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A59100 Tracts written by John Selden of the Inner-Temple, Esquire ; the first entituled, Jani Anglorvm facies altera, rendred into English, with large notes thereupon, by Redman Westcot, Gent. ; the second, England's epinomis ; the third, Of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdictions of testaments ; the fourth, Of the disposition or administration of intestates goods ; the three last never before extant.; Selections. 1683 Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.; White, Robert, 1645-1703.; Selden, John, 1584-1654. Jani Anglorum facies altera. English.; Selden, John, 1584-1654. England's epinomis.; Selden, John, 1584-1654. Of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdiction of testaments. 1683 (1683) Wing S2441; ESTC R14343 196,477 246

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he would hearken to them and grant that they might continue under their own Countrey Laws Whereupon calling a Council he did at the last yield to the request of the Barons From that day forward therefore the Laws of King Edward which had before been made and appointed by his Grand-father Adgar seeing their authority were before the rest of the Laws of the Countrey respected confirmed and observed all over England But what then Doth it follow that all things in William's time were new How can a man chuse but believe it The Abbot of Crowland sayes this of it I have brought with me from London into my Monastery the Laws of the most Righteous King Edward which my Renowned Lord King William hath by Proclamation ordered under most grievous penalties to be authentick and perpetual to be kept inviolably throughout the whole Kingdom of England and hath recommended them to his Justices in the same language wherein they were at first set forth and published And in the Life of Fretherick Abbot of S. Albans you have this account After many debates Arch-Bishop Lanfrank being then present at Berkhamstead in Hartfordshire the King did for the good of peace take his Oath upon all the Reliques of the Church of S. Alban and by touching the holy Gospels Fretherick the Abbot administring the Oath that he would inviolably observe the good and approved ancient Laws of the Kingdom which the holy and pious Kings of England his Predecessors and especially King Edward had appointed But you will much more wonder at that passage of William le Rouille of Alençon in his Preface to the Norman Customs That vulgar Chronicle saith he which is intitled the Chronicle of Chronicles bears witness that S. Edward King of England was the Maker or Founder of this Custom where he speaks of William the Bastard Duke of Normandy alias King of England saying that whereas the foresaid S. Edward had no Heirs of his own Body he made William Heir of the Kingdom who after the Defeat and Death of Harald the Usurper of the Kingdom did freely obtain and enjoy the Kingdom upon this condition to wit that he would keep the Laws which had before been made by the fore-mentioned Edward which Edward truly had also given Laws to the Normans as having been a long time also brought up himself in Normandy Where then I pray you is the making of new Laws Why without doubt according to Tilbury we are to think that together with the ratifying of old Laws there was mingled the making of some new ones and in this case one may say truly with the Poet in his Panegyrick Firmatur senium Juris priscamque resumunt Canitiem leges emendanturque vetustae Acceduntque novae which in English speaks to this sense The Laws old age stands firm by Royal care Statutes resume their ancient gray hair Old ones are mended with a fresh repair And for supply some new ones added are See here we impart unto thee Reader these new Laws with other things which thou maist justly look for at my hands in this place CHAP. II. The whole Country inrolled in Dooms-day Book Why that Book so called Robert of Glocester's Verses to prove it The Original of Charters and Seals from the Normans practised of old among the French Who among the Romans had the priviledge of using Rings to seal with and who not 1. HE caused all England to be described and inrolled a whole company of Monks are of equal authority in this business but we make use of Florentius of Worcester for our witness at this time how much Land every one of his Barons was possessed of how many Soldiers in fee how many Ploughs how many Villains how many living Creatures or Cattel I and how much ready mony every one was Master of throughout all his Kingdom from the greatest to the least and how much Revenue or Rent every Possession or Estate was able to yield That breviary or Present State of the Kingdom being lodged in the Archives for the generality of it containing intirely all the Tenements or Tenures of the whole Country or Land was called Dooms-day as if one would say The day of Doom or Judgment For this reason saith he of Tilbury we call the same Dooms-day Book Not that there is in it sentence given concerning any doubtful cases proposed but because it is not lawful upon any account to depart from the Doom or Judgment aforesaid Reader If it will not make thy nice Stomach wamble let me bring in here an old fashioned Rhyme which will hardly go down with our dainty finical Verse-wrights of an historical Poet Robert of Glocester One whom for his Antiquity I must not slight concerning this Book The K. W. vor to wite the worth of his londe Let enqueri streitliche thoru al Engelonde Hou moni plou lond and hou moni hiden also Were in everich sire and wat hii were wurth yereto And the rents of each toun and of the waters echone That wurth and of woods eke that there ne bileved none But that he wist wat hii were wurth of al Engelonde And wite al clene that wurth thereof ich understond And let it write clene inou and that scrit dude iwis In the Tresorie at Westminster there it yut is So that vre Kings suth when hii ransome toke And redy wat folc might give hii fond there in yor boke Considering how the English Language is every day more and more refined this is but a rude piece and looks scurvily enough But yet let us not be unmindful neither that even the fine trim artifices of our quaint Masters of Expression will themselves perhaps one day in future Ages that shall be more critical run the same risk of censure and undergo the like misfortune And that Multa renascentur quae nunc cecidere cadentque Quae nunc sunt in honore As Horace the Poet born at Venusium tells us That is Several words which now are fal'n full low Shall up again to place of Honour start And words that now in great esteem I trow Are held shall shortly with their honour part 2. The Normans called their Writings given under their hand Charters I speak this out of Ingulph and they ordered the confirmation of such Charters with an impression of Wax by every ones particular Seal under the Testimony and Subscription of three or four Witnesses standing by But Edward the Confessor had also his Seal though that too from Normandy For in his time as the same Writer saith Many of the English began to let slip and lay aside the English Fashions bringing in those of the Normans in their stead and in many things to follow the customs of the Franks all great persons to speak the French Tongue in their Courts looking upon it as a great piece of gentility to make their Charters and Writings alamode of France and to be ashamed of their own Country usages in these
the whole Book p. 13 CHAP. X. The Druids reckoning of time An Age consists of thirty Years What Authors treat of the Druids Their Doctrines and Customs savour of Pythagoras and the Cabbalists They were the eldest Philosophers and Lawyers among the Gentiles Some odd Images of theirs in Stone in an Abby near Voitland described p. 15 CHAP. XI The Britans and Gauls had Laws and Customs much alike and whence that came Some things common to them both set down in relation to the breeding of their Children the Marrying of their Wives the Governing of their Families burning Women that killed their Husbands and burning some Servants with the dead Master for company Together with some Remarks of their publick Government p. 16 CHAP. XII Women admitted to publick debates A large commendation of the Sex together with a vindication of their fitness to govern against the Salick Law made out by several examples of most Nations p. 18 CHAP. XIII Their putting themselves under protection by going into great mens service Their Coins of money and their weighing of it Some sorts of flesh not lawful to be eaten by them p. 21 CHAP. XIV Community of Wives among the Britans used formerly by other Nations also Chalcondylas his mistake from our Civil Custom of Saluting A rÄ—buke of the foolish humour of Jealousie p. 22 CHAP. XV. An account of the British State under the Romans Claudius wins a Battel and returns to Rome in Triumph and leaves A. Plautius to order affairs A Colony is sent to Maldon in Essex and to several other places The nature of these Colonies out of Lipsius Julius Agricola's Government here in Vespasian's time p. 24 CHAP. XVI In Commodus his time King Lucy embraces the Christian Religion and desires Eleutherius then Pope to send him the Roman Laws In stead of Heathen Priests he makes three Arch-Bishops and twenty eight Bishops He endows the Churches and makes them Sanctuaries The manner of Government in Constantine's time where ends the Roman account p. 27 CHAP. XVII The Saxons are sent for in by Vortigern against the Scots and Picts who usurping the Government set up the Heptarchy The Angles Jutes Frisons all called Saxons An account of them and their Laws taken out of Adam of Bremen p. 29 CHAP. XVIII The Saxons division of their people into four ranks No person to marry out of his own rank What proportion to be observed in Marriages according to Policy Like to like the old Rule Now Matrimony is made a matter of money p. 30 CHAP. XIX The Saxons way of judging the Event of War with an Enemy Their manner of approving a proposal in Council by clattering their Arms. The Original of Hundred-Courts Their dubbing their Youth into Men. The priviledge of young Lads Nobly born The Morganheb or Wedding-dowry p. 32 CHAP. XX. Their severe punishments of Adultery by maiming some parts of the body The reason of it given by Bracton The like practised by Danes and Normans p. 33 CHAP. XXI The manner of Inheriting among them Of deadly Feuds Of Wergild or Head-money for Murder The Nature of Country-Tenures and Knights Fees p. 36 CHAP. XXII Since the return of Christianity into the Island King Ethelbert's Law against Sacriledge Thieves formerly amerced in Cattel A blot upon Theodred the Good Bishop of London for hanging Thieves The Country called Engelond by Order of King Egbert and why so called The Laws of King Ina Alfred Ethelred c. are still to be met with in Saxon. Those of Edward the Confessor and King Knute the Dane were put forth by Mr. Lambard in his Archaeonomia p. 37 CHAP. XXIII King Alfred divides England into Counties or Shires and into Hundreds and Tythings The Original of Decenna or Court-leet Friburg and Mainpast Forms of Law how People were to answer for those whom they had in Borgh or Mainpast p. 39 CHAP. XXIV King Alfred first appointed Sheriffs By Duns Scotus his advice he gave Order for the breeding up of Youth in Learning By the way what a Hide of Land is King Edgar's Law for Drinking Prelates investiture by the Kings Ring and Staff King Knute's Law against any English-man that should kill a Dane Hence Englescyre The manner of Subscribing and Sealing till Edward the Confessor's time King Harold's Law that no Welch-man should come on this side Offa's Dike with a weapon p. 41 CHAP. XXV The Royal Consorts great Priviledge of Granting Felons Estates forfeited to the King Estates granted by the King with three Exceptions of Expedition Bridge and Castle The Ceremony of the Kings presenting a Turf at the Altar of that Church to which he gave Land Such a Grant of King Ethelbald comprized in old Verse p. 43 THE CONTETNS BOOK II. CHAP. I. WIlliam the Conquerour's Title He bestows Lands upon his followers and brings Bishops and Abbots under Military service An account of the old English Laws called Merchenlage Danelage and Westsaxen-lage He is prevailed upon by the Barons to govern according to King Edward's Laws and at S. Albans takes his Oath so to do Yet some new Laws were added to those old ones p. 47 CHAP. II. The whole Country inrolled in Dooms-day Book Why that Book so called Robert of Glocester's Verses to prove it The Original of Charters and Seals from the Normans practised of old among the French Who among the Romans had the priviledge of using Rings to seal with and who not p. 51 CHAP. III. Other wayes of granting and conveying Estates by a Sword c. particularly by a Horn. Godwin's trick to get Boseham of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Pleadings in French The French Language and Hand when came in fashion Coverfeu Laws against taking of Deer against Murder against Rape p. 54 CHAP. IV. Sheriffs and Juries were before this time The four Terms Judges to act without appeal Justices of Peace The Kings payments made at first in Provisions Afterwards changed into Mony which the Sheriff of each County was to pay in to the Exchequer The Constable of Dover and Warder of the Cinque Ports why made A disorder in Church-affairs Reformed p. 56 CHAP. V. William Rufus succeeds Annats now paid to the King Why claimed by the Pope No one to go out of the Land without leave Hunting of Deer made Felony p. 59 CHAP. VI. Henry the First why called Beauclerk His Letters of Repeal An Order for the Relief of Lands What a Hereot was Of the Marriage of the Kings Homagers Daughter c. Of an Orphans Marriage Of the Widows Dowry Of other Homagers the like Coynage-money remitted Of the disposal of Estates The Goods of those that dye Intestate now and long since in the Churches Jurisdiction as also the business of Wills Of Forfeitures Of Misdemeanors Of Forests Of the Fee de Hauberk King Edward's Law restored p. 60 CHAP. VII His order for the restraint of his Courtiers What the punishment of Theft Coyners to lose their Hands and Privy members Guelding a kind of death What Half-pence and
at Rome One hundred for the honour of S. Peter to find Lights for his Church another hundred for the honour of S. Paul on the like occasion and the third hundred for the Pope's use to enlarge his Alms. This was done in the year 858. when Leo the Fourth was Pope Lin. 9. Thirty pence of live money Possibly the worth or value of thirty pence in Goods and Chattels King Offa in his Grant thus words it quibus sors tantum contulit extra domos in pascuis ut triginta argenteorum pretium excederet who had an Estate besides Houses in Lands which might exceed the value of thirty silver pence Lin. 15. Out of a Rescript of Pope Gregory We have the whole Letter set down in Spelman which speaks in English thus GREGORY the Bishop Servant of the Servants of God to his Worshipful Brethren the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and to their Suffraegans and to his beloved Sons the Abbots Priors Arch-Deacons and their Officials appointed throughout the Kingdom of England unto whom these Letters shall come Greeting and Apostolical Benediction In what manner the Pence of S. Peter which are due or owing to our Chamber are to be gathered in England and in what Bishopricks and Dioceses they are owing that there may arise no doubt on this occasion we have caused it to be set down in this present Writing according as it is contained in the Register of the Apostolick See Out of the Diocess of Canterbury seven pounds and eighteen shillings sterling Out of the Diocess of London sixteen pounds ten shillings And so of the rest Yeoven at the old City April 22. in the second year of our Popedom There is some difference though in the account of the Dioceses For after Lincoln he leaves out Coventry and puts Chichester for Chester 8 l. and then after Bath he puts in Salisbury and Coventry with a mistake 10 l. 10 s. for 5 s. and leaves York last Besides every body knows there are more Dioceses now than were then This was Gregory the Fifth that wrote this and it was our Author tells us in the time of King Edward the Second But Edward the Third in the year of the Lord 1365. and of his Reign 39. forbad these Peter-pence to be paid any more at Rome or to be gathered any longer in England CHAP. XV. Pag. 81. lin 10. Into six Provinces or Circuits As they are for number still with two Judges a piece though at first three How these differ from what they now are as to the Counties the Reader may easily satisfie himself Here are thirty seven of them as we now reckon only with this difference that Monmouth and Rutland are left out and Richmond and Copland are put in Pag. 82. lin 27. And if he perish i. e. sink let him lose one foot For that in this tryal by water was the sign and proof of guilt if the party thrown in did not swim which is quite contrary in the tryal of Witches as you will find in the next Chapter which treats of Ordeals Lin. 39. The Kings great Assise Assise is a word that hath many significations in our Law It is here in the Title taken for a Statute The Assises i. e. the Statutes and Ordinances of King Henry made at Clarendon But in this place it is used for a Jury and it is either the Great or Grand Assise which serv'd for the right of Property and was to consist of twelve Knights or the Petty Assise which served for the right of Possession only and was made up of twelve lawful men CHAP. XVI Pag. 86. lin 34. The superstitions and fopperies These you have also in Sir H. Spelman with an Incipit Missa Judicii which shews that the Church of Rome did once approve of these Customs which since she hath condemned notwithstanding her pretence of being Infallible I would to God she would deal as ingenuously in throwing off those other errors and corruptions we do so justly charge her with CHAP. XVII Pag. 87. lin 21. Hogenhine Or Agen-hyne that is ones own servant It is written also Home-hyne that is a servant of the house Lin. 33. Holding in Frank Pledge The Latin is francus tenens Wherefore amend the mistake and read holding in Frank Fee For Frank Pledg is a thing of another nature as belonging to a mans Behaviour and not to his Tenure Now Frank Fee is that which is free from all service when a man holds an Estate at the Common Law to himself and his heirs and not by such service as is required in ancient demesne Pag. 88. lin 12. The Falcidian Law So named from one Falcidius who being Tribune of the people in Augustus his time was the Maker of this Law Lin. 33. Twenty pounds worth of Land in yearly revenue So I render 20. libratae terrae For although Cowell in proportion to Quadrantata or Fardingdeal of Land which he saith is the fourth part of an Acre seem● at first to gather that Obolata then must be half an Acre Denariata a whole Acre and by consequence Solidata twelve Acres and Librata twenty times twelve that is two hundred and forty Acres Yet this was but a conceit of his own For by having found the word used with reference to Rent as well as Land thus 20. libratas terrae vel reditûs he is forced to acknowledge that it must signifie so much Land as may yield twenty shillings per annum To which opinion Spelman also giv● his assent But what quantity of Land this Librata terrae is cannot so easily be determined Cowell out of Skene tells us it contains four Oxgangs and every Oxgang thirteen Acres if so then it is fifty two Acres and twenty of them which make a Knights fee come to one thousand and forty Acres which somewhat exceeds the account here set down of six hundred and eighty out of the Red Book of the Exchequer But there is a great deal of more difference still as the account of the Knights fée is given by others In one Manuscript we read that A Yardland contains twenty four Acres four Yard-lands make one Hide that is ninety six Acres and five Hides make a Knights fee that is four hundred and eighty Acres the Relief whereof is a hundred Shillings Another Manuscript hath it thus Ten Acres according to ancient custom make one Fardel and four Fardels that is forty Acres make a Yardland and four Yardlands that is one hundred and sixty Acres make one Hide and four Hides that is six hundred and forty Acres make one Knights fee. A third reckons it otherwise that sixteen Yard-lands make a whole Knights fee which if we make a Yard-land to be twenty four Acres according to the first account com●s to three hundred eighty four Acres but if according to the second we take it for forty Acres it amounts to six hundred and forty Acres And saith he when they are taxed at six Shillings four Pence that is every of
fancy of the Clerks or Notaries However the last words which are the close of these Grants and Patents are not to be slighted These we may see in that of Cedwalla King of the South-Saxons made to Theodore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the year 687. thus For a further confirmation of my grant I Cedwalla have laid a Turf of the Land aforesaid upon the holy Altar of my Saviour And with my own hand being ignorant of Letters have set down and expressed the mark or sign of the Holy Cross. Concerning Withred and a Turf of Land in Kent Camden has the same thing And King Ethelulph is said to have offered his Patent or Deed of Gift on the Altar of the holy Apostle St Peter For a conclusion I know no reason why I may not set underneath the Verses of an old Poet wherein he hath comprised the instrument or Grant of founding an Abby which Ethelbald King of the Mercians gave to Kenulph Abbot of Crowland Verses I say but such as were made without Apollo's consent or knowledge Istum Kenulphum si quis vexaverit Anglus Rex condemno mihi cuncta catella sua Inde meis Monachis de damnis omnibus ultrà Vsque satisfaciat carcere clausus erit Adsunt ante Deum testes hujus dationis Anglorum proceres Pontificesque mei Sanctus Guthlacus Confessor Anachorita Hic jacet in cujus auribus ista loquor Oret pro nobis sanctissimus iste Sacerdos Ad tumbam cujus haec mea dona dedi Which in Rhyme dogrel will run much after this hobling rate If any English vex this Kenulph shall I King condemn to me his Chattels all Thenceforth until my Monks he satisfie For damages in Prison he shall lye Witnesses of this Gift here in Gods sight Are English Peers and Prelates of my Right Saint Guthlac Confessor and Anchoret Lies here in whose Ears these words I speak yet May he pray for us that most holy Priest At whose Tomb these my Gifts I have addrest Thus they closed their Donations or Grants thus we our Remarks of the Saxons being now to pass to the Normans THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ENGLISH JANUS From the NORMAN Conquest to the Death of King Henry II. CHAP. I. William the Conquerour 's Title He bestows Lands upon his followers and brings Bishops and Abbots under Military Service An account of the old English Laws called Merchenlage Danelage and Westsaxen-lage He is prevailed upon by the Barons to govern according to King Edward's Laws and at S. Albans takes his Oath so to do Yet some new Laws were added to those old ones WILLIAM Duke of Normandy upon pretence of a double Right both that of Blood inasmuch as Emme the Mother of Edward the Confessor was Daughter to Richard the first Duke of the Normans and withal that of Adoption having in Battel worsted Harald the Son of Godwin Earl of Kent obtain'd a large Inheritance and took possession of the Royal Government over all England After his Inauguration he liberally bestowed the Lands and Estates of the English upon his fellow-soldiers that little which remained so saith Matthew Paris he put under the yoke of a perpetual servitude Upon which account some while since the coming in of the Normans there was not in England except the King himself any one who held Land by right of Free-hold as they term it since in sooth one may well call all others to a man only Lords in trust of what they had as those who by swearing fealty and doing homage did perpetually own and acknowledge a Superior Lord of whom they held and by whom they were invested into their Estates All Bishopricks and Abbacies which held Baronies and so far forth had freedom from all Secular service the fore-cited Matthew is my Author he brought them under Military service enrolling every Bishoprick and Abbacy according to his own pleasure how many Souldiers he would have each of them find him and his Successors in time of Hostility or War Having thus according to this model ordered the Agrarian Law for the division and settlement of Lands he resolved to govern his Subjects we have it from Gervase of Tilbury by Laws and Ordinances in writing to which purpose hè proposed also the English Laws according to their Tripartite or threefold distinction that is to say Merchenlage Danlage and Westsaxenlage Merchenlage that is the Law of the Mercians which was in force in the Counties of Glocester Worcester Hereford Warwick Oxford Chester Salop and Stafford Danlage that is the Law of the Danes which bore sway in Yorkshire Derby Nottingham Leicester Lincoln Northampton Bedford Buckingham Hertford Essex Middlesex Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge Huntingdon Westsaxenlage that is the Law of the West-Saxons to which all the rest of the thirty two Counties which are all that Malmesbury reckons up in Ethelred's time did belong to wit Kent Sussex Surrey Berks Southampton Winton Somerset Dorset and Devon Some of these English Laws he disliked and laid aside others he approved of and added to them some from beyond Sea out of Neustria he means Normandy which they did of old term Neustria corruptly instead of Westrich as being the more Western Kingdom of the Franks and given by Charles the Simple to Rollo for his Daughter Gilla her portion such of them as seemed most effectual for the preserving of the Kingdoms peace This saith he of Tilbury Now this is no rare thing among Writers for them to devise that William the Conqueror brought in as it were a clear new face of Laws to all intents and purposes 'T is true this must be acknowledg'd that he did make some new ones part whereof you may see in Lambard's Archaeonomia and part of them here subjoyned but so however that they take their denomination from the English rather than from the Normans although one may truly say according to what Lawyers dispute that the English Empire and Government was overthrown by him That he did more especially affect the Laws of the Danes which were not much unlike to those of the Norwegians to whom William was by his Grand-father allied in blood I read in the Annals of Roger Hoveden And that he openly declared that he would rule by them at hearing of which all the great men of the Countrey who had enacted the English Laws were presently struck into dumps and did unanimously petition him That he would permit them to have their own Laws and ancient Customs in which their Fathers had lived and they themselves had been born and bred up in forasmuch as it would be very hard for them to take up Laws that they knew not and to give judgement according to them But the King appearing unwilling and uneasie to be moved they at length prosecuted their purpose beseeching him that for the Soul of King Edward who had after his death given up the Crown and Kingdom to him and whose the Laws were and not any others that were strangers