Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	edward_n	king_n	normandy_n	2,635	5	11.0549	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59386	Rights of the kingdom, or, Customs of our ancestors touching the duty, power, election, or succession of our Kings and Parliaments, our true liberty, due allegiance, three estates, their legislative power, original, judicial, and executive, with the militia freely discussed through the British, Saxon, Norman laws and histories, with an occasional discourse of great changes yet expected in the world.	Sadler, John, 1615-1674.	1682 (1682)	Wing S279; ESTC R11835	136,787	326

Henry the first the Descent of divers Nations of Europe from the Trojans in Huntingdon and Hoveden But it may be considered what this State and Parliament hath oft owned of Brute and the Trojan Story not only in the grand Moot of the Dependance of Scotland on England ever since King Brute which beside all Records in the Exchequer is at large in Walsinghams Edward the first and the Survey of Normandy as also in the Laws of the Confessor cap. 35. To which I might add the Trojan Reliques Statues Tablets and Pictures in all the Brittish Danish Saxon English Wars found here in Cornwall Wales and other Parts besides our Troy Novant or new Troy the old Trojan Roman name of this Famous City of the Troinovantes in the Roman Writers Trinobantes now London since the time of Lud's building a Gate and changing this Cities Name But for leaving out the Name of Troy some were so much offended that it came to a great Contest and Quarrel couched in Verse from others by the old Gildas and translated by the Famous Nennius of Bangor escaping that bloody Massacre Who hath also left us an old History yet to be seen in MS. collected as himself saith from the Brittish and Scottish Records and from the old Roman Annals which were then found relating the Pedigree of Brute or Britto some will have him Brotos and some Brutus from Aeneas to Rome and his bringing some Trojan Reliques hither by the way of Gaul where he also saith he built the City of Turons or Tours much as Monmouth and others have the Story though I could never find it in Homer or any of the Ancients by them cited for Turons Yet I find the same Nennius confessing that the Brittish Annals had another descent of their Brute or Britto from Japhet obtaining Europe for his Portion with the Brittish Isles of which Noahs Will in Eusebius or other old Fragments came alone from whence the Almans and Francks besides our Britto Father to the Brittains whose Genealogy through twenty Descents to Noah and Adam he saith he had from the Tradition of those who lived here in Primis Britanniae Temporibus So that if we may not believe Taliessin the British Bard of Trojans coming hither with their Brute yet we may peruse his Scholar or the Merlin that foretold the Name of Brute should come again upon this Island whether in the Scottish Union or in the Welsh returning to their Lost Dominions I dispute not nor how this Island came so like to Somothrace so near a Kin to Troy in Rites of Worship or in other Customs as of old some did observe especially in those concerning Ceres or Proserpina so famous here that in the old Argonauts the Brittish Isles are stiled the Court or Palace of Ceres and yet this might be for other Reasons But although I cannot deny some Trojan customs among us yet I know not why I should grant that Trojan Succession to the Crown which so many do assert when as themselves do yield the same Trojans to be Brittans and those Brittans of whom we spake before And besides the Brittish Gavelkinde and all before themselves do also relate their own Brute parting his Kingdom among his three Sons and again the Crown parted between the two Sons of Madan two of Gorbodio two of Molmutius two of Lud so near a Kin to him that Caesar found Elected King by Common-Council And I must believe those who assert the Trojan Crown to go by Succession yet I know not why I may not also believe so many good or better Writers of the Trojan Common-Council or Parliament and their Power in Peace and War with all things else that might concern the King or Kingdom which great Council did consist of Princes or Nobles and Elders of the People Of which Trojan Parliament we read in Apuleius Socrates Daemon and in Homer Virgil Dictys and most ancient Dares who lived also in our Britain if good Bale deceive us not which yet is not so certain as that he was Translated or Paraphrased in Latin Verse by Ioseph of Exon or Iscan our Countrey-Man as many of his Verses speak although that Elegant Poem be ascribed to Cornelius Nepos as by him Dedicated to Salust in the times of the great Commerce between Rome and Britain which produced so many famous Brittish Romans beside Constantine Helen and the modest Claudia of whom St. Paul speaketh and Martial in several places maketh her a British Woman I will not insist upon their Election of Emperors or Generals by a kind of Lot in Dictys nor will I deny but the Trojans were severe enough to all Traitors whose dead Bodies also were denyed Burial if we may believe all from the Illiads but the Odysses may also afford us the very same Punishment for Tyrants whom they hated as much as the Grecians Nor will the Patrons of Succession or Prerogative find more encouragement among the Grecians than among the Trojans though I cannot deny but they do rightly observe many Grecian Customs among the Britains nor will I deny to our Ancestors both Greek Philosophers and Greek Schools besides Bladud's at Stamford and other Places I could easily believe these Islands to be known to the Grecians long before the Romans of whom Lucretius is the first that I yet know speaking of Britain but it was described by Polibius though our great Herald seem to forget it who might learn it from the Carthaginians trading hither and by Eratosthenes Dicaearcus Pithaeas and Artemidorus if I be not deceived from Strabo that I say nothing of the old Argonauts ascribed to Orpheus naming Ireland and describing Britain or of the Book of the World in Aristotles Works where Albion and Ferne are Brittish Isles mentioned also in Dyonisius and very famous for their Mines of Tin or Lead whence the name of Cassiterides of which Herodotus and others of the Ancients What was the Grecian Genius towards their Kings doth not only appear in their Supercilious Ephori Eye-brows or the Left eye of Greece but in the Right Eye or Athens of which much might be spoken from all the Greek Historians besides their Laws or Politicks of Plato and his Schollars long before the Attick Laws Collected by Petitus that I say nothing of Aristophanes or any of their Poets But how much our Ancestors owed to the Grecians I do not find expressed by any most of our Plays much of our Works and somewhat of our Laws seemeth to be Grecian The Genius of a State is seen in Plays some think rather than in Work they are Passions and as Lovers Pulses which do shew the Soul much quicker than do Words or Actions and the Greek Scenes were Passions or Sufferings of Princes rather than their Actions and a Tyrants blood was thought the Richest and fattest Sacrifice to please the People and appease their Gods but Interludes must be Corrected much and then they may both Moralize and Methodize the best Historians and may be

And where-ever these are found released as to Peterburg Canterbury Westminster but especially to Glassenbury the first and oldest Church in Britain Fons origo totius religionis It may be a clear Demonstration of the Parliaments assent to such a Charter For otherwise they could not be dispensed with by the King as we may find expressed in divers Charters as in those of Crowland which yet had great immunities And of that Restriction Matth. Paris may afford us the true reason because those three were setled for the Kingdom Propter Publicam Regni Vtilitatem ut per ea resisterent hostium in cursibus And K. William's Laws Castel Burg. Civit. fundatae aedificatae ad tuit Gent. Popul Regni ad Defens Regni idcirco observari debent cum omni libertate integritate Ratione Private Castles for habitation may be given in Dower and divided by Pacerners but so may none for publick defence Yet of such also may a man be Tenant by the Curtesie being able to guard them for Publick service of the Common-wealth One grand Objection must be removed but we need not fear it for it will flie or run away of it self 'T is that of the Conquest as many are pleased to call it not attending how little in this they be the Kings Friends for if this were his onely or his main and best Title there might be found in future ages some that may come to think it as lawful to conquer him as it was or could be to conquer them It must be considered for if the foundation be not sure and low the higher the building is the nearer its fall And it hath been observed that the higher Skale got up by accident is more ready to pop down again than it was before while it hung in due poize It seemeth a great weakness to be apt or prone to Suspition and therefore I shall not say I do suspect some that are most zealous for Prerogative or the Title of Conquest to be least acquainted with the Laws or Histories of England But I cannot be wholly free from wonder that any Lawyer or Historian that was friend to the King should be passionate in these which were so clearly quitted by that King whom they call the Conquerour He stood on Stilts or Patents or Pantofles but on plain English ground with two feet as other men The left and the weakest was Succession to Edward whose Kinsman he was and Heir by Will as appeareth by divers Passages in these very Laws of Saint Edward and William which may be seen and read of all But the right Leg with the strongest and best Foot he had to stand upon was the Peoples Assent Consent Acceptance and Election which we shall yet more fully clear when we discuss the Right of Succession or Election to this Crown and Kingdom But for the present it may suffice to observe That all these Laws we now have of King Edward's come to us through the Hands and Grant and Confirmation of King William the Norman and no otherwise Which I need not prove to any that have either read or seen the Laws themselves of which we speak For in the very Title and Preface thereof besides divers other passages in them all this and much more is fully related and recorded For it is there also further added That all those Laws were so presented to the said King William by a sworn Iury out of every County Who did also assert That these which they did present as the Laws of St. Edward were the undoubted Laws and Customs of the Kingdom that had also been collected into a Body by King Edgar and continued though sopite through the Troubles of succeeding Kings till Edward had the leisure to renew or rather confirm what was the Law before Nay when among all those Laws King William did most encline to those which came from Norway whence his Ancestors and Lords had issued forth and where a Bastard might inherit all the Patriarchs of England Compatriotae Regni qui Leges edixerant did so move and press him with such Arguments as may again be well considered that at length in Parliament Concilio habito precatis Baronum the King himself consented as they did desire This is expressed in his own Laws And by his own desire the Archbishop of Canterbury was one of those entrusted with enrolling or recording of those Laws Which to that very King and to his Successors to this very day became one special Clause of the Coronation-Oath Which was To confirm all the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom but especially the Laws of St. Edward called the Confessor And one of King William's own Laws is That all men observe and keep the Laws of King Edward in all things Adauctis his quas constituimus ad Vtilitatem Anglorum If this be not yet clear enough for the Laws themselves which are now extant and may be read and known of all we might confirm it much by Ingulph living at the same time and bringing those Laws with his own hands from London to his Crowland with such an Endorsement or Title of his own making Leges aequissimi Regis Edwardi quas Dominus meus inclitus Rex Willielmus Autenticas esse perpetuas per totum Regnum Angliae inviolabiliterque tenendas sub poenis gravissimis Proclamarat suis Iustitiis commendarat c. He was like enough to know it And the old Book of Litchfield cited in the great Reports besides that of the Iury from every County addeth also That the same King William did by the Counsel of his Barons call by Writ of Summons Summoniri fecit all the Nobles Wise-men Elders of the Witan and learned Lawyers in each County And in that great Parliament Ad Preces Communitatis Anglorum Rex acquievit c. confirming all by Common Council This of Litchsield is now printed in several places and Roger Hoveden agreeth in Henry the Second Nor did he onely confirm but in some things mitigate and in divers explain and clear what might seem obscure or heavy to the People Ad Vtilitatem Anglorum His Laws are now printed both with Mr. Selden's Notes on Eadmerus and with Mr. Wheelock's Impression of the Saxon Laws and History with a very good Preface of Sir Roger Twisden They do oblige us much that love and clear our Laws so far as just and good What Emendations and Additions King William made to St. Edward's Laws in this also of the Militia we have observed before at our unexpected enterance on this Question Which was not at all intended to be once so much as touched but in one Parenthesis Which was past Recovery before this Discourse was so much as designed But now having wandred so much and so far beyond my own purpose as well as my Subject I could almost be perswaded to step a little further and to touch I must no more upon some few passages between the Conquest as they

call it and the Barons of Wars Or the time of the great Charter For since that time the Rolls and Printed Acts are every where much larger and much better than my little reading or my leasure can present them Two words have sound of horror to the People who are taught to think them both oppressions and the sins of him they call the Conqueror Dane-geld and the Book of Dooms-day Some have added Curfeu with I know not what to make poor Children quake These have been proved to be long before the Normans coming in To that of Dane-geld I may add that good King Edward did also retain it to his Coffers when the Danish Storm was over till he saw the Devil dance upon it As the Crouland Abbot doth Record But it did rise from one to three to four to six shillings on the Hide but so by Parliament as may be much collected from the 11th Chap. of King Edwards Laws compared with Florence of Worcester Hoveden Huntingdon Math. Paris and Math. of Westminster besides some others which we must produce e're long And to say nothing of eleemosyne pro Aratris of which Canute and Ethelred it is clear in King Ethelstanes Laws that single Hides or Ploughlands in England were to maintain two Horsemen with Arms by Act of Parliament And this was more it seems than ever was King Williams Hydage or Dane-geld Which may be added to King Ethelstanes Militia as also his Doom book for all Judgments in one Form of which his Laws speak to what is said of Booca Doom But to King Williams Doomsday I shall now add to what before that besides the Mirror and Fitz-Herberts N. B. with the old Abbot of Crouland There is enough in every segment of that Roll to make one know it was a Review and little but a Review of what was done before They do abuse us else that bid us read the T. E. R. in all that Roll Tempore Edwardi Regis plain enough sometimes without all Divination That it was also confirmed by Parliament may be clear enough from the many exemptions a servitio Regis and a Vice-comit Nay to some inferiour places as Ely and Worcester Besides old Crowland which was not exempted from such service till the latter Saxon or first Normans time though Ingulph spake of divers Ethelreds But the same Abbot will tell us that this Doom Book was now also made juxta Taxatorum fidem qui Electi de qualibet Patria c. And that his Taxors were both kind and merciful non ad verum pretium nec ad verum spatium c. So preventing future Burthens and Exactions Talem Rotulum multum similem ediderat quondam Rex Alfredus c. But Alfreds own Will seemeth to carry it higher Nor was Ingulph's favour at the Court altogether useless for by that we come to know that our Norman King even in little things proceeded by a Great Councel So that our Abbots Charters must be viewed by Parliment Coram Domino meo Rege ac universo Concilio c. Thence he brought St. Edward's Laws as was observed before Huntingdon and Matthew Paris with Matthew of Westminster spake of his Hydage and Dooms-day as done with great Advice and Justice Misit Iusticiarios per unamquamque scyram inquirere fecit per jusjurandum quot Hydae i. e. jugera uni Aratro sufficientia per annum essent in unaquaque c. Nor are they wholy silent of his Parliaments Cum de more tenuisset curiam suam in Natali ad Gloucestriam and again at Winchester the like at London in another season Tilburiensis telleth us that Mony was paid to the Crown by Cities and Castles that used no Tillage But from the Land or Farms only Victuals till Henry the first And when the Kings foreign Wars did make him press for ready Mony the people murmured offering their Plowshares Horum igitur Querelis inclinatus Rex by advice of his Great council definito magnatum Concilio he sent out discreet prudent men that upon view of all the Lands should assesse the sums which the Sheriffs were to pay into the Exchequer This Gervase lived a while after King William Florence of Worcester near his Reign he telleth us of a Great Councel at Winchester And again of another at a place called Pedred not only by the King Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls but also primatibus totius Angliae a full Parliament for which Florilegius and Walsingham Newstria may be considered with Hoveden following Wigornens That in his Reign there was an High Constable of England ceasing in Henry the Eight appeareth by the Parliament Rolls of Edward the Fourth but Alfigar in the Book of Ely was such in St. Edwards time and to Him some ascribe the Constable of Dover with the Warden and Priviledge of the Cinque Ports with their Hamlets or Circuit including Rye and Winchelsey But all this speaketh Parliament as doth also his New Church Priviledge Communi Concilio Archiep. Episcop Abbat omnium Principum Regni mei Yet to be seen not only at Sir Robert Cottons Jewel House but among the Rolls with King Richards Charters for the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln This exemption of the Church from Seculars c. is the more considerable because it came up with the Norman King at the time of Hildebrand whose Letters missive came hither ad Willielmi Regis Concilium And that this Councel was a full Parliament appeareth by the Charters as I may call them of the Arch-Bishop of York ex praecepto Papae Gregorii 7. and Confirmatione Domini Willielmi Regis sub Testimonio Universalis Anglorum Concilii c. Of which Roger Hoveden is clear telling us also that this King summoned the Arch Bishops Bishops Abbots Counts Barons Vice Comit. cum suis Militibus were these Knights of Shires To this I may add from the Continuer of the Saxon Chronology that Lanfranc came hither from Caen on the Kings call and the Popes Command primatum Regni Anglorum in Ecclesia Cant. suscepit eligentibus eum Senioribus cum Episcopis principibus clero Populo Angliae in curia Regis a very clear and full Parliament Nor may I so wrong our Common Law as to detain that antient Record which the great Judg in his Reports citeth of a Writ of Right brought by this Lanfranc against Odo Bishop of Bajeux and removed by a Toll into the County Court where the King commanded all the good Lawyers to attend the County a toto Comitatu Recordatum atque judicatum est That as the King held his Lands in His Demesn in Dominio suo so was the Arch Bishop to hold his omnino liberas quietas in Dominiquo suo which Judgment was afterward confirmed by the King and Parliament cum consensu omnium principum suorum With which Record I may compare the old Manuscrips in Bennets Coll. Cambridge telling us of a great Moot magnum placitum in loco qui dicitur Pinenden in

quo Lanfrancus diratiocinatur and the conclusion that he was to hold his Lands and Customs by Sea and Land as free as the King held his ezcept in three things si regalis via fuerit effossa arbor incisa juxta super eam ceciderit si homicidium factum sanguis in ea fusus fuerit Regi dabit alioquin liber a Regis exactoribus In the same Author were read of a Great Counsel at London in that Normans Reign and of another at Glocester where the Arch Bishop of York jubente Rege et Lanfranco consentiente did consecrate William Bishop of Durham having no help adjunctorium from the Scottish Bishops subject to him which may be added to that before of Scotland belonging to the Province or Diocesse of York Nor can I abstain from the next paragraph in the same Author how Lanfranc did consecrate Donate a Monk of Canterbury ad Regnum Dubliniae at the Request of the King Clergy and people of Ireland Petente Rege clero populo Hiberniae which with divers others might be one Argument for the Antiquity of Irish Parliments and their dependance on England long before King Henry the Second For which I might also cite King Edgars Charters Oswalds Law and divers Historians of his times But the Charters mention Dublin it self and yet our Lawyers are so Courteous as to free Ireland from our Laws and Customs till towards the end of King Iohn and some of them conjecture that the Brehon Law came in again and that our Parliament obliged them not till Poynings Law in Henry the seventh But to return to our Norman King I need not beg proofs of Parliaments in his time at least not to those who know the Priviledge of antient Demesne which therefore is free from sending to Parliaments and from Knights Charges and Taxes of Parliament because it was in the Crowns not only in King William but before him in King Edward and the Rolls of Winchester for which the old Books are very clear with divers Records of Edward the third and Henry the fourth besides natura brevium That I say nothing of the old Tractat. de antiquo Dominico which is stiled a Statute among our English Statutes And besides all the late Reports or Records I find it in the Year Books of Edward the Third that he sued a Writ of Contempt against the Bishop of Norwich for encroaching on Edmondsbury against express Act of Parliament By King William the Conqueror and by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops Counts and Barons of England It is 21 of Ed. 3. Mich. fol. 60. Title 7. Contempt against an Act of Parliament This might well be one of the reasons why the great Judge giveth so much credit to the old Modus of Parliament as it was held in the time of King Edward the Confessor which as the antient copy saith was by the discreet men of the Kingdom recited before King William the Norman and by him approved and in his time used I have cited it before and compared it with Irish Modus which my much honoured friend Mr. Hackewil one of the Masters of Chancery hath under his hand attested from the Great Seal and Charter of Henry the fourth which himself hath seen reciting a former Charter of King Henry R. Angliae Hiberniae conquestor Dominus who sent the same Modus into Ireland Where himself or his Son Iohn sans terre had no great work to reduce them to the civility of Parliaments To which they had been long before accustomed and the Roll saith communi omnium de Hibernia consensu teneri statuit c. nor doth the division of the Irish-Shires seem so lately setled as some have thought although I may not dissent from the great Patron of Civill and Ecclesiastical Learning the late Primate of Ireland Touching that Irish Modus I have very little to add to the fourth part of the great Institutes in several places I shall now only observe that both these old Modi of Parliaments do agree in this Custom of the Kingdom that the King should require no Ayd but in full Parliament and in Writing to be delivered to each in degree Parliament And both they agree that every new difficult case of Peace and any war emergent within or without the Kingdom vel Guerre emergat in Regno vel extra ought to be written down in full Parliaments and therein to be debated which may be considered by all that will argue the Militia To which also we may add one clause of the Jewish Laws of their great Sanhedrim to whom they retain the power of Peace and War especially where it is Arbitrary and not meerly defensive in which the Law of nature maketh many Magistrates and this might with ease be confirmed from the Laws and Customs of all Civil Kingdoms in all ages But I must not wander from our English Laws I had almost forgotten that which should be well remembred Although many would perswade us to seek our Laws in the Custumier of Normandy it is not only affirmed in the Great Reports but also asserted by Guil de Rovell Alenconien and proved by divers Arguments in his Commentaries on that Grand Custumier that the Normans had their chief Laws from Hence As had also the Danes in the time of Canute for which we might have more proof and witness than the Abbot of Crowland So much even strangers did Love and Honour old English Laws Of King William the Second Sirnamed Rufus I shall speak but little for I must discuss his Election and Coronation Oath in a fitter place Some footsteps we find of his Parliaments in divers Wigornensis and Hoveden tell us that when he would have constrained the Scottish King ut secundum judicium Baronum suorum in curia sua Rectitudinem ei faceret Malcolm did refuse to do it but in the Confines or Marches Where he could not deny but the Kings of Scotland were accustomed rectitudinem facere regibus Angliae But he then said it ought to be by the Iudgement of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms secundum judicium utriusque Regni primatum And I find the like Record cited on Fortescue from Godfrey of Malmsbury But Huntingdon and Matthew Paris also relate that the same King Malcolm did submit both to do Homage and to swear Fealty to our English King and Paris addetth a pretty Story of King Malcolms overlooking Treason But again to King William Of his Errors in Government I shall only say that if Edom did really signified Red as hath been thought I could believe that all Historians speaking of Adamites then oppressing the People might allude to the near affinity between Edom and Rufus for Red. For this was his Sirname of King William the Second Henry the First is yet alive in his Laws and Charters Not only in Wendover with other Historians but among the Rolls and Records yet to be seen in the Exchequer They are now in Print

suites for them but not to sit as Judges For as the Commentator addeth they could not depute or make Attornies in a place and act judicial I will not I cannot say the Commons of England cannot choose or constitute their Judges but this I say or believe their delegates ought to be exceeding Curious I had almost said exceeding Scrupulous in making Judges and in bounding them to law and Justice both in way as well as End I must again repeat it That it may not seem enough to settle Judges just and wise and good Nor only to provide that they may do what is just I speak of end but men are men and ought in cases of such consequence to have their Way their Rule and Square by which they must proceed to be prescribed in their Patents or Commissions that they may do justly too as well as what is just To me it seemeth to be reason or the law of nature unto men that the Supreme Court should so limit all inferiours that it may not be left at large to their list or pleasure to condemn or sentence without Hearing Accusation Witness or without such Process and Tryal as shall be clear and plain and so prescribed in the Patent or Commission If it be not so done and expressed I know not what appeal can be but from the Court before Judgment For what appeal what writ of Error or what Plea can a man frame upon their Judgment who have no Rule no way of process prescribed and so cannot Err Transgress or Exceed their commission no not if they should without all accusation proof or witnesses condemn one to be sliced and fryed with exquisite tortures They are Judges but unlimited in way of Process infinite and purely Arbitrary No they are Men and so they must be Rational and Iust which was presupposed by them that gave so vast power They may be Iust indeed and so they should but yet no thanks for this to their Commission if it do not bound and limit out their way and manner of Process as it doth their work and Object or their End which was the wont of English Parliaments who were Just and wise themselves that they did see or fear it might be possible for their Committees to be most Unjust and Arbitrary if they were not most exactly limited Of all Commissions none were more curiously drawn and Pointed out by our Ancestors than those of especial Oyer and Terminer because the cases were not only heinous so they ought to be but such as for some extr ordinary cause emergent seemed to be as it were Extra Iudicial and such as could not stay and abide the usual process of the settled Courts of Justice Yet of these also did our Fathers take most especial care that they might be Iust in Way as well as End and that they might not be too High in Iustice for it seems that they had also learned an usual saying of the Antients Summum jus est injuria So that in divers of the Saxons Laws we find High Iustice Summum Ius to be as much forbidden as Injustice And I should tremble at it as an ill Omen to hear Authority commanded the the Kings Bench or any other Court should be now Stiled the Bench of High-Iustice For in Iustice the higher men goe up the worse or so at least it was esteemed by our Ancestors Their constant limitation was in every such Commission Thus and thus you shall proceed but still according to the Laws and Customs of England Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Angliae and no otherwise that is as Fortescu will say you shall be pittiful in Iustice and more merciful then all the world besides this Kingdom And if such a limitation were not expressed this was enough to prove the Commission Unjust and Illegal which is so well known to all Lawyers that I need not cite N. B. or the Register Commissions or Scrogs's case in Dyer or so many elder cases in Edward the 3 d. Henry the 4 th and almost all Kings Reigns Nay in King Iames among the great debates of Uniting Scotland to England when it was driven up so close that instead of Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Angliae it might be Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Brittanniae It was resolved by all Judges that there could not be that little change but of one word that doth so limit such Commissions but by consent of Parliament of both Kingdoms And in divers Parliaments of Ed. 1. Ed. 3. Hen. 4 th there were many Statutes made to limit all Commissions of Oyer and Terminer as that they must never be granted but before and to some of the Iudges of the Benches or of the Grand Eyre Nor those to be named by Parties but by the Court And with this usual Restriction according to the known clause of the Statute of Westminster the 2 d. in the Reign of Edward the 1 st But the Printed Statute must be compared with the Roll and with the 2 d of Ed. the 3 d. for else there may be in this as in other Printed Acts a great mistake by leaving out or changing one particle for that Clause except it be for heinous offence hath such influence into all the words before that by the known Common Law a Supersedeas doth lye to such Commissions quia non enormis Transgressio as the Register may teach us And although by Law there may be granted a Commission of Association with a Writ of Admittance of others to the Iudges assigned for Oyer and Terminer yet in all those Commissions and Writs the Rule must be prescribed quod ad Iustitiam pertinet and that also according to the Law and Custom of the Kingdom which is so much the Law of Nature that I need not wonder at the great Judg who in all his Institutes and so many Reports maketh those words absolutely necessary to the work of a Lawful Commission And for more prevention or Redress of injustice and Arbitrary Process were our Ancestors so punctual in requiring Records of all Proceedings in the Courts of Justice which is so agreable to Reason and the Law of Nature That the whole Parliament of England as I humbly conceive cannot it self proceed in matters of highest concernment but by Record Much less can it Licence other Courts to be without or above Record in such Affairs It is so well known to be the custom of the Kingdom that I shall not need to shew it in the Statute of York in Edw. 2d and many others in affirmance of the great Charter nisi per Legem Terrae But by the Law of the Land And in Edw. 3d. it was in full Parliament declared to be the Law of the Land that none should be put to answer but upon presentment before Iustices or matter of Record And the 2d of Westminster is very punctual in requiring Records for all legal exceptions as well as other matters and provideth that in case an Exception should not