It cannot be expected that I should shew the Original of all Changes or Distempers in this Kingdom It is work enough to shew our first Mould or Constitution yet for this also it cannot be doubted but the Barons Wars and Power might gain upon the Commons more than on the King he had such Bounds before that he could hardly be obliged more or capable of granting much but what was due before to all his People But it might be easie for the Potent Lords to grow upon the Commons in the Name of Barons In that Name I say for I cannot determine but the old Barons being the great Freeholders and the Lords of all the Manors that have left their Names in our Courts Baron had by Law and Reason much more Power than had the Kings Patentees Created Barons by Patent or Writ But this new Creation did but multiply the Iudges or the Kings Councellors for by so taking their Commission from the King they were only as other Judges in Inferiour Courts and so did really lose their great Power of Iudging which was proper only to those who were the Kingdoms Peers and Iudges So that these Lords did justly admit the Commons or rather were admitted by the Commons into the grand Iudicature and it may be that as the Barons did communicate their Power Iudicial so the Commons might communicate their Legislative unto those who had the Name but little of the Nature of the old Barons by Tenure yet by so doing they might bring Confusion or an harsh Discord into Natures Harmony But the main occasion seemed thus the King was tyed by his Coronation Oath to hold keep and defend the just Laws and Customs chosen by the Commons Iustas Leges consuetudines quas vulgus elegerit and this Limitation of Iust seemed to admit of reason or debate so much as might convince the Laws required to be Just for else I know not that the King was ever tyed to them And because he was or might be an Infant he had still a great Council about him to discuss the Laws proposed by the Commons and for this Cause he did and by reason might Summon the Lords or any other Wise and good Man he knew to come and give him Counsel as the Writ speaketh to the Lords and Iudges c. De quibusdam arduis nobiscum tractaturi Concilium impensuri So we find the old Acts passed per Consilium Baronum as we might shew in all Ages And because he used to demurr at Bills till he had the Advice of his great Council hence it may be for more Compendium the Bill was sent up first to the Lords as the Kings Counsellors and if they Counselled him against it then he answered Le Roy s'avisera The King will yet be farther Advised for he did not and I think he could not give a denyal nor of old perhaps Demurred till the Lords advised him against it I dispute not how much the Commons might oblige the Commons without assent of Lords or King Nor have I yet said that in the Coronation Oath the Commons Just Acts are called Laws and to Mould them may be works distinct enough and the plain truth is his Oath is to hold and to keep and to defend the Commons Laws à Tenir Gardir Les Defenderer per se tenendas protegendas as well as to Grant or to Confirm However I do not see either by Reason or Law That the King was so obliged to the Judgment of his own created Lords and there be few or none others left in England that he might not be convinced by the Reason of the Commons either without or against the Lords And beside divers Ordinances without any of the Lords it cannot be denyed but in Divers ages there were Acts of Parliament made without or against all the Lords Spiritual which yet often were the Major part of the Lords House and had as good it may be better Votes as Barons by Tenure than had all the other Lords by Writ and Patent only which might make them Judges or Councellors much rather than Law-makers I should still be far from desiring to obtrude my own Fancies or Opinions upon any least of all to the wrong of others Therefore if any can produce a better Title my Petition is they may be heard and may receive their Just Rights and Priviledges But if this be true which I now only propose and submit to better Thoughts and Judgments then had the Lords of late but a Right Consultative of making Laws And besides all that was said before this seemeth one Reason why our Ancestors did so willingly follow the Vice of Nature in placing the Power Legislative Iudicial and Executive in three distinct Estates as in Animals Aerials Etherials or Celestials three Regions and three Principles in Naturals that so they might be forced to consult often and much in all they did And if this frequent Consultation were retained and observed still it might not only occasion good Reviews but also prevent That which to the Common-wealth I fear and not Alone to private Persons may be sometimes prejudicial in a sudden Vote or Act of one House or one Body and yet one may be better much than Many if they be not good It must be granted that in Bodies of the Best Complexion and Composure here below there may be such Distemper and such Gangrene in some Members that it may be more than fit to cut it off Nay what was best may come to be the worst in Putrefaction That it may be meer Necessity to bury it although it were as Dear as Sarah was to Abraham or set on high by him that raised up the Brazen Serpent which see e're long lye buryed with this Epitaph Nehushtan And to all that is truly Just the Commons of England will not need to plead a bare Necessity for by Law and Reason too it may be said and proved I believe That both the King himself who chooseth by his Writ and All the Lords by several Votes have left the Legislative power so to the House of Commons that they had a Legal Right to do what all the Kingdom and Common-wealth of England Justly could But They are Men and therefore may be much unjust Nay where the Thing they do is Iust They may be much or most unjust I have neither Calling nor Ability to Judge them Nor may I act with force against them for whate're I think Unjust No not if I should think they did Usurp the Crown For if the Law Reports and Books deceive me not it hath been Judged Treason and so is for Private Men to rise conspire or Levy War against one that Usurps the Crown and Rights thereof except it rightly were declared Usurpation or that others should or might oppose him that did so Usurp Of which the Reasons may be Great and obvious Let me then suppose any one Man of all the Commons in Parliament for I will not
And where-ever these are found released as to Peterburg Canterbury Westminster but especially to Glassenbury the first and oldest Church in Britain Fons origo totius religionis It may be a clear Demonstration of the Parliaments assent to such a Charter For otherwise they could not be dispensed with by the King as we may find expressed in divers Charters as in those of Crowland which yet had great immunities And of that Restriction Matth. Paris may afford us the true reason because those three were setled for the Kingdom Propter Publicam Regni Vtilitatem ut per ea resisterent hostium in cursibus And K. William's Laws Castel Burg. Civit. fundatae aedificatae ad tuit Gent. Popul Regni ad Defens Regni idcirco observari debent cum omni libertate integritate Ratione Private Castles for habitation may be given in Dower and divided by Pacerners but so may none for publick defence Yet of such also may a man be Tenant by the Curtesie being able to guard them for Publick service of the Common-wealth One grand Objection must be removed but we need not fear it for it will flie or run away of it self 'T is that of the Conquest as many are pleased to call it not attending how little in this they be the Kings Friends for if this were his onely or his main and best Title there might be found in future ages some that may come to think it as lawful to conquer him as it was or could be to conquer them It must be considered for if the foundation be not sure and low the higher the building is the nearer its fall And it hath been observed that the higher Skale got up by accident is more ready to pop down again than it was before while it hung in due poize It seemeth a great weakness to be apt or prone to Suspition and therefore I shall not say I do suspect some that are most zealous for Prerogative or the Title of Conquest to be least acquainted with the Laws or Histories of England But I cannot be wholly free from wonder that any Lawyer or Historian that was friend to the King should be passionate in these which were so clearly quitted by that King whom they call the Conquerour He stood on Stilts or Patents or Pantofles but on plain English ground with two feet as other men The left and the weakest was Succession to Edward whose Kinsman he was and Heir by Will as appeareth by divers Passages in these very Laws of Saint Edward and William which may be seen and read of all But the right Leg with the strongest and best Foot he had to stand upon was the Peoples Assent Consent Acceptance and Election which we shall yet more fully clear when we discuss the Right of Succession or Election to this Crown and Kingdom But for the present it may suffice to observe That all these Laws we now have of King Edward's come to us through the Hands and Grant and Confirmation of King William the Norman and no otherwise Which I need not prove to any that have either read or seen the Laws themselves of which we speak For in the very Title and Preface thereof besides divers other passages in them all this and much more is fully related and recorded For it is there also further added That all those Laws were so presented to the said King William by a sworn Iury out of every County Who did also assert That these which they did present as the Laws of St. Edward were the undoubted Laws and Customs of the Kingdom that had also been collected into a Body by King Edgar and continued though sopite through the Troubles of succeeding Kings till Edward had the leisure to renew or rather confirm what was the Law before Nay when among all those Laws King William did most encline to those which came from Norway whence his Ancestors and Lords had issued forth and where a Bastard might inherit all the Patriarchs of England Compatriotae Regni qui Leges edixerant did so move and press him with such Arguments as may again be well considered that at length in Parliament Concilio habito precatis Baronum the King himself consented as they did desire This is expressed in his own Laws And by his own desire the Archbishop of Canterbury was one of those entrusted with enrolling or recording of those Laws Which to that very King and to his Successors to this very day became one special Clause of the Coronation-Oath Which was To confirm all the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom but especially the Laws of St. Edward called the Confessor And one of King William's own Laws is That all men observe and keep the Laws of King Edward in all things Adauctis his quas constituimus ad Vtilitatem Anglorum If this be not yet clear enough for the Laws themselves which are now extant and may be read and known of all we might confirm it much by Ingulph living at the same time and bringing those Laws with his own hands from London to his Crowland with such an Endorsement or Title of his own making Leges aequissimi Regis Edwardi quas Dominus meus inclitus Rex Willielmus Autenticas esse perpetuas per totum Regnum Angliae inviolabiliterque tenendas sub poenis gravissimis Proclamarat suis Iustitiis commendarat c. He was like enough to know it And the old Book of Litchfield cited in the great Reports besides that of the Iury from every County addeth also That the same King William did by the Counsel of his Barons call by Writ of Summons Summoniri fecit all the Nobles Wise-men Elders of the Witan and learned Lawyers in each County And in that great Parliament Ad Preces Communitatis Anglorum Rex acquievit c. confirming all by Common Council This of Litchsield is now printed in several places and Roger Hoveden agreeth in Henry the Second Nor did he onely confirm but in some things mitigate and in divers explain and clear what might seem obscure or heavy to the People Ad Vtilitatem Anglorum His Laws are now printed both with Mr. Selden's Notes on Eadmerus and with Mr. Wheelock's Impression of the Saxon Laws and History with a very good Preface of Sir Roger Twisden They do oblige us much that love and clear our Laws so far as just and good What Emendations and Additions King William made to St. Edward's Laws in this also of the Militia we have observed before at our unexpected enterance on this Question Which was not at all intended to be once so much as touched but in one Parenthesis Which was past Recovery before this Discourse was so much as designed But now having wandred so much and so far beyond my own purpose as well as my Subject I could almost be perswaded to step a little further and to touch I must no more upon some few passages between the Conquest as they
by Commune assent in special of the Clergy And for this Walsinghams Neustria may be added to others in the Road and at his return he is again Crowned before the People as well as the Lords Consilio Procerum Yet Polydore with others is bold to charge his Reign with great exactions on the Clergy in special for his ransome but himself yeilded that the King did send the Bishop of Salisbury into England that by the consent of Parliament Regii Senatus Authoritate he might get his Ransome And himself yeilded that at his return there was a Parliament wherein the King thanked his People for their Faith to him and for that they had helped him in his Wars and Imprisonment And that Ejus Nutu Archiep. Cantuar. was conferred on the said Bishop of Durham and that the Chalices c. were again restored to the Churches and that the Laws with weights and measures were then also corrected or amended K. Iohn's Election must be discussed in another place Of his Military Aids Paris with Wendover is clear that they were granted in and by Parliament Convenerunt ad Colloquium apud Oxoniam Rex magnates Angliae ubi concessa sunt Regi Auxilia Militaria de quolibet scuto duae marcae dimidium Nor are the Records wholly lost of his Parliament summoned about a War with the French or rather defence against them and his Writs are known enough They speak consent of Parliament provisum est de communi assensu Archiep. Comitum Baronum omnium Fidelium nostrorum Angliae quod novem Milites per Angliam inveniant decimum bene parat ad defensionem Regni Besides the Rolls this is found in the 9th part of the great Reports and in divers others His Charter is now so well known in Print that I need not cite any clause thereof No not that so clear for the Militia Nullum scutagium vel Auxilium ponam in regno nostro nisi per commune Consilium Regni nostri Yet I may add that the Aides there excepted and called Reasonable being such by Common Law were afterwards assessed and ascertained by Parliament For which the first of Westminster may be compared with the 25 th of Ed. 3d. and in the 14 th of that King his Aides were remitted by Parliament because for his Wars he had taketh other Assistance than was due by Law which was much excused by himself and divers other Kings And for this I might cite the 48 th of H. 3d. the 25 th and 31 th of Edw. 1st the 10 11 12 and 13 of Edw. 2d the 19 th and 20 th Edw. 3 d. who did buy Souldiers rather than Press them as the Roman Historian of the declining times of that Empire Of the Barons Wars I must not speak a syllable they do deserve a discourse by themselves and it may be possible er'e long to see it Now I shall only observe that our great Charter was rather the Cause or occasion than the Effect of those Wars For had it been so kept as it was made the Crown might have rested in peace enough They which perswade others that this Charter was first created by King Henry and extorted from him only by a prevailing Sword seem not to consider so much as its Title as it now is printed where we find it granted in his 9 th year Although it was so ill performed that it needed confirmation afterwards Matth. Paris is very clear and plain in this that it was wholly the same or exactly agreeing with that of K. Iohn in nullo dissimilis Nay he speaketh of K. Iohns Charter quas sponte promisit Baronagio Angliae and again in K. H. 3 d. sponte liberaliter concessit And the Popes Letters tell us of K. Iohns Charter granted most freely Liberaliter ex mera spontanea Voluntate de Communi consensu Baronum suorum c. Besides the very words in one of those Charters spontanea voluntate nostra dedimus concessimus pro nobis Heredibus nostris Libertates has subscriptas Nor were these new priviledges then first Created by him But the old Rights of the People by long and ancient Custom as we may find at large also in Wendover with Matthew Paris where they are not only Antiquae Leges consuetudines Regni but we are also told they did present the great Charter of H. the first with his Laws and St. Edward's And to these the Barons sware as the King had also done before For so we read their Covenant was that if the King would break his Oath a juramento proprio resilire which they had some cause to believe or suspect propter suam duplicitatem yet they would keep theirs and would do their best to reduce him to keep his Virgil is also clear in this who telleth us K. Iohn's Troubles and proceedure from his not restoring K. Edw. Laws as he had promised And that the Barons urged him ut promissas tandem aliquando Lege daret and again they ask for their Antient Customes vetera instituta quibus olim Reges Pop. Angl bene rexissent and the close is quae ille prius recepisset se sanctissime observaturum And for Henry the Third the same Author affirmeth that instead of his granting ought that was new the People granted him that grand Prerogative of Wardships which that King accepted with many thanks adding also that the People did not intend it for his Successors But of this I may speak in another place I shall now only adde that if there be not yet enough said from all the Saxon Laws and Histories with the first Norman Confirmations and Explications to assert the Great Charter to be more Antient for its matter than K. Henry or K. Iohn I shall only desire those that are yet unsatisfied they would please to peruse the 2 d. part of the Great Institutes or at least so much of it as speaketh of H. 3 d. and Edw. 1st And it may be they will not wonder that at the Prelates motion that Bastards might inherit the Parliament at Merton cryed out so loud nolumus Lages Angliae mutate c. To which also besides the late Declarations of this Parliament and the Petition of Right may be added the Learned arguments of those Grave and Honourable Judges to whom we shall ever owe so much for standing up in an evil day for Truth and Common Justice in the Case of Ship-money Sir Richard Hatton Sir George Crook and Sir Iohn Denham with the truly Noble Oliver St. Iohn Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Their Arguments are now in Print by publick Command Nor may I presume to add a word in that subject Nor shall I speak of the times following the great Charter which was confirmed more than thirty times in full Parliament with many special Provisions for the Militia It being most just and reasonable that what did so much concern all should be considered by all Quod omnes tangit
Henry the first the Descent of divers Nations of Europe from the Trojans in Huntingdon and Hoveden But it may be considered what this State and Parliament hath oft owned of Brute and the Trojan Story not only in the grand Moot of the Dependance of Scotland on England ever since King Brute which beside all Records in the Exchequer is at large in Walsinghams Edward the first and the Survey of Normandy as also in the Laws of the Confessor cap. 35. To which I might add the Trojan Reliques Statues Tablets and Pictures in all the Brittish Danish Saxon English Wars found here in Cornwall Wales and other Parts besides our Troy Novant or new Troy the old Trojan Roman name of this Famous City of the Troinovantes in the Roman Writers Trinobantes now London since the time of Lud's building a Gate and changing this Cities Name But for leaving out the Name of Troy some were so much offended that it came to a great Contest and Quarrel couched in Verse from others by the old Gildas and translated by the Famous Nennius of Bangor escaping that bloody Massacre Who hath also left us an old History yet to be seen in MS. collected as himself saith from the Brittish and Scottish Records and from the old Roman Annals which were then found relating the Pedigree of Brute or Britto some will have him Brotos and some Brutus from Aeneas to Rome and his bringing some Trojan Reliques hither by the way of Gaul where he also saith he built the City of Turons or Tours much as Monmouth and others have the Story though I could never find it in Homer or any of the Ancients by them cited for Turons Yet I find the same Nennius confessing that the Brittish Annals had another descent of their Brute or Britto from Japhet obtaining Europe for his Portion with the Brittish Isles of which Noahs Will in Eusebius or other old Fragments came alone from whence the Almans and Francks besides our Britto Father to the Brittains whose Genealogy through twenty Descents to Noah and Adam he saith he had from the Tradition of those who lived here in Primis Britanniae Temporibus So that if we may not believe Taliessin the British Bard of Trojans coming hither with their Brute yet we may peruse his Scholar or the Merlin that foretold the Name of Brute should come again upon this Island whether in the Scottish Union or in the Welsh returning to their Lost Dominions I dispute not nor how this Island came so like to Somothrace so near a Kin to Troy in Rites of Worship or in other Customs as of old some did observe especially in those concerning Ceres or Proserpina so famous here that in the old Argonauts the Brittish Isles are stiled the Court or Palace of Ceres and yet this might be for other Reasons But although I cannot deny some Trojan customs among us yet I know not why I should grant that Trojan Succession to the Crown which so many do assert when as themselves do yield the same Trojans to be Brittans and those Brittans of whom we spake before And besides the Brittish Gavelkinde and all before themselves do also relate their own Brute parting his Kingdom among his three Sons and again the Crown parted between the two Sons of Madan two of Gorbodio two of Molmutius two of Lud so near a Kin to him that Caesar found Elected King by Common-Council And I must believe those who assert the Trojan Crown to go by Succession yet I know not why I may not also believe so many good or better Writers of the Trojan Common-Council or Parliament and their Power in Peace and War with all things else that might concern the King or Kingdom which great Council did consist of Princes or Nobles and Elders of the People Of which Trojan Parliament we read in Apuleius Socrates Daemon and in Homer Virgil Dictys and most ancient Dares who lived also in our Britain if good Bale deceive us not which yet is not so certain as that he was Translated or Paraphrased in Latin Verse by Ioseph of Exon or Iscan our Countrey-Man as many of his Verses speak although that Elegant Poem be ascribed to Cornelius Nepos as by him Dedicated to Salust in the times of the great Commerce between Rome and Britain which produced so many famous Brittish Romans beside Constantine Helen and the modest Claudia of whom St. Paul speaketh and Martial in several places maketh her a British Woman I will not insist upon their Election of Emperors or Generals by a kind of Lot in Dictys nor will I deny but the Trojans were severe enough to all Traitors whose dead Bodies also were denyed Burial if we may believe all from the Illiads but the Odysses may also afford us the very same Punishment for Tyrants whom they hated as much as the Grecians Nor will the Patrons of Succession or Prerogative find more encouragement among the Grecians than among the Trojans though I cannot deny but they do rightly observe many Grecian Customs among the Britains nor will I deny to our Ancestors both Greek Philosophers and Greek Schools besides Bladud's at Stamford and other Places I could easily believe these Islands to be known to the Grecians long before the Romans of whom Lucretius is the first that I yet know speaking of Britain but it was described by Polibius though our great Herald seem to forget it who might learn it from the Carthaginians trading hither and by Eratosthenes Dicaearcus Pithaeas and Artemidorus if I be not deceived from Strabo that I say nothing of the old Argonauts ascribed to Orpheus naming Ireland and describing Britain or of the Book of the World in Aristotles Works where Albion and Ferne are Brittish Isles mentioned also in Dyonisius and very famous for their Mines of Tin or Lead whence the name of Cassiterides of which Herodotus and others of the Ancients What was the Grecian Genius towards their Kings doth not only appear in their Supercilious Ephori Eye-brows or the Left eye of Greece but in the Right Eye or Athens of which much might be spoken from all the Greek Historians besides their Laws or Politicks of Plato and his Schollars long before the Attick Laws Collected by Petitus that I say nothing of Aristophanes or any of their Poets But how much our Ancestors owed to the Grecians I do not find expressed by any most of our Plays much of our Works and somewhat of our Laws seemeth to be Grecian The Genius of a State is seen in Plays some think rather than in Work they are Passions and as Lovers Pulses which do shew the Soul much quicker than do Words or Actions and the Greek Scenes were Passions or Sufferings of Princes rather than their Actions and a Tyrants blood was thought the Richest and fattest Sacrifice to please the People and appease their Gods but Interludes must be Corrected much and then they may both Moralize and Methodize the best Historians and may be
which was some Repetition of his Coronation Oath Some affirm that he refused to be Crowned by Canterbury but Neubrigensis telleth us that he sought it of him Tyranni nomen exhorrescens legitimi Principis personam induere gestiens but Canterbury denied to lay on his hands Viro Cruento alieni Iuris insavori Then he complyed with York and bound himself Sacris Sacramentis pro Conservanda Republica c. It might also be added that if K. Edward might dispose the Crown as his own Fee yet by the Common-Law or Statute of Calcuth he could not dispose it to a Bastard as K. William is expresly called in the Letters sent to the Pope from the Parliament of Lincoln in Eward the first besides his own Charters and of attempts to Legitimate him that so he might succeed by Common-law See the Comments on Merton in the second Part of Institutes and of the Laws of Norway before But in the Old Book of Caen we may find K. William on his death Bed wishing that his Son might be King of England which he professed he neither found or left as Inheritance Neminem Anglici Regni Constituo Haeredem non enim Tantum Decus Haereditario Iure possedi That K. William the second K. Henry the first and K. Stephen came to the Crown by Election without Right of Succession is so much agreed by all that it were vain to prove it Their Elections and their Oaths are every where among the Monks and good Historians So also of Henry the second and Rich. the first But in K. Iohn's Coronation we are brought beyond dispute in full Parliament of Archshops Earls Barons and all others which were to be present the Arch-bishop stood in the midst and said Audite universi noverit Discretio vestra c. It is well known to you All that no Man hath Right of Succession to this Crown except that by unanimous consent of the Kingdom with Invocation on the Holy Ghost he be Elected from his own Deserts Lectus secundum Morum Eminantiam praeelectus c. But if any of the last Kings Race be more worthy and better than others his Election is more proper or more Reasonable Pronius promptius in Electionem ejus est consentiendum As it now is in Earl John here present Nor was any one found that could dissent or oppose what was so spoken for they all knew it was not without much Reason and good Warrant from their Laws and Customs Scïentes quod sine Causa hoc non sic definiverat For which Matthew Paris or Wendover may be compared with Hoveden Westminster and others of those Times Which seemeth most rightly to state the nature of Succession as it was in this Kingdom So that all did amount but to this That if a King had such Children so qualified and so Educated that they were above others in Vertue Wisdom and true worth or at least Caeteres Pares they were the most likely Candidates for the Crown But as we found before among the Iews in the strictest Succession where the Crown was especially tied to the House of David yet their great Sanhedrin had alwayes the Power and Right to determine of the Claims Interests Deserts and Vertues of Heirs or all Pretenders So if here we allow not such a Legal power of Judging of Claims or Titles to be placed somewhere or other our Ancestors did leave the Crown at a more blind uncertainty than in all other things they were accustomed from the Law of Nature and Right Reason I might add the Formal of Coronation joyned to the Irish Modus of Parliament under the Great Seal of Henry the Fourth where we read Electio à Plebe ad Regem ut consecretur Postquam ad Idem iterum Consenserit and again Electum interroget Metropolitanus c. How our Allegiance was of Old tied to the Kings Person not to his Heirs nor to his Person but together with the Kingdom and the Laws and Rights thereof hath been observed already Much I might add of latter times Nay that very Statute of Henry the Seventh which of late was pressed for the King and his Militia or taking Arms with him as Allegiance required doth expresly declare our Allegiance to be to the Kingdom with the King and that by such Allegiance men are tied to serve the King for defence of him and the Land And for the Kings Heirs I find them not in our Allegiance Yet the Statutes of Edw. 2. are punctual in expressing the Kings Prerogative or Rights of the Crown but where is provision for his Heirs In Eward the Third the Iudges Oaths were made and stand among the Statutes as enacted by Parliament although I do not find it so upon the Rolls And there is a Clause against Consent to the Kings Damage or Disherison So also it is in the Oaths of divers in the Courts of Justice as of Masters of Chnacery with the Kings Serjeants or Councel at Law and others but not so by Parliament See the third Part of Institutes Cap. 101. Yet our Old Allegiance did forbid Disherison or Damage but with Limitation as we shewed before The late Oaths of Allegiance in King Iames and of Supremacy in Q. Elizabeth taken by Parliament-men and divers others are to the Kings Person and his Heirs and Successors with particular Relation to defence of the Crown and Dignities thereof Which is Remarkable and that which may seem to excuse some in not assenting to others which are not so obliged and yet it is thought by some that the main or onely meaning of those Oaths was against Rome or forreign Enemies For which also a Declaration in the Queens Injunctions may be considered But in all Cases of real Scruple I cannot censure any that in a quiet humble manner seeking Peace and Truth followeth his Conscience till it is rightly informed In the Quarrels of York and Lancaster there was an Act in Henry the Fourth to entail the Crown upon the Kings Issue of which four are there named But in Henry the Eighth the Parliament declared the Succession to the Crown not yet settled or cleared enough and then it was entailed again and for lack Heirs Male upon Elizabeth But this again repealed in Mary and again in Elizabeth and Iames. How much or how little these annulled the Common-law I must submit to others lest upon debate I should be forced to yield it might be possible for future Parliaments to reduce Succession to Election as justly as some late Parliaments did turn the Common-law of Election into such or such a Succession which can only stand by Statute if it be true as all tell us that there was no entailed Inheritance but by Statute-law since the Second of Westminster of which before How little Power Kings had over their Crown or Kingdom without consent of Parliament besides all that is said already might be further cleared from the acknowledgments of Kings Themselves below the time of the Conquest
forth Nay till she have leisure to attend with Joy that a Man-child is born to her Some have thought the Travailer to be Gentile Church but it is Interwoven with Bethlem Ephrata I need not spend much time to Parallel the two Estates of our Messiah with this Ioseph and this Benjamin The Lord will dwell between his Shoulders more then when the Holy Place was in the Tribe of Benjamin he also was cut off as Ioseph was but did prolong his Days and prosper Yet a little while I hope and Benjamin shall come down from his good Father and then shall Ioseph Ben Ioseph make himself known to his Brethren who did hate him shout at him cast him into the Pit deliver him to the Gentiles But he was brought from Prison and from Iudgment At thirty Years he stood before the King and was made Governour of all His Brethren must come and bow down to him tho they rememb'red not his Affliction yet he preserveth them in Aegypt and tho Dead yet goeth before them to Canaan in his Coffin of which the Jews have many Stories in the Life of Moses and others They shall see him who they have pierced and shall weep over him For he shall melt them by saying I am Joseph your Brother But he must stay till Aegypt be destroyed by Famine and be glad to yield it self to Ioseph he must sit till his Enemies be put under him And then shall come the Restitution when Babylon is pulled down It filleth all the Scene as yet And whil'st Satan acteth as if he were God it is no Wonder that we see so little done of Good I must not trouble the World with the time of this great Change But it may be sought and perhaps found not only by Types but plain Expressions in Moses and the Prophets besides our Saviour's Words and the Revelation This I may observe that as Aegypt was broken before the Tabernacle was first raised and Edom before the first Temple and Babylon before the Second So both Edom and Babylon before the Third in Ezekiel and St. Iohn for I now seek not the three Temples in Ezekiel Sitnah and Rohoboth digged by Isaac as do many Iews Of all the Crimes of Edom and Babylon this hath a heavy Charge that the afflicted Heber the People of his Love But those that Curse them must be Cursed How great a share in that this Kingdom had I cannot say there are Mistakes on either side We say they Crucifyed a Child or more They do deny it and we prove it not They say we drove them out from hence it is not clear They were in Favour once at Court they did deserve Respect who brought the Crown two hundred thousand Pounds per Annum little less as mony now for divers Years together And King Iohn did give or sell them a Charter of Priesthood or rather Presbytery for I know not that by this they ever Sacrificed And the Charter yet remaineth for old Jacob the Presbyter of all the Jews in England during Life Their Use and Brocage was so burthensom that in King Edward the First one Parliament did quite deny them Leave of Usury and that did draw them but not drive them hence It was their Motion that obtained a Writ for safer Passage which yet secured them not but that the best of them were drowned in the Thames by Fraud of those that undertook to Waft them over But they hanged for abusing those poor Jews The next Parliament did grant a whole Fifteenth pro expulsione Iudaeorum yet they had but a Writ for a Pasport and they were but 15000 and odd if I may believe a great learned Judg who has so Reported and Recorded How they are now I need not say although I might also bear them Witness that they are yet Zealous in their Way nor do they wholly want Ingenious Able Men of whom I cannot but with Honour mention him that has so much obliged the World by his learned Writings â—ab Menasseh Ben Israel a very Learned Civil Man and a Lover of our Nation The more I think upon the great Change now coming on them and all the World the more I would be Just and Merciful to them to all nay Universal Sweetness if I could a Christian overcoming all with Love And such one should be more I believe if one had conquered all the World For then there would be nothing left but Self to Conquer Then one would return in Love and say come forth my Enemies and Live enjoy your Rights your Peace and Liberties with all your Ioyes There shall not an Hair fall off your Heads By this it shall be known that God alone must Reign I know that Antichrist and Babylon must fall and rise no more But these are more in Hearts then any Walls or any City Not only in the Heart much less the Name of King or Lord I Judg my self or so I should much rather and much heavier than I Judg another For I see much cause to fear my self lest I may keep a little Pretty rather Ugly Antichrist within my Breast whil'st I am busie to destroy some others more then it in others or my self There is a sweeping Rain oppressing more then any Thunder There is a Pride most proper to a Leathern Coat And one there was that trod on Pato's Pride with Prouder it was said and fouler Heels I find it in the Scriptures thence I know that Babylon must down and be thrown down with Violence More Force it may seem than Form of Law Yet even in such things God seldom doth that which is not just in Man's Eye also Nor did he ruine Babylon or spoyl Aegypt till they oppressed Israel Nor did he bring the Iews by pure Force to possess Canaan before they had purchased Sechem or Machpela with such a Legal Seisin as might warrant Force or Forcible Disseisors that so held Possession against the true Owners And what ever Force may appear in pulling down of Babylon I do not Read or Know that the new Temple or the new Ierusalem shall be built with Violence or by Violent Men that may ruffle much in forcing Babylon But they may perish by the Sword that use it most Moses was the meekest Man alive yet he had a special Commission that was a Patent sealed with the Arms and Impress of Heaven to ruine or impoverish Aegypt He pulled down indeed but he raised little but a Tabernacle Only a Shadow of good things to come And it must be abolished by him that was typified by Ioshua For Moses could not bring them into Rest altho by Force and a mighty Hand he brought them out of Aegypt David was a Warriour and a mighty puller down He cut off the Head of Goliah and weakened all the Philistins he threshed Ammon Moab was his Washpot and over Edom he casts his Shoe He shall be brought into the strong City and shall harrow Edom and sow it with Salt or cut off all the
quem injurià afficiant Beseeching them mainly to mind this That they wronged none A most pious Christian Motion And our Monthly County-Courts are as old as this Parliament at Exon. The Acts are printed But I must not digress to their Ordeals appointed there for Perjury In this Kings Reign the Pope sent his Bull to excommunicate the King and all his Subjects For that Per 7 annos destituta fuerat Episcopis omnis Regio Gavisorum id est West-Saxonum Whereupon the King summoned a Parliament Convocavit Synodum Senatorum Gentis Anglorum As saith the Monk of Malmsbury Et Eligerunt constituerunt Singulos Episcopos Singulis Provinciis Gavisorum For the Bishops Shire used to be equal to the Earls or the Ealdormens Shire with whom he sate in Folkmoote Et quod Olim duo habuerunt in quinque diviserunt King Ethelstane came next He was the first of all the English Kings that ruled over all the Island conquering Wales and regaining Scotland Which being subject to England as a Dukedom thereof was advanced to a Politick and Royal Kingdom As the learned Fortescue doth plainly affirm And for this against all that Buchanan writeth I need onely refer to the Authors and Records cited by the great Master of Antiquities with other Learning Mr. Selden in his short but pithy Notes on it with Hengham To which we may adde somewhat in Polydore and the Saxon Chronology from the year 934 but especially from Oswald's Laws and others of the famous Edgar vouching Ethelstane for Scotland Of which we read in many places beside the fourth Part of the great Reports But that victorious Monarch suffered the Scot to reign under him saying That it was more glorious to make a King than to be a King A pious Prince to whom we owe for translating the Bible from Hebrew which some think he did by some Converted Jews Among his Laws now extant we find divers enacted in Celebri Gratanleano Concilio where there were Archiep. Optimates Sapientes ab Ethelstano vocati frequentissimi And again at Exon we find him Mid his Wytan and their Wergylds for the King Archbishop Eorles Bishops Ealdermen and other Degrees may suffice to prove them to be Acts of Parliament With those several Degrees there mentioned we may compare the Laws of King Edgar and Canute in divers places one of the Ranks of their Nobility as a General or great Commander in Wars which may be observed for the Militia Edmund succeeded and at London holds a Parliament of Clergy and Laity ge Godcundra ge Worulcundra And again Mid Witena getheahte gegodra hada gelewedra And to the Parliament he giveth solemn Thanks for their Aid in setling the Kingdoms Peace His Laws are printed And we omit his Charter to the Church of Glastonbury which was made cum Concilio Consensu Optimatum as we read in Malmsbury But I must not omit that Parliament of his recorded in the Mirrour where we find a kind of Appeal or a legal Accusation of Treason brought by Roceline against Walligrat in full Parliament in the time of King Edmund In King Edred's Reign there was a Parliament solemnly summoned by Writ as we read at large in the Abbot of Crowland To which there was then a great Charter confirmed being drawn or dictated by Turketulus then Abbot but he had been Lord Chancellor And the date is in Festo Nat ' B. Mariae cum Vniversi Magnates Regni per Regis Edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi Episcopi ac Abbates quam Caeteri totius Regni Proceres Optimates Londoniis Convenissent ad tractandum de Negotiis Publicis totius Regni in Communi Concilio Edgar was a great Monarch and as great a Conqueror by Sea as Ethelstane by Land It might be easier to shew his four Seas of which so many speak than to set their exact bounds Yet it may not be unworthy of our thoughts to consider how our Ancestors did often divide the Office of their Admirals usually as Nature hath parted our Seas as thinking it indeed too great an honour and a burthen for a Subject to be Admiral of all the Seas of such an Island But the late Cardinal of France did wisely it was thought dispose or rather retain that Office as the best Jewel of that Kingdom which yet by Sea might yield to this But I must not digress nor can I determine the bounds of Edgar's Conquest to the North they say to Norway or the West Of which some speak as if they would but give us hints for farther search and Queries I dare not affirm that in those days our Saxon or British Ancestors did know America But if we may credit any Records besides the Scriptures I believe or know it might be said and proved well that this new World was known and partly inhabited by Britains or by Saxons from this Island three or four hundred years before the Spaniards coming thither Nay the more I consider the Discourses which did pass between the Spaniards and the Mexicans the more I could believe the King himself of Mexico might possibly descend from those that went from hence to Florida or rather Mexico So that we need not wonder at the British Words or Beads the Crucifix or other Reliques which the Spaniards found at their Arrival And for this besides so many other Authors we have much among the British Annals Those in special left by Caradoc of Lancarvan or from him continued by the Beirdhs of Conwey and Stratford gathered and translated by the learned Llhoyd To which we may adde what Doctor Powell hath of this out of Records and best approved British Authors in the Life of Owen Gwyned or David and Madoe his Sons about the Reign of King Stephen To which at least for that which concerneth Hanno or the old Navigations with Plato's Atlantis or what else appeareth in Aristotle Theophrastus Virgil Seneca with others it may not be amiss to compare two late and very learned French Authors of Peleg and orbis maritimus very worthy I think of good perusal But to return to Edgar's Parliaments How that great Council did often dispose the King himself we must discourse in a fitter place We shall now but observe that good Historians tell us that King Edgar by the Council of the Kingdom did repeal the Acts of Edwin both his brother and predecessor Convocato ad Brandanfordeam Regni Concilio fratris Edwini Acta decreta rescindit And the famous Oswald's Law was signed by this King Cum consensu Concilio astipulatione Archiepiscoporum Principium Magnatum It is printed and found in ancient Authors King Edgar's Charter to Glastonbury reciting the Acts of so many Kings before him was confirmed Generali assensu Pontificum Abbatum Optimatum If we may believe the old Monk And the Charter is to be read at large Archiepiscopis adhortantibus consentiente etiam annuente Brithelmo Fontanensi Episcopo caeterisque Episcopis Abbatibus Primatibus And
call it and the Barons of Wars Or the time of the great Charter For since that time the Rolls and Printed Acts are every where much larger and much better than my little reading or my leasure can present them Two words have sound of horror to the People who are taught to think them both oppressions and the sins of him they call the Conqueror Dane-geld and the Book of Dooms-day Some have added Curfeu with I know not what to make poor Children quake These have been proved to be long before the Normans coming in To that of Dane-geld I may add that good King Edward did also retain it to his Coffers when the Danish Storm was over till he saw the Devil dance upon it As the Crouland Abbot doth Record But it did rise from one to three to four to six shillings on the Hide but so by Parliament as may be much collected from the 11th Chap. of King Edwards Laws compared with Florence of Worcester Hoveden Huntingdon Math. Paris and Math. of Westminster besides some others which we must produce e're long And to say nothing of eleemosyne pro Aratris of which Canute and Ethelred it is clear in King Ethelstanes Laws that single Hides or Ploughlands in England were to maintain two Horsemen with Arms by Act of Parliament And this was more it seems than ever was King Williams Hydage or Dane-geld Which may be added to King Ethelstanes Militia as also his Doom book for all Judgments in one Form of which his Laws speak to what is said of Booca Doom But to King Williams Doomsday I shall now add to what before that besides the Mirror and Fitz-Herberts N. B. with the old Abbot of Crouland There is enough in every segment of that Roll to make one know it was a Review and little but a Review of what was done before They do abuse us else that bid us read the T. E. R. in all that Roll Tempore Edwardi Regis plain enough sometimes without all Divination That it was also confirmed by Parliament may be clear enough from the many exemptions a servitio Regis and a Vice-comit Nay to some inferiour places as Ely and Worcester Besides old Crowland which was not exempted from such service till the latter Saxon or first Normans time though Ingulph spake of divers Ethelreds But the same Abbot will tell us that this Doom Book was now also made juxta Taxatorum fidem qui Electi de qualibet Patria c. And that his Taxors were both kind and merciful non ad verum pretium nec ad verum spatium c. So preventing future Burthens and Exactions Talem Rotulum multum similem ediderat quondam Rex Alfredus c. But Alfreds own Will seemeth to carry it higher Nor was Ingulph's favour at the Court altogether useless for by that we come to know that our Norman King even in little things proceeded by a Great Councel So that our Abbots Charters must be viewed by Parliment Coram Domino meo Rege ac universo Concilio c. Thence he brought St. Edward's Laws as was observed before Huntingdon and Matthew Paris with Matthew of Westminster spake of his Hydage and Dooms-day as done with great Advice and Justice Misit Iusticiarios per unamquamque scyram inquirere fecit per jusjurandum quot Hydae i. e. jugera uni Aratro sufficientia per annum essent in unaquaque c. Nor are they wholy silent of his Parliaments Cum de more tenuisset curiam suam in Natali ad Gloucestriam and again at Winchester the like at London in another season Tilburiensis telleth us that Mony was paid to the Crown by Cities and Castles that used no Tillage But from the Land or Farms only Victuals till Henry the first And when the Kings foreign Wars did make him press for ready Mony the people murmured offering their Plowshares Horum igitur Querelis inclinatus Rex by advice of his Great council definito magnatum Concilio he sent out discreet prudent men that upon view of all the Lands should assesse the sums which the Sheriffs were to pay into the Exchequer This Gervase lived a while after King William Florence of Worcester near his Reign he telleth us of a Great Councel at Winchester And again of another at a place called Pedred not only by the King Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls but also primatibus totius Angliae a full Parliament for which Florilegius and Walsingham Newstria may be considered with Hoveden following Wigornens That in his Reign there was an High Constable of England ceasing in Henry the Eight appeareth by the Parliament Rolls of Edward the Fourth but Alfigar in the Book of Ely was such in St. Edwards time and to Him some ascribe the Constable of Dover with the Warden and Priviledge of the Cinque Ports with their Hamlets or Circuit including Rye and Winchelsey But all this speaketh Parliament as doth also his New Church Priviledge Communi Concilio Archiep. Episcop Abbat omnium Principum Regni mei Yet to be seen not only at Sir Robert Cottons Jewel House but among the Rolls with King Richards Charters for the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln This exemption of the Church from Seculars c. is the more considerable because it came up with the Norman King at the time of Hildebrand whose Letters missive came hither ad Willielmi Regis Concilium And that this Councel was a full Parliament appeareth by the Charters as I may call them of the Arch-Bishop of York ex praecepto Papae Gregorii 7. and Confirmatione Domini Willielmi Regis sub Testimonio Universalis Anglorum Concilii c. Of which Roger Hoveden is clear telling us also that this King summoned the Arch Bishops Bishops Abbots Counts Barons Vice Comit. cum suis Militibus were these Knights of Shires To this I may add from the Continuer of the Saxon Chronology that Lanfranc came hither from Caen on the Kings call and the Popes Command primatum Regni Anglorum in Ecclesia Cant. suscepit eligentibus eum Senioribus cum Episcopis principibus clero Populo Angliae in curia Regis a very clear and full Parliament Nor may I so wrong our Common Law as to detain that antient Record which the great Judg in his Reports citeth of a Writ of Right brought by this Lanfranc against Odo Bishop of Bajeux and removed by a Toll into the County Court where the King commanded all the good Lawyers to attend the County a toto Comitatu Recordatum atque judicatum est That as the King held his Lands in His Demesn in Dominio suo so was the Arch Bishop to hold his omnino liberas quietas in Dominiquo suo which Judgment was afterward confirmed by the King and Parliament cum consensu omnium principum suorum With which Record I may compare the old Manuscrips in Bennets Coll. Cambridge telling us of a great Moot magnum placitum in loco qui dicitur Pinenden in
quo Lanfrancus diratiocinatur and the conclusion that he was to hold his Lands and Customs by Sea and Land as free as the King held his ezcept in three things si regalis via fuerit effossa arbor incisa juxta super eam ceciderit si homicidium factum sanguis in ea fusus fuerit Regi dabit alioquin liber a Regis exactoribus In the same Author were read of a Great Counsel at London in that Normans Reign and of another at Glocester where the Arch Bishop of York jubente Rege et Lanfranco consentiente did consecrate William Bishop of Durham having no help adjunctorium from the Scottish Bishops subject to him which may be added to that before of Scotland belonging to the Province or Diocesse of York Nor can I abstain from the next paragraph in the same Author how Lanfranc did consecrate Donate a Monk of Canterbury ad Regnum Dubliniae at the Request of the King Clergy and people of Ireland Petente Rege clero populo Hiberniae which with divers others might be one Argument for the Antiquity of Irish Parliments and their dependance on England long before King Henry the Second For which I might also cite King Edgars Charters Oswalds Law and divers Historians of his times But the Charters mention Dublin it self and yet our Lawyers are so Courteous as to free Ireland from our Laws and Customs till towards the end of King Iohn and some of them conjecture that the Brehon Law came in again and that our Parliament obliged them not till Poynings Law in Henry the seventh But to return to our Norman King I need not beg proofs of Parliaments in his time at least not to those who know the Priviledge of antient Demesne which therefore is free from sending to Parliaments and from Knights Charges and Taxes of Parliament because it was in the Crowns not only in King William but before him in King Edward and the Rolls of Winchester for which the old Books are very clear with divers Records of Edward the third and Henry the fourth besides natura brevium That I say nothing of the old Tractat. de antiquo Dominico which is stiled a Statute among our English Statutes And besides all the late Reports or Records I find it in the Year Books of Edward the Third that he sued a Writ of Contempt against the Bishop of Norwich for encroaching on Edmondsbury against express Act of Parliament By King William the Conqueror and by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops Counts and Barons of England It is 21 of Ed. 3. Mich. fol. 60. Title 7. Contempt against an Act of Parliament This might well be one of the reasons why the great Judge giveth so much credit to the old Modus of Parliament as it was held in the time of King Edward the Confessor which as the antient copy saith was by the discreet men of the Kingdom recited before King William the Norman and by him approved and in his time used I have cited it before and compared it with Irish Modus which my much honoured friend Mr. Hackewil one of the Masters of Chancery hath under his hand attested from the Great Seal and Charter of Henry the fourth which himself hath seen reciting a former Charter of King Henry R. Angliae Hiberniae conquestor Dominus who sent the same Modus into Ireland Where himself or his Son Iohn sans terre had no great work to reduce them to the civility of Parliaments To which they had been long before accustomed and the Roll saith communi omnium de Hibernia consensu teneri statuit c. nor doth the division of the Irish-Shires seem so lately setled as some have thought although I may not dissent from the great Patron of Civill and Ecclesiastical Learning the late Primate of Ireland Touching that Irish Modus I have very little to add to the fourth part of the great Institutes in several places I shall now only observe that both these old Modi of Parliaments do agree in this Custom of the Kingdom that the King should require no Ayd but in full Parliament and in Writing to be delivered to each in degree Parliament And both they agree that every new difficult case of Peace and any war emergent within or without the Kingdom vel Guerre emergat in Regno vel extra ought to be written down in full Parliaments and therein to be debated which may be considered by all that will argue the Militia To which also we may add one clause of the Jewish Laws of their great Sanhedrim to whom they retain the power of Peace and War especially where it is Arbitrary and not meerly defensive in which the Law of nature maketh many Magistrates and this might with ease be confirmed from the Laws and Customs of all Civil Kingdoms in all ages But I must not wander from our English Laws I had almost forgotten that which should be well remembred Although many would perswade us to seek our Laws in the Custumier of Normandy it is not only affirmed in the Great Reports but also asserted by Guil de Rovell Alenconien and proved by divers Arguments in his Commentaries on that Grand Custumier that the Normans had their chief Laws from Hence As had also the Danes in the time of Canute for which we might have more proof and witness than the Abbot of Crowland So much even strangers did Love and Honour old English Laws Of King William the Second Sirnamed Rufus I shall speak but little for I must discuss his Election and Coronation Oath in a fitter place Some footsteps we find of his Parliaments in divers Wigornensis and Hoveden tell us that when he would have constrained the Scottish King ut secundum judicium Baronum suorum in curia sua Rectitudinem ei faceret Malcolm did refuse to do it but in the Confines or Marches Where he could not deny but the Kings of Scotland were accustomed rectitudinem facere regibus Angliae But he then said it ought to be by the Iudgement of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms secundum judicium utriusque Regni primatum And I find the like Record cited on Fortescue from Godfrey of Malmsbury But Huntingdon and Matthew Paris also relate that the same King Malcolm did submit both to do Homage and to swear Fealty to our English King and Paris addetth a pretty Story of King Malcolms overlooking Treason But again to King William Of his Errors in Government I shall only say that if Edom did really signified Red as hath been thought I could believe that all Historians speaking of Adamites then oppressing the People might allude to the near affinity between Edom and Rufus for Red. For this was his Sirname of King William the Second Henry the First is yet alive in his Laws and Charters Not only in Wendover with other Historians but among the Rolls and Records yet to be seen in the Exchequer They are now in Print
And a while before the Abbot was made a Bishop at London petente Milone Constabulario favore Populi utriusque Ordinis that is the Lords and Commons or rather the Clergy and Laity In Huntingdon we read of Robert Arch-Deacon of Leicester about this Time Elect Bishop of Lincoln Rege Clero Populo summo gaudio annuente And a while after he shews us the King at London in a full Parliament disputing the grand question of Appeals with the Romish Legate For such Appeales saith he had not been used in England till That Henry of Winton the Legate had cruelly intruded them Malo suo crudeliter intrusit The Monk of St. Albans borroweth from him and sometimes repayeth with interests As in that Statute for Priviledge of Churches and Church-yards with all the Clergy so that none but the Pope could absolve from violence done to such in which they all agree he added also another Act of the Parliament that Plowes in the Field with Husbandmen should enjoy the same Peace or priviledge as if they were in a Church-yard His Geffry de Mandevil Consul or Comes was a very great man de magna villa For he speaks of his Princeps Militiae and of another that was his Magister peditum But in Henry of Huntingdon we find him at length clapt up in Prison but scarcely secundum jus Gentium Rex cepit eum in curia sua ex necessitate magis quam ex honestate Hoveden hath of him the like expressions adding also that from a Baron he had been raised to the degree of a Consul that is an Earl For in him the Earl of Flanders is Consul Flandrensis and the Earl of Anjou Consul Andegavensis This was he that come to be Hen. the 2d who at his Landing being Duke of Normandy coyned money which passed here by the name of the Dukes coyn Nor only he but Omnes potentes tam Episcopi quam Comites Barones suam faciebant monetam and of this Nubrigensis Which may be compared with the Saxon Laws of King Ethelstan and others As K. Hen. monetag common In the same Huntingdon we also read that by the Mediation of Theobald of Canterbury and Henry of Winton the King was so reconciled to this Duke and Earl Henry that they never more discorded also that the Duke was made Iusticiarius Angliae next under the King omnia Regni Negotia per eum terminabantur But in Polydore we find this Pacification made by Parliament Cujus Authoritate pactio facta est Matthew Paris is so full of Law Terms that I could beleive him in this to allude to the Law Fines and Recoveries For at this peace he telleth how the Kingdom was again Recovered And after a disgression to Merlins Prophesie in which the phrase of Vice-comites may be duly considered he concludeth thus a War that had raged 17 years together was now quieted by such a Time hoc fine quievit To which he adds that famous story of the Souldier that in this Vacation made a Voyage to St. Patricks Purgatory And by that occasion he relates the best description of Hell or Hellish Torments that I remember in any Historian of credit With which may be compared divers others in the same Author But that which is added at the Souldier return to the King may be added also to what is observed before touching Irelands dependance on England For the same Souldier was again sent by King Stephen into Ireland to be Assistant as an interpreter to Gilbert who had a grant from hence to found an Abbey in Ireland Whither he also carried this Souldier speaking Irish and with Tears he would often relate his Voyage to Hell Which is so recorded and asserted by divers Religious men To K. Stephen's Militia we may also refer that which so many Historians Record of his damning the Hidage or Danegeld Which yet was not his Act but the Parliaments that did Elect and create him King We must discuss it more fully ere long but now for Danegeld we may assert it to be expressed in his very Coronation Oath on which he was admitted One of the clauses was that he should for ever desist from that which had been paid to some of his Predecessors singulis annis And Wendover or Paris express no more But in Hoveden and Huntingdon Dane-geld is expresly specified which both affirm to be then at 2 s. the Hyde They agree also with others That this was again specified in Parliament at Oxford Where the King did again confirm his Coronation Oath Matthew of Westminster doth also Record that of these promises or Oaths he made a Charter which seemeth to be that Charter which the great Reporter in his 8th part affirmeth to be yet found in an old MS. de antiquis Legibus And that the said Charter among divers other things doth expressely confirm the Laws of K. Edward and of K. Henry Nay the Monk of St. Albans affirmeth that in Parliament Congregatis Regni magnatibus he did there solemnly promise to meliorate the Laws or make them better as they should desire or require juxta voluntatem Arbitrium singulorum which we may consider again upon occasion Nor must I omit that much of this very Charter is yet to be read in Print in an old Monk that lived in King Stephen Time and those particulars for confirmation of all good Laws and in special those of King Henry with divers other things that are worth perusal It is in the Monk of Malmsbury but a little after the Letters written to the Pope about King Henries death confession absolution and Anoynting by the Elders according to what was let to the Church by the Apostle St. Iames as in those Letters is more fully expressed Which may be added to that before of the Church Elders Polydore telleth us that in full Parliament at Oxford King Stephen did abolish that which had been oft exacted for Hydage per singula jugera and that he intreated another Parliament to carry on that War which by their Advise and Councel had been undertaken in the Name of Common Wealth Reipublicae Nomine vestro cum Consilio tum Consensu susceptum est and his desire to them was so to act in Person that the People might not be burthened with Taxes And at his end Virgil addeth that for all his continual Wars he did exact little or no Tribute from the People So that the Parliament it seems did wholly manage his Militia From a long Storm at Sea we are now come into a quiet Port and a calm Haven such were the Thoughts Expectations and Hopes of All in Henry the 2d We have his Laws in Print in several places and his Lawyers known enough For who needeth to be told of Glanvil in his Reign of whom before and much I might add from divers others besides Hoveden Who by occasion of that Judges Name hath not only given us a Copy of St. Edwards Laws but hath also asserted their confirmation by
bring any Letters of Excommunication or attempt a Voyage beyond Sea without a Licence And for sequestration of the Peter pence till further order If that I have cited already were not clear enough for Parliament in these we may have more from Wendover or Matthew Paris where we are expresly told that the great meeting at Clarendon of which before was made up of a Lord President de mandato ipsius Regis with Arch-Bishops Abbots Earls Barons and to these also are added Proceres Regni which may here speak the Commons as in Hoveden Populus so often expressed of that Parliament For it may be remembred that Virgil himself doth acknowledge the Commons also to be very frequently called to Parliament from the time of King William as we may read in his large description of our Parliaments in Henry the first To which also for this Parliament at Clarendon we might cite very many Historians besides Gervase and the Quadrilogus or Becket's Life by 4 cited on Eadmerus and in Ianus from which there is much to be added to that in Matthew Paris Where it is also asserted that these Constitutions of Clarendon were not only agreed but expresly sworn by all the degrees of Parliament Episcopi Clerus cum Comitibus Baronibus ac Proceribus cunctis Iuraverunt c. as also that these were but a Recognition or Recordation of some part of the Customs and Liberties antecessorum suorum Of which also Florilegus thus coram lege Magnatibus facta est Recordatio regiarum Libertatum Consuetudinum Cui Archiepiscopus assensum non praebuit c. Nor would it be hard to shew very many if not all of them agreed in Elder times Of Foreign Appeals we spake before and the Writ Ne Exeas Regnum is as old as Rufus if we may beleive Polidore or better Authors To that of Appeals from Ecclesiastical Courts to the King or Delegates I can add very little to what is in Caudries Case in the 5th part of the great Reports with the preface to the 6th That against Excommunication of the Kings Tenants or as the Elder Law was of the Barons is cleared enough in the Notes on Eadmerus from the first Norman Records To which may be added a Law of Henry the first of the Wills or Legacies of his Barons vel Hominum with which the Learned Ianus compareth an Old Law of Canute and toucheth the power of the Ordinary in Case of Intestates which is prescribed from most antient Parliaments but the Original doth not appear I must not spend time in heaping up the many proofs of Parliament for the Assizes of Clarendon which were again renued at Northampton Hoveden is large and clear for them all and for the Circuits and Iudges in Eyre by full Parliment Communi omnium Concilio But the Mirror and those that write of Alfred will afford us these in many older Parliaments From that Assize of Arms for every Fee we may learn to expound the Statute of Winchester and others speaking of a former antient Assize which is here found at large To which I may add that what is here spoken of the Iustices presenting to the King may be expounded to the King of Parliament As is fully expressed not only in Fleta but in the said Statute of Winchester The Iustices assigned shall present the dafaults at every Parliament The defaults of Arms for the Militia And by this time I shall not need to speak of Escuage in H. 2d assessed by Parliament for Tholouse Wales and Ireland of which Gervase the red Book in the Exchequer and Matth. Paris with the Notes of Hengham To which I might add Matth. of Westmin de unaquaque Carrucata terrae totius Angliae quatuor denarii Concessi sunt collecti for the Holy Land But when he had the offer of the Kingdom of Ierusalem Convocato Clero Regni ac Populo it was rejected Concilio universo as the Monk of St. Albans speaketh Of K. Rich. Coronation and his Oath before the Nobles Clero Populo Hoveden is very large From him it may be found in others And of the Jews in those times to whom he was a Friend as his Charters shew and very sorry for their sufferings who did help him much for his Eastern Wars as some relate with Polydore See Mr. Selden on Arundeliana Marmora his great Charter to the King of Scotland of many Liberties for which he did recieve 10000 Marks but still retaining the antient Dues to this Crown is every where For which I must not forget what was before in H. the 2d Malcolm became his man 't is said and did him Homage but on some disgust he was not Knighted by our King as was wont and Matth. Paris addeth also that the Scottish Kings Horse was the English Marshals Fee at such a Knighting But Hoveden telleth us that about two years after the same King came again and was then Knighted by King Henry Of his Parliaments and their Power in War and Peace I might cite very clear proofs The League with France was agreed by both Kingdoms Archiep. Episcop in verbo veritatis that was the mode in those days for them as for the Lords since in verbo Honoris Comites Borones Regnorum praestito Sacramento juraverunt And his Sea Statutes were made de Communi proborum virorum Consilio as the Charter it self expresseth it in Hoveden Wendover or Matth. Paris Who doth add that per Consilium magnatum there were made Iusticiarii super totum Navigium Angliae c. Which with divers Records of H. 3d. may be added to the Admiral or Saxon Aen mere eal Over all the Sea How the Lord Chancellor being left the Custos Regni did on pretence of the Kings Warrants pole the People is at large in Hoveden and others But in the Monk of St. Albans we may read that er'e long in Parliament of Commons also assensu Communium definitum est it was enacted that none should so domineer in England to disgrace the Church and oppress the People And that all the Castles which the said L. Chanc. had committed to his Clients or disposed without the Parliaments assent should be presently delivered up and in particular the Tower of London where he then was and was glad to yield and make his peace with much submission for to save his Life For which also Polydore Virgil is worth perusing And in him we also find the North committed to the Bishop of Durham who of an old Bishop was made a young Novice Earl but he paid dear for his honour and how the Chancellor excused himself by the Kings Command As if saith Polydore the Kings Command might disannul the Law Quasi fas esset jus omne principis jussu rescindere Of the Kings Voyage to the East I shall not speak nor of the famous Prophesies he found touching Antichrist and the Revelation They are in Hoveden besides all others Where we also find him ransomed
ab omnibus approbetur Which is one clause in the Writ of Summons to Parliament about a War with France in Edward the First Which seemeth to speak a necessity of Parliaments for matters of War Not only for Money as some have pleased to speak or at the Kings choice to call them if he please The Writ speaks an Act of Parliament Lex justissima provida circumspectione stabilita not let at loose to the Kings pleasure but as Fortescue or long before him the old Modus of Parliament maketh it necessary for the King and his Duty to Call a Parliament in all such Cases Nor shall I need to add what Paulus Iovius Froisard Comineus de Serres and the Duke of Rohan with many other strangers have observed of our Parliaments in this which is the Law of Nature rather than of England For as in the Heavens or great World we did before observe Mars or the Genius of War to be there placed immediately under Iupiter the great Councel and not under the Sun So in the Microcosm or little World of Man we find both Spleen and Gall within Hands and Feet without at a good distance from the Head and never joyned to it but in Monsters Yet it is true that some Creatures have Horns on their Heads but they are Beasts and not Men. Much less Kings I hope But did we Labour Toyl and Sweat so much to keep a little River in its bounds that so we might be drowned by the boundless Ocean Or be swept away at once by a destroying and devouring Deluge Did we scruple at a little Gravel or a Pebble that we might be crushed by a Mountain Would we strain at a Gnat that we might be choaked by a Camel or be swallowed whole by Behemoth It may not be at least it may not seem enough to quiet trembling minds to say or prove by arguments there shall be nothing done but what is just except we also see or know the way and means and usual course our Governours will please to take in doing that which may or is and ever shall I hope be just The way must be both Right and Clear as well as is the End And of the two Unjust and Arbitrary Power doth seem to be in Processe or in ways and means much rather than in Ends or Things that be effected by it Sure it was at least it might be good to build a gallant Fleet of Ships and so it might be just that each should contribute a part to such a publick work Nor was it only that which then was taken from us for a Ship that made us sigh and groan and cry or fear our Ruine or a universal deluge of Oppression But it much or mainly was we did not see the way or mean or Legal Process which the Court did take in Taxing or Assessing such a Place a County or a Person And it was but thus in Loans and so in divers if not all the things we so abhorred in the Crown the thing did not so much displease as did the way or means to such or such an End I need not say how curious or how scrupulous and tender still our Laws have been in pointing out the Way as well as End the Process in the Courts of Justice as the Final Iudgements So that indeed the very Form and Life and Power or Substance of the justest Laws doth much consist in Processe which by some may be thought a shadow or a Ceremony left at pleasure for a blustring Wind or any furious hand to shake as much as long as it shall please And then to salve it up by saying to the Root We mean you Good and do but lay you bare that so you may the more behold and more admire our Iustice in the End when all the Boughs and Branches shall be gone that do but hinder all your Prospect I must but Touch and glance There is a Trinity which all our Laws do seem to Worship here on Earth Estate Liberty and Life Of all Estate the Dower of Widows hath the greatest priviledge For which the Comments upon Littletons first and fifth with the Statutes of Merton and some clauses of the great Charter it self for Quarentine and Dower are good glosses on the Saxon Laws or those already touched and I shall not add one syllable All Estates have priviledge in Law and all Amercements must be such as may consist with mens Estate from Alfred Edgar Ethelred Canute or Edward it did come to Henry the first and thence to the Great Charter Where the Law is plain and clear No Free man shall be Amerced but according to his Default and Estate Salvo sibi Contenemento suo Which is so branched that it reacheth to Villains also though it speak at first but of Free-men Hence the Name of Amercement because it was and ought to be an Amerciament or a merciful Fine In which the Saxons went beyond us in their Weregylds and Divers Wytes for which Fleta may be a Comment to the Laws of Ethelstane and others of the Saxons All this for End but what must be the Way How shall it be imposed so that it may as it should be merciful 'T is miserecordiu Regis as the Laws and Books do speak but the King doth not may not Fine or Amerce any but in and by his Courts of Justice So that to render ones self to the Kings Judgment is to no effect and so adjudged For as the Father judgeth no man so the King who is or should be Father of the Country but he hath committed all judgment unto Men that are our Fellows Pares in the Courts of Justice VVhere indeed the King did sometime sit in Person yet the Court did Judge and not the King as Fortescue doth plainly tell us And the Judgment still is entred from and by the Court and not the King Ideo consideratum est per Curiam And so the great Charter saith we will not go upon him nec ibimus nec mittemus but by Legal Judgment of his Peers vel per Legem Terrae and of this last clause I never saw a fuller Comment in a few words than in Mr. Seldens Notes on Attaint in Fortescue But of all Iudgments to be made by Peers somewhat was said before in Henries Laws and more again ere long And for Fines by Courts of Justice not by the King and Amerciaments by Peers besides the Comments on Magna Charta there are divers Book Oases cited from Henry the fourth Henry the sixth Richard the third in the fourth part of Institutes Kings Bench To which may be added Greislies Case in the eighth part of Reports And the first of Westminster doth add to the great Charter or at least explain it in this But the Mirror will tell us it was an abuse not to expound it so largely before And although the VVrit de moderata misericordia in the Register and N. B. be founded on the Statute yet it seemeth clearly but
suites for them but not to sit as Judges For as the Commentator addeth they could not depute or make Attornies in a place and act judicial I will not I cannot say the Commons of England cannot choose or constitute their Judges but this I say or believe their delegates ought to be exceeding Curious I had almost said exceeding Scrupulous in making Judges and in bounding them to law and Justice both in way as well as End I must again repeat it That it may not seem enough to settle Judges just and wise and good Nor only to provide that they may do what is just I speak of end but men are men and ought in cases of such consequence to have their Way their Rule and Square by which they must proceed to be prescribed in their Patents or Commissions that they may do justly too as well as what is just To me it seemeth to be reason or the law of nature unto men that the Supreme Court should so limit all inferiours that it may not be left at large to their list or pleasure to condemn or sentence without Hearing Accusation Witness or without such Process and Tryal as shall be clear and plain and so prescribed in the Patent or Commission If it be not so done and expressed I know not what appeal can be but from the Court before Judgment For what appeal what writ of Error or what Plea can a man frame upon their Judgment who have no Rule no way of process prescribed and so cannot Err Transgress or Exceed their commission no not if they should without all accusation proof or witnesses condemn one to be sliced and fryed with exquisite tortures They are Judges but unlimited in way of Process infinite and purely Arbitrary No they are Men and so they must be Rational and Iust which was presupposed by them that gave so vast power They may be Iust indeed and so they should but yet no thanks for this to their Commission if it do not bound and limit out their way and manner of Process as it doth their work and Object or their End which was the wont of English Parliaments who were Just and wise themselves that they did see or fear it might be possible for their Committees to be most Unjust and Arbitrary if they were not most exactly limited Of all Commissions none were more curiously drawn and Pointed out by our Ancestors than those of especial Oyer and Terminer because the cases were not only heinous so they ought to be but such as for some extr ordinary cause emergent seemed to be as it were Extra Iudicial and such as could not stay and abide the usual process of the settled Courts of Justice Yet of these also did our Fathers take most especial care that they might be Iust in Way as well as End and that they might not be too High in Iustice for it seems that they had also learned an usual saying of the Antients Summum jus est injuria So that in divers of the Saxons Laws we find High Iustice Summum Ius to be as much forbidden as Injustice And I should tremble at it as an ill Omen to hear Authority commanded the the Kings Bench or any other Court should be now Stiled the Bench of High-Iustice For in Iustice the higher men goe up the worse or so at least it was esteemed by our Ancestors Their constant limitation was in every such Commission Thus and thus you shall proceed but still according to the Laws and Customs of England Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Angliae and no otherwise that is as Fortescu will say you shall be pittiful in Iustice and more merciful then all the world besides this Kingdom And if such a limitation were not expressed this was enough to prove the Commission Unjust and Illegal which is so well known to all Lawyers that I need not cite N. B. or the Register Commissions or Scrogs's case in Dyer or so many elder cases in Edward the 3 d. Henry the 4 th and almost all Kings Reigns Nay in King Iames among the great debates of Uniting Scotland to England when it was driven up so close that instead of Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Angliae it might be Secundum Legem Consuetudinem Brittanniae It was resolved by all Judges that there could not be that little change but of one word that doth so limit such Commissions but by consent of Parliament of both Kingdoms And in divers Parliaments of Ed. 1. Ed. 3. Hen. 4 th there were many Statutes made to limit all Commissions of Oyer and Terminer as that they must never be granted but before and to some of the Iudges of the Benches or of the Grand Eyre Nor those to be named by Parties but by the Court And with this usual Restriction according to the known clause of the Statute of Westminster the 2 d. in the Reign of Edward the 1 st But the Printed Statute must be compared with the Roll and with the 2 d of Ed. the 3 d. for else there may be in this as in other Printed Acts a great mistake by leaving out or changing one particle for that Clause except it be for heinous offence hath such influence into all the words before that by the known Common Law a Supersedeas doth lye to such Commissions quia non enormis Transgressio as the Register may teach us And although by Law there may be granted a Commission of Association with a Writ of Admittance of others to the Iudges assigned for Oyer and Terminer yet in all those Commissions and Writs the Rule must be prescribed quod ad Iustitiam pertinet and that also according to the Law and Custom of the Kingdom which is so much the Law of Nature that I need not wonder at the great Judg who in all his Institutes and so many Reports maketh those words absolutely necessary to the work of a Lawful Commission And for more prevention or Redress of injustice and Arbitrary Process were our Ancestors so punctual in requiring Records of all Proceedings in the Courts of Justice which is so agreable to Reason and the Law of Nature That the whole Parliament of England as I humbly conceive cannot it self proceed in matters of highest concernment but by Record Much less can it Licence other Courts to be without or above Record in such Affairs It is so well known to be the custom of the Kingdom that I shall not need to shew it in the Statute of York in Edw. 2d and many others in affirmance of the great Charter nisi per Legem Terrae But by the Law of the Land And in Edw. 3d. it was in full Parliament declared to be the Law of the Land that none should be put to answer but upon presentment before Iustices or matter of Record And the 2d of Westminster is very punctual in requiring Records for all legal exceptions as well as other matters and provideth that in case an Exception should not
their limitations by our Laws their Title by Succession or Election at the Common Law If Bracton or if Fleta may be Judges of this Question they will tell us that in their times our King was Elective Non a Regnando dicitur sed a Bene Regendo ad hoc Electus est And again ad haec autem Creatus Rex Electus ut Iustitiam faciat Universis Not only Created but Elected it is where they treat of Iudges and of Iurisdiction And of our Saxon Ancestors the Mirror is very plain that they did Elect or chuse their King from among themselves Eslierent de eux un Roy à reigner sir eux and being Elected they did so and so Limit him by Oath and Laws In this we might appeal to Tacitus of our Ancestors For theirs who did both Elect and Bound their Kings and Generals Reges ex Nobilitate Duces ex Virtute sumunt and of their King he saith the Power was so bounded that he could not call it Free Nec infinita aut libera Potestas and that in Conciliis Their Kings Authority was in perswasion rather than Command Suadendi potius quam jubendi potestate Caesar seemeth to conceive they had no King or fixed Common Governour in time of Peace but for War saith he they Choose out Generals qui Bello praesint ut vitae necisque habeant Potestatem In our Brittish Ancestors he found a King but by Election of a great Common-Council by whose consent he observeth that Cassivelane was chosen King and General against his Landing Summa Imperii Bellique administrandi communi Concilio permissa est Cassivellauno and again Nostro adventu permoti Britanni hunc toti bello imperioque praefecerant That the Brittans agreed much with the Gauls in their Customs I do not deny but I know not why this should make the Gauls to be the Elder Brothers as some teach us because our Britain is an Island Yet it may be much disputed if not proved that it once was joyned to Gaul or France in one Continent for which we might produce some of the old Poets and others before Twine and Verstegan However it is clear enough from Caesar and Pliny that the Gauls were much moulded by the Brittish Druids although they seemed more Polite in Iuvenal's time and afterwards being more Frank they afforded a Christian Queen to Ethelbert and the Model of a great School to Sigesbert which yet must not wrong Alcuinus who from hence moulded the University of Paris if we may Believe all that write of Charlemaign And if we add Strabo to those cited before we shall find they Chose both Generals and all great Magistrates When they had a King the Crown passed by Election and was so limited that Ambiotrix one of their Kings acknowledged Ut non minus in se Iuris Multitudo quà m ipse in Multitudinem So in Caesar. Their Common-Council much consisted of Equites and such perhaps our Knights of Shires Electi de plebe and Druydes their Clergy who did over-rule them all by their Banns and Sacred Oak Misleto as if it had grown in Dodona's Grove Their grand Corporation was dissolved by Roman Edicts in Gaul by Claudius as Seneca Suetonius but in Rome by Tiberius if not Augustus in Pliny but Vopiscus keepeth a Druydess to presage the Empire to Dioclesian when he had killed the Boar and Ammianus may afford them in Rome in Iulian or Constantius But in Scotland or Ireland they remained longer if we may believe their Annals of Columbanus and of William the Irish Abbot But in Dioclesian's time Amphibalus the famous Brittan fled from Rome to his Friend St. Alban who dyed for him in his Cloaths it is said but we find him Condemned by Law and styled Lord of Verulam Prince of Knights and Steward of Brittain in his Shrine and Iacob de Voragine ' Ere long we find him made a Bishop in the Holy Isle and there he did Succeed the Brittish Druyds and his Scholars were enow with their Blood and Carkasses to make the name of Litchfield But the turning of Druyds into our Bishops in Lucius's time is no more certain I think than that those were the Flamins or Arch Flamins of whom we hear so much of late but of old few or none relate it but only Monmouth The Name of Flamin came to Brittain from the Grecians or the Romans who had Druyds from the Brittans where they were most Sacred Priests at first but three but when every God and Godded Man or Daemon had his Flamin they became extreamly innumerable Yet the first three still kept their Distance Place and Seniority from whence the Phrase of Arch-Flamin which yet I dare not assert to have been in Brittain or to be so much as known in the time of Lucius or the name of Archbishop But of this Sir Henry Spelman of Lucius's Epistles in Gratian and Mr. Patrick Young on Clements Epistle to the Corinthians But Fenestella with his Names of Bishop Arch-Bishop Cardinal Patriarch Metropolitan c. is now come out with another Title of a later Age than he that lived in Tiberius But to return to our Brittish Druyds moulding the State and yet they would not speak of State but in or by a Common-Council as was touched before in the Militia and among these the same Caesar will tell us that there was a chief or President but chosen by Deserts and not by a blind way of Succession Si sint Pares plures suffragio adlegitur nonnunquam etiam armis de principatu contendunt Nor is it probable the Brittans should be great Patrons of Monarchical Succession which could hardly well consist with their Gavelkind which is not only in Kent but in divers other Places of England and in Wales from the Brittans as we may learn from Parliament in 27 Hen. 8. and in K. Edwards Statute of Wales with Littletons Parceners And his Commentator makes it one mark of the ancient Brittans and from them also to Ireland and from the Brittish Gavelkind do all the Children yet among us part their Fathers Arms of which also the great Judge on Littletons Villenage But on the Parceners he deriveth the Crowns descent to the Eldest from the Trojans to the Brittans so indeed do many others with Monmouth and Basingstock Yet our Best Herald the Learned Cambden will deride the Story of the Trojans coming hither but his many Arguments to prove the first Inhabitants to be a Kin to the Gauls do no more convince me that the Trojans might not come hither afterwards than that the Normans did not come because the Saxons were before them I repeat nothing from Gyraldus Cambrensis Matthew Paris Hoveden Huntingdon or others who derided Monmouth till they were convinced by some Brittish Writers which themselves found besides all the Greek and Latin Authors cited by Virunnius Leland Sir John Price and divers others that I say nothing of the Scottish Chronicles or of the Learned man that shewed King