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

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never obtain among us and our English Government is so well constituted that our Lords Spiritual and Temporal and our worthy Commoners will find it the interest of themselves and their posterities that they will ever have that duty and deference to our Soveraign as may secure Him and Us and discourage the designs and defeat the attempts of all such as wish ill to his honour and safety or to the publick peace 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 much what 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 hihgerefa 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 Actaeon 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 should 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
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 all things in William's time were new How can a man chuse but believe it The Abbot of Crowland sayes this of it I have brought with me from London into my Monastery the Laws of the most Righteous King Edward which my Renowned Lord King William hath by Proclamation ordered under most grievous penalties to be authentick and perpetual to be kept inviolably throughout the whole Kingdom of England and hath recommended them to his Justices in the same language wherein they were at first set forth and published And in the Life of Fretherick Abbot of S. Albans you have this account After many debates Arch-Bishop Lanfrank being then present at Berkhamstead in Hartfordshire the King did for the good of peace take his Oath upon all the Reliques of the Church of S. Alban and by touching the holy Gospels Fretherick the Abbot administring the Oath that he would inviolably observe the good and approved ancient Laws of the Kingdom which the holy and pious Kings of England his Predecessors and especially King Edward had appointed But you will much more wonder at that passage of William le Rouille of Alençon in his Preface to the Norman Customs That vulgar Chronicle saith he which is intitled the Chronicle of Chronicles bears witness that S. Edward King of England was the Maker or Founder of this Custom where he speaks of William the Bastard Duke of Normandy alias King of England saying that whereas the foresaid S. Edward had no Heirs of his own Body he made William Heir of the Kingdom who after the Defeat and Death of Harald the Usurper of the Kingdom did freely obtain and enjoy the Kingdom upon this condition to wit that he would keep the Laws which had before been made by the fore-mentioned Edward which Edward truly had also given Laws to the Normans as having been a long time also brought up himself in Normandy Where then I pray you is the making of new Laws Why without doubt according to Tilbury we are to think that together with the ratifying of old Laws there was mingled the making of some new ones and in this case one may say truly with the Poet in his Panegyrick Firmatur senium Juris priscamque resumunt Canitiem leges emendanturque vetustae Acceduntque novae which in English speaks to this sense The Laws old age stands firm by Royal care Statutes resume their ancient gray hair Old ones are mended with a fresh repair And for supply some new ones added are See here we impart unto thee Reader these new Laws with other things which thou maist justly look for at my hands in this place CHAP. II. The whole Country inrolled in Dooms-day Book Why that Book so called Robert of Glocester's Verses to prove it The Original of Charters and Seals from the Normans practised of old among the French Who among the Romans had the priviledge of using Rings to seal with and who not 1. HE caused all England to be described and inrolled a whole company of Monks are of equal authority in this business but we make use of Florentius of Worcester for our witness at this time how much Land every one of his Barons was possessed of how many Soldiers in fee how many Ploughs how many Villains how many living Creatures or Cattel I and how much ready mony every one was Master of throughout all his Kingdom from the greatest to the least and how much Revenue or Rent every Possession or Estate was able to yield That breviary or Present State of the Kingdom being lodged in the Archives for the generality of it containing intirely all the Tenements or Tenures of the whole Country or Land was called Dooms-day as if one would say The day of Doom or Judgment For this reason saith he of Tilbury we call the same Dooms-day Book Not that there is in it sentence given concerning any doubtful cases proposed but because it is not lawful upon any account to depart from the Doom or Judgment aforesaid Reader If it will not make thy nice Stomach wamble let me bring in here an old fashioned Rhyme which will hardly go down with our dainty finical Verse-wrights of an historical Poet Robert of Glocester One whom for his Antiquity I must not slight concerning this Book The K. W. vor to wite the worth of his londe Let enqueri streitliche thoru al Engelonde Hou moni plou lond and hou moni hiden also Were in everich sire and wat hii were wurth yereto And the rents of each toun and of the waters echone That wurth and of woods eke that there ne bileved none But that he wist wat hii were wurth of al Engelonde And wite al clene that wurth thereof ich understond And let it write clene inou and that scrit dude iwis In the Tresorie at Westminster there it yut is So that vre Kings suth when hii ransome toke And redy wat folc might give hii fond there in yor boke Considering how the English Language is every day more and more refined this is but a rude piece and looks scurvily enough But yet let us not be unmindful neither that even the fine trim artifices of our quaint Masters of Expression will themselves perhaps one day in future Ages that shall be more critical run the same risk of censure and undergo the like misfortune And that Multa renascentur quae nunc cecidere cadentque Quae nunc sunt in honore As Horace the Poet born at Venusium tells us That is Several words which now are fal'n full low Shall up again to place of Honour start And words that now in great esteem I trow Are held shall shortly with their honour part 2. The Normans called their Writings given under their hand Charters I speak this out of Ingulph and they ordered the confirmation of such Charters with an impression of Wax by every ones particular Seal under the Testimony and Subscription of three or four Witnesses standing by But Edward the Confessor had also his Seal though that too from Normandy For in his time as the same Writer saith Many of the English began to let slip and lay aside the English Fashions bringing in those of the Normans in their stead and in many things to follow the customs of the Franks all great persons to speak the French Tongue in their Courts looking upon it as a great piece of gentility to make their Charters and Writings alamode of France and to be ashamed of their own Country usages in these
is ycleped Dis the Founder of the Celtick Colonies stuffing up odd Patcheries of Story to entertain and abuse the Reader Now this I thought fit by the by not to conceal that all that space which is bounded with the River Rhine the Alpes the Mediterranean Sea the Pyrenean Hills and lastly the Gascoin and the British Oceans was formerly termed Celtogalatia nay that P●olomy hath comprized all Europe under the name of Celtica Well as the Commentary of Annius has it This Samothes was Brother to Gomar and Tubal by their Father Japhet from whom first the Britans then the Gauls were called Samothei and especially the Philosophers and Divines that were his followers And out of Laertius he tells us For it is evident that among the Persians the Magi flourished among the Babylonians and Assyrians the Chaldeans were famous among the Celts and Gauls the Druids and those who were called Samothei who as Aristotle in his Magick and Sotion in his Three and Twentieth Book of Successions do witness were men very well skilled in Laws Divine and Humane and upon that account were much addicted to Religion and were for that reason termed Samothei These very words you meet with in Annius The name of Laertius is pretended and the beginning of his Volume concerning the Lives of Philosophers Why then let us read Laertius himself and amongst the Celts and Gauls saith he the Semnothei as saith Aristotle in his Book of Magick and Sotion in his Three and Twentieth of Succession Concerning the Samothei any other wayes there is not so much as one syllable That they were men well skilled in Laws Divine and Humane or that they had their name given them upon that account only the Latin and foisted Edition of B. Brognol the Venetian has told us whereas in truth in all the ancient Greek Copies of Laertius which that great Scholar Harry Stephen saw and consulted with and he sayes he perused Eight or Nine there is no mention at all made of that business And yet for all that I cannot perswade my self that it was only for want of care or by meer chance that this slipt into the Glosses It does appear that there have been able Lawyers and Master Philosophers not only among the Greeks the Gauls and those of Italy but also among the Northern Nations however Barbarous Witness the Druids among us and among the Goths as Jornandes tells us besides Cosmicus one Diceneus who being at once King of Men and Priest of Phoebus did together with Natural Philosophy and other parts of good Learning transmit to posterity a Body of Laws which they called Bellagines that is By-Laws There are some who in Laertius read Samothei which is a device of those men who with too much easiness they are Isaac Casaubon's words that I may say no worse suffer themselves to be led by the Nose by that counterfeit Berosus CHAP. II. An Account of the Semnothei Why so called the opinion of H. Stephen and of the Author Old Heroes and Philosophers went by the names of Demy-gods The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Venerable Goddesses the same as Eumenides dispensers of Justice And by Plutarch and Orpheus they are set for Civil Magistrates Judges in Scripture so called Elohim i. e. Gods These Semnai theai the same as Deae Matres in an old British Inscription ANd indeed if the Samothei had any thing to do with truth or the Semnothei any thing to do with the ancient Law of the Celts in as much as they write that Britany was once in subjection to the Celtick Kings I should judge it not much beside the design of my intended Method to inquire into the name and nature of them both But they being both one and t'other past all hope except such a one as Lucian returning from the Inhabitants of the Sun or those of the Moon would write their History to speak of them would be more than to lose ones labour I dare not to say much of them I imagine sayes Harry Stephen they were so called for having the Gods often in their mouths and that in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Worshipful Gods or for that they themselves were accounted amongst men as a kind of Worshipful Gods but writes he this latter I do not take to be so likely as the former But say I for my part if I might venture my opinion against the judgement of so great a person I guess this latter to be the likelier of the two That the old Heroes went by the names of Gods is a thing we read every where nor did Antiquity grudge the bestowal of this honour even upon Philosophers Not upon Amphiaraus the Prophet not upon Aesculapius not upon Hippocrates renowned Physicians they are reckoned among the middle sort of Gods Thus Plato also was accounted by Antistius Labeo for a Demy-god and Tyrtamus for his Divine eloquence had the name of Theophrastus that is God-like Speaker given him by his Master Aristotle No wonder then if thereupon thence forward great Philosophers were called Semnothei and as it were Worshipful Gods These instances incline me whilst I only take a view of their Philosophy whom if either the authority of Annius or the interpretation of Brognol had sufficiently and fairly made out to have been also at the same time Students and Masters of Law I should hardly stick almost to affirm that I had found out in what places the true natural spring and source both of their name and as I may say of their delegated power is to be met with For I have it in Pausanias forbear your flouts because I waft over into Greece from whence the most ancient Customs both Sacred and Prophane of the Gentiles came I say in Pausanias the most diligent searcher of the Greek Antiquities I meet upon Mars his Hill at Athens and also in his Achaicks or Survey of Achaia with Chappels of the Goddesses whom the Athenians styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Worshipful He himself also in his Corinthiacks makes mention of a Grove set thick with a sort of Oaks on the left side of Asopas a River in Sicyon a Countrey of Peloponnesus where there stood a little Chappel of the Goddesses whom the Athenians termed Semnai the Sicyonians called Eumenides The story of Orestes and the Eumenides or Furies that haunted him is known to every body nor can you tell me of any little smatterer in Poetry who doth not know that they together with Adrastia Ramnissia Nemesis and other Goddesses of the same stamp are pretended to be the Avengers of Villanies and continually to assist Jupiter the great God in punishing the wicked actions of Mortals They were black ones that met with Orestes but that there were white ones too to whom together with the Graces the Ancients paid their Devotions the same Pausanias has left written in his Survey of Arcadia I let pass that in the same Author she whom some called Erinnys that
by Ship into Britanny To wit at first Horsus and Hengistus came over out of Batavia or the Low Countreys with a great company of Saxons along with them after that out of Jutland the Jutes for Janus Douza proves that the Danes under that appellation seised our Shores in the very beginning of the Saxon Empire out of Angela according to Camden about Flemsburg a City of Sleswick came the Angles out of Friseland Procopius is my Author the Frizons One may without any wrong call them all Saxons unless Fabius Quaestor 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 Pandorae 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