be setled by a Law or practised otherwise then they ought to be the first and great principle also by consequence is violated broken or at least an occasion offered to violate and break it and therefore the Legislators care must be to settle these inferior and subordinate things also in such wise as that they may not encounter with any chief or fundamental rule of Nature to which they may have any reference or application For instance That Parents should educate their Children and supply them with maintenance is a Law proceeding from Nature And though no humane Law was ever found that discharged Parents of such their duty yet if a Law shal leave it free to a Parent when he dyes to give away all from his own Children to a stranger or to dispose of all to one child without making any provision for the rest is not that fundamentall Law of Nature thereby consequentially infringed and broken By the Roman Law therefore which does strictly tye all Parents to this Duty f Co. de Alend Liber there is such a proportion due to Children out of their Parents estates when they dye as the Parents but upon certain causes just and true cannot give away from them which was the third part if there were four children or under or half of the whole substance if there were more amongst them all the rest they might freely give away to whom they pleased And this the Law made so sure to them that though the Father for some offence did suffer Death and his Estate was confiscate yet half the Estate should goe to the Children notwithstanding Ne alieno admisso graviorem poenam luerent quos nulla contingeret culpa g Lib. 7. dig de Bon. damna●● Lest the Fathers fault should prove a sharper punishment to them that offended not except the fault were Treason in which case for terror to others they lost all Vt chari●as liberorum amiciores parentes reip redderet h Lib. 8. dig quod metus caus sect fin That their very affection to their Children knowing how greatly they were like to suffer after them might make them timorous how they so offended Likewise if the Parent shall make no Will nor make any disposition of his Estate in his life time but dye intestate if when one of the Children hath entred upon his Fathers Estate though by lawfull Aathority the Law of a State shall adjudge the whole Inheritance unto him and not admit any of the rest of his Brethren and Sisters how many soever they be to divide or to have any share with him neither in reall Estate nor personal surely this is a contradiction to that Original Law of Nature that bindes Parents to provide for all those that are of the same Flesh Blood with them for what themselves cannot doe being dead their Estates ought to performe The Civil Law therefore making no difference between Land and Goods nor between Eldest and Youngest nor Male and Female divides the whole Estate reall and personal equally amongst the Children Ratio naturalis quasi lex quaedam tacita liberis parentum haereditatem addicit velut ad debitam successionem eos vocando sayes i D. l. 7. Dig. de Ben. damn l. 7. Dig. si Tab. testam null s 1. Paulus There is as it were a secret Law made by Nature her selfe that settles the Parents Estate upon the Children calling them to succeed as in their proper right And Omnia quae nostra sunt liberis nostris ex voto paramus sayes k Lib. 50. Dig. de B●u libert sect 2. Tryphoninus All that we doe possesse we professedly destine to our Children Neither does it give one childe any advantage against the rest that he has first lawfully got into possession for he has but thereby made himself subject to be sued by the rest to come to a Partition with them l Tot. Tit. dig Co. Famil creise for Action to divide being once brought the Judge is told by m Lib. 25. sect 20. Dig. Eod. Paulus what he must doe Index familia erciscundae nihil debet indivisum relinquere The Judge of a Partition ought to leave nothing undivided A Law then that forbids Parents to cast off the care of their Children as nature does does not agree with Nature nor with it selfe neither if it does not as the Civill Law does make its other constitutions suitable and put it out of the power both of Parents and Children by fraudulent wayes to make their grand Law of Nature and Dictate of Reason fruitlesse and of no effect Likewise it is not sufficient that the Law of a State has not declared any thing against Honour Reverence and awful respect which Nature it selfe has enjoyned Children to yeild unto their Parents except it does dispose and order the actions and demeanour of Children answerable to that very duty for if a State shall give Children a freedome to bring like actions and accusations against their Parents as against others or to Marry without their consent or to give in evidence against them or shall not punish them when they offer violence to their Parents or speak reproachfully against them the reverential respect so due by Nature to Parents will soon be turned into contempt and scorn The Civil Law therefore has not onely said Filio semper honesta sancta persona patris videri debet n Lib. 9. dig● obseq parent pat●on p●aestand The person of a Parent
a new war where they are sure to be swallowed up in spoil and rapine In this declining therefore of the Roman Empire many Provinces thereof being possessed by several invaders it is certain that the conquering people gave their own Laws to the conquered but ruled most a Iuxta illud Silii Vis colitur jurisque locum sibi vendicat ●nsis by power and arbitrary will In iis seculis sayes Dr Duck b Lib. 1. de Author ju civ ca. 7. speaking of the declension of the Roman greatness non erat aliud parendi dominandive jus quàm armorum potentia crassa literarum omnium ignorantia leges omnes barbaricae Gothicae Francicae Lombardicaeve sepultis jam legibus Romanis rerum omnium morumque confusio In those times there was no other rule but what the sword did give a gross ignorance of all literature the Laws all barbarous had from the Gothes Francks Lombards the Roman Laws lying now in the grave and indeed a plain confusion of civility and all things whatsoever Ludovicus Vives c Lib. 1. de caus corrupt Art mentioning the utter downfall that was of all learning at that time tells us also the politick reason that animated that savage people to deal so tragically with it Irrisae sunt ab eis linguae ac studiae omnia saith he Nec solùm eis detractum est pretium sed contumelia addita seu quòd nollent quenque in victis plus sapere quàm victorem ut quisque esset doctissimus ita crassis illis hominibus inprimis erat suspectus tanquam vafer ad fraudes ac dolos maximè appositus seu quòd emolliri per haec veram virtutem opinarentur ac minus bello idoneos reddi cui omnia illi tum tribuebant laudem gloriam decus ex bello uno verum germanumque etiam sempiternum oriri rati They laugh'd at the variety of tongues and at all literature Neither did they onely distesteem them but they cast reproches upon them also either because they were not willing that any that they had now brought under subjection should be wiser then themselves who being blockish did cast a jealous eye upon those that were most knowing men as they that were subtil and fitted for all politick and wily practises or because they had a conceit that learning did too much soften and enervate valour and render men unfit for war in the which they thought all praise glory and renown did lie and that no where true and immortal honour was to be won but in war onely Which torrent os ruine then happening was the more unfortunate and fatal in regard through Italy and the Europaean Nations being thus infested that which is the Roman Civil Law now and was collected and put together by Justinian himself and doth bear his name though selected out of a great confused mass consisting of near two thousand Volumes that had been 1400 years a laying together by several Lawyers could not have any place then in Italy nor could ever get entrance into those parts for 500 years together after the death of Justinian Because this body of the Law that is now extant was compiled and put together at Constantinople after the Roman Emperours had removed themselves thither and kept out of Italy and the Western part of the Empire for all that time that those Barbarians were possessed of the same Howbeit it is no less certain that the ancient Civil Law that was in being long before Justinians time and that very frame and model thereof which was drawn together and raised out of those ancient foundations by Justinian himself was the sovereign and ruling Law at Constantinople and all over the East where the Roman Empire then was and was translated into the Greek tongue for the use of the people and there continued flourishing at that time when the West would not admit it So that it is to be noted that when it was driven or kept out it was by a barbarous people that followed all with fire and sword and that it did not suffer alone but all civility and learning was banish'd with it too and that it was never so extirpated from off the earth but it had a being and continuance somewhere And yet there was a part of Italie also namely the Exarchate of Ravenna consisting of ten Cities with the territories belonging to them which the barbarous people could not subdue nor make them change their governours government or Lawes who being still ruled by the Viceroys and Lieutenants of the Constantinopolitan Emperours were totally governed by the Roman Lawes also as they were before And after the collection of Lawes made by Iustinian was perfected and published and was now to be the onely Law for the whole Empire it was sent to and embraced by the Exarchate of Ravenna and there practised though no where else throughout Italie for 500 yeares together Notwithstanding it cannot be truly affirmed neither that even those parts of Italie which the Romans had quite lost and were made subject to this barbarous people were totally guided by another Law and had none of the Roman Law to guide them For although the Gothes ruled much by Lawes of their own prescribing yet Cassiodore writes that in the time of Theodorick and some of his successours the Roman Law that had been in use there before was also used still though but in a way of Subserviency to their own And Ataulphus fully purposing Romana omnia ades in Gothicum nomen moresque mutare ut Romanum planè obliteraretur so to change all that was Roman into the way and fashion of the Gothick Nation that nothing that was Roman should remain any longer Mr. Selden out of Orosius d Lib. 7. ca. 43. sayes upon better consideration had he changed his resolution quite and did by all meanes strive ut Romanae rostitutionis autor haberetur postquam esse non poterat immutator to be the chiefe setter up of the Roman policie which he saw he should not be able to throw down For the time therefore that the Gothes and Lombards were possessed of Italie the Code of Theodosius and some things taken out of the Gregerian and Hermogenian Codes and Gajus his Institutions Vlpians fragments and the Notes and sentences of Paulus all parts of the Civill Law and antienter then that body of Lawes whereof Justinian was the compiler were taken in and admitted into use together with their own Laws Those Provinces of France that are nearest unto Italy when the Gothes came to invade them were also permitted to enjoy the Roman Laws upon the same termes and especially when Honorìus and Arcadius surrendred Aquitaine one of the conditions was ut lex testamentorum iis salva esset that their Laws for ordaining or expounding their last wills should not be infringed And Alarick the second one of the Gothish Kings was so affected towards the Roman Laws that in the year 506 he employed his own Chancellour Anianus
life contrary to St. Paul which seemeth something Anti-Evangelical The yoke of the Gospel should be easie And also Against condemnation upon a single testimony if thought fit that none should be condemned to dye upon a single testimony when there is no other kind of proof by circumstances or violent or vehement presumptions equivalent to a witness that makes a kind of semiplena probatio at the least as in the Canon Law In the mouth of two or three witnesses every saying shall be confirmed sayes the Levitical Law which is repeated in the New Testament and in a manner at least is made Lex Evangelizata The Law-maker Truth Justice in the abstract could as well have said In ore unius vel duorum testium as duorum vel trium if he had thought it so fitting and yet as before the Gospel seems to pinch harder then the Law To that Objection That then many Malefactors would escape it may be answered That secret things belong to the Lord and to him they are to be left and that it is better ten Knaves should escape then one guiltless man should be hanged We have seen and heard how even in a manner miraculously God hath often revealed murther and great crimes that we may suppose that when such crimes cannot be in the ordinary way detected it pleases God they shall be done extraordinarily Many instances might be given of the sad consequences by putting to death upon the testimony of a single witnesse Judge Fortescue in his book De laudibus legum Angliae relates a passage about a Gentlewoman in Sarisbury that was put to death even burnt at a stake for murdering her husband and that sentence given upon the testimony of a single witness which witness not long after upon his death voluntarily and in a most penitent manner confessed he had given false witness against that Gentlewoman and that she was no wayes guilty of that murther for which she was put to death And Judge Fortescue there speaking of the Judge that gave sentence against her hath these words as I take it or to this effect the book is not now by me as they are there in the Latine version out of the Law French Soepius iste judex mihi fassus est quod nunquam in vita sua animum suum super hoc facto purgaret A notable instance this way to relate no more being numerous happened in London not many years since as 't is credibly reported A young man a Lawyers Clerk made love to a Gentlewomans Chamber-maid and a fellow-servant of the Chamber-maids keeping company much with her and the young man using also kind dalliance towards her she conceived that he loved her better then the Chamber-maid but afterwards perceiving she was mistaken she boyled with revenge against him and the Devil watching as a roaring Lion whom he may devour instigated her to accuse him of theft that he had stoln from her Masters house and taken away under his cloak a Silver Boll Upon this bare single testimony of hers the Jury found him guilty he was condemned and dyed for it Not long after the Chamber-maid grieving for the loss of her espoused husband seeing her fellow-servants Trunk or Box unlocked list up the Cover and there saw that very Boll which she very well knew for which the young man was condemned and suffered she calls up her master who found it to be the same Boll which she he shewing it to her could not deny upon this she was prosecuted condemned and suffered death and the Chamber-maid fell mad with grief and dyed And all this came from this judgment upon the testimony of a single witnesse Should any object That this might happen upon the testimony of two or more witnesses It is possible but not so probable and the safe way is to follow the Rule afore-mentioned In the case of Treason two witnesses are required and very requisite and in other crimes capital especially when also in many cases that are not capital two witnesses are required why might it not be reasonably expected though the atrocity of Treason is high yet as to the person offending and suffering the punishment by losse of life is little different And also Touching Juries if though sitting that Juries of life and death as also in other Actions both criminal and civil should be considered of and better Juries impanelled then often are and the Sheriff and Under-Sheriff and other inferiour Officers power in impannelling such Juries be looked after 40 s. per annum as is touched above was in the beginning of that Law or custom of tryal by Juries a good considerable estate and so the persons probably more considerable and knowing They anciently used to be twelve Knights so sayes Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Littletons Tenures citing Mr. Lambert Many instances might be given of the strange Verdicts given by some such Juries out of their ignorance or wilfulness or both who oftentimes expresly deny to follow the Judges directions but go quite contrary but I spare to instance them in reverence to the Law under which I was born and live and the practice thereof both which especially in most parts thereof are very excellent And we see what Pamphlets have been published by John Lilburn if not by others too affirming the power of Juries not as is commonly held to be onely in matter of fact but in matter of Law too and how they have controuled learned Judges in their Verdicts and obstinately carried it against them and how the meaning of that Axiom Ex facto jus oritur hath been extremely rack'd The meaning of Legalis homo to qualifie him to be of a Jury is not nor formerly was meant to be onely a man of 40 s. per annum but to be at least in some good measure in legibus peritus as some are of opinion and so as it were a kind of assistant to the Judge And also if thought sitting New Laws to be made upon new accidents that new Laws should be made upon emergencies and accidents when they happen and are notorious and publickly known be the crimes never so heynous and horrid Till they have happened it may be thought fit not to make a prohibitory Law against them for the reason afore mentioned Ne dum prohibent jubent As namely of making Eunuches of men or women Making of Eunuchs That case may be remembred of the Horse-gelder in Nottinghamshire that spayed a young woman and being a casus omissus the Judge could find it no more then a misdemeanour It hath been anciently forbidden by the Imperial Laws and the punishment is capital Cod. de Eunuchis lib 4 tit 4.2 l. 1. The stealing of a Winding-sheet out of a Grave That abominable basenesse of a woman and a Mastiff-dog Stealing of the Winding-sheet out of the Grave not far from Temple-bar London not many years since if the Law be not plain enough in that case that it may