of Wine and prayes over it and offers it to the married Couple to tast but the Bridegroom dashes it against the Wall in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem so the Bridegroom in sign of sorrow puts on a black Cloak and the Bride a black Hood Mr. Addison tells of the Barbary Jews That they are married at the Bride's Chamber only by putting a Ring on the Woman's finger and pronunciation of these words by the Rabbi Thou art Married or Sanctified unto this Man with this Ring according to the Law And when married they use a foolish Ceremony if the Bride is a Virgin they give her Wine in a narrow-mouth'd Cup if a Widow in a broad mouth'd Cup and after the Bridegroom casts a raw Egg at the Bride c. And how the fopperies of such Ceremonies come by God's Law to make a marriage or no marriage or legitimate or illegitimate the Child no rational Man ever understood Plurality of Wives As to the determination of number of Wives by Nature it seems to be according to the number she her self gives As in the East and Southern climes the Feminine number naturall exceeding the Males many fold And in times of great destructions by Wars such as are foretold Isa 3.25 Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in War and her Gates shall lament and mourn and being desolate shall sit upon the ground And in that day seven Women shall take hold on one Man In the Kingdom of Benym amongst the Negro's the King hath five or six hundred Wives and his Subjects keep 20 30 40 50. 60. according to their ability and the poorest sort five or six and some a Dozen Hierotinus an Arabian King had six hundred Children by Concubines so it seems excessive multiplication may be one reason against Plurality It was a Law amongst the Garamants That when any Woman married had three Children she should be separated from her Husband because a multitude of Children cause Men to have covetous hearts and if any Woman bring forth more Children they shall be slain before their Eyes Aristotle in his Politiques thinks it profitable That Plebeians should not have too many Children and therefore allows Divorce lest the Wives should bear too many Connubia mille non illis generis nexus non pignora curae sed numero languet pietas Claud. de Bell. Gild. Amongst the Medes antiently Polygamy was so far from being esteemed a fault that it was a punishment for a common Person not to have seven Wives and for Noble Women to have less then five Husbands Heylin 814. Of the custom of the Jews to keep one barren Wife and another to breed One Barren and another Breeding Wife Selden de Jur. natur lib. 5. pag. 586. translates out of a Jewish Rabbi these words Sub diluvium hominum mos erat ut pro libitu binas sibi duceret quisque uxores alteram prolis gratia alteram in Concubitum ea autem quae prolis gratia haberetur velut vidua quamdiu superstes esset degebat sed ea quae in Concubitum adhiberetur sterilitatis exhaurire solebat Poculum ut sterilis redderetur atque juxta virum accumbere solita velut meretricio ornabatur habitu And in another place ornata etiam velut nova nupta lautiores comedebat dapes acerbius autem durius tractabatur socia lugebat vidua To which alludes Job 24.2 as 't is in the Hebrew he fed the Barren which brings not forth but did no good to the Widow Moses saith Cursed be he that lieth with his Sister Incest the Daughter of his Father or the Daughter of his Mother Deut. 27.22 Yet Abraham allowed it in his time and married Sarah And Amram took him Jochebed his Father's Sister to Wife and she bare him Aaron and Moses and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years Exod. 6.20 Aretas King of Arabia Petraea and Herod fell at strife the one with the other for this cause which ensueth Herod the Tetrarch had married Aretas his Daughter with whom he lived married a long time afterwards taking his Journey towards Rome he lodged with Herod his half Brother by the Father's side for Herod was the Son of Simon 's Daughter which Simon was the High Priest and there being surprized with the love of Herodias his Brother's Wife who was Daughter to Aristobulus their Brother and Sister to the great Agrippa he was so bold as to offer her some speech of marriage which when she had accepted Accords were made between them That he should banish his Wife Aretas far from him who complaining to her Father the Arabian King of the injury done her by her Husband Herod the same raised War between him and Herod Josep lib. 18. cap. 7. de Antiq. And Aretas overt rowing Herod's Army divers Jews were of opinion That this Judgment fell upon him because he had cut off John's head by the instigation of Herodias ibid. But as for this opinion divers believe that it hath been foisted into Josephus vid. Blâ—ndell Hist Sybill But as to the Point in question of Incest 't is very clear That John justly reproved Herod for marrying his Brother's Wife whether there was a Judgment followed on it or not But it cannot be infer'd that the cause why he reproved it or why the War followed on him was Incest but the cause thereof is more likely to be because he so wrongfully Divorced his first lawful Wife and likewise caused his Brother's Wife to be Divorced from him while his Brother was alive and Tetrarch of Galilee that he might have her from him So here was a double Divorce matter enough to reprove without minding any Incest which agreed likewise with the Doctrine of Christ and 't is manifest that was the only cause of the War and not any pretence of Incest for Aretas would have raised the War alike if the wrong had been done his Daughter by a strange Woman as if it had been by a Kinswoman Therefore no Argument can be brought that St. John's opinion was this was Incest nor that any Judgment happen'd for Incest but rather for unlawful Divorces so the marrying the Brother's Wife to raise up Seed to the Brother seems a custom tolerated for hardness of their hearts and not to be imitated by Christians Tryal of Virginity more wicked then the Bill of Divorce for this was after the Husband had lain with her Tryal of Virginity and perhaps likewise he might have got her with child Deut. 22.13 It is said If any man take a Wife and go in unto her and hate her and give occasion of speech against her and say I took this Woman and when I came to her I found her not a Maid Then shall the Father of the Damsel and her Mother take and bring forth the Tokens of the Damsel's Virginity unto the Elders of the City in the Gate and the Damsel's Father shall say
as they agree And at the end of the time they are free and may leave each other without other agreement The Tartars by reason of their Plurality of Wives have a multitude of Children In Monomotapa they Marry as many Wives as they will but the first is the Principal and her Children only to inherit The Mogul hath a Thousand the Turk is said to have three Thousand Women Amongst Barbarians mention is made of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a People where Women had many Husbands and amongst the Medes which dwelt in the Mountains 't is said a Woman had five Husbands at once It is said that the Lacedemonians had anciently a Custom that one Woman should have two Husbands one to go to War the other to abide at home In Malabar the Women have many Husbands either at once or successively and if at once they send their Children to them whom they think have most right to them In Calicut some Women are related to have six or seven Husbands and they Father their Children on which of them they please The Anses had Women in common and the Child was to be reputed his with whom the Woman chose to live Some report that Gorgophan Daughter to Perseus about Anno Mundi 2630. Second Marriage was the first Woman who Married a Second Husband When Myrrha fell in love with her Father Cynara Gentes esse feruntur in quibus nato genitrix nata parenti jungitur Pietas geminato crescit amore Incest Ovid Metam lib. 10. The Babylonians allowed Marriage of Parents and Children Justin lib. 1. saith That Semiramis was kill'd by Ninus her Son because she would have lain with him but Orosius lib. 1. cap. 4. affirms That she was Married with her Son Curtius lib. 8. saith In Regionem quam Naura appellant Rex cum toto exercitu venit Satrapas erat Sysimithres duobus ex sua matre filiis genitis quippe apud illos licitum parentibus stupro coire cum liberis Alexander came with his whole Army into a Region called Naura where was a Satrapas called Sysimithres who had two Sons whom he begat of his own Mother For with them it 's held lawful for Children to lie with their Parents This Sysimithres together with her who was his Mother and Wife being possessed of an impregnable Rock scituate in the pass into his Country opposed Alexander in his entrance and being Summon'd by him to yeild he himself assented but was over-ruled by the same Incestuous Woman his Mother and Wife who said She would rather die then yield so much more valiant was she then he but in the end he over-ruled her and yeilded his Fort and was content his two Sons should militate under Alexander who took them with him as a kind of a wicked Rarity Plutarch saith That the Cimbri married their own Daughters which Custom was taken from them by Marius who overcame them in Germany and triumphed over them The Quitteve or King of Sofala hath an Hundred Women Queens and Concubines and many of them his Aunts Couzins Sisters Daughters all whom he useth saying His Sons by them are the truest Heirs to the Kingdom because no mixture of blood But none but the King on pain of death may marry Sister or Daughter Jo. dos Sanctus At Cape Gonsalvetz they have a filthy Custom that the King when his Daughters are grown takes and keeps them for his Wives and the Queens in like manner take their Sons when they are grown up and make use of them as Husbands In Aegypt some of the Ptolomies married with their Sisters and as it seems by Seneca such Marriages were not unusual at Alexandria for he saith Athenis dimidium licet Alexandriae totum and as Turnelius affirmeth at Athens they might Marry their own Sisters by the Father such as Abraham Gen. Cap. 20.12 said of Sarah She is the Daughter of my Father but not the Daughter of my Mother and she became my Wife Whereby you see Abraham is censur'd by the Doctrine of Seneca as an Incestuous Person but Lycurgus permitted Sisters only to Marry by the Mother's side but forbid to Marry Sisters of the Father's side And Arnobius contra Gent. saith That Incest was allowed amongst many Nations of whom Alex. ab Alex. lib. 1. gen dier C. 24. hath made a Catalogue Cambyses amongst the Persians married his Sister so did Artaxerxes so did Darius and in Aegypt so did Ptolomeus Philadelphus at Rome Claudius with Agrippina his Brother's Daughter and Caracalla with his step-Mother Opian the Poet saith That Caracalla Married Julia his own Mother When Cambyses had a mind to Marry his Sister he advised with the Magi to know whether the Laws did allow it who answer'd They knew no Law which did allow it But there was a Law which allowed the King of Persia to do what he would Yapangoi the Father of Guagna Capa was the first Ingua of Peru who married his Sister that Ingua's might do it and commanding his own Children to do it permitting the Noblemen also to Marry their Sisters by the Father's side Other Incest in the line ascendent or descending and Adulteries were punished with death The chast Artemisia was the Wife and Sister of Mausolus Diique suas habuere sorores Vt Saturnus Opim junctam sibi sanguine junxit Oceanus Tethin Junonem Rector Olympi Ovid Metamor 9. In Pozo in America they marry with their Neices and Sisters The Chinois heed no degrees of Affinity or Consanguinity so the Sirnames differ and therefore marry into the Mother's kindred be it almost never so near If a Tartar die his Son may marry all his Wives except his own Mother and Sisters so it is lawful for a Brother to marry the Widow of his Brother Polo Pliny in an Epistle to Loratius saith That the Athenians did use to marry Brothers and Sisters but yet did not permit Uncles to marry their Neices nor Aunts their Nephews Aemilius Probus speaking of Cymon's Marrying his Sister Elpinice Habuit autem in Matrimonio sororem nomine Elpinicen non magis amore quam patrio more ductus nam Atheniensibus licet eodem patre natas uxores ducere The Arabians had anciently a Custom that one should be Wife to all her Brothers whereby they become all Brethren and the eldest should lie with her at Night and at Day the other Every one as they came first set his Staff at her door to give notice to the rest to forbear whereby they were all Brethrâ—n An Adulterer was punish'd amongst them with death The Britains had Ten or Twelve Wives apeice as Caesar saith which they held common amongst Brothers and Parents and Dio saith The Children thus begotten were brought up in common amongst them Eusebius saith That many Britains kept one Wife in common In Arabia the Happy it 's accounted Adultery to lye with any Woman except of their own kindred as Sisters Mothers Cousins and the like whom they likewise take to be Wives It
the Child as to Succession as appears Deut. 21.15 If a Man have two Wives one beloved and the other hated and they have born him Children both the beloved and the hated and the first-born Son be hers that was hated Then it shall be when he makes his Sons to inherit that which he hath that he may not make the Son of the beloved first-born before the Son of the hated who is indeed the first-born but he shall acknowledg the Son of the hated for the first-born in giving him a double Portion of all be hath for he is the beginning of his strength and the right of the first-born is his The Reasons given by Skene why Nothus should signifie a Bastard are 1. Because he saith Bastards are commonly got and procreat of Common Women who are in Greek called Bassaris As to the Etymology 't is answer'd before as to the matter of the Children of Common Women 't is deny'd that they have commonly any Children at all for either they make themselves barren by some wicked Arts of Sterility according to the Poet. Et jacet aurato jam rara puerpera lecto Tantum hujus Artes tantum Medicamina possunt According to which we do not hear of Lais Thais Phryne Flora or others who are famous or rather infamous at the Trade to have had any Children at all which was one cause that Flora made the Common-wealth her Heir And we see by experience that the Children born as they call it out of Wedlock are for the greatest part of such as have kept themselves chast to one Man yea more chast then many Wives who have been coupled to the Husbands by a Priest in a Temple or a Justice of Peace in his Hall And further in Nature the too thick sowing of the field and the too soon plowing after sowing destroyes the Harvest So in greatest probability such a Woman as hath a Child ought to be presumed she hath not been common and the Child cannot be here filius populi but his Father is better known then of the Children of a Woman married by the Priest in a Temple though the Husband hath been always within the four Seas 2. He says Nothia signifies by the Athenian Law a Portion given to a Child not born within Wedlock which was not to exceed Mille Drachmae ergo Nothos signifies a Bastard Negatur sequela For the Child which he himself makes a Bastard he says cannot be Heir or Successor to any which is he cannot be Successor Testamentory or otherwise to any filial Portion at all which the Athenian Law did suffer him to be so it exceeded not the value of Mille Drachmae And further Reg. Majest cited by him saith a Bastard can neither be Heir or succed to the Lands or Goods of the Parents nor the Parents to him A most inhuman Law and subverting the course of Nature which the Athenian was not And what was the end of this Episcopal cruelty of taking away the inheritance of the Parents from the Child and of the Child from the Parents but that they themselves might be Successors to his movables and if he bought not of them for money his Legitimation then they might forfeit all was left to the King not out of any good will they bore to the King but to force the parties Parents and Children to pay them what they pleased or quod non capit Christus capiat fiscus a kind of Anti-Christian Blasphemy against Christ and Treason against their Princes to fâ—ill their Treasuries with the spoils and curses of miserable Children and Parents under pretence of the names of God and the King to make them thought Patrons and Accessaries to their Rapines 3. He says Ismael was a Bastard and succeeded not to the inheritance but had a Portion As to Ismael's being a Bastard it is false and contrary to the Text of Scripture Gen. 16.3 which expresly saith Agar his Mother was Abraham 's Wife If his Mother therefore we Abraham's Wife he could not be Abraham's Bastard for he himself affirms before that a Bastard is got of a Common Woman 4. Abraham's giving him a filial Portion and the Sons of Keturah likewise their filial Portions is an acknowledgment and not a dis-acknowledgment of them to be his Sons Therefore though he excluded them from the inheritance he doth not intend thereby to make them Bastards for it was the Patria potestas of every Father then to dispose of his own Estate how he pleased and to those who pleased him best and might give the inheritance from the eldest if he thought fit till after restrained by the Law of Primogeniture to give him a double Portion 5. The Arabians who descended from Ismael and Turks to this day affirm Ismael to be the right Heir and not Isaac and on no other Title possess the Land of Palestine but on the Primogeniture of Ismael 'T is therefore very unadvised to call Ismael Bastard against a Succession so long derived from him by the Sword without better reasons or a better Sword to argue it against the possessors 6. Other reasons have been made likewise in behalf of the Primogeniture and Legitimation of Ismael which shew him to have been no Bastard as first That the Marriage between Abraham and Sarah being Brother and Sister was Incestuous and therefore the Marriage with Agar more Lawful then hers Next that uncertainty of Filiation was more in Isacc then in Ismael and Ismael had better probation of himself to be the Son of Abraham then Isaac had for Agar was kept in perpetual custody of her Husband from the time of his begetting to her bringing forth Ismael whereas Sarah was let loose to the custody of Abimelech and his Courtiers 7. He says for a Reason That a Child born out of Matrimony is not Sib or Kin or of Consanguinity to any nor any to him which is contrary to the express Text of Scripture Levit. 21.2 There shall none be defiled for the dead amongst the people except for his Kin that is near to him that is for his Mother and for his Father and for his Son yet here was no Father or Son made by the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple Not much unlike to this was the whimsey which lasted a while of our Episcopal Courts and Common Lawyers that a Mother was not kin to her Son as appears Swimburn 7. part 119. The Case was in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth Charles Duke of Suffolk having issue a Son by one Venter and a Daughter by another made his last Will wherein he devised Goods to his Son after whose death the Son also died intestate without Wife and without issue his Mother and his Sister by the Father's side for she was born of the former Venter being then living the Mother took the Administration of her Son's Goods by the Stat. 21 H. 8.5 whereby it is Enacted That in case any person die intestate the Administration of his Goods shall be
Infallible or any Book which hath more Seditious and Rebellious principles of Disloyalty This I only say now but when I have what I now want time and opportunity I can and will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make it good how dangerous and when believed and practised how pernitious to Kings and Princes the principles of that Law are I hope all Bishops will hereafter be of the same mind and not own the Canon Law to be the Rule of Marriages and Legitimations or Successions of Protestant Kings and Princes or their Subjects or for their Pardons and Excommunications or fit to be any longer the Ecclesiastical Law for the Government in any thing of Three Protestant Kingdoms As to the Feudal Law I shall defer it till I come to speak of the wicked obligations of some Tenures Feudal Law to prostitute the Virginities of their Daughters to the Lords of the Land It is enough for to shew the slavery of Feudal Laws if we but remember the late Wardships of Tenures wherein the marriages of Men and Women were bought and sold as if Beasts in the Market and the unjust Laws yet remaining in customary Estates prohibiting Widows to marry and marrying young Women to old decrepit Men not fit for marriage to get a Widow's Estate whereby they are left exposed to infinite Temptations The wicked custom of Marchâ—ta Mulieris belongs to the Feudal Law Marchâ—ta mulieris dicitur Virginalis pudicitiae prima violatio delibatio quae ab Eveno Rege sibi capitalibus dominis fuit impie permissa de omnibus novis nuptis prima nuptiarum nocte sed pie à Malcolmo 3 sublata fuit in capite sequente certo vaccarum numero quasi pretio redimitur Sken Reg. Ma. lib. cap. 31. 1. It is to wit that conform to the Law of Scotland the Marchet of ane Woman noble or Servant or Hireling is ane Zoung Kow or three shillings And the right duty to the Sergeant three pennys 2. And she be Dochter of an Frie-man and not of the Lord of the Village her Marchet shall be one Kow or six shillings and for the Sergeants duty sax pennys 3. Item The Marchet of ane Thane or Ochiern twa Rye or Twelve shillings and the duty to the Sergeant Twelve pennys 4. Item The Marchet of the Daughter of an Earl pertains to the Queen and is twelve Rye The Spaniards in the West Indies setting a Tribute to the King and the inferior Lords to be paid yearly by every married person To encrease these yearly Tributes from married persons they every year survey by List the married persons of every Town and cause their Children Sons and Daughters to be brought before them to see if they be fit to be married and if of growth fit they threaten the Parents for not marrying them and raise his Tribute by way of Fine till he marry them And the set time they appoint for marriage to the Indians is 14 to the Man and 13 to the Woman yea some they compel to marry scarce 12 or 13 years of Age if they appear of more forward strength yea it is a shame to see how young they are inforced to it pag. 155. So between the King of Spain and the Pope the poor Indians pay dear for marriage which God left free The Civil Law is said to be Jus Leoninum The Canon Law Jus Vulpinum The Feudal Law Jus Asmarium in regard of the intollerable oppression and servitude in it I conclude therefore Marriage Filiation and Succession not fit to be judged by any of these three Laws CHAP. IV. Marriage Matrimony Legitimtaion or Succession not to be judged by the Law of Mahomet YOU will not offend God in speaking a word in secret to Women that you research in marriage although you conceal in your minds your design to espouse them he understandeth whatever you think of them Alch. cap. 2. pag. 23. Of Persons with whom Marriage is forbidden Marry not the Wives of your Fathers what is past was Incest abomination and a wicked way your Mothers are forbidden you your Daughters Aunts Nieces Nurses and your foster Sisters The Mothers of your Wives the Daughters that your Wives have had by other Husbands The Daughters of Women that you shall have known are also forbidden you if you have not known them it will be no sin The Wives of your Sons are likewise prohibited and two Sisters for what is past God is Gracious and Merciful Married Wives are likewise forbidden except the Women-slaves that you shall have acquired God hath so commanded you Except what is above forbidden it is lawful for you to marry at your pleasure Of the Time of approaching Wives When your Wives shall be clean approach them according to what God hath commanded He loveth them that repent of their Error and are clean and purified Your Wives are your Tillage go to your Tillage at your pleasure And do good to your Souls you shall one day find it fear God and preach his Commandments to true Believers Alchor cap. 2. pag. 21. Of forbearing to touch Wives God will be Gracious and Merciful to such as shall swear not to touch their Wives the space of four Months if he return to them he is Gracious and Merciful but if they desire to repudiate them he understandeth and knoweth all things Women Divorced shall tarry until their Terms be past four times it is not permitted them to conceal what God hath created in their Wombs if they believe in his Divine Majesty and the day of Judgment Alchor cap. 2. p. 22. Of the propriety of the Wife in her Goods distinct from the Husband Oh ye that believe in God it is not lawful for you to inherit what is your Wives by force Take not violently away from them what you have given them unless they be surprized in manifest Adultery see them with civility if you have an aversion from them it may chance that you have a thing wherein God hath placed much Good But if you desire to repudiate your Wives to take others and that you have given them any thing take not any thing that appertaineth to them Will you take their wealth with a lye and a manifest sin how shall you take it since you have approached each other with a promise to use each other civilly Alchor cap. 4. pag. 49. Of giving Suck by the Mother and Aliment to her and her Child and Aliment by the Heir to his Parents The Women shall give Suck to their Children two years intire if they desire to accomplish the time appointed to suckle them the Father shall nourish and cloth the Wife and his Children according to his faculties Expend not but according to the measure of your Goods the Father and Mother shall not necessitate themselves for their Children The Heir shall perform what is above ordained he shall entertain his Father and Mother according to his abilities If the Parents would wean their Children before two
years be expired they may do it without offending God if they both agree to it If you cause your Children to be Nursed by other Women than your own Wives God will not be offended in giving them their Sallary according to reason and honesty Fear God and know that he seeth whatever you do Alchor c. 2. p. 23. Of Legitimation and Succession of Children All the Children the Mahometans have by their Wives or Slaves are alike Legitimate and succeed to the Father's Goods in such manner as did the Twelve Sons of Jacob. And the Grand Seignior of the Turks himself esteemeth her though she be a Bond-woman his Sultana or Empress who bringeth him the first Son who is likewise Heir to the Empire though never any Ceremonies of marriage by a Priest or in a Temple were used Of Succession of Children to the Goods of Parents and of Parents to theirs and of Collateral Heirs God recommendeth to you your Children The Son shall have as much as two Daughters if there be more then two Daughters they shall have two thirds of the Succession of the Dead if there be but one she shall have the moyity and her kindred a sixth part of what shall be left by the Dead If there be no Children and the kindred be Heirs the Mother of the dead shall have a third if there be Brethren the Mother shall have a sixth after satisfaction of Legacies contained in the Testament and of debts You understand to whom it is most requisite to do good to your Children or to your Father and Mother give them the Portion ordained of God the moyity of what their Wives shall leave belongerh to you if they have no Children If they have you shall give the fourth part of what they shall leave after payment of the Legacies and Debts they shall have the fourth of your Succession if you have no Children if you have they shall have the Eighth Portion If a Man and a Woman be Heirs of each other and have neither Father nor Mother nor Children and have a Brother or Sister each of them shall have a sixth part of the Succession if they be more they shall share the Third after payment of Legacies and Debts without fraud following what God hath ordained He knoweth all your actions and is prudent in what he ordaineth it is God ordained by his Divine Majesty he that shall obey him and his Prophet shall enter into Paradise where many Rivers flow and shall dwell in Eternal felicity He that shall disobey God and his Prophet shall be cast Head-long into the fire of Hell where he shall suffer ignominious Torments Alchor cap. 4. pag. 48 49. Of Succession of Brothers and Sisters If a Man decease without Issue and hath a Sister she shall have a moyity of what he shall leave and shall Inherit it if he hath no Children If they be two Sisters they shall have two Thirds of what the deceased left If they be many Brothers and many Sisters the Son shall have as much as Two Daughters God teacheth you his Commandments depart not from the right way he is Omniscient Alchor cap. 4. p. 64. Of Fornication Those that know no other Women but their own and their slaves These Mahomet numbers amongst the Righteous Alchor cap. 70. p. 362. If you desire Women for Money and neither commit Concubinage nor Adultery give them Salary for which you shall agree so you shall not offend God He that shall not be able to espouse Women of a free condition shall marry such Women and Maids as are slaves The marriage of slaves is for them that fear Whoredom Alchor cap. 4. Of Desertion by Wives of their Husbands If Women fly from their Husbands they shall be brought again to them which is a thing reasonable they ought to honour them and their Husbands likewise ought to honour them but the Husbands have a degree of advantage above them God is Omnipotent and most Wise in what he ordaineth Alchor cap. 2. pag. 22. Of Adultery by Wives If your Wives commit Adultery take four Witnesses of their fault that be of your Religion if they bear witness keep them Prisoners in your Houses until death or until God shall otherwise ordain If they Repent of their fault do them no harm God is Gracious and Merciful to them that Repent Alchor cap. 1. p. 49. Of Divorce When you shall repudiate your Wives appoint them the time they must tarry before they again marry take them with civility and modesty and in like manner dismiss them give them presents according to your ability and take them not to abuse or torment them They that do thus offend their own Souls Alchor cap. 2. pag. 22. He that hath repudiated his Wife thrice shall not resume her until she hath been married to another who hath Divorced her Alchor c 2. p. 22. Then they may return to each other again and marry without sin ibid. If the Women Divorced be with Child allow them what is necessary for them till they be delivered if they desire to Nurse their Children you shall give them an honest Salary if ye like not this ye shall cause them to be Nursed by another whose pains ye shall reward if ye be not wealthy ye shall allow according to your power Alchor cap. 66. Of the time Women are to tarry before a second Marriage Widows shall tarry four Months and ten Nights after the death of their Husbands before they marry again Alchor cap. 2. pag. 23. The like time required after Divorce The word Alchoran signifies a Collection of these Laws of Mahomet concerning Marriage and Succession which seem to be no other but a Collection of some old Arabic customs which he as well as the Pope and many other Legislators to insnare the consciences of the Ignorant Superstitious counterfeited to come from God in which though each of the Persons are equally guilty of Blasphemy yet as to the Laws the Mahometan far excel the Pontificial And pardon me if I think our own Municipal Laws derived from so impure a Legislator as Rome For first here is in these Arabic customs no Dispensation of what is truly Incest by the Law of Nature nor any prohibition of any within the fourth degree not prohibited by the Law of God or Nature 2. Here is no prohibition of Septuagesima Advent or Rogation times to get money for Licenses to marry 3. Here is no Banes carrying of Women to Temples buying of the Priests Benedictions nor money given for Licenses to marry without them 4. Here is no inslaving Women by marriage unless slaves whom they buy in the Market for money or take Captive in Wars by Robbing them of the propriety of their Goods nor any ridiculous and unjust punishment of the Man for the Woman or the Woman for the Man's offences 5. Here is no letting Stews or Fornication to Rent 6. Here the Father hath liberty to acknowledge his own Children and the Children their Father
of Laws but that he might get the more into his Snares and so have thereby the more plentiful incomes and fines for Dispensations and Condemnations And this take for the up-shot of this Dance for as the old Comedies used to end in Weddings so all the enterprises of the Pope ended in money Study of Ecclesiastical Laws corrupts Protestants Divers Weights and Measures Ad aliud Tribunal aliud Exmen alias Leges Circuit Subornation Perjury Interfering of Courts 4. The study of the Popish Canons corrupts the choicest Protestant Wits in their Education with Popish principles in which rest the whole hopes of the gains of their profession 5. They introduce divers Weights and divers Measures of justice in the same people 6. They compel the Subjects ad aliud Tribunal then Caesars Judgment Seat ad aliud examen then per legem Terrae ad aliud judicium then legale judicium parium 7. They cause endless Circuits of Action Delays and Costs Subornation and Perjury of Witnesses and grind the people between two Mill-stones of interfering Jurisdictions as appears in the Statute following The Recital of the Statute 9 H. 6.11 following concerning the contention of the Heirs of Edmund Earl of Kent in Parliament relating to a Marriage without a Priest and Temple ITem Whereas by a supplication delivered in this present Parliament by the Commons of the same it was declared by Margaret Dutchess of Clarence Joan Dutchess of York Sisters and amongst others Heirs to Edmund Earl of Kent Richard Duke of York Richard Earl of Salisbury and Alice his Wife Ralph Earl of Westmorland John Lord of Typtost and of Powis and Joyce his Wife and Henry Gray Cousins and other of the Heirs of the said Edmund late Earl as in the same supplication is supposed That is to say the said Duke Son to Ann Daughter of Eleanor another of the Sisters of the said Edmund the said Alice Daughter to Eleanor another Sister of the said Edmund the said Ralph Son to Elizabeth another Sister of the said Edmund the said Joyce Daughter to the said Eleanor Mother of Ann and the said Henry Gray Son to Joan Daughter of the same Eleanor That whereas Eleanor Wife to James Lord Audley pretending calling and affirming her self Daughter and Heir to the said Edmund late Earl of Kent and begotten and born in Marriage pretensed had betwixt him and Constance late Wife of Thomas Lord Dispenser whereby the said supplication is supposed That the said Eleanor Wife to the said James is Bastard and never was any Marriage made had nor solemnized betwixt the said Edmund and Constance but the said Edmund by the Ordinance Will and Agreement of King Henry the Fourth Grand-Father to our Lord the King that now is after great notable and long Ambassage had and sent to the Duke of Millain for a Marriage to be had betwixt the said Edmund and Luce Sister to the said Duke of Millain did take to Wife and openly and solemnly Married the said Luce at London The said Constance then living and being there present not claiming the said Edmund to be her Husband nor any other Dower of his Lands after his decease which Marriage betwixt the said Edmund and Luce so had and solemnized continued without any interruption of the said Constance or of any other during the life of the said Edmund as divers Lords and other credible and notable persons of the said Realm do well remember And how after the decease of the said Edmund the said Luce was endowed of his Lands as his Lawful Wife continuing thereof her Estate peaceably all her life Nevertheless the said Eleanor the Wife of James upon great subtilty and process imagined Privy-labour and other means and coloured ways to the intent that she ought to be certified Mulier by some Ordinary in case that Bastardy should be alledged in her person hath brought as it is said in examination before certain Iudges in the Spiritual-Court not informed nor having knowledge of the said Subtilty Imagined Process Privy-labour and coloured ways certain suborned proofs and persons of her Assent and Covin deposing for her That the said Eleanor the Wife of James was begotten within Marriage had and solemnized betwixt the said Edmund and Constance The said Dutchess the Duke of York and Earl of Salisbury and Alice Earl of Westmerland John Lord of Typtost Joyce and Henry nor any of them thereof warned nor knowing untill long time after the deposition so made whereof the said suppliants do fear them to be grieved and impeached of their Inheritance had by the said Edmund by another subtilty and labour in the Temporal Law to be practised and wrought by the said Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife As if they will commence any Action against any persons of their own assent and covin or otherwise will cause such persons of such assent and covin to pursue an Action against them as is supposed they intend to do in which action by the covin and assent aforesaid Bastardy ought to be alledged in the person of the said Eleanor Wife of James and thereupon by the assent and covin an Issue is to be taken and a Writ to be sent to some Ordinary where it please them not advertised of the said subtilty assent and covin to certifie if the said Eleanor the Wife of James be Mulier or not before which ordinary the same Eleanor Wife of James will alledge and prove her self Mulier by the said depositions of the said suborned Witnesses And then the party reputed as adversary against the Lord of Audley and Eleanor his Wife in the said action taken or to be taken by assent and covin aforesaid will alledge no proof nor matter nor make any defence before the Ordinary against the same Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife but suffer the matter before the said Ordinary to proceed according to the meaning of the said Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife So that it is very likely that the same Ordinary will certifie the said Eleanor the Wife of James Mulier which Certificate so had and made ought by the Law of England to disherit the said Dutchess Duke of York Earl of Salisbury Earl of Westmerland John Lord of Typtost Joyce and Henry and their Issue forever of the whole Inheritance aforesaid Whereupon the premises tenderly considered and to Eschew such subtil disherisons as well in the said Case as in other Cases like in time to come By the Advice and Assent of all the Lords Spiritual and also at the special Request of the said Commons in this present Parliament assembled It is Ordained and Established by Authority of this Parliament That if the said Eleanor the Wife of James be certified Mulier in any Court before this time that no manner of Certificate heretofore made for the said Eleanor Wife of James shall in anywise put to prejudice indamage nor conclude any person or persons but him or his Heirs that was party to the Plea And that from
Distrained or Sequestred which a Woman cannot be 3. As to return in specie and not in value I say to deliver a Woman to a Man to be lain with against her will is a Rape on the Woman and the like is it of a Man to compel him to lye with a Woman who claims him against his will 4. This indangers the lives of Man and Woman who are mortal Enemies by Poison Sword or other wicked ways when compelled to Co-habitation against their will 5. To sentence either Man or Woman to be taken in specie not in Value according to the practice of the Ecclesiastical Law bring in the great absurdity and wickedness mentioned by Fortescue p. 75 Fortescue 76. where speaking of Tryal by Witnesses in the Bishop's Court he saith If a Man and a Woman make a private contract of Marriage without Witnesses One man Sentenced to lie with two Women and punished for lying with each and after the Man and another Woman make a contract of Marriage before Witnesses shall he not in the Contentious Court be compelled to marry her and also after that in the Penitential Court be adjudged to lye with the first if he be duly required and to do penance as often as by by his own motion and procurement he lieth with the second though in both Courts the Judge be one and the self same person In this case as it is written in Job 40.17 Are not the sinews of the stones of Behemoth wrapped together or perplexed Fie for shame they are perplexed indeed for this Man can carnally company with neither of these two Women nor with any other without punishment of the Contentious Court or Penitential Court but such a mischief inconvenience or danger can never happen by the way of proceeding in the Law of England yea though Behemoth himself doth labour to procure the same Of the Law making all prohibited Marriages Null Marriage without Witnesses or Ceremony not void though prohibited The Law of the Pope and Council of Trent not only prohibited all Marriages except contracted before two Witnesses and a Priest in a Temple but makes them null and void The Law of England prohibits them but doth not make them null and void though the common practice of the Bishop's Court and Certificates contrary to Law follows the Canon of the Council of Trent and though it was made after all Forein Jurisdiction was by Act of Parliament abolished But to speak now according to the Law of God and of the Land I shall first cite the opinion of Grotius and other Authors upon it As to the Law of God Grot. de jur Bell. Pac. pag. 142. saith Si lex humana conjugia inter certas personas contrahi prohibeat non ideo sequetur invitum fore Matrimonium si re ipsa contrahatur sunt enim diversa quid prohibere quid irritum facere nam prohibitio exerceri potest per poenam vel expressam vel arbitrariam hoc genus leges imperfectas vocat Ulpianus quae fieri quid vetant sed facium non rescindunt And after he saith Indecentia est major in Actu quà m effectu saepe etiam incommoda quae rescissionem sequuntur majora quà m ipsa indecentia aut incommodum Actus ipsius If any human Law prohibit Marriage between certain persons it doth not therefore follow that it makes such Marriage void if it be actually contracted for to prohibit a thing and make a thing void are two different things for a prohibition may exercise its power sufficiently by a penalty either Express or Arbitrary and this kind Vlpian calls imperfect Laws which forbid a thing to be done but if done rescind it not After he saith For often times the indecency is greater in the act then the effect and often times the mischiefs are greater which follow a rescission then the act it self With this agrees the expression of Thamar to her Brother Ammon attempting to force her Thamar and Ammon 2 Sam. 13.12 And she answer'd him nay Brother do not force me for no such thing ought to be done in Israel do not thou this folly And I whither shall I cause my shame to go And as for thee thou shalt be as one of the Fools in Israel Now therefore I pray thee speak unto the King for he will not withhold me from thee Howbeit he would not hearken to her voice but being stronger then she forced her and lay with her Then Ammon hated her exceedingly so that the hate wherewith he hated her was greater then the love wherewith he had loved her And Ammon said arise begone And she said There is no cause This evil in sending me away is greater then the other that thou didst unto me but he would not hearken unto her For the same reason King Alcinous adviseth Medea That Medea should be returned to her Father if she were not defloured but if she were the reason will be otherwise as is remembred by Apolonius in his Argonaut So likewise the Sabin Virgins being taken by the Souldiers of Romulus Sabin Virgins their Parents raising Arms again to resoue them home when the two Hostile Armies in Battalia drew neer one another the Romans sent their Foeminine Prizes to mediate a Peace who using this argument to their friends and kindred as they stood ready to fight That it would be a greater injury to their own honour and their friends to take them from their Ravishers who were now their Husbands then their first Rape and thereby obtained it Luther to this purpose relates a story of a young Man he knew at Erfort Luther who tempting his Mother's Maid the Maid acquainted his Mother with it she with a pretence to School her Son into a better Lesson layes her self in her Maid's Bed her Son gets her with Child of a Daughter which being concealed and the Daughter sent abroad to Nurse and School and after being grown up and brought home the young Man knowing not of it married her so that she became thereby his Daughter Sister and Wife After the same being discovered the University was consulted about it who thereupon advised the Mother to repent of her wickedness but seeing the married Couple were ignorant thereof and knew nothing they advised to avoid greater offence that they should continue together Quod fieri non debet factum valet Here was a Marriage prohibited by the Law of God and Man yet when made it appears the opinion of the University was it ought not to be rescinded Law of England doth not null a marriage not according to the Common-Prayer-Book though it prohibits it I am next to speak concerning the Law of the Land which though it prohibit yet doth not null a Marriage not made according to the form of the Common-Prayer-Book The first Reason is It doth not null the Marriage of a Papist which is not according to the Book of Common-Prayer à fortiori therefore
dispose of his Estate which was a Patria potestas without which propriety of Fathers in their own Goods could not consist nor Adulteries of Wives and Rebellions of Children be prevented And to the potestas Patria Intails to Children of Adulterers and not of the Husband and potestas Dominii potestas instituendi haeredis as to Children and alienandi as to strangers was amongst all Nations incident till the Tyranny of Pontifical Imperial and Feudal Laws set up Intails made the Priests Judges who should be Lawful married and who should be Lawful begotten Heirs of their Bodies to be their Successors whether they would or no and whether the Children were the Children of Adulterers or the Husband 's Nothus a counterfeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Hesychius and other Authors of approved skill in the Greek-Tongue affirmed to signifie Fictus which is what is feigned or counterfeit and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the plural Number is put in the Text Heb. 12.8 signifies Filius genitus natus or naturalis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Filiatio in the true and natural sense but in the fictitious sence which is made ad placitum imponentis it is made to signifie Adoption which is a feigned or counterfeit Filiation Many ways of counterfeiting Sons have been used 1. When the Wife being Barren to please her Husband feigns a great Belly and a Delivery and presents him with a suppositious Child instead of her own so is it related of Algive the Wife of Canutus that she brought him such a Child whom he called Sweyne and afterward made him King of Norway and many other examples have been of the like 2. When the Person who would make himself Son deceives the Father so Isaac being blind Jacob putting on Kids-skin-Gloves the hair left on deceived the old man to beleive him his true eldest Son who was but a counterfeit And I my self knew a Woman in time of the Wars who having two Sons the Elder was Twenty Years before sent beyond Sea and died there whereby the younger had the Land of his Father settled upon him but at length the Soldiers in their marches passing the Country one amongst them of the like Age and Feature as was the Eldest Son of the Woman who Twenty Years before died beyond Sea Quarter'd in the Parish where the Woman lived and being informed by some of the House where he Quarter'd how like he was to that Person and thereupon enquiring out as many particular passages as he could which had passed between the Woman and her Son and others and what particular marks the Eldest Son had the Soldier went to the Woman's House enquiring for his Father and Mother whose blessing he asked and they being thereat much surprized he told them he was their Eldest Son and what Fortunes Providence had carried him thorough to bring him home again at which the doubtful Parents examin'd him and askt him many questions to try whether he were their very Son Esau or not and took more time and the Woman likewise examin'd him in private by her self but he at last so persuaded the Woman that she beleived and affectionately received him for her Eldest Son who had been thought so long dead till at length the younger Brother who feared to be again disinherited of what was settled on him with much ado discover'd the counterfeit 3. When the Mother is Deliver'd of a true Son and a changling is brought home by the Nurse or other Artifice instead of the true 4. When the Father having no natural Son adopts a Son begotten by another Father so did Claudius adopt Nero and many other of the Roman Emperors and many Persons of private Families having no Son of their own convey and settle their Names Titles Arms and Lands to the Son of a stranger now these Adopted Sons are all Counterfeit Sons and neither Emperor nor Pope nor Bishop nor Act of Parliament nor Legitimation nor Dispensation can make these true or natural or lawful begotten Sons whom God hath not made so 5. When Sons who are not natural are testified to be natural Sons by false Witnesses which is often practised in the Biships Courts such are counterfeit Sons 6. When such as are not natural Sons are testified Sons by the Bishops Certificate such are false and counterfeit Sons and this way of Filiation Aliment and Succession by the Bishops Certificate is of all other the most wicked and abominable Quia Probatio non admittitur in contrarium Whence it is concluded That neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeing they have both a true and natural signification ought not to be translated to words of a counterfeit signification The said Text of Scripture therefore Heb. 12. 8. Ye are Bastards and not Sons are falsely translated and ought to have been translated Ye are Counterfeits and not natural Sons for as to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is manifest to signifie a Counterfeit and therefore ought to be so translated and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is manifest it signifies not a Son in general for that comprehends both true and counterfeit Sons but a natural Son in special which only signifies a true Son as 't is opposite to a counterfeit where therefore the Genus is translated for the Species or the Species for the Genus this is grossly false Translation Genus translated for the Species Species translated for the Genus as hath been shewn likewise before Secondly A word of general signification ought not to be translated into a word of special signification and this shews the Latine Translation which is Supposititit estis non filii is false translated though not so wickedly as the English because a Supposititious Son is but a Species of Nothus the Genus as Virgil says Suppositos de matre nothos furata creavit A certain word into an ambiguous Thirdly A word that is certain ought to be translated into a word of incertain ambiguous significations Now the word Nothus in the time it was writ by Paul which was before Justinian's and Pope's Heads were hot with their Civil or Canon-Laws the word therefore ought to be translated in the certain significat wherein Paul writ it which is a counterfeit and not in the signification of what it is made since of a new invented Vocabulum Artis by the Civil Canon or Common-Law for then it must have been understood all the writers time by way of Prophecy how Tribonian Gratian Coke Skene and Grotius would expound it and how the Bishops would translate it to be a Bastard and him a Bastard whose Mother would not give them Money for their Licence to Marry which was a thing impossible for the Christians of those times to understand or how to reconcile the variant and contradictory expositions would in the later days be for gain made
Her former Husband which sent her away may not take her again after that she is defiled for that is abomination before the Lord. Math. 5.31 It hath been said Whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a writing of Divorcement But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his Wife saving for the cause of Fornication causeth her to commit Adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is Divorcèd committeth Adultery Math. 19.3 The Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him Is it lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause And he answered and said unto them Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them Male and Female And said for this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one flesh Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder They say unto him Why did Moses then command to give a writing of Divorcement and to put her away He saith unto them Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffer'd you to put away your Wives but from the beginning it was not so Here it is plain Christ refers them to the Law of Nature as the Law which was greater then the Politick or Positive Law of Moses And this was only tolerated by Moses for the hardness of their hearts and though it were lawful for Moses or any other Legislator to tolerate a lesser Evil which he was not able by reason of the hardness of their hearts to restrain yet was it not lawful for the People to practise it but they should be punished for it by God though they were not by Moses And hence doth manifestly follow That all those Laws which were mala in se and contrary to the Law of Nature which was from the beginning though Tolerated by Moses who was not able to reform them yet were they not properly the Law of Moses but wicked Customs which they received from Aegyptians Syrians Canaanites and other Nations and ought not to have been practised by the Jews then nor by the Christians now Of Laws taken from the Customs of Idolatrous Nations for a small tast take these that follow Exod. 21.2 If thou buy an Hebrew Servant six Years he shall Serve and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing Verse 4. If his Master have given him a Wife and she have born him Sons or Daughters The Wife and her Children shall be her Masters and he shall go out by himself Mahomet's was more fair then this for he being Amorous of the Wife of Zeid his Slave freely infranchised him though he were not bound to do it as the Hebrew Master was and besides his infranchisement gave him Money for his Wife And thereupon saith God appointed him to Marry her after she was Repudiated to the end that true beleivers might do the like and not think it an Error but what God hath appointed Alcor Cap. 33.260 And David did far worse then Mahomet as to the Wife of the Subject Vriah his Example therefore is as unfit a Rule to judg Marriage by as that of Moses and Mahomet Levit. 19.20 It is said And whosoever lieth carnally with a Woman that is a Bond-maid betrothed to an Husband and not at all Redeemed nor Freedom given her she shall be scourged they shall not be put to death because she was not Free And he shall bring his Trepass-Offering unto the Lord unto the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation even a Ram for a Trespass-Offering And the Priest shall make an Atonement for him with a Ram of the Trespass-Offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him 1. This Law is unjust for it punisheth the weaker Vessel who is a poor Virgin with scourging and only fines the rich Lecher a Ram so he may commit Whoredom with as many betrothed Virgins if not Free-women for the price of a Ram apeice 2. Here is nothing provided for satisfaction of the Damage of the Master for the abuse of his Servant and dishonour of his Family nor of the Husband to whom she was betrothed but let him bring a Ram his sin shall be forgiven him toties quoties as 't is the Custom of some old Pagan Manners and Manours if the Copyhold Widow be unchast she shall forfeit her Copyhold unless she bestride a Ram and ride to the next Court and say these Words following For my Incontinence I do this Task Therefore to have again my Land I ask Numb 21.14 17. Notwithstanding the Midianitish Women had quarter given them and were Captives yet in cold blood Moses more barbarously then the Heathens themselves used to do commands the Souldiers to kill every Male amongst the little ones and kill every Woman that have known Man by lying with them but all the Women-children that have not known Man by lying with him keep alive for your selves And Deut. 21.11 The Souldiers are licensed when they take Captive Women after some idle Ceremonies of cutting their Hair and paring their Nails to lye with them and turn them off again when they pleased which examples though from Moses who was no more infallible in this then David in the act of Vriah's Wife of cruelty and uncleanness are not to be followed but abhorred of all Christians The Jews had likewise a custom of Contracting and Espousing the parties before Marriage of the great inconveniences of which shall be spoken after under the proper Title The ways of Marriage of the Jews Jewish Ceremonies of marriage not appointed by Moses Law Saith Moses de Cotsi was either with Money or Instrument or Copulation with Mony as when they bought one to be their Wife with Instrument as when done by Contract in writing by Copulation as by lying with any single Woman though no Consensus yet Concubitus fecit Matrimonium Especially if Conception followed as appears in the case of Jacob and Leah where there was no Consensus on Jacob's part but only Concubitus Conceptio At the Jewish marriage a Rabbi marries them and if the Bride be a Virgin Wine is to be drunk in a narrow-mouth'd Glass and if she be a Widow in a broad-mouth'd Glass and an Egg must not be forgot to be thrown at the Bride and broken to foretell an easie delivery The manner of the Jewes Marriage is The Bridegroom wears about his Neck an Hare-cloth the end of which the Rabbi puts on the Bride's head after example of Ruth who desired to be cover'd with the skirt of Boaz then the Rabbi takes a glass full of Wine and gives it the Brideman and Bride that they may drink then he takes the Bridegroom's Gold Ring and asks of the standers by if it be good and worth the money given for it then puts it on the Bride's finger then he takes another glass
his Money by it he will neither Stone nor Poison her but give a Divorce and save both her Life and Honour The Peguians buy their Wives of their Friends and when he is weary of her he may send her home again but he must then lose the Money he gave for her But it she leave him as she may likewise do then the Money is to be paid him back which he gave for her The Customs of the Jews allowed them to make Eunuchs Eunuch as Chron. 28.1 It is said David assembled the Eunuchs and 2 Kings 9.32 It is said When Jehu call'd after Jezabel had spoke to him out of the Window that there looked out to him two or three Eunuchs and 2 Kings 24.12 It is said And Jehoiachin the King of Judah went out to the King of Babylon he and his Mother and his Servants and his Eunuchs Origen and the Sect of Valesians gelded themselves and held that it was impossible for any but Eunuchs to be saved But later Jews allowed them not And Josephus lib. 4. de Antiq. saith Eunuchs are to be detested because they deprive themselves of Manhood and Power of begetting Children neither is it lawful to geld Man or Beast and the Civil Law punisheth it with Death Cod. lib. 4. tit 42. De Eunuchis Si quis post hanc Sanctionem in orbe Romano Eunuchos fecerit Capite puniatur If any after this Law shall make Eunuchs in the Roman World let him be punished with Death I conclude though there is much of the Moral Law mix'd amongst the Laws of Moses which is immutable and ought to be inviolably observed yet not on the Authority of Moses but on the higher Authority of God himself who writ them both in the Internal Tables of the hearts of men and in the External Tables of his Works which as to such of them as are living Creatures and concern Marriage as Christ saith he made them Male and Female Then as to the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws of Moses they were all National and belong'd only to the Jews and they were generally taken by the Jews from the AEgyptians and other Idolatrous Nations And Moses being not able to reform them in such a stiff-necked people except only as to Images for indeed all long Customs are hard to be broken in any People was fain to Tolerate them for the hardness of their hearts and they were many of them full of Superstition and Injustice CHAP. II. Marriage Matrimony Legitimation or Succession not to be judged by the Laws and Customs of Heathen Nations Chinaois way of Marrying IN China the Governor and Vice-Roy in each Province appoint a certain time and place where those that are willing to Marry may and do come where Twelve Principal Men are appointed Judges before whom they present themselves Six Judges divide the Men into three parts the rich the indifferent and the poor the other six Judges in the mean while divide the Maids into the beautiful the indifferent and the unhandsome thereupon the Judges give the very beautiful to the rich and they give what the Judges appoint for them the indifferent rich to the indifferent handsome who pay nothing for them and the unhandsome to the poor with the Money the rich paid divided into equal Portions Joan Gonsales Hist de la China P. 46. The like was done antiently by the Babylonians The Indians way Indorum virgines quum esse nubiles câ—perint in Publicum à Parentibus producuntur concurrente ut assolet multitudine libera illis datur optio è Juvenum turba virum sibi seligendi quem virtute aliqua insigniter praestantem putent Caelius lib. 18. cap. 31. The Samoyeds being a people bordering on Russia use to buy their Wives and have no other Ceremony of Marriage but agreement for the Price which commonly is dear they being their cheif Cattle and the Woman brought and delivered to the man that bought her by her freind and a Feast at his Tent there provided to entertain them and at Night all departing and leaving the Man and Woman together there alone till next Morning Gourdon Anno 1614. The Jews and Romans way was likewise buying and selling The Mahumetans likewise give Money for their Wives which when paid the Contract is Registred in the Caddyes Book which serves for the Tole-Book they paying the Market Fee which is all the Formality of the Marriage Heyl. 778. Caesar lib. 4. de bell Gall. saith That amongst the Germans exchange of Wives was in use and the Indian Histories relate That in Calicut the Custom of exchange is still reteined Exchange of Wives-Lending Wives and Jerome taxes Cato Vtican that he lent his Wife Martia to his Friend Hortensius as Appian relates 2 Bell. Civ Lucan lib. 2. And Plutarch in Numa that he did it by the Constitution of Numa These are the Marriages these the Solemnities the Pontifical Laws have taught and is there any still so stupid as to prefer the Laws of men before the Laws of God At Gomera it was heretofore the only sign counted of their Hospitality to let their Friends lie with their Wives and receive theirs in Testimony of mutual kindness Heyl. 105. For which reason there as in other places of the Indies the Sister's Son was usually the Heir The Common Councel or Senate of the Canaries or Fortunate Islands who were both Magistrates and Preists had before Conquer'd by Christians the first Nights Lodging with every Bride The Inhabitants of Zant solicit such Merchants as resort thither to hire their Wives and agree of the Price At Pegu when Merchant-strangers come thither they are provided a House and withal certain Maids of the City are sent to him out of whom he takes his choice and agrees with her Friends at what rate they can which is not much to pay a certain Summ for the use of her and this Maid attends during the time agreed as a Servant and Wife after which he may take another but not during the time agreed In Cunall a part of Tartary they count it a great honour to have their Wives and Sisters at the pleasure of others whom they entertain of which being restrained by the great Cham they petition'd him at three Years end to be restored to their old Custom affirming They could never thrive since they left it on which Liberty was again restored and they still use it Heyl. 857. At Tangut they think it not fit to tempt a Woman but if she offer her self they think it a great sin to refuse her Courtesie Heyl. ib. At Colchos the Husband thinks it a Credit their Wives can please and be acceptable to others to whom they prostitute them Purchas 342. The Turks are allowed four Wives Plurality which must be also of his Religion but he is allowed Concubines Slaves and of any Religion as many as they can keep The Persians allow as many Concubines as they will paying them Salary by Week Month or
seems Abraham's example and direction to choose a Wife for his Son came hence The Banyans Sons are Heirs to their Fathers Estates but as a recompence They are bound to maintain their Mother and marry their Sisters that they likewise may be provided for out of their Father's substance The Goan Indians have a custom That none must marry but in a family using his Father's Trade To which end the several Trades are sever'd one from another and set apart in streets by themselves Linschotten The Inhabitants of Carthagena allow not marriage with the Sister on this Tradition That one who married his Sister was for that offence carried and confin'd to the Moon where he still remains the spot or Man in the Moon In China many charitable people Fornication as they think themselves have given and bequeathed for the good of their Souls Rents and Revenues to maintain Houses of Common women who are to prostitute themselves to such Poor as have no money freely which they think a work of great merit Mendez In China adultery with a Married woman is death The Common women not being suffer'd to live within the Walls but in the Suburbs where they are educated to Singing Musick and Dancing and whatsoever is fit for Dalliance and are for that end bought of their Mothers and prostituted for gain In a large street in Pequin in China dwell a great number of Curtezans who are all under Protection of the Tutan of the Court. At Cambalu Harlots have a Corporation In the Countreys of Cotam and in Pegin the Wives may marry new Husbands Divorce for absence if the old be absent but twenty days Purch 427. Divorces are frequent amongst the Muscovites for when they have a desire to part they accuse each other by suborn'd false Witnesses of Adultery or want of Devotion by which they are condemned without answering for themselves The Inhabitants of Casear have a Law if the Husband or Wife is absent from one another twenty days the other is at liberty to marry again Heyl. 856. Diodorus Siculus saith That the Egyptians before they had any Laws every Man had as many Wives as they pleased Divorce at pleasure and both parties were at liberty as any other Companions to come together and part when either pleased For they said It was impossible if Men and Women should be tied together but the same must be with much trouble contentions and brawles The Tappinineers in Hercinia bestowed their Wives on other Men after they had had two or three Children by them Purchas 351. It was esteemed a dishonour not only amongst the Indians but Romans and other Nations for Ladys who lov'd their Husbands to survive them Porcia killing herself on news of the death of her Husband Conjugis audisset fatum eum Porcia Bruti Et subtracta sibi quaereret arma dolor Nondum scitis ait mortem non posse negari Credideram satis hoc vos docuisse patrem Dixit ardentes avido bibit ore favillas I nunc ferrum turba molesta nega Martial When Porcia heard of her dear Brutus slain Weapons she sought withdrawn from her in vain Death said she not to be deny'd me is I thought my Father's death had taught you this She swallow'd Coals and proudly spoke the word Deny me now to die by point of Sword The Fact of Lucretia Beza thus censures Lucretia killing herself on the Rape of Tarquin Si fuit ille tibi Lucretia gratus adulter Immerito ex merita praemia morte petis Sin potius casto vis est allata pudori Quis furor alterius crimine velle mori Frustra igitur laudem captas Lucretia namque Vel scelerata cadis vel furiosa ruis If thou Lucretia loved'st th' Adulterer Thy Death deserv'd reward to claim doth err If rather force did thy chast Beauty stain How mad for others Crimes to be self slain In vain Lucretia praise thou seek'st for Ay Since Guilt or Madness then cast thee away Condemn not yet so great a Lady as Lucretia without hearing her Answer Pectora Tarquini virtuti ingrate fuissent Hac perfâ—ssa manu Foemina si potui Jam cruor hic noster me non violasse pudorem Ante homines testis spiritus ante Deos. Stulte meam frustra quid tentas redere famam Orbe volat simul ac aethere protegitur On Tarquin's breast to vertue oh ingrate If able I prevented had my Fate My blood to Men my Soul to Gods on high Now my chast Innocence shall testifie Fool thou in vain carp'st at Lucretia's Fame Since Earth and Heav'n both preserve the same The Epigram of Beza is neat but the Author seems to be much of the French woman's mind mention'd by Montaigne who alledged her self to be Ravish'd by force but after often rejoyced and thank't God she had once in her life so much pleasure without sin Whereas Tamar who was truly Ravish'd by force 2 Sam. 13.13 saith Whither shall I cause my shame to go And vers 18. It is said She having a Garment of divers colours upon her for with such Robes were Kings Daughters that were Virgins apparell'd And vers 19. And Tamar put Ashes on her Head and rent her Garment of divers colours and laid her hand on her head and went on Crying Why doth not Beza tax Tamar in the same degree for spoiling her fine Cloths and blubbering her Face as he doth Lucretia who being a Wife was more concern'd in the double perhaps treble honour of her self her Husband and Children then a Virgin in her's which is only single and therefore to clear all suspicion thought it necessary to give so high a Testimony of her Innocence as she did Cicero in the like case commends divers noble Virgins who kill'd themselves to preserve their honour The like did the Women of Antioch under Dioclesian and other Antiochian Women under Chosroe the Persian The like did Sophronia a noble Christian Matron under Decius Many Virgins there were in the Primitive times who drowned themselves in Rivers for the same cause St. Ambrose highly commends those Virgins who slew themselves for the same cause and are all generally Recorded in the Ecclesiastical Histories for Martyrs Yet St. Austin and other Fathers seem doubtful and I dare not in a Doctrine of blood be positive yet I confess though I am no Idolater of Saints deceased I cannot pass by their Ashes without due honour to their memory and do think even the greatest Ethnicks among them shall rise up in Judgment against too many of the latter Age who call themselves Christians and glory in their shame of what those laid down their lives to avoid the dishonour and cannot but be struck with admiration of so Divine excellency in so weak a Sex as made them greater in valour than Men in love of their Husbands than Women in fame than Angels To whom though Christ gives so high a degree of Chastity as neither to marry or give in
marriage yet could not they avoid being spotted by slanderous Tongues to be like the Heathen Gods lovers of Women whereas fame it self dared not belye these Heroick Ladies who defended their Honour with their Blood But to draw to an end of this Section There appear amongst the nations many good many indifferent and many most wicked Laws and Customs concerning Marriage the height of the Examples and the Authority both in good and bad being only humane The same can be neither obligatory nor satisfactory to the Conscience neither ought marriage to be judged by them Divorce by mutual assent It was by the Twelve Tables allowed That by Mutual consent the parties might Divorce themselves one from another Quia unumquodque dissolvitur eodem modo quo conflâ—tum est as may be collected from Cicero Philip. 2 l. pern ad leg Jul. de Adult li. 2. 7. de divorcio ex Apul. Ambros Epist 65. Notwithstanding which there was no Divorce followed in Rome for the space of 520 years There have been examples of the practice of this amongst Christians and Christ's words prohibiting putting away which implies force seems not to include a free or voluntary separation Of examples of this amongst Christians an express form appears in Marculfus his Formula lib. 2. cap. 30. Dum inter illum illam non charitas regnat sed discordia placuit c Seeing between him and her the Charity according to God doth not reign but Discord so that they cannot live peacably together it is agreed by the consent of both that they separate from one another and accordingly they have done as others Leg. Rom. cap. 19. and Novel Instit 117. These Canons have been made to change and likewise other Imperial Laws Divorce free for Women a well as Men. Of Women departing from their Husbands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word for it on the Woman's part Sen. de Benef. l. 3. c. 16. Numquid jam ulla repudio erubescit And Nobiles foeminae non consulum numeroâ—sed maritorum annos suos computant They departed and married again every year Apud Romanos Graecos mulier quam vir alteri potest dicere ut res suas sibi habeat quin nomina rei illius propria jure Attico prodita erant ut si vir discederet ab uxore hoc diceretur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si mulier à viro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos Scà liger Amongst the Romans and Greeks both the Woman and the Man might Divorce one another And by the Athenian Law they had proper Terms for both as if the Man left his Wife this was called a Dismission Dismission and Desertion if the Woman left her Husband this was called a Desertion So by the case put by Christ of a Woman it appears then that Women were Divorced as well as Men. The East Indians if they are but Jealous of their Wives will kill them and bring three or four witnesses to Swear That strange Men entred into their Houses by night or at unaccustomed times who had their pleasure of their Wives or in another sort as they will devise it whereby the Husband is streight discharged of the Crime of killing his Wife by the Laws both of Portugal and Spain and there are every year many Women without number dispatched by their Husbands and none think it strange nor make wonder at it because of the Custom and the Women are never the more frighted from their Adulteries but will say They can die no better death then by such a Law Linschot And may presently marry another Wife The Wives likewise frequently poison their Husbands which as some say was the original of their custom not to survive their dead Husbands but to burn them And the causes of Jealâ—uâ—e can by neither be published to the Magistrate with safety or hâ—nour either of Wife or Husband Were it not therefore far better for the Innocent party or both by assent to separate themselves privately and marry again then so live in danger of their lives one of another and more agreeable to the Law of God and Nature and the ends of marriage then for them if the Wife offends the Husband to have power to kill her while alive or if not offend to kill her by burning with him after dead or the Woman be tempted to prevent both by poisoning her Husband were it not better to be put away privately as Joseph did his Wife then the fault publish'd and Divorces would not be so frequent if left free to the parties for who would marry again a Man or Woman who had Divorced themselves from their first marriage without cause Augustus Caesar following the vicious policy of those times to strengthen himself by marriage of Women repudiates his Wife Scribonia the same day she was deliver'd of Julia and married Livia being great with Child by Tiberius Nero her Husband still living who was deliver'd of Drusus three Months after Dio. Tiberius by assent of Augustus repudiateth the Daughter of Agrippa being then with Child and marrieth Julia the Daughter of Augustus Dioclesian the Emperour married six Wives in a short space and repudiated them all great with Child Oros And having associated to him because of many Travels in the Empire Maximianus they both meet at Milan to create new Caesars to whom they may commit their Forces where they chose Constantius Chlorus and make him Governour of Britain and Galerius whom they make Caesar likewise to defend Eastern Europe These new Caesars they compel to repudiate their former Wives and Galerius married Valeria Daughter to Dioclesian And Constantius repudiated his Wife Helena by whom he had Costantine after call'd the Great and married Theodora Daughter-in-law to Maximian by whom he had after six Children Dioclesian assumeth Divine Honour and he and Maximian triumph yet they after resign the Empire and retire themselves to Galerius and Constantius after Constantius createth his Son Constantine Caesar and dyeth Against him was set up Maxentius Son to Maximian and Maximian giveth his Daughter Fausta to Constantine Herod Antipas repudiateth his Wife Areta who was Daughter to the King of Arabia and married Herodias Wife to his Brother Philip and Daughter to his Brother Aristobulus Joseph Anno Christi 1028. Constantine the Emperor being sick the States put Romanus Argyrus to his choice either to repudiate his Wife and marry the Emperor's Daughter or to lose his Eyes his Wife to save him from danger entereth into a Nunnery Romanus Argyrus is made Emperor and marrieth Zoe the Emperor's Daughter and banisheth Theodora her Sister Zon. Zoe falleth in love with Michael Brother to one of the cheif Eunuchs they strangle Romanus in a Bath he marrieth Zoe and was much troubled with the Dropsie and Falling-sickness Michael neglecteth the Emperess and refraineth her Bed shaveth her and banisheth her The people inforce him to recal her and put out his Eyes Cedr Zoe marrieth Constantius Monomachus who keepeth a Concubine
by her assent the Emperor is endeavour'd to be stoned by the people in hatred of his Concubine Zoe pacifieth the people Ib. Impotency and Sterility is a cause of Divorce The Law of Solon allowed Impotency in the Man or Sterility in the Woman to be a good cause of Divorce Plutarch in Solon vid. Aust contra c. because then old Folks might not Marry Such was the modesty of ancient times in Rome that from the first foundation of the City for the space of Five Hundred and Twenty Years there happened no Divorce between a Husband and Wife Val. Max. l. 2. cap. 1. And the first who began it was Spurius Carbillus who put away his Wife for Sterility which though it seem'd a tolerable cause yet wanted not reprehension from divers who thought the Conjugal Faith ought to overweigh the desire of Children Anno 631. Dagobert the great King of France repudiated his first Wife for Barrenness and Marrieth Nantildis a Nun Amandus a Bishop reproves him and he banisheth the Bishop afterwards having a Son he revoketh the Bishop to baptize him Calais Anno Christ 1263. The Queen of Bohemia being old and Barren the King intendeth a Divorce she layeth the fault on him he maketh her this offer That she should appoint him a Maid and if he got her not with Child in a Year he would be reputed faulty the Queen accepteth it and in Ten Months he hath a Son and afterwards divers Daughters She is Divorced and Marrieth Kum Grand Daughter to the Duke of Muscovia Chron. Boh. Regner King of Denmark Anno 820. marrieth Langertha a Warlike Woman of Suevia and had by her Fridlanus and two Daughters Crom. After he Repudiateth Landgertha for the inequality of the Match and Marrieth the Daughter of Hezotus King of Suevia by whom he had many Sons Crom. Anno 1354. Peter King of Spain repudiateth Blanch Daughter to the Duke of Bourbon and Marrieth Jean de Castro Histor Hispan Anno 1373. The King of Portugal refused a Match in Castile and taketh a Nobleman's Wife and banisheth him his Subjects are discontented with him Hist Hisp Anno 696. Pepin King of France repudiated his Wife and married Alpaida his Concubine by whom he had Charles Martell and he kill'd Lambert Bishop of Thuring for reproving his Marriage Am. Fris. Anno 576. The Wife of Chilperic King of France was divorced and thrust into a Monastery for being Godmother to her own Child Truon Charles the Eighth of France was Espoused to Mary the Daughter of Maximilian Maximilian marrieth Ann the Daughter and Heir of the Duke of Britain by Deputy The King of France repudiates the Daughter of Maximilian and marries the Daughter of the Duke of Britain Luis the Twelfth of France repudiates his Wife and marries Ann his Predecessor's Widow Anno 1333. The Marquess of Misnia having married Judeth the Daughter of the King of Bohemia the Emperor causeth the Marquess to repudiateher and marry his Daughter The King of Bohemia taketh divers places in Misnia and giveth Judeth to John Son of the French King Dub. The Arch-Bishop of Gnesna in Polonia forced Married Priests to be Divorced from their Wives Alsted Anno 1218. Lewis the Seventh King of France having married Elianor Daughter and Heir of William Duke of Guyen and having two Daughters by her notwithstanding divorced himself from her on pretence they were Couzins in the fourth degree She was after married to Henry the Second of England who had by her Five Sons and Three Daughters and was she who revenged her self on Rosamond though not in so high a degree injurious to her as Adela the Daughter of the King of France affianced to her Son Richard who was after King was suspected to be of whom it was commonly reported That her Husband was so far inamor'd that he having Committed Elianor to Prison resolved to be divorced from her and marry Adela Bak Hist 55.59 King John having maâ—ried Avice Daughter and Heir of Robert Duke of Gloucâ—ster having no Issue by her divorced himself from her alledging that she was his Couzin in the third degree Juan Daughter of Edward the First for her Beauty called the fair Maid of Kent was married first to William Montacute Earl of Salisbury and from him divorced but it appears not for what cause and was after married to Sir Thomas Holland in her right Earl of Kent and Father of Thomas and John Holland Duke of Surrey and Earl of Huntingdon and lastly she was Wife of Edward of Woodstock the black Prince of Wales and by him Mother of the infortunate King Richard the Second Henry the Eight married first Katharine Daughter of Ferdinando King of Spain the relict of his older Brother Arthur and was after Twenty Years marriage and the Birth of his Daughter Mary after Queen of England by her divorced from her on the opinion of some Divines that it was not lawful for him to marry his Brother's Wife and having successively married two other Wives after their death he married his fourth Wife Ann Sister to the Duke of Cleave she lived his Wife six Months and then was likewise Divorced Civilians Canonists Divines Lawyers and one Pope against another Aliment of Children and all by the Ears about Divorce and unless as we ought we wholy consult the Moral Law of God there is not a word of sence in the Laws of men but they are all for gain As Desertions and Divorces of Mothers without cause have been too frequent both amongst Gentiles Jews and Christians so likewise is the Desertion and not giving Aliment to Children Aristotle stain'd his Philosophy with the bloody Doctrine of exposing Infants The Chinoys who are poor think it Charity to strangle their Infants and save their Aliment Fornicators make it their custom to deflour Virgins and get them with Child and then illegitimate and desert both Mother and Child to save the charge of Aliment And oh horrid amongst Christians who le Parishes rise with Swords and Staves against one poor Sucking Babe to exterminate both it and the Mother naked and to be Vagabonds to beg steal or starve only to save so small an Alms as Aliment to one poor Infant not able to speak or beg for it self It is related by Travellers that some Indians use when a Child is born if it take not to suck the Dug of the Mother well they carry it out of the House and hang it naked on a Tree and leave it there returning themselves into the House after a while they go out again and bring in the Child and offer it the Teat if it take it not they carry it the second time and let it hang twice as long and fetch and offer it the Teat again if it take it not then they hang it on the Tree the third time and leave it hanging till it dies God made man righteous and writ the Moral Law in his heart but since the Devil hath seduced him to the Ceremonial he is become
from Daemons The same or a worse initiation had those ancient Priests called Magi of the Persians for they before they could be initiated were to lye with their Mother Sister and Daughter As to the Mother Xanthus teacheth in magicis Vt magus ex matre nato nascatur oportet On which some passages collected by Saidus Batricides Patriarch of Alexandria out of the Oriental Monuments Language and Characters concerning Nimrod the Giant King of Babylon are translated by Selden de jure nat 624. viz. That when Nimrod had observed the shape of a Crown to be in the Clouds he caused a Crown to be made and set it on his Head whence it was reported amongst the vulgar that he received a Crown from Heaven And he is likewise said to be the first who worshipped the Fire for he saw fire in the East ascending out of the Earth and thereupon drew over to discern it and worshipp'd it And then appointed a Priest to offer in the same place Incense to it and from that time the Priests called Magi began to worship the fire and the name of the first Priest whom Nimrod appointed for that office was Andshan to whom a Daemon out of the midâ—st of the fire spoke these words No Man can be consecrated or understand my Sacred Rites unless he first lye with his Mother and Sister and his Daughter And Andshan did according as the Daemon taught him and from that time such Magi as performed the office of Priests used to lye with their Mothers Sisters and Daughters and Andshan was the first who began the custom That these Priests of Priapus had their Doctrine from the Devil appears by the use they put it to for these were Priests who bringing the Women to their Sacrifices and Temples drew the Israelites to Idolatry as appears Numb 25.1 where it is said And the people began to commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab And they called the people unto the Sacrifices of their Gods and the people did eat and bowed down to their Gods And Israel joyned himself to Baal Peor from the Hill Peor where was the Temple call'd Beth Peâ—r and mention'd Deut. 3.29 So what Priests and Gods they were who first drew Women to publick Sacrifices and Temples appears by this It 's before shewen that Laws tending to so much uncleanness as drawing marriages of Women to Temples testifie they come from unclean Spirits and not from God who is Holiness it self I shall as to that add only one more History of a Person who was in as great reputation for holiness and learning and greater than any Pope which is Doctor Dee yet was he deluded by the Devil appearing first in the likeness of an Arch-Angel and then of Christ himself and there is no other mark to prove him the Devil but the uncleanness of the Doctrine he taught though in most Angelical yea Arch-Angelical Language And this is thought by all a sufficient proof and the same argument therefore of the Uncleanness Covetousness and Ambition of this Law proves that the Popes who have been divers of them as great Magicians as the Babylonish Andshan before mention'd Plato's Daemon of Community of Women and other Magi had it from the Devil The first Law of Community of Women was given by Plato's Daemon in his private Oracle endeavoured to have been revived by the like Daemon in a private Oracle to Dr. Dee The History of the Devil appearing in shape of Christ to Doctor Dee and tempting him and his Seer Kelly to a Covenant of Community of Wives Dr. Dee's Daemon of Community of Women Anno Dom. 1583 or thereabouts Dr. Dee had two pretious Stones or Crystals which he called the seeing Stones given him by Spirits whom he believed to be good Angels And Edward Kelly had the gift of seeing all Apparitions made in those Crystals or pretious Stones and of reading and interpreting whatsoever seem'd to be written in them After long converse by Dr. Dee with these Spirits and a multitude of Apparitions represented and some Discourses of secrets and some Miracles shewen with the same The Spirit in shew appointeth to translate the gift of seeing from Kelly to Arthur the eldest Son of Dr. Dee of the burden of which Kelly desired to be freed but the success followed not to Arthur but still continued to Kelly and Madimi an Apparition who appeared to Dr. d ee himself at the beginning of his acquaintance with Spirits in the shape of a Woman appeared to Kelly in the Air being really unwilling to translate his office to Arthur and other Spirits with her in an unseemly behaviour and he is therefore again desired by Dr. Dee to see again in the same Ed. Kelly There appeareth Madimi she openeth all her apparel and her self all naked and sheweth her shame also Ed. Kelly Fie on the Devil avoid hence with thy filthiness c. Madi In the name of God why find you fault with me Dr. d ee Because your yesterdays doings and words are provocations to sin and unmeet for any godly Creature to use Madi What is sin Dr. d ee To break the Commandments of God Madi Set that down Madi If the self same God give you a new Commandment taking away the former form of sin which he limited by the Law what remaineth then Dr. d ee If the self same God that gave the Law to Moses and gave his new Covenant by Christ who seal'd it by his blood and had his Witnesses very many and his Apostles instructed by his holy Spirit who instructed us in all cleanness in words and works yea and in thoughts if by the same God those former Laws and Doctrines be abrogated and the sufficient proof and testimony may be had that it is the same God then must the same God be obeyed Madi A Privilege granted doth not abrogate a Law but confirm it c. Here Arthur was smitten in a swoon and Edward Kelly saw one in a long White-Garment make as if he would strike him and he became very sick for the time Madi Whatsoever the Spirit of God teacheth as from him though it appear sin before man is righteousness before him Therefore assure your selves whatsoever is seen and heard amongst you is from above and it is a sign and testimony this day before you for I that touched thy Son might have taken away his breath After other passages Dr. d ee desired the Seer Kelly to enquire of certain words Madimi had spoken the day before That they two had their Wives in such sort as they might use them in common whether she intended Spiritual or Carnal Community Ed. Kelly Upon a scroll like the edg of a Carpet I see is written De Vtroque Loquor Dr. d ee The one is expresly against the Commandment of God neither can I by any means assent to consent to that Doctrine and for my help in that verity I call down the Power of Almighty God Creator of Heaven
of the same by the Priest are inventions of Men and but Ceremonies as well as the other Heyl. 196. This was a Contract but no Matrimony Of Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperour married to Martianus Of the Lady Etheldred married to two Husbands The Lady Amigunda married to the Emperour Henry the Second The Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor The Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eighth all married by the Priest but not by their Husbands Zonaras reports That the Empire being in great danger by reason of Wars with the Goths Pulcheria on consideration that there was necessary to be chosen some able person to be Emperour against them Theodâ—sius being dead without any Son and Martianus an old experienced Captain being taken to be the fittest for that purpose he was chosen Emperour by the order of Pulcheria the Sister of Theodosius and to give him the greater Authority Pulcheria assented to marry him on security given by him that they should both live Chast and he suffer her to continue in Virginity on which they were married and they both faithfully observed their agreement of Chastity This Lady made a very repugnant Vow to live a Nun yet to marry therefore I think her Vow doubly unlawful first as to her self if young open to a necessary temptation and then as to her Husband though an old Soldier to a probable one Mr. Ricaut Turk Hist p. 72. Saith Ghear Han Sultan That Ghear Han Sultan Daughter to Sultan Ibrahim hath had already five Husbands yet continues a Virgin Etheldred Etheldred was the Daughter of Anna King of the East-Angles she was married to two Husbands one after another yet continued still a Virgin and at last became a Nun and was Canonized a Saint under the name of St. Audry Amigunda Henry the Second Emperour having married Amigunda the Daughter of the Count Palatine of Rhine they lived most Chastly both of them observing voluntary Virginity without having any carnal knowledge one with the other It is reported that being accused of Adultery she purged her self by going bare-foot upon plates of fiery hot Iron and that the Emperour was Penitent for exposing her to such danger being so Chast and Vertuous a Woman she was very much beholding to him to deny to Husband her himself yet quarrel so far as to suspect her of another Edward the Confessor married Editha the beautiful and indeed vertuous Daughter of Earl Godwin Editha and because he had taken displeasure against the Father he would shew no kindness to the Daughter he made her his Wife but conversed not with her as a Wife but only at Board and not at Bed or if at Bed no otherwise than David with Abishag and yet was content to hear her accused of incontinency whereof if she were guilty he could not be innocent and he not only entertained such thoughts of his Wife but the like accusation against his own Mother Queen Emma of unchast familiarity with Alwin Bishop of Winchester and suffer'd her to be put to her purgation of fire Ordeal by passing over Nine red hot Plow-shares bare-foot which she all escaped to the astonishment of the beholders and thereupon was adjudged Innocent though there might be much jugling in those Tryals but whether there were so or not it became not a Son to divulge the shame of his Mother It seems he was Chast but without discretion and not without injury to his Wife and impiety to his Mother Bak. Hist 18. Ann of Cleve The same dealing had the Lady Ann of Cleve who was married to Henry the Eighth who lay by her six Months yet left her a Virgin And when her Ladies who attended her said they looked now every day to hear of her being with Child to whom she reply'd They might look long enough unless saying How dost thou sweet-heart Good-morrow sweet-heart and such like words could make a great belly for said she more then this never passed between the King and me Bak. Hist 288. I hope therefore none of our Protestant Ladies will believe this wicked Doctrine of Pope or Turk That Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium if they do we shall have no young Souldiers to fight against either Of the Custom of desertion of Virgins after deflouring Of the desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth for the Lady Elizabeth Grey and the infelicity followed thereon to them and their Children Of the like desertion by a Gentleman in Ireland after the birth of a Child Of the ancient Form of Marriage-Contracts Se post concubitum non deserturum now repugnantly turned into verba de praesenti Of Seditions and Civil Wars raised for the said Crime of Desertion Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation of a Minor married to an Husband of desertion of her Husband after carnal knowledg and to take a richer A relation of the same practised in Scotland Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands by giving more Alimony then the Portion Desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth There being a Marriage in Treaty between Edward the Fourth King of England and the Lady Bona Sister to Carlot the French Queen the King happen'd to fall in love with the Lady Elizabeth Grey the Widow of John Grey who in the Civil War between the House of Lancaster and York was his Enemy and died in Battel at St. Albans against him the old Dutchess of York his Mother was very eager for the French Match but however desired if that did not please him and he would needs marry one of his own Subjects he should rather marry the Lady Elizabeth Lucy whom he had a little before inticed to his Bed which was a Marriage before God and better then the Lady Elizabeth Grey who was the relict of another Man and his Enemy too and thereupon she instigated the Lady Elizabeth Lucy to claim a Praecontract of him which Lady though set on by the King's Mother and others yet when she was solemnly sworn to speak the truth she confess'd to this effect That he never in direct express words made any Promise or Contract to her of Marriage but he spake so loving words unto her that she verily hoped he would have married her and that if it had not been for such kind words she would never have assented he should have lain with her on which pretence the flattering Bishops as though all Impediments were removed by the not proving any express or formal words of Contract though the real Contract of lying with her was apparant to please the King gave him their allowance That he should please his second Fancy and not to be tied to his first And he accordingly married Elizabeth Grey according to the Ecclesiastical Law Consensus non Concubitus facit matrimonium Which Repudiation of the Lady Lucy was certainly as much against the Law of God as the Bill of Divorce by the Law of Moses was against
was the voice of God and the artificial is only the voice of Man 4. Because the natural was true and the artificial is false and fictitious Husband and Wife words ambiguous 5. Because the natural was fixed and certain the artificial is ambiguous and mutable ad placitum imponentis to signifie what he will as serves most for his profit The Bishops have therefore falsely translated the word of God into words of their own that none may be called Husband and Wife but such as give them Fees to call them so Zona Kadesh Pillegesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 false translated Secondly They have falsely translated the Words Zona Kadesh Pillegesh and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Harlot and Concubine which word Zona in the Hebrew Text signifies no more then a common Hostess or Caupona one that sells Victuals or keeps an House of Entertainment the Chaldee renders it Foeminam fallacem vagam non sub eodem tecto habitantem and the Latin translation have rendred her worse that is plain Whore for the Romish Lady will be sure to call Whore first and therefore translates Jos 2.1 concerning the Spies sent to Jericho Venerant in demum cujusdam meretricis Cauponae cujus nomen erat Rachab ut cubarent ibi but the English is translated And they went and came to an Harlot's House named Rachab and lodged there Harlot now that she ought not to have been rendred Foeminam fallacem appears by her works for it is not only the interest of all Hostesses to be faithful to their Guest though they do not lie with them but she was in a more special manner faithful to these and hazarded her life for them if she had been discover'd both for her hiding and letting them over the Town-wall And as to the word Zona seeing it hath most naturally a good signification of an Hostess or seller of Victuals and Verba sunt accipienda in mitiori sensu there is no warrant were the word ambiguous which doth not appear neither to translate it in the worst sence and indeed when they have rackt Zona all they can they cannot so much as make it ambiguous or squeeze more out of it then Caupona or an Hostess Thirdly As to the word Kadesh in the Hebrew Kadesh it signifies a Woman Consecrated which is an Holy-Woman or an Holy-Nun or Votaress now these holy Nuns or Votaresses who are Consecrated to the service of Venus and those who are Consecrated in like manner to the service of the Virgin Mary do often play the Harlots yet to translate either of those named Holy-Nuns Harlots is a false translation for a Translator ought to be of Words and not of Deeds Fourthly Judg. 11. is translated Harlot Now Jeptha the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour and he was the Son of an Harlot and Gilead begat Jepthah Which is a translation repugnant to it self for if she had been a common Harlot or Hostess or other how could it be known that Gilead begat Jepthah and how was not Jepthah Filius populi rather then the Son of Gilead If she were not a common Harlot what difference between her and a Wife in a Nation who allowed Plurality of Wives and Succession in Filial Portions to the Sons of them all Fifthly As to the word Pillegesh they derive it from Palag Pillegesh divisit Isha Foemina which in the Hebrew Text signifies no more then a divided or several or another Woman or Wife where there was Plurality allowed and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the natural signification no more then Juvencula or a young Woman and both these they forsooth have translated Concubine a Vocabulum Artis of their own Forging which they will have to signifie a Woman who hath not had both Banes and Benediction of one of Priapus Priests in a Temple yet is there â—ot in the Original of the whole Scripture either Old or New Testament such a word as Concubine neither is there any where Isha No such word as Concubine in the whole Original Scripture made more lawful then Pillegesh or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Gen. 1.2 3. Sarah and Hagar are both translated Abraham's Wives And Gen. 25.1 Keturah is translated Abraham's Wife yet 1 Chron. 1.32 she is translated Concubine whereas the words of the Septuagint are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifie only the Sons of Keturah Abraham's young Woman and there is no ground at all to translate her Concubine for Abraham married her not till Sarah was dead and the Marriage of Keturah therefore being lawful and unblameable she ought not to be toucht with the ignominious and fictitious name of Concubine So Ruth 4.12 they translated her young Woman who was fitter to be translated Concubine then Keturah for she stole to Bed to Boaz at night amongst the Sheaves without his leave or calling and like the Antipodes the Woman wooed the Man which Keturah was more modest for ought we find then to do to Abraham but with them kissing goes by favour The like falsity is likewise used in translating 1 Kings 11.3 where it is said of Solomon in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is translated in Latine Adeo ut essent ei Foemina Principes Septingentae Concubinae trecentae quapropter inclinarant Foeminae ejus animum ejus c. but in English the translation is He had Seven Hundred Wives Princesses and Three Hundred Concubines and his Wives turned away his heart which ought to have been translated He had Seven Hundred Women Princesses and Three Hundred young Women and his Women turned away his heart for if Plurality of Women make Concubines then ought the Seven Hundred to have been translated Concubines rather then the Three Hundred if it be said Riches and Portions make Wives and Poverty Concubines or Jointures and Dowers make Wives and none make Concubines this is contrary to what Christ saith of Marriage That it is of such as God hath joined in one flesh and not whom Scriveners and Lawyers have joined in one Indenture Then as to Poverty none will deny a poor Wife to be as true a Wife as a rich and many think her in goodness far superior for intolerabilius nihil est quam Foemina dives she that brings a Portion to hire the Man and the Man who gives Jointures to hire the Wife such a Woman so hired may indeed be rather said a Concubine then a Wife and such a Man so hired be rather said a Stallion then a Husband and such a Mercenary Conjunction be rather called a Market then a Marriage To return again to the Translation it is translated That his Wives drew away his heart but it is more likely the young Women who are translated Concubines drew away his heart then old Wives whereas if it had been translated as it ought to be
Children if within the four Seas neither doth he give more reason why he would have a Child call'd a Base-natural or his Fictions in Law beleived above the truth of the Fact then he doth why a Man-child ought to be called Mulier Fifthly As little reason doth Grotius give why a Giant should be translated Bastard according to a certain Latin Translation of the Bible of which there are a multitude all variant one from another 1 Sam. 17.4 which is thus Et egressus est quidem spurius è Castris Pelischthoeorum Goliah nomine Giant falsely translated Bastard Gatho oriundus cujus altitudo erat sex Cubitorum cum spithama which is in English And there went out of the Tents of the Philistins a certain Bastard by name Goliah whose height was six Cubits and a span so because he was a Giant this Latin Translation hath translated him a Bastard And Grotius though he were as great a Giant of learning as Goliah was of Body indeavours to give a reason which is not so tall as a Dwarf for he saith The Hebrews called Giants Bastards because they lived without Matrimony which he intends to be the Ceremony of coupling Male and Female together used by a Priest in a Temple Which cannot be for of all Nations in the World the Hebrews were most free from having so vile a word or a thing as Bastard amongst them and for Marriage in a Temple they never had any at all but always contracted in the open Air and not under any Roof And both they and all other Nations have had so honourable opinions of Giants and esteemed their descent to be so far from being ignoble as they derived them from their gods themselves So Hercules they would have begot by Jupiter And Ajax boasts of himself Sic à Jove tertius Ajax And both Jews and Christians affirm them to be begotten by the Sons of God As Gen. 6.4 it is said There were Giants in the Earth in those days and also after that when the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men and they bare Children unto them the same became mighty Men which were of old Men of renown Angels beget not Giants Some expound these Sons of God to be Angels but that is contrary to Christ who says Angels neither marry nor are given in Marriage But though Giants and such Hero's were not begotten by Angels they all agree to father them on more honourable Titles of the Sons of God and therefore never intendâ—d they should be translated or called Bastards or base Naturals As low a reason doth Grotius likewise give why he should be called Nothus and not be inheritable whose Mother at her Marriage had not a Torch carried before her Ac nec nupta quidem Taedaque accepta jugali Cur nisi ne caperes regna paterna Nothus Grot. de jur Bel. Pac. p. 168. 1. This authority of Ovid which he cites That the not vouchsafing to have a Torch or other Ceremonies Nuptial at the Marriage ought to make the Child a Nothus or Illegitimate as to Succession proves against him and that it ought not but is an injury and injustice if it should For this is written by Phaedra a later Wife of Theseus to Hippolitus his Son by Hippolita the Amazon a former Wife deceased with whom she being his Step-mother fell in love and to tempt him to her and not to forbear out of reverence to his Father's bed who had been so injurious to him as not to marry his Mother with due Rites and Ceremonies that he might have a pretence to dis-inherit and put him by the Succession of the Kingdom She to make her argument the stronger and the more inciting joyns her self with him to be as highly injured as himself that he might the more assuredly trust to find her ready to join with him in revenge as well as love for so she saith having first repeated her own wrongs she had suffer'd Sola nec haec nobis injuria venit ab illo In magnis laesi rebus uterque sumus And after she saith of the Marriage of his Mother Ac nec nupta quidem taedaque accepta jugali Cur nisi ne caperes regna paterna Nothus And then she saith I nunc I meriti lectum reverere parentis Quem fugit factis abdicat ille suis But the most vertuous and valiant Hippolitus remaining invincible in Chastity as to his Step-mother and in Loyalty as to his Father she as Potiphar's Wife did Joseph to her Husband falsly accused him of attempting to force her which he over-credulous to believe sought to kill his Son And he flying his Father's jealousie and causless anger had by his frighted Horses his Chariot overthrown and himself torn to pieces amongst the Rocks So infortunate was innocence in all things except his Fame which hath lasted through so many Ages His Father on Phaedra's confession understanding the Innocence of his Son and falseness of her calumny she first killing her self after the just Funeral Rites performed and Lamentation answerable made is swallowed up with grief for the loss of a Son so dearly by him beloved Here therefore appears That had it not been for the false calumnies of his Step-mother Hippolitus had succeeded to his Father Theseus's Kingdom notwithstanding his Mother Hippolita had not a Torch carried before her nor was ever married by the Ceremonies of a Priest in a Temple wherein though Grotius need no other answer to his Ceremonial Marriage then what in this example he thought to vouch for them and his principal Goliah-argument being fallen there need no trouble of encountring the petty accessary Reasons Yet I shall likewise persue them in their flight at least to discover what they are His first reason is he saith Where the Father doth not vouchsafe the Woman the Lawful Ceremonies of Marriage he makes the Child contemptible to be his Successor To which is answer'd That we need look no further then his own example whether Hippolitus was a person contemptible or not meriting in all respects to succeed to his Father's Kingdom after his Death 2. It is further answer'd That these Ceremonies whereon he founds his Doctrin of Ceremonial Marriage and the compulsion to the same are before shewen to come from the Devil and the Priests of Priapus and Venus and in imitation of them from Popery Therefore in such Kingdoms as are Protestant and not Pagan or Popish though there may be a toleration given to such as desire to marry with a Torch or any other public Ceremonies suiting with their Conscience and Convenience yet ought not there to be compulsion of Dissentients either in Conscience or Convenience nor so impious a punishment as Illegitimation laid on the innocent Child for such Toys as Ceremonies neglected or dissented to by the Parents 3. There is greater authority in point then either Latin or Greek Poets That the Father though he contemn yea hate the Mother ought not to illegitimate
Eliz Stowell quatenus de factor fuerunt ad invicem matrimonio ut predicitur copulat ' ab invicem Separand ' divorciand ' fore debere pronunciamus decernimus declaramus Eosque Separamus Divorciamus eisdemque Christopher ' Eliz. licentiam Libertatem ad alia vota convolanda concedimus tribuimus impertimur per hanc Sententiam nostram definitivam sive hoc finale nostrum decretum quam sive quod ferimus promulgamus in hiis Scriptis c. And after the Divorce the said Christopher Kenne Espous'd and took to Wife Elizabeth Beckwith And after Anno 5th Eliz. before certain Commissioners Ecclesiastical the said Elizabeth Beckwith Libelled against the said Christopher Kenne That before the Marriage between them contracted he had Married with Elizabeth Stowell on which process was awarded against Elizabeth Stowell pro interesse And upon due examination of the Cause it was Sentenced That the Marriage between the said Christopher Kenne and Elizabeth Beckwith was lawful and Sentenced them ad Exequenda Conjugalta obsequia c. And that the said Christopher Kenne was never lawfully Espoused unto the said Elizabeth Stowell and after the said Elizabeth Beckwith died after whose death the said Christopher took to Wife the said Florence by whom he had Issue one Daughter and called Elizabeth and died And Anno 36th Eliz. it was found by Office in the County of Sommerset by Force of a Mandamus after the death of the said Christopher Kenne that the said Elizabeth Kenne was his Daughter and Heir who was within Age Viz. of the Age of Ten Months The Queen granted her Wardship to Sir Nicholas Stallenge and the said Florence then his Wife on which the said Martha alledged her self to be Daughter and Heir to the said Christopher Kenne and with her Husband Silvester Williams Exhibited their Bill in the Court of Wards against the said Sir Nicholas and Florence alledging That the said Martha was Daughter and Heir of the Body of the said Elizabeth Stowell his lawful Wife and that they the said Christopher and Elizabeth Stowell at the time of their Marriage in Anno 37. H. 8. were both of them above the Age of Consent and that they Cohabited together Nine or Ten Years before the said supposed Divorce during which Cohabitation the said Martha was procreate between them and therefore pray they may have License to Traverse the said Office To which Bill the said Nicholas and Florence put in their answer and the Plaintiff examined divers Witnesses and before Publication Sir Nicholas dies and thereupon the said Silvester and Martha exhibited a Bill of Reviver against the said Florence and after Martha having Issue Elizabeth the Wife of the now Pl. died after whose death the said Thomas Robertson and Elizabeth his Wife bring a new Bill of Reviver to revive the first Sute in which the Witnesses were examined and this Case was refer'd to Fleming and Coke Chief Justices and Tanfeild Chief Baron and Selverton and Williams Justices and Sing and Altham Barons of the Exchequer If it be asked for what reason was such a Sentence given my Lord Coke nor the rest will neither tie the Bishop nor themselves to shew any for he saith The lawfulness of Marriage belonging originally to be tried in the Ecclesiastical Court if the Ecclesiastical Judg that is the Bishop Sentence a Marriage Null We that is the Judges of the King's Courts ought to give Faith that is implicit Faith to their Sentence as they do to our Judgment whether true or false right or wrong reason or no reason and so he saith Where the original cause of Sute concerning Marriage belongs to the Common Law Courts the Ecclesiastical Judg is to give like Faith to them as 22. E. 4. in Corbets Case which was this Sir Robert Corbet had by Elizabeth his Wife two Sons Robert the Elder and Roger the Younger and dies Robert the Elder being under the Age of Fourteen takes to Wife one Matilda and they dwell together tâ—ll full Age Et habuerunt carnalem copulam cogniti reputati pro viro uxore palam And after the said Robert put off the said Matilda having no Issue by her and Married one Lettice in the life of the said Matilda and hath Issue by her Robert and dies Lettice Preached openly that she was the lawful Wife of Robert and her Son a mulier Roger the Son of Sir Robert Corbet sues in the Spiritual Court to Reverse these Espousals between Robert his Brother and Lettice for which Lettice sues a Prohibition In which Case it was Resolved 1. That if Robert and Matilda had had Issue and had been unjustly Divorced and after Robert had Married Lettice and had Issue and died that as long as the unjust Divorce had continued the Issue of Matilda could have had no remedy at Common Law the same gives so great Faith to the Sentence of the Bishop 2. That here Roger might sue at Common Law notwithstanding the second Marriage in regard the same was void being made while the first Wife lived On which may be noted the injustice of the Bishops being above Appeal in Judgment in these particulars 1. Here is a lawful Matirmony Consummate by the Birth of a Child and two Persons thereby indissolubly joined together by the Act and Law of God put asunder by the Bishop and his Papal Law Here is a Dispute from Generation to Generation concerning the Validity of a Marriage and Succession to an Inheritance Against the Marriage is alledged That the same was declared void by a Sentence of Divorce or rather of Nullity given by the Bishop Against it is answered by Elizabeth a Descendent of the said Marriage and the right Heir to the Inheritance that the cause of the said Sentence was false And she offer'd to prove that the said Christopher Kenne and Elizabeth Stowell were both above the Age of Consent to Marriage in Anno 37. H. 8. and were then lawfully Married and Cohabited together Nine or Ten Years and the said Martha was lawfully Procreate between them before the pretended Divorce was made Was there ever Probation more Relevant tender'd was there ever better Reason alledged by a poor Lady to defend her Inheritance On this Hoskins Bacon Dodridge and other Council Argued so long from Term to Term as was enough to spend a good Portion before it was got But alas to no purpose for had this Elizabeth been Queen Elizabeth her self these Judges will give no Relief or Hearing against a Bishops Sentence unless his Lordship will please to Revoke it himself And notwithstanding all Arguments to the contrary it was accordingly resolved by all the Justices and Barons That she must go without her Inheritance and her Mother Martha remain a Bastard till the Bishop who made her so should again unmake her which was in plain English to adjudg there should be no Appeal in any case of Marriage Filiation Aliment or Succession from the Bishops to
by breaking the Custom and being drawn by the Deceit of Roxolana to Marry her by a Priest The Reasons why the Grand Seigniors Marry not themselves by a Priest or in a Temple or by a Magistrate or with any other Publick Solemnity but only make Use of Private Natural Marriage are 1. It prevents the great Charge of a Dower or Jointure which Turkish Emperors are bound to give their Queens who are Married by a Priest for as Withers Relates amongst the Grand Seigniors Seraglio of Women Marriage made by the first birth of a Child and not by words of a Priest she is esteemed Empress who brings him the first Son and they were formerly Married before the Mufti or Arch-Priest which was only to give one another their Assent before him and he to make an Hodget or Note in Writing of it and of the Dower the Emperor was to give her which except as to the Dower was no other than as our Certificate of the Bishop touching which Selymus being Uxorious and having given in his Marriage Five Hundred Thousand Chequins a Year to his Queen made a Law no Successor if they Married should give less than he had done to their Queens whereupon the Emperors succeeding forebore and it grew out of fashion to Marry by the Priest to save their Dower and other excessive Expences incident to Publick Marriages of Princes and had thereby likewise their Queens far more obsequious than before they thereby depending wholly on the Love of their Husbands to give them what they pleased according to their merit 2. By not Marrying by a Priest he is clear from all Burden of Allyances of his Sultana Poor or Rich. 3. The Grand Seignior thereby regained into his own hands the Patria Potestas belonging to every Father of being Judg who were his own Children which had been by his Superstitious Predecessors unwarily Alien'd to his Arch-Mufti or Arch-Bishop for by giving him Power by his Hodget or Certificate to declare the Marriage there followed as incident thereto the Arch-Bishop's Legitimation of his Children and Declaration of his Heir Apparent and Successor Then further the Mahometan Law allowing Plurality if Married by the Priest they could not be Married altogether but one after another or if they were a Child of a Woman Married after might come sooner which Priority of Marriage by the Mother would have destroyed the Custom of Primogeniture of the Son first born of any Wife whether the beloved or hated or first Married or after Married so 4. he kept the Right of Primogeniture and Peace in his own Family which if he having an Elder Son by a first Wife not Married by a Priest should have a Younger Son by a Second Wife Married by a Priest this pretence might cause Murder or Civil Wars between his Elder and Younger Sons one standing on his Right of Primogeniture and the other on the Hodget or Certificate of the Arch-Bishop of Prior Marriage of the Later Mother by the Priest as happen'd in the Example of Solyman the Magnificent and Roxolana Turk Hist 758. where it appears that Solyman the Magnificent begot of his first Empress a Circassian Bond-woman not Married by a Priest Mustapha his Eldest Son who proved a Prince of great Excellency and most dearly beloved by the Army and People after Solyman according to their Custom of Plurality of Wives grows wanton and begets four Sons more of Roxolana another of his Bond-women namely Mahomet Selymus Bajazet and Tzithanger and one Daughter called Chameria Married to Rustan the Great Basha Roxolana being her self a great Beauty and having so fair an Issue and a Potent Son in Law to assist her and no obstacle but the Primogeniture of Mustapha to make her own Son the Heir apparent of the Greatest Empire in the World discover'd her self to be more adorned with Gold and Pearls than Vertue yet counterfeits Religion to bring her Designs to pass but first take the Epigram by Knolles subscribed to her Picture Fronti nulla fides nulla est fiducia formae Pectore dum savo dira venena Latent Philtra viro Miscet fallax miserumque coegit Sanguine natorum Commaculare manus No Trust there is to Face or Beauty when The Breast of Poison'd Serpents is the Den. Her wretched Husband her Love-Cups untrue Made in his own Sons blood his hands imbrue This Woman to begin her intended Tragedy under colour of Good-will and Love had procured Mustapha the Young Prince and his Mother to be sent as she pretended for their greater Honour and Estate with a Princely Train and Revenue to Caramâ—nia to Govern that Great Countrey and having thus cunningly Rid the Court of the two Competitors both of her Love and the Empire rested not so but began straight way to plot in her malicious head the Destruction of him to whom all others wished Happiness and though she had removed him far absent in his Person yet the continually encreasing Fame of his Valour Vertues and Perfections seem'd to be still before her Eyes and in her Ears the great and only disturbance of her Desires and Clouds which kept the Sun from shining on them and doubting of any sufficient Assistants or Instruments amongst the Military Forces in regard all the Soldiers were at the Devotion of the Prince and not of Rustan her Son in Law whom they hated though she had got him to be Chief Commission-Officer over them she therefore fixes the other part of her hopes on the Priest and Resolves to try what could be supplied by the Gown which was defective in the Sword and to prepare the way the better she on a sudden Counterfeits her self to be very Religious and having grown by the favour of Solyman exceeding Rich pretended as if it had been on a devout Zeal for the health of her Soul after the manner of their Turkish Superstition to build an Abby with an Hospital and a Church which so Godly a purpose she imparted to the Mufti or Chief Mahometan Priest demanding of him if such works of Charity were not acceptable to God and available to her Souls health to which the Mufti answer'd That those Works were no doubt gratious in the sight of God but nothing at all meritorious for her Souls health being a Bond-woman yet very profitable for the Soul of the Great Emperour Solyman unto whom as unto her Lord both she and all that she had appertained at which answer of the great Priest she seemed to be exceedingly troubled and thereupon became wonderful pensive and Melancholick her Chearful Countenance was Replete with Sadness and her fair Eyes flowed with Tears her Mirth was Mourning and her Joy Heaviness which thing Solyman perceiving and sorry to see his Love upon Conceit so to languish sent her word to be of good chear and to comfort her self promising in short time to take such a Course as should ease her of all her Griefs of which she had made some discovery to him which he did solemnly Manumising
related Veneficii questio moribus Legibus Romanis ignota quam plurium matronarum patefacto scelere orta est quae cùm viros suos clandestinis insidiis veneno perimerent unius Ancillae indicio protractae pars capitali judicio damnata centum Septuaginta numerum compleverunt An Inquisition was made concerning Poisoning being an offence not known to our Manners or Laws and the wickedness of many Matrons being disclosed who by secret Treachery had kill'd their Husbands by Poison they being drawn forth by discovery of a Maid that part of them who were condemned to death amounted to the number of One Hundred and Seventy A great number for one City at one time and was no doubt not one of the smallest causes why Divorces grew so frequent in after-times not as is vainly pretended out of wantonness but of necessity Whereas if this private way of Justice and defence should not be tolerated to Families without publick litis contestations neither the honour or safety of any Family or Persons therein could be preserved and such as had a mind to separate if they could not do it but by publick Judgment would likewise either as the Muscovites are said to do Hire some false Witnesses or Knights of the Post to defame one another or oftentimes if that will not do to destroy the lives of one another or before the Party can make publick proof Poison or otherwise kill him whereby after it will be too late as it was in these 170 Husbands for any complaint to be made to the publick and the Wives are likewise in as great danger if they have not the same liberty of providing for them themselves on the first discovery of danger Had it not been better for all these murther'd Husbands and Wives to have parted on either side then to have acted such a Tragedy together So Aegisteus corrupting Clytemnestra to Adultery thereby got her concurrence to the death of her Husband Agamemnon And Sejanus having received an affront from Drusus plotted no other way to destroy him but by corrupting his Wife as saith Tacit. Annal. lib. 4. Cuncta tentanti promptissimum visum ad uxorem ejus Liviam convertere hanc ut amore incensus Adulterio pellexit ad conjugii spem consortium Regni necem mariti impulit So the Brother of Lewis the First King of Hungary was strangled by his Wife and she married a new Husband Lewis the King goeth into Italy to revenge his Brother's death she and the new Husband fly to the Pope who protects them Here neither the corruption of Clytemnestra nor the Wife of Drusus nor the Hungarian Hang-woman could have been discovered before a publick Judge till it had been too late What are therefore such Elccesiastical Laws and Judges who compel such secret and deadly Enemies to Co-habitation in one House but accessary to their Murders and who forbid them to marry others but accessary to the great sins of their Fornications and Adulteries Divorce by consent Authent Col. 23.140 The Title of the Law is Vt consensu Matrimonium solvi potest And the Law it self ends with this Reason Eos siquidem qui violento affectu odioque correpti fuerunt perquam difficile est reconâ—iliare contingit enim ut ex his nonnulli ad mutuas insidias procederent venenisque aliis quibusdam quae lethalia essent uterentur in tantum ut saepe liberi qui ipsis communiter nati essent eas in unam candemque voluntatem conjungere non potuerint Of the Law of Divorce à Mensa Thoro. Haddon in the new draught appointed in the times of Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth for Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws expresly abolisheth Divorce à Mensa Thoro in these words Mensae societas Thori solebat incertis Criminibus adimi Conjugibus salvo tamen inter illos reliquo Matrimonii jure quae constitutio cùm à Sacris literis aliena sit maximam perversitatem habeat malorum sentinam in Matrimonium comportaverit illud Authoritate nostra totum aboliri placet To prohibit Divorce à vinculo matrimoni for adultery or other Lawful cause and to prohibit the same to be done privately between the parties themselves without drawing the cause to publick Tribunals is to contradict Christ himself who speaks of a private Divorce by a Bill both from the Husband and the Wife according to Moses's Law and not a publick Sentence of any Judge and by the exception of uncleanness allowed the Innocent party to marry another but the Pope's Law which prohibits it doth it to no other end then to get the gains to his Courts by the Jurisdiction of Divorces and to compel the parties either to make use of his Stews whence he gathers his common Rents or to pay him a private Taxa Camerae for such Women as he will allow when he hath tied him from his Wife by the Divorce Neither doth Christ take the private Jurisdiction from the Husband or Wife of Divorce given by Moses but only prohibits to use it without a Lawful cause In the same manner did the Laws of the Romans allow the same Jurisdiction both to the Husband and the Wife as appears by many examples By the Law of Scotland Divorce for Adultery is allowed à vinculo matrimonii and the parties may marry again But by the Laws of England the parties can neither be Divorced à vinculo matrimonii nor marry again which is touched by Craig Feud 269. Apud Anglos Matrimonium ob Adulterium non dirimatur sed tantùm separatio à Thoro Tabula permittitur which is certainly clean contrary to the Law of God and the Doctrine of Christ Notwithstanding which our Episcopal Canons rather follow the Pope then Christ and are so outragiously oppressive on Innocent parties Can. 4.7 that in all such Divorces they order Bond and Sureties to be given not to marry again during each other's life which is as before shewen a Doctrine of Devils forbidding to marry where God hath not forbidden Of the Custom of Protestants marrying with Papists There is no Religion in the World established by any wife Legislator which he desires to perpetuate but the chief means he takes care of to effect the same is by his Law to prohibit his followers to marry with Women of another Religion for they both seduce the Fathers and the Children And while even in their Nursing and before they have learnt their Mother-tongue they will with their Milk be so far season'd with Old-wives Fables as the greatest Doctors of truth will not often-times be able all their life after to get out again Moses as to this is very strict and positive Deut. 7.3 Where speaking of the Idolatrous Nations of the Land saith Neither shalt thou make Marriages with them thy Daughter thou shalt not give unto his Son nor his Daughter shalt thou take unto thy Son for they will turn away thy Son from following me that they
may serve other gods so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against thee and destroy thee suddenly And Nehem. 13.23 It is said In those days also I saw Jews that had married Wives of Ashdod of Ammon and of Moab and their Children spake half the speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews Language but according to the Language of each people and I contended with them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off their Hair and made them swear by God saying ye shall not give your Daughters unto their Sons nor take their Daughters unto your Sons or for your selves did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things So doth Mahomet command his followers to marry only those of his Religion whom he calls True Believers and saith It is better to marry Slaves who are True Believers than great Princesses who are Vnbelievers So do the Popish Laws and Canons forbid Papists to marry Protestants under the name of Hereticks except with the Pope's Dispensation or License which is only used where he sees a fit opportunity to put such a snare about the Neck of a Protestant as the Philistines did with their Dalilah about Sampson to betray and destroy him So it appears both Jew Pope and Turk are wiser in their generation then the Children of Light The Papists make Laws and prohibit Marriage with Protestants and illegitimate their Children to make them incapable to succeed to a Papists Inheritance The Protestant sleeps and never makes so much as one Law to prohibit Marriage with Papists or to make Papist Children incapable to succeed to a Protestant Inheritance CHAP. VII Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought not to be judged by Ceremonial Laws BY the Law of the Patriarchs or Moses there were no Ceremonies instituted of Marriage and the Marriage of Abraham to Sarah his first Wife was no more then of Adam to Eve Gen. 4.1 And Adam knew Eve his Wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a Man from the Lord. And this appears Gen. 20.2 where it is said And Abraham said of Sarah his Wife she is my Sister And Abimelech King of Gerar sent and took Sarah But God came to Abimelech in a Dream by Night and said to him as Mr. Selden de jur Nat. Gent. 573. translates the Hebrew Text Ecce tu morieris propter mulierem quam accepisti nam concubuit cum ea maritus Behold thou shalt dye for the Woman which thou hast taken for her Male hath lain with her God doth not say he hath carried her to Church and shook her by the hand before a Priest or took her per verba de praesenti or that Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium but the contrary that he had married her because he had lain with her And the very same Marriage without any Ceremony doth Abraham likewise make with his second Wife Hagar Gen. 16.3 And Sarah Abraham's Wife took Hagar her Maid the Egyptian after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the Land and gave her to her Husband Abraham to be his Wife And he went in unto Hagar and she conceived Here Hagar is made Abraham's Wife by no other Ceremony but going in unto her and her conception thereupon And besides going in unto her there is no Ceremony appointed for Marriage in the whole Law of Moses nor had the Jews any custom of carrying the Woman to Church before a Priest but the contrary When they married it was in the open Air and thought it not Lawful in any House whence they might behold the Heavens in memory of God's promise to Abraham Gen. 15.5 And he brought him forth abroad and said Look now towards Heaven and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy Seed be But admit Moses had made as many Ceremonial Laws for Marriage as he did for Sacrifices admit the Jews had superstitiously observed as many more by their Customs and Traditions yet were it to no purpose for both Ceremonial Laws and Traditions are all now abolished by Christ Col. 2.14 Blotting out the Hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross And Math. 15.1 Where the Scribes and Pharisees asked Christ Why do thy Disciples transgress the Traditions of the Elders v. 3. He answer'd and said unto them Why do you also transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition For God commandeth saying Honour thy Father and Mother but ye say Whosoever shall say to his Father and Mother It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honour not his Father and his Mother he shall be free Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your Tradition And vers 9. But in vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Here is the very same thing done by Bishops which was done by the Scribes and Pharisees for they on a Ceremonial Form of words used by Children gave them liberty not to honour their Father And the Bishops on a Ceremonial Form of words used by the reputed Father per verba de praesenti presently make the Child honour him who is not his Father nor begat him and if such Ceremonial Form of words be not used and a Certificate of the Bishop thereof then they command the Child not to honour the Father who begat him and command the true Father to illegitimate and abdicate his Child which was truly begotten And this they do either by the Ceremonial Law and Canons or Traditions of Popes But if both Ceremonial Laws and Traditions of Moses and Jews are abolished by Christ and by the Moral Law of God of honouring the Father much more are the Ceremonial Laws and Traditions of Popes and Bishops abolished by the same Moral Law I shall only mention a word more of the abolishing of the Ceremonials by the Testimony of the Popish Writers themselves who though in their works they keep alive all the Ceremonials of Moses's Law whence they can male profit yet in words and Doctrine they so far confess them abolished that they say it were a deadly sin to use them Aquinas therefore on the Question concludes Ceremonialia adeo sunt evacuata ut non solum sunt mortua sed mortifera Judicialia sunt quidem mortua quia non habent vim obligandi non tamen sunt mortifera quia siquis Princeps in regno suo ordinaret illa judicialia observari non peccaret nisi forte hoc modo observarentur vel observari mandarentur tanquam habentia vim obligandi ex veteris legis institutione talis enim intentio observandi esset mortifera The Ceremonial Laws are so utterly void that they are not only dead but deadly and the Judicials are dead but not deadly because if any Prince in his Kingdom will command those judicials to be observed he