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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

JOHANNES SELDEN●S Armig. R. White sculpsit 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 of Salvinton Student of the Inner-Temple in LONDON and Rendred into English by REDMAN WESTCOT Gent. Haec facies Populum spectat at illa Larem London Printed for Thomas Basset and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII To the Right Honourable and truly Noble Lord Robert Earl of Salisbury Viscount Cranborn Baron Cecil of Essenden Knight of the Illustrious Order of the Garter Lord High Treasurer of England Master of the Court of Wards and Privy Counsellor to His Most Excellent Majesty JAMES King of Great Britain France and Ireland Heartily according to his high desert I devote and dedicate AND as it were with consecrated Flowr and crackling grain of Salt I offer up in Sacrifice I am not in condition to do it with a costly Victim or a full Censer GREAT SIR deign with favour to receive these scraps of Collection relating intirely what they are and as far as the present Age may be supposed to be concerned in ancient Stories and Customes to the English-British State and Government and so far forth to Your most Honoured Name Which Name of Yours whilest I one of the lowermost Bench do with dazzled eye-sight look upon most Noble Lord and great Support of your Country I devoutly lay down Upon its ALTAR This small Earnest and Pledge of my Obedience and Duty THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE READER Reader THOU canst not be such a Stranger to thy own Countrey as to need my commendation of the Learned Worthy and Famous AUTHOR of these following Sheets or that I should tell thee what a Scholar a Philologer a Humanist a Linguist a Lawyer a Critick an Antiquary and which proves him an absolute Master of all these and many other Knowledges what a Writer the Great SELDEN was Since it is liberally acknowledged by every body that knows any thing not only at home but abroad also among Foreigners that Europe seldom hath brought forth His Fellow for exquisite Endowments of Nature Attainments of Study and Accomplishments of Ingenuity Sagacity and Industry And indeed to save me the labour of saying any more concerning this Non-pareil in all kinds of Learning His own WORKS which are now under a Review and will e're long be made Publick in several Volumes will sufficiently speak his Character and be a more prevailing Argument to indear Him to thy good Opinion and firm Acquaintance than mine or any other Words can My business now is only to give thee some Account of the Author's design in this little Treatise and of those measures I took in Translating Him that is in restoring him to his own Native Language though his great Genius had made the Latin and several other Tongues as natural and familiar to Himself as the English was To speak first of the Author I do take this Piece to have been one of his first Essays if not the very first wherein he launched into the World and did not so much try the Judgement as deservedly gain the Approbation of the Learned which was certainly one Reason why though the whole matter of the Book be of an English Complexion and Concern yet he thought fit to put it forth in a Latin dress That this was his first Specimen or at least one of the first I gather from the time of his Writing it viz. in the Six and Twentieth year of his Age when I suppose he was not of any very long standing in the Temple I mean in all likelihood whilst he was on this side the Bar. For having fraught himself with all kind of Learning which the University could afford him which could be we must imagine no small time neither as I may be allowed to guess from that passage of his in this Book where he so affectionately recognizeth his Duty and Gratitude to his dear Mother OXFORD who if she had no other Antiquity to boast of is and ever will be Famous for This Her Scholar our great Antiquary who hath also such a Monument to be seen in her publick Library as will make her Glory and his Memory ever to flourish I say having after some competent time taken leave of Academical Institutions and being now engaged into the Study of Law he thought he could not do his Profession a better service than by looking back into former times and making a faithful Collection of what might be Pertinent and Useful to bring down along through all Changes and Vicissitudes of State the Light and Strength the Evidence and Reputation of old Institutes and Precedents to our present Establishments under our Gracious and Happy Monarchy May It as it is in its Constitution to the English people Gracious so be ever in its Success to It self and consequently to Us all Happy Here then thou wilt find the Rights of Government through all Ages so far as our Histories will help us Here thou wilt see from the first our KING setled in his just Power even in his Ecclesiastical surisdiction against the Papal Usurpation one shrewd Instance whereof is the forbidding Appeals to the Pope at such a time when the Popish Religion was at its Zenith in this Island that is when People in all probability were most Ignorant Here thou wilt easily be brought to acknowledge the Antiquity and Usefulness of Parliaments though under other Names till after the Conquest when all the Barons that is as that Title did at first import all Lords of Mannors all Men of Estate assembled together for the determination of publick Affairs which Usage because it produced too numerous and cumbersome a confluence was afterwards for better convenience retrenched into a popular Election by the Kings Writ to chuse some of the Chiefest to act for all the rest And sure enough if we in Duty keep up the Royal Prerogative and our Kings as ever they have done and ever I hope will in Grace and Clemency oblige the Peoples Consent in their Representatives we shall alwayes have such Laws such a Government such a Correspondence betwixt Prince and Subjects as must according to the Rules of Humane Prudence adding our Piety to it make this Kingdom of Great Britanny maugre the malice of the Devil and his Agents whatever Jesuits or Fanaticks a flourishing and impregnable Kingdom Having said this in General of the Author's design I shall not descend to Particulars which I leave to thy self Reader to find out in the perusal that may be of good Use and great Consequence to the Publick but fearing thou maist think I am so much taken up with the Author that I have forgot My self I have two or three words to

on foot The Roman Laws brought in but disowned An instance in the Wonder-working Parliament p. 67 CHAP. X. In King Henry the Seconds time the Castles demolished A Parliament held at Clarendon Of the Advowson and Presentation of Churches Estates not to be given to Monasteries without the Kings leave Clergymen to answer in the Kings Court A Clergyman convict out of the Churches Protection None to go out of the Realm without the Kings leave This Repealed by King John Excommunicate Persons to find Surety Laymen how to be impleaded in the Ecclesiastical Court A Lay-Jury to swear there in what case No Homager or Officer of the Kings to be Excommunicated till He or his Justice be acquainted p. 69 CHAP. XI Other Laws of Church affairs Concerning Appeals A Suit betwixt a Clergy-man and a Lay-man where to be tryed In what case one who relates to the King may be put under an Interdict The difference betwixt that and Excommunication Bishops to be present at the Tryals of Criminals until Sentence of Death c. pass Profits of vacant Bishopricks c. belong to the King The next Bishop to be chosen in the Kings Chappel and to do Homage before Consecration Deforcements to the Bishop to be righted by the King And on the contrary Chattels forfeit to the King not to be detained by the Church Pleas of debts whatsoever in the Kings Court Yeomens Sons not to go into Orders without the Lords leave p. 72 CHAP. XII The Statutes of Clarendon mis-reported in Matthew Paris amended in Quadrilegus These Laws occasioned a Quarrel between the King and Thomas a Becket Witness Robert of Glocester whom he calls Yumen The same as Rusticks i. e. Villains Why a Bishop of Dublin called Scorch-Uillein Villanage before the Normans time p. 74 CHAP. XIII The Poet gives account which of those Laws were granted by Thomas a Becket which withstood Leudemen signifies Lay-men and more generally all illiterate Persons p. 77 CHAP. XIV The Pope absolves Thomas a Becket from his Oath and damns the Laws of Clarendon The King resents it writes to his Sheriffs Orders a Seisure Penalties inflicted on Kindred He provides against an Interdict from Rome He summons the Bishops of London and Norwich An account of Peter Pence p. 79 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 p. 81 CHAP. XVI The person convict by Ordeal to quit the Realm within Forty dayes Why Forty dayes allowed An account of the Ordeals by Fire and Water Lady Emme clear'd by going over burning Coulters Two sorts of tryal by Water Learned conjectures at the rise and reason of these customs These Ordeals as also that of single Combat condemned by the Church p. 84 CHAP. XVII Other Laws Of entertaining of strangers An Uncuth a Gust a Hogenhine what of him who confesseth the Murder c. Of Frank pledge Of an Heir under age Of a Widows Dowry Of taking the Kings fealty Of setting a time to do homage Of the Justices duty Of their demolishing of Castles Of Felons to be put into the Sheriffs hands Of those who have departed the Realm p. 87 CHAP. XVIII Some Laws in favour of the Clergy Of forfeitures on the account of Forest or hunting Of Knights fees Who to bear Arms and what Arms. Arms not to be alienated No Jew to bear Arms. Arms not to be carryed out of England Rich men under suspicion to clear themselves by Oath Who allowed to swear against a Free-man Timber for building of Ships not to be carryed out of England None but Free-men to bear Arms. Free-men who Rusticks or Villains not such p. 90 CHAP. XIX Of Law-makers Our Kings not Monarchs at first Several of them in the same County The Druids meeting-place where Under the Saxons Laws made in a general Assembly of the States Several instances This Assembly under the Normans called Parliament The thing taken from a custome of the ancient Germans Who had right to sit in Parliament The harmony of the Three Estates p. 93 CHAP. XX. The Guardians of the Laws who In the Saxons time seven Chief One of the Kings among the Heptarchs styled Monarch of all England The Office of Lord High Constable Of Lord Chancellor ancient The Lord Treasurer Alderman of England what Why one called Healfkoning Aldermen of Provinces and Graves the same as Counts or Earls and Viscounts or Sheriffs Of the County Court and the Court of Inquests called Tourn le Viscount When this Court kept and the original of it p. 95 CHAP. XXI Of the Norman Earls Their Fee Their power of making Laws Of the Barons i. e. Lords of Manours Of the Court-Baron It s rise An instance of it out of Hoveden Other Offices much alike with the Saxons p. 98 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ENGLISH JANUS From the Beginning of the BRITISH Story down to the NORMAN Conquest CHAP. I. The counterfeit Berosus with the Monk that put him forth both censured The Story of Samothes the first Celtick King The bounds of Celtica From Samothes say they the Britans and Gauls were called Samothei For which Diogenes Laertius is falsly quoted the word in him being Semnothei THERE came forth and in Buskins too I mean with Pomp and State some parcels of years ago and is still handed about every where an Author called Berosus a Chaldee Priest take heed how you suffer your self to believe him to be the same that Flavius Josephus so often up and down quotes for a witness with a Commentary of Viterbiensis Or rather to say that which is the very truth John Annius of Viterbium a City of Tuscany a Dominican Frier playing the Leger-de-main having counterfeited Berosus to put off his own strange stories hath put a cheat upon the Lady Muse who is the Governess of Antiquities and has hung a Bantling at her back After the Genealogies of the Hebrews drawn down by that Author whoever he be according to his own humour and method for fear he should not be thought to take in the Kingdoms and Kings of the whole Universe and the Etymologies of Proper Names by whole-sale as we say as if he had been born the next day after Grandam Ops was delivered of Jupiter he subjoyns SAMOTHES the very same who is yeleped Dis the Founder of the Celtick Colonies stuffing up odd Patcheries of Story to entertain and abuse the Reader Now this I thought fit by the by not to conceal that all that space which is bounded with the River Rhine the Alpes the Mediterranean Sea the Pyrenean Hills and lastly the Gascoin and the British Oceans was formerly termed Celtogalatia nay that P●olomy hath comprized all Europe under the name of Celtica Well as the Commentary of Annius has it This Samothes

in the borders of the Carnutes the middle Region of all France Some think that a Town at eight Miles distance from the Metropolis of those people commonly called Dreux was designed for that use Whilst the Saxons governed the Laws were made in the General Assembly of the States or Parliament In the front of King Ina's Laws 't is above Eight Hundred and Eighty years that he first reigned we read thus It Ine mid godes gift West-Saxna Cyning mid getbeat a mid lere Cenredes mines fader a hedde a Erconwald mine hiscops a mid eallum minum ealdor mannum tham yldestan Witan mines theode be beodeth c. which in our present English speaks thus I Ina by the Grace of God King of the West-Saxons by the advice and order of Kenred my Father and of Hedda and Erconwald my Bishops and of all my Aldermen and of the Elders and Wise Men of my people do command c. There are a great many instances of this kind in other places Moreover Witlaf and Bertulph who were Kings of the Mercians near upon Eight hundred years ago do in their instruments under their hands make mention of Synods and Councils of the Prelates and Peers convened for the affairs of the Kingdom And an ancient Book has this passage of Abendon Here was the Royal Seat hither when they were to treat of the principal and difficult points of State and affairs of the Kingdom the people were used to meet and flock together To this may be added that which Malmesbury sayes of King Edward in the year of our Lord 903. The King gathered a Synod or Assembly of the Senators of the English Nation over which did preside Pleimund Arch-Bishop of Canterbury interpreting expresly the words of the Apostolical Embassy These Assemblies were termed by the Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Meetings of the Wise Men and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Great Assemblies At length we borrowed of the French the name of Parliaments which before the time of Henry the First Polydore Virgil sayes were very rarely held An usage that not without good reason seems to have come from the ancient Germans So Tacitus sayes of them Concerning smaller matters the Princes only concerning things of greater concern they do all the whole body of them consult yet in that manner that those things also which it was in the peoples power to determine were treated of by the Princes too And I have one that hath left it in writing that when there was neither Bishop nor Earl nor Baron yet then Kings held their Parliaments and in King Arthur's Patent to the University of Cambridge for ye have my leave if you can find in your heart to give credit to it as John Key does by the counsel and assent of all and singular the Prelats and Princes of this Realm I decree There were present at Parliaments about the beginning of the Normans times as many as were invested with Thirteen Fees of Knights service and a third part of one Fee called Baron's from their large Estates for which reason perhaps John Cochleius of Mentz in his Epistle Dedicatory to our most Renowned Sir Thomas More prefixt before the Chronicle of Aurelius Cassiodorus calls him Baron of England But Henry the Third the number of them growing over big ordered by Proclamation that those only should come there whom he should think sit to summon by Writ These Assemblies do now sit in great State which with a wonderful harmony of the Three Estates the King the Lords and the Commons or Deputies of the People are joyned together to a most firm security of the publick and are by a very Learned Man in allusion to that made word in Livy Panaetolium from the Aetolians most rightly called Pananglium that is all England As in Musical Instruments and Pipes and in Singing it self and in Voices sayes Scipio in Tully's Books of the Common-wealth there is a kind of harmony to be kept out of distinct sounds which Learned and Skilful Ears cannot endure to hear changed and jarring and that consort or harmony from the tuning and ordering of Voices most unlike yet is rendred agreeing and suitable so of the highest and middlemost and lowermost States shuffled together like different sounds by fair proportion doth a City agree by the consent of persons most unlike and that which by Musicians in singing is called Harmony that in a City is Concord the straightest and surest bond of safety in every Common-wealth and such as can by no means be without Justice But let this suffice for Law-makers CHAP. XX. The Guardians of the Laws who In the Saxons time seven Chief One of the Kings among the Heptarchs styled Monarch of all England The Office of Lord High Constable Of Lord Chancellor ancient The Lord Treasurer Alderman of England what Why one called Healfkoning Aldermen of Provinces and Graves the same as Counts or Earls and Viscounts or Sheriffs Of the County Court and the Court of Inquests called Tourn le Viscount When this Court kept and the original of it I Do scarce meet before the Saxons times with any Guardians of the Laws different from these Law-makers In their time they were variously divided whose neither Name nor Office are as yet grown out of use The number is made up to give you only the heads by these to wit the King the Lord HighConstable the Chancellor the Treasurer the Alderman of England the Aldermen of Provinces and the Graves Those of later date and of meaner notice I pass by meaning to speak but briefly of the rest The King was alwayes one amongst the Heptarchs or seven Rulers who was accounted I have Beda to vouch it the Monarch of all England Ella King of the South-Saxons so sayes Ethelwerd was the first that was dignified with so high a Title and Empire who was Owner of as large a Jurisdiction as Ecbright the second was Ce●lin King of the West-Angles the third Aethelbrith King of the Kentish-men the fourth Redwald King of the Easterlings the fifth Edwin King of Northumberland the sixth Oswald the seventh Osweo Oswald's Brother after whom the eighth was Ecbright His West-Saxon Kingdom took in the rest for the greatest part The Office of Lord High Constable which disappeared in Edward Duke of Buckingham who in Henry the Eighth's time lost his Head for High-Treason was not seen till the latter end of the Saxons One Alfgar Staller is reported by Richard of Ely Monk to have been Constable to Edward the Confessor and Mr. Camden mentions a dwelling of his upon this account called Plaissy in the County of Middlesex He of Ely sets him out for a Great and Mighty Man in the Kingdom And indeed formerly that Magistrate had great power which was formidable even to Kings themselves They who deny there were any Chancellors before the coming in of the Normans are hugely mistaken Nor are they disproved only

is the Hall of the Gild or Society such as was once the Stilyard called Gildhalla Tentonicorum the Gild-hall for the Dutch Merchants from the Hanse-Towns CHAP. VII Pag. 63. lin 25. Iphis and Ianthis and Ceneus Persons mention'd by Ovid who changed their Sex from Female to Male. Iphis was a Maid of Creet who after her Metamorphosis when she turn'd to Man took Ianthe to Wife and Canis for that was her Maiden Name was a Thessalian Girl whom Neptune made a Whore of first and then at her request a Man who thenceforward went by the Name of Caeneus Lin. 34. Cheats whom they commonly call Coyners In Malmesbury's Latin Trapezitas quos vulgò Monetarios vocant Which bare citation is all the account that Spelman gives of the word Monetarius It doth properly signifie an Officer of the Mint that makes and coyns the Kings money a Monier But here by the Historian's implying that such fellows as this Law was made against were falsarii Cheats and by our Author 's terming of them adulteratores monetae Counterfeiters of Coyn we must understand them to be False Coyners Clippers Washers Imbasers of the Kings Coyn and the like And therefore I render'd trapezitas which otherwise is a word of innocent meaning for Money-Changers Bankers c. in the Historian's sense Cheats CHAP. VIII Pag. 65. lin 24. Every Hide of Land It is so called from the Saxon word hyden to cover so that thus it would be the same as Tectum in Latin a Dwelling-house And thus I question not but there are several houses called The Hide for I know one or two my self so called that is the Capital Messuage of the Estate Nor is it so consined to this sense but that it takes in all the Lands belonging to the Messuage or Manour-house which the old Saxons called hidelandes and upon some such account no doubt Hidepark had its name as a Park belonging to some great House Now as to the quantity how much a Hide of land is it is not well agreed Some reckon it an hundred Acres others thereabouts by making it contain four Yardlands every Yardland consisting of twenty four Acres The general opinion is that it was as much as could be ploughed with one Plow in a year terra unius aratri culturae sufficiens And thus it should be muchwhat the same as Carrucata terrae i. e. a Plough-land From Bede who translates it familia they gather it was so much as could maintain a family There is mention made of these Hides in the Laws of King Ina an hundred years before King Alfred who divided the Countrey into Counties or Shires And Taxes and Assessments were wont to be made according to these Hides up as high as King Ethelred's time in the year of our Lord 1008. Since the Conquest William the First had six shillings for every Hide in England Rufus four Henry the First here three for the marriage of his daughter Pag. 66. lin 8. This right is called Wreck i. e. by which the King claims shipwrack't goods cast on shoar For though by the Law of Nature such things as being nullius in bonis having no Owner every one that finds them may seem to have a right to them yet by the Law of Nations they are adjudged to the Prince as a special priviledge by reason of his dignity Now Wreck or as the French call it Varec properly signifies any thing that is cast on shoar as Amber precious Stones Fishes c. as well as shipwrack't goods from the Saxon wraet i. e. any thing that is flung away and left forlorn though use hath limited the word to the later sense CHAP. IX Pag. 68. lin 6. The Roman Laws were banisht the Realm I suppose there may be some word missing or mistaken in the Latin à regno jussae sunt leges Romanae But that which follows the forbidding of the Books obliged me to that interpretation for why should the Books of those Laws be prohibited if the Laws themselves were as the Latin reading seems to import ordered and ratified by the Realm Wherefore I suppose some mistake or omission and for à regno jussae read à regno pulsae or exulare jussae c. unless you would like to have it thus rendred commanded out of the Kingdom which I confess would be a very odd unusual construction CHAP. X. Pag. 69. lin 39. Three hundred Marks of Gold A Mark weigh'd eight ounces and as Cowell states it out of Stow it came to the value of 16 l. 13 s. 4 d. At this rate three hundred Marks of Gold come to five thousand Pound and to every Bishop five Marks supposing only ten Bishops come to 833 l. 6 s. 8 d. which is a very unlikely summ in this business 'T is true the value of it as of other Coyns and summs might vary And so we find in Spelman that an uncertain Author reckons a Mark of Gold to be worth fifty Marks of Silver But then 't is as uncertain what Marks of Silver he means For if they be such as ours are and as they were in King John's time at 13 s. 4 d. then a Mark of Gold will be of the value of 33 l. 6 s. 8 d. which is just double to the former value of 16 l. 13 s. 4 d. which being resolved into Marks of Silver makes but 25. But in ancient times a Mark of Silver was only 2 s. 6 d. so that fifty of them will make but 6 l. 5 s. Another instance we meet with where one Mark of Gold is accounted equivalent to ten Marks of Silver which taking a Mark for 13 s. 4 d. comes to 6 l. 13 s. 4 d. Another where nine Marks of Silver pass for one Mark of Gold in a payment to the King which is just six pound And these three last accounts agree pretty well together Taking the middlemost of the three viz. a Mark of Gold at ten Marks of Silver thus the above named summ of three hundred Marks of Gold that is three thousand Marks of Silver amounts to two thousand Pound and the five Marks to every Bishop supposing but ten Bishops come to 333 l. 6 s. 8 d. But if we take these Marks of Silver at 2 s. 6 d. the account will grow much less For ten such Marks are but 1 l. 5 s. so that the three hundred Marks of Gold at this rate will come but to 375 l. Sterling But that these Marks of the ancient and lower estimate are not here intended may probably enough be gathered from one passage more we find there Centum solidi dentur vel marca auri where if solidi stand for shillings for they may be taken for soulx as the French call them a Mark of Gold is made of equal value with 5 l. Sterling And thus three hundred Marks of Gold come to Fifteen hundred pound I confess after all most of these accounts of the Mark Gold or Silver may be admitted of as having possibly at

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