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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	day_n	time_n	week_n	2,896	5	9.3672	5	true

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

of St. Ambrose mention'd in the Licence was on the fourth of April which commonly is about a Week or two before Easter And the Abbat of St. Alban having exempt jurisdiction within the Province of Canterbury granteth the dispensation to hold Assizes in tempore sacro as the Rubrick explaineth it lest the words nostrae jurisdictionis exemptae might be applied to some layick Franchise I assure my self there are many of this kind if they might come to light CHAP. VI. Of the Returns OF the Returns I will not venture to speak much but nothing at all of Essoins and Exception-days for that draweth nearer to the faculty of Lawyers wherein I mean not to be too busie The Returns are set days in every Term appointed to the Sheriffs for certifying the Courts what they have done in execution of the Writs they received from them And I take it that in old time they were the ordinary days set to the Defendants for appearance every one of them being a se'night after another to the end that the Defendant according to his distance from the place where he was to appear might have one two three or more of these Returns that is so many weeks for his appearance as he was Counties in distance from the Court where he was to appear This is verified by the Law of Ethelred the Saxon King in case of vouching upon Trover Gif he cenne ofer an scira haebbe ân ƿucena fyrst gif he cenne ofer tra scira habbe tra ƿucena fyrst gif he cenne ofer III. scira haebbe III. ƿucena fyrst Ofer eall sƿa fela scira sƿa he cenne haebbe sƿa feala ƿucena fyrst If the Vouchee dwell one Shire off let him at first have one week if he dwell two Shires off let him have two weeks if he dwell three Shires off let him have three weeks and for so many Shires as he dwelleth off let him have so many weeks The Law of Henry the First is somewhat more particular Qui residens est ad domum suam summoniri debet de placito quolibet cum testibus Et si domi non est idem dicatur vel dapifero vel denique familiae suae liberè denuncietur si in eodem Comitatu sit inde ad septem dies terminum habeat si in alia sit 15. dierum terminum habeat si in tertio Comitatu sit 3. Hebdomadae si in quarto quartae Hebdomadae ultrà non procedit ubicunque fuerit in Anglia nisi competens eum detineat soinius si ultra mare est 6. Hebdomadas habeat unum diem ad accessum recessum maris nisi vel occupatio servitii Regis vel ipsius aegritudo vel tempestas vel competens aliquod amplius respectet The Statute of Marlebridge Cap. 12. soundeth to this purpose In Assisis autem ultimae praesentationis in placito Quare impedit de Ecclesiis vacantibus dentur dies de Quindena in Quindenam vel de tribus septimanis in tres septimanas prout locus fuerit propinquus vel remotus And again Cap. 27. Sed si vocatus c. ad warrantum coram Justiciar itinerantibus fuerit infra Comitatum tunc injungatur Vicecomiti quòd ipsum infra tertium diem vel quartum secundùm locorum distantiam faciat venire sicut in itinere Justiciar fieri consuevit Et si extra Comitatum maneat tunc rationabilem habeat Summonitionem 15. dierum ad minùs secundùm discretionem Justiciar Legem Communem There was also another use of Returns as appeareth by the Reformed Customary of Normandy Artic. 10th Some of them belonged to Pleas of Goods and Chattels which we call personal Actions as those of Octab. Some to Pleas of Land and real Actions as those of Quindena to Quindena Nul n'est tenu de respondere de son heretage en mavidre tems que de quinizanie in quinizanie The more solemn Actions had the more solemn Returns as we see by the Stat. dies communes in Banco which I leave to my Masters of the Law I will not speak of the Returns particularly more than that Octab is sometimes reckon'd by 7. days sometimes by 8 By 7. excluding the Feast from which it is counted By 8. including it And the word is borrowed from the Constitutions of the Church where the seven days following Easter were appointed to be Ferial-days as we have shewed before in imitation of the seven days Azymorum following the Passover in the Levitical Law But in this ●●nner Octab. Trinitatis always includeth nine days reckoning Trinity-Sunday for one by reason the just Octabis falleth on the Sunday following which being no day in Court putteth off the Return till the next day after making Munday always taken for the true Octab. unless you will count these two days for no more than one as the Stat. de Anno Bissextili in the like case hath ordained CHAP. VII Of the Quarta Dies post TOuching the Quartam diem post allowed to the Defendant for his appearance after the day of Return it is derived from the Ancient Saxon Salique French and German Laws where it was ordained that the Plaintiff should per triduum seu amplius adversarium expectare usque ad occasum solis which they called Sol Satire as appeareth abundantly in their Laws and in the Formular of Marcellus as Bignonius notes upon the same To which also may be added that which occurreth in Gratian Cap. Biduum vel triduum But the original proceedeth from the ancient custome of the Germans mentioned by Tacitus Illud ex libertate vitium quòd non simul nec jussi conveniunt sed alter tertius dies cunctatione coeuntium absumitur He saith ex libertate because that to come at a peremptory time was a note of Servitude which the Germans despised CHAP. VIII Why I have used so much Canon and Foreign Law in the discourse with an incursion into the Original of our Laws I Have used much Canon and some other Foreign Laws in this discourse yet I take it not impertinently for as the Western Nations are for the most part deduced from the Germans so in ancient times there was a great agreement and affinity in their Laws Facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen qualem decet esse sororum They that look into the Laws of our English Saxons of the Saliques French Almayns Ripurians Bavarians Longobards and other German Nations about 800. years since shall easily find that out of them and many other Manners Rites and Customs of the Saxons and Germans is the first part and foundation of our Laws commonly called the Laws of Edward the Confessour and Common Law Two other parts principally as from two Pole Stars take their direction from the Canon-Law and the Laws of our brethren the Longobards descending from Saxon linage as well as we called otherwise the Feodal-law received generally

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

to begin the Fryday next after Corpus-Christi-day which in the said year 1614. was the day next before St. John Baptist and so the Term did of necessity begin on Saint John Baptist's day This deceived all the Prognosticators who counting St. John Baptist for a grand day and no day in Court appointed the Term in their Almanacks to begin the day after and consequently to hold a day longer so deceiving many by that their errour But the aforesaid Statute of 32 H. 8. changed the whole frame of this Term For it made it begin sooner by a Return viz. Crastino Sanctae Trinitatis and thereby brought Octabis Trinitatis which before was the first Return to be the second and Quindena Trinitatis which before was the second now to be the third and instead of the three other Returns of Crastino Octabis and Quindena Sancti Johannis it appointed that which before was no Return but now the fourth and last called Tres Trinitatis The altering and abbreviation of this Term is declared by the Preamble of the Statute to have risen out of two causes one for health in dismissing the Concourse of people the other for wealth that the Subject might attend his Harvest and the gathering in the fruits of the earth But there seemeth to be a third also not mention'd in the Statute and that is the uncertain station length and Returns of the first part of this Term which like an Excentrick was one year near to St. John Baptist another year far removed from it thereby making the Term not onely various but one year longer and another shorter according as Trinity-Sunday being the Clavis to it fell nearer or farther off from St. John Baptist. For if it fell betimes in the year then was this Term very long and the two first Returns of Octabis and Quindena Trinitatis might be past and gone a fortnight and more before Crastino Sancti Johannis could come in And if it fell late as some years it did then would Crastino Sancti Johannis be come and past before Octabis Trinitatis were gone out So that many times one or two of the first Returns of this Term for ought that I can see must in those days needs be lost CHAP. XVIII How Michaelmas-Term was abbreviated by Act of Parliament 16. Car. 1. Cap. 6. THE last place our Statute-Book affords upon this Subject of the limits and extent of the Terms is the Stat. 16. Car. 1. Chap. 6. intituled An Act concerning the limitatiom and abbreviation of Michaelmas-Term For whereas by former Statutes it doth appear that Michaelmas-Term did begin in Octabis Sanctae Michaelis that Statute appoints that the first Return in this Term shall ever hereafter be à die Sancti Michaelis in tres septimanas so cutting off no less than two Returns from the ancient beginning of this Term viz. Octabis Sancti Michaelis A die Sancti Michaelis in quindecim dies and consequently making the beginning of it fall a fortnight later than before Wherefore the first day in this Term will always be the 23d day of October unless it happen to be Sunday for then it must be defer'd till the day following upon which account we find it accordingly placed on the 24. for the year 1681. This is all the alteration that Statute mentions and therefore for the end of Michaelmas-Term I refer the Reader to what our Authour has said already in the 15th Chapter It may not be amiss in persuit of our Authour's method to set down the motives of making this abbreviation as we find them reckon'd up in the Preamble to that Statute There we find that the old beginning of Michaelmas-Term was generally found to be very inconvenient to his Majesty's subjects both Nobles and others 1. For the keeping of Quarter-Sessions next after the feast of St. Michael the Archangel 2ly For the keeping their Leets Law-days and Court-Barons 3ly For the sowing of land with Winter-Corn the same being the chief time of all the year for doing it 4ly For the disposing and setting in order of all their Winter husbandry and business 5ly For the receiving and paying of Rents 6ly Because in many parts of this kingdom especially the most northern Harvest is seldom or never Inned till three weeks after the said Feast All which affairs they could before by no means attend in regard of the necessity of their coming to the said Term so speedily after the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel to appear upon Juries and to follow their Causes and Suits in the Law SECT V. Other Considerations concerning Term-Time HAving thus laid out the frame of the Terms both according to the Ancient and Modern Constitutions it remaineth that we speak something of other points properly incident to this part of our division touching Term-Time viz. 1. Why the Courts sit not in the Afternoons 2. Why not upon some whole days as on grand-Grand-days double Feasts and other exempted days and the reason of them 3. Why some Law-business may be done upon some days exempted 4. Why the end of Michaelmas-Term is sometimes held in Advent and of Hilary-Term in Septuagessima Sexagessima and Quinquagessima 5. Why the Assizes are held in Lent and at times generally prohibited by the Church 6. Of Returns 7. Of the Quarta dies post 8. Why I have cited so much Canon Civil Feodal and foreign Laws in this Discourse with an incursion into the original of our Laws CHAP. I. Why the high Courts sit not in the Afternoons IT is now to be considered why the high Courts of Justice sit not in the Afternoons For it is said in Scripture that Moses judged the Israelites from Morning to Evening And the Romans used the Afternoon as well as the Forenoon yea many times the Afternoon and not the Forenoon as upon the days called Endotercisi or Intercisi whereof the Forenoon was Nefastus or Vacation and the Afternoon Fastus or Law-day as we shewed in the beginning And the Civilians following that Law do so continue them amongst us in their Terms at this day But our Ancestours and other the Northern Nations being more prone to distemper and excess of diet as the Canon Law noteth of them used the Forenoon onely lest repletion should bring upon them drowsiness and oppression of spirits according to that of St. Jerome Pinguis Venter non gignit mentem tenuem To confess the truth our Saxons as appeareth by Huntington were unmeasurably given to drunkenness And it is said in Ecclesiastes Vae Terrae cujus Principes manè comedunt Therefore to avoid the inconvenience depending hereon the Council of Nice ordained that Judices non nisi jejuni judicia decernant And in the Council of Salegunstad it was afterward decreed A. D. 1023 ut lectio Nicaeni Concilii recitetur which being done in the words aforesaid the same was likewise there confirm'd According to this in the Laws of Carolus Magnus the Emperour it is ordained L lib. 2. ut