Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	good_a	lord_n	manor_n	1,411	5	10.3370	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59088	Of the dominion or ownership of the sea two books : in the first is shew'd that the sea, by the lavv of nature or nations, is not common to all men, but capable of private dominion or proprietie, as well as the land : in the second is proved that the dominion of the British sea, or that which incompasseth the isle of Great Britain is, and ever hath been, a part or appendant of the empire of that island writen at first in Latin, and entituled, Mare clausum, seu, De dominio maris, by John Selden, Esquire ; translated into English and set forth with som additional evidences and discourses, by Marchamont Nedham.; Mare clausum. English	Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1652 (1652)	Wing S2432; ESTC R15125	334,213	600

of Citizens for the conveniencie of larger Fish-ponds bringing the Sea into their grounds made it their own and became Masters thereof with as good a Title as they had to their adjacent Land There beeing saith Varro two kindes of Fish-ponds one of Fresh the other of salt water the former sort are ordinarie and little worth such as our Countrie Fish-ponds that are supplied with water by little streames but those saltwater-Ponds are to bee found in the possessions of Noblemen and are supplied by the Sea as well with Fish as water yet they yield more delight then profit the filling of those Ponds beeing commonly the draining of the Owners purs Now what was this but to becom proprietaries of the Sea so far forth as it was derived or inclosed in their possessions And Columella who lived in the time of Claudius relate's that the Romanes in antient times for the most part used none but in-land Fish-ponds storing them with Spawners of the larger size presently adding Not long after that good husbandrie was laid aside when the wealth and luxurie of the succeeding age made inclosures of the Ocean and Seas themselvs And the yearly Revenue of such Demains which bordered upon the Sea was advanced by those Ponds or Inclosures of the Sea as well as by any Lands Lakes or Vineyards appertaining thereunto The same Columella discoursing hereupon hath this passage But seeing the custom of the times hath so far prevailed that these things are not onely in use but have gotten the reputation of magnificent and noble contrivances wee also least wee should seem morose and importune reprovers of so long and settled a practice will show what profit may redound from them to the Lord of the Manor how hee may rais an incom by the Sea if having made a purchase of Islands or Lands bordering upon the Sea hee cannot reap the fruits of the Earth by reason of that barrenness of the soil which usually is near the Shore So that wee see the Revenues of a Manor were improved by managing the Sea as well as Land and the Possessor was counted Lord of the one no more then of the other This usual right of Dominion over the Sea is mentioned also by S t Ambrose For the serving of their prodigious luxurie saith hee the Earth by digging of channels is forced to admit the Ocean for the making of artificial Islands and bringing litle Seas into their own possessions They challenge to themselvs large portions of the Sea by right and boast that the Fishes like so many bond-slaves have lost their former libertie and are subjected to their service This Creek of the Sea saith one belong's to mee that to another Thus great men divide the Elements among themselvs For Examples there are the Fish-ponds of Lucullus famous for his expensiveness in this kinde Hee having made way through a Mountain near Naples inclosed the Sea and became master of those water-courses which Plutarch call's Sea-Courses and Chases for the breeding of Fish Whereupon Pompey the Great in merriment saith Paterculus was wont to call Lucullus the gowned Xerxes in regard that by damming up of Chanels and digging down Mountains ●ee took the Sea into the Land The same Lucullus saith Plinie digging down a Mountain near Naples at greater charge then hee built his Villa took an arm of the Sea into his Manor which gave occasion to Pompey the Great to call him the gowned Xerxes The same conceit in Plutarch is attributed to Tubero the Stoick That concerning Xerxes is very famous Hoc terrae fiat hâc Mare dixit eat Here run the Sea hee said There let firm Land bee made When hee commanded the Sea to bee brought round about the Mountain Athos And Valerius saith of Caius Sergius Orata That hee might not have the serving of his palate depend upon the pleasure of Neptune hee contrived Seas of his own intercepting the waves with his trenches and so inclosing divers sholes of Fishes with dams that what tempestuous weather soëver happened Orata's Table was never unfurnished with varietie of Dishes The same libertie was used upon the Formian shore by Apollinaris of whose Fish-pond Martial speak's Si quando Nereus sentit AEoli regnum Ridet procellas tuta de suo Mensa Piscina Rhombum pascit Lupos vernas When winds do Lord it o're the Sea fright The Fisher his Table laugh's at their spight By its own private store secur'd from need While captiv'd Pikes and Turbot's Fish-ponds breed All the varietie of Fish which the wider Sea afforded Apollinaris had readie at hand in his Fish-pond which was nothing els but the Sea let in from the shore into his possession Contracta pisces AEquora sentiunt Jactis in altum molibus Such dams are cast into the main The Fish for want of room complain So saith Horace and in another place Caementis licèt occupes Tyrrhenum omne tuis Mare Ponticum though thou thy walls do rais Through all the Tuscan and the Pontick Seas And saith Salust To what purpose should I relate those things which cannot seem credible to any but those who have been eie-witnesses how Mountains have been removed by severall private persons and Seas brought into their places Of this sort were the Fish-ponds of Philippus Hortensius and others all made by taking in the Sea Moreover wee finde that Soveraigntie and Dominion over the Sea hath been somtimes conferred by the Patents of Princes The Emperor Trajan when hee endowed the Citie of Tharsus with Immunities and Privileges besides the Territorie of Land lying about added also a grant of Jurisdiction and Dominion over the river Cydnus and the adjacent Sea as may bee seen in Dion Chrysostom And it is very probable that the Maritimate rights of Neocesarea which Theodorus Balsamon saies were compiled by the Metropolitan of that Citie had respect unto the like Original as also those privileges in the Sea which the Emperor Comnenus granted to a great number of Monasteries according to the same Author The ancient Lawyers also are not silent as touching the Dominion of particular persons in the Sea Paulus one of greatest note among them declare's himself expresly thus Verily whensoëver a proprietie in som part of the Sea belong's to any person that person may sue out an interdict of uti possidetis in case hee bee ●indred from the exercise and enjoyment of his right becaus this matter concern's a private not a publick caus seeing the suit is commenced for the enjoying of a right which ariseth not from a publick but private Title For interdicts are proper to bee used in private cases not in publick Nothing could have been more plainly spoken to show that beyond all controversie hee admit's a private Dominion in the Sea even of single persons Yea Ulpian himself who was so fondly inclined to favor the opinion of a perpetual communitie of the Sea doth sufficiently

all the Shipping together into one place from all parts to maintein the afore-said fight as Caesar saith expressly Therefore if the British Navie were called forth to their assistance as t is probable it was then questionless it was all lost before Caesar's arrival For the whole strength and Forces of the Veneti perished in that Sea fight Moreover also Peter Ramus speaking of that great tempest whereby Caesar's Ships were scatter'd up and down in this Sea with great hazard saith The Sea raised this Tempest as it were revenging the British bounds and disdaining to bear a new and strange Lord. As if hee had said that the Bounds of the British Empire were in the very Sea and the Sea it self angrie that it should bee transferr'd into the hands of any other Lord. But as to that which wee finde in a certain Panegyrist touching the time of Julius Caesar that Britain was not arm'd at that time with any Shipping fit for War by Sea it was spoken either in a Rhetorical way onely and highly to magnifie that Victorie of the Emperor Constantius Chlorus whereby having slain C. Allectus who had invaded Britain hee reduced the Island together with the Sea as is shewn hereafter or els it is to bee taken onely of the very time of Caesar's arrival Otherwise it is expressly contrarie to those reasons here alleged and grounded upon good Autors and therefore not to bee admitted for Truth But after that the Island was reduced under the Roman power doubtless the Britains were prohibited from having any Ships of war that they might bee the better held in obedience Which is the reason why Writers afterwards make mention of such onely as were made of Twigs That the Britains were Lords of the Northern Sea before they were subdued by the Romans And that the Sea and the Land made one entire Bodie of the British Empire CHAP. III. THat the Britains were Lords also at that time of the Northern or Deucalidonian Sea is a thing proved by sufficient Testimonie They called this part of the Sea Mario sui secretum The secret or Closet of their Sea Tacitus relating the Navigation of Julius Agricola into this part saith the Britains as it was understood by the Prisoners were amazed at the sight of his Navie as if upon thi● opening the Closet or secret part of their Sea there remained no farther refuge in case they were overcom And in that stout Oration of Galgacus the Caledonian wherein hee encouraged his Souldiers to fight Now saith hee the bound of Britain is laid open The secret part of their Sea or their Sea-Territorie in the North they called their bound Moreover saith the same Galgacus beyond us there is no Land and not the least securitie at Sea the Roman Navie beeing at hand giving them to understand that the Dominion hereof was to bee defended as was the Island as a thing acquired before Add also that among the Writers of that Age vincula dare Oceano and to subdue the Britains signified one and the same thing So that place of Lucan is to bee understood where hee reckon's what pompous Shew● and Triumphs might have usher'd Caesar into Rome had hee returned onely with Conquest over the Gauls and the North ut vincula Rheno Oceanóque daret celsos ut Gallia currus Nobilis flavis sequeretur mista Britannis What Stories had hee brought how the vast Main And Rhine hee by his Conquests did restrain The noble Gauls and yellow Britains tread Behind his loftie Chariot beeing led But for all that our Sea was not as yet subdued by the Romans Julius Caesar onely shewed the Island rather then deliver'd it into the hands of Posteritie neither was any part of it reduced under the Roman power before the Emperor Claudius his time nor the Soveraigntie of the Sea transferr'd into the hands of any other And although in Augustus his time Drusus Germanicus sailed through that part of the Sea which lie's betwixt the entrance of the River Rhine and Denmark and subdued the Fri●slanders nevertheless not any part of the Sea was added by that Victorie to the Roman Empire for the Britains held it all in possession they beeing not yet fully subdued Nor is it unworthie observation here that C. Caligula beeing near Britain and coming out of Germanie to the Coasts on the other side of our Sea as if saith Dio hee intended to make war in Britain and having drawn up his Armie made readie all his slings and other warlick Engines and given the signal or word for Battel no man knowing or imagining what his intent was hee on a sudden commanded them to fall a gathering of Cockles and fill their Laps and Helmets Then saying these Spoils of the Sea belong'd to the Capitol and Mount Palatin hee vaunted as if hee had subdued the Ocean it self At last for a token or Trophie of this mock-victorie hee rear'd a very lofty Tower hard by out of which as if it had been another Pharos Lights were hung forth by night for the direction of Sea men in their Courses the ruins whereof beeing not yet wholly demolished but for the most part overwhelm'd with water near Cattwiick and very seldom discover'd it is called by the Hollanders that dwell near it Britenhuis and L'Huis te Briten that is the British Hous or the British Tower Certain it is out of Suetonius that a Tower was raised by Caligula in that place yea and it is mainteined by divers learned men as Hadrianus Junius the Hollander William Camden our Countriman and Richardus Vitus that these were the ruins of the same Tower though others denie it as Ortelius Gotzius and Cluverius And they make a doubt both about the Original of the name and also its signification concerning which wee dispute not But am extremely mis-taken if Caligula by this Action of his did not so much neglect the conquest of Britain it self which hee hoped or at least thought of as seem to sport himself with the conceit of having found out so compendious a way of Victorie Hee carried the matter as if hee had had an intent to subdue Britain and supposed those Cockles which hee called Spoils of the Sea to bee Tokens of Sea-Dominion and as a most sure pledg of the British Empire Moreover it is upon good ground to bee conceived that there was one entire Territorie of the British Empire made up of the Land or continent of great Britain with the Isles lying about it and the Seas flowing between in their respective Channels which may bee collected both from that one single name of British comprehending an entire Bodie of such a kinde of Territorie as was shewn you before and also from hence that the very Sea it self is by Albategnius and som others described by the name of Britain in the same manner as the Island when as hee placeth Thule an Isle of the Sea in Britain That is to

There are saith hee four Governors of the French Sea who bear an equal command under a different title and upon several Coasts of the Sea For in antient time Aquitain was possessed by the English Bretaign by its Dukes Provence by Hereditarie Earls not by the Kings of France And therefore at that time the Admiral of France had command onely over the Belgick Sea of Picardie and Normandie as far as the Coast of Bretaign But then all the other bordering Princes chose Governors of the Sea or Admirals peculiarly for themselvs And therefore the English beeing driven out of Aquitain and the Countries of Provence and Bretaign beeing brought into subjection to the Crown of France the King supposing it not fit to innovate any thing appointed a Lievtenant and Admiral of Aquitain likewise a Governor of Bretaign with the government of the Sea as also in the Prouince of Gallia Narbonensis in a manner distinct and apart from the rest But the chief Courts of Judicature belonging to the French Admiral are setled at Paris and Roan So hee And a little after hee write's that there were Princes not a few who held the Sea-Coasts as Beneficiaries that enjoied the power of Admiral in their Territories But wee have Edicts and Decrees concerning the Admiral 's Jurisdiction over the Maritim Forces Affairs and Persons in the times of Charls the fift and sixt Lewis the 12 th Francis the first Henrie the 2 d 3 d and other Kings of France as also touching the Tenths of Spoils taken from Enemies and other things of that kinde which relate unto the Goods and Persons of such as are subject to the Crown of France upon the account of any manner of Navigation whatsoêver And in these Edicts hee is somtimes called by the King Nostre Lieutenant general per la mer greves d'icelle that is our Lieutenant general throughout the Sea and the shores thereof But this Lieutenant or Governor as they pleas to call him of the Sea was never at all in command over any part of the Sea flowing between France and Britain as over a Province or Territorie to bee defended for the King of France after the same manner as the Admiral of England but in the Sea onely over the Naval Forces Persons and Affairs belonging to the French Jurisdiction much after the same manner as a Soveraign Prince take's cognizance of Offendors of his own Retinue in a Forein Territorie and rule 's them as at home but without any pretence of his to a right of Dominion in that Territorie Which truly there is no man but will conceiv that shall in the first place observ the defect and deep silence of antient Testimonies touching such a kinde of Dominion among the French besides the Qualitie of that Government among them and at length the entire and most ample Power alwaies exercised throughout the Sea and the shore lying about it under the sole command of the English and will but compare it for so many Revolutions of years with those so long broken and divided Dominions upon the opposite shore of France and with the late addition of the Sea-Coast to the Kingdom of France according to those things which have been alreadie spoken about it It is clear that there are no Testimonies before our time concerning any Dominion of this sea belonging to the King of France Nor are there any in our time except certain Lawyers who speak of it either by the By or in a Rhetorical flourish onely not in a way of asserting it by strength of Arguments Of these things I have spoken alreadie in the former Book where also other matters are alleged of special observation which confirm what is handled in this particular But now let us add hereunto that the very French Historians both of the past and present Age do affirm that in antient times the Kings of France therefore either had no Admirals at all or els that they were constituted now and then onely as occasion required becaus they had no Empire over the Sea as Tilius saith expresly in the place above-mentioned In vain therefore doth Popellinerius reprehend those Historians in saying it is fals becaus Normandie Picardie and Flanders were heretofore under the French Dominion For not to mention this that the Kings of France reigned a long time without the possession of Normandie and Flanders and reteined not any other shore besides that of Picardie as appear's by what hath been alreadie shewn and by the frequent Testimonie of Historians and the consequence doth not appear to bee good that they had any command over the Sea becaus they were in possession of som Sea-Coast no more truly than it may bee concluded that a man is Lord of a River in France becaus hee hath Lands lying by it whereas by received Custom according to the Law of France the King is Owner of all Rivers that are Navigable where they belong not to som subject by a particular prescription of possession or som other title besides the possession of the adjacent Land as the Custom is not unusual also in other places But as to what concern's the Qualitie of this Maritim Government among the French it is to bee considered that as every one of the more eminent Offices or Governments hath a peculiar place in their high Court of Parlament and that according to the nature of the Government as it chiefly respect's any Province or Government within the limits of the French Dominion as the Constable the Grand Escuyer or Master of the Hors the Grand Master and others yet the Admiral of France hath no place at all upon that account As it was determined in the time of Henrie the second when such a place was plainly denied to Gaspar Collignie Admiral of France as hee was Admiral or had the Maritim Government but it was granted him as Governor of the Isle of France as they call it under the King For by the title of Admiral hee had no Government in Chief within the limits of the Kingdom but becaus beeing Admiral of the Fleets and Sea in the aforesaid sens which is out of the King's Dominion hee exercised Jurisdiction over Persons and Affairs onely upon the Accompt of the Sea therefore in this respect hee was to bee denied any place For which caus likewise it came to pass as it seem's that those four distinct Admirals before-mentioned have in like manner also a Government of Provinces from which they are wont to bee denominated as wee understand by these passages alreadie cited out of Choppinus and others that write of this matter So they that have any principal command within the limits of the Kingdom that is within the shores of France do enjoie an equal privilege with the other more eminent dignities of the Realm Moreover also the Regulation of those Rivers whereof the King of France is Lord are not under the Admiral 's Government but under the special charge of those

them above other Nations but since they break out like an Inundation and with a drawn Sword declare prodigious Principles of Enmitie against the Rights and Liberties of England it is presumed a thing unquestionable that due Defences ought to be made till they bee reduced within their antient Limits For if they should bee permitted in the least to Lord it at Sea as they want not will and advantages and have given you experience of their encroaching and ambitious temper so it 's to bee feared they would bee ever seeking opportunitie to impose a Lord upon you by Land May you go on therefore Right honorable as you have begun and do and the God of Heaven go along w th you upon terms of honor Justice in such a way that men may understand as you will do no wrong at what rate they must offend you Not onely our eies but the eies of all the world are fixt upon the carriage and conduct of this noble enterprise by Sea when you have acquitted your selvs there as no doubt you will do having alreadie given the same demonstrations of wisdom and courage that you have don by Land your Wars through God's blessing will at once bee ended It will draw such a reverence repute to your affairs that men will beware how they provoke you and your worst enemies despair of any future opportunitie The late Engagements Successes of your Fleets at Sea have shewn that the great God hath owned you there That hee hath not left you destitute of means That the old English bloud sens of honor run's still in the veins of your Sea-men and thereby given you to understand that hee who hath appeared so gloriously for you in the midst of wondrous difficulties by Land will also manifest his wonders in the Deep to make a final Accomplishment of the good VVork by Sea and beeing himself alone invested with the absolute Soveraigntie of Sea Land bee pleased to continue you and your Successors his Lievtenants in both for the establishment of this Common-wealth in a plenarie possession of its Rights and Liberties to all Posteritie I am in my praiers and endeavors RIGHT HONORABLE Your Honor 's most humble and faithful Servant Marchamont Nedham November 19. 1652. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE SOm things there are that I thought fit here to forewarn the Reader part whereof may bee necessarie even for those who are in other things very well instructed The rest likewise not unprofitable for them who while they salute Books by the way are wont through a customarie vice of temeritie to stumble in the verie Threshold Those things concern either the place of such Testimonies as are alleged or som Circumstances of the Sea-Dominion which is proved or the Title of the Work Among Testimonies besides such as are in Print and Manuscripts reserved in private men's Libraries there are not a few especially in the second Book brought out of Records or publick Monuments whose credit I suppose every indifferent Judg of matters will as once the Senate of Rome did allow better than other Witnesses at least if there bee any difference and therefore full Those which lie in private men's Libraries you will finde where they are kept in the Margin If omitted there they are in my own But as to the Testimonies taken often out of publick Records som likewise have the Place either of the Archive or Rolls or the name of the Record-keeper's Office so noted in the Margin that thereby you may know immediately where to finde them But som of these Records that are very frequently cited have no place at all nor any name of the Record-keeper expressed but the King for the most part and the Year besides the name of the Court-Roll are only noted As many as are of this kinde do relate som to those years that pass betwixt the beginning of the reign of King John and the end of Edward the Fourth others to those years that succeed down to our time They which are of the former sort having no place nor name of the Record-keeper noted are kept in the Archive of the Tower of London but those of the latter sort in the Chappel of the Rolls It had been too slight a matter to have signified thus much here to such as are acquainted with our English Records becaus by the very name of the Court-Roll as Rotulorum Patentium Rotulorum Clausorum Rotulorum Parl●mentariorum Rotulorum Franciae Vasconiae Alemanniae and others of that kinde which are Records belonging to the English Chancerie and by the name of the King the very place also of the Records is sufficiently known But it is necessarie to premise this in the first place as well for the sakes of my own Countrie-men who have been Strangers to the Rolls as in the behalf of Foreiners to the end that if either of them perhaps have a minde exactly to consult the Original of any testimonie thence alleged they might when the Places are so described the more conveniently do it themselvs at their own leasure if present or if absent obtein it by the assistance of friends For the Record-keepers who have a special care to preserv them safely do usually give admittance at seasonable hours to all that pleas to consult them and have them so placed as Justinian commanded concerning the Records of the Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may easily bee found by them that search As to what concern's the aforesaid circumstances of Sea-Dominion whereas there are two Propositions here so far as the term may bee born in things of a civil nature made evident The one That the Sea by the Law of Nature or Nations is not common to allmen but capable of private Dominion or proprietie as well as the Land The other That the King of Great Britain is Lord of the Sea flowing about as an inseparable and perpetual Appendant of the British Empire it is not to bee conceived that any other kinde either of Causes or Effects of Sea-Dominion are here admitted than such as have been of the Dominion of an Island Continent Port or any other Territorie whatsoëver or Province which is wont to bee reckoned in the Royal Patrimonie of Princes Nor that a less Dominion of the Sea than of the Land is derived from the nature of the Law received among Nations about the acquiring of Dominion and of Justice it self as from the Causes nor that the Effects thereof are any other than what are variously subservient to Compacts Agreements Leagues and Treaties Constitutions or Prescriptions of servitudes and other things of that nature in the same manner as the effects of Dominion by Land And therefore hee said well of old Nunc jam cessit Pontus Omnes Patitur leges The Seals now made appropriate And yield's to all the Laws of state That is to say all which are admitted in any other kinde of Territories according to the difference of things persons

acknowledg that common practice and received custom was for the other part In case saith hee I forbid any man to Fish before my Hous or Roialtie what can bee said may hee sue mee upon an action of Trespass or no The Sea and the shores indeed are common to all as the Aër And it hath been declared that no man can bee prohibited from Fishing or fowling any otherwise then as hee may bee debarr'd from entring upon another man's ground Yet for a man to bee forbidden to Fish before my Hous or Royaltie is the common custom although grounded upon no Law Wherefore if any man bee prohibited hee hath for all that an Action of Trespass Hee grant's it was a received use and custom that subjection should bee thus imposed on the Sea and so a private Dominion thereof bee admitted but least hee should bee found unconstant to his espoused opinion of the communitie of the Sea hee hath presumed to declare it don without any Law or Justice Yet hee himself deliver's his judgment in another place thus The vender or seller of the Geronian Farm imposed such a condition on the Botrojan Farm which hee still kept in his hands that from that time forward no fishing for Tunies should bee used upon the Coast thereof although no private contract can lay a restraint upon the Sea which nature set's open to all Yet in regard honestie and faithful dealing in the agreement require that this Article of the sale bee observed the persons that are in present possession and they that succeed into the said Farm are obliged by the condition of the covenant or bargain In this case the owner of the Botrojan Farm renounceth his right of Fishing And Ulpian might as well have said that restraint or subjection was imposed upon that adjacent Sea as indeed it was but that hee was so unwilling to forgo his Opinion of the Seas unalterable communitie Moreover the purchaser of the Geronian Farm was so fully possessed of the Sea that lay before the Botrojan that by virtue of this subjection really imposed on that Sea-territorie the Owner of the Botrojan Farm could never after justly claim or exercise a privilege of Fishing for Tunies without his permission Whereupon Stephanus Forcatulus once Professor of the Civil Law at Tholose conclude's to the purpose That there is nothing to hinder but that the Sea though common to all may by publick decree bee subjected to a Prince by the same right that hee hold's his adjoyning Kingdom since the same thing may in a manner bee effected by virtue of a private compact Where by private compact hee mean's that concerning the Purchaser of the Geronian Farm as hee himself saith expresly in the same place But the opinion of Ulpianus for a perpetual communitie of the Sea was so entertained as authentick by the Lawyers of the Eastern Empire that there was no Law in force among them whereby an adjacent Sea might bee made appropriate or any man bee debarr'd the libertie of Fishing by the Owner of such Lands as border'd thereupon And if any one were debarr'd hee might have an Action of Trespass Which is manifest enough not onely in the Basilica which before the dismembring of them were a bodie of the Law of the Grecian or Eastern Empire but also by the Decrees established by the Emperor Leo by virtue of which that stale opinion of the communitie of the Sea beeing utterly cashiered as not agreeing with equitie that ancient one of the lawfulness of a possession and private Dominion in the neighboring Sea back't with the Autoritie of other eminent Lawyers was entertain'd again Moreover also it was so firmly ratified by an Imperial Sanction that from that time forward it passed over all the AEgean Sea without controul That Law saith that Eastern Emperor who reigned about the nine hundreth year of our Lord which so take's away the right of possessions bordering on the Sea as to make the Lord thereof liable to an Action of Trespass if hee prohibite others to Fish upon those Coasts in our judgment seem's to determine that which is not equitable or just Hee add's the reason becaus whatsoëver com's into the possession of any man by good and lawful Title whether by succession art and industry or any other way which the Law approve's there is no reason that other men should have the use and benefit thereof without the owners leav Thus the matter beeing duly examined hee judged that hee who held any part of the Sea in the aforesaid manner had a Title grounded upon a very clear Right Therefore saith hee wee decree that every man possess his vestibula or Seas lying before his Lands and bee master of them by an unquestionable right and that hee have power to keep off any persons whatsoëver that go about to enjoy the benefit thereof without his permission And in that which follow 's hee make's the Proprietie of Sea and Land altogether equal The Seas which laie thus in the face of Manors were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sea-Courts or Entries nor did this sanction of Leo serv onely for the ratification of former Titles founded either upon particular possession or any other but ordained in general that every man for the future should bee Lord of that neighboring part of the Sea which laie before or flowed by his Lands although hee had never been possessed thereof before In this very sens it is taken by Constantinus Harmenopulus a Judg of Thessalonica Touching Sea-Courts or Entries by Sea saith hee it is decreed in the thirtieth Novel of the Emperor Leo that every one bee master of that which is adjoyning to his Lands and that power bee given him to prohibit such as at any time go about to make any benefit of these Vestibulas or Entries without his permission Harmenopulus following a different order of the Novels call's that the thirtieth which in the printed Copies is the fiftie-sixth But now how much of the Sea directly forward did pass into the possession of the same person that was Lord of the adjoyning Lands either by antient custom or by virtue of this decree is not yet certainly known nor is it necessarie to our purpose but for latitude even as it were in a field those Vestibulas or Entries of the Sea were bounded by the same limits with the adjacent Lands And it was the custom for particular owners to have their Epoches or Pens for fish which the later Greeks call T 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saie Nets spread between stakes driven into the Sea but limited upon this condition that every Epoche should bee distant from the other three hundred sixtie-five Cubits if so bee the breadth of Land could conveniently permit And such an equal distance was observed on both sides that a direct line from each Epoche to the extremitie of the Vestibulum or Entrie was extended one hundred eightie two ells and a half but this