Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	case_n	lord_n	rent_n	1,405	5	9.6433	5	false

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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

we find there Centum solidi dentur vel marca auri where if solidi stand for shillings for they may be taken for soulx as the French call them a Mark of Gold is made of equal value with 5 l. Sterling And thus three hundred Marks of Gold come to Fifteen hundred pound I confess after all most of these accounts of the Mark Gold or Silver may be admitted of as having possibly at some time or other been true since mony both in its Coyns and Summs hath in several Ages of the World risen and fallen according to its plenty or scarcity Lin. 42. Being arighted and accused of any matter Or rather in the Law-spelling arrested in Latin rectatus that is ad rectum vocatus convened before a Magistrate and charged with a crime Thus ad rectum habere is in Bracton to have a man forth coming so as he may be charged and put upon his tryal It may be also rendred taken upon suspicion It is written sometime retatus and irretitus Pag. 70. lin 33. To give suretiship for the Remainder I confess I do not well know how to apply to this place that sense which our Common Law takes the word Remainder in for a power or hope to enjoy Lands Tenements or Rents after anothers estate or term expired when an estate doth not revert to the Lord or Granter of it but remains to be enjoyed by some third person What if we say that as Bishops could not because their estates are of Alms grant any part of their Demeans ad remanentiam for ever or to perpetuity so here Excommunicate persons were not obliged dare vadium ad remanentiam to find sureties for continuance or for perpetuity that is for their future good behaviour but only to stand to the judgement of the Church in that particular case for which they were at present sentenced CHAP. XI Pag. 72. lin 24. If a Claim or Suit shall arise In the Latin si calumnia emerserit a known and frequent word in our Law which signifies a Claim or Challenge otherwise termed clameum Lin. 37. Till it shall by Plea be deraigned or dereyned which is in French dereyné in the Latin disrationatum which as it hath several significations in Law so here it imports after a full debate and fair hearing the determination of the matter by the judgement of the Court. CHAP. XII Pag. 75. lin 2. By the name of Yumen The same say some as the Danes call yong men Others derive the word from the Saxon geman or the old Dutch Gemen that is common and so it signifies a Commoner Sir Tho. Smith calls him Yoman whom our Laws term legalem hominem a Free-man born so Camden renders it by Ingenuus who is able to spend of his own free Land in yearly Revenue to the summ of Forty Shillings such as we now I suppose call Free-holders who have a Voice at the Election of Parliament-men But here the word is taken in a larger sense so as to include servile Tenure also or Villenage CHAP. XIII Pag. 77. lin 5. Leude-men From the Saxon Leod the common people It signified in Law a Subject a Liege man a Vassal a Tenant hence in High-dutch a Servant was called Leute in Old English a Lout But in common acception Lewd was formerly taken for a Lay-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the people or for any illiterate person Now it is used to denote one who is wicked or loose and debauched CHAP. XIV Pag. 79. lin 8. The States of the Kingdom the Baronage He means the whole Parliament and not only the House of Lords by the word Baronage For though by Barons now we properly understand the Peers of the Realm yet anciently all Lords of Manours those who kept Court-Baron were styled Barons Nay Spelman tells us that all Free-holders went by that name before the Free-holds were quit letted out into such small pittances as now they are while Noble-men kept their Lands in their own hands and managed them by their Vassals Cowell gives this further account of those Lords of Manours that he had heard by men very learned in our Antiquities that near after the Conquest all such came to Parliament and sate as Nobles in the Upper House But as he goes on when by experience it appeared that the Parliament was too much pestered with such multitudes it grew to a custom that none should come but such as the King for their extraordinary wisdom or quality thought good to call by Writ which Writ ran hâc vice tantùm that is only for this turn So that then it depended wholly upon the Kings pleasure And then he proceeds to shew how after that they came to be made Barons by Letters Patents and the Honour to descend to their posterity Lin. 27. By way of safe pledge That is to oblige them to give security for the parties appearance against the day assigned who in case of default were to undergo the dammage and peril of it Pag. 80. lin 7. St. Peter's pence These Peter-pence were also called in Saxon Romescot and Romefeoh that is a Tribute or Fee due to Rome and Rome-penny and Hearth-penny It was paid yearly by every Family a Penny a house at the Feast of S. Peter ad Vincula on the first day of August It was granted first sayes our Author out of Malmesbury by Ina or Inas King of the West-Saxons when he went on Pilgrimage to Rome in the year of our Lord 720. But there is a more clear account given by Spelman in the word Romascot that it was done by Offa King of the Mercians out of an Author that wrote his Life And it is this That Offa after thirty six years Reign having vowed to build a Stately Monastery to the memory of St. Alban the British Protomartyr he went on Pilgrimage to Rome Adrian the First then Pope to beg Indulgences and more than ordinary Priviledges for the intended work He was kindly received and got what he came for and the next day going to see an English School that had been set up at Rome he for the maintenance of the poor English in that School gave a Penny for every house to be paid every year throughout his Dominion which was no less than three and twenty Shires at that time only the Lands of S. Alban excepted And this to be paid at the Feast of S. Peter because he found the body of the Martyr on that day for which reason it was also called S. Peter's Penny And although at last these Peter-pence were claim'd by the Pope as his own due and an Apostolical right yet we find that beside the maintenance of a School here mentioned for which they were first given they have by other Kings been appropriated to other uses Thus we read that Athelwolf Father to King Alured who was the first Monarch of this Isle granted three hundred Marks the summ total of the Peter-pence here bating only an odd Noble to be paid yearly

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

as Josephus against Appio Plutarch and several modern Writers have remarked I confess if one well consider it this remark of theirs is not very accurate For we very often read in Homer and Hesiod the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Laws and in both of them the Goddess Eunomia from the same Theme as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being interpreted is But they by legal methods bear the sway I' th' City fam'd for Beauties which is a passage in Homers hymn to Mother Tellus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Law of Song which Musicians might not transgress is mentioned in his hymn to Apollo Nay great Plato one beyond all exception has left it in writing that Talus who had the management of the Cretan Common-wealth committed to him together with Rhadamanthus the Son of Jupiter by King Minos that he did thrice every year go the circuit through the whole Island which was the first Country as Polyhistor tells us that joyned the practice of Laws with the study of Letters and kept Assizes giving Judgment according to Laws engraven in brass I say nothing of Phoroneus King of the Argives or of Nomio the Arcadian and in good time leave this Subject I could wish I might peruse Jupiters Register wherein he has recorded humane affairs I could wish that the censure of some breathing Library and living study which might have power over the Ancients as we read in Eunapius that Longinus had or that the memory of some Aethalides might help us sufficiently to clear and make out the truth Hence our next passage is to the Classick Writers of the Latin style and story CHAP. VIII An Account of the DRUIDS out of Caesar's Commentaries whence they were so called Their determining in point of Law and passing Sentence in case of Crime Their Award binds all parties Their way of Excommunicating or Outlawing They have a Chief over them How he is chosen Their Priviledge and Immunity CAjus Julius Caesar was the first of the Romans who has committed to writing the Religious Rites the Laws and the Philosophy of the DRVIDS Their name is of a doubtful origination by no means were they so called from that Druis or Druides we meet with in Berosus But whether they were so termed from a Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies an Oak in that they performed none of their devotions without oaken leaves as Pliny and those that follow him are of opinion or from the Dutch True-wise as Goropius Becanus will have it or from Trutin a word which with the ancient Germans signified God as Paulus Merula quotes it out of the Gospel of Othfred though in the Angels salutation in the Magnificat in Zachariahs Song and elsewhere Trutin rather denotes Lord than God and see whether there does not lye somewhat of the Druid in the name of St. Truien among the people of Liege some having exploded St. Drudo whencesoever they had their name these Gown men among the Gauls I and the Britans too were the Interpreters and Guardians of the Laws The discipline of these Druids was first found in Britany and so far as it regards the Civil Court we shall faithfully subjoyn it out of the forenamed Caesar. 1. They order matters concerning all controversie publick and private So in the Laws of the twelve Tables at the same rate the knowledg of cases of precedents of interpreting was in the Colledge of Pontiffs or High Priests and such plainly our Druids were If any ill prank had been played if murder committed if there were a controversie about Inheritance about bounds of Land these were the men that determined it these amerced rewards and punishments 2. If any private person or body of men do not stand to their award they excommunicate him that is forbid him to come to sacrifice which among them is the most grievous punishment 3. Those who are thus excommunicated are accounted wicked and ungodly wretches every body goes out of their way and shuns their company and conversation for fear of getting any harm by contagion Neither have they the benefit of the Law when they desire it nor is any respect shown to them 4. The Druids have one over them who has the chiefest authority amongst them 5. When he dies if there be any one that is eminent above the rest he succeeds in place But if there be several of equal merit one is chosen by majority of Votes 6. The Druids were wont to be excused from personal attendance in War nor did they pay taxes with the rest they were freed from Military employ and had an immunity of all things The Levites among the Hebrews who were the most ancient Priests in the world injoyed the same priviledge CHAP. IX The menage of their Schools without Writing On other occasions they might use the Greek Letters as Caesar saith yet not have the language The Greek Letters then were others than what they are now These borrowed from the Gauls as those from the Phoenicians Ceregy-Drudion or the Druids Stones in Wales This Place of Caesar's suspected Lipsius his Judgment of the whole Book 7. UPon the account of that priviledge they had in their Schools which were most of them in Britany a great confluence of youth They are said to learn without Book says Caesar a great number of Verses Therefore some of them spend twenty years in the discipline Nor do they judge it meet to commit such things to writing whereas generally in all other whether publick affairs or private accompts they make use of Greek letters What Greek letters so we read Greek ones Why Marseilles a City of France which was a Greek Colony of the Phocians had made the Gauls such lovers of Greeks that as Strabo the Geographer tells us they writ their very Contracts and Covenants Bargains and Agreements in Greek The fore-mentioned Julius Caesar also writes that there were Tablets found in the Camp of the Switzers made up of Greek letters But for all that I would not have any one from hence rashly to gather that the Greek Language was in use to that Age and People or to these Philosophers and Lawyers They made use of Greek letters therefore they had the Greek Tongue too this truly were a pitiful consequence At this rate the Targum or Chaldee Paraphrase as Paulus Merula has it and Goropius before him would consist of the Hebrew Language because 't is Printed in Hebrew Characters And the like may be said of the New Testament in Syriack done in Hebrew letters What that those very Letters of the Greeks in Caesars time and as we now write them are rather Gallick as borrowed from the Gauls than Greek He was acquainted with those Greek letters but did not yet know the Gallick ones which learned men do think the Greeks took for their Copy after the Phoenician letters which were

he would hearken to them and grant that they might continue under their own Countrey Laws Whereupon calling a Council he did at the last yield to the request of the Barons From that day forward therefore the Laws of King Edward which had before been made and appointed by his Grand-father Adgar seeing their authority were before the rest of the Laws of the Countrey respected confirmed and observed all over England But what then Doth it follow that all things in William's time were new How can a man chuse but believe it The Abbot of Crowland sayes this of it I have brought with me from London into my Monastery the Laws of the most Righteous King Edward which my Renowned Lord King William hath by Proclamation ordered under most grievous penalties to be authentick and perpetual to be kept inviolably throughout the whole Kingdom of England and hath recommended them to his Justices in the same language wherein they were at first set forth and published And in the Life of Fretherick Abbot of S. Albans you have this account After many debates Arch-Bishop Lanfrank being then present at Berkhamstead in Hartfordshire the King did for the good of peace take his Oath upon all the Reliques of the Church of S. Alban and by touching the holy Gospels Fretherick the Abbot administring the Oath that he would inviolably observe the good and approved ancient Laws of the Kingdom which the holy and pious Kings of England his Predecessors and especially King Edward had appointed But you will much more wonder at that passage of William le Rouille of Alençon in his Preface to the Norman Customs That vulgar Chronicle saith he which is intitled the Chronicle of Chronicles bears witness that S. Edward King of England was the Maker or Founder of this Custom where he speaks of William the Bastard Duke of Normandy alias King of England saying that whereas the foresaid S. Edward had no Heirs of his own Body he made William Heir of the Kingdom who after the Defeat and Death of Harald the Usurper of the Kingdom did freely obtain and enjoy the Kingdom upon this condition to wit that he would keep the Laws which had before been made by the fore-mentioned Edward which Edward truly had also given Laws to the Normans as having been a long time also brought up himself in Normandy Where then I pray you is the making of new Laws Why without doubt according to Tilbury we are to think that together with the ratifying of old Laws there was mingled the making of some new ones and in this case one may say truly with the Poet in his Panegyrick Firmatur senium Juris priscamque resumunt Canitiem leges emendanturque vetustae Acceduntque novae which in English speaks to this sense The Laws old age stands firm by Royal care Statutes resume their ancient gray hair Old ones are mended with a fresh repair And for supply some new ones added are See here we impart unto thee Reader these new Laws with other things which thou maist justly look for at my hands in this place CHAP. II. The whole Country inrolled in Dooms-day Book Why that Book so called Robert of Glocester's Verses to prove it The Original of Charters and Seals from the Normans practised of old among the French Who among the Romans had the priviledge of using Rings to seal with and who not 1. HE caused all England to be described and inrolled a whole company of Monks are of equal authority in this business but we make use of Florentius of Worcester for our witness at this time how much Land every one of his Barons was possessed of how many Soldiers in fee how many Ploughs how many Villains how many living Creatures or Cattel I and how much ready mony every one was Master of throughout all his Kingdom from the greatest to the least and how much Revenue or Rent every Possession or Estate was able to yield That breviary or Present State of the Kingdom being lodged in the Archives for the generality of it containing intirely all the Tenements or Tenures of the whole Country or Land was called Dooms-day as if one would say The day of Doom or Judgment For this reason saith he of Tilbury we call the same Dooms-day Book Not that there is in it sentence given concerning any doubtful cases proposed but because it is not lawful upon any account to depart from the Doom or Judgment aforesaid Reader If it will not make thy nice Stomach wamble let me bring in here an old fashioned Rhyme which will hardly go down with our dainty finical Verse-wrights of an historical Poet Robert of Glocester One whom for his Antiquity I must not slight concerning this Book The K. W. vor to wite the worth of his londe Let enqueri streitliche thoru al Engelonde Hou moni plou lond and hou moni hiden also Were in everich sire and wat hii were wurth yereto And the rents of each toun and of the waters echone That wurth and of woods eke that there ne bileved none But that he wist wat hii were wurth of al Engelonde And wite al clene that wurth thereof ich understond And let it write clene inou and that scrit dude iwis In the Tresorie at Westminster there it yut is So that vre Kings suth when hii ransome toke And redy wat folc might give hii fond there in yor boke Considering how the English Language is every day more and more refined this is but a rude piece and looks scurvily enough But yet let us not be unmindful neither that even the fine trim artifices of our quaint Masters of Expression will themselves perhaps one day in future Ages that shall be more critical run the same risk of censure and undergo the like misfortune And that Multa renascentur quae nunc cecidere cadentque Quae nunc sunt in honore As Horace the Poet born at Venusium tells us That is Several words which now are fal'n full low Shall up again to place of Honour start And words that now in great esteem I trow Are held shall shortly with their honour part 2. The Normans called their Writings given under their hand Charters I speak this out of Ingulph and they ordered the confirmation of such Charters with an impression of Wax by every ones particular Seal under the Testimony and Subscription of three or four Witnesses standing by But Edward the Confessor had also his Seal though that too from Normandy For in his time as the same Writer saith Many of the English began to let slip and lay aside the English Fashions bringing in those of the Normans in their stead and in many things to follow the customs of the Franks all great persons to speak the French Tongue in their Courts looking upon it as a great piece of gentility to make their Charters and Writings alamode of France and to be ashamed of their own Country usages in these

we meet with these Military Laws or Laws of Knights fees made for Tenants and other people of the common sort 84. He who hath one Knights fee 't is the aforesaid Hoveden speaks let him have an Habergeon or Coat of Male and a Helmet or Head-piece and a Buckler or Target and a Lance and let every Knight have so many Habergeons and Helmets and Targets and Lances as he shall have Knights fees in his demeans 85. Whatsoever Free-holder that is a Lay-man shall have in Chattel or in Rent and Revenue to the value of Sixteen Marks let him have a Coat of Male and a Head-piece and a Buckler and a Lance. 86. Whatsoever Lay-person being a Free-man shall have in Chattel to the value of Ten Marks let him have a little Habergeon or Coat of Male and a Capelet of Iron and a Lance. 87. Let all Burghers or Towns-men of a Corporation and the whole Communities of Free-men have a Wambais and a Capelet of Iron and a Lance. 88. Let no one after he hath once had these Arms sell them nor pawn them nor lend them nor by any other way alienate them from himself or part with them nor let his Lord alienate them by any manner of way from his man i. e. his Tenant that holds under him neither by forfeit nor by gift nor by pledge nor by any other way 89. If any one shall dye having these Arms let them remain to his heir and if the heir be not of such estate or age that he may use the Arms if there shall be need let that person who shall have them the heir in custody have likewise the keeping of the Arms and let him find a man who may use the Arms in the service of our Lord the King if there shall be need until the heir shall be of such estate that he may bear Arms and then let him have them 90. Whatsoever Burgher shall have more Arms than it shall behove him to have according to this Assize let him sell them or give them away or so dispose of them from himself to some other man who may retain them in England in the service of our Lord the King 91. Let no one of them keep by him more Arms than it shall behove him according to this Assize to have 92. Let no Jew keep in his possession a Coat of Male or an Habergeon but let him sell them or give them or in some other manner put them away in that wise that they may remain in the service of the King of England 93. Let no man bear or carry Arms out of England unless it be by special order of our Lord the King nor let any one sell Arms to any one who may carry them from England nor let Merchant or other carry or convey them from England 94. They who are suspected by reason of their wealth or great estate do free or acquit themselves by giving their Oaths The Justices have Power or Jurisdiction given them in the case for this purpose If there shall be any who shall not comply with them the Justices the King shall take himself to the members or limbs of such persons and shall by no means take from them their Lands or Chattels 95. Let no one swear upon lawful and free-men i. e. in any matter against or concerning them who hath not to the value of Sixteen or Ten Marks in Chattel 96. Let no one as he loves himself and all that he hath buy or sell any Ship to be brought from England nor let any one carry or cause to be carryed out of England Timber for the building of Ships 97. Let no one be received or admitted to the Oath of bearing Arms ' but a Free-man To bring once for all something concerning a Free-man that may not be beside the purpose The ancient Law of England bestowed that name only upon such persons as many as either being honoured by the Nobility of their Ancestors or else out of the Commonalty being of ingenuous Birth to wit of the Yeomanry did not hold that rustick fee or Tenure of Villenage dedicated to Stercutius the God of Dunghils and necessarily charged and burthened with the Plough tail the Wain and the Dray which are the hard Countrey-folks Arms and Implements To this purpose makes the term of Rustick or Countrey-man above mentioned in the Statutes of Clarendon and the place of Glanvill cited in the Tryal of Ordeal That the business may be more clearly asserted a Suit of Law being waged in the time of Edward the First betwixt John Levin Plaintiff and the Prior of Bernwell Defendant I have taken the Story out of an old Manuscript and the Reports of our Law and the Collection or Body of the Royal Rescripts do agree to it it was then after several disputes bandied to and fro and with earnestness enough decided by the judgement of the Court that those Tenants which hold in fee from the ancient Domain of the Crown as they call it are by no means comprehended under the title of free-men as those who driving their labour around throughout the year pay their daily Vows to Ceres the Goddess of Corn to Pales the Goddess of Shepherds and to Triptolemus the Inventer of Husbandry or Tillage and keep a quarter with their Gee Hoes about their Chattel And now death hath put an end to King Henry's Reign And I also having made an end of his Laws so far as Histories do help me out do at the last muster and arm my Bands for the guard of my Frontiers I wish they may be of force enough against Back-biters CHAP. XIX Of Law-makers Our Kings not Monarchs at first Several of them in the same County The Druids meeting-place where Under the Saxons Laws made in a general Assembly of the States Several instances This Assembly under the Normans called Parliament The thing taken from a custome of the ancient Germans Who had right to sit in Parliament The harmony of the Three Estates BUt however Laws are not without their Makers and their Guardians or they are to no purpose It remaineth therefore that we say somewhat in general of them They are made either by Use and Custom for things that are approved by long Use do obtain the force of Law or by the Sanction and Authority of Law-givers Of ancient time the Semnothei the Kings and the Druids were Law-givers amongst the Britans I mean Concerning the Semnothei whatsoever doth occurr you had before The Kings were neither Monarchs of the whole Island nor so much as of that part of Brittany that belonged to the Angles For there were at the same time over the single County of Kent four Kings to wit Cyngetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonax and at the same rate in other Counties Wherefore we have no reason to make any question but that part wherein we live now called England was governed by several persons and was subject to an Aristocracy according to what Polydore Virgil John Twine

at this day there remaining Pro sua generalitate omnia tenementa totius terrae integrè continente it is called Domesday i. e. the Day of Judgment as the Abbot of Crowland and Gervase of Tilbury have left written Ob hoc saith Gervase nos eundem librum Judiciarium nominamus non quòd in eo de propositis aliquibus dubiis feratur sententia sed quod à praedicto judicio non liceat ullâ ratione discedere A description of it in an old English Historical Poet is thus clad in Rhythmes The K. William vor to wite the worth of his londe Let enqueri streitliche thoru al Engelonde Hou moni plou lond and hou moni hiden also Were in euerich sire and wat hii were wurth yereto And the rents of each toun and of the waters echone That wurth and of woods eke that there ne bileued none But that he wist wat hii were wurth of al Engelonde And wite al clene that wurth thereof ich understond And let it write clene inou and that scrit dude iwis In the Cresorie at Westminster there it yut is So that vre Kings suth when hii ransome toke And redy wat folc might giue hii fond there in yor boke Nor a much unlike description in later times under Hen. 8. as a preparatory to the levying of that intolerable demanded Subsidy of DCCCL was either finished or attempted as by a Warrant from the Commissioners directed to a Constable of a Hundred with charge of information reported by J. Stow is more largely declared III. Of Church-livings and Ecclesiastical fees Matthew Paris hath thus recorded Episcopatus Abbatias omnes quae Baronias tenebant eatenus ab omni Seculari libertatem habuerant sub servitute statuit militare in rotulans singulos Episcopatus Abbatias pro voluntate suâ quot milites sibi successoribus suis hostilitatis tempore voluit à singulis exhiberi IV. Exclusis haereditate avita Anglis agros learned Camden hath delivered it praedia militibus suis assignavit ità tamen ut dominium directum sibi reservaret obsequiumque clientelari jure sibi successorib●s devinciret id est ut omnes in feodo sive fide teneret nulli praeter Regem essent veri domini sed potius fiduciarii domini possessores V. Gervase of Tilbury in a Discourse of the Trial of the purity of Silver paid in ancient time into the Exchequer by weight affirmeth that by Tradition it was received for truth that in primitivo regni statu post conquisitionem no Rents were paid to the Crown in Money Sed sola saith he victualia solvebantur ex quibus in usus quotidianos domus regiae necessaria ministrabantur and somewhat after Tot● igitur Willielmi primi tempore perseveravit haec institutio usque ad tempora Regis Henrici filii ejus which was Henry the first adeò ut viderim ego ipse he lived under Henry the second quosdam qui victualia statutis temporibus de fundis regiis ad Curiam deferebant Certum quoque habebant Officiales domus regiae à quibus comitatibus triticum à quibus diversae species carnium equorum pabula debebantur His verò solutis secundum constitutum modum cujusque rei regii officiales computabant Vicecomitibus redigentes in summam denariorum pro mensurâ videlicet tritici ad panem centum hominum solidum unum pro corpore bovis pascualis solidum unum pro ariete vel ove IV. denarios pro prebendâ XX. equorum similiter IV. denarios But through the grievous complaints of Country Husbandmen oblatis vomeribus in signum deficientis agriculturae respective calculation was made under Henry Beauclerc and every particular Tenants services reduced to a certainty of Silver De Summa vero Summarum quae ex omnibus fundis surgebat in unoquoque comitatu constituerunt Vicecomitem illius Comitatus ad Scaccarium teneri addentes ut ad Scalam solveret More special form whereof the same Author hath largely reported VI. Chirographa chartas vocabant chartarum firmitatem cum cereâ impressione per uniuscujusque speciale sigillum sub instillatione trium vel IV. astantium conficere constituebant VII Anglicum idioma tantum abhorrebant quod leges terrae statutaque Anglicorum Regum Gallicâ linguâ tractarentur Pleadings until reformation in time of E. 3. remaining in the same Tongue pueris etiam in Scholis principia literarum Grammatica Gallicè ac non Anglicè traderentur Modus etiam scribendi Anglicus omitteretur modus Gallicus in Chartis in libris omnibus admitteretur Thus to be Frenchified grew so common and before all English Titles so respectfully alone honoured that Vlstan Prelate of Worcester in the red King's time was for his ignorance in that Tongue chiefly deposed from his Bishoprick VIII Cervum vel Capreolum capienti oculi eruebantur IX The Law of Coverfeu the name yet remaineth that by ringing a Bell at Night all Lights and Fire in every House should retire from our appearance acknowledgeth him as first Institutor X. Si aliquis quempiam it is in Henry of Huntingdon quâcunque de causâ peremisset capitali subjacebat sententiae XI Si aliquem I would read it aliquam perswaded by what I find in Bracton's Treatise of rape vi oppressisset genitalibus privabatur armis XII If we durst believe the Italian Polydore here should succeed an Institution of Sheriffs and Trial by Jury of XII Touching the last Camden and Lambard out of the Saxon Laws of Etheldred have convinced him of an error too fairly flourished with braving terms For the first and both since them the right H. the L. Coke But what else he hath of any probability you thus receive XIII Constituit ut quater quotannis in multos dies conventus celebrarentur eo loci quo ipse fieri juberet quibus in conventibus Judices sedibus discreti forum agerent jusque populo dicerent XIV Alios instituit Judices qui sine provocatione jurisdictionem ac judicia exercerent à quibus uti à sinu Principis cuncti Litigatores eò confluentes jura peterent ad eos suas controversias referrent XV. Praefectos alios constituit qui maleficia vindicanda curarent Hos Justiciarios pacis nuncupavit Yet I cannot so soon think that name to be literally so ancient under his favour with whom too curious in a strange state the kind Laws of religious hospitality may without injustice dispense CHAP. V. What was received under William le Rous. VAin it were to expect any good Constitutions of William the Second Omnis legum siluit justitia causisque saith Florence of Worcester sub justitio positis sola in principibus imperabat pecunia I. Polydore attributeth to him the original of that custome whereby his Successors claim profits or First-fruits of vacant Bishopricks and Monasteries of the Patronage of the

as it seems by Glanvill and other Testimonies that it was in the Kings Courts under H. 2. and so by all probability before so out of other Records of following time somewhat may perhaps be collected to prove that it continued long in them as out of the Patent of King John for Oliver of Rochford's Testament Sciatis sayes the King Nos concessisse Testamentum Oliveri de Rupe forti sicut rationabiliter conditum est apud S. Florentiam veterem Rupem fortem scriptum ordinatum Quare volumus firmiter praecipimus quod nullus Executorum Testamenti ipsius impediat quin illud sicut rationabiliter conditum est faciant Then out of that of Peter de Roches Bishop of Winchester and Chief Justice of England touching the Will of Adam of Gurdun Rex Dom. P. Winton Episc. Justic. Angl. c. Mandamus Vobis quod teneri facias Testamentum Adae de Gurdun quod fecit de Rebus suis mobilibus omnibus aliis in Angl. secundum dispositionem testamenti excepta terra quam de domino nostro habuit septimo Augusti Teste meipso this expresly gives some legal execution of a Testament made of personal things unto the Chief Justice of England And in 5 H. 3. Robert of Lexinton having the possession of all the goods of Philip de Vletott the Testator a Writ goes out to him to pay William Earl of Salisbury a debt of Ninety Marks out of them and that the rest should be delivered to the Executors ad faciendum Testamentum and another Writ was sent that he should per visum Testimonium Execut. sell all Vletott's goods denarios quos inde fieri feceritis salvo faciatis reponi sub sigillo vestro sigillo Executor praedict donec aliud mandatum nostrum inde habueritis And in 7 Hen. 3. a Writ is directed to the Sheriff of Lincoln reciting that whereas it appeared that Richard Fitz-dune dyed not Intestate Ideo tibi praecipimus quod omnia Catalla ipsius Richardi in Manum nostram capta in balliva tua sine dilatione habere facias Priori de Noketon and other Executors of his Testament ad faciendum inde rationabile testamentum and other like Writs occurr in the Rolls of King John and H. 3. CHAP. VIII Suits of Legacies personal in the Spiritual Court from the beginning of Henry the Third of the beginning of that Course BUt however it may seem by those Testimonies that the Temporal Courts had some Extrinsecal Jurisdiction of Testaments in the time of King John and Hen. 3. it is clear that in the beginning of H. 3. Suits for Legacies personal were in the Spiritual Courts and that it seems from Custome setled in practice of the former times that were then newly past And perhaps it might be in the more ancient times fori mixti and as well exercised in the one as in the other Court as we have elsewhere shewed of the more ancient Jurisdiction of Tithes or it may be that those Writs in the former Chapter and the like were but in case of Tenants being Testators upon whose deaths all their goods were to be seised by the Sheriff or other such Officer and the debt if any were paid to the King Et residuum relinquebatur Executoribus testamenti defuncti as the words are both of the Charters of King John and H. 3. and perhaps by that Chapter of the Charter those Writs may be interpreted and faciatis teneri testamentum may be but only an amoving of the Kings hands from the goods that so the Executor might perform the Testament for that the Spiritual Court did from the beginning of H. 3. exercise a Jurisdiction for recovery of Legacies is infallibly proved by Cases of 2 4 6 8 Hen. 3. and the Attachments upon Prohibitions extant in Records of that time are quare secutus est placitum in Curia Christianitatis de Catallis quae non sunt de Testamento vel matrimonio and many such more are both in the Rolls and in Matth. Paris It appears also in 2 H. 3. in the Case of Symon Fitz-Simon that even that Suit for deviseable Land being devised was thought to be good in the Spiritual Court ex Causa testamentaria as if Laicum feodum versum esset in Catallum until the devisee had recovered it and after the recovery iterum incipiebat esse Laicum feodum as Bracton sayes where his Printed Copy is exceedingly corrupted But it was clear Law in the time of this Bracton who was a Judge in the Common Pleas in the latter part of H. 3. that locum non habet probatio in Causa testamentaria si Catalla legentur inde agatur in foro Ecclesiastico and he reckons that of Testaments inter spiritualia spiritualibus annexa which agrees exactly in the known and practised Consultations in the Register placita de Catallis debitis quae sunt de Testamento Matrimonio ad forum Ecclesiae specialiter dignoscimus pertinere c. And although in case of Legacy as in case of Tithes the Jurisdiction that gave the recovery of them was sometimes in the one sometimes in the other Court before it was restrained to the Spiritual only yet it seems by those Cases of Henry the Third's time which are Testimonies beyond exceptions that the Spiritual Jurisdiction over Legacies was long before in practice otherwise I guess that exception de Testamento de Matrimonio had not been so familiar in the Prohibitions of that Age. And notwithstanding those Cases out of the Records of King John's and Henry the Third his time the Temporal Court not only prohibited not the Spiritual Court espec●ally in H●nry the Third's time but also had not any Conusance of Suits for personal Legacies for neither have I ever met with any Suit in that kind in the Plea Rolls of H. 3. or King John or Richard 1. but very few are extant of the time of the two last neither doth Bracton admit any such thing And the Author of Fleta in the time of E. 1. tells us expresly de Causa Testamentaria sicut nec de causa Matrimoniali Curia Regis se non intromittet But the beginning of that practice of the Extrinsecal Jurisdiction in the Spiritual Court is even as difficult to find as that other of Probates Linwood tells us that libertas quoad secundum scilicet puniendum impedientes quo minus testamenta ultimae voluntates defunctorum procedant ortum habet à privilegiis etiam in ea parte concessis à consuetudine similiter de scientia Regum Angl. diutius observata and further potuit saith he habere ortum out of those Laws in the Code that made the Bishop a Protector of Legacies in pios usus It might be also in regard of the purpose of those Laws in themselves and it were no great wonder that the Ecclesiastical Court