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

people Nor do they hold on never to be appeased For even Murder is expiated by a certain number of some head of Cattel and the whole Family of the murdered Person receives satisfaction Murders formerly were bought off with Head-mony called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though one had killed a Nobleman nay the King himself as we may see in Athelstan's Constitutions But good manners I suppose have prevailed above Laws 33. The Lord imposes upon his Tenant a certain quantity of Corn or Cattel or Clothes We see here clearly enough the nature of Country Land-holders Fees or Tenures As to military or Knights Fees give me leave to set that down too Dionysius Halicarnasseus gives us a very ancient draught and model of them in the Trojans and Aborigines Florus in the Cymbrians and Lampridius in Alexander Severus Both the Northern people and the Italians do owe them to the Huns and Lombards but these later according to a more modern form Let these things suffice out of Cornelius Tacitus which belong to this Head 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 BEfore that the Christian Doctrine had driven out and banished the Saxon Idolatry all these things I have hitherto been speaking of were in use Ethelbert he that was the first King not only of Kent but of all England except Northumberland having been baptized by Austin the Monk the Apostle as some call him of the English amongst other good things which by Counsel and Grant he did to his Nation 't is venerable Bede speaks these words he did also with the advice of wise men appoint for his peoples use the orders of their proceedings at Law according to the examples of the Romans Which having been written in the English tongue says he are hitherto or to this time kept and observed by them Among which orders or decrees he set down in the first place after what manner such an one should make amends who should convey away by stealth any of those things that belonged to the Church or to a Bishop or to the rest of the Orders In the Laws of some that came after him as those of King Alured who cull'd out of Ethelbert's Acts to make up his own and those of King Athelstan Thieves make satisfaction with mony accordingly as Tacitus says of the Germans That for lighter offences those that were convicted are at the rate of their penalties amerced such a number of Horses or other Cattel For as Festus hath it before Brass and Silver were coyned by ancient custom they were fined for their faults so much Cattel But those who medled with any thing sacred we read had that hand cut off with which they committed the theft Well! but am I mistaken or was Sacriledge even in the time of the Saxon Government punisht as a Capital crime There is a passage of William of Malmsbury in his Book de Gestis Pontificum that inclines me to think so Speaking of Theodred the Bishop of London when Athelstan was King he says That he had among the common people got the sirname of Theodred the Good for the eminence of his virtues Only in one thing he fell short which was rather a mistake than a crime that those Thieves which were taken at St. Edmunds whom the holy Martyr had upon their vain attempts tied with an invisible knot he means St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk which Church these Fellows having a design to rob are said by miracle to have stood still in the place as if they had been tied with Cords These Thieves I say were by his means or sufferance given up to the severity of the Laws and condemned to the Gallows or Gibbet Let not any one think that in this middle Age this Gallows or Gibbet I spoke of was any other thing than the Roman Furca upon which people hang and are strangled till they die 34. Egbert King of the West-Saxons I make use of Camdens words having gotten in four Kingdoms by conquest and devour'd the other two also in hope that what had come under the Government of one might likewise go under one name and that he might keep up the memory of his own people the Angles he gave order by Proclamation that the Heptarchy which the Saxons had possest should be called Engelond John Carnotensis writes that it was so called from the first coming in of the Angles and another some body says it was so named from Hengist a Saxon Prince There are a great many Laws of King Ina Alfred Edward Athelstan Edmund Edgar Ethelred and Knute the Dane written in the Saxon language which have lasted till these very times For King Knute gave order 't is William of Malmsbury speaks that all the Laws which had been made by former Kings and especially by his Predecessor Ethelred should under pain of his displeasure and a Fine be constantly observed For the keeping of which even now in the time of those who are called the Good people swear in the name of King Edward not that he appointed them but that he observed them The Laws of Edward who for his piety has the sirname of Confessor are in Readers hands These of the Confessor were in Latin those others of Knute were not long since put into Latin by William Lambard a learned man and one very well vers'd in Antiquity who has recovered them both and published the Saxon Original with his Translation over against it Printed by John Day at London Anno 1567. under the Title of Archaeonomia or a Book concerning the ancient Laws of the English May he have a good harvest of it as he deserves From Historians let us borrow some other helps for this service CHAP. XXIII King Alfred divides England into Countyes 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 35. INgulph the Abbot of Crowland writing of King Alfred says That he was the first of all that changed the Villages or Lordships and Provinces of all England into Counties or Shires Before that it was reckoned and divided according to the number of Hides or Plough-lands by little districts or quarters He divided the Counties into Hundreds and Tythings it was long before that Honorius Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had parted the Country into Parishes to wit Anno 636. that every Native home-born lawful man might be in some Hundred and Tything I mean whosoever was ●ull twelve years of age and if any

Edward the Confessor and Mr. Camden mentions a dwelling of his upon this account called Plaiffy 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 out of the Grant of Edward the Confessor to the Abbot of Westminster which I am beholden to Mr. Lambard for at the bottom of which these words are set down I Syward Publick Notary instead of Rembald the Kings Majesties Chancellor have written and subscribed this paper but also out of Ingulph who makes mention of Farketulus some while after that Abbot of Crowland Chancellor of King Edred by whose Decree and Counsel were to be handled treated whatsoever businesses they were Temporal or Spiritual that did await the Judgement of the King and being thus treated of by him might irrefragably stand good And Francis Thinn that Learned Antiquary has reckoned up several who have discharged this Office as Turketill to King Ethelbald Swithin Bishop of Winchester to King Egbert Vlfin to King Athelstan Adulph to King Edgar Alsy Abbot and Prelate of Ely to King Ethelred Concerning which Office and the Seals which the Chancellor in old time had the keeping of I had rather you would consult with Camden's Tribunals or Seats of Justice and those things which John Budden at Wainfleet Doctor of Laws has brought out of the Archives into his Palingenesia than seek them at my hands As for Treasurers Dunstan was so to King Edred and Hugolin to the Confessor But that fifth title of Alderman of England is an unusual one Yet if I don't mistake my self he was the Chief President in Tryals at Law and an Officer to keep all quiet at home the same as now perhaps is commonly called the Lord Chief Justice of England This remarkable name I do not meet with neither in the Monkish Chronologers which are to be had at the Shops nor in the Records of our Laws But a private History of the Abbey of Ramsey in Huntingdon-shire has given us notice of one Ailwins Tomb with this Inscription HIC REQUIESCIT AILWINUS INCLITI REGIS EADGARI COGNATUS TOTIUS ANGLIAE ALDERMANNUS ET HUJUS SACRI COENOBII MIRACULOSUS FUNDATOR that is Here resteth Ailwin Kinsman of the Renowned King Edgar Alderman of all England and the miraculous Founder of this Sacred Monastery And by reason of his great Authority and Favour which he had with the King by a Nick name they called him Healfkoning i. e. Half-King Now Henry of Huntingdon sayes that Tostius Earl or to use his phrase Consul of Northumberland and Harald Sons of Godwin Earl of Kent were Justices of the Realm Aldermen may aptly be termed by the word Senators Those Judges did exercise a delegated power throughout the Provinces called Counties or Shires and the Graves an under-delegated power from them The word is as much as Governours and is the same thing as in High Dutch Grave in Landgrave Burgrave Palsgrave c. and what amongst some of our own people Reev We shall call them both as that Age did in a Latin term the one Comites i. e. Counts or Earls the other Vicecomites that is Viscounts or Sheriffs The name of Count is every where met with amongst the most ancient of the Monks which yet does very often pass into that of Duke in the subscription of Witnesses And in the Charter of the Foundation of Chertsey Abby in Surrey Frithwald stiles himself subregulus i.e. an under Kingling or petty Vice-Roy to Wulpher King of the Mercians make no question of it he meant he was a Count. A Viscount and a Vice-Lord are more than very like they are the very same Ingulph sayes it above And in the last hand-writing of King Edred we have I Bingulph Vice-Lord advised it I Alfer Viscount heard it These Counts and Viscounts or Earls and Sheriffs had in their Counties their several Courts both for private and for publick matters For private affairs they had every Month a Meeting called the County Court Let every Grave as we have it in Edward the Elder 's Laws every fourth Week convene and meet the people in Assembly let him do equal right to every one and determine and put an end to all Suits and Quarrels when the appointed days shall come For publick business King Edgar ordered the Court of Inquests or Inquiries called Tourn le Uiscount Let a Convention or Meeting be held twice every year out of every County at which let the Bishop of that Diocess and the Senator i. e. the Alderman be present the one to teach the people the Laws of God the other the Laws of the Land What I have set down in William the First at the end of the fourth Chapter of this second Book you ought to consider of here again in this place The inhabitants did not meet at this Court of Inquests at any season promiscuously and indifferently but as it is very well known by the use and ancient Constitutions of the Realm within a Month either after Easter or after Michaelmas In which Court seeing that not only the Count as now a dayes the Viscount or Sheriff does but also the Bishop did preside it does not at all seem difficult to trace the very original of this temporary Law That peradventure was the Synod of Antioch held in Pope Julius the First 's time and acknowledged in the sixth General Council held at Constantinople In this latter there are expresly and plainly two Councils or Meetings of the Bishops to be kept every year within three Weeks after Easter and about the middle of October if there be any small difference in the time it can be no great matter of mistake You may help your self to more other things of meaner note out of what has been said before about Hundreds Bourghs and the like And this may serve in brief for the Saxons who were entrusted with the care of their Laws 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 I Shall be briefer concerning the Normans I mean their Earls and Barons Their Counts or Earls before the Conquest except those of Leicester and perchance some others were but Officers and not as yet hereditary When William bore the sway they began to have a certain Fee and a descent of Patrimony having together with their Title assigned to them a third part of the Revenues or Rents which did arise out of the whole County to the Exchequer This custom is clear enough in Gervase of Tilbury in the case of Richard de Redueriis made Earl of Devonshire by Henry the

were very unequal and incommodious I thought it much more convenient for thy ease and profit to distribute them into Chapters together with the Argument or Contents of each Chapter at the beginning and withal that no one may complain that I have injured the Author by altering his Method I have left his Sections also marked with a Numeral Note 1 2 3 c. on the side of the inner or outer Margin FINIS ERRATA IN the Translator's Preface p. 4. l. 15. r. and hath that of crabbed in it beside and as to the method is so intricate Pag. 11. l. 2. r. and strifes p. 14. l. 50. r. Pieces p. 17. l. 41. r. Borderers p. 20. l. 16. for facts r. toils p. 21. l. 24. r. and Money p. 30. l. 16 r. Lazzes p. 31. l. 28. r. and Breeding p. 34. l. 14. r. peccatum l. 40. r. or his eyes p. 35. l. 2. r. Quid p. 43. l. 7. r. sorry old Verse p. 49. l. 48. r. too truly p. 56. l. 6. r. Warden p. 61. l. 13. r. Vulgar l. 21. r. bestowing her p. 62. l. 25. r. misdemeanour p. 65. l. 11. r. add p. 72. l. 43. r. seasonably p. 74. l. 5. r. Glocester Whom p. 85. l. 14. r. strict p. 86. l. 26. r. that in the p. 87. l. 5. r. What. Of him p. 91. l. 17. r. him p. 92. l. 32. r. Cattle p. 96. l. 34. r. turned p. 108. l. 33. r. retired p. 110. l. 8. r. Neptune as p. 112. l. 34. r. unknown p. 113. l. 34. r. Inlagh p. 116. l. 18. r. three things p. 117. l. 47. r. found p. 122. l. 6. r. arrested p. 123. l. 9. r. quilleted FINIS ENGLAND'S EPINOMIS BY JOHN SELDEN Esquire LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George in Fleetstreet and Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIII TO THE READER THIS Appendix or Addition to what had been formerly collected by others of our ancient Constitutions needs no farther Recommendation than the great Name and Learning of the Author lt was an Essay of his younger years and one of the fruits of his first and earliest Inquiries The Reader will here meet with the true Original as well under the Roman as the Saxon and Norman Governments of several of our Laws which are now in force and the Mistakes in Polydore and others discovered The famous Constitutions of Clarendon so much opposed by Becket faithfully recited and purged from the Errors which had crept into those Copies formerly published An account of the Magna Charta of King John and the differences between it and that granted by his Son H. 3. which we have in the Fore-front of our Printed Statutes A Correction of our printed Charta de Foresta with other Curious and Judicious Remarks upon these Subjects not heretofore extant which it is not doubted will for their own sake as well as their Authors find a welcome Reception from all knowing Persons especially from the Learned Professors of our English Laws THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. FRom the first supposed Inhabitants and Britains until Julius Caesar Page 1. CHAP. II. Out of Roman Histories from Julius Caesar to the period of Rome's Empire in this Land p. 4 CHAP. III. The Saxons Customs and Laws except what is in Lambard's Archaeonomy during their Government until the Normans p. 8 CHAP. IV. William the First But none of that which under Title of his Laws is in Lambard p. 12 CHAP. V. What was received under William le Rous p. 15 CHAP. IV. Henry Beauclerc restored and invented common Liberties p. 16 CHAP. VII Stephen of Blois p. 19 CHAP. VIII Henry Fitz-L'empres and his Clarendon Constitutions restored to themselves and purged from the faults wherewith they have been published p. 20 Assisae Henrici Regis factae apud Clarendon renovatae apud Northamtune p. 26 CHAP. IX Richard Ceur de Lion p. 29 Forma Procedendi in Placitis Coronae Regis ibid. Capitula Placitorum Coronae Regis ibid. Capitula Placitorum Coronae D. Regis p. 32 Haec est assisa D. Regis haec sunt praecepta de Forestis suis in Anglia facta per assensum concilium Archiepisc. Episc. Abbat Comit. Bar. Militum totius Regni p. 33 CHAP. X. King John and his Grand Charter p. 35 Consuetudines Scaccarii super Debitis Domini Regis inquirendis ibid. England's Epinomis CHAP. I. From the first supposed Inhabitants and Britains until Julius Caesar. IF all published Authority were a legitimate Brother to Truth 's certainty then could I affirm that their common Father old Time once saw a Samothean race in this Isle of Britany The Italian-bred Chaldee Berosus mentions one Samothes Brother to Gomer and Tubal of Japhet's line to be Author of the Celtes which inhabited with other parts of Europe that of Gaule which we now call la France and his Commentator Annius de Viterbo thus addeth Samothes fuit frater Gomeri atque Tubulis ex Japete patre à quo primùm Britones inde Galli Samothei dicti fuerunt praecipuè Philosophi Theologi Sectutores ejus These Samotheans by the testimony of Aristotle and Secion divini atque humani juris peritissimi ob id religioni deditissimi proptereà Samothei rather Semnothei appellati under the providence of these and their race was the Law-government of the State until that Trojan celebrated branch Brute entred the Isle who composed a Book intituled Leges Britonum collected out of the Trojan Laws But to ruminate a little upon that Saturnian Age and omit all Shadow-fights touching controverted Brute his supposed existence and fortunes it may be not without good reason doubted whether any such Laws of Troy were out of which others might be extracted Nor will they peradventure upon examination excepted only some Customs of Religious Rites appear more certain in particular or more true in general than those of Aristophanes his Nephelococcygia Times so near the Golden Age when as Nec signare quidem aut partiri limite campum Nec cuiquam as Seneca hath it aut animus aut injuria aut causa have left few notes of expresly binding Laws the main Government consisting in the arbitrary disposition of those in whom being chosen as Princes for their eminency in Justice and consequently in all other Vertues as Deioces was of the Medes it was rather an Office th●n a Title of Dignity to undergo the style of Monarch And although it be reported in Plato That Talus 'twixt whom and Rhadamanth the Cretique Justice was by Minos Jupiters own Son then King of Crete divided thrice every year did make his Circuit for maintenance of such Laws as were established and in Brazen Tables registred one of which somewhat to particularize was an Edict against Drunkenness in merry meetings so that Constitutions in written Tables may thus derive their pedigree from the most ancient remembrance of Grecian discoveries Ceres and her Thesmophoria with

CHAP. III. In whom after the time of King John BUt in that Charter of Liberties both for the Church and Laity made to the Baronage of England in the seventeenth of King John in Reningmead an express Ordinance is That if any Free-man dyed intestate his Chattels were to be disposed of by the hands of his next of kin by the view of the Church that is direction and advice being thereto given by the Ordinary as I understand saving to all Creditors their debts the words of it were Si aliquis liber homo intestatus decesserit Catalla sua per manus propinquorum parentum amicorum suorum per visum Ecclesiae distribuantur salvis unicuique debitis quae defunctùs eis debebat That Charter of King John is almost the same syllables with the common one that we now use by the name of the Grand Charter of 9 H. 3. exemplified by the Kings Patent of 28 E. 1. But this of Intestates and two or three other Chapters for the Subjects Liberty are more in that of King John's than is found in the Exemplification of 28 E. 1. However Matthew Paris and Roger of Wendover when they speak of H. 3. granting it so refer their Readers to this of King John that they tell us that that of H. 3. was the self same in every particular and therefore omit the repetition of it And indeed although in the common Printed Magna Charta of H. 3. and in the Roll also of 28 Ed. 1. in the Tower where the Exemplification is this Ordinance touching Intestates be wanting yet in very many of the ancientest Manuscripts of the old Statutes that of H. 3. hath the same words as we have here transcribed it from King John's and that in the same place of his Charter as that in King John's that is between the eighteenth Chapter Si quis teneus c. and the nineteenth Nullus Constabularius c. And it is to be understood that the greatest Prelates of the Clergy of that time as Canterbury London Winchester Pandulphus the Popes Nuncto the Master of the Temple and divers other Bishops were on the Kings part when that of King John was granted And it is probable enough that when they saw that a Charter of Liberties must of necessity be granted to the Baronage they so wrought also that they might insert this one for the advantage of their Episcopal Government And they had good colour to think and perswade that some such thing was fit for them in regard it was now clearly taken that some distribution was to be made pro anima intestati the care of souls being the chiefest part of their common pretences for increase of their power and greatness And hence I suppose it soon came to pass that the next of kin had the power of disposition committed by the Ordinaries and that in Letters or otherwise by vertue of that per visum Ecclesiae which was I think the textual ground of right of committing of Administration by the Clergy This of King John's being iterated in Henry the Thirds Charter however omitted in the Exemplification was it seems that provision spoken of in Cardinal Othobon's Legatins Proinde super bonis ab intestato decedentium so are the words provisionem quae olim à Praelatis Regni Angliae cum approbatione Regis Baronum dicitur emanasse firmiter approbantes districtius inhibemus ne Prelati vel alii quicunque bona intestatorum quocunque modo recipiant vel occupent contra provisionem praemissam What provision is it more likely that this was than that of the Grand Charter both of King John and H. 3. and the words à Praelatis dicitur emanasse justifies what we have conjectured of the purpose of the Prelates when they saw they could not but yield with the King to an establishment of Laws by that Charter made indeed in a Parliament of that age The same I suppose that which is meant in the Constitution of Arch-bishop Stafford where it is taken for granted that the Churches power of disposition of Intestates goods pro salute animarum in pios usus was a thing consensu Regio magnatum Regni Angl. tanquam pro jure Ecclesiasticáque libertate ab olim ordinatum c. Where Linwood modestly confesses that he could not find in what Kings time this Ordinance was made But Johannes de Athona upon that of Othobon though he rightly call that provision Provisio Parliamentalis yet most ignorantly and ridiculously tells us that the provision there understood is the Statute of Westminster 2. Cap. 21. cum post mortem which he makes also to have I know not what reference to the Statute of Glocester But this slipt from him either in a dream or through the utmost neglect of those infallible characters of truth that the denoting of times affords us for that Legatin of Othobon was made in London in 53 H. 3. and at such time as that Provision was yet extant in the Magna Charta used by our Lawyers But the Statutes of Westminster the second and of Glocester were under E. 1. the one in the sixth the other in the thirteenth of him how then could Othobon think of it in his Legatin or could John de Athona have thought so if he had allowed the Title of his Gloss which supposes in the point that the Constitutions of Othobon were published in the year 1248. which had it been in 1268. had agreed with truth but doubtless the Numeral Letters of MCCLXVIII were transposed into MCCXLVIII and thence only that Error CHAP. IV. How that so granted by King John's Charter in Parliament hath continued in practice AFter that Law of the seventeenth of K. John it seems the next of kin disposed of Intestates Goods by the testimony and direction of the Church for so per visum denotes as we see in per visum proborum legalium hominum in Writs of Summons and the like but I have not seen any practice of it testified in King John's time And under H. 3. however it were omitted in his Charter at the Exemplification the same visus Ecclesiae continued so sayes Bracton that then lived and was a Judge of that time Si liber homo intestatus subito decesserit dominus suus nil intromittat de bonis defuncti nisi de hoc tantum quod ad ipsum pertineret sc. quod habeat suum Heriott sed ad Ecclesiam amicos pertinebit executio bonorum Yet it seems also that notwithstanding the right of the Church thus ordained and the succession of next of kin so included in the Ordinance both the Lords in some places according to their former right still usurp some power over the disposition of Intestates Goods against the will of the Ordinaries and on the other side also the Ordinaries instead of giving direction for a true disposition of such Goods get possession of them and commit

JOHANNES SELDENUS Armig TRACTS Written by JOHN SELDEN OF THE INNER-TEMPLE Esquire The First Entituled JANI ANGLORVM FACIES ALTERA rendred into English with large Notes thereupon by REDMAN WESTCOT Gent. The Second ENGLAND's EPINOMIS The Third Of the Original of ECCLESIASTICAL Jurisdictions of Testaments The Fourth Of the Disposition or Administration of Intestates Goods The Three last never before Extant LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George in Fleet-street and Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIII 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 Jurisdiction 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

David Powell and others have informed us The Druids were wont to meet to explain the Laws in being and to make new ones as occasion required as is most likely in some certain place designed for that purpose as now at this very time all matters of Law go to be decided at Spire in Germany at Westminster-Hall in England and Paris in France Their publick Convention or Meeting-place was constantly as Julius Caesar tells us 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 mid lere Cenredes mines fader hedde Erconwald mine biscops 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 ●ssembly 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 Widdena gemcdes i. e. Meetings of the Wise Men and Micil sinodes 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 fit 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 High Constable 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 Ceulin 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 Oswala'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

First Jeoffrey de Magna Villa made Earl of Essex by Mawd the Empress It seems that the Saxon Earls had the self-same right of sharing with the King So in Doomsday Book we find it The Queen Edeua had two parts from Ipswich in Suffolk and the Earl or Count Guert the third and so of Norwich that it paid Twenty Pound to the King and to the Earl Ten Pound so of the Revenues of the Borough of Lewes in Sussex the King had two shares and the Earl the third And Oxford paid for Toll and Gable and other customary Duties Twenty Pound a year to the King besides Six Quarts of Honey and to Earl Algar Ten Pound To conclude it appears also that these Norman Earls or Counts had some power of making Laws to the people of their Counties For instance the Monk of Malmesbury tells us that the Laws of William Fitz-Osborn Earl of Hereford remained still in force in the said County that no Souldier for whatsoever offence should pay above Seven Shillings The Writings and Patents of the men of Cornwall concerning their Stannaries or Tinn-Mines do prove as much nor need I tell the story how Godiva Lady to the Earl Leofrick rid on Horse-back through the Streets of Coventry with her hair disshevelled all hanging about her at full length that by this means she might discharge them of those Taxes and Payments which the Earl had imposed upon them Out of the Countreys wherein all Estates were subject to Military Service the Barons had their Territories as we call them Mannors and in them their Courts to call their Tenants together at the end of every three Weeks and to hear and determine their Causes A Civilian one Vdalricus Zazius would have the original of these Courts among other Nations to have come by way of imitation from Romulus his making of Lords or Patrons and their Clanns or Tenants The use of them at this day is common and ordinarily known But to shew how it was of old we will borrow out of Hoveden this spark of light John Marshall complained to Henry the Second that whereas he had claimed or challenged in the Arch-Bishops Court a piece of Land to be held from him by right of inheritance and had a long time pleaded upon it he could obtain no Justice in the case and that he had by Oath falsified the Arch-Bishops Court that is proved it to be false by Oath according to the custom of the Realm to whom the Arch-Bishop made answer There has been no Justice wanting to John in my Court but he I know not by whose advice or whether of his own head brought in my Court a certain Toper and swore upon it that he went away from my Court for default of Justice and it seemed to the Justices of my Court that he did me the injury by withdrawing in that manner from my Court seeing it is ordained in your Realm that he who would falsifie anothers Court must swear upon the holy Gospels The King not regarding these words swore that he would have Justice and Judgement of him and the Barons of the Kings Court did judge him to be in the Kings Mercy and moreover they fined him Five Hundred Pound As to doing Justice in all other Cases and managing of Publick Affairs the Normans had almost the same Names and Titles of Officers and Offices as the Saxons had FINIS A Brief CHRONOLOGY TO Attend and Assist THE HISTORY In the Year of the WORLD   1910. Samothes if there ever were such a man bears rule 2805. Brutus makes a descent that is lands with his Trojans in Cornwall or Devonshire 3516. Dunvallo Molmutius swayes the Scepter 3627. Martia Dowager of King Quintilen is Queen Regent during the Minority of her Son Sisillius the First 3942. Caius Julius Caesar arrives at Deal on the Sea-Coast of Kent and Territa quaesitis ostendis terga Britannis that is Having inquiry made After the Britans bold He turn'd his back 't is said His courage would not hold and was the first that discover'd Britanny to the Romans In the Year of CHRIST   44. Claudius Caesar Emperour sends over Aulus Plautius with an Army as his Lieutenant General and by degrees reduceth the Countrey into the form of a Roman Province 52. A Colony of Veterans or old Roman Souldiers is sent down to Maldon in Essex 86. Britanny is subdued or brought under the yoke by the Conduct of Junius Agricola in the time of Domitian the Emperour 183. Lucius or King Lucy was the first Christian King Forasmuch as he was of the same standing with Pope Eleutherius and the Emperour Commodus Whence it appears that Beda makes others mistake and is himself mistaken in his wrong account of time in this affair 428. The Saxons Angles Jutes Danes Frisons or Friselanders arrive here from Germany Taurus and Felix then Consuls in the one and twentieth year of Theodosius the younger The common or ordinary account of Writers sets it down the four hundred forty ninth year but that great man both for Authority and Judgement William Camden Clarenceaux King at Arms hath upon the credit of ancient Records closed this Epoch or Date of time within that term of years which I have set in the Margin 561. King Ethelbert the First King of the English Saxons who profest Christianity 800. King Egbert 872. King Alured or Alfred 959. King Edgar 1017. Canute or King Knute the Dane 1036. Harold eldest Son to King Knute called for his swiftness Harefoot 1042. Edward the Confessor after whom Harold Son to Godwin Earl of Kent usurp't the Throne where he continued only nine Months 1066. William Duke of Normandy after a Battel fought upon the Plain near Hastings got the Dominion or Soveraignty of the British Island 1088. William Rufus second Son of the Conquerour 1100. Henry the First younger Brother to Rufus 1135. King Stephen Count of Blois in France Nephew to Henry by his Sister Adela 1153. Henry the Second Grand-child to Henry the First by his Daughter Mawd the Empress and Jeoffrey Count of Anger 's in France FINIS BRIEF NOTES UPON Some of the more Difficult Passages IN THE TITLE-PAGE COmmon and Statute Law So I render Jus Prophanum as Prophane is opposed to Sacred and Ecclesiastical as himself explains the term in his Preface out of Festus Otherwise it might have been render'd Civil Law as relating to Civil affairs and the Government of State not medling with the Canons and Rules of the Church but that the Civil Law with us is taken generally in another sense for the Imperial Law which however practised in several other Nations hath little to do in England unless in some particular cases Of English Britanny that is that part of Britain which was inhabited by the Angles in Latin called Anglo-Britannia by us strictly England as for distinction the other part of the Island Wales whither the Welsh the true and ancient Britans were driven by the Saxons

is called Cambro-Britannia that is Welsh Britanny and Scotland possest by the Scots is in like manner called Scoto-Britannia that is Scotch-Britanny which now together with England since the Union of the two Kingdoms goes under the name of Great Britain In the Author's PREFACE The Guardian of my Threshold So Limentinus among the Romans was the God of the Threshold qui limentis i. e. liminibus praeest but it may be taken for the Officer of the Gate the Porter who gives admission to strangers In a different Character Accordingly in the Latin the Author's Citations are printed in Italick which because they are so frequent I thought fit rather to notifie by a distinction as usual in the Margin thus Intercidona Pilumnus Deverra These were Heathen Deities to whom they attributed the Care of their Children whom else they thought Silvanus might like Oberon King of the Fairies surprize or do some other mischief to In the FIRST BOOK CHAP. 1. Pag. 2. lin 23. Among the Celts and Gauls Who are reckoned for one and the same people as for instance those Gauls who removed into the Lesser Asia mixing with the Greeks were called Gallo-Graeci but by the Greeks were styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence by contraction I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 41. Bellagines that is By-Laws From By that is a Village Town or City and Lagen which in Gothish is a Law so that it signifies such Laws as Corporations are govern'd by The Scots call them Burlaws that is Borough-Laws So that Bellagines is put for Bilagines or Burlagines This kind of Laws obtains in Courts Leet and Courts Baron and in other occasions where the people of the place make their own Laws CHAP. II. Pag. 4. l. 7. Adrastia Rhamnusia Nemesis Which is all but Nemesis the Goddess of Revenge called Adrastria from King Adrastus who first built her a Temple and Rhamnusia from Rhamnus a Village in the Athenian Territory where she was worshipped L. 42. Elohim that is Gods And so Judges are properly called according to the original notation of the word whose Root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alah though in Hebrew it signifie to curse yet in the Arabick Language a descendent of the Hebrew it betokens to judge Thus 't is said in the Psalms God standeth in the Congregation of the Gods and I have said Ye are Gods c. L. 45. It subjoins to it the name of God To wit that Name of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 El which signifies a mighty God In this sense the Cedars of God are lofty stately Cedars and by Moses his being fair to God is meant that he was exceeding fair Pag. 5. lin 18. Not only Berecynthia but also Juno Cybele Why Cybele is the very same Goddess who was called Berecynthia from Berecynthus a Hill of Phrygia as also Cybelus was another where she was worshipped And she had several such Names given her from the places of her worship as Dindymene Pessinuntia Idaea Phrygia This then was a slip of our worthy Author's memory or his haste CHAP. III. Pag. 5. lin 34. Not by the number of dayes but of nights Thus in our common reckoning we say a Sennight that is seven nights septinoctium for what in Latin they say septimana seven mornings and a fortnight that is fourteen nights Again for Sundayes and Holy-dayes the Evening which concludes the fore-going day is said to be their Eve that is Evening And the Grecians agree with us in setting the night before the day in that they call the natural day which is the space of twenty four hours comprehending day and night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Night-day not Day-night CHAP. IV. Pag. 6. lin 22. King Phranicus It is so ordinary a matter for Historians when they treat of things at great distance of time to devise Fables of their own or take them up from others that I doubt not but this Phranicus was designed to give name to France whereas it was so called from the Franks who came to plant there out of Franconia a Countrey of Germany called East-France L. 29. With Corinus one of the chief of his company From whom Cornwall had its name formerly called in Latin Corinia or Cornavia say some now Cornubia And possibly if that were so Corinium also or Cirencester a Town in Glocestershire and Corinus too the River Churne that runs by it owe their appellations to the same Noble person L. 31. New Troy that is London Called also Troynovant and the people about it called Trinobantes or Trinovantes from whom also the City it self was styled Augusta Trinobantum that is the Royal Seat of the New Trojans L. 40. King Belin. Who gave name to Billinsgate that is Belin's Gate as King Lud to Ludgate Pag. 8. lin 39. Eumerus Messenius Some such fabulous Writer as our Sir John Mandevil who tells us of People and Countreys that are no where to be found in the World CHAP. VI. Pag. 9. lin 19. In the time of Brennus and Belinus The first of these was General of the Gauls who were called Senones and going into Italy with them sackt Rome There he built the City Verona called by his Name Brennona as he had done Brennoburgum now Brandenburg in Germany From his prowess and famed Exploits it is supposed that the Britans or Welsh do to this day call a King Brennin Of the other viz. Belinus some mention hath been made already CHAP. VII Pag. 10. lin 24. Locrinus Camber and Albanactus From the first of these three Brethren to wit Locrinus it is said that the Welsh call England Lhoegr that falling to the eldest Sons share from the second Camber that a Welsh-man is named Cumra and the Countrey Cambria and from the third Albanactus that Scotland or at least good part of it retains the term of Albania a title still belonging to the King of Britain's second Brother the Duke of York Though for my part for this last name of Albanactus I am somewhat of opinion that it might be devised by some smattering Monk purposely in favour of the Trojan Story as much as to say in a mungrel word Alba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King of Alba a City of Italy built by one of Aeneas his Sons L. 29. Gavelkind From the Saxon gafel or gafol a Debt or Tribute and cyn or kynd the Kindred or Children or as Mr. Lambard gif eal cyn i. e. given to all who are next of Kin or as Vorstegan give all kind i. e. give to each Child his part An ancient custom of the Saxons whereby the Fathers Estate was equally divided amongst his Sons as it is still amongst the Daughters if there be no Sons It obtains still in several places especially in Kent by the concessions of the Conqueror Pag. 11. lin 22. The Laws of second Venus Not having Plato by me nor any other means to inform my self better I imagine that by the first Venus they mean the force of Lust and Beauty which doth so naturally

might have gained Jurisdiction over all personal Legacies under colour of such as were given in pios usus But perhaps it will not be admitted for probability enough that any part of the Code being of the Imperial or Civil Law was ever so received here in England as that it could induce any alteration touching the Jurisdiction of the Crown that is touching this Extrinsecal Jurisdiction which as is shewed did belong to the Temporal Courts but whosoever will not admit of any such conjecture must yet remember that presently from King Stephen's time when the Civil Law was new born into the light it having lain forgotten by the space of Six Hundred years before in the Western Empire the Code and other parts of that Law were familiarly read by our English Lawyers and I think as well by our Common as Canon Lawyers to omit that Case of Mabile of Franchiville wherein it seems a special regard was had to the Civil Law that permits not a meer Bastard and Succession ex Testamento against a lawful Heir of Blood for otherwise how could Richard the Uncle's Institution as it seems by a former Will have made colour of right for him against the latter Will which Mabile pretended unless he relyed upon her being a Bastard But I should think it probable enough that the Original of this Jurisdiction for Legacies was out of the Canon Law And that especially from that Canon Si haeredes c. before cited for although the Decretals wherein it stands now authorized for a general Law were first published but in 24 H. 3. by Gregory the Ninth and that we see by infallible testimony already brought that Legacies before that time were recoverable in the Spiritual Court yet by likelihood that very Canon was inserted in all or some of those eight more ancient Compilations of the Canons authorized by some former Popes which is the more probable because we find it also in Burchard and so it might be long before sufficient ground of this Extrinsecal Jurisdiction in the Ordinary but I sought here for Authority more than I durst be bold in conjectures which I leave to every mans judgement PART II. OF THE Disposition or Administration OF Intestates Goods CHAP. I. In whom it was in the time of the Saxons IN the Saxons time it was in the Lord of him that dyed understand the Chief Lord in case the Intestate were a Tenant and dyed at home in peace But in case he were no Tenant or dyed in his Lords Army then it was it seems as other Inheritance under the Jurisdiction of that Temporal Court within whose Territory the goods were This may be proved out of the Laws of that time which ordain that upon the death of an Intestate whom they call cwiale awe the Lord is only to have the Heriotts due to him which are also appointed by the Laws of the same time That by his the Lords advice or judgement his the Intestates goods be divided among his Wife and Children and the next of Kin according as to every one of them of right belongs that is according to the nearness of Kindred if no Children or Nephews from them be for it must I suppose be understood that the succession was such that the Children excluded all their Kindred and of their Kindred the next succeeded according to that in Tacitus of his Germans whose Customs were doubtless mixt with our English Saxons haeredes sayes he successoresque sint cuique liberi nullum Testamentum But it seems Christianity afterward brought in the free power of making Testaments amongst them Si liberi non sunt proximus gradus in possessione fratres patrui Avunculi But this is exprest only in case the Tenant dyed at home and in peace for if he dyed in his Lords Army both the Heriott was forgiven and the Inheritance both of Goods and Lands was to be divided as it ought which was it seems by the Jurisdiction of the Temporal Court within whose Territory the Death or Goods were for in that case it is not said that the Lords Judgement was to be used but that the Heirs should divide all or as the words in the Confessor's Law are habeant h●redes ejus pecuniam terram ejus sine aliqua diminutione recte dividant interse where the right of the Heir both to Lands and Goods is expresly designed but the Judge that should give it them not mentioned Therefore it seems it remained as other parts of the Common Law under the Temporal Jurisdiction as by the Civil Law it is under the Pretors CHAP. II. In whom after the Normans until King John's time UNtil King John's time it seems the Jurisdiction over Intestates Goods was as of other Inheritance also in the Temporal Courts yet no sufficient Testimony is found to prove it expresly only when the Common Laws of those times speak of Intestates they determine the succession by like division as those of the Saxon times In Laws attributed to William the First we read Si home morust sans devise si departent les Infants l'erite inter sei per ovell And afterwards in H. 1. Laws si quis Baronum vel hominum meorum praeventus vel Armis vel infirmitate pecuniam suam nec dederit nec dare disposuerit uxor sua sive liberi aut Parentes legitimi homines sui pro anima ejus eam dividant sicut eis melius visum fuerit Here is the first mention as I remember of any thing occurring in our Laws or Histories of the disposition of the Intestates Goods pro anima ejus which indeed might have been fitly subjected to the view at least of the Church But no mention as yet being of any Ecclesiastical Power that tends that way I rather think that heretofore no use or practice was of Administration committed direction given or medling with the Goods by the Ordinaries but all was by the Friends or Kindred juxta Consilium discretorum virorum as the words are in the Statutes made for such as should dye in the Holy War with Richard the First Neither doth that of Glanvill which was written under H. 2. tell us of any thing of the Ordinaries Power in this case although it hath express mention of Testaments and the Churches Jurisdiction of them Indeed we there find that if no Executor be named then possunt propinqui consanguinei Testatoris take upon them the Executorship and sue in the Kings Court against such as hinder the due payment of Legacies which also agrees well enough with that before cited out of the Laws of H. 1. Neither is there in Gualter Mapes his Apocalypsis being a bitter Satyr against the Abuses of the Spiritual Courts in Henry the Seconds time nor in John of Salisbury's Epistles that have many particulars of the exercised Jurisdiction of the Church any thing occurring that touches upon any Ecclesiastical Powers of this nature