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
would not cause the poor Man to be paid for his shoulder of Mutton without all that ado but I after understood that were not the Forms mixt with so many such absurdities there would be little work for them at the Bar. Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into the Children of the Husband if he is within the four Seas at the time of their begetting and no probation admitted to the contrary And of Intails on Marriages Husband within the four Seas no probation admitted that the Children were not his Fiction and Falsity allowed against Truth That no probation is admitted to the contrary appears 18. E. 4.30 where Littleton says That if a Man marries a Woman great with Child by another Man whether he knows it or not knows it and within three days after she is delivered of the Child this Child is legitimate and the true Son of the Man that married her And this by a Fiction in Law and with this agrees Coke Com. 244. So here is a Father made not by god but by the Father of lies and a false Child made Legitimate and the true Child of a Father who never begot him and the true Child if he begot any before he was married without a Priest and Temple made illegitimate and a false yea no Child to him who begot him and all this held very good and sound Divinity If marriage of the great bellied Woman be in facie Ecclesiae a brazen facies Ecclesiae it must be where the Devil gives God the Fiction the truth the lie And Coke and Littleton hold it too for good Law I wonder whose Law they mean and so stiff they are in it that Coke Com. 244. saith No proof shall be admitted to the contrary so here 't is not stabitur praesumptione donec probetur in contrarium but it is the sin of Presumption from which the two Fathers of the Law do not pray as the Patriarch David did Psal 19.13 Keep thy Servant also from presumptuous Sins let them not have Dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression One of them at least defends the sin of Presumption so high that he saith 'T is presumption Juris de jure non admittitur probatio in contrarium and in fictione juris semper est equitas a meer repugnancy and contradiction which never came from the Law of God nor is consistent with it as appears Psal 96.13 For he cometh to judg the Earth he shall Judg the World with righteousness and the People with his truth And not with fictions and much less with lies so punctually forbidden James 3.14 Lie not against the truth and so severely threatned Revel 21.8 All liars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone And Revel 19.20 The false Prophet is to be cast in amongst them who though he seems to be the greatest lier in the World yet in none greater then in this his lie of Legitimation against which must be admitted no proof to the contrary The Law of Legitimation is further That if a Woman Elope or run from her Husband with an Adulterer and live in Adultery with him and have a Child by the Adulterer if her Husband be within the four Seas when 't was begot this Child shall be Legitimate and shall be adjudged the Husband's Child and no probation shall be admitted to the contrary as appears 43. E. 3.19.7 H. 4 9.44 E. 3.10 1. H. 6.7.19 H. 6.17 Coke Com. 244. A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke concerning the transubstantiation of Children of Parents within the four Seas And of the Law of Intails When a Common Lawyer hath for his Fees in a Deed of Jointure very formally settled Lands Messuages Houses Tenements and Hereditaments c. To have and to hold the said Messuages Houses Lands Tenements and Hereditaments with their and every their Appurtenances unto the said A. B. and C. D. and to the Heirs of their two Bodies lawfully begotten and the Priest on Banes or Licence as formally per verba de praesenti contracted the said A. B. and C. D. which he calls Marriage You shall next hear what Heirs the Priest and Lawyer confederated to do their Faeminine Client a good turn by their Fictions whereat they are both good one will expound by the Gospel and the other interpret by the Law to be lawfully begotten of the Body of this Woman aforesaid First Littleton 18. E. Fol. 30. hath said If a Man marry a Woman great with Child by another Man and within three days after she is delivered of the Child this Child he saith is a Mulier that is to say Legitimate that is to say lawfully begotten of the Body of the said Woman by the said Man that married her Yet he saith In putting the case he was begot by another man and makes a very great Fiction in the premises and contradiction in the conclusion of his Case but let it be what it will Coke Com. 244. seconds him and thinks Littleton hath spoken over conscionably or wasts time to allow three days for cannot a Woman of full and lawful Age though she sup a Virgin if she lie with the Law by her side that Night as well have a Child next Day by dinner as if she stayed three whole days he therefore takes off two of the unnnecessary days and says plainly reserving to the Case of Littleton on the Margent That if the Issue is born a Month or a Day after Marriage between Parties of full lawful Age the Child is Legitimate that is as aforesaid lawfully begot And the reason he gives is Quia filiatio non potest probari from which Premises he makes three Conclusions First Ergo probatio non admittitur in contrarium Secondly Ergo if a Man marry a Woman got with Child by another Man and he is born but one day after the Marriage this Child is lawfully begot by the married Man Thirdly Ergo if a man is on or within the four Seas that is within the Jurisdiction of the King of England and a Child in his absence is begot by another Man on the Body of his Mirmaid he left at home this was lawfully begot by the Man on the four Seas Let any Logician if he dare deny the Sequel for here are two Aristostles for the Law but he hath but one for his Logick And there is a greater Aristotle too for the Gospel the Bishop himself to second my Lord Coke Bishop's Certificate Form hath given his Certificate in his Book of Entries Fol. 181. And the foresaid Bishop by his Letters Patents and Close hath certified to the Justices here That he by virtue of the foresaid Writ to him directed Convocating before him such as of right are to be Convocated hath diligently enquired and certified the truth of the matter that in the Chappel of B. in the County of G. in the
hath done him one wrong to do him another but in justice to be the readier to make the Father who injured him to make satisfaction by adjudging him right of Aliment and Succession to his Estate for as it is inconsistent with Mercy and the highest Cruelty Afflictionem addere afflicto so is it with Justice because the Coat is taken from an innocent to take his Cloak also or to make one injury done the warrant to do another No such word as illegitimation nor no such deed in the whole Scripture Fourthly Because there is no foundation for this unnatural Cruelty of illegitimation or indeed worse then beastly exposing Children to be destroyed in the whole Scripture neither is there such a word as Bastard in the whole Original Old Testament or New Hebrew Text or Septuagint but the same is falsely Translated by Papists and Bishops to deceive the World as shall be more fully shewn when I after come to the point of false-translation of all words concerning Marriage Fifthly All the examples of Scripture of unlawful Marriages yet Legitimate and make the Children Successors to their Fathers in such unlawful Marriages as Lot begot Moab and Ammon by Incest on his own Daughters yet were Moab and Ammon Legitimate Successors to their incestuous Father Judah begot Pharez by Incest on his Daughter in Law yet was he Legitimate Successor to his incestuous Father David got Solomon on an Adulteress with whom he had committed Adultery in her Husband's life time and kill'd her Husband to obtain yet did not this illegitimate Solomon but he Succeeded to his Father And according to the Law of Anastasius and the Law of God and Nature whether the marriage were lawful or unlawful yet the Law was amongst the whole Nation of the Israelites and Jews That all natural Children were Legitimate Illegitimation of Children shews Fathers worse then Pagans Insidels wild-beasts Monsters Serpents and Succeeded to their Fathers and the same Law was amongst the Aegyptians Athenians Phoenicians Persians Turks Tartars and Mahometans who though Infidels have been better then such counterfeit Christians who make Laws to illegitimate and not provide for their own Children O ye Jews Turks Heathens Pagans Infidels O ye wild Beasts in your Dens O you Serpents in the Desarts Oh ye Monsters in the Sea arise and witness against Popes and Bishops that your Dens Desarts and raging Seas are not such Hells as the Limbus puerorum of illegitimation Did you ever illegitimate your little Ones did ye not labour to provide for your own will you not with invincible Piety hazard your own lives in defence of your young Rise up in Judgment against these Romish wild Beasts Serpents and Monsters far more Cruel Poisonous and Monstrous then your selves who for gain teach to illegitimate starve and Murther their own self-begotten Babes before they can speak deploring their miserable Fate with weeping and wailing to be the Issue of so unnatural and cruel Parents Sixthly I shall only add a word concerning the Original cause which produced this wicked effect of illegitimation of Children which the cursed invention of Intails by the Priest of the Lands of the Husband to the Heirs of the Body of whatsoever Woman he married or certified married to the man whereby as is before mention'd the Priest by Certificate and the Woman by Secrecy had power to make Successors what Adulterous Heirs they pleased and most commonly begotten by the Priest himself to the Husbands Inheritance to cut off these Adulterous Intails the most ancient whereof we read were set up by Cecrops for the Owls of Athens and King Aegeus the natural Father of the famous Theseus was the first who invented Adoption to cut them off and accordingly Adopted his natural Son Theseus who thereby became his Successor to his Kingdom of Athens whereby the Certificate of the Bishop was abolish'd and the Supremacy of the Kingdom taken from the Priest to the King and the free disposing left to Fathers of their Estates to such Children as they acknowledged according to the deserving or undeserving of the Children After this Solon who is thought though not as wise yet to have been as great a lover of women as Solomon and to have been drawn by them into as great Idolatry for Solon as a principal peice of his Government intended to be set up by his Laws as shall be after further touched Consecrated and Founded Priests and a Temple to the Goddess Venus and endowed the same with great Revenues and Privileges and Consecrated a multitude of Curtesans to exercise their Trade and pray for the prosperity of Greece in the same And did what he could to restrain the free liberty of Adoption by Husbands whereby the Ladies were prejudiced in their power of instituting Heirs to their Husbands Estates in as free a manner as their Goddess Venus gave them leave But the more Masculine Princes both of Greece and Rome vindicated their own Power of Adoption both against the Priests and the Ladies And Anastasius without any Formality of Adoption cut off at a stroke all Feminine Intails by making all natural Children as they ought to be Legitimate which continued till as before mention'd the Strumpet Theodora and her Bishops got the Law of Anastasius repealed and Adulterous Intails again set up And the like Law was in England Fathers gave what they were bound by the Law of Nature to give to their natural Children for provision for them and they Succeeded to the same 'till the Bishops for the same ends as the Pagan and Theodoran Bishops did set up Here likewise by the Statute of Westmin 2. Cap. 2. those Feminine and Adulterous Intails have been since endeavour'd to be cut off by Fines and Recoveries But the many Inconveniences of those ways make the Remedy almost as bad as the Disease No remedy but abolishing Intails and restoring the Law of Anastasius To conclude therefore there is no way to prevent the exposing and desertion of Children by Fathers the Adulteries of Mothers and the murders of so many Infants occasion'd by this Diabolical Pontifical invention of Illegitimation as the abolishing all Intails to more Bodies then one and the restoring of that most excellent Law of Anastasius That all natural Children shall be Legitimate and the Innocent Babes be no longer punished and destroyed for the sins of the Parents Of the Law of Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium Of the Pagan Goddess Juno and the Popish Mother of St. Kentigern both got with Child without a Man Of the Lady Ann of Britain married to the bare Leg of the Embassador of the Emperour Maximilian Of the Lady Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperour married to Martianus the Lady Etheldred to two Husbands the Lady Amigunda to the Emperour Henry the Second the Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor and the Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eighth all married by Priests but not by their Husbands Intention of the mind The
the Doctrine of Christ for ab initio non fuit sic that a verbal Contract of words should pretend above the real Contract of carnal knowledg And the Lady Grey though it doth not appear but that she was otherwise a very vertuous Lady yet if she knew the truth of what is before mention'd concerning the Lady Lucy she cannot be excused in taking that Husband to her self who had already given the first pledg and made the cheif and real Contract of Marriage with another Woman and far happier might she have been if she had ascended a meaner but more lawful Bed for the Earl of Warwick at his return home from France finding by this Marriage his Embâ—ssage frustrated the Lady Bona deluded the French King abused and himself made a stale and the disgraceful Instrument of all this deeply resented and waiting his time raised an Army and by surprize took the King Prisoner and presently conveyed him to Middleton-Castle in York-shire to remain there in safe custody with the Bishop of York where if he had not by fair words and Money gotten his Keepers to permit him the recreation of Hunting and thereby means to escape he had lain at Mercy And after he was escaped and had gather'd sufficient Forces whereby he made the Earl of Warwick fly to the French King where he was honourably received yet the Earl returned again so Potent with the French joined with the great party he had in England that the King was fain to fly to Burgundy and the new advanced Queen to take Sanctuary at Westminster And though her Husband again returned and by a hazardous Battel wherein Warwick himself and many other Lords were slain he recover'd again his Kingdom yet he had so little quiet and less security that what injoyment she obtained of him was always in fear and danger of the Field and other Competitors of the Bed after a man guilty so more unhappy then her self and when she lost him by death she lived to see those Remains of him he had left her two hopeful Sons most cruelly Murther'd and for the conclusion of all her self confined to the Monastery of Bermondsie in Southwark and all her Goods confiscate by her own Son in Law Henry the Seventh yet no just cause appearing against her In which Monastery in great pensiveness within few Years she died There is a Case reported by Sir Jo. Davies and likewise mention'd by the learned Dr. Godolphin in his Repertorium Canonicum 488. to have happened in Ireland which was this G. B. Esq had Issue C. B. on the Body of J.D. whom he had never carried to Priest or Temple but his Son C. B. Desertion of a Woman after a Child for a richer in Ireland was begot by natural marriage without any Pontifical Ceremony About Sixteen Years after G. B. having found a Lady who was richer and of a greater Estate and Reputation then his first Woman by whom he had his eldest Son C. B. Marries her with assent of her Friends by whom he had Issue E. B. and died after the death of G. B. the said C. B. his reputed Son and his Mother being both left alive continued silent by the space of nine Years 'till they happened to have one of their Kindred Bishop of K. by whom they then were encouraged by new hope to obtain their Right who it seems not experienced in the Forms of Judicial Proceedings without any Libel exhibited and not Convocatis Convocandis proceeded to take the Depositions of many Witnesses to prove that the said G. B. Twenty-nine Years before had lawfully married and took to Wife the said J. D. Mother of the said C. B. And the said C. B. was the Legitimate and lawful Son and Heir of the said G. B. And these Depositions so taken the said Bishop caused to be ingrossed and reduced into the Form of a solemn Act and having put his Signiture and Seal to that Instrument delivered the same to C. B. who publish'd it and thereupon alledged himself Son and Heir to the said G. B. Hereupon an information is put into the Castle-Chamber in Ireland against the Bishop suggesting a Conspiracy to Legitimate C. B. Son and illegitimate E. B. the Daughter of the said G. B. And for this Practice the said Bishop and others were Censured This Case and the foremention'd Case of Kenne are both contrary one to another and both contrary to the Law of God In Kennes Case the wrong Heir is Legitimated by the nullifying of a lawful Marriage consummate by carnal knowledg and birth of the right Heir by Sentence of the Spiritual Jurisdiction and there the Common-Law will not releive the right Such Faith they say they are bound to give to the Spiritual Sentence whether right or wrong whether with cause or without cause until the Spiritual Judg revoke his own Sentence himself but here where a right Heir is made Legitimate by Sentence Declaratory of a lawful Marriage between the Father and Mother of the right Heir in the Castle-Chamber the Common-Law will Legitimate the wrong Heir and will give no faith to the Sentence of the Spiritual Judg if that they think it wrong so it seems the Common-Law in Westminster-Hall and the Common-Law in the Castle-Chamber are very contrary one to another as to the point of giving faith concerning Marriage and Legitimation to Spiritual Jurisdiction yet both contrary to right and destructive to the lawful Heir according to the Law of God and both give faith to Common and Canon-Law above the Supreme Law and Legislator Amongst the Greeks the manner of the Contract of Marriage was The Parties going to the Temple before the Priest the Man swore in the presence of Witnesses Se sponsam post concubitum invitum non deserturum That he would not after he should have lain with the Woman forsake her without her consent Arch. Att. 156. The like form of words in the Marriage-Contracts was used by the ancient Romans who shall rise up in Judgment against the Popes who unless Parties mumble the aforemention'd Nonsense of Verba de praesenti give Licence for Money to deceive and desert a Thousand though they have never so many Children by them and to make all Women common and to their own Priests to give example being interdicted all verbal Marriage that they may have the more liberty to abuse the real and to take and leave all they please and as oft as they please The like do the Guiny Priests who converse with the Devil and their form of Contract of Marriage is no doubt according as he will have it For the Woman is there sworn to the Man that she will not desert but the man swears not to her nor will oblige himself by any verbal Contract but is to be left as free as any Popish Priest whatsoever Desertion after deflouring hath caused Seditions and Civil Wars This deflouring and desertion was a while in fashion amongst the Roman Nobles and Patricians who
and such of them as have Propriety in Goods and Chattels Tenements and Haereditaments as Bees Ants and Squirrels leaving as they die their Hives and Honey-Hills and Corn-Holes and Nuts to their Descendents to be their Successors The Internal Readers and Witnesses in Man are the Divine faculties of the Soul Sense and Reason one doth Testifie the Fact the other the Law The Internal Judg of the Probation of both is the Conscience The Laws which they read and testifie are written in the Internal Tables of the Heart Christ expresseth the first concerning Marriage in the foresighted Text Matth. 19.5 For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and they two shall be one flesh Concerning Filiation the Law of natural affection which is writ in the heart of the Father is mention'd Psal 103.13 As the Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him And the Law of natural affection writ in the heart of the Mother is mention'd Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb As to the Law of Aliment written in the heart of the Father it is mention'd Luke 11.11 If a Son shall ask bread of any of you that is a Father will he give him a stone or if he ask a Fish will he give him a Serpent or if he shall ask an Egg will he offer him a Scorpion Lastly as to the Law of Succession written in the heart of the Father whereby all natural Sons succeeded either to the right of Primogeniture or Filial Portions the same runs through all the examples of Jews in Scripture and of Gentiles in Histories This great Law of Nature is acknowledged to be written in the Tables of the Heart by the Scripture it self Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles who have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or excusing one another So Rom. 1.26 Paul saith Women did sin against Nature Yet was there no Law of Moses nor any Law written by God or Man in Paper and Ink which particularly prohibited them but only that of Nature And that this Law of Nature can neither be changed nor abolished or dispensed with by any humane power is agreed by Philosophers Poets Divines Common and Civil Lawyers and all others except Popes who exalt themselves above God Christ and Nature and all that is called God Lex Naturae neo tolli neo abrogari potest saith Tul. de leg 205. Dionysius when his Mother being an old Woman desired of him he would get her to be married to a young Man He answer'd Kings might overthrow Civil Laws but could not the Laws of Nature Lex humana derivari debet à lege Dei sed eam perfectè persequi non Potest Aquin. Augustin In humanis Legibus nihil est justum nisi ab aeterna lege dirivatur Honesta turpia natura judicanda sunt Tul. de leg 169.6 Hobart's Reports 120. It is acknowledged that all customs and Acts of Parliament against the Laws of Nature are void for Lex naturae est lex legum the Law of Nature is the Law of God and positive Law if contrary or variant from it is the Law of Man Yelverion Justice said When a new Case comes for which there is no positive Law before we do as the Sophonisis and Civilians resort to the Law of Nature which is the reason and ground of all Laws and of that which is most beneficial for the Common-wealth make a Law quod non negatur 8 E. 4. fo 12. Claudius justly reprehends Tribonian That in compiling the Institutes of the Civil Law he omitted the Law of Nature de Ferraiis 552. But the flattering Courtier had he done so knew he must have prefixed another imperatoriam Majestatem and laid other manner of principles then placitum Principis to be the original of right he could not have then divided Title and Jurisdiction with his Master And Jupiter Proclaiming that Deus est imperator in Coelis Imperator est Deus in Terris 'T is well he claims only the Earth for now the Pope claims not only plenitudinem Terrae but Heaven too to sell to his Customers Yet the Civil Law acknowledges the Law of Nature immutable And this point of Marriage and Succession saith Lege duodecim tabularum benè humano generi prospectum est quae unam consonantiam tam in maribus quà m in foeminis Legitimis in eorum successionibus necnon in liberis observandam esse existimavit nullo discrimine in successionibus habito cum natura utrumque corpus ediderit ut maneat suis vicibus immortale alterum alterius auxilio egeat ut uno semoto alterum corrumpatur sed posteritas dum inimica utitur subtilitate non piam induxit differentiam c. Cod. lib. 6. tit 47. l. lege By the Law of the Twelve Tables it is well provided for Mankind that there should be the same rule of Successions for Males and Females and in Children and no difference to be made in their Successions seeing Nature hath brought forth the Bodies of both that they might continue in their course immortal and one need help of another and one taken away the other might be destroyed But later Ages while they use so much subtilty have made an impious difference c. Which is intended between Males and Females in Succession when Lands are Intailed to Heirs Males By which appears what opinion the Civil Law hath of Successions to such Intails to be impious because contrary to the Law of Nature The Civil Law likewise acknowledgeth that Jura Sanguinis nullo jure Civili dirimi possunt and again it follows the Law of Nature in Legitimation Si mulier quinquagenaria partum ediderit an debet hujusmodi soboles suo patri succedere haereditatem â—jus nancisci à Caesariano advocato interrogati sumus sancimus Licet mirabilis hujusmodi partus inveniatur raro contingat nihil tamen eorum quae probabiliter à natura nascuntur esse producta respui sed omne jus quod ex quacunque Lege liberis praestitum est hoc merum atque immutilatum hujusmodi filiis vel filiabus servari in omnibus succâ—ssionibus sive ex testamento sive ab intestata Et summatim non absimiles aliis fiant in quos similes natura efficit Cod. lib. 6. tit 47. si major A question is proposed us by the Advocate of Caesar if a Woman above fifty bring forth a Child whether such Issue shall be Successor to the Father in the whole inheritance And we Decree though it be an admirable Case and rarely happens yet we ought not to reject any thing known to be probably produced by Nature but all the right which by any Law is given to
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
Lady Ann of Britain Married to the bare Leg of the Embassador of the Emperor Maximilian p. 86 Of the Lady Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperor Married to Martianus the Lady Etheldred to two Husbands the Lady Amigunda to the Emperor Henry the Second the Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor the Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eight all Married by Priests but not by their Husband ib. Of the Custom of desertion of Virgins after deslowring p. 88 Of the desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth for the Lady Jane Grey and the infelicity followed thereon to them and their Children ib. Of the like desertion by a Gentleman in Ireland after a Child born p. 89 Of the ancient Form of Marriage-Contracts Se post concubitum in vitam non deserturum now repugnantly turn'd into Verba de presenti Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation to a Minor Married to an Husband after Carnal knowledge to desert him for a Richer p. 91 An example of the same in Scotland ib. Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands by giving them more Alimony than the Interest of their Portions p. 94 Of the Law of Divorce after Procreation of a Child for Precontract or Precopulation without Preprocreation ib. Stat. 3 H. 8. cap. 38. against Precontracts p. 96 Edward the Sixth abused by Papists in his Minority to repeal his Fathers Act against Precontracts p. 98 Of the Law making private Marriage or Carnal-knowledge without publique Witnesses of a verbal Contract Fornication p. 101 Of the Law requiring Witnesses of Marriage and Filiation where both are acknowledged by the Parents and no third Party claims the Father Mother or Child p. 109 Of the Law of Sequestration of a Woman pendente placito Sued by two Corrivals and Sentencing either Man or Woman to be restored in Specie and not in Value ib. Of the Law making all prohibited Marriages Null p. 100 Of the Custom of Superalimentary Gifts in consideration of Carnal knowledge between a Man and a Woman either before or after Marriage p. 113 A Satyr against Merâ—enary Marriage p. 117 Of the Law giving Jurisdiction of the secret Causes of Divorce between Parents and secret Uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses to publick Tribunals Of the Law compelling Parties Married though mortal Enemies to Cohabitation Of the Law of Divorce a Mensa Thoro. Not to be Judged by Ceremonial Laws Of the absurd and ridiculous Ceremonies on which Priests would have Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession to depend p. 127 Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought only to be Judged by the Moral Law of God p. 130 Of the Final causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature p. 135 Errata's in Verse LIb. 1. p. 131. line 5. for Moon read Morn p. 135. l. 36. for lease r. cease p. 223. l. 28. for I see r. is with me p. 224. l. 9. for all r. such p. 225. l. 8. for thanks r. there and in the same line after for there r. and l. 39. for lightnings r. lightning p. 228. l. 5. add the word next before the word expel p. 392. l. 11. for who burn would not r. who burn would Lib. 2. p. 239. l. 31. for Mariners r. Mariner l. 36. for why r. who Lib. 3. p. 89. l. 8. for their r. them l. 16. for not babling r. no babling Errata's in Prose COntents to the First Book relating to p. 88. for in vitam r. invitam non deserturum Lib. 1. p. 88. l. 8. add invitam before deserturum p. 90. l. 42. for invitum r. invitam deserturum p. 1. l. 11. for or any Subject r. on any Subject p. 4. l. 28. for Harecloth r. Hayrcloth p. 17. l. 36. for women were divorced r. women did divorce p. 23. l. 21. for Affinity r. Consanguinity p. 43. l. 11. for Canon Law r. Common Law p. 93. l. 27. for Common Law r. Canon Law p. 106. l. 31. for pitty relieve him r. pitty to relieve him p. 110. l. 40. for invitum fore Matrimonium r. Irritum fore Matrimonium p. 132. l. 36. add and shall cleave to his wife p. 180. l. 11. for established r. abolished p. 180. l. 42. for Chancellors of State r. Councellors of State p. 210. l. 20. for Sacrament r. Sacrifice p. 215. l. 28. for Tyrant r. Pyrat p. 282 l. 23. for there were Judges r. and Judges p. 120. l. 1. leave out no l. for Secreta Fori r. Secreta Thori p. 121. l. 25. for false r. and the false p. 121. l. 43. for take off Exequenda officia Matrimonialia r. talk of Exequenda officia Matrimonialia p. 257. l. 30. for thinks r. think l. 27. for that binds r. binds p. 265. l. 17. for Obligatio libelli r. Oblatio libelli Lib. 3. Preface p. 10. l. 1. for Algine r. Algive In the Contents relating to p. 160. for Successor or Male r. Successor Male leaving out or p. 2. l. 16. for ever that be r. Over that be p. 13. l. 10. for wages r. ways p. 188. l. 25. for Basiel r. Baliel In the Index see Bail in line 36. for Canon-Law r. Common-Law OF The Laws of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession Lib. I. Of the Two Grand Questions concerning Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession IT was the saying of one Se benè dividentem velut Deum secuturum And Dichotomy though the most difficult to do is without dispute if well done the most excellent Division and Method wherein any Discourse can proceed or any Subject which made me indeavour though not passibus aequis to follow that way directed by the great Methodist of Art Aristotle or rather the greater director of Nature God himself of whom it may more truly be said In duo divisit quicquid in Orbe suit The whole Question therefore naturally depending on what shall be the Law and who shall be the Judg and all Parts of Argumentation consisting either of Premises or Conclusion all Premises being either Negative or Affirmative I have as to Premises stated the whole Controversie of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession Negatively and Affirmatively under these Two great Questions following First By what Law they ought not and by what Law they ought to be judged Secondly By what Judg they ought not and by what Judg they ought to be judged And these two Premises being proved he will be an absurd Logician who denies the Conclusions following from them CHAP. I. Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession not to be judged by the Law of Moses or Customs of the Jews Divorce DEut. 24.1 It 's said When a man hath taken a Wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his Eyes because he hath found some Vncleanness in her then let him write a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his House And when she is departed out of his House she may go and be another man's Wife
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
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
worse then a Beast CHAP. III. Marriage Filiation and Succession not to be judged by the Law-Civil Canon or Feudall AS to the Author of the Civil Law or rather the Emperor in whose name and time the same was compiled he was Justinian whom though his own Parasites extoll'd for a God and his Lawyer Tribonian imployed by him or his Wife Theodora to do the work claws him with a doleful Compliment that he was in great fear least he should be rapt up into the Heavens when he little thought of it for his singular Piety to their insufferable loss Yet Procopius makes him a Devil and doubts very much whether he were not a Devil incarnate more likely when he little thought of it to be rapt to Hell Bodin indeed speaks something Fol. 17. may clear him from being a Daemon for he saith He was a blockish unlearned Prince and out-witted by his Wife Theodora when she pleased and caused by her to make Laws only for the advantage of the Women against the Men and Procopius likewise commends his Justice and saith That he used when he could catch them to take Bribes of sides and if any who had a Sute before him presented him with a Bribe he was sure to carry his Cause unless the other Party counterballanced him with another As to the Collection of Laws attributed to him it cannot be denied but there are a multitude of excellent Laws of Nature scatter'd through the great Mass of them but in such a confusion as is rather proper to a Chaos then an orderly Digest Then for the bulk 't is an Hundred times bigger then necessary and the Evil Laws which increase it to that greatness in number overwhelm and in Nature destroy or make useless the Good As to the Religion in them it is Popery and Superstition The Justice is Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government the Mercy of them is Racks and all inhuman Tortures Civil Law The Heads of the Civil Law prohibiting to marry are comprehended in the Verses following 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Aetas Conditio Numerus Mona Et Ordo 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Optio Nobilitas Sanguis Tutela Potestas 11. 12. 13.  14. Fons Sacer Affinitas Raptus Repugnat Honestas Irrita quae faciunt Connubia legibus haec sunt 1. The first cause making marriage void or voidable is Age if the Man is under 14 or the Woman under 12. 2. Condition If it be servile they were not allowed to marry Ceremonially but might lie with one another and get new Slaves 3. Number If a Man have one Wife he ought not to have another 4. If either Person be Monastick as a Monk or Nun. 5. Being within Orders as a Priest or Clerk 6. Adoption prohibits mariage between the Adopting and Adopted 7. Nobility heretofore prohibited marriage with a Plebeian and Senators and their Children per Legem Papiam Juliam with their freed Women or others of so mean Condition A wicked Law and contrary to the Law of God for they might lie with Plebeians but not marry them 8. Consanguinity in respect of which three sorts of Persons are consider'd the Ascendents Descendents and Collaterals 9. A Guardian is prohibited to marry his Pupil 10. A President of a Province is prohibited to marry one subjected to him by reason of his Jurisdiction in which two last cases the reason is that marriage might be free and not compell'd by the Awe or Power of Authority 11. Fons Sacer the Font of Baptism is by the Pope made to contract a spiritual affinity or kindred between the God-fathers and God-mothers and Child Baptized for whom or their Children to marry within the fourth degree is made without any sence as Incestuous as if within the degrees of Carnal kindred 12. Affinity in which are the same Considerations of Prohibition to marry as before in Affinity 13. Rape for by the Civil Law the Ravished was prohibited to marry the Ravishor 14. Such Matters as are thought against Honesty or are of ill report according to the Manners of the People Canon Law As to the Canon Law Aquinas Cajetan and others recite the Verses following which have left out some of these Matters relating to the Civil Law and added difference in Religion and other Matters withal to the Modern Canons in the manner following Error Conditio Votum Cognitio Crimen Cultus Disparitas Vis Ordo Ligamen Honestas Si sis affinis si forte coire nequibis Haec sociandà vetant Connubia facta retractant Which likewise may be easily understood by Exposition before made of the former But they are likewise many of them wicked and contrarg to the Law of God The Civil Law is a Cento of Rescripts of Emperors a frippery of Opinions of Doctors Planting the Sword for the Ballance Superstition for Religion Tyranny for Government Antinomies for Laws Torture for Judgment Gain for Godliness Iniquity for Justice Confusion for Method Fiction for Truth Form for Matter Manner for Merit Ceremony for Substance a Powder of Impertinents a Remedy worse than the Disease a Whirl-pool of Vertigoes a Rock for Shipwracks a Gulf to swallow Money a Sea driven with contrary winds a Bottomless Deep of Doubts a Chaos of Controversies an Abyss of Darkness a Bulk broken with it's own weight Canon Law Anno 1520. The Pope and Papists Excommunicating Luther he appealeth to a Council and burneth the Canon Law and the Popes Bull at Wittenberg Calvin tit Cynus writes of him thus Cynus jurisconsultus Pistorii natus Dyni Maxellani auditor Bononiae jus civile professus est librosque de eo non paucos ita scripsit ut semper à Pontificiis canonibus abhorret In interpretatione l. quoties C. de Jud. scribit Canonicum jurisconsultum secisse sibi jura pro libitu voluntatis suae leges civiles servare eas ad commodum suum non autem contra se propter ambitum secularis jurisdictionis usurpandae non propter aliud Cynus a Professor of the Civil Law at Bononia and one wrote many Books concerning the same yet did always very much abhor the Papal Canons and writes in interpretation l. quoties C. de Jud. that the Canonists made all their Laws according to their own Arbitrary will and observed the Civil Law only for their profit and not when it made against them out of Ambition to usurp Temporal Jurisdiction to themselves and to no other end The Canon Law is deservedly likewise censured by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln in his late learned Book against Popery fol. 35. where having recited many wicked positions in it he concludes in these words Thus much and may be too much for the Canon Law that sink of Forgeries Impiety and Disloyalty for I scarce know any Book wherein are more forged writings under good name sometimes for bad purposes and more impious Doctrines and Positions own'd and authoriz'd for Law and that by one who pretends though without and against reason to be Christ's Vicar and
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
humble compllment with my Body I thee worship a Divinity as Idolatrous as that of the rude Indians who first worship their Cotton-Idols and if their Prayers succeed not beat them What though the Jewish Scripture saith Gen. 3.16 Thy desire shall be to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee yet is this to be intended in acts Matrimonial not Magisterial And the Christian Scripture makes you requital and Eph. 5.28 Men are commanded to love their Wives as their own Bodies they must therefore first beat their own bodies or suffer their Wives to beat them before they beat theirs and you are made as great Rulers over the Husbands Bodies as they over yours 1 Cor. 7.4 And likewise also The Husband hath not power over his own Body but the Wife Ladies I pity you that Scripture has been so ill translated and ill expounded in all your concerns of marriage and the more in regard you have as bad dealing from the Expositors of the Law as the Gospel for Brook 12 H. 8. fo 4. says plainly Beaten by her Husband hath no Remedy That if a Man beat an Out-law a Traytor a Pagan his Villain or his Wife it is dispunishable because by the Law these persons can have no actions But I wish Ladies the next Law made for you may sort you with better company or farewell to England to be the Paradise of Women Husband suffers others to abuse and ravish her she hath no remedy 7. The Husband may not only be cruel to his Wife himself but command others to beat and abuse her and she hath no remedy yea if another Ravish her she hath no remedy to recover damage unless he will assent to joyn with her in the action as 8 H. 4. fo 21. A Woman was Prisoner in the Marshalsy and made a suggestion to the Court that the Marshal's man had ravish'd her in Prison Gascoigne commanded the Marshal to take his Man to his custody and his staff from him And the Court told the Woman that she alone could not bring the Appeal Sans Sons Baron but if her Husband would come and they two together prove the Rape the Ravisher should be hanged or otherwise not a Woman is in a sweet case if her Man is a Wittal and willing to make money of her Made a prey to all will seize her 8. This encourageth vile persons to rob the Noble and Rich of their Daughters and makes the City of London so insecure for young Ladies that few great fortunes escape from being betrayed to persons unworthy of them whereas if marriage changed not the propriety goods and right of the Woman to the Man but left the same as full in the right of the Woman and her self in as full ability and capacity to Purchase and Sue for her self as before she and her friends would be able to take some course to preserve her and her Estate and such Insidiators be discouraged where they saw their hopes of making a prey taken away 9. This gives the Husband if she dies and leaves Children power on a second Marriage to give her Goods to a Step-Mother and cast off her Children 10. It gains the Husband power to get as many Women with Child as he pleaseth and to maintain them and their Children with the Goods of the Lawful Wife Transubstantiation brings the same mischief to the Husband as to the Wife The Man again is as bad mischiefed by this Transubstantiation as the Woman 1. This gives power to steal and esloigne all her Husband's Substance and put it into the hands of his Enemies 2. It gains the Woman power where she is not able her self to hire unknown persons with her Husband's Goods to rob beat disseize the Husband and Esloigne his Goods from him 3. This gives her power to lay all her secret and unknown debts both true and feigned by her Confederates on her Husband and to undo him 4. Gives her power to commit as many Trespasses either with tongue or hand truly or by confederacy with her Complices making her Husband liable to pay the damage and undo him 5. It Gives her power to hire Adulterers with her Husband's Goods Whereas it is well known Men and Women of all estates and conditions if they have not been before a Priest in a Temple will live forty years together in one House and dare not rub beat or injure one another because they have liberty to sue for damage which benefit this sottish Sacrament of Priests and Lawyers gives not persons transubstantiated A Law would be thought very absurd and unjust which should Enact That no Man or Woman should sue one another in the Common-wealth what horrible wickednesses and villanies would be committed by the two Sexes one against onother but it is more unjust to make such a Law in Families and more unjust to make such a Law between Men and their Wives then in Families For in the Common-wealth such as are persecuted in one City can fly to another In Families such as like not one anothers company and are unmarried can be received and have protection in other Families But Men and their Wives are chained together and cannot avoid the injuries of one another and have no remedy unless they have the same liberty too for injury and propriety of their own as all other Subjects have and not compelled to live as Out-laws deprived of benefit of Law A Note taken at the King's-Bench of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton between a Man and his Wife Being a Puny I went as others did in a morning to Westminster to the King's-Bench to hear and see the Forms of proceeding Transubstantiation of a shoulder of Murton where amongst others a Counsellor moved at the Bar in arrest of Judgment and for Cause alledged That the Plaintiff in his Declaration complained against A. and B. his Wife that amongst other Goods they had taken Armum ovillum Anglice a shoulder of Mutton from him and converted the same to the use of the said A. and B. his Wife the ground of the exception against that part of the Declaration was because though the Wife eat her share of the Mutton with the Husband yet the same ought not to be said to be converted to the use of the Wife but only of the Husband the ratio rationis was because the Wife is one person with the Husband that is to say transubstantiated into him and she being transubstantiated the shoulder of Mutton which she eat must be likewise transubstantiated into him and so the shoulder of Mutton was converted wholly to his use and not to the use of the Wife And so some Precedents were cited for it and others contrary which profound piece of Popish Transubstantiation did so puzzle the Court that they would give no resolution then but would consider of it and settle a course in it which made me being not arrived beyond natural simplicity to think them all mad who
Dioccss of L. the Sixth day of August Anno Dom. 1606 Matrimony true pure and lawful Per verba de praesenti according to the form and rites of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England between the said A. B. and C. D. was Solemnized by one Mr. A. V. Clerk in the presence of J. J. W. B. W. W. R. M. Witnesses in this part by the said Bishop examin'd and sworn and of other Witnesses then present the said Parties A. B. and C. D. his Wife being of lawful Age and from all other Matrimonial Contracts free clear and clean as the Witnesses so sworn and examined believe This is the Form of Certificate which carries the best Circumstances and Face of a Marriage which can be put on any But the Bishop will give his Certificate as full of a true pure and lawful Matrimony to Coke's Woman with the Adulterous great Belly who lays it down the next day though no Witness will compurgate from other Contracts and transubstantiate as well the Child Adulterous as lawfully begot to be Child of the Husband yet is not this Certificate neither free from fiction and falsity contrary to the Law of God for it is already shewn That it is impossible to make a verbal Contract per verba de praesenti praeterito or futuro matrimonio and that Matrimony cannot be before a Mother nor a Mother before Conception of a Child and that 't is impossible to make a Ceremonial Law of Marriage either of the Church of England or Rome to be the Moral Law of Marriage instituted by God and besides if there were a lawful Marriage there can be no Sequel or Ergo infer'd That the Adulterous Child of the Woman is lawfully begot because the Marriage was lawful or ought to be Successor to the Husband 's Goods because born of the Wife for there can be properly no Adultery nor Adulterous Issue born but within lawful Marriage But Logician beware the Bishop's Certificate and a Law of Transubstantiation alter the case if thy profane Reason will dispute Faith or Episcopal Infallibility in Marriage Filiation and Succession thou wilt be Excommunicated The good Woman hath the same advantage whether she go from her Husband's House or stay there for if the good-man leave her at home and march abroad himself a Soldiering or Merchandizing if still it be within the four Seas and his Stock increase and multiply at home the while more then abroad he must not be so ill natur'd as not to bear the charg of his better Factress then himself During the late Civil Wars A Souldier finding his Wives Children transubstantiated into his I was credibly informed of a Soldier who left his Wife at home with one Child and was for divers Years so long out in Service that before he returned home again his Wife had two more to increase his number at length he returned home to the Town where he dwelt and the Neighbours as soon as they understood it went in shew to welcome him home but withal to see how he would like the increase of his Children in his absence where after they had sat a while he appeared very kind to his Wife and very fond of his Child which he had left at home at his departure supposing the other to have been some Children of the Neighbours who were come in to play with his 'till a while after seeing those Children by his Fire-side to draw closer to his Wife then strangers use to do he asked Whose the Children were the Wife and answer'd him Thine whereat he was much amazed and demanded how that could be seeing he had not been at home so many Years The Wife replyed thou might'st have stayed at home then and got them thy self if thou would'st so there being no other Answer to be got the poor man was glad to take up this new Bag and Baggage when he thought to have rested For the fiction of Legitimation dared give the Truth of the Soldier the Lie to his face yet he knew not whom to send a Challenge or a Duel to In no better case had he been had he in the Service of his King and Country lost his life in a fight at Sea if within the four Seas what he had got with his own Blood must have gone to an Adulterous Blood at the pleasure of his Wife and the Certificate of the Bishop Of the Law of Intails on Marriage and the mischiefs insuing by them Law of Intails causeth Adulteries and disinherits true Heirs It is before shewen how mischievously the true Heirs are dis-inherited and destroyed by Intails to two Bodies and by Littleton Coke and the Bishops fictions on the same who in despight of Truth Religion Sence and Reason God and Nature will have the Adulterous issue of the Woman preferred before the true and lawful Children of the Man in Succession to the Man's inheritance I shall likewise here touch some other few but fatal mischiefs which the Chains and Fetters of Estates by Intails to two Bodies on Marriages whether these Intails are made by the Pontificial or Temporal Laws do cause for it is to be noted that the Laws of Theodora and the Popes which Enact That no Children shall be capable of Succession to the Father but where the Father and Mother were contracted by a Priest in a Temple is an Intailing of the Inheritance of the Man to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman and an excluding of the Heirs of the Man if she prove adulterous So there cannot properly be said to be any Fee-simple in England No Fee-simple in England for Fee-simple it self is by the Popish Law Intailed to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman begotten beget them who will and the Priest who would not therefore be married himself to a Wife lest she should put a cheat on him and bring forth a yâ—ung Lay-man but take a Curtezan put cunningly the Fee-simple cheat on the simple Lay-man and his Fils de prestre too by making a Law That none should be his Heirs unless begotten on the Body of such Woman as he should give him in a Temple Littleton deceived in Fee-simple So Littleton in his Chapter of Fee-simple and his Commentator on him understood not the words his Heirs for every Fee-simple where a Woman is married by a Priest in a Temple is to go to her Heirs of her Body begotten and not to his and let her have as many Heirs as she will begotten by the Adulterer the Husband's Land shall go to her Heirs but let the Husband who is perhaps turned off by the Wife get as many as he will by another Woman none of those shall be his Heirs For which reason in favour of the true and natural Children and that the Father might have power by Act executed in his Life-time to provide for his own especially where he found his Wives Adulterous as Britton fol. 122. saith That the Forms of Deeds of Feoffment
The word Assigns gave power to cut off Fee-simple Intails were afterwards made to him his Heirs and Assigns and the word Assigns added in favour of the true and natural Children which word Assigns gave the Lay-men power of cutting off the Fee-simple Intails being the cheat imposed on them by the Popish Priest and to Assign Dispose and Alien the same as well Extra familiam as Intra which it seems before without the word Assigns they could not do But it was not long after when the subtle Popish Priest who knew he could Reign not but by the Woman got a Latin Statute to be made Westminster 2 cap. 1. whereby he struck out the word Assigns and took clean away the power of Men to Assign Alien and Dispose of their own Lands and whereas the Intail of Fee-simple was only implicit he then by express words Intails it to Heirs begotten of the Body of the Woman whereby the adulterous might succeed as well as and before the Lawful if they came first which Intails likewise were after carried into Scotland for so says Craig Feud fo 70. Ab Anglis ad nos defluxisse puto And fo 59. he saith Neque enim tale Feudum ad collaterales extenditur inâ—ò quod majus est si Maevio Semproniae conjugibus concedatur Feudum baredibus inter ipsos procreandis nulli ex eo matrimonio supersint Et Maevius ex alia conjuge liberos susceperit hi in feudo non succedant Intails a Skreen to Adulteries This digression hath been made to shew that the Original of Intails to more Bodies than one on marriage came from the old Pagan Priests and now revived by Popes to be a skreen to Adulteries and Adulterous Successions and thereby their power over the Women without which no Sacerdotal Empire can subsist I shall now proceed to shew the other mischiefs insuing from Intails besides the Patronage of Adulteries Intails destroy Patriarchy and introduce Hierarchy Gynarchy Paedarchy First therefore Intails on Marriages destroy Patriarchy and introduce into Families Hierarchy Gynarchy and Paedarchy That Patriarchy was the first form of Government instituted in Families by God and Nature I think none will contend the Ancient Writers and Poets are full of it especially in their Celebrations of the Primaevous happiness of the Golden Age and old Homer begins Nec fora consiliis fervent nec judice tantum Antra colunt umbrosa altis in montibus Aedes Quisque suas regit uxorem Natosque Courts grew not hot with Judge or Lawyer then But each Man without strife In Mountain high rul'd or in shady Den His Children House and Wife Here Patriarchy was in its Throne and the Moon and Stars all bowed to the Sun till the Priests of Priapus and Venus as before touched and for the fore-mentioned ends of satisfying their own Lust Covetousness and Ambition first prohibited all Marriage except by a Priest in a Temple then Intailing all Estates to the Heirs Lawfully begotten of the Body of the Woman married by the Priest and the Priest to be Judge both of the marriage and the Lawful begetting by this the Priest introduced Hierarchy and got a greater Dominion over the Woman and the Children than the Husband or Father for he was not to be judge whether the Wife or Children were his but the Priest and now the Bishop by his Certificate and likewise hereby the Priest became Judge of the Alimony and Maintenance and gave what he pleased to the Wife and her Children in regard the Father had no power of Alienation by reason of the Pontificial Intail to the Heirs of the Woman and thereby the Hierarchy of the Priest the Gynarchy of the Wife and Paedarchy of the Sons necessarily arising from such principles turned the poor Patriarch out of Doors and took his Goods when and as they pleased Intails dâ—â—fraud civil and natural Debts 2. The Intail deprives the Father of power to provide for his younger Children but after his death the Sons are thereby left desperate and betake themselves to the High-way and the Daughters to be prostitutes to the dishonour and destruction of themselves and Families 3. Intails as they defraud the Children of the natural debts of Aliment due from their Parents so they defraud Creditors of the valuable debts due to them from their Debtors 4. They put the Subjects to infinite trouble vexations and charges for Fines Recoveries Licenses of Alienation to cut them off Bills of Discoveries and hazard and danger they being many times erroneous and the Intails secret and thereby not only all the cost and labour lost but likewise the whole Purchase-money disbursed bona fide by a Lawful Purchasor Intails cause the abuse of private Acts of Parliament 5. They are the chief occasions pretended of private Acts of Parliament whereby contrary to all justice the Lawful rights of Persons and Families are taken from them and they undone without Summons or Hearing or notice to make their claims whereas by the just and honourable practice of the Kingdom of Scotland they use to make Subsequent Acts of Salvo jure cujuslibet whereby the rights of all Persons are preserved and restored Acts of Salvo jure cujuslibet in Scotland against all private Acts precedent as appears by the Acts of Parliament Car. 1. p. 1. Act 31. p. 2. Act 70. p. 3. Act 42. Car. 2. p. 2. Act 29. 2 Sess Car. 2. p. 2. Act 52. Sess 3. Car. 2. Act 30. c. 6. To mention a word more how much the taking away of the Father's power of free disposing and Alienation of their Estates by Intails or any other irrevocable settlements on Children brings into Families the unexperienced Pride of Paedarchy whereby Children undo both their Parents and themselves by depriving of their Parents of the means of their Education in the true Religion and in Lawful Callings and Professions the Parents having no other Bridle on them to restrain them from vicious courses but to give them hopes and fears of increasing or lessening their Portions according to their demerits may appear Bodin 25. where he saith It was obtained of Constantine that the propriety of the Mother's Inheritance should be in the Children and the Father should have only the usu-fruct This was fair that the Inheritance which came by the Mother the Father should not have power to Alien from her Children But after it was obtained of Theodosius the younger That the propriety of all manner of Goods in general however they came by them should be to the Sons the use only to the Fathers so that they could not any-wise Alienate the propriety Children command Parents by Intails nor dispose thereof though for the benefit of their Children yea with us he saith not so much as the bare use of such Goods is left to the Father which hath so puffed up the hearts of Children as that they oftentimes command their Parents by necessity
constrained to obey them or to dye for hunger Of the Barbarous Law of Illegitimation or making Children incapable of Succession to the Goods of their own Parents And of the most excellent Law of the Emperour Anastasius decreeing all natural Children to be Legitimate and the repeal of the same caused by the Strumpet Theodora and the succeeding Popes and Bishops The power of Sale of Legitimations of natural Children was first in Pagan Rome usurped there by their Pagan Bishops and Priests and hath since in imitation of them been usurped by Christian Bishops in name but indeed Anti-Christian for the same filthy lucre amongst whom the Bishop of Rome and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury have been the Primates But after the Emperours of Rome perceiving the vast Sums as it were ex lotio the Prerogative-Office and the Office of Faculties heaped together they swept them all into their own Exchequer and suffer'd no Legitimation to be granted unless they bought them of the Emperours who received great gain thereby till the Empire came into the hands of the vertuous Anastasius who seeing the great oppressions on his Subjects by taking from them that Birth-right which the Law of God and Nature gave not only to them but every Creature born into the World to be provided for by those who begot them and this to be continued only for the profit of his Exchequer he disdained such sordid and impious gain and made a most pious holy and honourable Decree That all natural Children should be Legitimate whereby all Intails to the Bodies of Women of the Husbands Estates were cut off and the mischiefs of bringing Fictitious Adulterous Supposititious and false Heirs into Families prevented But after Theodora who was a common Prostitute Theodora a common Prostitute the Author of the Ecclesiastical Laws of marriage came to be married to the Emp. Justinian and another Theodora as bad as she and her Daughter Marozia and other such Creatures came to be Strumpets to Pope Sergius and other Popes and had the chief hand in making all the Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage by which the Bishops to this day judge Do any expect that these Whores of Babylon would ever bring any good Laws out of the Stews into the Church Certainly if any judicious and indifferent person will take the pains to take a full view of the Canons he will easily find there is not one which is not either a Gin to take their Prey or a Bait to cover it and that if all the Theodoras Marozias Laisses Thaisses Phrynes and Floras were to be alive again and sit in a Conclave of Women they nor all their Chaplain Priests could not invent better Laws for the advancement of their Trade or ways to destroy Religion Justice Vertue Modesty and Chastity then the Imperial Papal and Provincial Ganons are under the name of Ecclesiastical Laws And that notwithstanding Bishops amongst Protestants should be so long tolerated to judg arbitraties or according to them not only of Patrimonies and Matrimonies Filiations and Successions of the Subjects but of Kings and Kingdoms themselves is horrible But to return now to Theodora as Bodin Fol. 17. says and appears by divers Civil Laws compared after she had got the the Mastery of Justinian the Emperor her Husband a blockish and unlearned Prince when she had made all the Laws she could for the advantage of Women against their Husbands she got him to enact That it should be death for a man to lie with any Woman but his Wife but if the Wife lay with other Men besides her Husband she should only be infamous that is to say she should have no punishment at all for what honour can Infamy take from her who by Adultery hath already lost her honour and is totally defamed I forbear for brevity to recite other of her Laws but amongst them all there being not one good except for her Trade there cannot be a more wicked then the next For she having the command of her chous'd Husband caused him to repeal the excellent Law of the Emperor Anastasius which made as before mention'd all natural Children Legitimate that is to say where their Filiation was acknowledged by the Father by Adoption or other sufficient Declaration by him of the same whereby the old Ignoramus abrogated a better Law then ever he made or was in the whole heap raked together in his name by Theodora and Tribonian and they set up again the old Pontifical Intails of Husband's Lands to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman married before a Priest in a Temple That unlawful Marriages of Parents ought not to illegitimate the Children Child not to be punish'd for the Father's sin Desertion of Virgins after deflouring caused by Illegitimation First This is contrary to the Law of God to punish the sins of the Parents on the Children Secondly This incourages Fathers to deflour Virgins and when got with Child to desert both the Mother and the Child as a far cheaper way then by carrying her first to a Priest and Temple to draw a charge on himself of her and her Child as long as he lives this incourages likewise such Fathers to get Children by Incest and Adultery and Fornication and any other way which is not lawful rather then according to the lawful Ordinance of God because he can cast off all these Women and Children by only saying they are illegitimate and take an hundred more and serve them the like and they shall thereby be defrauded of Succession to his Goods and so much as Aliment from the same whereas if according to the Law of God and the excellent Law of Anastasius derived from the same all natural Children were to be adjudged Legitimate the Children would be provided for by being by Law made Successors to their Fathers Estate as far as the same will reach and Fathers would be discouraged to get Children unlawfully when they saw they could not thereby wickedly desert and make them illegitimate or evade the Obligation laid on them by the Law of God and Nature to provide for their own A wicked Father ought not to have a greater privilege then a good A Father not to take advantage of his own wrong Thirdly 'T is very unjust That a wicked Father should have greater privilege then a good and he who doth his Child injury then he who is his Benefactor for a Father who gets a Child unlawfully doth a double injury to the Child and rather ought to make double satisfaction to him then if he got him lawfully for he dishonors the Child and it is a rule in Law None shall take advantage of his own wrong if the Child is unlawfully begot who did the wrong but the Father who is therefore if proved to be punished for the wrong and not to take advantage of it against his injured Child to illegitimate and disinherit him nor much less ought the Law to do it for no other reason but because the Father
Authors of this Law were the Athenian Owl and the Romish Buzzard making intention of the mind and publication of the Priest to be a Marriage and not carnal knowledge And these two pieces of Nonsence have by their Canon Enacted That Consensus non Coneubitus facit Matrimonium consent not carnal knowledge makes Matrimony if before a Priest in a Temple Owles were plenty in Athens and Cecrops was the first King there who made this Law and the Pope the King of Rome who do excellently well agree in their Laws for Cecrops was the first amongst the Greeks who invented Marriage should be made by the intention of the mind and publication of the Priest and Images should be made and Altars set up and the Sacrifice offer'd So is the Pope the first who hath made Laws amongst the Romanists That the intention of the mind and publication by the Priest should be marriage and that Images should be made and high Altars set up and the Sacrifice of the Mass offer'd Cecrops Reigned a little after Moses and the Pope Reigned a little after Christ but neither of them had their Laws of Marriage or their other Laws from Moses or Christ but from the old Pagan Egyptian Priests and as they did they made their Laws not by that Law of God which was more Ancient then the Egyptian but made their filthy Laws for filthy lucre whereby it 's easie to see in these Birds the Owl and the Buzzard as well as Men how well good Wits jump for their Gain and pretend that Gain is Godliness Verba de praesenti This kind of Matrimony Gratian makes much ado about and disputes the question pro and con whether sponsion by words de praesenti make Matrimony which question is composed of perfect Non-sence and a lye and impossibility For 1. All promises are of things future and not of present or past and 't is as impossible by their Sacrament of Marriage to transubstantiate time future into that which is present as 't is time present into that which is past 2. It is a meer lye for any Man to say to a Woman I do make you a Mother or get you with Child when he doth only promise to do the same and it is as impossible for the Priests to transubstantiate the verbal contract or words into the real contract of carnal knowledge in facie Ecclesiae unless as in the Temple of Venus he will have it actually done in his presence that he may be able the better to give his Certificate thereof on a Tryal of ne unques accouple in loyal Matrimony But I think it a mean condescension for any Philosopher to dispute with the Pedantic Sophistry of Gratian about Matrimony as 't is for a Divine to wast many Arguments against Ttransubstantiation of Mass I shall only therefore turn him off to the Women amongst whom he will not find the most simple Good-wife who will not be able to tell him that an ounce of Mother-wit is better then a pound of Clergy and that Matrimony cannot be without a Mother nor a Mother without Conception nor Conception without knowing a Man unless by Miracle And though he Preach never so impudently That consent and not carnal knowledge make Matrimony yet that is clean contrary to the Text Luke 1.31 where Mary replies to the message of the Angel Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son How shall this be seeing I know not a Man And might have been witnessed by the Angel himself of whom Christ saith They neither marry nor give in Marriage which they might do if verba de praesenti will do it But the next two stories will shew whence the Popish Canonists have this Doctrine And the next after will shew by the Testimony of great and vertuous Ladies how impossible 't is and much better they deserve to have implicit Faith given them than to the Doctors Of the Pagan Goddess Juno and the Popish Mother of Saint Kentigern both got with Child without a Man Juno the Mother of Kentigern both got with Child without a Man Juno being displeased that Jupiter should bring out Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom only by striking his head without a Woman She also consulted the Goddess Flora as good a one as her self how she might bring out a Son without a Man she meant without her Husband Flora bid her touch a Flower which was in the field of Olenius which being done she conceived and was her own Midwife too as well as Jupiter and brought forth Mars who being a Son of discontent was made the God of War and Discord In like manner the Mother of St. Kentigern being in great distress and fervent desire of a Son she earnestly prayed and begg'd of Jesus that she might imitate his Virgin-mother in conception and birth of a Child without a Man and accordingly within a little she finds her self with Child and often protested she never knew Man but by the Law of that Countrey where she lived she must because she was thought to be very light be cast head-long from the top of a high Mountain she weeps and prayes but the Executioner doth his work and on tryal found her far lighter then she was thought for she fell down and was neither kill'd bruised nor hurt but was then carried on Ship-board many Leagues into the Sea and there turned out into a small Boat of Leather destitute of all human help yet with great speed and safety she arriveth at a far distant Port and Landing she is delivered of a Son that famous Saint St. Kentigern who no doubt if his Mother had but prayed that this Son might have been born without a Mother too as he was without Father and been left on the Sea shore at the same place she brought him forth and the Sâ—epheards might find him there no doubt he had then been the second Miraculous Adam or Melchisedeck without Father or Mother in this latter Age of the World Of the Lady Ann of Britain married to the bare leg of the Embassadour of the Emperour Maximilian Ann of Britain Charles the Eighth the French King having Ann the Daughter and Heir of Francis Duke of Britain in his custody she being Inheritrix to that Dutchy to Unite Britain to France intending to marry the said Ann one obstacle amongst others alledged was That she was pre-contracted and married to Maximilian by the usual Ceremony of his Embassador putting his bare Leg into Bed to her for his Master 1. For the Contract he held it invalid because she was his Homager or Ward and her Marriage by the Tenure belonged to him 2. His Divines told him that the Ceremony of marrying by Proxy by putting the bare Leg into her Bed was only an invention of Men and was no consummation by the Law of the Church and on the same reason it might as well be said that Banes Publication and Contracting of Marriage in facie Ecclesie and Promulgation
used to deflour the fairest Plebeian Virgins yet by their Law would allow this to be no Marriage nor suffer a Patrician to marry a Plebeian but only to abuse them till the Plebeians rose against them and beat the Patricians into better manners The like raised a Rebellion in Persia and Mutius lib. 22. Chron. Ger. relates That a Rebellion arose amongst the Suisse Vri and under Waldensians because their Nobles and Governours abused to their Lust all their handsome Virgins at pleasure and then cast them off If the greatest Peer get a Beggar with Child the Marriage is indissoluble Whereas by the unquestionable Law of God if the greatest Peer lie with a Beggar whom he may lawfully marry and get her with Child he thereby makes her his Wife and though before the birth of the Child she expressly Contract She will take hire and the same shall not be a Marriage or after she give a release yet the Marriage is indissoluble for the Act of God of giving a Child doth confirm and establish it and whom the Act of God hath joined the Act of the Parties or of all human Powers can never lawfully put asunder So as is said one cause of the late Rebellion of the Moors under Gayland was the abusing and desertion of their Virgins by their Courtiers Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation to a Minor married to an Husband after carnal knowledg to desert her Husband and take a richer In Scotland while it was my fortune to be put to sit there as one of the Commissioners for Administration of Justice it happen'd the Earl of B. deceased having left two Daughters Inheritrixes of one of the greatest Estates in that Kingdom both infra Annos nubiles and by Will left their custody and disposing to divers Guardians the Countess of B. his Relict married the Earl of W. And after they two the Earl being the Father in Law and the Countess the Mother disposed of the eldest Daughter being under the Age of Twelve in Marriage with the Son of G. S. as I remember the Sheriff of T. being about the Age of Fourteen being a Gentleman of a very good Family and of the same name of the Family of the Earl of B. deceased who was the Father of the Daughters but not of equal Estate This Marriage was Consummated by the usual publick Ceremonies and by carnal knowledg The Guardians hearing their Pupil married without their consent being very much troubled apply'd themselves to us who had then de facto all the Power Ecclesiastical and Civil both of Bishops and Judges which the Sword could put on us to null the Marriage they alledging their Pupil to be infra Annos nubiles and likewise the Marriage to be made without consent of the Guardians appointed by the Father whereupon Summons were sent to all Parties concern'd to appear and answer the matter before us in the Court at Edinburgh At the day appointed there appear'd the new married Lady all in Silver the Earl of W. the Countess and other Nobles with their Train and as near as I can remember so long since what was spoken between the Parties and the Court were to this effect Earl of W. to the President of the Court My Lord we give appearance to your Summons though I know no reason we should be troubled hither Your Power is unlimited and you do what you please but I hope you will not part Man and Wife Presi Complaint hath been made to us and we shall only examin the truth of the matter and do nothing but Justice therein as we find the same to be and as we ought to do Thereupon the Earl and Countess and all other Parties except the new Married Lady were Order'd to with-draw out of the Room and as the fashion there is on any Consultation by the Court the Doors to be close shut The young Lady seeing her Mother and all her Friends shut out of doors from her and her self detained Prisoner alone within the Bar to be examined by the Court began to be something appal'd but the President comforting and incouraging her she address'd her self to answer what should be demanded Presi Are you married to the young Gentleman mention'd by your Guardians Lady Yes Presi Is it by your free consent or were you compell'd or deceived to do it Lady It is my free consent and I was not compell'd or deceived Presi Were there any other Matches proposed to you besides this and did you see the Men Lady There were others proposed and I saw them but I liked this best Presi Why would you disparage your self to marry one so much beneath you in Degree and Estate Lady It was my Father's will he having no Son that I should marry one of the name of his Family of which name this Gentleman I have married is and I married him that I might preserve the name of my Father's Family according to his will Presi Why would you being so sickly and and weakly as you appear to be marry under the Age of Marriage it 's enough to destroy your health and endanger your life Lady I am more healthy then I was before Presi You are young and your mind may change you shall have other Noble young Persons and fit for your Marriage presented to you and you shall take your choice of them To which the vertuous young Lady deservedly incensed though under the Age of Twelve replyed pretty tartly That she should be then a Whore if she should change her Husband for another Man Thereupon the Lady was Order'd to with draw and the Court on Consultation Order'd That she should be deliver'd to the custody of a Governess in her own House at D. who should admit any other Noble Persons to present themselves unto her as likewise the Husband she had already married but no otherwise then openly in the presence and sight of the Governess and if the Lady liked to make choice before she came to the Age of Twelve of any other to be Husband she should have free liberty to do the same if not then her present choice should stand This Sentence was right if you admit the Common-Law that great Popish Idol which is worship'd through the three Kingdoms to be the Law of God but otherwise 't was an unlawful thing to put a new married Wife who had lain with her Husband and for ought the Court knew might be with Child by him to put her on the Temptation of changing her Husband to take a richer and thereby leave it to the wicked Canon-Law which would have null'd her Marriage to have illegitimated her Child only for that desertion of her Husband to which that wicked Law tempted her but she was more Noble then to entertain such vile thoughts and continued constant to her Husband till her death Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands by giving more Alimony then the Interest of the Portion Another great mischeif is in the Ecclesiastical Laws
and those Laws which follow them they will on Divorce under the name of Alimony give the Woman more then the Interest of her Portion amounts to which incourages all Women to seek Divorces whereas the form of Divorce amongst the Romans was Res tuas tibi habeto and she was not to have more then she brought with her and the same is the Law of the Jews and all other Nations except such as live under Popish Ecclesiastical Laws And the injustice of our Ecclesiastical Laws to the contrary is not one of the least causes why Divorce and Separations are of late grown so frequent because Women know they shall gain by the Divorce and rob their Husbands of more then ever they brought them Of the Law of Divorcing after Procreation of a Child for precontract or pre copulation without pre procreation Of the Law prohibiting liberty of private Marriage without publick Witnesses Of the Law giving the Jurisdiction of the secret causes of Divorce between Parents and secret uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses to publick Tribunals Of the Law compelling persons married though mortal Enemies to Co-habitation Of the Law of Divorce à Mensa Thoro. Of the Canon compelling the parties on Divorce for Adultery to give Bonds and Sureties not to marry again during each others life Of the custom of Protestants marrying with Papists Edward the Fourth was as is alledged first verbally contracted to Eleanor Daughter to john Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury married after to Sir Thomas Butler Baron of Sudley after this verbal contract he married Elizabeth the Widow of Sir John Gray she lived his Wife Eighteen Years and Eleven Months and he had issue by her Three Sons and Seven Daughters Elizabeth his eldest Daughter was first promised in marriage to Charles Dauphin of France but married after to King Henry the Seventh Edward the Fourth being dead leaving his two Sons young in the custody of his Brother Richard the Third they were after murdered by him to make his own way to the Crown but first in preparation thereto Dr. Shaw in a Sermon by him Preached at Paul's-Cross took for his Text Spuria vitulamina non agent altas radices And to make short work they were after by Act of Parliament Proclaimed Bastards and not inheritable to the Crown on no other Allegation made but the pre-contracts before mention'd with Eleanor Butler as is recorded in the Parliament Roll. Husband divorces the Wife for cause of precopulation committed by himself Buchanan rerum Scoticarum lib. 11.652 relates That Earl Bothwel aspiring to obtain the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots compelled his Wife to accuse him of pre-copulation with another Woman before he married his Wife Gordonia Bothuelii uxor cogitur in duplici foro litem de Divortio intendere apud judices Regios accusat uxor maritum adulterii quae una justa apud eos erat divortii causa apud judices Papanos lege vetitos tamen ab Archiepiscopo fani Andreae ad hanc litem cognoscendam litem dare accusatur idem ante Matrimonium cùm propinqua uxoris stupri consuetudinem habuisse nulla in Divortio faciendo nec in testibus nec in judicibus fit mora intra enim decimum diem lis suscepta disceptata dijudicata est After he saith one thing thought necessary was ut consuetae servarentur Ceremoniae ut videlicet publice in conventu civium tribus diebus Dominicis nuptiae futurae inter Jacobum Heburnum Mariam Stuartam denuntiarentur ut si quis quid vitii ant impedimenti sciret quo minus legitimè coirent rem ad Ecclesiam deferrent And after he saith Cùm de nuptiis in Ecclesia denunciandis ageretur lector cujus id munus erat constanter recusare collecti Diaconi seniores cùm reluctari non auderent jubent Ecclesiastem nuptias futuras de more edicere is quidem hactenus paruit ut se vitium quidem scire profiteretur ac paratum seu Reginae seu Bothuelio cum vellent judicare is cum in arcem accersitus venisset Regina eum ad Bothuelium remisit qui quanquam nec blanditiis nec minis Ecclesiastem de proposito deduceret nec rem disputationi committere auderet tamen nuptias apparat unus Orcadum Episcopus est inventus qui gratiam aulicam veritati praeferret caeteris reclamantibus causasque proferentibus cur Legitimae non essent nuptiae cum eo qui duas uxores ad huc vivas haberet tertiam ipse suum nuper fassus adulterium demisisset ita indignantibus omnibus bonis vulgo etiam execrante propinquis per literas improbantibus inchoatus publicis Ceremoniis simulatis etiam factas detestantibus tamen Matrimonium celebratur Which fore-mention'd pre-contract alledged against Edward the Fourth was no more just cause to Illegitimate his Children then it was to Murder them nor was his pre-copulation with another Woman confess'd by Earl Bothwel any more just cause to Divorce his Wife then it was to aspire to the Kingdom 32 H. 8. cap. 38. takes notice of the great mischiefs insuing by dissolving by pre-contract Marriage consummate by bodily knowledge and fruit of Children or Child which Statute follows in these words WHereas heretofore the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome 32 H. 8. cap. 38. Of precontract hath always entangled and troubled the meér Iurisdiction and regal power of this Realm of England and also unquieted much the Subjects of the same by his usurped power in them as by making that unlawful which by God's Word is Lawful both in Marriage and other things as hereafter shall appear more at length and till now of late in our Soveraign Lord's time which is otherwise by learning taught than his predecessors in time past long time have beén hath so continued the same whereof yet some sparks be left which hereafter might kindle a greater fire and so remaining his power not to seem utterly extinct Therefore it is thought most convenient to the King's Highness his Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons of this Realm assembled in this present Parliament that two things especially for this time be with diligence provided for whereby many inconvemences have ensued and many more mought ensue and follow As where heretofore divers and many Persons after long continuance together in Matrimony without any allegation of either of the parties or any other at their Marriage why the same Matrimony should not be good just and lawful and after the same Matrimony Solemuized and Consummate by carnal knowledge and also sometimes fruit of Children ensued of the same Marriage upon pretence of former Contract made and not Consummate by carnal Copulation for proof whereof two Witnesses by that Law were only required beén divorced and separate contrary to God's Law and so the true Matrimony both so Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with bodily knowledge and confirmed also with fruit of Children had betweén
Object 1 First It is Objected That without the publick Testimony of the Marriage by the Priest and Bishop the Woman is in danger of desertion by the Man after he hath devirginated and got her with Child whereas she having the said publick Testimony of the Bishop if the Man take another Woman to Church and marry her by the Law he shall be hanged Answer To which is Answer'd That this Law or Penalty doth no way prevent the desertion for though the Law which Theodora got her Husband Justinian to make That it should be death for the Husband to lie with any other Woman but his Wife might perhaps have something restrained the Man yet this Law that the Husband shall marry no other Woman in Church signifies nothing of restraining him from lying with an hundred elsewhere Object 2 In like manner it is Objected That the Wife if there were no publick Witnesses might desert her Husband for another Man whereas now if she go to Church with another man and is married to him while her Husband is alive she shall be hanged Answer To which is Answer'd That though the Law of Moses Levit. 20.10 which makes Adultery in a Wife Death might perhaps something have restrained the Woman the present Law restrains her no more then it doth the man Object 3 The Third Objection is If Banes and Marriage were not in the presence of publick Witnesses none who had right to a Woman could know when or how to make his claim Answer To which is Answer'd First This preserves not the Claymant's right nor prevents the other man's lying with the Woman if she hath a mind to another Which it appears she hath otherwise she would not have band her self openly with him Secondly If he hath a pre-promise or pre-contract he ought not to recover the Woman in Specie against her will but only damage for breach of promise as to which the Banes make it neither better nor worse Thirdly Admit the man who is the Claymant of the Woman hath not only had pre-promise pre-contract but pre-copulation of the Woman before the other man who is publickly band with her yet to what purpose is a claim made of a Woman who is now became an Adulteress by banning her self with another man and ought not by the Law of God to be claimed by the first man for by retaking an Adulteress the Husband becomes a Pandor to the Wife a destroyer of the Adultererous Child by depriving him of the natural Father and a destroyer of his own Children by bringing in Adulterous Heirs amongst them which is so far abhor'd by the Scripture that in case of Divorce though the Woman is innocent yet it is said Deut. 24.1 2 3 4. according to the Original When a man hath taken a Woman and been a Man unto her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his House And when she is departed out of his House she may go and be another man's Woman And if the latter man hate her and write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and sendeth her out of his House or if the latter man die which took her to be his Woman her former man which sent her away may not take her again to be his Woman after she is defiled for that is abomination before the Lord and thou shalt not cause the Land to sin which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance If therefore a Woman innocent put away is not to be received again much less is a Woman guilty of running away with another man to be claimed again in Specie but there is a more just remedy if the Party is thereby damaged to Sue the Woman for breach of her Contract and the Adulterer for taking her away for Damages Object 4 Another Objection is made That without Witnesses of the Marriage if the right of Successions to Goods or Lands come in question the Bishop can make no Certificate of Filiation of the Child who is to Succeed nor can the Common-Law Judges or Juries judg of the matter Answer To which is Answer'd First That lawful Marriage is impossible to be without carnal knowledg and so is likewise Filiation both which are impossible to be witnessed by any but the Parents Marriage what As to carnal knowledg that which makes Marriage the same may be defined to be a Seminal Conjunction of Man and Woman in the natural Act of Generation mention'd Levit. 15.18 Cum vir concubuerit cum ea Semine concubitus which if between Persons prohibited is an unlawful if not prohibited is a lawful Marriage The Jews had three sorts of Conjunctions between Man and Woman which they called Marriages 1. Coemptione 2. Copulatione 3. Instrumentis That which was Copulatione was by their filthy Custom to be done before two Witnesses Witnesses of Marriage any impossible but the parties but the Witnesses here in question are not of the Copulation but of matters impertinent and evidence which tends not to the issue and they are only to Testifie that A. and B. went to Church together and there said words de praesenti and the Priest pronounced them Man and Wife as though the Child was straight begot by the Tongues of the Parties and the Priest in the Sacrament of Marriage as it is in that of the transubstantiation and thereon the Bishop gives his Non sequitur Sentence that here was a Marriage which includes carnal knowledg though 't is not so much Testified nor known by the Witnesses or Bishop whether the Parties were a Man and a Woman or two Women they never having been eye-witnesses of the same nor any Ventre inspiciendo appointed for that purpose Secondly Admit there had been a couple of beastly Jewish Witnesses who would see 't was a Man and a Woman lay together yet it being an undeniable exception against all Witnesses of any matter of Fact that unless they show Causam Scientiae to be one or more of their five Senses their Testimony is worth nothing and such Witnesses having no Sence but their Sight to Testifie Copulation it is impossible though their eyes saw the external Copulation that they should see the internal to be Semine Concubitus without which the external Testimony signifies nothing to make a Marriage Thirdly Admit it were possible these Witnesses saw the man lie with the Woman yet it is impossible and Perjury for them to swear that they saw the man get the Child or that it was not got by another man before or after It was an usual saying of Cato that he wondred how one Aruspex could forbear laughing when he met another they both knowing how each gull'd the people If he were now alive he would much more wonder how one Bishop who is a Father finder could hold his
causeth dishonour to each Party and if any Man address himself publickly to a Lady as a Suiter and after sight likes her not but deserts her this will disparage her the thoughts of the next that is wished are that she hath been blown on and refused the like will it be to the Man if the Lady refuse him Causeth Fornication Adultery Stews and Brothels Sixthly Denial of liberty of private Marriage and punishing the same as Fornication compells men to what is true Fornication and Adultery for if men cannot be allowed secret Marriage and secret Wives without Witnesses they will take secret Fornication and Adultery and secret Whores and Adulteresses without Witnesses which is a Thousand times worse So what St. Austin says Deme lupanaria turbabis omnia libidinibus is not true nor is Toleration of Stews the Remedy appointed by God to cure Lust but private Marriage is the Remedy appointed by God to cure the Stews for it is said by Paul To avoid Fornication let every Man have his own Woman and every Woman her own Man which if denied to such Persons with whose Conveniencies or Conscience it stands not to take a Woman or a Man publickly before Witnesses and a Priest in a Temple is to deny them to take any Man or Woman at all Whereas if liberty were given of private Marriage without Witnesses to such Persons as are not by the Law of God prohibited to marry this would destroy all Stews and Brothel-Houses for what Man or Woman who have liberty to choose whom they like best and to enjoy them privately to themselves would be so mad to hazard themselves in common Stews to be infected with those miserable and deadly Diseases to be robbed stript have their Throats cut or at least spirited to a Ship sold to Barbado's or Barbary or if they scape those greater dangers to be all their Lives persued by Constables Parators Bedels hooted at by Boys Carted Whipt Pumpt and to come to Bridewell and Beggary at last Seventhly Publick Marriages are too costly for the Poor therefore to prohibit them private Marriage Too costly for the poor is to prohibit them all Marriage except such as will undo them the Grand Seignior himself dares not venture on that is publick or the cost of it which is one reason he is never married publickly by a Priest in a Temple One Man may have reason to marry privately and another not and one to marry public and another not Eighthly There may be many reasons likewise both for Rich and Poor to marry secretly and one man may have a Reason which another hath not and it may be not only inconvenient but dangerous to one and not to another therefore it is fit every man seeing it is not prohibited by God should have liberty to marry publick or private with or without Witnesses as it suits best with his conveniencies Henry the Eighth married Ann Bulloigne the Mother of Queen Elizabeth on the 14 of Novemb. and kept the same so secret that it was not known till Easter after when she appeared great with Child And Arch-Bishop Cranmer was married and kept it so secret that it was not known till discovered by the King No doubt the King and Arch-Bishop both had very good reasons for what they did though they thought not fit to divulge them either before or after So Abraham and Isaac both endeavoured to keep their Marriages secret by telling lies they had very good reason for their Secrecy though not for their Lies From what hath been said appears therefore to be proved First That private marriage or carnal knowledg without Witnesses between Persons not prohibited by the Law of God to marry is not Fornication or any other Crime Secondly That it is a remedy provided by God to prevent Fornication and that the same if not forbidden by Papal Episcopal Pontifical or other Diabolical Laws would overthrow all Stews Brothels and common Whores and the whole Mystery of Iniquity of the Romish Anti-Christ which fills his Coffers and supports his Power by these filthy gains and far worse then those Ex lotio collected by the covetous Emperour Vespasian Thirdly That it is a great sin to forbid to marry And that those forbid to marry who forbid either publick or private marriage where not prohibited by God or take away the free liberty of either or compel to either dissentients in Conscience or differents in Convenience and thereby become accessaries to all the Fornications Adulteries and other wickedness which ensue thereby Of the Law requiring Witnesses of Marriage and Filiation where both are acknowledged by the Parents and no third party claims the Father Mother or Child This irrational Law is put in practice where a Man and Woman not prohibited to marry by the Law of God cohabit or keep private company and the pretence is That every Man should have his own Wife and every Woman her own Husband by the testimony of Witnesses which is as frivolous when the parties themselves acknowledge though as is before proved they are not bound to acknowledg it neither is it a sin and none else pretends claim to the Man or Woman as 't is to require Witnesses of every one possessed of Lands or Goods or to force him to answer to a Bill of discovery of his Title where none other claimeth or pretendeth a Title better than his possession The like is it where a Man and Woman acknowledg a Child to be theirs they ought not to be examined nor forced to produce Witnesses whose the Child is unless another as the Harlot did before Solomon claim or pretend right to the Child for where there is no Controversie or Crime proved there needs no Witness or Judge In like manner where a Child is acknowledged by Parents in their life time the Inheritance ought to be suffer'd to continue to him as left without proof of Witness or Enquiry where no other pretends to be a Child to the same Parents or a better right then Filiation for where there is no Controversie between some parties nor Crime proved nor Suspicion there needs neither Inquisition nor Witness nor Judge Of the Law when claim is made by Corrivals of one Woman of Sequestration of her pendente placito and Sentencing either Man or Woman to be restored in Specie and not in Value That where there is a Breach of promise or Contract of Marriage between a Man or Woman they ought to have liberty to repair themselves in damage is granted but that a Woman is to be Sequestred pendente placito or that either Man or Woman is to be adjudged to be restored in specie is denied Sequestration of a Woman unlawful 1. As to the Sequestration of the Woman this is contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of right to imprison a free Person before Judgment 2. None ought to be taken in Pledge Distrained or Sequestred which cannot be returned in as good Condition as when Taken
hire or gifts there would be no Whore Deutr. 23.18 It is said Thou shalt not bring the Hire of a Whore nor the price of a Dog into the House of the Lord. And it is said Ezek. 16.31 And hast not been as an Harlot in that thou scornest Hire but as a Wife that committeth Adultery that taketh strangers instead of her Husband They give gifts to all Whores but thou givest gifts to all thy Lovers that they may come unto thee on every side for thy Whoredom Mich. 1.7 It is said They shall return to the Hire of an Harlot And amongst the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be Englished a Rogue and a Whore came both from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vendo to sell which were the Lady of Pleasure and the Gallant which let themselves to hire for money Gifts in Law from Women to Men and Men to Women Besides these gifts by acts of parties there are worse and more mercenary gifts and hire given by acts of Law Super-alimentary to hire Men and Women to lye together To the Man if he can deceive such a Woman he shall have all her Goods and Chattels as is before shewen by Transubstantiation by force while she is alive and after her death all her Lands and Tenements by courtesie as long as he can live And the Woman if she will lye with such a Man shall steal and beg all she can from him while alive and when he is dead she shall have Dower and Thirds besides which gifts in Law on both sides are for no other end then ob turpem causam Copulationis As to Aliment 't is granted the Husband ought to provide for the Wife and the Wife for the Husband but Super-alimentary gifts are the matters here questioned The mischiefs of gifts Super-alimentary on Marriages either by act of the Parties or of Law are Mischless of Gifts Super-alimentary in Marriage First In regard of Publick Government Religion is thereby depraved Protestant Men are enticed to marry Papist Wives for great Portions and Tenancy by Courtesie and Protestant Women to marry Papist Husbands for great Jointures Dowers and Thirds 2. By these gifts Super-alimentary the Wealth of many Families is accumulated in one especially by Daughters Heiresses A great Soâ—oecisin in the Policy both of Monarchies and States for it is apparent by the Coats and Titles that many Families quarter the Subjects grow more Rich and Potent than the Prince This was prevented by Moses's Law by raising up Seed to the Brother and by marrying of Inheritrixes to the next Kinsman as likewise did the Athenians It was prevented in Persiâ— Armenia Africk and almost through all the East by limiting the Succession of Inheritances by a kind of Salique Law only to the Males and giving only the Moveables to the Daughters till Theodora to set up her Foeminine Militia got her Blunderbus Justinian to repeal that Antient Law Now though a Family Salique is of excellent use to preserve the equality of private Families yet in Royal Families it is contrary to all sound Policy hindring the Union of Kingdoms by Marriage for private Families may be too Potent but Kingdoms cannot In other Nations equality of private Families are preserved by Gavelkind amongst the Sons and Parcenary amongst the Daughters and amongst the Jews by limiting Primogeniture to no more than a double Portion 3. Another Mischief to the Publick of marrying Daughters with great Protions is it foments Seditions and hinders the Union between Patricians and Plebeians and between Poor and Rich as we see in Rome where they married for great Portions they would take the handsomest Daughters of the Plebeians and abuse but not marry them because though they had Beauty to answer their Lust they had no money to answer their Covetousness But amongst the great Eastern Princes where they buy and receive no Portion from their Wives they marry the Poor equally with the Rich which is no question a great obligation on their Subjects by becoming as it were the same flesh and blood with them who seeing the Daughter of a Mason Queen in the great Kingdom of China and the Daughter of an Herb-Woman Sultana to the Grand Seignior and their Princes born of these they think themselves highly honoured to be of equal blood with their Princes In like manner the Antient Custom of the Babylonians and Indians of selling the fairest Virgins to the Rich for Money and giving that Money to the unhandsom to be Wives for the Poor united the Poor and Rich by Marriages 4. Another great Inconvenience is The Father gives so great a Jointure to the Mother that when he dies she marries another Husband and starves her first Husband's Children and the Father he gets so great a Portion and Courtesie of the whole Estate of the Mother that he marries when she dies another Wife and brings in a Step-Mother over his first Wive's Children whose good quality the Poet expresseth Lurida terribiles miscent Aconitoe Novercae Step-Mothers terrible poison'd in spight Sons of first Mothers with blue Aconite 5. To marry for Money shackles Young Men to Old Women and Young Women to Old Men and persons loath'd one to another whereby they become miserable both Body and Soul and fall into Adultery and Fornication and often to poison or otherwise destroy one another Whereas were there not the Temptation of great Portions Tenancies by Courtesie Jointures Dowers Thirds every one would marry where they best liked and might thereby live vertuously and happily all their days This hath been endeavour'd to be remedied by the Civil Law in the Title De Donationibus inter virum uxorem by making all Gifts void between a Man and his Wife and the same Law gives another Reason of it Ne nimio amore spolientur lest the party who loved least should rob most and the worst Nature make a prey of the best The Common Law pretended likewise in imitation of the Civil Law to make all Gifts void between Baron and Feme but it dissembled for it forbid such Gifts to be made directly but encouraged them to be done indirectly by Chancery trusts which is ten times worse In Scotland to prevent the taking away the Estate of one Family by another by these Marriage-Gifts or Covenants they have an Excellent Law and of great Equity which makes them void as appears by Craig Feud 307. but 't is only in one Case which is when two persons have Marriage-Covenants for Portion and Jointure agreed and signed and they are accordingly married thereon If either the Man or Woman die within the Year after Marriage without any Issue between them the Writings of the Portion and Marriage shall be all void and the right of the Portion return to the Father of the Woman and the Jointure to the Father of the Man and both Families be in Statu quo they were before the Marriage The Arabians Brittons and other Nations to the
just cause by Divorce one of another without publishing the cause and if there be no cause amongst the Children by taking away as much of their Portions as the offence deserves and giving the same to the innocent Children and by good instruction reproofs and virtuous example of the Parents which will prevent more offences in Children then Tribunals can ever reform though they have Witnesses So Lycurgus by commanding in his Laws That all Captains of Armies and Priests of Temples should marry and that Husbands themselves should come to their Wives Furtim verecunde and the Children be modestly Educated left Sparta so clean from unchast demeanour that when Geradas an old Spartan was asked by a stranger What was the Punishment of Adultery in Sparta for he could find no Law made by Lycurgus concerning that Crime Oh Friend says he There is no Adulterer with us When he reply'd But what if there should be any Geradas told him He should pay a Bull so big as should be able to stretch his Neck over Taygetus and Drink of Eurotas when the other laughing said There is not such a Bull to be found Neither quoth Geradas Is an Adulterer to be found in Sparta where Riches Luxury and wantoness of Apparel are counted a disgrace and Modesty and Obedience to Magistrates an Honour Where the Seminaries of Vices are not permitted how can Vices grow First Therefore as to Man and Wife as Bodin lib. 1. cap. 3. says Nothing seems more pernicious then to compel the cause of Divorce to be shewn before a Judg for in so doing the honour of one or both Parties is hazarded which would not be if neither of them were compel'd to prove the same before a Judg as Plutarch in Alcib relates That when the Wife of Alcibiades went to complain of him before the Judg he came after her into the Court and took her by force and carried her away home on his Shoulders Ne Secreta Fori Panderet whereat the Judg only smiled The Hebrews likewise used to make their Bills of Divorce without a cause neither is it prohibited by Christ if there were a true cause to put her away by private Bill without publick Tribunal or Judg for such were all the Bills of Moses and no publick Judg required to judg of the Cause but only the Conscience of the Party And Joseph having a just cause of suspicion against Mary his Wife did not bring her before a Judg and is commended for so doing to be a just man as Matth. 1.19 is said Then Joseph her Husband being a just man and not willing to make her a publick Example was minded to put her away privily So doth Plutarch in Aemil. relate of Paulus Aemilius Who according to the Custom of the Romans shewed no cause of putting away his Wife but affirmed her very honest wife and nobly descended and by whom he had also many fair Children but when he was press'd by her Friends to shew the cause why he would then Divorce he shewed them his Shoo which was very handsomely and well made and yet says he None of you know but my self feeleth where it wrings my Foot By which doing the Woman is not dishonour'd but may marry with another suitable to her quality and the same liberty had the Wives to divorce themselves from their Husbands without proving or shewing any cause before a publick Judg. This likewise preserves the repute of the Children who though innocent will likewise perpetually bear the reproach if the dishonour either of their Father or Mother be publish'd before a Judg. And further as to drawing the secret offences of uncleanness of Children especially of Daughters before a Judg who are under the Family Jurisdiction either of Father or Mother or Husband the same is an undoing to those who offend for though they never so much repent and amend yet there can be no repairing of their shame or name when publish'd and the innocent who are the Father and Mother and Husband and the other Children the dishonour can never be taken again from them Seneca therefore who in all other things was a great honourer of the virtue of Augustus yet blames as a great oversight in that wise Emperour that he punished the Adulteries of his Daughter Julia publickly by Banishment Quae potius saith he Principi tacenda quà m vindicanda sunt Secondly It makes every petty difference between Man and Wife irreconcilable and heightens Contention from a small spark by blowing it abroad to so great a flame that it is at last unquenchable for the publishing of many things neither criminous nor sinful may affect some modest Natures with as deep a sence of disgrace as those that are false as much as those that are true and when once published cannot by repentance be again revoked but may cause such hatred between the Parties as will never again admit them to live together Thirdly Where offences are not published they oft times may with honour be forgiven and the Parties reconciled which if publish'd cannot So Antonius Pius forgave the Adultery of Faustina and would not draw it to publick Judgment to prevent his own shame And Ael Spart writes That the Emperour Adrian did the like to his Empress who though he suspected yet put not away but only removed such Courtiers from his Court as he suspected Of the Law compelling Persons Married though mortal Enemies to Cohabitation Another great mischeif is in the Ecclesiastical Laws they compel Cohabitation of Men and Women when they are mortal Enemies and take off Exequenda Matrimonialia Officia and due benevolence when one insidiates for the life of the other of which take Bodin further Fol. 19. but says he If the Cause seem not sufficient to the Judg which he intends the Cause alledged of Divorce to an Ecclesiastical Judg or be not well proved it is therefore meet to inforce the Parties to live together in that Society which is of all other the straightest Test having always the one and the other the object of their grief still before their Eyes Truly says he I am not of that opinion for seeing themselves brought into extream servitude fear and perpetual discord hereof ensue Adulteries and oftentimes Murthers and Poisonings for the most part to men unknown And for this cause free Divorce to both Parties and non-Cohabitation was permitted by the Roman Laws not out of wantonness but out of the greatest necessity and Piety for preservation of those ends for which Marriage was instituted with the least danger and dishonour that might be to either Party wherein they must of necessity suffer if either free Divorce be tolerated or the examination of the causes of the same drawn to publick Tribunals One cause Cato the Censor complains of for which the freedom of Divorce and non-Cohabitation ought to be permitted was because he used to say That all Adulteresses were Poisoners and this likewise appears by Valer. Max. lib. 2. p. 8. where it is thus
doth not sin unless perhaps they are observed or commanded to be observed as obligatory by virtue of that old Antique Law for such an intention to observe them were a deadly sin So agrees Lippoman and others The difference between a Ceremony and a Circumstance shall be shewen after Of the absurd and ridiculous Ceremonies on which Priests would have Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession to depend The chief Pagan Ceremony of Marriage in old time with the Greeks was to carry the Woman to the Temple with Torches Ac nec nupta quidem taedaque accepta jugali Cur nisi ne caperes Regna paterna nothus And this came first from the Priests of Priapus and Venus who as is before shewen in the Title of Ecclesiastical Laws were the first inventors of all Ceremonies of Marriage that for their own gain they might by pretence of a Ceremonial Law instituted by their false Gods and Goddesses overthrow the Moral Law of the true God of Marriage But to them who know the true God and his Law from the false what doth a Torch more make a Marriage then an end of a Candle to go to bed with or to have the validity or invalidity of the same or the Filiation and Succession of Children to depend on Amongst the Romans they were married by the Priest and a Gold Ring put on the Woman's finger the like is now in use amongst the Popist Romans In the Persian Marriages instead of a Ring the Priest incircles them with a Cord conjoynes their hands takes a Reciprocal oath and calls Mahomet to witness then the Caddi registers their Names The Assyrians never see the Woman untill they are married to her so neither do Princes but by Picture and marry on a good report and go first and agree with her Parents then aâ—an appointed time they are to meet in a Church in a part of it designed for that use where there is a Partition with an hole in it on one side the Bridegroom and his friends stand on the other the Bride and her friends The Priest bids the Bridegroom put his hand through the hole and take his Bride by the hand which no sooner done but her Mother and one other of her friends being prepared with a sharp Instrument pricks his hand all over and if he doth not pull away his hand when he is so pained but still holds her fast they hold it a sign he will love her if not they judge the contrary Amongst the Macua's on the River Quizungo when a Maid is to be married she goes into the Wilderness a whole Moon every day to bewail her Virginity visited of her friends and returning home every Night and every Morning early returning to her wild Task again as soon as the new Moon appears a great Feast is made and the next day she is delivered to her Husband without any more Ceremony Dos Sanctos The Lapponians hold That no Marriage which is not consecrated by the Fire and Flint is Lawful therefore they strike a Flint on the Steel to shew That as the hidden sparks fly out by that Union so Children are propagated by the conjunction of Male and Female Nuptiae olim celebrantur accipiendo Aquam Ignem L. per ib. Gl. pen. de Donat inter virum The Incutan Priest makes a Marriage by joining the little fingers of the Man and Woman together neer a fire The Brasilians without any Ceremony yet Adultery is with them death Amongst the Memesses the Man and his Bride are set a stride on a Horse both blinded and so led into a Grove there taken down and married by their Rites then set up again blinded as before and conveyed with their company and Musick and Singing to their House there taken down and had to Bed still blinded till the next morrow in the mean while the company continue drinking Barclay In Muscovy they ride to Church they use a Ring and joining of Hands she knocks her Head against his Shoe and he throws the lap of his Garment over her In Peru the Man marries the Woman by putting an Ottoga or Shoe on her Foot if she were a Maid the Shoo was of Wool if a Widow of Reeds The Mexican Prlests married the parties by tying a corner of the Man's Gown and the Woman's Vail together and so lead them to the Man's House where there was a fire ready kindled and made the married couple walk seven times about the fire and so they become married In the old Greek Marriages when the Bride came to her Husband's House they used to throw Figs on her Head and the company to scramble for them The Woman as Lactan. touches was likewise to be set in the lap of Priap The old Roman custom was by eating a piece of Barley-Cake before the Priest and other Ceremonies The Cimbri had a custom That such as would marry after the Marriage agreed on they each of them pared their Nails of Fingers and Toes and sent the parings one to another which when they had mutually received this was esteemed a holy and firm Marriage and they became Man and Wife The Teutonians rounded one anothers Hair The Elamites pricked one anothers finger The Numidians anointed one another with spittle and clay In Rome the Bridegroom and Bride married not by their own proper names but by the name of Cajus and Caja they used to call themselves by the name of Jupiter and Juno so the Poet though never so poor a fellow he says Eja mi Juno non decet te tam tristem esse tuo Jovi And in Muscovy the Bridegroom and Bride are called the Duke and the Dutchess The Armenians amongst other Ceremonies meet at the high Altar and lean Fore-head to Fore-head then comes the Priest and turning his back to the Altar layes his Bible on their Heads instead of a Desk a weight sufficiently heavy being a thick ponderous Folio there he lets it lye till he reads the Form of Matrimony The Scythians first touch one anothers Feet then they set together their Knees then their Hands then their Buttocks then their Heads then they imbrace one another and then 't is a Marriage If the Ceremonies or words of the Priest make Marriage then Nero was when he was married to one Pythagoras an Eunuch dressed like a Woman And when another time he married Sporus an Eunuch in Greece these must be Marriages One said it had been good for the World Nero's Father had been so married At Banaras and amongst other Indians when a Man and a Woman is to be Married they and a Bramayne or Priest and a Cow with a Calf are brought together to the Rivers side The Woman having a Brass-Pot in her hand full of Water the Priest receiveth a White Cloth of four Yards and a Basket cross bound with divers things in it the Cloth he layeth on the back of the Cow and then he taketh the Cow by the end of the Tail and then he sayes certain words and
Children the same ought to be wholly and intirely performed to such Sons and Daughters in all Successions whether to a Testament or an Intestate And in short that they ought not to be made unlike other Children in Successions whom Nature hath made like Hence it appears that the Civil Law wills the Succession of Children shall be according to the Law of Nature and not according to any Canon Law or Law made by the Priest Natura duce errare nullo modo potest Tul. 1. de leg Cum vero parentibus rediti deinde Magistris traditi sumus tum ita variis imbuimur erroribus ut vanitati veritas opinioni confirmatae natura ipsa cedit 3. Tusc Where nature is our Guide it is impossible to err but when we fall into the hands of Parents and are delivered to Shool-Masters we are then infected with so many Errors that all truth gives place to vanity and Nature it self yields to opinion accustomed To fight against Nature is like Giants to fight against God Cato major Of the Final Causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature The Final causes of Marriage which is the Ordinance of God and not of Man are not to fill Priests pockets with money or to satisfie their insatiable Covetousness and Ambition to set their Foot on the Necks of Emperours and Kings in their Legitimations and Successions and thereby to dispose of the Kingdoms of Princes and the Liberty Propriety and Goods of the Subjects at their Arbitrary will and pleasure But the Final causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature are three 1. Procreation of Children 2. That Man might have an Help-meet for him there being many necessities especially in time of sickness wherein Man cannot be without the help of a Woman 3. To make his life more pleasant and delightful Tristis sine conjuge lectus As for the first part which is the greatest and chiefest end of Marriage namely procreation of Children without which the World cannot be continued To be the shorter I shall only mention one Poet as follows Providei ille maximus mundi-Parens Cùm tam rapaces cerneret fati minas Vt damna semper sobole repararet nova Excedat agedum rebus humanis Venus Quae supplet ac restituit exhaustum genus Orbis jacebit squalido turpis situ Vacuum sine ullis classibus stabit mare Alesque Coelo deerit silvis fera Solis Aer pervius ventis erit Sen. in Hippol. Fates cruel Threats when the great Parent saw Against his Creatures by as great a Law He then Inacted all those whom it slew Sould by new Births perpetually renew Should Venus lease and should not still restore With fresh Supplies Natures exhausted store On squalid Earth no Beauty would remain No gallant Fleets would dance upon the Main No Deer in Woods no Birds would be in Skie Winds only through sad Air would sighing flie There could be neither King nor Parliament nor People nor Governours nor Governed neither could the Protestant Religion defend it self against Pope or Turk without Marriage for though it be Apocrypha it is truly said Esdras 4.15 Women have born the King and all the People that bear rule by Sea or Land The End of the First Book THE CONTENTS Of the Second Book BY what Judg Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought not and ought to be Judged Of the Five Competitors to be Judges of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession 1. The Bishop 2 The Magistrate 3. The Souldier 4 The Parents 5. The King and Parliament 137 Exceptions against Bishops being Judges in reference to the Legislative ib. Except 1. They assume to be Judges Jure Divino without a Sign of Mission from God which overthrows the Legislative Power of the King and Parliament ib. Of the Sign of Mission required by the Grand Seignior from Sabatai Sevi a counterfeit Jewish Messiah 139 2. They have falsely translated the Scripture in all words relating to Marriage 142 They have falsely translated Ish Isha Zona Kadesh Philiegesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Husband Wife Harlot Concubine c. 142 No such as word as Concubine in the whole Original Scripture ib. They have falsely translated the Seventh Commandment Lo Tinaph to be Adultery 145 They have falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Fornication ib. They have falsely translated the Tenth Commandment in the words Wife Man-Servant Maid-Servant 146 They have falsely translated Mamzer in the Old and Nothus in the New Testament Bastard Wherein are noted the Errors of Coke Skene and Grotius in following Episcopal and other Popish translations ib. Of the absurdity of Common and Ecclesiastical Lawyers who make the Child born without the Ceremonies of a Priest and Temple no Sib Kin or of Blood to the Father who begot or the Mother who bare him 154 155 Further Reasons shewn that they have falsely translated Mamzer in the Old and Nothus in the New Testament Bastard 156 No such word or thing as Bastard in the whole Original Scripture or amongst the Hebrews Greeks or Romans 3. They have corrupted the Press both as to Scripture and Acts of Parliament and interdict Protestants to Print against or answer Papists 162 A Counterfeit Act of Parliament Printed by Bishops against Protestants and the true supprest 163 Mischiefs which follow the Interdiction of the Press to Protestants 164 165 4. By pretence of giving the King the name of Supremacy they have taken the thing to themselves 167 5. By pretence of giving the King Supremacy by the Ceremonies of the Coronation they take it from him to themselves 169 David Anointed and Crowned by his Parliament and not by the Priest 173 6. They assume in all matters concerning Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession to be above Appeal to the Kings Courts 175 Of the abominable Judgement pass'd by the Common Law Judges in Kennes Case Coke lib. 7.42 whereby they gave away the Supremacy of the King's Courts to Bishops and made them in all causes Matrimonial subject to no Appeal ib. Exceptions against Bishops being Judges in reference to the Judicial Power 180 1. They are prohibited by the example of Christ to Judg Marriage Filiation Aliment or Succession ib. 2. They are totally ignorant of the Fact and were never Educated in the Laws by which they pretend to Judg Marriage 181 3. They Judg by a Chancellour and not in Person 4. They have Plurality of Offices and more than they are able to serve yet will be Judges of Marriage besides ib. 5. They are ambidextrous and amphibious Judges 182 6. They Judg Marriage by pretended Canons and Laws made by Bishops without assent of Parliament ib. 183 7. They take to themselves Fines and Penalties of their own Judgments 184 8. They Licence Dispence and Pardon all Crimes within their pretended Jurisdiction for Money 9. They cannot be known whether Protestants or Papists if Bishops 185 10. They Judg by Fictions and not by Truth 11. They Judg
committed to the next of Kin c. The Administration being thus granted to the Mother the Sister by th Father's side doth commence Suit before the Ecclesiastical Judg pretending her self to be next of kin and the Mother not to be kin at all to the party Deceased and therefore desireth the Administration formerly granted the Mother to be revoked and committed to her as next kin to the Deceased by force of the said Statute Hereupon the most Learned as well in the Laws of the Realm as in the Civil Law were consulted and both Common Lawyers and Civilians unanimously declared it to be an Article of their Faith contrary to Scripture and common sence that a Mother was not kin to her Son so Judgment was pass'd against the Mother whereby she lost her Son and her money too perhaps some that she gave him And in those days this precedent did so much prevail that many other Judgments passed accordingly against the Mothers Then in Rama was there a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not yea weeping it over again Qualis populea maerens Philomela sub umbra Amissos queritur faetus quos durus arator Observans nido implumes detraxit at illa Flet noctes ramoque sedens miserabile carmen Integrat maestis late loca questibus implet Yea our Rachel had twice more cause to weep then Philomel for Philomel wept only because her Children were not but Rachel wept both because hers were not and because she must not be kin to them neither And surely her mourning had continued for ever had not in process of time the Tears of Women and the Beauty of Truth for what is stronger then Truth and women against Popery prevailed in England but could not in Scotland because Skene put it on the Father The Child not the Child of the Mother Natural affection no consideration to raise an Use to a natural Son but good to an Adulterate Son who is not so apt to weep as the Mother that he should be no Sib or Kin to his Son But will you not wonder My Lord Coke will present you with a couple of rarer absurdities if possible then this for he saith lib. 10. in Leonard Loveis his Case fol. 83. That if a Woman have a Bastard which he intends a Child not born of a Ceremonial Marriage that this Child is not in truth but only in reputation her Child And therewith agrees Dyer M. 17. 18. Eliz. fo 345. 12 Eliz. 290. And then he in his Commentaries and the Judges in Plowden's Commentaries agree in Sharington and Pledal's Case That if a Man in consideration of natural affection covenant to stand seized of such a piece of Land to the use of his Son this natural affection is a sufficient consideration to raise an Use as they call it and to vest the Estate in the Son though he were the Son of an Adulterer and not the Son of his reputed Father if his Mother were married by a Priest in a Temple and his reputed Father within the four Seas But if the Son be his true natural Son begotten by himself then the consideration of natural affection to his true Son is no consideration to raise an Use nor to pass the Land to him but the same is void and null In the first Case where there is no ground for natural affection they talk all of nature extolling her above all considerations and cry out Naturae vis maxima and Natura bis maxima and give away the Estate from the true natural Child to the false Child of the Adulterer Then in the latter Case where there is a just and righteous cause of natural affection commanded by God to Men and instincted by him to Beasts to provide for their own There they are void of natural affection their blind Eye of the Law must see the Infernal darkness of Fictions in the Law and be shut against the Sun of Truth They pretend the Law of Nature in their words but in their works omnia naturae contraria legibus ibunt Nothus made the true Son and the true Son made Nothus They will not allow natural affection of the true Father to his true natural Child to be a consideration to raise an Use in so much as one Acre of Land where they will allow it to the true Nothus and Fictitious Child of an Adulterer against whom probatio non admittitur in contrarium sufficient to invest him in the thousands of Acres of Seigniories and Baronies 'T is strange that Men who profess Law and Justice should not be ashamed of so gross and repugnant absurdities and contrary not only to all Law and Justice but common sence and reason Reasons shewing further that Mamzer in the Old Testament and Nothus in the New are falsly translated Bastard Mamzer Alienigena 1. The word Mamzer is by the best Criticks affirmed to signifie naturally and properly Alienigena seu de alienae gentis foemina natus And that Deut. 23.2 ought to be translated Alienigena non introibit and not Spurius non introibit or in English a Bastard shall not enter but the Translation ought to be in English An Alien born shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord even to his tenth generation shall be not enter So as the Law here as the Laws of most other Nations do doth put a distinction in priviledge between Alien and Denizen born and not between unlawful and lawful born for an Alien is as lawfully born as a Denizen but hath not the same priviledge either as to Religion of entring into the Congregation or of acquiring propriety in the Land either by Purchase or Succession for if that should be permitted there would ensue the derision or corruption of all natural Religions by contrary Nations and the buying of one Nation out of their Land by another Enemy Nation who were richer in mony then they And that the intention as well as the words of the Law was only against Aliens born as appears manifestly by the next Verse in the same Chapter where it is said An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord which as the verse before spake of Aliens in general speaks next of Aliens in special Ammonites and Moabites who being of kindred to the Israelites might have been doubted whether intended to be excluded under the general word Aliens which this naming them specially clears and likewise clears that it is intended the National and not the getting or birth of Children in private Families And this is manifest by the constant practice of the whole Israelitish Nation who had no such thing as Illegitimation of the Children of any Ebrew Woman but whether the Wives were one or many the Children all Succeeded alike to their natural Parents if the Father did not for any special reason or otherwise expresly
on the same Some make Nothi and Flii naturales all one as Nov. 99. de Nothis makes Nothus the natural Son and illegitimate as Insulanus Naturalis Filius à vulgo barbarorum dicitur qui sit ex illegitimo toro suscitatus sed parum aptè est enim Filius naturalis qui sanguine natura est tuus non adoptione factus A natural Son is he who is by Blood and Nature thine and not made so by Adoption Cato says there is no such word in Latine as Nothus nor any of the like signification but that which comes nearest it is Spurius and Plutarch says it was a name amongst the Romans as Sextus and Decimus and Caius were and as other names were was written short with two of the first Letters S P. but whether it was a name of honour or dishonour is not known as appears by Hartm Pistor lib. 1. q. juris q. 30. only it is said of them that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fatherless which is less suspicious of dishonour then before for they called their god Vulcan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fatherless and their god Mars was brought out by Juno without a Father as they would have us beleive and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fatherless did signifie only an Orphan whom misfortune had deprived of his Father And it was therefore true what Cato before said Romans had no such word or thing as Nothus That the Latines had no word amongst them which agreed in signification with Nothus in Greek and having no such word they must have no such thing for if they had had such a thing they would questionless have had a word to express it So as Anti-Christian Christian Rome against the fatherless is worse then Pagan Rome and neither Papal nor Episcopal Religion is pure but unclean for it is declared Jam. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless but it seems they think they have a better Scripture of Coke and Littleton of non habet ipsum patrem to defend them as if it were a sufficient cause to rob a Child of what is dearer then his life his good name and lay Ignominy on him because he is fatherless but let them remember though the fatherless hath no Reverend Father in God to own him he hath a greater even God himself for so he is called Psal 68.5 Father of the fatherless and though he is forsaken as David by his natural Father and Mother yet may he say as he saith Psal 27.10 When my Father and Mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up And as there was no Nothus amongst the Pagan Romans so there was no illegitimation amongst them or the Greeks but all natural Children were legitimate and Probation of Filiation was a Probation of Legitimation Legitimation or Illegitimation of a natural Child impossible for there was no such word or thing as Legitimation or making Children legitimate who were not born so it being impossible to make a Child or a Son of such a man who was not born so or to make any not to be the Child or Son of such a man if he were born so till the Bishops made Marriage a Sacrament and made infatuated People beleive such absurdities as were impossible to be beleived of any but à mente captis as of transubstantiation of two Persons into one Person of transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into Children of the Husband of making the Child of the man not to be his Child nor of his Blood nor of his Sib or Kin and making the Child born of the Mother not to be her Child nor she of kin to it and the like unheard of Fopperies in former Ages and accordingly Connan lib. 2. cap. 16. num 5. saith That amongst the ancient Lawyers there is no such word to be found as Legitimation and if not of Legitimation there could be none of Illegitimation or Bastardy To translate therefore the word Nothus into a word of so many ambiguous significations as are so many Authors variant and contradictory on the same and into a word which was not nor the thing it is made signifie in Rerum natura at the time of writing Nothus is a false and a foul translation Fourthly A word in Scripture which is modest ought not to be translated into a word of Scurrility but Nothus or a Counterfeit is a word modest it is therefore filthily and falsely translated into inhonestum infame vocabulum which they would derive a Sporo Pudendo Muliebri Fifthly The word Nothus doth not revile the innocent Child with the Crime of the Malefactor but Coke though it be said 1 Cor. 6.10 No Revilers shall inherit the Kingdom of God reviles God's Eldest Daughter Nature to be a Whore and her Children to be Bastards for he saith Aerd signifies Nature and Base signifies Base and a Bastard is a Base-natural or one born of base Nature if therefore he makes the Child a Bastard he must make the Mother a Whore and by making her Children Base he makes none Noble but the Children of the Whore of Babylon of whom she is deliver'd by the Man-Midwifry of a Priest in a Temple There being therefore no such word in the whole Original Scripture Old Testament or New which signifies a Bastard or illegitimate Child nor any such thing amongst the Hebrews or Barbarous Nations themselves as illegitimation of natural Children nor in Rerum Natura amongst the wild Beasts Monsters and Serpents as illigitimation of their Young till that more and monstrous old Serpent and Romish Dragon appear'd described Rev. 12.3 Having Seven Heads and Ten Horns and Seven Crowns upon his Heads And his Tail drew the third part of the Stars of Heaven and did cast them to the Earth and the Dragon stood before the Woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour his Child as soon as it was born And Verse 16. And the Earth helped the Woman and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the Flood which the Dragon cast out of his mouth And the Dragon was wroth with the Woman and went to make War with the remnant of her seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ Now though none here undertake to unfold Mysteries or expound Prophecies yet it will be a more proper Exposition then the Episcopal translation of Mamzer and Nothus and their Expositions on the same If any should say allusively though not prophetically and expound Prelacy to be the Dragon with many Heads and Horns Woman-kind to be the Woman the multitude of Provincial and Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage to be the Flood of Waters cast out of the Dragons mouth against the Woman the illegitimation of all Children not born of a Marriage made by a Priest in a Temple to be the standing of the Dragon before the Woman ready to be deliver'd for to
devour her Child as soon as it is born The People who are Terrae Filii to be the Earth helping the Woman Prelacy being wroth and going to make War with Dissentient Protestants to be the Dragons being wroth with the Woman and going to make War with the Remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God Old Teslament false translated by Bishops in 848 places and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ And that these are not the only false translations which Bishops make of the Scripture appears by the great Linguist Broughton who in his Advertisements of Corruptions affirms to the then Bishops of England That their publick translations of Scriptures is such as that it perverts the Text of the Old Testament in no less then Eight Hundred Forty Eight places and causeth Millions to reject the New Testament and to run into Eternal Flames Sixthly To shew that Coke needs no other to confute him in the signification of Nothus not to be a Child born out of Wedlock but a plece of his own Rhime I shall recite it which is by him set down Manseribus scortum notho Moechus dedit ortum and is a false Verse for No in Notho is short which might happen by some Error of his Scribe but the true Verse is in Calv. Lex whence I suppose he might have it Sed Moecha Nothis dedit ortum which Moecha signifies an Adulteress which she cannot be unless she is a Married Woman therefore it is plain the Rhime it self confutes him that Nothus is not a Child born out of Wedlock but in Wedlock which is unanswerable as to him because ex ore suo though not as to others who are on better reasons unanswerably answer'd before They corrupt the Press both as to Scripture and Law and interdict Protestants to write against Papists or answer them Act of Parliament against Lollards counterfeit by Bishops Coke 3. part 40. saith There was a Statute supposed to be made 5. R. 2. That Commissions should be by the Lord Chancellor made and directed to Sheriffs and others to Arrest such as should be Certified into the Chancery by the Bishops and Prelates Masters of Divinity to be Preachers of Heresies and notorious Errors their Fautors Maintainers and Abetters and to hold them in strong Prison until they will justifie themselves to the Law of the Holy Church By colour of this supposed Act certain Persons that held Images were not to be worship'd c. were holden in strong Prison until they to redeem their vexation miserably yielded before these Masters of Divinity to take an Oath and did swear to worship Images which was against the Moral and Eternal Law of Almighty God We have said by colour of the supposed Statute c. not only in respect of the said Opinion but in respect also that the said supposed Act was in truth never any Act of Parliament though it was Entred in the Rolls of Parliament for that the Commons never gave their consent thereunto And therefore in the next Parliament the Commons prefer'd a Bill reciting the said supposed Act and constantly affirmed that they never assented thereto and therefore desired that the supposed Statute might be aniented and declared void For they protested that it was never their intent to be justified and to bind themselves and their Successors to Prelates more then their Ancestors had done in times past And hereunto the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Ypleist au Roy. And mark well the manner of the penning the Act for seeing the Commons did not assent thereunto the words of the Act are It is Ordained and Assented in this present Parliament That c. And so it was being but by the King and the Lords It is to be known that of ancient time when any Acts of Parliament were made to the end the same might be published and understood especially before the use of Printing came into England the Acts of Parliament were ingrossed into Parchment and bundled up together with a Writ in the King's name under the great Seal to the Sheriff of every County sometime in Latine and sometime in French to command the Sheriff to proclaim the said Statutes within his Bailwick as well within Liberties as without And this was the course of Parliamentary Proceedings before Printing came in use in England and yet it continued after we had the Print till the Reign of H. 7. Now at the Parliament holden in 5. R. 2. John Braibrook Bishop of London being Lord Chancellor of England caused the said Ordinance of the King and Lords to be inserted into the Parliamentary Writ of Proclamation to be proclaimed amongst the Acts of Parliament which Writ I have seen the purclose of which Writ after the recital of the Acts directed to the Sheriff of N. in these words Nos volentes dictas concordias sive ordinationes in omnibus singulis suis Articulis inviolabiter observari tibi praecipimus quod praedictas concordias sive ordinationes in locis infra Balivam tuam ubi melius expedire volueris tam infra libertates quam extra Publice Proclamari teneri facias juxta formam Praenotatam Teste Rege apud Westm 26. Maij. Anno Regni Regis R. 2.5 But in the Parliamentary Proclamation of the Acts passed in Anno 6. R. 2. the said Act of the 6. R. 2. whereby the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was declared to be void is omitted and afterwards the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was continually Printed and the said Act of 6. R. 2. hath been by the Prelates ever from time to time kept from the Print A Counterfeit Act Printed by Bishops against Protestants What English Protestant can read this without horror what doth he not observe it why 't is that Counterfeit Act of Parliament 5. R. 2.1382 whereby Bishops usurp to be Judges of the Souls and Consciences of Protestants and to put them in strong Prison till they conform and submit to the will of the Bishop 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they usurp to be Judges of Heresie and to make Protestants Hereticks when they please 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they have compell'd the Subjects to swear to worship their Idols 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they have dragged so many Pious Martyrs to the Stake and burnt them filling the whole Land with fiery Furnaces 't is that Counterfeit Act by which the Bishops have usurped Power to destroy Religion Liberty Propriety and Lives of all Protestant Subjects at their pleasure 't is that Counterfeit Act which was never assented to but disclaimed detested abrogated and declared null and void by the House of Commons 6. R. 2. Anno 1383. and hath been yet most presumptuously caused to be printed as a valid Act by the Bishops being Masters of the Press and the true Act of Abrogation 6. R. 2. Whereon all the Subject hath depends most wickedly suppress'd and never Printed Coke 2.
Year after his being wounded or beaten punisheth only the Event of an unlawful Act of wounding or beating not of lawful which Event is subsequent and not preceding to the Act. So likewise the Scripture useth the word Event for what follows and not for what precedes as Eccles 2.14 One Event happeneth to them all And Eccles 9.2 There is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked And Verse 11. Ireturned and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor Riches to men of Vnderstanding nor yet Favour to men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to them all Man purposeth but God disposeth Events are only in the Power of God Ceremonies and Circumstances in this agree 1. That they are both accessary and not the Principal Acts. 2. That when single they may be neither good nor evil but when join'd with another Act they may become either good or evil 3. They may be in some junctures each the Principal and in other the accessary Act. 4. In some junctures each may be good in other evil and in a third neither good nor evil that is neither be Ceremonies nor Circumstances 5. In this Ceremonies and Circumstances agree that they have been used and abused in all Affairs and Acts both Civil Military and Religious but I shall here only insist on such Ceremonies as have been abused and compel'd by Pagan and Episcopal Canons in relation to Marriage Ceremonies and Circumstances in this differ 1. Ceremonies and Circumstances differ That Marriage and other Acts are impossible to be done without Circumstances but the same is possible to be done without Ceremonies 2. Ceremonies are always Acts external and made the objects of the external Senses of Witnesses and are of no Use in Marriage but the gains of the Priest where Witnesses are unlawful as in Carnal knowledg or impossible as in Filiation as is already proved P. 104 105. But Circumstances of Marriage may be both external or internal and invisible External as Youth Age Sexes Health Sickness Plurality Unity Internal and Invisible as Religion Conscience Vertue Vice Love Hatred and the like Ceremonies make Acts gawdy which they call decent or deformed before men but Circumstances only make them so before God 3. All Ceremonials are Artificial and not Natural but Circumstances may be both Artificial and Natural 4. No Ceremonies in Marriage are Commanded or Prohibited in the Moral Law of God but many Circumstances are Commanded and many Prohibited in the same Moral Law 5. God is the Author of all Natural and Moral Circumstances which make Marriage lawful or unlawful but the Devil is the Author of Ceremonies where is no Miracle or sign of Mission from God And it hath been before shewn the compulsion to Ceremonies of Marriage came from Daemons and Priests of Priapus and Venus and such as judg Marriage by such Ceremonies come not from God 6. Ceremony is a matter of Formality in Judgment but Circumstance if any is the matter of Substance To conclude it is a thing so absurd to judg by Ceremonies above Circumstances and by Formalities above Substance that never any Lawyer was so shameless to maintain in writing or lay any such Principle in judicial Proceâ—dings to be equal though by the Corruption of Practice not only in Marriage but in all things else The Truth and Substance of Religion and Justice hath been utterly lost and destroyed in an heap of Ceremonies and Formalities invented only for the gains of such Judges as would for that end with such Empty-nothings pretend to wâ—igh Right and Wrong For the Law of man can not make any Ceremony or other matter to be Substance which the Law of God and Nature hath made an Accident or make that Moral which God hath made to be only Ceremonial or make that Act Good or Evil in it self or to affect anoâ—her Act with Good or Evil for to make Moral Good or Evil or a Law for it belongs only to Supream Power Isa 45 7. I form the Light and create Darkness I make Peace and create Evil. Otherwise he were not Legislator of the World Of the manifold Mischiefs which insue by Compulsion to Marry by the particular Ceremonies of a Priest or a Temple It is not here affirmed That 't is unlawful to Marry by a Priest or in a Temple but it is only affirmed That 't is unlawful to compel any so to do by Penalties and especially by so unjust Penalties as is done by the Popish and Eplsâ—opal Canons of making Marriages Null or illegitimating the Children and that 't is unlawful for Bishops to judg Marriages Null or make Certificates of Ne unques accouple in Loyal Matrimony concerning the Parents or of illegitimation of the Child for no other cause than the omission or defect of so frivolous a Ceremony as a Priest or a Temple and that such affirmance is not without cause may appear from the manifold mischiefs which follow Compulsion of the same 1. It compels to enter into an indissoluble Obligation before the Parties can know each other whether they are fit for Marriage or no. Mischiefs of Verbal Espousals before Real Knowledg Proh Deum aâ—que hominum fidem quae haec contumelia est uxorem decrevit sese darâ— mihi hodie nonne oporâ—et prascisse me ante nonne Communicatam oportuiâ— Ter. And. 1. Act. Scen. 5. Oh the Faith of Gods and Men what a scorn is this He hath Decreed to put a Wife upon me to Day should I not first know her should I not first talk with her This Custom of Verbal Precontracts was in ancient time much used amongst the Jews and Marriage delayed a long time after as Jacob's was with Rachel for Seven Years But the later Rabbles finding many great inconveniences in the same injoined if it were at all the same should be a very little while before the Marriage In like manner the Armenians who are of the Greek Church Contract and Espouse together their Children at two or three Years old yea often times the Mothers agree a Marriage between their Children if one happen to be a Male and the other a Female while they are in their Bellies Tavernier Woman deluded This Custom of Precontracts and Espousals is likewise used though not between Children so young as with the Armenians by the Canon Law and most wickedly allowed to be a sufficient Cause of Nulling a Marriage Consummate by Carnal knowledg and Birth of a Child and illegitimation of the same Child of an innocent Person altogether ignorant of such Precontracts Vid. plus of Precontract before P. 88 94 95 c. 1. The inconveniences of Precontracts and Espousals is that when Contracted the one especially the Man delays and deludes the other so long that one chief end of Marriage which is prevention of Fornication is defeated and many times Women are kept along with Promises all their life time and the Man in
secret finds other Company and never takes himself the Woman Contracted at the last nor will suffer others to take her by pretences of Precontracts and if he release them at last others will often refrain those so blown on supposing them repudiated for some secret fault Impotent diseased Persons Contracted 2. By Precontracts published by the Priest in facie Ecclesiae which they call Marriage before the real and true Marriage which is Carnal knowledg Parties are joined together who are impotent diseased unpleasant or otherwise uncapable of answering the great ends of Marriage of Procreation of Children and prevention of Fornication and then by the Canon Law they are bound to Fast and Pray Three Years together before by the Spiritual Court they can be untouched again with such obscene or at least disgraceful Trials and Publications as the Repudiations of either is a Dishonour to both yea many Examples there have been of modest and vertuous Ladies who expecting to be Mothers by Marriage have continued Virgins to their great inward grief all their Husbands life time rather than they would make any outward complaint as long as they lived then though no impotence or unfitness in Body yet in Mind and Affection which is as bad the Man is Frigidus and he Woman is Calida as appears in the forementioned Example especially of H. 8. and the Lady Ann of Cleve A young Woman in mans apparel Married to an old Robs her 3. In Contracts before Carnal knowledg Parties cannot know of what Sex each other is or whether they are both Men or both Women Concerning which I have been credibly informed That a certain old Woman being left very Rich in Money by her Husband which was dead a young lusty Wench plotting how to get her Money from her apparel'd her self like a Man and wooed the old Chrone and easily got her good Will to Marry her and the Marriage was solemnly Celebrated by the Priest in the Temple and the Female young Husband brought to Bed to the old Wife and so ordered the business that she stole her Bags of Money from her and was therefore Criminally pursued and Executed Woman with-with-Child Contracted unknown 4. The Husband often times finds the Woman with-Child before-hand when 't is insipientis dicere non Putaram too late to repent of his Match and the Priest hath fetter'd them together for better for worse and no Probation to be admitted to the contrary that 't is not his Child of which there are too many Examples not fit to be publickly related Whereas if no Verbal Contract or Espousal Private in the House or Publick in the Church were allowed to be obligatory before the real Contract of Carnal knowledg Consummate privately between the Parties no Woman could hope to impose such a Deceit or would dare to expose her self to such a Dishonourable Repudiation at the Will of the Man The ancient and true Form of Espousal was only on the Mans part to the Woman Se post concubitum invitam non deserturum and the Duth-man is still so wary that he giveth not his Woman her Morgengabica which is a kind of Dower or Munus Nuptiale until the next morning when he hath had the first Nights trial of her which from the Dutch Word Morgengab is called the Morning Gift Skene de verb. Sig. tit Dos It is likewise known that the Jew if he found not his Woman a Virgin might Divorce her So may the Turk the Persian the Tartar the Ethiopian and all Nations not blinded with Popery do openly or put her away secretly as Joseph did Notice of the Wedding day prostitutes the Bride 5. In Precontracts when the same are known and the Wedding-day agreed and appointed then the Woman gives away on a sudden to another what she should have reserved a Week longer for her Husband There were certain Oxford Scholars who might have been better imployed in their Studies got some Market-Maids to the Tavern where having made them merry with Wine they taught them what belonged to Venus as well as Bacchus and one of the Scholars was so good natur'd as to tell his Mistiess he had singled after he had performed his Service to her That if she proved to be with-Child and would send him notice he would take care to provide for it Oh Sir said she never trouble your self for that for I am appointed to be Married within these three days Makes Marriage when made Mercenary 6. This makes Marriage often times turn from Conjugal Love to be only a Smith-field Bargain for a Woman to buy a Stallion or a Man to hire a Whore There was a certain Rich Widow who Married a Young Man having first to secure her Money bound him in great Bonds to her Trustees not to meddle with any thing of hers without their Assent In writing under their hands The Marriage being solemnized and both a deductio in Templum in Thalamum performed she found notwithstanding her Bed-fellow to lie more quietly than she would have had him for divers Nights together till at last being deceived in her expectation she began to chide him for his sleepiness To whom he replyed Do you think I will undo my self and forfeit my Bonds with medling with what is yours without Assent of your Trustees in writing under their hands Whereupon the Widow arose and fetching the Bonds to him they were forthwith Cancel'd and cast into Fire The like is more often done by the Woman who like another Lais will not sell her self but at an high Rate and dearer to her Husband by how much the better he loves her and when she hath him under an indissoluble Obligation then any else will give for her Which was the Reason that both Civil and Canon Law made Donationes inter virum uxorem void ne nimio amore spolientur I st they should rob one another with too much fondness and void they ought still to be and would be were not the deceitful ways of Trustees too much tolerated in frandem legis to set up again the old Mercenary Trade of hiring Whores under the name of Marriage 7. These Inconveniences produced the shameless Sect of Adamites Adamites and the almost as bad remedy proposed by Sir Thomas More in his Vtopia and what is mention'd by Sir Francis Bacon in his new Atlantis of Adam and Eves Pool where he would have those who inted to Marry Adam and Eves Pool first to have a naked interview And that of Sforza Sforza is refused to have a Lady seen naked before Marriage who when he would have Espoused Dorothy the Daughter of Lodowick Duke of Mantua to his Son he demanded that certain Physicians whom he should appoint might first see his Daughter naked which Duke Lodowick refused as appears Tiracq lib. 4. de Connub. Contr. Philip. dec Francis Aret. Consil 142. who held That the demand of Sforza was just and the denyal of Lodowick injurious a
fit opinion for Aretine but for no modest Lawyer or Physician Surely God never commanded these Precontracts nor these Adamite Interviews Marriage to be private and unknown except to the Parties themselves Con-Thalamation before Con-Templation for after Adam and Eve were Married as soon as they understood themselves they got Fig-leaves to cover their Nakedness and Nox amor Night-shades and secret places by Nature joined them rather than the sight of the Sun It is more warrantable therefore as to Precontracts to follow God who never commanded them but Popes and Priests who keep them up for their filthy Lucre and far more modest is it to make Marriage-Contracts in Thalamo than in Templo Conscius omnis abest nutu signisque Loquuntur and the same Poet gives as good further Councel to either Si piget in primo limine siste pedem the Woman may rise up illaesa Virginitate and illaeso pudore and as Boaz bid Ruth Cap. 3.14 Let it not be known that a Woman came into the floor But Si in hoc Convenimus ambo and they agree so well that Conception follows and a Child is born were there neither Priest nor Temple within an Hundred Miles yet it appears God was there who gave Birth to the Child therefore as they will answer it before him this Marriage is indissoluble by Pope or Caesar or any humane Power I conclude therefore Marriage ought by the Law of God to be Private and not Publick and Conthalamation ought to be before Contemplation if the Parties have any Contemplation at all 2. It gives the Bishop the Monopoly of all Women and their Goods For he claiming to be Judg of Marriage and Divorce above Appeal the greatest part of the Year and fittest for Marriage they cannot Marry without his License for which they must pay Money and when Married they lie at his Mercy whether he will part them again or no for what he doth there is thence no Appeal if he do admit them to live together and death part them yet no Jointure no Divorce no Thirds no Aliment unless he will vouchsafe his Certificate for which they must pay Money and this they get if they obey his Canons and are Married by a Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple if they come not to yoak themselves by his Ceremonies then he calls them Whores and exacts from them Money by Penance seeing they would give none for Fees and sets what Rates and Taxes by Fees or Penance as he pleaseth so by his Power of Compulsion to this Ceremony he Levieth his Rents on Obedients and Disobedients and sheers both his Sheep and his Goats by having the Power of Compulsion of them to this Fold of his Temple and without it the same could not be done 3. It gives him the Monopoly of Successions both in Private Families and Kingdoms For he claiming to be Judg of Children as well as Parents above Appeal they all lie at the mercy of his Judgment no Right of Primogeniture no Filial Portion no Rationali parte no Hotch-pot no Collatio bonorum no Aliment can be had although they starve unless he vouchsafe his Certificate of what he knows no more than the man in the Moon Yet could he not exercise this Power over the Children had he not Power to compel the Parents to this Ceremony of their Marriages of a Priest in a Temple 4. It gives him Power to Judg of Marriage Filiation and Successions by Fictions How great and how wicked the Power of Judging by Fictions is hath been before mention'd and the Primary Fictions enumerated 1. That intention of mind and not Conjunctions of Bodies makes Marriage P. 83. 2. That Sponsa before a Priest in a Temple is Vxor ib. 86. 3. That Verba de praesenti are Facta de Praeterito Futuro P. 84. The Secondary Fictions and damnable Mischiefs which ensue out of these Primary for as uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur So uno Falso dato mille sequuntur have been likewise before mentioned and shewn at large 1. That if a Man deflower a Virgin with whom he may lawfully Marry and get her with Child or hath many Children by her that he may notwithstanding desert her and Marry another by a Priest in a Temple deflower'd or begot with Child by another Man and the latter and not the first is his Wife and Child P. 88 89. 2. That a Child is not Sib or Kin or of Consanguinity or the Child of the Father who begot or the Mother who bare him or they of him P. 154 155. 3. That by the pronunciation of the words by the Priest that the Man and Woman are Man and Wife the Man is transubstantiated into the Woman and the Woman into the Man and two Persons into one Person and the multitude of mischiefs incident to this Fiction of Transubstantiation are shewn at large before P. 66 67 c. But 't is Compulsion to the Ceremony of Marriage by a Priest and in a Temple is the Causa sine qua non neither the said Primary or Secundary Fictions could be made nor could any of those manifold mischiefs before mention'd ensue from them and if dissentients in Conscience and differents in Convenience had but that liberty permitted which by the Moral and immutable Law of God they ought to have to Marry without the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple the Bishop could not inslave themselves and their Posterity their Religion Liberty and Propriety to his worse than Arbitrary Judgment to a False Judgment a Lying Judgment a Judgment by Fictions had he not the Power to compel them to this Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple So that were there nothing else to be said against this Compulsion but that it causeth so great a mischief as Judgments by Fictions it were enough to make it abhor'd by God and all good men For grant but one Fiction in Religion it will Spawn a Thousand Heresies and grant but one Fiction in Judicial Proceeding it will Spawn a Thousand Oppressions and let the old Serpent but get in his Head he will draw in his whole Body à Vero non declinabit Justus Justice comes from the God of Truth and not from the Devil who is the Father of Lies 5. It causeth in the Rich Excess and Vanity of Apparel Tilting Turneaments Masking Gluttony Ryot and Drunkenness When there is a Marriage intended by a Priest in a Temple the Bride is drest like a Bartholomew-Baby or one of the Popish Saints to be the Idol of the Place then no Text shall be Preached on but her Clothing is of wrought Gold though far better Doctrine and more proper for such an occasion doth offer it self Isa 3.16 And 1 Pet. 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the Hair and of wearing of Gold or of putting on of Apparel The Turk in his Frugality may rise in Judgment against Christians for one Christians Wife costs him more than
Ten Wives of a Turk which kind of Luxury first corrupts the mind Nil non permittit mulier sibi turpe putat nil Cum virides gemmas collo circumdedit cum Auribus extensis magnos suspendit elenchos and corrupts and effeminates the State by exhausting the Treasury in Faeminine which is necessary to be bestowed in Military Ornaments and maintenance Seneca saith That Women would wear too rich Inheritances at their Ears And it is related of the Daughter of a Proconsul That she wore at one time in Apparel and Jewels the value of Three Millions of Crowns This Vanity is by many attributed to be one of the chief causes of the decay and ruin of the Roman Empire I should but trespass on the Readers patience to recite the excessive Costs particularly and the profuseness of Princes and great Persons in Masking Tilting Tuneaments at publick Weddings in one whereof a French King Tilting in Person was kill'd by the casual running of a Splinter of the staff of the Lance into his Eye as likewise to describe the Gluttony Riot and Drunkenness accompanying Marriage-Feasts they being all notorious 6. It undoeth the Poor in their Marriages The chief times of the Year seasonable for Marriage of Advent Septuagesima and Rogation it deprives the Poor of the use of Gods Ordinance for they are neither able to lose their days labour to travel to the Court nor to expend the Money necessary to pay for a License to Marry and when Married publickly by a Priest in a Temple the expense of new Cloths for Man and Woman the Wedding Dinner the Barrel of Beer the Bridale-Night the Baptizing of the Child the God-Fathers and God-Mothers the Gossips and Churching the Woman Falling all within the compass of the Year most commonly bring the Poor man so far in Debt that he never recovers out of it as long as he lives I was informed of a certain Poor Man who intending to be Married agreed the day with the Minister and Clerk and accordingly on a Prayer day he and the Woman came to the Church intending to be Married and came up to the appointed place in the Body of the Church where the Minister reading first the Form prescribed of the Institution and Ends of Marriage before he joined their hands to Contract them the man to be Married laid his Money on the Ministers Book that he might proceed to Marry him which the Minister refused to do unless he would give him more Money than there was the man answer'd There was all he had and prayed him to accept thereof the Minister peremptorily refused unless he made up the Price to Marry him the Poor man seeing no remedy took up his Money again and he and his Woman returned to his House without any joining or Benediction of the Priest and whether he had a Malediction I cannot tell but at Night the Couple that were thus Churched and not Married the Ceremonial way went to Bed and Married themselves the Real way which though contrary to Episcopâ—l Canons yet no Bishops can shew to be contrary to the Moral Law of God but every one can shew that Laws of compulsion of a Poor man to marry by the Ceremony of a Priest and giving liberty to the Priest to refuse to Marry him unless he pay him more than he hath are contrary to the Moral Law of God for this is prohibiting to Marry and a depriving of the Poor of the Use of Gods Ordinance which is already proved to be the Doctrine of Devils 7. It causeth immadesty in Brides wanton Songs and Ceremonies premiscuary Dancing and corruption of Youth How modest Nature is in the State of Innocence appears well in the expression of a Vertuous young Lady a Virgin who said She wondred how any Woman could have the face to go openly to Church with a Man and the Custom of most Nations not to suffer any Woman to appear in Publick without a Veil manifesteth the same Yea Mahomet himself forbids Women to expose themselves to publick view for thus Alch. Cap. 33. P. 262. he represents God speaking to him Oh Prophet speak to thy Wives and thy Daughters and the Wives of True Believers that they cover themselves with Veils And Cap. 24. Speak unto the true believing Women that they retain their Sight and that they be Chast that they suffer nothing of their Beauâ—y to be seen but what ought to be seen and that they cover their Bosome and their Visage that they permit them not to be seen but by their Husbands their Children the Children of their Husbands their Brothers their Nephews their Sisters their Women their Daughters Maid-Servants and Slaves their Domesticks that are not capable of Marriage and Children that regard not the Beauty of Women And this publick exposing of Virgins in their Marriages to be the Gazing-stocks of the multitude in a Congregation seems likewise against the precept in Scripture 1 Cor. 11.10 For this cause ought a Woman to have Power on her Head because of the Angels which is interpreted covering on her head and is likewise prohibited by Christ Matth. 5.28 Whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart If it be therefore Adultery to look on a Woman to lust after her then is it a Temptation to Adultery to expose her who is to be another mans Wife to the publick view of the whole Congregation in all the dress of Temptation whereof Beauty can be capable Qui videt is peccat qui non te viderit ergo Non cupiet Facti crimina lumen habet Propert. lib. 3. Eleg. Who sees thee Sins who not doth neither hate Nor love thee Light hath all the Crimes of Fate Why it is not more modest therefore for Virgins to Marry in Thalamo than in Templo appears not I shall recite not here the particular wanton Songs and Ceremonies which are used with us and in other Nations by reason of this pompous Ceremony of leading the Bride to the Priest and Temple amongst a Rout of Boys for whom between her Banning and her Churching it is asufficient sport a Week after lest the same should cause what I endeavour to avoid the Corruption of Youth and shall only here mention the grave Admonition of a Poet concerning the same Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat Intra quae Puer est procul hine procul inde Puellae Lenonum Cantus pernoctantis Parasiti Maxima debetur puero reverentia siquid Turpe paras nec tu pueri contempseris Annos Juvenal 8. It exposeth to publick view what God hath commanded to be secret and ridiculously appointeth ocular Witnesses of what is invisible and neither lawful nor pussible to be seen Of this Vid. P. 101 104. before 9. It causeth Community of Women Community of Children Fornication Adultery Stews Brothels and the dissemination of most contagious and deadly Diseases amongst the People As to Community of Women it
is manifest that the Canon of the Council of Trent which nulls all Marriages except before a Priest in a Temple and the Certificates of Bishops and Penance gives a general License for Money either the Taxa Camerae of the Pope or the Commutation Money of the Bishops to have all Women common for by decreeing no Marriages shall be of Validity except with a Woman brought before a Priest and a Temple they null and dissolve all Marriages made by the Moral Law of God and the Obligations of them whereby if any man lie with an Hundred Women and get them with Child if he hath been so cunning as not to lead any of them to a Priest in a Temple there is no obligation on him to own any of these for Wife or Child in regard the Moral Law of God is abolish'd by the Papal and Episcopal Canons and made of no effect by their Traditions and wicked Customs and the Party is left free to lie with as many more and to have common amongst them Sans nombre if he will but give them Money for their Hire and the Bishop Commutation Money and what is this but to have Women common to the Rich and to exclude the Poor who have not Money from having any But this would be prevented if the Bishops would as they ought to do compel the man who gets a Virgin with-Child to marry her according to the Moral Law of God and the express Precept of Scripture Exod. 22.16 If a man entice a Maid who is not betrothed he shall surely endow her to be his Wife Which enticement is as well intended by Money as Wantonness and the Law the same as well in case of Force or Rape as enticement but more Penal Deut. 22.28 If a man find a Damsel that is a Virgin which is not betrothed and lay hold on her and lie with her and they be found then the man that lay with her shall give the Virgins Father Fifty Sheckels of Silver and she shall be his Wife because he hath humbled her he may not put her away all his days This is the clear Moral Law of God and the clear Texts of Scripture and there is by them laid an indissoluble obligation on the man according to the old Form of Espousal Se post Concubitum invitam non deserturum and if there is a Child born by reason of the further Obligation of Parents laid on them by the manifest Act of God it is not in the Power of these Virgins who are now become Mothers will they nill they nor of any human Power to dissolve that which the Divine Power by giving birth to a Child hath once established But Popes and Bishops are so far from compelling these deflowrers of Virgins to Marry then and these begetters of Children to acknowledg them according to this most clear and just Law of God and according to the Obligations both Ex Contractu Reali which are the lying with them and getting them with-Child and Ex Malesicio Reali which are the same that they like the Giants who would storm Heaven Oh Hellish presumption Level all the Canons they have against the Divine Laws of God himself and with them tear in pieces all Obligations laid by them of Husbands to Wives and Fathers to Children that Women may be in common and Children in common Nullius Filii Populi Filii confounding Heaven and Earth and all Divine and Human Rights and subverting the course of Nature as far as they are able to obtain to themselves the inexhaustible Treasure and invincible Power over Princes and People over Emperors and Kings incident to the Jurisdiction of Marriage Filiation and Succession But how easily are these Giants quell'd and all the mischiefs ensue by their letting the World loose to Community of Women and Community of Children 1. 'T is but to give liberty to those who Marry to Marry according to the Moral Law of God and to free them from compulsion to the Ceremonial Law of a Priest in a Temple 2. 'T is but to give Power to the Temporal Judges and Magistrates to compel such as have had Children by Virgins and desert them to acknowledg those Virgins according to the clear Texts of Scripture to be their Wives and not to leave them and their Children in common which ought to be their inclosed Propriety Whence would ensue that if any man saw that whatsoever Virgin he did first touch he should be compell'd to take he would follow the Poets Counsel Multis è millibus unam Elige cui dicas tu mihi sola places Ovid. He would certainly choose unless corrupted by Money one whom he liked above all others and having so fair a Garden inclosed of his own choice he would be the more unlikely to run to graze in a Common or if be should he might find his expectation much deceiv'd for the same Justice having been done by the Magistrate on all others as well as himself he would find no Common to run in but every Quillet inclosed nor should a single Woman be let would she take him where another had Right to claim him As to Fornication Adultery Stews Brothels how great a cause the compulsion of Publick Appearance in Marriage before a Priest in a Temple by prohibition of Private Marriage is the same is shewn already before P. 107 and as to the dissemination by Fornication Adultery Stews and Brothels not only of that miserabile scortorum flagellum the Lues Venerea the inseparable concomitant of those Vices and Places but likewise of all other Epidemical contagious and deadly Diseases amongst the People the same is notorious but Episcopal Courts get as much by the Dead as the Living and more by the Vicious than Vertuous It is their Interest therefore to continue it so long as they can It will be objected against the giving Power to Temporal Magistrates to compel every Man who hath a Child or Children by a Virgin to acknowledg her for his Wife and her Children his on Probation made of the Fact that 't is impossible if Marriages are tolerated without a Priest in a Temple or a Justice of Peace in his Hall or Banns at the Church or Market-Cross to have Witnesses or any other Testimony or Evidence of the Fact unless the Magistrate should give Sentence as the Bishop doth without Probation To which is answer'd First That Toleration of Private Marriage without Publick Witness of Priest or Magistrate is no denial of liberty to those who desire Publick Witness of their Contracts of Marriage no more than the Toleration of passing Lands by Livery and Seisin in Pays is a denial to pass them by Fines and Recoveries or other matter of Record which is publick Testimony but Parties may use one or the other or both as they desire and think suits best with their Conveniences but that which is here press'd is that no Mans Christian Liberty be infringed nor he be compell'd to make publick Witnesses either of
compulsion to the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple It is for if A. get B. with-with-Child and deserts her and C. get D. with-with-Child Adultery Consecrated under the name of Marriage and deserts her and A. gets the good will of D and C gets the good will of B and the two Women being both with-with-Child and both deserted grow more politick to prevent after desertions and tell their new Courtiers peremptorily that they shall expect no farther favour from them until they lead them before a Priest in a Temple and Marry them there now the only lawful way had been for these two Women to relieve themselves against their unjust Desertors that a Magistrate had a Legal Power on complaint of the Women injured to compel each Desertor to acknowledg his proper Wife and Child but they take here a course to leap out of the Pan into the Fire and to cure or cover a lesser Evil by committing a greater and go to Church to commit Cross-Adultery and Cross-Marry one the Man who had got the other with-Child and the other the Man who had got the first with-Child and the Priest accordingly joins them and contracts and pronounces each Couple Man and Wife and gives his Benediction is not here Adultery Consecrated under the name of Marriage and false Wives given to false Husbands and false Children to false Fathers and this Consecration of Adultery makes it so indissoluble that no Probation shall be admitted to the contrary either for Husband or Wife or Father or Child Certainly this is far worse than any Consecration of Fornication amongst the Pagan Priests of Priapus or Venus Well doth Arnob. contra gent. therefore say Where are Whoredoms more committed than by Priests in the Temples and by the Altars where are Uncleanness more practised and Adulteries more meditated Lastly burning Lust is more frequently discharged in Chancels than in Brothels I shall only add a word from a Poet concerning the Romish Clergy Nulla hic Arcana revelo Non ignota loquor liceat vulgata referre Sic urbes populique ferunt ea fama per omnem Jam vetus Europam mores extirpat honestos Sanctus ager Scurris venerabilis Ara Cynoedis Servit honorandis divum Ganymedibus aedes I had not defiled Paper with so much of their Filthiness had not this Romish Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple so far besotted the Senses of many ignorant People as they imagine Marriage made by a Ceremony of so unclean an Original and causing so great and abominable Uncleanness should make a Marriage more Holy than one made without it according to Gods own Holy Ordinance in his Moral Law 12. It caused the Consecration and Adoration of Priapus Baal-Peor Venus Adonis and Flora for Gods and Goddesses and was the first which defiled the Virgin-World with Whoredom and Idolatry The World in its Primitive Innocence kept all Wives secured under the Custody of their Husbands and all Daughters under the Custody of their Parents the strictness of which appears to this day in many Southern and Eastern Nations till the Priests of Priapus and Venus for they were the most ancient of which any Histories speak and as Cornelius Agrippa mentions none were to be admitted Priests who were not first initiated in the Mysteries of Priapus These therefore could not pretend to be Priests unless they had a God or Goddess to whom they might pretend to Sacrifice and Serve and become mediators to present the Prayers of the People a God they could not have unless they made an Idol and an Idol they could not have without a Temple to secure it and their rich Offerings against the Spoil either of Thieves or Weather So the Building of Temples was the first means of setting up Idols and the setting up Idols the first means of Consecration and Adoration of them for Gods and Goddesses and to draw a Conflux of Worshippers there was no better way of Temptation of the Men than by the Women and of the Women than by the Men and of both them by Feasting with Sacrifice Musick Dancing Dalliance and Whoredom whence so frequently Idolatry in Scripture is called going a Whoreing after Idols for indeed the Priests became thereby the Pandars-General as Cornelius Agrippa calls them by drawing Women to their Temples both for Marriages and Whoredoms and first made them offer their Virginities for Sacrifices to their Idols and Priests before this Spiritual Court of theirs would give them Licenses to Marry for which as now they compell'd them to pay their Fees and to colour this Uncleaness the better they Consecrated those impure Gods and Goddesses Priapus Baal-Peor Milcom Adonis whose Worshippers were the same the Scripture calls the Mourners for Tamuz Venus and Flora and instituted to them Sacrifices and Adorations as the most Sacred and Potent Deities and though the Feminine part of the World remained then in the strictest Custody whether Wives or Daughters which in the first is allowed and commended even by the wanton Love-Poet himself Nupta virum timeat rata sit Custodia nuptae Hoc decet hoc leges jusque pudorque jubent Wife fear thy Husband Let thy Wardship stand 'T is fair this Laws Right modesty command Neither had it been possible to have undermin'd in the Worlds Infancy those strong Fortifications of the Modesty of Wives and Chastity of Daughters had not the Magical Priest and Devil both conspired to have charmed them out of the holes of their Rocks with the Songs Musick Dancing and Festivals of Sacrifices under the pretence of the command and service of these Sacred and potent Gods before mention'd to the Publick places of Sacrifice and Temples where when they once had them they did with them what they pleased sometimes in their Mattens and Vespers by day and sometimes in their Vigils by night and by degrees brought them first by Inticements and at last by Compulsion not to Marry without a Priest in a Temple 13. It first destroyed in the World the Omnipresential Worship of God In all the times before Moses except amongst Idolaters there was no Publick Temple built for the Worship of God nor Tabernacles nor do we find any publick Conventions of Worship except as aforesaid yet were those Times full of men Famous for Piety Abraham himself Gen. 21. planted a Grove to call upon the name of the Lord which was for Privacy and not to be Publick the dwelling in Tents not affording that convenience of Secrecy which Christ commands of Prayer in the Closet and he went to an Hill alone to Sacrifice Isaac and would not so much as suffer one Servant to go with him Gen. 22.5 And in old time they called every high Hill which afforded the benefit of Privacy of Prayer the Hill of God And Christ himself Matth. 14.23 When he had sent the multitude away he went up into a Mountain apart to Pray which was for Privacy and he compell'd not the multitude to Pray with him nor so much as any
Commutation Money he pleaseth to Demand for his Remission of this Penance and Pardon of her Sins and that he may have Power to set what Taxes he pleaseth on Gods Ordinance of Marriage and all Acts incident to the same which ought to be free and thereby set to Hire and Sale all Women Lawful and Unlawful and the Successions not only to all private Patrimonies but Kingdoms and thereby fill his Chests with Gold and Silver The Sin or Offence for which the Punishment is Imposed is Child-bearing and nothing else whatever is pretended which is proved by these Reasons 1. If he say That he punisheth the Mother for disobedience to his Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons in not Publishing her Intention to Marry to the Priest in the Temple and the Boys in the Parish and what is the bottom of the Business not paying him his Fees for Publication according to the Canons This is easily Answered by asking who made him a Legislator and Canon-Maker over a Free People and their Children This already is before proved That neither Ecclesiastical nor Temporal Law can be made nor Tax imposed on Marriage or any thing else without the Assent of the House of Commons and that was never given to any Papal or Episcopal Laws or Canons as hath been already proved And as hath likewise been proved All Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons made by any Popes or Bishops Councils or Synods from the beginning of the World to these presents in regard they never had the Assent of the House of Commons in Parliament are utterly Void and Null to bind the People or their Posterity No Law in England for standing in a White Sheet So there being not so much as a Law of Man in England Prohibiting Marriage without a Priest and Temple under the Penalty of standing in a White Sheet and there being no Law there can be no Offence Besides if there were such a Law it is already before shewn that all Laws Prohibiting Marriage Except by a Priest in a Temple are the Doctrine of Daemons and came Originally from Daemons and the Priests of Priapus and Venus and Contrary to the Moral Law of God and Nature the Bishop hath therefore no pretence to Punish the Woman for that 2. There are no other Offences in Bearing a Child which a Woman can commit but breach of Contract Incest Fornication or Adultery As to breach of Contract and Incest the Bishop punisheth Persons Free and not Prohibited by any Law of God to Marry As to Fornication and Adultery the first Offence cannot as hath already been shewn be Committed without Polyandry in the Woman and the second without Polygynecy in the Man But the Bishop punisheth her who bears a Child though the Father and Mother were no way Prohibited to Marry by any Law of God or Man and they were at the time of Begetting the Child both Virgins and neither Guilty of Polyandry or Polygynecy and so still continue Chast and Constant one to another The Bishop therefore punishing such a Woman doth punish her for Child-Bearing or for nothing 3. There is no Probation by two or more Witnesses of any Offence but Child bearing and Probation by Compulsion of the Woman to self-Accusation or by Compulsion of Canonical Purgation are unlawful The Bishop therefore punishing such a Woman if he punish her not for Child-bearing only he punisheth her for Facts whereof he hath no Lawful Probation It being therefore proved That the Bishop punisheth Lawful Child-bearing It appears further That he punisheth the Lawful more than the Unlawful for such Women as are common in Stews or Brothels seldom bear a Child as hath been shewen before and such Women as are Married to Husbands and therefore can only be Guilty of Adultery if the Husband be within the Four Seas of the time of Begeting the Children on their Wives by Adulterers it hath been shewen already That Littleton and Coke will by Fiction have it be believed that these Adulterous Children were got by the absent Husband And that Probatio non admittitur in Contrarium whereby Marriage by a Priest in a Temple is made a Sanctuary for Adulteresses and for Adulterous Child-bearing they are Exempt from punishment but the Poor Lawful Child-bearing Woman against whom there is neither Fact nor Probation of any Crime to be shewen is the Chief Subject of the Bishops punishment a Fact so Barbarous as not to be parallel'd in the Example of Turks Tartars Americans or any Ethniek Nation Except Gaeramantes who have a wicked Custom that if any Married Woman Procreate more than three Children she shall be Divorced from her Husband because a Multitude of Children caused Men to have Covetous hearts and besides the Divorce of the Mother such Supernumerary Children were to be slain before the Parents eyes But Bishops are worse than the Garamantes for they punish though but one Child-bearing whereas the other punish'd not till after Three and exercise those Inhumanities for their Gain against Child-Bearing Women which the Scripture Prohibits to be Exercised to the very Brutes Deuter. 22.6 If a Birds nest chance to be before thee in the way in any Tree or on the Ground whether they be young ones or Eggs and the Dam sitting upon the Young or upon the Eggs thou shalt not take the Dam with the Young But thou shalt in any wise let the Dam go and take the Young to thee that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days The Bird is not any wise to be punished for this Natural Piety to her Young but to be set at Liberty and let go and that they may Defile their Marriages by the Example of the Garamantes with Blood as they do by Example of Priapus and Venus with uncleanness they most Cruelly to that Misery Nature hath Imposed on the Mother in Sorrow to bring forth though of it self of pains Equal with Death and oft tiâ—â—es brings Death add their Punishment of Exposing the Mother to Publick Reproach and Shame which to the Modest is worse than Death And by how much the more Modest the Mother is by so much the more easily is she tempted by the Devil with a Praestat Emori quà m per dedecus vivere to destroy her Infant to cover her own shame and his Pope Gregory intending to Fish in a Deep Pond in Rome near a Nunnery the Water being let out found therein above Six Thousand Sculls of Infants 6000 Infants Skuls found in a Fish-pond so the punishing of Child-bearing Women and Prohibiting Marriage Except by a Priest in a Temple under this Infamous Punishment contrary to the Law of God and according to the Law of Devil who was a Murderer from the beginning caused the Destroying of these Six Thousand Infants and were all the like Instances recited which for Brevity are here to be omitted it would appear That this punishing of Child-births because the Mother went not first to a Priest in a Temple hath Murderd Millions
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