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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59093	The reverse or back-face of the English Janus to-wit, all that is met with in story concerning the common and statute-law of English Britanny, from the first memoirs of the two nations, to the decease of King Henry II. set down and tackt together succinctly by way of narrative : designed, devoted and dedicated to the most illustrious the Earl of Salisbury / written in Latin by John Selden ... ; and rendred into English by Redman Westcot, Gent.; Jani Anglorum facies altera. English	Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Littleton, Adam, 1627-1694.; White, Robert, 1645-1703.	1682 (1682)	Wing S2436; ESTC R14398	136,793	167

was Brother to Gomar and Tubal by their Father Japhet from whom first the Britans then the Gauls were called Samothei and especially the Philosophers and Divines that were his followers And out of Laertius he tells us For it is evident that among the Persians the Magi flourished among the Babylonians and Assyrians the Chaldeans were famous among the Celts and Gauls the Druids and those who were called Samothei who as Aristotle in his Magick and Sotion in his Three and Twentieth Book of Successions do witness were men very well skilled in Laws Divine and Humane and upon that account were much addicted to Religion and were for that reason termed Samothei These very words you meet with in Annius The name of Laertius is pretended and the beginning of his Volume concerning the Lives of Philosophers Why then let us read Laertius himself and amongst the Celts and Gauls saith he the Semnothei as saith Aristotle in his Book of Magick and Sotion in his Three and Twentieth of Succession Concerning the Samothei any other wayes there is not so much as one syllable That they were men well skilled in Laws Divine and Humane or that they had their name given them upon that account only the Latin and foisted Edition of B. Brognol the Venetian has told us whereas in truth in all the ancient Greek Copies of Laertius which that great Scholar Harry Stephen saw and consulted with and he sayes he perused Eight or Nine there is no mention at all made of that business And yet for all that I cannot perswade my self that it was only for want of care or by meer chance that this slipt into the Glosses It does appear that there have been able Lawyers and Master Philosophers not only among the Greeks the Gauls and those of Italy but also among the Northern Nations however Barbarous Witness the Druids among us and among the Goths as Jornandes tells us besides Cosmicus one Diceneus who being at once King of Men and Priest of Phoebus did together with Natural Philosophy and other parts of good Learning transmit to posterity a Body of Laws which they called Bellagines that is By-Laws There are some who in Laertius read Samothei which is a device of those men who with too much easiness they are Isaac Casaubon's words that I may say no worse suffer themselves to be led by the Nose by that counterfeit Berosus CHAP. II. An Account of the Semnothei Why so called the opinion of H. Stephen and of the Author Old Heroes and Philosophers went by the names of Demy-gods The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Venerable Goddesses the same as Eumenides dispensers of Justice And by Plutarch and Orpheus they are set for Civil Magistrates Judges in Scripture so called Elohim i. e. Gods These Semnai theai the same as Deae Matres in an old British Inscription ANd indeed if the Samothei had any thing to do with truth or the Semnothei any thing to do with the ancient Law of the Celts in as much as they write that Britany was once in subjection to the Celtick Kings I should judge it not much beside the design of my intended Method to inquire into the name and nature of them both But they being both one and t'other past all hope except such a one as Lucian returning from the Inhabitants of the Sun or those of the Moon would write their History to speak of them would be more than to lose ones labour I dare not to say much of them I imagine sayes Harry Stephen they were so called for having the Gods often in their mouths and that in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Worshipful Gods or for that they themselves were accounted amongst men as a kind of Worshipful Gods but writes he this latter I do not take to be so likely as the former But say I for my part if I might venture my opinion against the judgement of so great a person I guess this latter to be the likelier of the two That the old Heroes went by the names of Gods is a thing we read every where nor did Antiquity grudge the bestowal of this honour even upon Philosophers Not upon Amphiaraus the Prophet not upon Aesculapius not upon Hippocrates renowned Physicians they are reckoned among the middle sort of Gods Thus Plato also was accounted by Antistius Labeo for a Demy-god and Tyrtamus for his Divine eloquence had the name of Theophrastus that is God-like Speaker given him by his Master Aristotle No wonder then if thereupon thence forward great Philosophers were called Semnothei and as it were Worshipful Gods These instances incline me whilst I only take a view of their Philosophy whom if either the authority of Annius or the interpretation of Brognol had sufficiently and fairly made out to have been also at the same time Students and Masters of Law I should hardly stick almost to affirm that I had found out in what places the true natural spring and source both of their name and as I may say of their delegated power is to be met with For I have it in Pausanias forbear your flouts because I waft over into Greece from whence the most ancient Customs both Sacred and Prophane of the Gentiles came I say in Pausanias the most diligent searcher of the Greek Antiquities I meet upon Mars his Hill at Athens and also in his Achaicks or Survey of Achaia with Chappels of the Goddesses whom the Athenians styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Worshipful He himself also in his Corinthiacks makes mention of a Grove set thick with a sort of Oaks on the left side of Asopus a River in Sicyon a Countrey of Peleponnesus where there stood a little Chappel of the Goddesses whom the Athenians termed Semnai the Sicyomans called Eumenides The story of Orestes and the Eumenides or Furies that haunted him is known to every body nor can you tell me of any little smatterer in Poetry who doth not know that they together with Adrastia Ramnusia Nem●sis and other Goddesses of the same stamp are pretended to be the Avengers of Villanies and continually to assist Jupiter the great God in punishing the wicked actions of Mortals They were black ones that met with Orestes but that there were white ones too to whom together with the Graces the Ancients paid their Devotions the same Pausanias has left written in his Survey of Arcadia I let pass that in the same Author she whom some called Erinnys that is a Fury others called Themis the Goddess of Justice To be brief and plain the Furies that is the Avenging Goddesses sit upon the skirts of the wicked but the Eumenides that is the kind Goddesses as Sophocles interprets them for that they were so called properly without the Figure of Antiphrasis or contradiction he is our Author do attend the good and such as are blameless and faultless and poor suppliants Nay moreover Plutarch writes in a Poetick strain that Alcmaeon fled

Besides is it rational to imagine that the King whose absolute right by Law it is to convene the Estates when and where he thinks fit to call and dissolve Parliaments as he pleases in a word that He in whose Name all Justice is administred in whose Hands the Militia is and by whose Authority alone the Subjects can take up Arms should stand only in a Co-ordination of power with any other persons whatsoever or however assembled or associated within his Dominions This flaw I could not but take notice of in our Great Author and that only with an intention to undeceive the unwary Reader and not to reflect upon his Memory who though he kept along a great while with the Long Parliament yet never appeared in action for them that ever I heard much less used or owned that virulence and violence which many others of that ill Body of men judged necessary for their proceedings CHAP. XX. Pag. 96. lin 15. Alderman of England The word Alderman in Saxon Ealdorman hath various acceptions so as to signifie all sorts almost of Governours and Magistrates So Matth. 20. 25. the Princes of the Gentiles in the Saxon translation are called Ealdormen and Holofernes I remember the General of the Assyrian Army is in an Old English Translation called the Alderman of the Army So Aethelstan whose younger Son this Ailwin was being Duke or Captain General of the East-Saxons is in this Book of Ramsey styled Alderman The most proper importance of the word bears up with the Latin Senator i. e. Parliament-man as the Laws of S. Edward make out In like manner say they heretofore among the Britons in the times of the Romans in this Kingdom of Britanny they were called Senators who afterwards in the times of the Saxons were called Aldermen not so much in respect of their Age as by reason of their Wisdom and Dignity in that some of them were but young men yet were skilled in the Law and beside that were experienced persons Now that Alderman of England as Ailwin here was had to do in affairs of Justice appears by the foresaid Book of Ramsey where it is said that Ailwin the Alderman and Aedric the Kings Provost sate Judges in a certain Court The Alderman of the County our Author makes to be the same as the Earl or Lord of the County and Spelman saith it is hard to distinguish but at length placeth him in the middle betwixt the Count and Viscount He and the Bishop kept Court together the one for Temporals the other for Spirituals The Title goes lower still to denote a Mayor or Bailiff of a Corporation a Bailiff of a Hundred c. Lin. 30. Healf-koning It was an oversight or slip of memory in our Author to say that Ailwin was so called when the Book of Ramsey tells us it was his Father Aethelstan who was of that great power and diligence that all the business of the Kingdom went through his hands and was managed as he pleased that had that Nick name given him therefore Lin. 36. The Graves Our Author makes them subordinate to the Aldermen of Counties but in the Laws of the Confessor they appear to be muchwhat the same There we read And as they are now called Greves who are put in places of Rule over others so they were anciently among the English called Ealdermen Indeed the word Greve or Reev for it is all one is of as various use as that other of Alderman is In Saxon it is gerefa from gerefen and reafen to take or carry away to exact or gather Whence this Officer Graphio or Gravius from the Saxon is in other Latin called Exactor regius and by reason that the Sheriff gathered the Kings Fines and other Duties and returned them to the Exchequer he was called the Shire-greve or Shire-reev that is the Gatherer of the County But the truth is that Greve or Reev came at last in general to signifie any Ruler or Governour set over any place almost whatever as the same word Grave doth among the Dutch So a Shire-greve or bihgerefa the High Sheriff of a County a Port-greve the Governour of a City or Port. So the Lord Mayor of London was called formerly Tun-greve the Bailiff of a Town or Mannor Sometime Greve is taken for a Count or Earl as Alderman is CHAP. XXI Pag. 98. lin 22. For Toll and Gabell In the Latin pro theolonio gablo Now telonium from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies the place where the Officers of the Customs receive the Kings duties but is used also for a duty paid for the maintenance of Bridges and River-Banks So Hotoman But in our Law it is taken for the Toll of a Market or Fair. And Gablum or Gabellum a Gabell from the Saxon gafol or gafel signifies any Impost upon Goods as that in France upon Salt c. also Tribute Custom any kind of Tax or Payment c. Lin. 32. Through the Streets of Coventry There is a famous Tradition among the people of that Town concerning this matter that the Lady being to ride naked only covered all over with her hair had given order for the more decent performance of her Procession that all the Inhabitants should that day keep their Shops and Doors and Windows shut But that two men tempted by their Curiosity to do what fools are wont to do had some such penalty I know not what it was inflicted upon them as Actaon had for the like offence And they now stand in some publick place cut out of Wood or Stone to be shewn to any stranger that comes thither like the Sign of the Two Logger-heads with the same Motto belike Nous sommes trois Pag. 99. lin 7. Brought in my Court a certain Toper In the Latin attulit in curiâ meâ quandam Toper I know what the adverb Toper signifies among the ancient Latines but what the word means here I confess I am in the dark It doth certainly stand for some thing I was thinking a Taper which he brought with him into Court and sware upon it as he should have done upon the holy Gospels I cannot imagine that by quandam Toper shold be intended some Woman or Girl whose Name was Toper whom he brought along with him and in defiance to the Court laying his hand upon her took his Oath as formally as if he had done it upon the holy Evangelists Reader ONe thing I forgot to acquaint thee with in the Preface that whereas the Author himself had divided each Book into several Sections which were very unequal and incommodious I thought it much more convenient for thy ease and profit to distribute them into Chapters together with the Argument or Contents of each Chapter at the beginning and withal that no one may complain that I have injured the Author by altering his Method I have left his Sections also marked with a Numeral Note 1 2 3 c. on the side of the inner or outer Margin

the Frizons One may without any wrong call them all Saxons unless Fabius Quastor Aethelwerd also did his Nation injury by calling them so He flourished Six hundred and fifty years ago being the Grand-child or Nephew of King Aethelulph and in his own words discourses That there was also a people of the Saxons all along the Sea-coast from the River Rhine up to the City Donia which is now commonly called Denmark For it is not proper here to think of Denmark in the neighbouring Territories of Vtrecht and Amsterdam by reason of the narrowness of that tract Those few Observes then which Adam of Bremen hath copied out of Einhard concerning the Saxons forasmuch as our Ancient Saxons I suppose are concerned in them I here set down in this manner and order CHAP. XVIII The Saxons division of their people into four ranks No person to marry out of his own rank What proportion to be observed in Marriages according to Policy Like to like the old Rule Now Matrimony is made a matter of money 23. THe whole Nation consists of four different degrees or ranks of men to wit of Nobles of Free-men born of Free-men made so and of Servants or Slaves And Nithard speaking of his own time has divided them into Ethelings that is Nobles Frilings that is Free-men and Lazzos that is Servants or Slaves It was enacted by Laws That no rank in cases of Matrimony do pass the bounds of their own quality but that a Noble-man marry a Noble-woman a Free-man take a Free-woman a Bond-man made Free be joyned to a Bond-woman of the same condition and a Man-servant match with a Maid-servant And thus in the Laws of Henry Duke of Saxony Emperour Elect concerning Justs and Tournaments When any Noble-man had taken a Citizen or Countrey-woman to Wife he was forbid the exercise of that sport to the third Generation as Sebastian Munster relates it The Twelve Tables also forbad the marriage of the Patricii or Nobles with the Plebeians or Commons which was afterwards voided and nulled by a Law which Canuleius made when he was Tribune of the people For both Politicians and Lawyers are of opinion That in marriages we should make use of not an Arithmetical proportion which consists of equals nor of a Geometrical one which is made up of likes but of a Musical one which proceeds from unlike notes agreeing together in sound Let a Noble-man that is decayed in his estate marry a Commoner with a good fortune if he be rich and wealthy let him take one without a fortune and thus let Love which was begot betwixt Wealth and Poverty suite this unlikeness of conditions into a sweet harmony and thus this disagreeing agreement will be fit for procreation and breed For he had need have a good portion of his own and be nearer to Crassus than Irus in his fortunes who by reason of the many inconveniencies and intolerable charges of Women which bring great Dowries doth with Megadorus in Plautus court a Wife without a Portion according to that which Martial sayes to Priscus Vxorem quare locupletem ducere nolim Quaeritis Vxori nubere nolo meae Inferior Matrona suo sit Prisce Marito Non aliter fiunt foemina virque pares Which at a looser rate of Translation take thus Should I a Wife with a great fortune wed You 'l say I should be swéetly brought to bed Such fortune will my Liberty undo Who brings Estate will wear the Bréeches too Unhappy match where e're the potent Bride Hath the advantage wholly on her side Blest pairs when the Men sway the Women truckle There 's good agréement as 'twixt Thong and Buckle And according to that of the Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take if you 'l be rul'd by me A Wife of your own degrée But there is little of our Age fashioned to the model of this sense Height of Birth Vertue Beauty and whatsoever there was in Pandora of Good and Fair do too too often give place to Wealth and that I may use the Comedians word to a Purse crammed with Money And as the merry Greek Poet sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be Noble or high-born Is no argument for Love Good Parts of Bréeding lye forlorn 'T is Money only they approve I come back now to my friend Adam CHAP. XIX The Saxons way of judging the Event of War with an Enemy Their manner of approving a proposal in Council by clattering their Arms. The Original of Hundred-Courts Their dubbing their Youth into Men. The priviledge of young Lads Nobly born The Morganheb or Wedding-dowry 24. THey take a Prisoner of that Nation with which they are to have a War by what way soever they can catch him and chose out one of their own Countrey-men and putting on each of them the Arms of their own Countrey make them two fight together and judge of the Victory according as the one or the other of them shall overcome This very thing also Tacitus himself hath to whom Einhard sends his Reader For though he treat in general of the Germans yet nevertheless without any question our Saxons brought over along with them into this Island very many of those things which are delivered to us by those who have wrote concerning the Customs of the Germans Among which take these following 25. In Councils or publick Assemblies the King or Prince i. e. a chief person according as every ones Age is according to his Nobility according to his Reputation in Arms according to his Eloquence has audience given him where they use the authority of perswading rather than the power of commanding If they dislike what he sayes they disapprove it with a Hum and a rude noise If they like the proposal they shake and rustle their Spears or Partisans together It is the most honourable kind of assent to commend the Speaker with the clattering of their Arms. From hence perhaps arose the ancient right of Wapentakes 26. There are also chosen at the same Councils or Meetings chief persons as Justices to administer Law in the several Villages and Hamlets Each of those have a hundred Associates out of the Commonalty for their Counsel and Authority This is plainly the pourtraict of our Hundreds which we still have throughout the Counties of England 27. They do nothing of publick or private affair but with their Arms on but it is not the custom for any one to wear Arms before the City or Community approve of him as sufficient for it Then in the Council it self either some one of the Princes or chief persons or the Father of the young man or some Kinsman of his in token of respect give him a Shield and a Partisan This with them stands for the Ceremony of the Gown this the first honour of youth arriving at manhood before this be done they seem but a part of the Family

of Letters have set down and expressed the mark or sign of the Holy Cross. Concerning Withred and a Turf of Land in Kent Camden has the same thing And King Ethelulph is said to have offered his Patent or Deed of Gift on the Altar of the holy Apostle St. Peter For a conclusion I know no reason why I may not set underneath the Verses of an old Poet wherein he hath comprised the instrument or Grant of founding an Abby which Ethelbald King of the Mercians gave to Kenulph Abbot of Crowland Verses I say but such as were made without Apollo's consent or knowledge Istum Kenulphum si quis vexaverit Anglus Rex condemno mihi cuncta catella sua Inde meis Monachis de damnis omnibus ultrà Vsque satisfaciat carcere clausus erit Adsunt ante Deum testes hujus dationis Anglorum proceres Pontificesque mei Sanctus Guthlacus Confessor Anachorita Hic jacet in cujus auribus ista loqu●r Oret pro nobis sanctissimus iste Sacerdos Ad tumbam cujus haec mea don● dedi Which in Rhyme dogrel will run much after this hobling rate If any English vex this Kenulph shall I King condemn to me his Chattels all Thenceforth until my Monks he satisfie For damages in Prison he shall lye Witnesses of this Gift here in Gods fight Are English Peers and Prelates of my Right Saint Guthlac Confessor and Anchoret Lies here in whose Ears these words I speak yet May he pray for us that most holy Priest At whose Tomb these my Gifts I have addrest Thus they closed their Donations or Grants thus we our Remarks of the Saxons being now to pass to the Normans THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ENGLISH JANUS From the NORMAN Conquest to the Death of King Henry II. CHAP. I. William the Conquerour's Title He bestows Lands upon his followers and brings Bishops and Abbots under Military Service An account of the old English Laws called Merchenlage Danelage and Westsaxen-lage He is prevailed upon by the Barons to govern according to King Edward's Laws and at S. Albans takes his Oath so to do Yet some new Laws were added to those old ones WILLIAM Duke of Normandy upon pretence of a double Right both that of Blood inasmuch as Emme the Mother of Edward the Confessor was Daughter to Richard the first Duke of the Normans and withal that of Adoption having in Battel worsted Harald the Son of Godwin Earl of Kent obtain'd a large Inheritance and took possession of the Royal Government over all England After his Inauguration he liberally bestowed the Lands and Estates of the English upon his fellow-soldiers that little which remained so saith Matthew Paris he put under the yoke of a perpetual servitude Upon which account some while since the coming in of the Normans there was not in England except the King himself any one who held Land by right of Free-hold as they term it since in sooth one may well call all others to a man only Lords in trust of what they had as those who by swearing fealty and doing homage did perpetually own and acknowledge a Superior Lord of whom they held and by whom they were invested into their Estates All Bishopricks and Abbacies which held Baronies and so far forth had freedom from all Secular service the fore-cited Matthew is my Author he brought them under Military service enrolling every Bishoprick and Abbacy according to his own pleasure how many Souldiers he would have each of them find him and his Successors in time of Hostility or War Having thus according to this model ordered the Agrarian Law for the division and settlement of Lands he resolved to govern his Subjects we have it from Gervase of Tilbury by Laws and Ordinances in writing to which purpose he proposed also the English Laws according to their Tripartite or threefold distinction that is to say Merchenlage Danlage and Westsaxenlage Merchenlage that is the Law of the Mercians which was in force in the Counties of Glocester Worcester Hereford Warwick Oxford Chester Salop and Stafford Danlage that is the Law of the Danes which bore sway in Yorkshire Derby Nottingham Leicester Lincoln Northampton Bedford Buckingham Hertford Essex Middlesex Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge Huntingdon Westsaxenlage that is the Law of the West-Saxons to which all the rest of the thirty two Counties which are all that Malmesbury reckons up in Ethelred's time did belong to wit Kent Sussex Surrey Berks Southampton Winton Somerset Dorset and Devon Some of these English Laws he disliked and laid aside others he approved of and added to them some from beyond Sea out of Neustria he means Normandy which they did of old term Neustria corruptly instead of Westrich as being the more Western Kingdom of the Franks and given by Charles the Simple to Rollo for his Daughter Gilla her portion such of them as seemed most effectual for the preserving of the Kingdoms peace This saith he of Tilbury Now this is no rare thing among Writers for them to devise that William the Conqueror brought in as it were a clear new face of Laws to all intents and purposes 'T is true this must be acknowledg'd that he did make some new ones part whereof you may see in Lambard's Archaeonomia and part of them here subjoyned but so however that they take their denomination from the English rather than from the Normans although one may truly say according to what Lawyers dispute that the English Empire and Government was overthrown by him That he did more especially affect the Laws of the Danes which were not much unlike to those of the Norwegians to whom William was by his Grand-father allied in blood I read in the Annals of Roger Hoveden And that he openly declared that he would rule by them at hearing of which all the great men of the Countrey who had enacted the English Laws were presently struck into dumps and did unanimously petition him That he would permit them to have their own Laws and ancient Customs in which their Fathers had lived and they themselves had been born and bred up in forasmuch as it would be very hard for them to take up Laws that they knew not and to give judgement according to them But the King appearing unwilling and uneasie to be moved they at length prosecuted their purpose beseeching him that for the Soul of King Edward who had after his death given up the Crown and Kingdom to him and whose the Laws were and not any others that were strangers he would hearken to them and grant that they might continue under their own Countrey Laws Whereupon calling a Council he did at the last yield to the request of the Barons From that day forward therefore the Laws of King Edward which had before been made and appointed by his Grand-father Adgar seeing their authority were before the rest of the Laws of the Countrey respected confirmed and observed all over England But what then Doth it follow that