more I think upon it the more I settle in Opinion That a War to suppress that Empire though we set aside the Cause of Religion were a just War After Zebedaeus had said this he made a Pause to see whether any of the rest would say any thing But when he perceived nothing but Silence and Signs of Attention to that he would further say he proceeded thus Zebedaeus Your Lordships will not look for a Treatise from me but a Speech of Consultation And in that Brevity and Manner will I speak First I shall agree that as the Cause of a War ought to be Just So the Justice of that Cause ought to be Evident Not Obscure not Scrupulous For by the consent of all Laws in Capital Causes the Evidence must be full and clear And if so where one Mans life is in Question what say we to a War which is ever the Sentence of Death upon many We must beware therefore how we make a Moloch or an Heatlien Idol of our Blessed Saviour in sacrificing the Blood of Men to him by an unjust War The Justice of every Action consisteth in the Merits of the Cause the Warrant of the Jurisdiction and the Form of the Prosecution As for the Inward Intention I leave it to the Court of Heaven Of these things severally as they may have Relation to the present subject of a War against Infidels And namely against the most Potent and most Dangerous Enemy of the Faith the Turk I hold and I doubt not but I shall make it plain as far as a Sum or Breef can make a Cause plain that a War against the Turk is Lawful both by the Laws of Nature and Nations And by the Law Divine which is the Perfection of the other two As for the Laws Positive and Civil of the Romans or other whatsoever they are too small Engins to move the Weight of this Question And therefore in my judgment many of the late Schoolmen though excellent Men take not the right way in disputing this Question Except they had the gift of Navius that they could Cotem novaculâ scindere Hew Stones with Pen-knives First for the Law of Nature The Philosopher Aristotle is no ill Interpreter thereof He hath set many Men on work with a witty speech of Naturâ Dominus and Naturâ Servus Affirm ing expresly and positively That from the very Nativity some things are born to Rule and some things to Obey Which Oracle hath been taken in diverssenses Some have taken it for a Speech of Ostentation to entitle the Grecians to an Empire over the Barbarians Which indeed was better maintained by his Scholar Alexander Some have taken it for a Speculative Platform that Reason and Nature would that the best should govern But not in any wise to create a Right But for my part I take it neither for a brag nor for a wish but for a Truth as he limiteth it For he saith That if there can be found such an Inequality between Man and Man as there is between Man and Beast or between Soul and Body it investeth a Right of Government Which seemeth rather an Impossible Case than an untrue Sentence But I hold both the Judgment true and the Case possible And such as hath had and hath a Being both in particular Men and Nations But ere we go further let us confine Ambiguities and Mistakings that they trouble us not First to say that the more Capable or the better Deserver hath such Right to Govern as he may compulsorily bring under the less Worthy is Idle Men will never agree upon it who is the more Worthy For it is not only in order of Nature for him to govern that is the more Intelligent as Aristotle would have it But there is no less required for Government Courage to protect and above all Honesty and Probity of the Will to abstain from Injury So Fitness to govern is a perplexed Business Some Men some Nations excel in the one ability some in the other Therefore the Position which I intend is not in the Comparative that the Wiser or the Stouter or the juster Nation should govern But in the Privative that where there is an heap of People though we term it a Kingdom or State that is altogether unable or indign to govern There it is a just Cause of War for another Nation that is Civil or Polliced to subdue them And this though it were to be done by a Cyrus or a Caesar that were no Christian. The second mistaking to be banished is That I understand not this of a Personal Tyranny as was the State of Rome under a Caligula or a Nero or a Commodus Shall the Nation suffer for that wherein they suffer But when the Constitution of the State and the fundamental Customs and Laws of the same if Laws they may be called are against the Laws of Nature and Nations then I say a War upon them is lawful I shall divide the Question into three parts First whether there be or may be any Nation or Society of Men against whom it is lawful to make a War without a Precedent Injury or Provocation Secondly what are those Breaches of the Law of Nature and Nations which do forfeit and devest all Right and Title in a Nation to govern And thirdly whether those Breaches of the Law of Nature and Nations be found in any Nation at this day And namely in the Empire of the Ottomans For the first I hold it clear that such Nations or States or Societies of People there may be and are There cannot be a better ground laid to declare this than to look into the Original Donation of Government Observe it well Especially the Inducement or Preface Saith God Let us make man after our own Image and let him have dominion over the Fishes of the Sea and the Fowls of the Air and the Beasts of the Land c. Hereupon De Victoria and with him some others infer excellently and extract a most true and divine Aphorism Non sundatur Dominium nisi in Imagine Dei. Here we have the Charter of Foundation It is now the more easie to judg of the Forfeiture or Reseisure Deface the Image and you devest the Right But what is this Image and how is it defaced The Poor Men of Lyons and some Fanatical Spirits will tell you that the Image of God is Purity And the Defacement Sin But this subverteth all Government Neither did Adams Sin or the Curse upon it deprive him of his Rule but left the Creatures to a Rebellion or Reluctation And therefore if you note it attentively when this Charter was renewed unto Noah and his Sons it is not by the words Tou shall have Dominion But Your Fear shall be upon all the Beasts of the Land and the Birds of the Air and all that moveth Not re-granting the Soveraignty which stood firm But protecting it against the Reluctation The sound Interpreters therefore expound this Image of God of
Natural Reason Which if it be totally or mostly defaced the Right of Government doth cease And if you mark all the Interpreters well still they doubt of the Case and not of the Law But this is properly to be spoken to in handling the second Point when we shall define of the Defacements To go on The Prophet Hosea in the Person of God saith of the Jews They have reigned but not by me They have set a Signory over themselves but I knew nothing of it Which place proveth plainly that there are Governments which God doth not avow For though they be ordained by his secret Providence yet they are not knowledged by his revealed Will Neither can this be meant of evil Governours or Tyrants For they are often avowed and stablished as lawful Potentates But of some perversness and defection in the very Nation it self Which appeareth most manifestly in that the Prophet speaketh of the Signory in Abstracto and not of the Person of the Lord. And although some Hereticks of those we speak of have abused this Text yet the Sun is not soiled in Passage And again if any Man infer upon the words of the Prophets following which declare this Rejection and to use the words of the Text Rescision of their Estate to have been for their Idolatry that by this Reason the Governments of all Idolatrous Nations should be also dissolved which is manifestly untrue in my judgment it followeth not For the Idolatry of the Jews then and the Idolatry of the Heathen then and now are Sins of a far differing Nature in regard of the special Covenant and the clear manifestations wherein God did contract and exhibit himself to that Nation This Nullity of Policy and Right of Estate in some Nations is yet more significantly expressed by Moses in his Canticle In the Person of God to the Jews Ye have incensed me with Gods that are no Gods and I will incense you with a People that are no People Such as were no doubt the People of Canaan after Seisin was given of the Land of Promise to the Israelites For from that time their Right to the Land was dissolved though they remained in many Places unconquered By this we may see that there are Nations in Name that are no Nations in Right but multitudes only and swarms of People For like as there are Particular Persons utlawed and proscribed by civil Laws of several Countries So are there Nations that are utlawed and proscribed by the Law of Nature and Nations Or by the immediate Commandment of God And as there are Kings de Facto and not de Jure in respect of the Nullity of their Title So are there Nations that are Occupants de Facto and not de Jure of their Territories in respect of the Nullity of their Policy or Government But let us take in some Examples into the midst of our Proofs For they will prove as much as put after And illustrate more It was never doubted but a War upon Pyrates may be lawfully made by any Nation though not infested or violated by them Is it because they have not Certas Sedes or Lares In the Pyratical War which was atchieved by Pompey the Great and was his truest and greatest glory the Pyrates had some Cities sundry Ports and a great part of the Province of Cilicia And the Pyrates now being have a Receptacle and Mansion in Algiers Beasts are not the less Savage because they have Dens Is it because the danger hovers as a Cloud that a Man cannot tell where it will fall And so it is every Mans Case The Reason is good But it is not all nor that which is most alledged For the true received Reason is that Pyrates are Communes Humani Generis Hostes Whom all Nations are to prosecute not so much in the Right of their own Fears as upon the Band of Humane Society For as there are formal and written Leagues Respective to certain Enemies So is there a Natural and Tacite Confederation amongst all Men against the common Enemy of Humane Society So as there needs no Intimation or Denunciation of the War There needs no Request from the Nation grieved But all these Formalities the Law of Nature supplies in the Case of Pyrates The same is the Case of Rovers by Land Such as yet are some Cantons in Arabia And some petty Kings of the Mountains adjacent to Streights and Ways Neither is it lawful only for the Neighbour Princes to destroy such Pyrates or Rovers But if there were any Nation never so far off that would make it an Enterprise of Merit and true Glory as the Romans that made a War for the Liberty of Grecia from a distant and remote part no doubt they might do it I make the same Judgment of that Kingdom of the Assasins now destroyed which was situate upon the Borders of Saraca And was for a time a great Terrour to all the Princes of the Levant There the Custom was that upon the Commandment of their King and a blind Obedience to be given thereunto any of them was to undertake in the nature of a Votary the insidious Murther of any Prince or Person upon whom the Commandment went This Custom without all question made their whole Government void as an Engine built against Humane Society worthy by all Men to be fired and pulled down I say the like of the Anabaptists of Munster And this although they had not been Rebels to the Empire And put Case likewise that they had done no Mischief at all actually yet if there shall be a Congregation and consent of People that shall hold all things to be lawful Not according to any certain Laws or Rules but according to the secret and variable Motions and Instincts of the Spirit This is indeed no Nation no People no Signory that God doth know Any Nation that is Civil and Polliced may if they will not be reduced cut them off from the Face of the Earth Now let me put a feigned Case And yet Antiquity makes it doubtful whether it were Fiction or History of a Land of Amazons where the whole Government publick and private yea the Militia it Self was in the hands of Women I demand is not such a Preposterous Government against the first Order of Nature for Women to rule over Men in it self void and to be suppressed I speak not of the Reign of Women For that is supplied by Counsel and subordinate Magistrates Masculine But where the Regiment of State Justice Families is all managed by Women And yet this last Case differeth from the other before Because in the rest there is Terrour of Danger but in this there is only Errour of Nature Neither should I make any great difficulty to affirm the same of the Sultanry of the Mamaluches where Slaves and none but Slaves bought for Money and of unknown Descent reigned over Families of Free-men And much like were the Case if you suppose a Nation where the Custom were that
after full Age the Sons should Expulse their Fathers and Mothers out of their Possessions and put them to their Pensions For these Cases of Women to govern Men Sons the Fathers Slaves Free-Men are much in the same degree All being total Violations and Perversions of the Laws of Nature and Nations For the West-Indies I perceive Martins you have read Garcilazzo de Viega who himself was descended of the race of the Incaes a Mestizo and is willing to make the best of the Vertues and Manners of his Country And yet in troth he doth it soberly and credibly enough Yet you shall hardly edifie me that those Nations might not by the Law of Nature have been subdued by any Nation that had only Policy and Moral Vertue Though the Propagation of the Faith whereof we shall speak in the proper place were set by and not made part of the Case Surely their Nakedness being with them in most parts of that Country without all Vail or Covering was a great Defacement For in the acknowledgment of 〈◊〉 was the first Sense of Sin And the Heresie of the Adamites was ever accounted an affront of Nature But upon these I stand not Nor yet upon their Idiocy in thinking that Horses did eat their Bitts and Letters speak and the like Nor yet upon their Sorceries which are almost common to all Idolatrous Nations But I say their Sacrificing and more especially their Eating of Men is such an Abomination as methinks a Mans Face should be a little confused to deny that this Custom joyned with the rest did not make it lawful for the Spaniards to invade their Territory forfeited by the Law of Nature And either to reduce them or displant them But far 〈◊〉 from me yet nevertheless to justifie the Cruelties which were at first used towards them which had their reward soon after There being not one of the Principal of the first Conquerors Lut died a violen Death himself And was well followed by the Deaths of many more Of Examples enough Except we should add the Labours of Hercules An Example which though it be flourished with much Fabulous Matter yet so much it hath that it doth notably set 〈◊〉 the consent of all Nations and Ages in the approbation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and debellating of Gyants Monsters and Foren 〈◊〉 not only as lawful but as Meritorious even of Divine 〈◊〉 And this although the Deliverer came from the one End of the World unto the other Let us now set down some Arguments to prove the same Regarding rather Weight than Number as in such a Conserence as this is fit The first Argument shall be this It is a great Errour and a narrowness or straightness of Mind if any Man think that Nations have nothing to do one with another except there be either an Union in Soveraignty or a Conjunction in Pacts or Leagues There are other Bands of Society and implicite Confederation That of Colonies or Transmigrants towards their Mother Nation 〈◊〉 unius labii is somewhat For as the Confusion of Tongues was a mark of Separation so the Being of one Language is a mark of Union To have the same Fundamental Laws and Customs in chief is yet more As it was between the Grecians in respect of the Barbarians To be of one Sect or Worship If it be a False Worship I speak not of it for that is but Fratres in Malo But above all these there is the Supream and Indissoluble Consanguinity and Society between Men in general Of which the Heathen Poet whom the Apostle calls to witness saith We are all his Generation But much more we Christians unto whom it is revealed in particularity that all Men came from one Lump of Earth And that two singular Persons were the Parents from whom all the Generations of the World are descended We I say ought to acknowledge that no Nations are wholly Aliens and Strangers the one to the other And not to be less charitable than the person introduced by the Comick Poet Homosum Humani nihil à me alienum puto Now if there be such a Tacite League or Confederation sure it is not idle It is against somewhat or some Body Who should they be Is it against Wild Beasts Or the Elements of Fire and Water No it is against such Routs and Sholes of People as have utterly degenerate from the Laws of Nature As have in their very Body and frame of Estate a Monsirosity And may be truly accounted according to the Examples we have formerly recited Common Enemies and Grievances of Mankind Or Disgraces and Reproaches to Humane Nature Such People all Nations are interessed and ought to be resenting to suppress Considering that the Particular States themselves being the Delinquents can give no redress And this I say is not to be measured so much by the Principles of Jurists as by Lex Charitatis Lex proximi which includes the Samaritan as well as the Levite Lex Filiorum Adae de Massâ unâ Upon which Original Laws this Opinion is grounded Which to deny if a man may speak freely were almost to be a Schismatick in Nature The rest was not perfected AN OFFER To our Late Sovereign KING JAMES OF A DIGEST To be made of the LAWS of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by J. M. for Humphrey Robinson and Sold by William Lee 1670. TO THE KING OF A DIGEST To be made of the LAWS of ENGLAND Most Excellent Soveraign AMongst the Degrees and Acts of Soveraign or rather Heroical Honour the First or Second is the Person and Merit of a Lam-giver Princes that govern well are Fathers of the People But if a Father breed his Son well or allow him well while he liveth but leave him nothing at his Death whereby both he and his Children and his Childrens Children may be the better Surely the care and Piety of a Father is not in him compleat So Kings if they make a Portion of an Age happy by their good Government yet if they do not make Testaments as God Almighty doth whereby a Perpetuity of Good may descend to their Country they are but Mortal and Transitory Benefactors Domitian a few days before he died dream't that a Golden Head did rise upon the nape of his Neck Which was truly performed in the Golden Age that followed his times for five Successions But Kings by giving their Subjects good Laws may if they will in their own time joyn and graft this Golden Head upon their own Necks after their Death Nay they may make Nabuchadonozors Image of Monarchy golden from Head to Foot And if any of the Meaner sort of Politiques that are sighted only to see the worst of things think That Laws are but Cobwebs and that good Princes will do well without them and bad will not stand much upon them The Discourse is neither good nor wise For certain it is that good Laws are some bridle to bad Princes And as a very Wall about Government And if Tyrants sometime make a breach
Mounts of Perpetuity which will not break Therefore having not long since set forth a part of my Instauration Which is the Work that in mine own judgment Si nunquam fallit Imago I do most esteem I think to proceed in some new paris thereof And although I have received from many Parts beyond the Seas Testimonies touching that Work such as beyond which I could not expect at the first in so abstruse an Argument yet nevertheless I have just cause to doubt that it flies too high over Mens Heads I have a purpose therefore though I break the order of Time to draw it down to the sense by some Patterns of a Natural Story and Inquisition And again for that my Book of Advancement of Learning may be some Preparative or Key for the better opening of the Instauration Because it exhibits a Mixture of new Conceits and old whereas the Instauration gives the new unmixed otherwise than with some little Aspersion of the old for tastes sake I have thought good to procure a Translation of that Book into the General Language not without great and ample Additions and Enrichment thereof Especially in the Second Book which handleth the Partition of Sciences In such sort as I hold it may serve in lieu of the First Part of the Instauration and acquit my promise in that part Again because I cannot altogether desert the Civil Person that I have born Which if I should forget Enough would remember I have also entred into a work touching Laws Propounding a Character of Justice in a middle term between the Speculative and Reverend discourses of Philosophers and the Writings of Lawyers which are tied and obnoxious to their particular Laws And although it be true that I had a purpose to make a particular Digest or Recompilement of the Laws of mine own Nation Yet because it is a Work of Assistance and that that I cannot master by mine own Forces and Pen I have laid it aside Now having in the Work of my Instauration had in contemplation the general Good of Men in their very Being and the Dowries of Nature And in my Work of Laws the general good of Men likewise in Society and the Dowries of Government I thought in duty I owed somewhat unto mine own Country which I ever loved Insomuch as although my Place hath been far above my desert yet my Thoughts and Cares concerning the Good thereof were beyond and over and above my place So now being as I am no more able to do my Country Service it remained unto me to do it Honour Which I have endeavoured to do in my Work of the Reign of King HENRY the Seventh As for my Essayes and some other Particulars of that nature I count them but as the Recreations of my other Studies and in that sort purpose to continue them Though I am not ignorant that those kind of Writings would with less pains and embracement perhaps yield more Lustre and Reputation to my Name than those other which I have in hand But I account the Vse that a Man should seek of the publishing of his own Writings before his Death to be but an untimely Anticipation of that which is proper to follow a Man and not to go along with him But revolving with my self my Writings as well those which I have published as those which I had in hand me thought they went all into the City and none into the Temple Where because I have found so great Consolation I desire likewise to make some poor Oblation Therefore I have chosen an Argument mixt of Religious and Civil Considerations And likewise mixt between Contemplative and Active For who can tell whether there may not be an Exoriere aliquis Great Matters especially if they be Religious have many times small beginnings And the Platform may draw on the Building This Work because I was ever an Enemy to flattring Dedications I have dedicated to your Lordship In respect of our ancient and private Acquaintance And because amongst the Men of our Times I hold you in especial Reverence Your Lordships Loving Friend Fr. St. Alban AN ADVERTISEMENT Touching an HOLY WAR The persons that speak EVSEBIVS GAMALIEL ZEBEDAEUS MARTIVS EVPOLIS POLLIO THere met at Paris in the House of Eupolis Eusebius Zebedaeus Gamaliel Martius All Persons of eminent Quality but of several Dispositions Eupolis himself was also present And while they were set in conference Pollio came in to them from Court And as soon as he saw them after his witty and pleasant manner he said Pollio Here be four of you I think were able to make a good World for you are as differing as the Four Elements and yet you are Friends As for Eupolis because he is Temperate and without Passion he may be the Fifth Essence Eupolis If we five Pollio make the Great World you alone may make the Little Because you profess and practise both to refer all things to your Self Pollio And what do they that practise it and profess it not Eupolis They are the less Hardy and the more Dangerous But come and sit down with us for we were speaking of the Affairs of Christendom at this day Wherein we would be glad also to have your Opinion Pollio My Lords I have journeyed this Morning and it is now the heat of the Day Therefore your Lordships Discourses had need content my Ears very well to make them entreat mine Eyes to keep open But yet if you will give me leave to awake you when I think your Discourses do but sleep I will keep watch the best I can Eupolis You cannot do us a greater Favour Only I fear you will think all our Discourses to be but the better sort of Dreams For good wishes without power to effect are not much more But Sir when you came in Martius had both raised our Attentions and affected us with some Speech he had begun And it falleth out well to shake off your Drowsiness for it seemed to be the Trumpet of a War And therefore Martius if it please you to begin again For the Speech was such as deserveth to be heard twice And I assure you your Auditory is not a little amended by the presence of Pollio Martius When you came in Pollio I was saying freely to these Lords that I had observed how by the space now of half a Century of years there had been if I may speak it a kind of Meanness in the Designes and Enterprises of Christendom Wars with Subjects Like an angry Sute for a Man 's own that might be better ended by Accord Some petty Acquests of a Town or a Spot of Territory Like a Farmers Purchase of a Close or nook of ground that lay fit for him And although the Wars had been for a Naples or a Millain or a Portugal or a Bohemia yet these Wars were but as the Wars of Heathen of Athens or Sparta or Rome for secular Interest or Ambition not worthy the Warfare of Christians The Church
into them yet they mollifie even Tyranny it self As Solons Laws did the Tyranny of Pisistratus And then commonly they get up again upon the first Advantage of better times Other means to perpetuate the Memory and Merits of Soveraign Princes are inferiour to this Buildings of Temples Tombs Palaces Theaters and the like are honourable things and look big upon Posterity But Constantine the Great gave the Name well to those works when he used to call Trajan that was a great Builder Parietaria Wall-Flower Because his Name was upon so many Walls So if that be the Matter that a King would turn Wall-flower or Fellitory of the Wall with cost he may Adrian's vein was better For his mind was to wrestle a fall with Time And being a great Progressour through all the Roman Empire when ever he found any Decaies of Bridges or High-ways or Cuts of Rivers and Sewers or Walls or Banks or the like he gave substantial order for their repair with the better He gave also Multitudes of Charters and Liberties for the comfort of Corporations and Companies in decay So that his Bounty did strive with the Ruines of Time But yet this though it were an excellent Disposition went but in effect to the Cases and Shells of a Common-wealth It was nothing to Vertue or Vice A bad Man might indifferently take the benefit and ease of his Waies and Bridges as well as a good And bad People might purchase good Charters Surely the better Works of Perpetuity in Princes are those that wash the in-side of the Cup. Such as are Foundations of Colledges and Lectures for Learning and Education of youth Likewise Foundations and Institutions of Orders and Fraternities for Nobleness Enterprise and Obedience and the like But yet these also are but like Plantations of Orchards and Gardens in Plots and Spots of Ground here and there They do not till over the whole Kingdom and make it fruitful as doth the Establishing of good Laws and Ordinances Which makes a whole Nation to be as a well ordered Colledg or Foundation This kind of Work in the memory of Times is rare enough to shew it Excellent And yet not so rare as to make it suspected for Impossible Inconvenient or Unsafe Moses that gave Laws to the Hebrews because he was the Scribe of God himself is fitter to be named for honours sake to other Law-Givers than to be numbred or ranked amongst them Minos Lycurgus and solon are Examples for Themes of Grammar Scholars For ancient Personages and Characters now adays use to wax Children again Though that Parable of Pindarus be true The best thing is Water For Common and Trivial Things are many times the best And rather despised upon Pride because they are vulgar than upon Cause or Use. Certain it is that the Laws of those three Law-Givers had great Prerogatives The first of Fame Because they were the Pattern amongst the Grecians The second of Lasting For they continued longest without alteration The third of a Spirit of Reviver To be often oppressed and often restored Amongst the seven Kings of Rome four were Law-Givers For it is most true that a Discourser of Italy saith There was never State so well swadled in the Infancy as the Roman was by the vertue of their first Kings Which was a principal Cause of the wonderful growth of that State in after times The Decemvirs Laws were Laws upon Laws not the Original For they grafted Laws of Grecia upon Roman Stock of Laws and Customs But such was their success as the Twelve Tables which they compiled were the main Body of the Laws which framed and weilded the great Body of that Estate These lasted a long time with some Supplementals and the Pretorian Edicts in Albo Which were in respect of Laws as Writing Tables in respect of Brass The one to be put in and out as the other is permanent Lucius Cornelius Sylla reformed the Laws of Rome For that Man had three Singularities which never Tyrant had but he That he was a Law-Giver That he took part with the Nobility And That he turned Private Man not upon Fear but upon Confidence Caefar long after desired to imitate him only in the First For otherwise he relied upon new Men And for resigning his Power Seneca describeth him right Caesar gladium citò condidit nunquam posuit Caesar soon sheathed his Sword but never put it off And himself took it upon him saying in scorn of Sylla's Resignation Sylla nescivit literas dictare non potuit Sylla knew no letters he could not dictate But for the part of a Law-Giver Cicero giveth him the Attribute Caefar si ab eo quaereretur quid egisset in Togâ leges se respondisset multas praeclaras tulisse If you had asked Caesar what he did in the Gown he would have answered that he made many excellent Laws His Nephew Augustus did tread the same steps but with deeper print because of his long Reign in peace Whereof one of the Poets of his time saith Pace datâ terris animum ad Civilia vertit Jura suum legesque tulit justissimus Author From that time there was such a Race of Wit and Authority between the Commentaries and Decisions of the Lawyers and the Edicts of the Emperours as both Laws and Lawyers were out of breath Whereupon Justinian in the end recompiled both And made a Body of Laws such as might be weilded which himself calleth gloriously and yet not above truth The Edifice or Structure of a sacred Temple of Justice Built indeed out of the former Ruines of Books as Materials and some Novel Constitutions of his own In Athens they had Sexviri as AEschincs observeth which were standing Commissioners Who did watch to discern what laws waxed unproper for the Times and what new Law did in any branch cross a former Law and so Ex officio propounded their Repeal King Edgar collected the Laws of this Kingdom and gave them the strength of a Faggot bound which formerly were dispersed Which was more glory to him then his Sailing about this Island with a potent Fleet. For that was as the Scripture saith Via navis in mari The way of a Ship in the Sea It vanished but this lasteth Alphonso the Wise the ninth of that Name King of Castile compiled the Digest of the Laws of Spain Intituled the Siete Partidas An excellent Work which he finished in seven years And as Tacitus noteth well That the Capitol though built in the beginings of Rome yet was fit for the great Monarchy that came after So that Building of Laws sufficeth the Greatness of the Empire of Spain which since hath ensued Lewis the eleventh had it in his mind though he performed it not to have made one constant Law of France Extracted out of the Civil Roman Law and the Customs of Provinces which are various and the Kings Edicts which with the French are Statutes Surely he might have done well if like as he brought the Crown as