Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	account_n	divine_a	great_a	208	4	2.0717	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59100	Tracts written by John Selden of the Inner-Temple, Esquire ; the first entituled, Jani Anglorvm facies altera, rendred into English, with large notes thereupon, by Redman Westcot, Gent. ; the second, England's epinomis ; the third, Of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdictions of testaments ; the fourth, Of the disposition or administration of intestates goods ; the three last never before extant.; Selections. 1683	Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.; White, Robert, 1645-1703.; Selden, John, 1584-1654. Jani Anglorum facies altera. English.; Selden, John, 1584-1654. England's epinomis.; Selden, John, 1584-1654. Of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdiction of testaments.	1683 (1683)	Wing S2441; ESTC R14343	196,477	246

is ycleped Dis the Founder of the Celtick Colonies stuffing up odd Patcheries of Story to entertain and abuse the Reader Now this I thought fit by the by not to conceal that all that space which is bounded with the River Rhine the Alpes the Mediterranean Sea the Pyrenean Hills and lastly the Gascoin and the British Oceans was formerly termed Celtogalatia nay that P●olomy hath comprized all Europe under the name of Celtica Well as the Commentary of Annius has it This Samothes was Brother to Gomar and Tubal by their Father Japhet from whom first the Britans then the Gauls were called Samothei and especially the Philosophers and Divines that were his followers And out of Laertius he tells us For it is evident that among the Persians the Magi flourished among the Babylonians and Assyrians the Chaldeans were famous among the Celts and Gauls the Druids and those who were called Samothei who as Aristotle in his Magick and Sotion in his Three and Twentieth Book of Successions do witness were men very well skilled in Laws Divine and Humane and upon that account were much addicted to Religion and were for that reason termed Samothei These very words you meet with in Annius The name of Laertius is pretended and the beginning of his Volume concerning the Lives of Philosophers Why then let us read Laertius himself and amongst the Celts and Gauls saith he the Semnothei as saith Aristotle in his Book of Magick and Sotion in his Three and Twentieth of Succession Concerning the Samothei any other wayes there is not so much as one syllable That they were men well skilled in Laws Divine and Humane or that they had their name given them upon that account only the Latin and foisted Edition of B. Brognol the Venetian has told us whereas in truth in all the ancient Greek Copies of Laertius which that great Scholar Harry Stephen saw and consulted with and he sayes he perused Eight or Nine there is no mention at all made of that business And yet for all that I cannot perswade my self that it was only for want of care or by meer chance that this slipt into the Glosses It does appear that there have been able Lawyers and Master Philosophers not only among the Greeks the Gauls and those of Italy but also among the Northern Nations however Barbarous Witness the Druids among us and among the Goths as Jornandes tells us besides Cosmicus one Diceneus who being at once King of Men and Priest of Phoebus did together with Natural Philosophy and other parts of good Learning transmit to posterity a Body of Laws which they called Bellagines that is By-Laws There are some who in Laertius read Samothei which is a device of those men who with too much easiness they are Isaac Casaubon's words that I may say no worse suffer themselves to be led by the Nose by that counterfeit Berosus CHAP. II. An Account of the Semnothei Why so called the opinion of H. Stephen and of the Author Old Heroes and Philosophers went by the names of Demy-gods The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Venerable Goddesses the same as Eumenides dispensers of Justice And by Plutarch and Orpheus they are set for Civil Magistrates Judges in Scripture so called Elohim i. e. Gods These Semnai theai the same as Deae Matres in an old British Inscription ANd indeed if the Samothei had any thing to do with truth or the Semnothei any thing to do with the ancient Law of the Celts in as much as they write that Britany was once in subjection to the Celtick Kings I should judge it not much beside the design of my intended Method to inquire into the name and nature of them both But they being both one and t'other past all hope except such a one as Lucian returning from the Inhabitants of the Sun or those of the Moon would write their History to speak of them would be more than to lose ones labour I dare not to say much of them I imagine sayes Harry Stephen they were so called for having the Gods often in their mouths and that in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Worshipful Gods or for that they themselves were accounted amongst men as a kind of Worshipful Gods but writes he this latter I do not take to be so likely as the former But say I for my part if I might venture my opinion against the judgement of so great a person I guess this latter to be the likelier of the two That the old Heroes went by the names of Gods is a thing we read every where nor did Antiquity grudge the bestowal of this honour even upon Philosophers Not upon Amphiaraus the Prophet not upon Aesculapius not upon Hippocrates renowned Physicians they are reckoned among the middle sort of Gods Thus Plato also was accounted by Antistius Labeo for a Demy-god and Tyrtamus for his Divine eloquence had the name of Theophrastus that is God-like Speaker given him by his Master Aristotle No wonder then if thereupon thence forward great Philosophers were called Semnothei and as it were Worshipful Gods These instances incline me whilst I only take a view of their Philosophy whom if either the authority of Annius or the interpretation of Brognol had sufficiently and fairly made out to have been also at the same time Students and Masters of Law I should hardly stick almost to affirm that I had found out in what places the true natural spring and source both of their name and as I may say of their delegated power is to be met with For I have it in Pausanias forbear your flouts because I waft over into Greece from whence the most ancient Customs both Sacred and Prophane of the Gentiles came I say in Pausanias the most diligent searcher of the Greek Antiquities I meet upon Mars his Hill at Athens and also in his Achaicks or Survey of Achaia with Chappels of the Goddesses whom the Athenians styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Worshipful He himself also in his Corinthiacks makes mention of a Grove set thick with a sort of Oaks on the left side of Asopas a River in Sicyon a Countrey of Peloponnesus where there stood a little Chappel of the Goddesses whom the Athenians termed Semnai the Sicyonians called Eumenides The story of Orestes and the Eumenides or Furies that haunted him is known to every body nor can you tell me of any little smatterer in Poetry who doth not know that they together with Adrastia Ramnissia Nemesis and other Goddesses of the same stamp are pretended to be the Avengers of Villanies and continually to assist Jupiter the great God in punishing the wicked actions of Mortals They were black ones that met with Orestes but that there were white ones too to whom together with the Graces the Ancients paid their Devotions the same Pausanias has left written in his Survey of Arcadia I let pass that in the same Author she whom some called Erinnys that

salute and own him King He after he had built New Troy that is London gave Laws to his Citizens and Subjects those such as the Trojans had or a Copy of theirs A matter of Six hundred years after Dunvallo Molmutius being King ordained my Authors besides Jeoffry of Monmouth are Ralph of Chester in his Polychronicon and Florilegus that their Ploughs Temples and Roads that led to Cities should have the priviledge to be places of refuge But because some time after there arose a difference concerning the Roads or High-wayes they being not distinguished by certain Limits and Bounds King Belin Son of the foresaid Molmutius to remove all doubt caused to be made throughout the Island four Royal High-wayes to which that priviledge might belong to wit the Fosse or Dike Watlingstrete Ermingstrete and Ikeniltstrete But our Learned Countrey-man and the great Light of Britan William Camden Clarenceaux King at Arms is of opinion these Cause-wayes were cast up by the Romans a thing that Tacitus Bede and others do more than intimate Moreover so sayes Jeoffry he ordained those Laws which were called Molmutius his Laws which to this very time are so famed amongst the English Forasmuch as amongst other things which a long time after Gildas set down in writing he ordained that the Temples of the Gods and that Cities should have that respect and veneration that whatsoever runagate Servant or guilty person should fly to them for refuge he should have pardon in the presence of his enemy or prosecutor He ordained also That the Wayes or Roads which led to the aforesaid Temples and Cities as also the Ploughs of Husbandmen should be confirmed by the same Law Afterwards having reigned Forty years in peace he dyed and was buried in the City of London then called Troynovant near the Temple of Concord by which Temple there are not wanting those who understand that Illustrious Colledge on the Bank of Thames consecrated to the Study of our Common Law now called the Temple and which he himself had built for the confirmation of his Laws At this rate Jeoffry tells the story but behold also those things which Polydore Virgil hath gathered out of ancient Writers whereof he wanted no store He first used a Golden Crown appointed Weights and Measures for selling and buying of things punisht Thieves and all mischievous sorts of men with the greatest severity made a great many High wayes and gave order how broad they should be and ordained by Law that the right of those Wayes belonged only to the Prince and set dreadful Penalties upon their heads who should violate that right alike as upon theirs who should commit any misdemeanour in those wayes Moreover that the Land might not lye barren nor the people be frequently oppressed or lessened through Dearth or want of Corn if Cattle alone should possess the Fields which ought to be tilled by men he appointed how many Ploughs every County should have and set a penalty upon them by whose means that number should be diminished And he made a Law That Labouring Beasts which attended the Plough should not be distrained by Officers nor assigned over to Creditors for money that was owing if the Debtor had any other Goods left Thus much Polydore CHAP. V. A brief Account of Q. Regent Martia and of Merchenlage whether so called from her or from the Mercians Annius again censured for a Forger and his Berosus for a Fabulous Writer THe Female Government of Martia Widow to King Quintiline who had undertaken the Tuition of Sisillius Son to them both he being not as yet fit for the Government by reason of his Nonage found out a Law which the Britons called the Martian Law This also among the rest I tell you but what Jeoffry of Monmouth tells me King Alfred translated which in the Saxon Tongue he called Merchenlage Whereas nevertheless in that most elaborate Work of Camden wherein he gives account of our Countrey Merchenlage is more appositely and fitly derived from the Mercians and they so called from the Saxon word Mearc that is a Limit Bound or Border These are the Stories which Writers have delivered to us concerning those times which were more ancient than the History of the Romans but such as are of suspected o● doubtful that I may not say of no credit at all Among the more Learned there is hardly any Critick who does not set down Annius in the list of Forgers And should one go to draw up the account of Times and to observe that difference which is so apparent in that Berosus of Viterbium from Sacred Scriptures and the Monuments of the Hebrews one would perhaps think that he were no more to be believed than another of the same name who from a perpendicular position of the wandring Stars to the Center of the World in the Sign of Cancer adventured to foretel that all things should be burnt and from a like Congress of them in Capricorn to say there would be an universal Deluge The story is in Seneca CHAP. VI. The story of Brutus canvast and taken to be a Poetick Fiction of the Bards Jeoffry of Monmouth's credit called in question Antiquaries at a loss in their judgements of these frivolous stories SOme have in like manner made enquiry concerning our British History and stumbled at it From hence we had Brutus Dunvallo and Queen Martia There are some both very Learned and very Judicious persons who suspect that that story is patched up out of Bards Songs and Poetick Fictions taken upon trust like Talmudical Traditions on purpose to raise the British name out of the Trojan ashes For though Antiquity as one has it is credited for a great witness yet however 't is a wonder that this Brutus who is reported to have killed his Father with an Arrow unluckily aimed and to have been fatal to his Mother at her very delivery of him for which reason Richard Vitus now after so many Ages makes his true name to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Mortal should be mentioned by none of the Romans a wonder I say that the Latin Writers should not be acquainted with the name of a Latin Prince who gave both Name and Government to Britany Did Euemerus Messenius alone ever since the World began sail to the Panchoans and the Triphyllians Indeed it is an ordinary thing for Poets to ingraft those whom they celebrate in their Poems into Noble Stocks and Illustrious Families and by the assistance of their Muses heightning every thing above the truth to feign and devise a great many stories And what else were the Bards as Athenaeus tells us out of Possidonius but Poets reciting mens praises in song How many things are there in that Fabulous Age which in Joseph Scaliger's account would more aptly be called the Heroick Age of the World I mean down from that much talked of Deluge of Pyrrha to the beginning of Iphitus his Olympiads how many idle stories are there mixt

with true ones and afterwards drest up and brought upon the stage Very many Nations sayes Trithemius as well in Europe as in Asia pretend they took their original from the Trojans to whom I have thought good to lend so much faith as they shall be able to perswade me of truth by sufficient testimony They are frivolous things which they bring concerning their own Nobility and Antiquity having a mind as it were openly to boast as if there had been no people in Europe before the destruction of Troy and as if there had been no one among the Trojans themselves of ignoble birth He who made the Alphabetical Index to Jeoffry of Monmouth who was Bishop of St. Asaph too as he is printed and put forth by Ascensius propt up the Authors credit upon this account that as he sayes he makes no mention any where in his Book of the Franks by reason forsooth that all those things almost which he has written of were done and past before the Franks arrival in France This was a slip surely more than of memory Go to Jeoffry himself and in his Nineteenth Chapter of his first Book you meet with the Franks in the time of Brennus and Belinus among the Senones a people of France a gross misreckoning of I know not how many hundred years For the Franks are not known to have taken up their quarters on this side the River Rhine till some Centuries of years after Christs Incarnation For howbeit by Poetick licence and Rhetorical figure Aeneas be said to have come to the Lavinian Shores which had not that name till some time after yet it were much better that both in Verse and Prose those things which appertain to History should be expressed according to that form of Ovid where at the burning of Rhemus his Funeral Pile he sayes Tunc Juvenes nondum facti flevere Quirites that is The young men then not yet Quirites made Wept as the body on the Pile they laid And at this rate Jeoffry might and ought to have made his Translation if he would have been a faithful Interpreter But as to our Brutus whence the Britans Saxo whence the Saxons Bruno whence those of Brunswick Freso whence those of Friseland and Bato whence the Batavians had their rise and name take notice what Pontus Heuterus observes as others have done before him Songs or Ballads sayes he and Rhymes made in an unlearned Age with ease obtruded falshoods for truths upon simple people or mingling falsehoods with truths imposed upon them For three or four hundred years ago there was nothing that our Ancestors heard with greater glee than that they were descended from the adulterous Trojans from Alexander of Macedonia the Overthrower of Kingdoms from that Manqueller Hercules of Greece or from some other disturber of the World And indeed that is too true which he sayes Mensur aque fictis Crescit auditis aliquid novus adjicit auctor which in plain English speaks this sence Thus Stories nothing in the telling lose The next Relater adding still to th' News But I will not inlarge To clear these points aright Antiquaries who are at see-saw about them will perhaps eternally be at loss like the Hebrews in their mysterious debates for want of some Elias to come and resolve their doubts CHAP. VII What the Trojan Laws were which Brutus brought in That concerning the Eldest Sons Inheriting the whole Estate confuted In the first times there were no Positive Laws yet mention made of them in some very ancient Authors notwithstanding a remark of some ancient Writers to the contrary WEll Suppose we grant there was such a Person ever in the World as Brutus He made Laws they say and those taken out of the Trojan Laws but what I pray were those Trojan Laws themselves There is one I know well enough they speak of concerning the Prerogative of the eldest Sons by which they inherited the whole Right and Estate of their deceased Father Herodotus writes it of Hector Son and Heir to King Priam and Jeoffry mentions it but did this Law cross the Sea with Brutus into Brittany How then came it that the Kingdom was divided betwixt the three Brothers Locrinus Camber and Albanactus betwixt the two Ferrix and Porrix betwixt Brennus and Belinus and the like of some others How came it that in a Parliament of Henry the Eighth provision was made that the Free-holds of Wales should not thence-forward pass according to that custom which they call Gavelkind And anciently if I be not mistaken most Inheritances were parted among the Children as we find in Hesiods works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. We had already parted the Estate And to the same purpose many like passages there are in old Poets and in Holy Writ But as I said what are those Trojan Laws Perhaps the same with those by which Nephelococcygia the City of the Birds in Aristophanes or as we use to say Vtopia is Governed The gravest Writers do acknowledge that those most ancient times were for the most part free from positive Laws The people so says Justin were held by no Laws The Pleasures and Resolves of their Princes past for Laws or were instead of Laws Natural Equity like the Lesbian Rule in Aristotle being adapted applied and fitted to the variety of emergent quarrels a●● strifes ordered over-ruled and decided all Controversies And indeed at the beginning of the Roman State as Pomponius writes the people resolved to live without any certain Law or Right and all things were governed by the hand and power of the King For they were but at a little distance from the Golden Age when vindice nullo Sponte suâ sine lege fidem rectumque colebant That is to say when People did not grudge To be plain honest without Law or Judge That which the Heresie of the Chiliasts heretofore affirmed concerning the Sabbatick or seventh Millenary or thousand years of the World And those Shepherds or Governors of the people to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Into whose hand Jove trusts his Laws and Scepter for Command did Govern them by the guidance of vertue and of those Laws which the Platonicks call the Laws of second Venus Not out of the ambition of Rule as St. Austin hath it but out of duty of Counsel nor out of a domineering pride but out of a provident tenderness Do you think the Trojans had any other Laws Only except the worship of their Gods and those things which belong to Religion It was duty says Seneca not dignity to Reign and Govern And an Eye and a Scepter among the Aegyptians were the absolute Hieroglyphicks of Kings What that there is not so much as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Law to be met with in those old Poets Orpheus Musaeus or Homer who was about an hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Troy

many and is famous for it in our Histories being preserved safe from burning and proved innocent from the Crime There were two sorts of watery Ordeal or tryal by Water to wit cold or scalding hot The party was thrown into the cold water as in some places at this day Witches are used he who did not by little and little sink to the bottom was condemned as guilty of the Crime as one whom that Element which is the outward sign in the Sacrament of Regeneration did not admit into its bosome As to scalding Water ones arm in that manner thrust in up to the elbow made a discovery of the truth and Aelstan a Monk of Abendon afterward Bishop of Shirburn thrusting in his bare Hand into a boiling Cauldron shewed himself with some pride to his Abbot But that they say that Rusticks or Vassals only were tryed by Water for Water is ascribed to the earthly and ignoble nature Fire to the heavenly so that from the use of Fire peculiar to man Firmianus Lactantius hath fetcht an argument for the Immortality of the Soul that this is not altogether so true is made out by that one example of John a Noble and Rich old man who in the time of King Henry the Second when being charged with the death of his Brother the Earl of Ferrers he could not acquit himself by the Watery Tryal was hang'd on a Gallows Whence or by what means both these Customs were brought in among Christians 't is none of my business to make an over strait inquiry I remember that Fire among the Ancients was accounted purgative and there is one in a Tragedy of Sophocles intitled Antigone who of his own accord profest to King Creon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in his hands be red-hot gads would kéep And over burning gleads would bare-foot créep to shew himself innocent as to the Burial of Polynices I pass by in silence that Pythagorical opinion which placeth Fire in the Centre of the Universe where Jupiter hath his Prison which Fire some however the Peripateticks stiffly oppose it would have to be in plain terms the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who all things overlooks and all things hears Yet I shall not omit this that in the holy Bible the great and gracious God hath of a truth discovered himself to mortal conception in the very name of Fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a thing agreeable to Divinity as saith John Reuchlin and that S. Paul hath according to the Psalmists mind stiled the Ministers of God a flame of fire And indeed to abuse the holy Scriptures by mis-interpreting them is a custom too ancient and too too common Homer and Virgil both sing of Imperjuratam Stygiamque paludem Dii cujus jurare timent fallere numen that is Th' unperjur'd Stygian lake Whose name the Gods do fear in vain to take We read of the Infants of the Celts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Try'd in the streams of sacred Flood Whether of right or of base blood as it is in the Greek Epigrams of the fountains of Sardinia in Solinus of the moist Februa or purifications by water in Ovids Fastorum and of those Rivers that fell from Heaven and their most wonderful and hidden natures among Natural Philosophers But most of these things were not known peradventure in our Ordeals Yet Martin Del Rio a man of various Reading and exquisite Learning hath in his Magical Inquiries offered a conjecture that the tryal by Water crept into use from a paltry imitation of the Jews Cup of Jealousie Truth is a great many instances both of this way of trying by Water and of that by Fire are afforded by the Histories of the Danes Saxons Germans Franks Spaniards in a word of the whole Christian World An quia cunctarum concordia semina rerum Sunt duo discordes Ignis Vnda dei Junxerunt elementa Patres was it saith the Poet 'Cause the two diff'ring Gods Alwayes at ods That of Water that of Fire Which yet in harmony conspire The seeds of all things fitly joyn'd Therefore our Fathers have these two combin'd Or was it because that the Etymologie of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hashamaim that is Heaven for the Heavens themselves were the feigned Gods of the Gentiles some are pleased with the deriving it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esh i. e. Fire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maim i. e. Water Let some more knowing Janus tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For my part I shall not this game pursue Why should I lose my time and labour too The superstitions and fopperies the rites and usages the lustrations and purifyings the Prayers and Litanies and the solemn preparations in consecrating and conjuring the Water c. you have in Will. Lambard in his Explications of Law terms and in Matthew Parker Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in his Antiquities of the Brittish Church Both of them together with that other of single Combat or Duel for that also was reckoned among the Ordeals were judged by the Church of Rome to be impious customs and it is long since that they have been laid aside and not put in practice among the common ordinary wayes of peoples purging and clearing themselves Well now let me come back to my own Country again and return to Northampton CHAP. XVII Other Laws Of entertaining of strangers An Uncuth a Gust a Hogenhine what of him who confesseth the Murder c. Of Frank pledge Of an Heir under age Of a Widows Dowry Of taking the Kings fealty Of setting a time to do homage Of the Justices duty Of their demolishing of Castles Of Felons to be put into the Sheriffs hands Of those who have departed the Realm 68. LEt it be lawful for no man neither in Borough nor in Village or place of entertainment to have or keep in his house beyond one night any stranger whom he will not hold to right that is answer for his good behaviour unless the person entertain'd shall have a reasonable Essoin or excuse which the Master or Host of the house is to shew to his neighbours and when the Guest departs let him depart in presence of the neighbours and in the day time Hither belongs that of Bracton He may be said to be of ones family who shall have lodged with another for the space of three nights in that the first night he may be called Uncuth i. e. Unknown a Stranger but the second night Gust i.e. a Guest or Lodger the third night Hogenhine I read Hawan man i. e. in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latin Familiaris one of the family 69. If any one shall be seised for Murder or for Theft or Robbery or Forgery and be knowing thereof i. e. shall confess it or for any other Felony which he shall have done before the Provost the Master or Bailiff of the Hundred

all such like omitted yet upon that common Epithet of Agamemnon in Homer which saluteth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Shepherd of the people where the phrase of Jove's free gift to Princes and Judges of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very frequent the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lex being long since observed not only to be not found in any of his works but also to have been of later birth than his Age permitted unless the contingency which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming from the same Theme both by him and Hesiod remembred hath with it perswade the contrary and upon the ordinary phrases in Virgil of Jura vocatis dare populis and such like applied to Trojan Princes we may with probability enough conjecture that their Laws being as the Platonists term it secundae Veneris were alwayes closely folded rather within the treasury of his breast which was only therefore greater than other because he seemed best of them all than published in enduring Tables to be observed as dumb Magistrates Et quidem initio Civitatis saith Pompinus populus sine certâ lege sine certo jure agere instituit omniaque manu Regis gubernabantur But from this d●gression into the way again One of this Succession Dunvallo Molmutius instituted as they write ut aratra templa viaeque ad Civitates ducentes immunitate confugii gauderent Verum quia succedente tempore de viis cum non essent certis limitibus distinctae orta esset dissensio Belinus Rex filius praedicti Molmutii ad subducendum omne ambiguum Quatuor regales vias omni privilegio munitas per Insulam sterni fecit Fossam scilicet Watling streete Erming-streete Ikenild-streete which rather by Camden's Judgement were the Romans works as out of Tacitus Beda and other Testimony he collecteth Hic leges meaning Dunvallo saith Jeoffrey of Monmouth quae Molmutinae dicebantur inter Britones statuit quae usque ad hoc tempus inter Anglos celebrantur Statuit siquidem inter caetera quae multo post tempore beatus Gildas scripsit ut templa Deorum Civitates talem dignitatem haberent ut quicunque Fugitivus sive reus ad ea confugeret veniam coram inimico suo haberet Statuit etiam ut viae quae ad praedicta templa Civitates ducebant necnon aratra colonorum eadem lege confirmarentur Of the Gynaecocracy of Martia Wife to King Guinthelin a Woman very learned thus speaks the same Author Inter multa inaudita quae proprio ingenio invenerat invenit legem quam Britones Martianam vocaverunt Hanc etiam Rex Aluredus inter caeteras transtulit quam Saxonicâ linguâ Marchenlage vocavit which name by our great English Antiquary is rather deduced from the Mercii whose limits meaepc in Saxon signifying a limit adjoyned in some part to all the other Kingdoms of the Germans here established and they thence so denominated I could wish for a sight of Jupiter's Diphtere or an Oracle from Apollo that so resolution might be had touching the certainty of these reports whether fabulous or sealed with the stamp of a true History The main Authors are that Chaldee Priest and the Arthurian Jeoffrey both exceedingly suspected but especially the first by the penetrating Judgements of most learned men But admitting them as your Mercurial Spirit shall move you you have a fair passage from these Mythick reports selected out of Bardish Hymns unto most allowed truths of authentick Historians CHAP. II. Out of Roman Histories from Julius Caesar to the period of Rome's Empire in this Land JVLIVS CAESAR who first of the Romans set foot in this little World divided from the greater discovered among the Gauls their order of Government and form of deciding controversies by Law which was wholly the office of the Druides then being as it seems the Togata Militiae of the State Their Discipline he affirms was first found in this Isle and hence transferred to the old Gauls They hither always sent their youth as to a Seminary of that Learning I. Illi rebus divinis Caesar's words intersunt sacrificia publica ac privata procurant religiones interpretantur II. De omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt the pontifical Colledge of old Rome after the Twelve Tables received did as much si quod est admissum facinus si caedes facta si de haereditate de finibus controversia est iidem decernunt praemia poenasque constituunt III. Si quis privatus aut populus eorum decreto non stetit sacrificiis interdicunt haec poena yet it was but like the minor excommunicatio used in the Christian Church apud eos est gravissima IV. Quibus ita est interdictum ii numero impiorum ac sceleratorum habentur ab iis omnes decedunt aditum eorum sermonemque defugiunt these consequents make it as the greater Excommunication ne quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant neque iis petentibus jus redditur the self same in proportion remains yet with us in practice neque honos ullus communicatur V. Druidibus praeest unus qui summam inter eos habet authoritatem VI. Hoc mortuo si quis ex reliquis excellit dignitate succedit ac si sint pares plures suffragio adlegitur VII Druides à bello abesse consueverunt neque tributa una cum reliquis p●ndunt our Clergy in effect hath retained as much Militiae vacationem omniumque rerum habent immunitatem VIII Such large Priviledges occasioned increase of their Scholars Qui magnum saith he numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur Itaque nonnulli annos vicenos in disciplinâ permanent neque fas esse existimant ea literis mandare cum in reliquis ferè rebus publicis privatisque rationibus Graecis literis utantur Hence some infer that the Tongue of the old Gauls was Greek but clearly that the Druides wrote in it I am not perswaded to either Graecae literae is not always Latine for the Greek Tongue So might we say that the Syriack Testament were perfect Hebrew because Literis Hebraicis exaratur As for instruments of commerce written at Marsile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Strabo reporteth it proves only that a Greek Colony for it was from the Phocians used Greek But Caesar also speaks of Tables found in the Helvetians Tents Graecis literis exaratas We may interpret both for the Character only which perhaps even the Graecians thence borrowed Of this place of the Druides it is the censure of a great Doctor the Learned Hotoman that Graecis hath crept in through fault of Transcribers Humeris did in another place in the same Caesar so thrust it self unto Dextris as Lipsius makes apparent who is clear of opinion that the whole context of his Commentaries hath suffered much alteration and spoil by Julius Caesar his interpolation Nay some think they were never since the first Copy