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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59093	The reverse or back-face of the English Janus to-wit, all that is met with in story concerning the common and statute-law of English Britanny, from the first memoirs of the two nations, to the decease of King Henry II. set down and tackt together succinctly by way of narrative : designed, devoted and dedicated to the most illustrious the Earl of Salisbury / written in Latin by John Selden ... ; and rendred into English by Redman Westcot, Gent.; Jani Anglorum facies altera. English	Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.; White, Robert, 1645-1703.	1682 (1682)	Wing S2436; ESTC R14398	136,793	167

restored to them if there were any living creature on Ship-board that escaped drowning Forasmuch as before that time whatsoever through the misfortune of shipwrack was cast on Shoar was adjudged to the Exchequer except that the persons who suffered shipwrack and had escaped alive did themselves within such a time refit and repair the Vessel So the Chronicle of the Monastery of S. Martin de Bello This right is called Wreck or if you will Uareck of the Sea How agreeable to the Law of Nations I trouble not my self to enquire That more ancient Custom is as it were suitable to the Norman usage Now at this time our Lawyers and that the more modern Law of Edward the First pass judgement according to the more correct Copy of King Henry And they reckon it too among the most ancient Customs of the Kingdom Did therefore King Richard order or did Hoveden relate this to no purpose or without any need If one who suffers shipwrack dye in the Ship let his Sons or Daughters his Brethren or Sisters have what he left according as they can shew and make out that they are his next heirs Or if the deceased have neither Sons nor Daughters nor Brothers nor Sisters the King is to have his Chattels Can one imagine that this Law he made at Messina when he was engaged in War was calculated only for that time or place Certainly in the Archives there is elsewhere to be met with as much as this 40. That he might with a stout Army bear the brunt of Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Louis King of France who had conspired being bound by mutual Oaths to one another with the Duke of Anjou to take away from King Henry by force of Arms the Dutchy of Normandy he first of all t is Polydore avers it laid a heavy Tax upon the people to carry on the new War which thing with the Kings that followed after grew to be a custom He was the last of the Normans of a Male descent and as to the method of our undertaking here we treat of him last CHAP. IX In King Stephen's Reign all was to pieces Abundance of Castles buili Of the priviledge of Coming Appeals to the Court of Rome now set on foot The Roman Laws brought in but disowned An instance in the Wonder-working Parliament AS of old unless the Shields were laid up there was no Dancing at Weddings so except Arms be put aside there is no pleading of Laws That Antipathy betwixt Arms and Laws England was all over sensible of if ever at any time in the Reign of K. STEPHEN Count of Blois King Henry's Nephew by his Sister Adela For he did not only break the Law and his Oath too to get a Kingdom but also being saluted King by those who perfidiously opposed Mawd the right and true heir of King Henry he reigned with an improved wickedness For he did so strangely and odly chop and change every thing it is Malmsbury speaks it as if he had sworn only for this intent that he might shew himself to the whole Kingdom a Dodger and Shammer of his Oath But as he saith perjuros merito perjuria fallunt that is Such men as Perjuries do make their Trade By their own Perjuries most justly are betray'd They are things of custom to which he swore and such as whereby former priviledges are ratified rather than new ones granted However some things there are that may be worth the transcribing 41. Castles were frequently raised 'tis Nubrigensis relates it in the several Counties by the bandying of parties and there were in England in a manner as many Kings or rather as many Tyrants as Lords of Castles having severally the stamping of their own Coin and a power of giving Law to the Subjects after a Royal manner then was the Kingdom plainly torn to pieces and the right of Majesty shattered which gains to it self not the least lustre from stamping of Money Though I know very well that before the Normans in the City of Rochester Canterbury and in other Corporations and Towns Abbots and Bishops had by right of priviledge their Stampers and Coiners of Money 42. Next to the King Theobald Arch-Bishop of Canterbury presided over the Council of London where there were also present the Peers of the Realm which buzzed with new appeals For in England t is Henry of Huntington sayes it appeals were not in use till Henry Bishop of Winchester when he was Legate cruelly intruded them to his own mischief Wherefore what Cardinal Bellarmin has writ beginning at the Synod of Sardis concerning the no body knows how old time of the universal right of appealing to the Pope of Rome does not at all as to matter of fact seem to touch upon this Kingdom of ours by many and many a fair mile 43. In the time of King Stephen fo 't is in the Polycraticon of John of Salisbury the Roman Laws were banisht the Realm which the House of the Right Reverend Theobald Lord Primate of Britanny had fetcht or sent for over into Britanny Besides it was forbidden by Royal Proclamation that no one should retain or keep by him the Books If you understand the Laws of the Empire I rather take them to be the Decrees of the Popes it will not be much amiss out of the Parliament Records to adjoyn these things of later date In the Parliament holden by Richard of Bourdeaux which is said to have wrought Wonders Upon the Impeachment of Alexander Nevil Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Robert Uere Duke of Ireland Michael Pole Earl of Suffolk Thomas Duke of Glocester Richard Earl of Arundel Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and others That they being intrusted with the management of the Kingdom by soothing up the easie and youthful temper of the King did assist one another for their own private interest more than the publick well near to the ruine and overthrow of the Government it self the Common Lawyers and Civilians are consulted with about the form of drawing up the Charge which they answer all as one man was not agreeable to the rule of the Laws But the Barons of Parliament reply That they would be tyed up to no rules nor be led by the punctilioes of the Roman Law but would by their own authority pass judgement pur ce que la royalme d' Angleterre n' estoit devant ces heures n'y à l' entent de nostre dit Seigneur le Roy Seigneurs de Parlament unque ne serra rules ne gouvernes per la Loy Civil that is inasmuch as the Realm of England was not before this time nor in the intention of our said Lord the King and the Lords of Parliament ever shall be ruled or governed by the Civil Law And hereupon the persons impleaded are sentenced to be banished But here is an end of Stephen He fairly dyed CHAP. X. In King Henry the Seconds time the Castles demolished A Parliament held at Clarendon Of

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 rebuke 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. VXX 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 Dan●lage 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 Coverse● 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 Farthings to pass The right measure of the Eln. The Kings price set for provisions p. 63 CHAP. VIII The Regality claim'd by the Pope but within a while resumed by the King The Coverfe● dispensed with A Subsidy for marrying the Kings daughter The Courtesie of England Concerning Shipwrack A Tax levied to raise and carry on a War p. 65 CHAP. IX In King Stephen's Reign all was to pieces Abundance of Castles built Of the priviledge of Coining Appeals to the Court of Rome now set

discretion fit for the service These persons going about and that they might believe their own eyes taking a view of the several Lands having made an estimate of the provisions which were paid out of them they reduced it into a sum of pence But for the total sum which arose out of all the Lands in one County they ordered that the Sheriff of that County should be bound to the Exchequer Adding this withal that he should pay it at the Scale Now the manner of paying the tryal of the weight and of the metal by Chymical operation the Melter or Coyner and the surveyor of the Mint are more largely handled and explained by my self in some other work of mine 13. That he might the more firmly retain Kent to himself that being accounted as it were the Key of England 't is the famous Mr. Camden tells the Story he set a Constable over Dover-Castle and made the same person Warden of the Cinque Ports according to the old usage of the Romans Those are Hastings Dover Hith Rumney and Sandwich to which are joyned Winchelsey and Rye as Principals and other little Towns as Members 14. To put the last hand to William I add out of the Archives this Law not to be accounted among the last or least of his William by the Grace of God King of the English to all Counts or Earls Viscounts or Sheriffs and to all French born and English men who have Lands in the Bishoprick of Remigius greeting This Remigius was the first who translated the Episcopal See from Dorchester to Lincoln Be it known unto you all and the rest of my Liege Subjects who abide in England that I by the common advice of my Arch-Bishops and the rest of the Bishops and Abbots and all the Princes of my Kingdom have thought fit to order the amendment of the Episcopal Laws which have been down to my time in the Kingdom of the Angles not well nor according to the Precepts of the holy Canons ordained or administred Wherefore I do command and by my Royal Authority strictly charge that no Bishop or Arch-deacon do henceforth hold Pleas in the Hundred concerning Episcopal Laws nor bring any cause which belongs to the Government of Souls i. e. to spiritual affairs to the judgment of secular men but that whosoever according to the Episcopal Laws shall for what cause or fault soever be summoned shall come to a place which the Bishop shall chuse and name for this purpose and there make answer concerning his cause and do right to God and his Bishop not according to the Hundred but according to the Canons and Episcopal Laws For in the time of the Saxon Empire there were wont to be present at those Country Meetings the Hundred Courts an Alderman and a Bishop the one for Spirituals the other for Temporals as appears by King Edgar's Laws 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 AFter the death of William his second Son WILLIAM sirnamed RVFVS succeeded in his room All Justice of Laws as Florentius of Worcester tells us was now husht in silence and Causes being put under a Vacation without hearing money alone bore sway among the great ones Ipsaque majestas auro corrupta jacebat that is And Majesty it self being brib'd with gold Lay as a prostitute expos'd to th' hold 15. The right or duty of First-Fruits or as they are commonly called the Annats which our Kings claimed from vacant Abbies and Bishopricks Polydor Virgil will have to have had its first original from Rufus Now the Popes of Rome laid claim to them anciently a sort of Tribute which upon what right it was grounded the Council of Basil will inform us and by what opinion and resolution of Divines and Lawyers confirmed Francis Duarenus in his Sacred Offices of the Church will instruct us 'T is certain that Chronologers make mention that at his death the Bishopricks of Canterbury Winchester and Salisbury and twelve Monasteries beside being without Prelates and Abbots paid in their Revenues to the Exchequer 16. He forbad by publick Edict or Proclamation sayes the same Author that any one should go out of England without his leave and Passport We read that he forbad Anselm the Arch-Bishop that he should not go to wait upon Pope Vrban but that he comprehended all Subjects whatsoever in this his Royal order I confess I have not met with any where in my reading but in Polydor. 17. He did so severely forbid hunting of Deer saith William of Malmesbury that it was Felony and a hanging matter to have taken a Stag or Buck. 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 Hanberk King Edward's Law restored WIlliam who had by direful Fates been shewn to the World was followed by his Brother Henry who for his singular Learning which was to him instead of a Royal Name was called Beau-clerk He took care of the Common-wealth by amending and making good what had slipt far aside from the bounds of Justice and by softning with wholsome remedies those new unheard of and most grievous injuries which Ralph afterwards Bishop of Durham being Lord Chief Justice of the whole Kingdom plagued the people with He sends Letters of Repeal to the High Sheriffs to the intent that the Citizens and people might enjoy their liberty and free rights again See here a Copy of them as they are set down in Matthew Paris HENRY by the Grace of God King of England to Hugh of Bockland High Sheriff and to all his Liege people as well French as English in Herefordshire Greeting Know ye that I through the mercy of God and by the common advice of the Barons of the Kingdom of England have been crowned King And because the Kingdom was opprest with unjust exactions I out of regard to God and that love which I bear towards you all do make the holy Church of God free so that I will neither sell it nor will I put it to farm nor upon the death of Arch-Bishop or Bishop or Abbot will I take any thing of the domain of the Church or of the men thereof till a Successor enter upon it And all evil Customs wherewith the Kingdom of England was unjustly oppressed I do henceforward take away which evil usages I do here in part set down 18. If any one of my Barons Counts or others that hold of me shall dye his Heir shall not redeem his Land

the Rapines Thefts and Rogueries of the Courtiers ordering that those who were caught in such pranks should have their Eyes with their Stones pulled out This Malmesbury supplies us with But Florentius of Worcester and Roger Hoveden give the account that he punished Thieves with Death and Hanging otherwise than that pleasant and curious man Thomas Moor in his Vtopia would have his people to be dealt with Yet I am inclined rather to believe Malmesbury not only upon the authority of the man in comparison of whose Rose-beds if you well weigh the Learning of that Age the other pack of Writers are but sorry low shrubs but also upon the account of a nameless Monk who in his Book of the Miracles of S. Thomas of Canterbury tells us a story of one Eilward a poor mean fellow of Kingsweston in Berkshire who being in the Reign of King Henry the Second condemned of Theft he had it seems stoln a pair of Countrey Gloves and a Whetstone was punished by losing his Eyes and Privities who coming with devotion to S. Thomas his Tomb got an intire restitution of his disappearing Members and Faculties and was as good a man as ever he was Perchance in this he is no witness of infallible credit Let the story of Iphis and Ianthis and that of Ceneus try Masteries with this for the Wherstone to our purpose the Writer is trusty enough But in the first times of the Normans I perceive that the Halter was the ill consequence of Theft Let it be lawful for the Abbot of that Church if he chance to come in in the God speed to acquit an High-way-man or Thief from the Gallows They are the words of the Patent with which William the Conquerour to expiate the slaughter of Harald consecrated a Monastery to S. Martin near Hastings on the Sea-coast of Sussex and priviledged it with choice and singular rights 31. Against Cheats whom they commonly call Coyners 't is Malmesbury speaks again he shewed his particular diligence permitting no cheating fellow to escape scot-free without losing his Fist or Hand who had been understood to have put tricks upon silly people with the traffick of their falshood For all that he who hath tackt a supplement to Florentius of Worcester and William Gemeticensis give out that the Counterfeiters and Imbasers of Coin had over and above those parts cut off which Galen accounts to be the principal instruments for propagating of the kind To whom Hoveden agrees who writes in the Life of Henry the First That Coyners by the Kings order being taken had their right Hands and their Privy-members cut off Upon this account sure that he that was guilty of such a wicked crime should have no hope left him of posterity nor the Common-wealth be in any further fear of those who draw villainous principles from the loins of those that beget them Now at this very time and in former Ages too this piece of Treason was punished with Halter and Gallows and that also of Theft not only in England but almost in all Countreys especially Robbery upon the High-way which is committed by those who lay wait to surprize Passengers as they travel along upon one or other side of them whence not only in the Latin but in the holy Language also a High-way-man hath his name And truly among the Ancients guelding was lookt upon as a kind of death The Apostles Canons give him the character and censure of a Manslayer who cuts off his own Privities who lives all his life a Batchelor say the Talmudists and he who cuts off another mans is in danger of the Cornelian Law concerning Murderers and Cut-throats and so was it heretofore among the English 32. He ordered they are Hoveden's words that no half-penny which also he commanded should be made round or farthing also if it were intire should be refused 33. He corrected the Merchants false Eln so sayes the Monk of Malmesbury applying the measure of his Arm and proposing that to all people over England 34. He gave order to the Courtiers in whatsoever Cities or Villages he were how much they were to take of the Countrey people gratis and at what price to buy things punishing offendors herein either with a great Fine of money or with loss of life CHAP. VIII The Regality claimed by the Pope but within a while resumed by the King The Coverfeu dispensed with A Subsidy for marrying the Kings Daughter The Courtesie of England Concerning Shipwrack A Tax levied to raise and carry on a War 35. ANselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury labours earnestly with the Pope and his party and at length obtains it with much ado that from that time forward you have it in Florilegus after other Writers never any one should be invested with a Pastoral Staff or a Ring into a Bishoprick or Abbacy by the King or any Lay-person whatsoever in England added out of Malmesbury retaining however the priviledge of Election and Regality There was a sharp bickering about this business betwixt the King and Anselm and so between the Popes Paschalis and Calixtus and Henry about that time Emperour Both of them at least pretendedly quit their right our King humouring the Scene according to the present occasion For after Anselm's death he did invest Rodulphus that came in his room by a Ring and a Pastoral Staff 36. He restored the Night-Torches or Lights which William the First had forbidden forasmuch as he now had less reason to apprehend any danger from them the Kingdom being in a better and firmer posture 37. To make up a portion for Mawd the Kings Daughter married to Henry the Emperour every Hide of Land paid a Tribute of Three Shillings Here Polydore makes his descant Afterward sayes he The rest of the Kings followed that course of raising Portions for the bestowal of their Daughters so tenacious hath posterity alway been of their own advantages It is scarce to be doubted that the right of raising money for the marrying of the Lords Daughters by way of Aid or Subsidy upon the Tenants or Dependants is of a more ancient original Neither would I fetch it from the mutual engagement of Romulus his Patrons and Clients or Landlords and Tenants or from Suetonius his Caligula rather from the old Customs of the Normans more ancient than King Henry where that threefold Tribute is explained by the name of Aid which the Patent granted by King John in favour of publick liberty mentions in these words I will impose no Escuage or Aid in our Realm but by the common advice of our Realm unless it be to ransom our Body and to make our first-born Son a Soldier or Knight and to marry our eldest Daughter once 38. Some ascribe that Law to Henry which Lawyers call the Courtesie of England whereby a man having had a Child by his Wife when she dyes enjoyes her Estate for his life 39. He made a Law that poor shipwrackt persons should have their Goods

to chapitle wore idraw And eni man made is appele yuf me dude him unlaw That to the Bishop from Ercedeken is appele sold make And from Bishop to Arcebissop and suth none other take And but the Ercebisops court to right him wold bring That he sold from him be cluthe biuore the King And from the K. non other mo so that attan end Plaining of holi chirch to the K. shold wend. And the K. amend solde the Ercebissops dede And be as in the Popes stude and S. Thomas it withsede VII The seuethe was that plaiding that of det were To yeld wel thoru truth i●light and nought i●old nere Althei thoru truth it were that ple sold be ibrought Biuore the K. and is bailies and to holy chirch nought VIII The eighth that in the lond citation none nere Thoru bull of the Pope of Rome and clene bileued were IX The nithe was that Peters pence that me gadereth manion The Pope nere nought on isend ac the K. echone X. The tethe was yuf eni Clarke as felon were itake And vor felon iproved and ne might it not forsake That me sold him verst disordein and suth thoru there law And thoru judgement of the land hong him other to draw Uor these and vor other mo the Godeman S. Thomas Fleu verst out of England and eke imartred was Uor he sei there nas hote o way other he must stiffe be Other holy chirch was isent that of right was so fre CHAP. XIV The Pope absolves Thoms a Becket from his Oath and damns the Laws of Clarendon The King resents it writes to his Sheriffs Orders a Scisure Penalties inflicted on Kindred He provides against an Interdict from Rome He summons the Bishops of London and Norwich An Account of Peter Pence TO the Laws of Clarendon which I spoke of the States of the Kingdom the Baronage and with them the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury took their Oaths in solemn manner calling upon God There were Embassadors sent to Pope Alexander the third that there might be that bottom also that he would further confirm and ratifie them But he was so far from doing that that he did not only pretend that they did too much derogate from the priviledge of the Clergy and wholly refuse to give his assent to them but also having absolved Thomas the Arch-Bishop at his own request from the obligation of that Oath he had bound himself with he condemned them as impious and such as made against the interest and honour of holy Church King Henry as soon as he heard of it took it as it was fit he should very much in dudgeon grievously and most deservedly storming at the insolence of the Roman Court and the Treachery of the Bishop of Canterbury Immediately Letters were dispatcht to the several Sheriffs of the respective Counties That if any Clerk or Layman in their Bayliwicks should appeal to the Court of Rome they should seise him and take him into firm custody till the King give order what his pleasure is And that they should seise into the Kings hand and for his use all the Revenues and Possessions of the Arch-Bishops Clerks and of all the Clerks that are with the Arch-Bishop they should put by way of safe pledge the Fathers Mothers and Sisters Nephews and Neeces and their Chattels till the King give order what his pleasure is I have told the Story out of Matthew Paris You see in this instance a penalty where there is no fault It affects or reaches to their Kindred both by Marriage and Blood a thing not unusual in the declension of the Roman Empire after Angust●●s his time But let misdemeanors hold or oblige those who are the Authors of them was the Order of Arcali●s and Honorius Emperors to the Lord Chief Justice E●t●chianus nor let the fear of punishment proceed further than the offence is found A very usual right among the English whereby bating the taking away the Civil Rights of Blood and Nobility none of the Posterity or Family of those who lose their honours do for the most hainous crimes of their Parents undergo any penalties But this was not all in those Letters I mentioned he added threats also 63. If any one shall be sound carrying Letters or a Mandate from the Pope or Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury containing an interdiction of Christian Religion in England let him be seised and kept in hold and let Justice be done upon him without delay as a Traitor against the King and Kingdom This Roger of Hoveden stands by ready to witness 64. Let the Bishops of London and Norwich be summon'd that they may be before the Kings Justices to do right i. e. to answer to their charge and to make satisfaction that they have contrary to the Statutes of the Kingdom interdicted the Land of Earl Hugh and have inflicted a sentence of Excommunication upon him This was Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk 65. Let St. Peters pence be collected or gathered and kept safe Those Pence were a Tribute or Alms granted first by Ina King of the West-Saxons yearly at Lammas to be gathered from as many as had thirty pence as we read it in the Confessor's Laws of live-mony in their house These were duly at a set time paid in till the time of Henry the eighth when he set the Government free from the Papal Tyranny About which time Polydore Virgil was upon that account in England Treasurer or Receiver general I thought fit to set down an ancient brief account of these pence out of a Rescript of Pope Gregory to the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York in the time of King Edward the second Diocess li. s. d. Canterbury 07 18 00 London 16 10 00 Rochester 05 12 00 Norwich 21 10 00 Ely 05 00 00 Lincoln 42 00 00 Coventry 10 05 00 Chester 08 00 00 Winchester 17 06 08 Exceter 09 05 00 Worcester 10 05 00 Hereford 06 00 00 Bath 12 05 00 York 11 10 00 Salisbury 17 00 00 It amounts to three hundred Marks and a Noble that is two hundred Pounds sterling and six Shillings and eight Pence You are not to expect here the murder of Thomas a Becket and the story how King Henry was purged of the crime having been absolved upon hard terms Conveniunt cymbae vela minora me● My little Skiff bears not so great a Sail. CHAP. XV. A Parliament at Northampton Six Circuits ordered A List of the then Justices The Jury to be of twelve Knights Several sorts of Knights In what cases Honorary Knights to serve in Juries Those who come to Parliament by right of Peerage sit as Barons Those who come by Letters of Summons are styled Chevaliers NOt long after the King and the Barons meet at Northampton They treat concerning the Laws and the administration of Justice At length the Kingdom being divided into six Provinces or Circuits there are chosen from among the Lawyers some who in every of those Provinces