restored to them if there were any living creature on Ship-board that escaped drowning Forasmuch as before that time whatsoever through the misfortune of shipwrack was cast on Shoar was adjudged to the Exchequer except that the persons who suffered shipwrack and had escaped alive did themselves within such a time refit and repair the Vessel So the Chronicle of the Monastery of S. Martin de Bello This right is called Wreck or if you will Uareck of the Sea How agreeable to the Law of Nations I trouble not my self to enquire That more ancient Custom is as it were suitable to the Norman usage Now at this time our Lawyers and that the more modern Law of Edward the First pass judgement according to the more correct Copy of King Henry And they reckon it too among the most ancient Customs of the Kingdom Did therefore King Richard order or did Hoveden relate this to no purpose or without any need If one who suffers shipwrack dye in the Ship let his Sons or Daughters his Brethren or Sisters have what he left according as they can shew and make out that they are his next heirs Or if the deceased have neither Sons nor Daughters nor Brothers nor Sisters the King is to have his Chattels Can one imagine that this Law he made at Messina when he was engaged in War was calculated only for that time or place Certainly in the Archives there is elsewhere to be met with as much as this 40. That he might with a stout Army bear the brunt of Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Louis King of France who had conspired being bound by mutual Oaths to one another with the Duke of Anjou to take away from King Henry by force of Arms the Dutchy of Normandy he first of all t is Polydore avers it laid a heavy Tax upon the people to carry on the new War which thing with the Kings that followed after grew to be a custom He was the last of the Normans of a Male descent and as to the method of our undertaking here we treat of him last CHAP. IX In King Stephen's Reign all was to pieces Abundance of Castles buili Of the priviledge of Coming Appeals to the Court of Rome now set on foot The Roman Laws brought in but disowned An instance in the Wonder-working Parliament AS of old unless the Shields were laid up there was no Dancing at Weddings so except Arms be put aside there is no pleading of Laws That Antipathy betwixt Arms and Laws England was all over sensible of if ever at any time in the Reign of K. STEPHEN Count of Blois King Henry's Nephew by his Sister Adela For he did not only break the Law and his Oath too to get a Kingdom but also being saluted King by those who perfidiously opposed Mawd the right and true heir of King Henry he reigned with an improved wickedness For he did so strangely and odly chop and change every thing it is Malmsbury speaks it as if he had sworn only for this intent that he might shew himself to the whole Kingdom a Dodger and Shammer of his Oath But as he saith perjuros merito perjuria fallunt that is Such men as Perjuries do make their Trade By their own Perjuries most justly are betray'd They are things of custom to which he swore and such as whereby former priviledges are ratified rather than new ones granted However some things there are that may be worth the transcribing 41. Castles were frequently raised 'tis Nubrigensis relates it in the several Counties by the bandying of parties and there were in England in a manner as many Kings or rather as many Tyrants as Lords of Castles having severally the stamping of their own Coin and a power of giving Law to the Subjects after a Royal manner then was the Kingdom plainly torn to pieces and the right of Majesty shattered which gains to it self not the least lustre from stamping of Money Though I know very well that before the Normans in the City of Rochester Canterbury and in other Corporations and Towns Abbots and Bishops had by right of priviledge their Stampers and Coiners of Money 42. Next to the King Theobald Arch-Bishop of Canterbury presided over the Council of London where there were also present the Peers of the Realm which buzzed with new appeals For in England t is Henry of Huntington sayes it appeals were not in use till Henry Bishop of Winchester when he was Legate cruelly intruded them to his own mischief Wherefore what Cardinal Bellarmin has writ beginning at the Synod of Sardis concerning the no body knows how old time of the universal right of appealing to the Pope of Rome does not at all as to matter of fact seem to touch upon this Kingdom of ours by many and many a fair mile 43. In the time of King Stephen fo 't is in the Polycraticon of John of Salisbury the Roman Laws were banisht the Realm which the House of the Right Reverend Theobald Lord Primate of Britanny had fetcht or sent for over into Britanny Besides it was forbidden by Royal Proclamation that no one should retain or keep by him the Books If you understand the Laws of the Empire I rather take them to be the Decrees of the Popes it will not be much amiss out of the Parliament Records to adjoyn these things of later date In the Parliament holden by Richard of Bourdeaux which is said to have wrought Wonders Upon the Impeachment of Alexander Nevil Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Robert Uere Duke of Ireland Michael Pole Earl of Suffolk Thomas Duke of Glocester Richard Earl of Arundel Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and others That they being intrusted with the management of the Kingdom by soothing up the easie and youthful temper of the King did assist one another for their own private interest more than the publick well near to the ruine and overthrow of the Government it self the Common Lawyers and Civilians are consulted with about the form of drawing up the Charge which they answer all as one man was not agreeable to the rule of the Laws But the Barons of Parliament reply That they would be tyed up to no rules nor be led by the punctilioes of the Roman Law but would by their own authority pass judgement pur ce que la royalme d' Angleterre n' estoit devant ces heures n'y à l' entent de nostre dit Seigneur le Roy Seigneurs de Parlament unque ne serra rules ne gouvernes per la Loy Civil that is inasmuch as the Realm of England was not before this time nor in the intention of our said Lord the King and the Lords of Parliament ever shall be ruled or governed by the Civil Law And hereupon the persons impleaded are sentenced to be banished But here is an end of Stephen He fairly dyed CHAP. X. In King Henry the Seconds time the Castles demolished A Parliament held at Clarendon Of
out of the Grant of Edward the Confessor to the Abbot of Westminster which I am beholden to Mr. Lambard for at the bottom of which these words are set down I Syward Publick Notary instead of Rembald the Kings Majesties Chancellor have written and subscribed this paper but also out of Ingulph who makes mention of Turketulus some while after that Abbot of Crowland Chancellor of King Edred by whose Decree and Counsel were to be handled treated whatsoever businesses they were Temporal or Spiritual that did await the Judgement of the King and being thus treated of by him might irrefragably stand good And Francis Thinn that Learned Antiquary has reckoned up several who have discharged this Office as Turketill to King Ethelbald Swithin Bishop of Winchester to King Egbert Vlfin to King Athelstan Adulph to King Edgar Alsy Abbot and Prelate of Ely to King Ethelred Concerning which Office and the Seals which the Chancellor in old time had the keeping of I had rather you would consult with Camden's Tribunals or Seats of Justice and those things which John Budden at Wainfleet Doctor of Laws has brought out of the Archives into his Palingenesia than seek them at my hands As for Treasurers Dunstan was so to King Edred and Hugolin to the Confessor But that fifth title of Alderman of England is an unusual one Yet if I don't mistake my self he was the Chief President in Tryals at Law and an Officer to keep all quiet at home the same as now perhaps is commonly called the Lord Chief Justice of England This remarkable name I do not meet with neither in the Monkish Chronologers which are to be had at the Shops nor in the Records of our Laws But a private History of the Abbey of Ramsey in Huntingdon-shire has given us notice of one Ailwins Tomb with this Inscription HIC REQUIESCIT AILWINUS INCLITI REGIS EADGARI COGNATUS TOTIUS ANGLIAE ALDERMANNUS ET HUJUS SACRI COENOBII MIRACULOSUS FUNDATOR that is Here resteth Ailwin Kinsman of the Renowned King Edgar Alderman of all England and the miraculous Founder of this Sacred Monastery And by reason of his great Authority and Favour which he had with the King by a Nick name they called him Healfkoning i. e. half-Half-King Now Hâ—nry of Huntingdon sayes that Tostius Earl or to use his phrase Consul of Northumberland and Harald Sons of Godwin Earl of Kent were Justices of the Realm Aldermen may aptly be termed by the word Senators Those Judges did exercise a delegated power throughout the Provinces called Counties or Shires and the Graves and under-delegated power from them The word is as much as Governours and is the same thing as in High Dutch Grave in Landgrave Burgrave Palsgrave c. and what amongst some of our own people Reev We shall call them both as that Age did in a Latin term the one Comites i. e. Counts or Earls the other Vicecomites that is Viscounts or Sheriffs The name of Count is every where met with amongst the most ancient of the Monks which yet does very often pass into that of Duke in the subscription of Witnesses And in the Charter of the Foundation of Chertsey Abby in Surrey Frithwald stiles himself subregulus i.e. an under Kingling or petty Vice-Roy to Wulpher King of the Mercians make no question of it he meant he was a Count. A Viscount and a Vice-Lord are more than very like they are the very same Ingulph sayes it above And in the last hand-writing of King Edred we have I Bingulph Vice-Lord advised it I Alfer Viscount heard it These Counts and Viscounts or Earls and Sheriffs had in their Counties their several Courts both for private and for publick matters For private affairs they had every Month a Meeting called the County Court Let every Grave as we have it in Edward the Elder 's Laws every fourth Week convene and meet the people in Assembly let him do equal right to every one and determine and put an end to all Suits and Quarrels when the appointed days shall come For publick business King Edgar ordered the Court of Inquests or Inquiries called Tourn le Uiscount Let a Convention or Meeting be held twice every year out of every County at which let the Bishop of that Diocess and the Senator i. e. the Alderman be present the one to teach the people the Laws of God the other the Laws of the Land What I have set down in William the First at the end of the fourth Chapter of this second Book you ought to consider of here again in this place The inhabitants did not meet at this Court of Inquests at any season promiscuously and indifferently but as it is very well known by the use and ancient Constitutions of the Realm within a Month either after Easter or after Michaelmas In which Court seeing that not only the Count as now a dayes the Viscount or Sheriff does but also the Bishop did preside it does not at all seem difficult to trace the very original of this temporary Law That peradventure was the Synod of Antioch held in Pope Julius the First 's time and acknowledged in the sixth General Council held at Constantinople In this latter there are expresly and plainly two Councils or Meetings of the Bishops to be kept every year within three Weeks after Easter and about the middle of October if there be any small difference in the time it can be no great matter of mistake You may help your self to more other things of meaner note out of what has been said before about Hundreds Bourghs and the like And this may serve in brief for the Saxons who were entrusted with the care of their Laws CHAP. XXI Of the Norman Earls Their Fee Their power of making Laws Of the Barons i.e. Lords of Manours Of the Court-Baron It s rise An instance of it out of Hoveden Other Offices much alike with the Saxons I Shall be briefer concerning the Normans I mean their Earls and Barons Their Counts or Earls before the Conquest except those of Leicester and perchance some others were but Officers and not as yet hereditary When William bore the sway they began to have a certain Fee and a descent of Patrimony having together with their Title assigned to them a third part of the Revenues or Rents which did arise out of the whole County to the Exchequer This custom is clear enough in Gervase of Tilbury in the case of Richard de Redâ—eriis made Earl of Devonshire by Henry the First Jeoffrey de Magna Villa made Earl of Essex by Mawd the Empress It seems that the Saxon Earls had the self-same right of sharing with the King So in Doomsday Book we find it The Queen Edeua had two parts from Ipswich in Suffolk and the Earl or Count Guert the third and so of Norwich that it paid Twenty Pound to the King and to the Earl Ten Pound so of the Revenues
of the Borough of Lewes in Sussex the King had two shares and the Earl the third And Oxford paid for Toll and Gable and other customary Duties Twenty Pound a year to the King besides Six Quarts of Honey and to Earl Algar Ten Pound To conclude it appears also that these Norman Earls or Counts had some power of making Laws to the people of their Counties For instance the Monk of Malmesbury tells us that the Laws of William Fitz-Osborn Earl of Hereford remained still in force in the said County that no Souldier for whatsoever offence should pay above Seven Shillings The Writings and Patents of the men of Cornwall concerning their Stannaries or Tinn-Mines do prove as much nor need I tell the story how Godiva Lady to the Earl Leofrick rid on Horse-back through the Streets of Coventry with her hair disshevelled all hanging about her at full length that by this means she might discharge them of those Taxes and Payments which the Earl had imposed upon them Out of the Countreys wherein all Estates were subject to Military Service the Barons had their Territories as we call them Mannors and in them their Courts to call their Tenants together at the end of every three Weeks and to hear and determine their Causes A Civilian one Vdalricus Zazius would have the original of these Courts among other Nations to have come by way of imitation from Romulus his making of Lords or Patrons and their Clanns or Tenants The use of them at this day is common and ordinarily known But to shew how it was of old we will borrow out of Hoveden this spark of light John Marshall complained to Henry the Second that whereas he had claimed or challenged in the Arch-Bishops Court a piece of Land to be held from him by right of inheritance and had a long time pleaded upon it he could obtain no Justice in the case and that he had by Oath falsified the Arch-Bishops Court that is proved it to be false by Oath according to the custom of the Realm to whom the Arch-Bishop made answer There has been no Justice wanting to John in my Court but he I know not by whose advice or whether of his own head brought in my Court a certain Toper and swore upon it that he went away from my Court for default of Justice and it seemed to the Justices of my Court that he did me the injury by withdrawing in that manner from my Court seeing it is ordained in your Realm that he who would falsifie anothers Court must swear upon the holy Gospels The King not regarding these words swore that he would have Justice and Judgement of him and the Barons of the Kings Court did judge him to be in the Kings Mercy and moreover they fined him Five Hundred Pound As to doing Justice in all other Cases and managing of Publick Affairs the Normans had almost the same Names and Titles of Officers and Offices as the Saxons had FINIS A Brief CHRONOLOGY TO Attend and Assist THE HISTORY In the Year of the WORLD  1910. Samothes if there ever were such a man bears rule 2805. Brutus makes a descent that is lands with his Trojans in Cornwall or Devonshire 3516. Dunvallo Molmutius swayes the Scepter 3627. Martia Dowager of King Quintilen is Queen Regent during the Minority of her Son Sisillius the First 3942. Caius Julius Caesar arrives at Deal on the Sea-Coast of Kent and Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis that is Having inquiry made After the Britans bold He turn'd his back 't is said His courage would not hold and was the first that discover'd Britanny to the Romans In the Year of CHRIST  44. Claudius Caesar Emperour sends over Aulus Plautius with an Army as his Lieutenant General and by degrees reduceth the Countrey into the form of a Roman Province 52. A Colony of Veterans or old Roman Souldiers is sent down to Maldon in Essex 86. Britanny is subdued or brought under the yoke by the Conduct of Junius Agricola in the time of Domitian the Emperour 183. Lucius or King Lucy was the first Christian King Forasmuch as he was of the same standing with Pope Eleutherius and the Emperour Commodus Whence it appears that Beda makes others mistake and is himself mistaken in his wrong account of time in this affair 428. The Saxons Angles Jutes Danes Frisons or Friselanders arrive here from Germany Taurus and Felix then Consuls in the one and twentieth year of Theodosius the younger The common or ordinary account of Writers sets it down the four hundred forty ninth year but that great man both for Authority and Judgement William Camden Clarenceaux King at Arms hath upon the credit of ancient Records closed this Epoch or Date of time within that term of years which I have set in the Margin 561. King Ethelbert the First King of the English Saxons who profest Christianity 800. King Egbert 872. King Alured or Alfred 959. King Edgar 1017. Canute or King Knute the Dane 1036. Harold eldest Son to King Knute called for his swiftness Harefoot 1042. Edward the Confessor after whom Harold Son to Godwin Earl of Kent usurp't the Throne where he continued only nine Months 1066. William Duke of Normandy after a Battel fought upon the Plain near Hastings got the Dominion or Soveraignty of the British Island 1088. William Rufus second Son of the Conquerour 1100. Henry the First younger Brothor to Rufus 1135. King Stephen Count of Blois in France Nephew to Henry by his Sister Adela 1153. Henry the Second Grand-child to Henry the First by his Daughter Mawd the Empress and Jeoffrey Count of Anger 's in France FINIS BRIEF NOTES UPON Some of the more Difficult Passages IN THE TITLE-PAGE COmmon and Statute Law So I render Jus Prophanum as Prophane is opposed to Sacred and Ecclesiastical as himself explains the term in his Preface out of Festus Otherwise it might have been render'd Civil Law as relating to Civil affairs and the Government of State not medling with the Canons and Rules of the Church but that the Civil Law with us is taken generally in another sense for the Imperial Law which however practised in several other Nations hath little to do in England unless in some particular cases Of English Britanny that is that part of Britain which was inhabited by the Angles in Latin called Anglo-Britannia by us strictly England as for distinction the other part of the Island Wales whither the Welsh the true and ancient Britans were driven by the Saxons is called Cambro-Britannia that is Welsh Britanny and Scotland possest by the Scots is in like manner called Scoto-Britannia that is Scotch-Britanny which now together with England since the Union of the two Kingdoms goes under the name of Great Britain In the Author's PREFACE The Guardian of my Threshold So 〈◊〉 among the Romans was the God of the Threshold qui limentis i. e. liminibus prâ—est but it may be taken
might preside in the Seat of Justice Commissioned by the Name of Itinerant Justices or Justices in Eyre See here the List and Names of those Justices out of Hoveden Hugh de Cressi Walter Fitz-Robert Robert Mantel for Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge Huntington Bedford Buckingham Essex Hertford Hugh de Gundeville William Fitz-Ralph William Basset for Lincoln Nottingham Darby Stafford Warwick Northampton Leicester Robert Fitz-Bernard Richard Gifford Roger Fitz Reinfrai for Kent Surrey Southampton Sussex Barkshire Oxford William Fitz-Steeven Bertam de Uerdun Turstan Eitz-Simon for Hereford Glocester Worcester Shropshire Ralph Fitz-Steeven William Ruffus Gilbert Pipard for Wiltshire Dorsetshire Somersetshire Devonshire Cornwall Robert de Wals. Ralph de Glanville Robert Pikenot for York Richmond Lancashire Copland Westmoreland Northumberland Cumberland These he made to take an Oath that they would themselves bona fide in good faith and without any deceit or trick 't is the same Author whose words I make use of keep the under-written Assizes and cause them inviolably to be kept by the men of the Kingdom He mentions them under this specious Title The ASSISES of King HENRY made at Clarendon and renewed at Northampton 66. If any one be called to do right or be served with a Writ before the Justices of our Lord the King concerning Murder or Theft or Robbery or the receiving and harbouring of those who do any such thing or concerning Forgery or wicked setting fire of houses c. let him upon the Oath of twelve Knights of the Hundred or if there be no Knights there then upon the Oath of twelve free and lawful men and upon the Oath of four men out of each Village of the Hundred let him go to the Ordeal of Water and if he perish i. e. sink let him lose one foot The Knights who are wanting here are perhaps those who hold by Knights service or if you had rather that hold by Fee betwixt whom and those who served in War for wages or pay which in the Books of Fees are called Solidatae the same peradventure as by Caesar are termed Soldurii that is Soldiers by Nicolaus Damascenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our Monks Bracton Otho Frisingensis and Radevicus in the Camp Laws of Barbarossa are styled Servientes that is Serjeants there is an apparent difference both of them being placed far below the dignity of those honorary Knights who are called Equites aurati But yet I do very well know that these honorary Knights also were of old time and are now by a most certain right called forth to some Tryals by Jury To the Kings Great or Grand Assise I say and to a Suit of Law contested when a Baron of Parliament is Party on one side i. e. Plaintiff or Defendant To the Assise in that it is the most solemn and honourable way of Tryal and that which puts an utter end to the claim of the Party that is cast To such an unequal suit that there may be some equality of Name or Title as to some one at least of the Judges for the Jury or twelve men are upon such occasion Judges made and as to the more honourable of the two parties whether Plaintiff or Defendant For the Peers of Parliament who are the greater Nobles amongst whom by reason of their Baronies Arch-Bishops and Bishops heretofore a great many Abbots such as are Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons who though they be distinguished by Order and honorary Titles yet nevertheless they sit in Parliament only as they are Barons of the Realm And those who at the Kings pleasure are called in by Letters of summons as Lawyers term it are styled Chevaliers not Barons For that of Chevalier was a Title of Dignity this of Baron anciently rather of Wealth and great Estate Which Title only such Writs of Summons bestowed till Richard the seconds time who was the first that by Patent made John Beaâ—champ of Holt Baron of Kiderminster Now both ways are in fashion CHAP. XVI The person convict by Ordeal to quit the Realm within Forty dayes Why Forty dayes allowed An account of the Ordeals by Fire and Water Lady Emme clear'd by going over burning Coulters Two sorts of tryal by Water Learned conjectures at the rise and reason of these customs These Ordeals as also that of single Combat condemned by the Church 67. AT Northampton it was added for the rigour of Justice remember what was said in the foregoing Chapter that he should in like manner lose his right Hand or Fist with his Foot and forswear the Realm and within Forty Dayes go out of the Kingdom into banishment He had the favour of Forty Dayes allowed him so saith Bracton that in the mean time he might get help of his friends to make provision for his Passage and Exile And if upon the tryal by water he be clean i. e. innocent let him find pledges and remain in the Realm unless he be arighted for Murder or any base Felony by the Community or Body of the County and of the Legal Knights of the Countrey concerning which if he be arighted in manner aforesaid although he be clean by the tryal of Water nevertheless let him quit the Realm within Forty Dayes and carry away his Chattels along with him saving the right of his Lords and let him forswear the Realm at the mercy of our Lord the King Here let me say a little concerning the Tryal by Fire and Water or the Ordeals It is granted that these were the Saxons wayes of tryal rashly and unadvisedly grounded upon Divine Miracle They do more appertain to Sacred Rites than to Civil Customs for which reason we past them by in the former Book and this place seemed not unseasonable to put the Reader in mind of them He who is accused is bound to clear himself 't is Ralph Glanvill writes this by the Judgement of God to wit by hot burning Iron or by Water according to the different condition of men by burning hot Iron if it be a free-man by Water if he be a Countrey-man or Villain The party accused did carry in his hand a piece of Iron glowing hot going for the most part two or three steps or paces along or else with the soles of his feet did walk upon red hot Plough-shares or Coulters and those according to the Laws of the Franks and Lombards nine in number The Lady Emme the Confessor's Mother being impeached of Adultery with Aldwin Bishop of Winton was wonderfully cleared by treading upon so many and is famous for it in our Histories being preserved safe from burning and proved innocent from the Crime There were two sorts of watery Ordeal or tryal by Water to wit cold or scalding hot The party was thrown into the cold water as in some places at this day Witches are used he who did not by little and little sink to the bottom was condemned as guilty of the Crime as one whom that Element which is the outward sign
for the Officer of the Gate the Porter who gives admission to strangers In a different Character Accordingly in the Latin the Author's Citations are printed in Italick which because they are so frequent I thought fit rather to notifie by a distinction as usual in the Margin thus Intercidona Pilumnus Deverra These were Heathen Deities to whom they attributed the Care of their Children who else they thought Silvanus mighâ— like Oberon King of the Fairies surprize or do some other mischief to In the FIRST BOOK CHAP. 1. Pag. 2. lin 23. Among the Celts and Gauls Who are reckoned for one and the same people as for instance those Gauls who removed into the Lesser Asia mixing with the Greeks were called Gallo-Graeci but by the Greeks were styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence by contraction I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 41. Bellagines that is By-Laws From By that is a Village Town or City and Lagen which in Gothish is a Law so that it signifies such Laws as Corporations are govern'd by The Scots call them Burlaws that is Borough-Laws So that Bellagines is put for Bilâ—gines or Burlagines This kind of Laws obtains in Courts Leet and Courts Baron and in other occasions where the people of the place make their own Laws CHAP. II. Pag. 4. l. 7. Adrastia Rhamnusia Nemesis Which is all but Nemesis the Goddess of Revenge called Adrastria from King Adrastus who first built her a Temple and Rhamnusia from Rhamnus a Village in the Athenian Territory where she was worshipped L. 42. Elohim that is Gods And so Judges are properly called according to the original notation of the word whose Root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alaâ— though in Hebrew it signifie to curse yet in the Arabick Language a descendent of the Hebrew it betokens to judge Thus 't is said in the Psalms God standeth in the Congregation of the Gods and I have said Ye are Gods c. L. 45. It subjoins to it the name of God To wit that Name of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 El which signifies a mighty God In this sense the Cedars of God arâ— lofty stately Cedars and by Moses his being fair to God is meant that he was exceeding fair Pag. 5. lin 18. Not only Berecynthia but also Juno cybele Why Cybele is the very same Goddess who was called Berecynthia from Berecynthus a Hill of Phrygia as also Cybelus was another where she was worshipped And she had several such Names given her from the places of her worship as Dindymene Pessinuntia Idaea Phrygia This then was a slip of our worthy Author's memory or his haste CHAP. III. Pag. 5. lin 34. Not by the number of dayes but of nights Thus in our common reckoning we say a Sennight that is seven nights septinoctium for what in Latin they say septimana seven mornings and a fortnight that is fourteen nights Again for Sundayes and Holy-dayes the Evening which concludes the fore-going day is said to be their Eve that is Evening And the Grecians agree with us in setting the night before the day in that they call the natural day which is the space of twenty four hours comprehending day and night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Night-day not Day-night CHAP. IV. Pag. 6. lin 22. King phranicus It is so ordinary a matter for Historians when they treat of things at great distance of time to devise Fables of their own or take them up from others that I doubt not but this Phranicus was designed to give name to France whereas it was so called from the Franks who came to plant there out of Franconia a Countrey of Germany called East-France L. 29. With Corinus one of the chief of his company From whom Cornwall had its name formerly called in Latin Corinia or Cornavia say some now Cornubia And possibly if that were so Corinium also or Cirencester a Town in Glocestershire and Corinus too the River Churne that runs by it own their appellations to the same Noble person L. 31. New Troy that is London Called also Troynovant and the people about it called Trinobantes or Trinovantes from whom also the City it self was styled Augusta Trinobantum that is the Royal Seat of the New Trojans L. 40. King Belin. Who gave name to Billinsgate that is Belin's Gate as King Lud to Ludgate Pag. 8. lin 39. Eumerus Messenius Some such fabulous Writer as our Sir John Mandevil who tells us of People and Countreys that are no where to be found in the World CHAP. VI. Pag. 9. lin 19. In the time of Brennus and Belinus The first of these was General of the Gauls who were called Senones and going into Italy with them sackt Rome There he built the City Verona called by his Name Brennona as he had done Brennoburgum now BranDenburg in Germany From his prowess and famed Exploits it is supposed that the Britans or Welsh do to this day call a King Brennin Of the other viz. Belinus some mention hath been made already CHAP. VII Pag. 10. lin 24. Locrinus Camber and Albanactus From the first of these three Brethren to wit Locrinus it is said that the Welsh call England Lboegr that falling to the eldest Sons share from the second Camber that a Welsh-man is named Cumra and the Countrey Cambria and from the third Albanactus that Scotland or at least good part of it retains the term of Albania a title still belonging to the King of Britain's second Brother the Duke of York Though for my part for this last name of Albanactus I am somewhat of opinion that it might be devised by some smattering Monk purposely in favour of the Trojan Story as much as to say in a mungrel word Albae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King of Alba a City of Italy built by one of Aeneas his Sons L. 29. Gavelkind From the Saxon gafel or gafol a Debt or Tribute and tyn or kynd the Kindred or Children or as Mr. Lambard gif eal tyn i. e. given to all who are next of Kin or as Vorstegan give all kind i. e. give to each Child his part An ancient custom of the Saxons whereby the Fathers Estate was equally divided amongst his Sons as it is still amongst the Daughters if there be no Sons It obtains still in several places especially in Kent by the concessions of the Conqueror Pag. 11. lin 22. The Laws of second Venus Not having Plato by me nor any other means to inform my self better I imagine that by the first Venus they mean the force of Lust and Beauty which doth so naturally incline people to a desire of union and copulation and by the second Venus consequently is intended that prudential reason by which men according to wholsome and equal Laws easily suffer themselves to be gathered into Societies and to comply with one another in mutual indearments P. 12. lin 12. Jupiter's Register 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Proverb is the skin of that Goat which nursed him in his Childhood of
saith another old Latin Poet that is such stories as are Antique buried in rubbish old and musty Which make one verst in customs old and new And of Laws Gods and Men giving a view Render the careful Student skill'd and trusty Some spare hours have been spent by me in reading over Historians Chronologers Antiquaries Foreigners and our own Countrey-men those of Ancient date and the more polite of the Modern sort those especially who seem'd to make out the quickest course to that Goal and design I spoke of I have carefully cull'd out whatsoever I met with that lookt like the Orders and Decisions of Praetors or Lord Chief Justices and whatsoever concerns the Civil or Prophane Law Prophane I call that which is not held by the Religion of the Church as â—â—xtus Pompeius hath taught me I did judge that there were a great many things in those Writers worth the knowing and which might deserve to be digested into a kind of Volume according to order of Chronology I did in the first place advise and took that special order with my self that as to this undertaking I might with the greater ease have my Attendants ready at hand to wait upon my Studies I went about to 〈…〉 and cement such as it is i. e. some method and connexion to the scattered and disjointed bulk and I brought it to a conclusion and assoon as it came into my mind to publish it I endeavoured according to that meanness which it appears in to finish it that I may make use of a Mathematick term with its Complement I have set the model and frame upon a sure account not upon mine own credit neither who am too apt to take on trust things suspected and in a compendious way I have writ my self compendiously and succinctly I have transcribed out of others faithfully I do on set purpose vouch the credit I go upon to be none of mine but the Authors I have taken out of that I may not be accused of false dealing by unskilful or careless Readers I have applyed my self not only to the meaning of the Writers or to their historical account but even to the very words and syllables which they spoke and have inserted them printed in a different character those I confess unless it be from them of the middle age many times sufficiently barbarous that miserably want polishing such as Criticks cannot away with and do very well agree with the Records and Reports of Law which we converse with However I would not have thee disdain in the mean time brimful and wholsome draughts of liquor because the Bowl was not made in a Potters shop of Colias a place in Athens or in cold Winter to slight a garment which is not made of Attick Wooll as Plutarch hath admonished the hearers of Philosophy Let young Ladies speak finically with their golden Flower-amours and let them who have store and leave at once court the graces of words and beauties of expression 'T is true the care of exact speaking is a thing befits the Muses yet how the most abstruse Mysteries even of the highest Urania of Divinity it self are laid open without it the Thomists the Scotists and what other Sects and Parties of School-men there are know well enough And there are some others also that think they know I mean the inquirers into Heavenly Calculations Astrologers and the Weather-wise-men Almanack-makers who in good deed for the most part rely too much upon the trifling stories of their Masters Now they and not without good reason have preferred the Arab Writers barbarously translated and slovenly Bonatus before Julius Firmicus and modern Pontanus as spruce as they are These two may rather be termed Grammarians than Astrologers Nor do Aristotle's crabbed Lectures of natural Pâ—â—losophy discourage Interpreters or procure to themselves any discredit â—y reason of the affected obscurity of speech they are delivered in and as to neatness of Poetry Apollo himself hath been out-done by Sappho Homer Hesiod Though the Matter doth often surpass the Workmanship yet who is there is so rigid or so fond a Censurer as to disparage and debase the Matter upon the account of the Workmanship Which I would not have be said only of those passages which I have brought into this Piece out of those fore-mentioned Authors but also of the whole Body of our Common-Law I have I hope not unluckily begun with the very first Inhabitants of this Isle as far as we can come to the knowledge of them Those Authors whom I have followed in the original of Story I have as it was meet set down and remark'd adding the Judgement and Censure of the Learned Afterward besides Caesar and Tacitus there are but few that afford us any help and that â—ut in few things too For the name of Brittany was known but of late to the Greeks but of late to the Romans and the Britans were truly for a long while divided from all the world besides But among â—â—reigners the latter Ages have enquired after them I speak of Strabo Pliny Ptolomy others and a certain Writer of Asia Marcianus Heraclâ—otes not yâ—t that I know of turned into Latin saith thus Albion the Brittish Isle hath in it Thirty Three Nations Fifty Nine remarkable Cities and then he subâ—â—us other things concerning the number of Rivers Promontories Havens and Creeks or Bays I have stretched out this Piece to the death of King Henry the Son of Mawd the Empress by Jeoffrey the Count of Anger 's in France In whose time or near thereabout are the first beginnings of our Law as our Lawyers now account There come in by the way Richard called Coeur de Lion and King John but there is scarce any thing in that interim to our purpose I have on purpose passed by Mr. Lambard's Archaeonomia or Antiquites of Law without medling with it at all only when some obvious accasion did sometimes suggest it for the explaining of what is set down by us I have divided the whole into two Books the first closes with the Saxons the second begins with the Norman Conquest the most famous Aera or Date of the English Government in the reckonings of time But however to refer the original of our English Laws to that Conquest as some make bold to do is a huge mistake forasmuch as they are of a far more ancient Date For it is a remark amongst Statesmen That new acquired Empires do run some hazard by attempting to make new Laws and the Norman did warily provide against this danger by bestowing upon the yielding conquered Nation the requital of their ancient Law a requital I say but more as it should seem for shew than use and rather to curry favour with the people at the present than in good deed for the advantage of the English Name Wherein he in some measure followed well near the practice of Alaricus who having conquered the Romans and finding that they took it in dudgeon to
to brighten things that are grown out of use to furnish things obscure with light to set off things that are disdained with credit to make things doubtful pass for probable to assign to every thing it s own nature and every thing to its own nature and that it is a very brave and gallant thing as he sayes for those that have not attained their design yet to have endeavoured it when the Will as we say is accepted for the Deed. But I know too that every Cone or point of vision in the Opticks differs from a right angle and I know how odious a thing a Train or solemn Procession is in the publick Games Therefore dear Reader I bid thee heartily farewel and with a fortunate endeavour fetch out hence what may make for thy turn Why do I delay all this while to let thee in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go thy wayes in o' Gods name Laudamus veteres sed nostris utimur annis Mos tamen est aeque dignus uterque coli We praise old times but make use of our own And yet 't is fit they both alike be known Go in and welcome heartily and be not unkind to thy Entertainer From the Inner Temple London Decemb. 25. 1610. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In laudem dignissimi Authoris politioris literaturae candidati Carmen CUm Jovis effoeti Pallas foret orta cerebro Vagitus teneros virgo patrima dedit Accurrit tacitéque novam subducere prolem Tentat abstrusis abdere Juno locis Jupiter ingenuam solerti indagine natam Quaeritat celeri permeat astra pede Stat cerebrique tuam cernens Seldene Minervam In natae amplexus irruit ille tuae Atque suam credit parilique ab imagine formae Illa fuit suavis suavis illa fuit Lisque foret nisi quae quondam Lucina fuisset Musarum testis turba novena fuit Quam cognata Jovis tua casta Minerva Minervae est Cum tantum fallax lusit imago Deum ALIUD DUm tuus ambiguâ Janus facieque biformi Respicit antiqua posteriora videt Archivos Themidis canos monumentaque legum Vindicat à veteri semi-sopita situ Hinc duplex te Jane manet veterane corona Gratia canitie posteritate decus Gulielmus Bakerus Oxon. ASTRAEAE BRIT ULtima caelicolûm terras Astraea reliquit Tu tamen alma redi terras Astraea revise Astraea alma redi tuis Britannis Et diva alma fave tuis Britannis Et diva alma fove tuos Britannos Et diva alma regas tuos Britannos Cantemus tibi sic tui Britanni Foelices nimium ô tui Britanni Tu tandem alma redis divum postrema Britannis Ultima coelicolûm terras Astraea revisit Alma redi sacro redolent altaria sumo Et tibi sacratis ignibus Alma redi Alma redi posuit Liber hic primordia juris Anglos quo poteris tu regere Alma redi Alma redi tibi templa struit Seldenus at aram Qui tibi nil potuit sanctius Alma redi E. Heyward In Epigraphen Libri Carmen QUisnam Iò mussat Posuisti Enyo Arma jam doctos Iber haùt Batavos Marte turbat Foedere jam Britannus Continet Orbem Clusium Audax quis reserat latentem Falleris Diae Themidis recludo Intima Haec portâ meliùs feratâ Pandit Eanus I. S. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS BOOK I. CHAP. I. THE counterfeit Berosus with the Monk that put him forth both censured The Story of Samothes the first Celtick King The bounds of Celtica From Samothes say they the Britans and Gauls were called Samothei For which Diogenes Laertius is falsly quoted the word in him being Semnothei page 1. 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 p. 3 CHAP. III. One Law of Samothes out of Basingstoke concerning the reckoning of Time by Nights Bodinus his censure of Astrologers for otherwise computing their Planetary Hours A brief account of some of Samothes his Successors Magus Sarron Druis from whom the Druids c. p. 5 CHAP. IV. K. Phranicus 900. Years after Samothes being to reside in Pannonia intrusts the Druids with the Government In the mean time Brutus Aeneas his Grand-son arrives and is owned King by the Britans and builds Troynovant i. e. London Dunvallo Molmutius 600. years after is King and makes Laws concerning Sanctuaries Roads or High-wayes and Plow-lands K. Belin his Son confirms those Laws and casts up four great Cause-wayes through the Island A further account of Molmutius p. 6 CHAP. V. A brief Account of Q. Regent Martia and of Merchenlage whether so called from her or from the Mercians Annius again censured for a Forger and his Berosus for a Fabulous Writer p. 7 CHAP. VI. The story of Brutus canvast and taken to be a Poetick Fiction of the Bards Jeoffry of Monmouth's credit called in question Antiquaries at a loss in their judgements of these frivolous stories p. 8 CHAP. VII What the Trojan Laws were which Brutus brought in That concerning the Eldest Sons Inheriting the whole Estate confuted In the first times there were no Positive Laws yet mention made of them in some very ancient Authors notwithstanding a remark of some ancient Writers to the contrary p. 10 CHAP. VIII An Account of the DRUIDS out of Caesar's Commentaries whence they were so called Their determining in point of Law and passing Sentence in case of Crime Their Award binds all parties Their way of Excommunicating or Outlawing They have a Chief over them How he is chosen Their Priviledge and Immunity p. 12 CHAP. IX The menage of their Schools without Writing On other occasions they might use the Greek Letters as Caesar saith yet not have the language The Greek Letters then were others than what they are now These borrowed from the Gauls as those from the Phoenicians Ceregy-Drudion or the Druids Stones in Wales This Place of Caesar's suspected Lipsius his Judgement of the whole Book p. 13 CHAP. X. The Druids reckoning of time An Age consists of thirty Years What Authors treat of the Druids Their Doctrines and Customs savour of Pythagoras and the Cabbalists They were the eldest Philosophers and Lawyers among the Gentiles Some odd Images of theirs in Stone in an Abby near Voitland described p. 15 CHAP. XI The Britans and Gauls had Laws and Customs much alike and whence that came Some things common to them both set down in relation to the
on foot The Roman Laws brought in but disowned An instance in the Wonder-working Parliament p. 67 CHAP. X. In King Henry the Seconds time the Castles demolished A Parliament held at Clarendon Of the Advowson and Presentation of Churches Estates not to be given to Monasteries without the Kings leave Clergymen to answer in the Kings Court A Clergyman convict out of the Churches Protection None to go out of the Realm without the Kings leave This Repealed by King John Excommunicate Persons to find Surety Laymen how to be impleaded in the Ecclesiastical Court A Lay-Jury to swear there in what case No Homager or Officer of the Kings to be Excommunicated till He or his Justice be acquainted p. 69 CHAP. XI Other Laws of Church affairs Concerning Appeals A Suit betwixt a Clergy-man and a Lay-man where to be tryed In what case one who relates to the King may be put under an Interdict The difference betwixt that and Excommunication Bishops to be present at the Tryals of Criminals until Sentence of Death c. pass Profits of vacant Bishopricks c. belong to the King The next Bishop to be chosen in the Kings Chappel and to do Homage before Consecration Deforcements to the Bishop to be righted by the King And on the contrary Chattels forfeit to the King not to be detained by the Church Pleas of debts whatsoever in the Kings Court Yeomens Sons not to go into Orders without the Lords leave p. 72 CHAP. XII The Statutes of Clarendon mis-reported in Matthew Paris amended in Quadrilegus These Laws occasioned a Quarrel between the King and Thomas a Becket Witness Robert of Glocester whom he calls Yumen The same as Rusticks i. e. Villains Why a Bishop of Dublin called Scorch-Uillein Villanage before the Normans time p. 74 CHAP. XIII The Poet gives account which of those Laws were granted by Thomas a Becket which withstood Leudemen signifies Lay-men and more generally all illiterate Persons p. 77 CHAP. XIV The Pope absolves Thomas a Becket from his Oath and damns the Laws of Clarendon The King resents it writes to his Sheriffs Orders a Seisure Penalties inflicted on Kindred He provides against an Interdict from Rome He summons the Bishops of London and Norwich An account of Peter Pence p. 79 CHAP. XV. A Parliament at Northampton Six Circuits ordered A List of the then Justices The Jury to be of twelve Knights Several sorts of Knights In what cases Honorary Knights to serve in Juries Those who come to Parliament by right of Peerage sit as Barons Those who come by Letters of Summons are styled Chevaliers p. 81 CHAP. XVI The person convict by Ordeal to quit the Realm within Forty dayes Why Forty dayes allowed An account of the Ordeals by Fire and Water Lady Emme clear'd by going over burning Coulters Two sorts of tryal by Water Learned conjectures at the rise and reason of these customs These Ordeals as also that of single Combat condemned by the Church p. 84 CHAP. XVII Other Laws Of entertaining of strangers An Uncuth a Gust a Hogenhine what of him who confesseth the Murder c. Of Frank pledge Of an Heir under age Of a Widows Dowry Of taking the Kings fealty Of setting a time to do homage Of the Justices duty Of their demolishing of Castles Of Felons to be put into the Sheriffs hands Of those who have departed the Realm p. 87 CHAP. XVIII Some Laws in favour of the Clergy Of forfeitures on the account of Forest or hunting Of Knights fees Who to bear Arms and what Arms. Arms not to be alienated No Jew to bear Arms. Arms not to be carryed out of England Rich men under suspicion to clear themselves by Oath Who allowed to swear against a Free-man Timber for building of Ships not to be carryed out of England None but Free-men to bear Arms. Free-men who Rusticks or Villains not such p. 90 CHAP. XIX Of Law-makers Our Kings not Monarchs at first Several of them in the same County The Druids meeting-place where Under the Saxons Laws made in a general Assembly of the States Several instances This Assembly under the Normans called Parliament The thing taken from a custome of the ancient Germans Who had right to sit in Parliament The harmony of the Three Estates p. 93 CHAP. XX. The Guardians of the Laws who In the Saxons time seven Chief One of the Kings among the Heptarchs styled Monarch of all England The Office of Lord High Constable Of Lord Chancellor ancient The Lord Treasurer Alderman of England what Why one called Healfkoning Aldermen of Provinces and Graves the same as Counts or Earls and Viscounts or Sheriffs Of the County Court and the Court of Inquests called Tourn le Viscount When this Court kept and the original of it p. 95 CHAP. XXI Of the Norman Earls Their Fee Their power of making Laws Of the Barons i. e. Lords of Manours Of the Court-Baron It s rise An instance of it out of Hoveden Other Offices much alike with the Saxons p. 98 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ENGLISH JANUS From the Beginning of the BRITISH Story down to the NORMAN Conquest CHAP. I. The counterfeit Berosus with the Monk that put him forth both censured The Story of Samothes the first Celtick King The bounds of Celtica From Samothes say they the Britans and Gauls were called Samothei For which Diogenes Laertius is falsly quoted the word in him being Semnothei THERE came forth and in Buskins too I mean with Pomp and State some parcels of years ago and is still handed about every where an Author called Berosus a Chaldee Priest take heed how you suffer your self to believe him to be the same that Flavius Josephus so often up and down quotes for a witness with a Commentary of Viterbiensis Or rather to say that which is the very truth John Annius of Viterbium a City of Tuscany a Dominican Frier playing the Leger-de-main having counterfeited Berosus to put off his own strange stories hath put a cheat upon the Lady Muse who is the Governess of Antiquities and has hung a Bantling at her back After the Genealogies of the Hebrews drawn down by that Author whoever he be according to his own humour and method for fear he should not be thought to take in the Kingdoms and Kings of the whole Universe and the Etymologies of Proper Names by whole-sale as we say as if he had been born the next day after Grandam Ops was delivered of Jupiter he subjoyns SAMOTHES the very same who is yeleped 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 Pâ—olomy hath comprized all Europe under the name of Celtica Well as the Commentary of Annius has it This Samothes
from these Eumenides meaning in very deed that he made his escape from the Civil Magistrates In a word the whole business we have been aiming at Orpheus compriseth in two Verses of that Hymn he has made upon those Goddesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in a short Paraphrase speaks thus But ye with eye of Justice and a face Of Majesty survey all humane race Judges commission'd to all time and place See here plainly out of the most ancient Divine among the Heathens how Judges and the Dispensers of Law pass under the notion of these Venerable Goddesses and it was a thing of custom to term the Right of the Infernal Powers as well as the Doctrine of the Heavenly ones a thing Holy and Sacred What hinders then I pray but that one may guess that the Name and Title and Attributes or Characters of the Semnothei sprang forth and flowed from hence to wit from the Semnai theai or Venerable Goddesses Homer in his Poems calls Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is persons bred and nourished by Jove yea the Eternal and Sacred Scriptures themselves do more than once call Judges by that most holy name Elohim that is Gods The judgement is Gods not Mans and as Munster remarks out of Rabbi Kimchi whatsoever thing Scripture designs to magnifie or express with height it subjoyns to it the name of God God as Plutarch has it out of Plato who in his Attick style imitates our Moses hath set himself out as a pattern of the Good the dreadful syllables of whose very notto be uttered Name though we take no notice of the Cahalists art do strike move and twitch the ears of Mortals and one while when thorough ignorance they straggle out of the way do bring them back into the path or track of Justice another while when they are stopt up with prejudice and are overcast with gloomy darkness do with a stupendous dismal and continual trembling shake the poor wretches and put them into Ague-fits Nor let that be any hindrance that so splendid and so manly a name is taken from the weaker Sex to wit the Goddesses Let us more especially have to do with the Britans as those amongst whom are those choice and singular Altars not any where else to be met with in the whole World with this Inscription DEIS MATRIBUS To the Mother-Goddesses Concerning these Mother-Goddesses that excellent Learned Man that I may hint it by the by confesses he could with all his search find out nothing but if such a mean person as I may have leave What if one should imagine that those Goddesses whom Pausanias in his Attick stories calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the same as these Mother Goddesses for so those Names import The Mother of the Gods is a Title well known wherewith not only Berecynthia but also Juno Cybele Tellus Ceres and other Shee s among Mythologists are celebrated and made famous Be this if you will a thing by the by and out of the way as he tells us No great Wit ever pleased without a pardon Relying upon that the Readers Pardon I mean I undertook this Job whatever it is and upon confidence of that I come back to the business CHAP. III. One Law of Samothes out of Basingstoke concerning the reckoning of Time by Nights Bodinus his censure of Astrologers for otherwise computing their Planetary Hours A brief account of some of Samothes his Successors Magus Sarron Druis from whom the Druids c. WE do not any where meet with any Law enacted by Samothes his authority Yet one only one concerning the account of times Basingstoke the Count Palatine a very modern Historian attributes to him He defined sayes he the spaces or intervals of all time not by the number of dayes but of nights the same thing saith Caesar of the Gauls and Tacitus of the Germans and he observed birth-dayes and the commencements of months and years in that order that the day should come after the night Truth is the Britans do at this time observe that fashion which is most ancient and highly agreeable to Nature And the Evening and the Morning was the first day and so on sayes the Hebrew Writer whose Countrey-men the Jews also followed this custom The Peripateticks i. e. the followers of Aristotle do also at this rate reckon Privation in the number of their three Principles and hereupon John Bodin adventures to censure the common Astrologers that they according to the course of the Planets as they order it and repeat it over and over begin their unequal hours from the rising rather than the setting of the Sun They write that after this Samothes there came in play Magus Sarran Druis Bardus and others more than a good many in order of succession Sarron was not addicted to make Laws 't is Stephanus Forcatulus helps us to this but to compose them to put them into order and to recommend them to practice as one who reduced those Laws which his Grand-father Samothes and afterward his Father Magus had made into one Volume and with severe Menaces gave order for the keeping of them From Druis or Druides they will have the Druids so called a sort of Philosophers so much famed and talked of in Caesar Pliny and others believe it who list for me The whole business of the Druids at present I put off till Caesar's times CHAP. IV. K. Phranicus 900. Years after Samothes being to reside in Pannonia intrusts the Druids with the Government In the mean time Brutus Aeneas his Grand-son arrives and is owned King by the Britans and builds Troynovant i. e. London Dunvallo Molmutius 600. years after is King and makes Laws concerning Sanctuaries Roads or High-wayes and Plow-lands K. Belin his Son confirms those Laws and casts up four great Cause-wayes through the Island A further account of Molmutius ABout Nine hundred years after Samothes King Phranicus take it from the British story and upon the credit of our Jeoffry intrusts the Druids with the management of affairs whilst he himself resided in Pannonia or Hungary In the mean time Brutus the Son of Sylvius Posthumus King of the Latines and Grand-child to Aeneas for Servius Honoratus in his Comment upon Virgil makes Sylvius to be the Son of Aeneas not of Ascanius being happily arrived by Shipping with Corinus one of the chief of his company and coming to land at Totnes in Devonshire the Britans salute and own him King He after he had built New Troy that is London gave Laws to his Citizens and Subjects those such as the Trojans had or a Copy of theirs A matter of Six hundred years after Dunvallo Molmutius being King ordained my Authors besides Jeoffry of Monmouth are Ralph of Chester in his Polychronicon and Florilegus that their Ploughs Temples and Roads that led to Cities should have the priviledge to be places of refuge But because some time after there
arose a difference concerning the Roads or High-wayes they being not distinguished by certain Limits and Bounds King Belin Son of the foresaid Molmutius to remove all doubt caused to be made throughout the Island four Royal High-wayes to which that priviledge might belong to wit the Fosse or Dike Watlingstrete Ermingstrete and Ikeniltstrete But our Learned Countrey-man and the great Light of Britan William Camden Clarenceaux King at Arms is of opinion these Cause-wayes were cast up by the Romans a thing that Tacitus Bâ—de and others do more than intimate Moreover so sayes Jeoffry he ordained those Laws which were called Molmutius his Laws which to this very time are so famed amongst the English Forasmuch as amongst other things which a long time after Gildas set down in writing he ordained that the Temples of the Gods and that Cities should have that respect and veneration that whatsoever runagate Servant or guilty person should fly to them for refuge he should have pardon in the presence of his enemy or prosecutor He ordained also That the Wayes or Roads which led to the aforesaid Temples and Cities as also the Ploughs of Husbandmen should be confirmed by the same Law Afterwards having reigned Forty years in peace he dyed and was buried in the City of London then called Troynovant near the Temple of Concord by which Temple there are not wanting those who understand that Illustrious Colledge on the Bank of Thames consecrated to the Study of our Common Law now called the Temple and which he himself had built for the confirmation of his Laws At this rate Jeoffry tells the story but behold also those things which Polydore Virgil hath gathered out of ancient Writers whereof he wanted no store He first used a Golden Crown appointed Weights and Measures for selling and buying of things punisht Thieves and all mischievous sorts of men with the greatest severity made a great many High-wayes and gave order how broad they should be and ordained by Law that the right of those Wayes belonged only to the Prince and set dreadful Penalties upon their heads who should violate that right alike as upon theirs who should commit any misdemeanour in those wayes Moreover that the Land might not lye barren nor the people be frequently oppressed or lessened through Dearth or want of Corn if Cattle alone should possess the Fields which ought to be tilled by men he appointed how many Ploughs every County should have and set a penalty upon them by whose means that number should he diminished And he made a Law That Labouring Beasts which attended the Plough should not be distrained by Officers nor assigned over to Creditors for money that was owing if the Debtor had any other Goods left Thus much Polydore CHAP. V. A brief Account of Q. Regent Martia and of Merchenlage whether so called from her or from the Mercians Annius again censured for a Forger and his Berosus for a Fabulous Writer THe Female Government of Martia Widow to King Quintiline who had undertaken the Tuition of Sisillius Son to them both he being not as yet fit for the Government by reason of his Nonage found out a Law which the Britons called the Martian Law This also among the rest I tell you but what Jeoffry of Monmouth tells me King Alfred translated which in the Saxon Tongue he called Merchenlage Whereas nevertheless in that most elaborate Work of Camden wherein he gives account of our Countrey Merchenlage is more appositely and fitly derived from the Mercians and they so called from the Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Limit Bound or Border These are the Stories which Writers have delivered to us concerning those times which were more ancient than the History of the Romans but such as are of suspected of doubtful that I may not say of no credit at all Among the more Learned there is hardly any Critick who does not set down Annius in the list of Forgers And should one go to draw up the account of Times and to observe that difference which is so apparent in that Berosus of Viterbium from Sacred Scriptures and the Monuments of the Hebrews one would perhaps think that he were no more to be believed than another of the same name who from a perpendicular position of the wandring Stars to the Center of the World in the Sign of Cancer adventured to foretel that all things should be burnt and from a like Congress of them in Capricorn to say there would be an universal Deluge The story is in Seneca CHAP. VI. The story of Brutus canvast and taken to be a Poetick Fiction of the Bards Jeoffry of Monmouth's credit called in question Antiquaries at a loss in their judgements of these frivolous stories SOme have in like manner made enquiry concerning our British History and stumbled at it From hence we had Brutus Dunvallo and Queen Martia There are some both very Learned and very Judicious persons who suspect that that story is patched up out of Bards Songs and Poetick Fictions taken upon trust like Talmudical Traditions on purpose to raise the British name out of the Trojan ashes For though Antiquity as one has it is credited for a great witness yet however 't is a wonder that this Brutus who is reported to have killed his Father with an Arrow unluckily aimed and to have been fatal to his Mother at her very delivery of him for which reason Richard Vitus now after so many Ages makes his true name to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Mortal should be mentioned by none of the Romans a wonder I say that the Latin Writers should not be acquainted with the name of a Latin Prince who gave both Name and Government to Britany Did Euemerus Messenius alone ever since the World began fail to the Panchoans and the Triphyllians Indeed it is an ordinary thing for Poets to ingraft those whom they celebrate in their Poems into Noble Stocks and Illustrious Families and by the assistance of their Muses heightning every thing above the truth to feign and devise a great many stories And what else were the Bards as Athenaeus tells us out of Possidonius but Poets reciting mens praises in song How many things are there in that Fabulous Age which in Joseph Scaliger's account would more aptly be called the Heroick Age of the World I mean down from that much talked of Deluge of Pyrrha to the beginning of Iphitus his Olympiads how many idle stories are there mixt with true ones and afterwards drest up and brought upon the stage Very many Nations sayes Trithemius as well in Europe as in Asia pretend they took their original from the Trojans to whom I have thought good to lend so much faith as they shall be able to perswade me of truth by sufficient testimony They are frivolous things which they bring concerning their own Nobility and Antiquity having a mind as it were openly to boast as if there had
the deed Who 's Wife mistrusts and plays the jealous Whelp Is mad beyond Physicians art and help Who does not know that Natures byass runs to things forbidden and he who attempts unlawful things does more often lose those which are lawful Marry that free usage of the hot Baths of Baden in Germany Men and Women together is much safer than being jealous Quis non bonus omnia malit Credere quà m tanto sceleri damnare puellam That is What good man would not take all in best sense Rather by living undisturb'd and frée Than by distrustful foolish Jealousie His Lady force to quit her Innocence But we have taken that pains upon a thing by the By as if it were our proper business CHAP. XV. An account of the British State under the Romans Claudius wins a Battel and returns to Rome in Triumph and leaves A. Plautius to order affairs A Colony is sent to Maldon in Essex and to several other places The nature of these Colonies out of Lipsius Julius Agricola's Government here in Vespasian's time JVlius Caesar gave a sight of Britanny to posterity rather than made a full discovery or a delivery of it However Malmsbury sayes that he compelled them to swear obedience to the Latin Laws certainly he did scarce so much as abridge the inhabitants from the free use of their own Laws for the very Tributes that were imposed upon them they in a short time shook off by revolting from the Roman yoke The same liberty they used and enjoyed to all intents and purposes during Augustus Tiberius and Caligula's Reigns Aulus Plautius as General by order of Claudius Caesar brought an Army into Britany 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith Dio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The inhabitants at that time were subject to divers Kings of their own He overcame in battel Prince Cradock and Togodunus the two Sons of King Cunobellinus afterwards Claudius himself came over into the Island fought a set battel and having obtained the Victory he took Maldon in Essex the Royal City of Cunobellinus disarmed the inhabitants left the government of them and the subduing of the rest of the people to Plautius and went back himself to Roâ—e where he was honoured with a most splendid and stately Triumph For this was he of whom Seneca the Tragoedian speaks Cuique Britanni terga dedêre Ducibus nostris ante ignoti Jurisque sui which may be thus Englished To whom bold Britans turn'd their back T' our Captains formerly unknown And govern'd by Laws of their own The Island being reduced great part under the Romans power and into a Lieutenancy a Colony is brought down to Maldon in Essex as Tacitus and Dio has it with a strong party of Veterans and is planted up and down in the Countrey they had taken as a supply against those that would rebel and to train up their fellows or Allies to the duties of the Laws And old Stone speaks thus of that Colony CN MUNATIUS M. F. PAL AURELIUS BASSUS PROC AUG PRAEF FABRO PRAEF COH III. SAGITARIORUM PRAEF COH ITERUM II. ASTURUM CENSITOR CIVIUM ROMANORUM COLONIAE VICTRICENSIS QUAE EST. IN. BRITANNIA CAMALODUNI Besides there was a Temple built and dedicated to Claudius Ara or as Lipsius reads it Arra Aeternae dominationis that is the Altar or Earnest of an eternal Government But you will say all this makes little to our purpose yes very much as that which brings from abroad the Roman Orders Laws Fashions and every thing into Britany Near St. Albans a Town in Hartfordshire there was sure enough the seat of Cassibellinus called Verulams and the Burghers as we learn from Agellius were Citizens of Rome infranchized out of their Corporations using their own Laws and Customs only partaking the same honorary priviledge with the people of Rome but we have the Colony of Maldon in Essex which upon another nearer account had all the Rights and Orders of the people of Rome derived to it from the freedom of that City and was not at its own disposal or to use its own Laws And the like was practised in this Island in more than one place The Reverse of Sevâ—rus the Emperours Coyn shews it COL EBORACUM LEG VI. VICTRIX and the Coyn of Septimius Geta on either side COL DIVANA LEG XX. VICTRIX This old Divana which is the very same with Deunana in Ptolomy if you make it English is Chester the chief City of the Cornavians that is the people of Cheshire Staffordshire Shropshire c. Again there is a piece of and old Stone in the Walls of Bath in Somersetshire near the North Gate has this Inscription upon it DEC COLONIAE GLEV. VIXIT ANN. LXXXVI Glevum was that then which Glocester is now It may be Colchester had the same right of priviledge unless you had rather derive its name from the River Coln that runs aside it In a word sayes Seneca to Albina How many Colonies has this people of ours sent into all Provinces Where ever the Roman conquers he dwells See what abundance there was of them in British Province whose form of Government and other Laws that they were different from that of the Britans we may plainly perceive from that very form of their constitution after their detachment which I shall present you with out of that famous Antiquary and every way most Learned and Celebrious person Justus Lipsius Their manner and method was sayes he That the Lands should be divided to man by man and that by three grave discreet persons whom they used to chuse for this purpose who did set out their particular Seats and Grounds and the Town it self if there were one to be built and prescribed them Rules and Rights and the form as it were of a new Common-wealth Yet in that manner that all things might bear a resemblance of Rome and the Mother City and that in the very places themselves the Courts of Law the Capitols the Temples the State-houses or Town-halls might be according to that model and that there might be in the Government or Magistracy two persons as Bailiffs in most places like the two Consuls at Rome in like manner Surveyors and Scavengers Aldermen of the Wards and Headboroughs instead of a Senate or Common Council as we may call it This is Lipsius his account so that Beatus Gildas is not much out of the way when he sayes it was reckoned not Britannia but Romania And an ancient Copy of Verses which Joseph Scaliger has rescued out of its rust and mouldiness has it Mars pater nostrae gentis tutela Quirine Et magno positus Caesar uterque polo Cernitis ignotos Latiâ sub Lege Britannos c. that is in English Sire Mars and Guardian of our State Quirinus hight after thy fate And Caesars both plac'd near the Pole With your bright Stars ye do behold And th' unknown Britans aw T' observe the Roman Law The
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 and other like cases Nay and if Leland an Eye-witness may be believed our great Prince Arthur had his Seal also which he saith he saw in the Church of Westminster with this very inscription PATRITIUS ARTHURIUS BRITANNIAE GALLIAE GERMANIAE DACIAE IMPERATOR That is The Right Noble ARTHUR Emperor of Britanny France Germany and Transylvania But that the Saxons had this from the Normans is a thing out of all question Their Grants or Letters
Patents signed with Crosses and subscribed with Witnesses names do give an undoubted credit and assurance to what I have said John Ross informs us that Henry Beauclerk was the first that made use of one of Wax and Matthew of Canterbury that Edward the first did first hang it at the bottom of his Royal Writings by way of Label whereas before his Predecessors fastned it to the left side Such a writing of Henry the first in favour of Anselm the last Author makes mention of and such an one of William's Duke of the Normans though a very short one and very small written Brian-Twine in his Apology for the Antiquity of the famous University of Oxford the great Study and support of England and my ever highly honoured Mother saith he had seen in the Library of the Right Honourable my Lord Lumley But let a circumcised Jew or who else will for me believe that story concerning the first Seal of Wax and the first fastning of it to the Writing A great many waxen ones of the French Peers that I may say something of those in wax and Golden ones of their Kings to wit betwixt the years 600 and 700 we meet with fashioned like Scutcheons or Coats of Arms in those Patterns or Copies which Francis de Rosieres has in his first Tome of the Pedigree or Blazonry of the Dukes of Lorain set down by way of Preface Nor was it possible that the Normans should not have that in use which had been so anciently practised by the French Let me add this out of the ancient Register of Abendon That Richard Earl of Chester who flourished in the time of Henry the first ordered to sign a certain Writing with the Seal of his Mother Ermentrude seeing that being not girt with a Soldiers Belt i. e. not yet made Knight all sorts of Letters directed by him were inclosed with his Mothers Seal How what is that I hear Had the Knightly dignity and Order the singular priviledge as it was once at Rome to wear Gold-Rings For Rings as 't is related out of Ateius Capito were especially designed and ingraven for Seals Let Phoebus who knows all things out of his Oracle tell us For Servants or Slaves so says Justus Lipsius and remarks it from those that had been dug up in Holland and common Soldiers were allowed iron ones to sign or to seal with which therefore Flavius Vopiscus calls annulos sigillaricios i. e. seal-Rings and so your ordinary Masters of Families had such with a Key hanging at it to seal and lock up their provision and utensils But saith Ateius of the ancient time Neither was it lawful to have more than one Ring nor for any one to have one neither but for Freemen whom alone trust might become which is preserved under Seal and therefore the Servants of a Family had not the Right and Priviledge of Rings I come home to our selves now CHAP. III. Other ways of granting and conveying Estates by a Sword c. particularly by a Horn. Godwin's trick to get Boseham of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Pleadings in French The French Language and Hand when came in fashion Coverfeu Laws against taking of Deer against Murder against Rape 3. AT first many Lands and Estates were collated or bestowed by bare word of mouth without Writing or Charter only with the Lords Sword or Helmet or a Horn or a Cup and very many Tenements with a Spur with a Currycomb with a Bow and some with an Arrow But these things were in the beginning of the Norman Reign in after times this fashion was altered says Ingulph I and these things were before the Normans Government Let King Edgar his Staff cut in the middle and given to Glastenbury Abbey for a testimony of his Grant be also here for a testimony And our Antiquary has it of Pusey in Berkshire That those who go by the name of Pusey do still hold by a Horn which heretofore had been bestowed upon their Ancestors by Knute the Danish King In like manner to the same purpose an old Book tells this story That one Vlphus the Son of Toraldus turned aside into York and filled the Horn that he was used to drink out of with Wine and before the Altar upon his bended knees drinking it gave away to God and to St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles all his Lands and Revenues Which Horn of his saith Camden we have been told was kept or reserved down to our Fathers memory We may see the conveyance of Estate how easie it was in those days and clear from the punctilio's of Law and withal how free from the captious malice of those petty-foggers who would intangle Titles and find flaws in them and from the swelling Bundles and Rolls of Parchments now in use But commend me to Godwin Earl of Kent who was to use Hâ—gesander's word too great a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 catcher at Syllables and as the Comedian says more shifting than a Potters wheel Give me saith he to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Boseham The Arch-Bishop admiring what it was he would be at in that question saith I give you Boseham He straight upon the confidence of this deceit without any more ado entred upon an Estate of the Arch Bishops of that name on the Sea-coasts of Sussex as if it had been his own by Inheritance And with the testimony of his people about him spoke of the Arch-Bishop before the King as the donor of it and quietly enjoyed it Those things I spoke of before to wit of Sword Horn c. smell of that way of investing into Fees which we meet with in Obertus de Orto but are very unlike to that solemn ceremony which is from ancient time even still used in conveying of an Estate and delivering possession wherein a green Turf or the bough of a growing Tree is required 4. They did so much abhor the English tongue 't is the Abbot of Crowland saith it that the Laws of the Land and the Statutes of the English Kings were handled or pleaded in the French language For till the thirty sixth year of Edward the third all businesses of Law were pleaded in French That also in Schools the Rudiments of Grammatical Institution were delivered to Boys in French and not in English Also that the English way and manner of Writing was laid aside and the French mode was made use of in all Charters or Instruments and Books Indeed it was such a fault to be ignorant in the French or not to be able to speak it that mainly upon this account in the Reign of William Rufus Vlstan Bishop of Worcester was censured as unworthy of his place and deprived of his dignity who as to other things according to the simplicity of that Age was Scholar enough The Abbot whom I quoted speaks thus of the French Character The Saxon hand was used by all the Saxons and Mercians in all their
hand-writings till the time of King Alfred who had by French Tutors been very well trained up in all Literature but from the time of the said King it did by disuse come to be of little account and the French hand because it being more legible and more delightful to sight had the preheminence grew more and more every day in vogue and use among all the English Nevertheless however this business went we are told that in the memory of our Fathers and that by an ancient order there were Lectures of the English-Saxon language read at Tavistock Abby in Devonshire 5. That his new Kingdom might not be disturbed by Riots and disorders in the night he ordered that at the Ringing of a Bell which they called the Curfew-Bell all the Lights and Fires should in every little Cottage a little after the dusk of the Evening be put out 6. He that should take a Deer or aprum a Boar so says Huntingdon but perhaps 't is caprum a Buck or a Roe was to have his eyes thrust or plucked out saith Matthew Paris 7. If any one had slain any one 't is Huntingdon writes this be it upon what cause or occasion soever he was sentenced to a Capital punishment he was to die for it 8. If one had forced any woman so I read aliquam any woman not aliquem any man as 't is in the common Prints he was to have his Privities cut off Forced her I sure enough and perhaps he that lay with a woman with her consent was notwithstanding that served in the same kind too And in this case I would have you hear what that great Lawyer Albericus Gentilis his opinion is This I say saith he that a man hath a greater injury done him if the woman were not ravished per force but were debauched and made willing because in this case her mind is estranged from her Husband but in that other not CHAP. IV. Sheriffs and Ihries were before this time Tha four Terms Judges to Act without Appeal Justices of Peace The Kingr payments made at first in Provisions Afterwards ehanged into Mony which the Sheriff of each County was to pay in to the Exchequer The Constable of Dover and Warder of the Cinque Ports why made A disorder in Church-affairs Reformed POlydore Virgil brings in at this time the first Sheriffs of Counties and here places the beginning of Juries or determining of Tryals by the judgment of Twelve but is out in them both This of Juries is convinced by a Law of Ethelred in Lambard's explications of Law-terms and by those irrefragable arguments which the famous Sir Edward Coke brings against it That other mistake of Sheriffs is confuted by what we have formerly noted out of Ingulph and by what we shall hereafter somewhere have occasion to remark Mars being impleaded in the Areopagus the place of Judgment at Athens for the murder of Halirothius the Son of Neptune whom he had slain for Ravishing his Daughter Alcippa upon his Tryal by twelve Gods was acquitted by six Sentences or Votes For if the number were equal and no majority the Person was not condemned but discharged My meaning why I put in this Story is to shew the most ancient use of this number of twelve in Tryals elsewhere as well as amongst us An Italian might well mistake in a concern of England yet take it not ill at my hands that I have given you this upon his credit 9. He appointed that four times every year there should be kept Conventions or Meetings for several days in such place as he himself should give order In which Meetings the Judges sitting apart by themselves should keep Court and do Justice These are our four Tserms 10. He appointed other Judges who without appeal should exercise Jurisdiction and Judgment from whom as from the bosom of the Prince all that were ingaged in quarrels addressing thither might have right done them and refer their controverlies to them 11. He appointed other Rulers or Magistrates who might take care to see misdemeanors punished these he called Justices of Peace Now one may well imagine that this name of Office is most certainly of a later date and a foreign Writer is to be excused by those rights which are afforded to Guests and Strangers since acting a Busiris his part against them would be downright barbarous I say he is to be excused so far as not to have his mistakes in the History of the English Nation too heavily charged upon him 12. In the Primitive State of the Kingdom after the Conquest Gervase of Tilbury in his Dialogue of the Exchequer saith this is a thing handled down from our Forefathers the Kings had payments made them out of their Lands not in sums of Gold or Silver but only in Victuals or Provisions Out of which the Kings house was supplied with necessaries for daily use and they who were deputed to this service the Purveyors knew what quantity arose from each several land But yet as to Soldiers pay or donatives and for other necessaries concerning the Pleas of the Kingdom or Conventions as also from Cities and Castles where they did not exercise Husbandry or Tillage in such instances payments were made in ready mony Wherefore this Institution lasted all the time of William the First to the time of King Henry his Son so that I my self Gervase flourished in the Reign of Henry the second have seen some people who did at set times carry from the Kings Lands victuals or provisions of food to Court. And the Officers also of the Kings house knew very well having it upon account which Counties were to send in Wheat which to send in several sorts of flesh and Provender for the Horses These things being paid according to the appointed manner and proportion of every thing the Kings Officers reckoned to the Sheriffs by reducing it into a sum of pence to wit for a measure of Wheat to make bread for a hundred men one shilling for the body of a pasture-fed Beef one shilling for a Ram or a Sheep four pence for the allowance of twenty horses likewise four pence But in process of time when as the said King was busie in remote parts beyond Sea to appease Tumults and Insurrections it so happened that ready mony was highly necessary for him to supply his occasions In the mean time there came in multitudes a great company of Husbandmen with complaints to the Kings Court or which troubled him more they frequently came in his way as he was passing by holding up their Ploughshares in token that their Husbandry was running to decay for they were put to a world of trouble upon occasion of the provisions which they carried from their own quarters through several parts of the Kingdom Thereupon the King being moved with their complaints did by the resolved advice of his Lords appoint throughout the Kingdom such persons as he knew were for their prudence and
discretion fit for the service These persons going about and that they might believe their own eyes taking a view of the several Lands having made an estimate of the provisions which were paid out of them they reduced it into a sum of pence But for the total sum which arose out of all the Lands in one County they ordered that the Sheriff of that County should be bound to the Exchequer Adding this withal that he should pay it at the Scale Now the manner of paying the tryal of the weight and of the metal by Chymical operation the Melter or Coyner and the surveyor of the Mint are more largely handled and explained by my self in some other work of mine 13. That he might the more firmly retain Kent to himself that being accounted as it were the Key of England 't is the famous Mr. Camden tells the Story he set a Constable over Dover-Castle and made the same person Warden of the Cinque Ports according to the old usage of the Romans Those are Hastings Dover Hith Rumney and Sandwich to which are joyned Winchelsey and Rye as Principals and other little Towns as Members 14. To put the last hand to William I add out of the Archives this Law not to be accounted among the last or least of his William by the Grace of God King of the English to all Counts or Earls Viscounts or Sheriffs and to all French born and English men who have Lands in the Bishoprick of Remigius greeting This Remigius was the first who translated the Episcopal See from Dorchester to Lincoln Be it known unto you all and the rest of my Liege Subjects who abide in England that I by the common advice of my Arch-Bishops and the rest of the Bishops and Abbots and all the Princes of my Kingdom have thought fit to order the amendment of the Episcopal Laws which have been down to my time in the Kingdom of the Angles not well nor according to the Precepts of the holy Canons ordained or administred Wherefore I do command and by my Royal Authority strictly charge that no Bishop or Arch-deacon do henceforth hold Pleas in the Hundred concerning Episcopal Laws nor bring any cause which belongs to the Government of Souls i. e. to spiritual affairs to the judgment of secular men but that whosoever according to the Episcopal Laws shall for what cause or fault soever be summoned shall come to a place which the Bishop shall chuse and name for this purpose and there make answer concerning his cause and do right to God and his Bishop not according to the Hundred but according to the Canons and Episcopal Laws For in the time of the Saxon Empire there were wont to be present at those Country Meetings the Hundred Courts an Alderman and a Bishop the one for Spirituals the other for Temporals as appears by King Edgar's Laws CHAP. V. William Rufus succeeds Annats now paid to the King Why claimed by the Pope No one to go out of the Land without leave Hunting of Deer made Felony AFter the death of William his second Son WILLIAM sirnamed RVFVS succeeded in his room All Justice of Laws as Florentius of Worcester tells us was now husht in silence and Causes being put under a Vacation without hearing money alone bore sway among the great ones Ipsaque majestas auro corrupta jacebat that is And Majesty it self being brib'd with gold Lay as a prostitute expos'd to th' hold 15. The right or duty of First-Fruits or as they are commonly called the Annats which our Kings claimed from vacant Abbies and Bishopricks Polydor Virgil will have to have had its first original from Rufus Now the Popes of Rome laid claim to them anciently a sort of Tribute which upon what right it was grounded the Council of Basil will inform us and by what opinion and resolution of Divines and Lawyers confirmed Francis Duarenus in his Sacred Offices of the Church will instruct us 'T is certain that Chronologers make mention that at his death the Bishopricks of Canterbury Winchester and Salisbury and twelve Monasteries beside being without Prelates and Abbots paid in their Revenues to the Exchequer 16. He forbad by publick Edict or Proclamation sayes the same Author that any one should go out of England without his leave and Passport We read that he forbad Anselm the Arch-Bishop that he should not go to wait upon Pope Vrban but that he comprehended all Subjects whatsoever in this his Royal order I confess I have not met with any where in my reading but in Polydor. 17. He did so severely forbid hunting of Deer saith William of Malmesbury that it was Felony and a hanging matter to have taken a Stag or Buck. CHAP. VI. Henry the First why called Beauclerk His Letters of Repeal An Order for the Relief of Lands What a Hereot was Of the Marriage of the Kings Homagers Daughter c. Of an Orphans Marriage Of the Widows Dowry Of other Homagers the like Coynage-money remitted Of the disposal of Estates The Goods of those that dye Intestate now and long since in the Churches Jurisdiction as also the business of Wills Of Forfeitures Of Misdemeanors Of Forests Of the Fee de Hanberk King Edward's Law restored WIlliam who had by direful Fates been shewn to the World was followed by his Brother Henry who for his singular Learning which was to him instead of a Royal Name was called Beau-clerk He took care of the Common-wealth by amending and making good what had slipt far aside from the bounds of Justice and by softning with wholsome remedies those new unheard of and most grievous injuries which Ralph afterwards Bishop of Durham being Lord Chief Justice of the whole Kingdom plagued the people with He sends Letters of Repeal to the High Sheriffs to the intent that the Citizens and people might enjoy their liberty and free rights again See here a Copy of them as they are set down in Matthew Paris HENRY by the Grace of God King of England to Hugh of Bockland High Sheriff and to all his Liege people as well French as English in Herefordshire Greeting Know ye that I through the mercy of God and by the common advice of the Barons of the Kingdom of England have been crowned King And because the Kingdom was opprest with unjust exactions I out of regard to God and that love which I bear towards you all do make the holy Church of God free so that I will neither sell it nor will I put it to farm nor upon the death of Arch-Bishop or Bishop or Abbot will I take any thing of the domain of the Church or of the men thereof till a Successor enter upon it And all evil Customs wherewith the Kingdom of England was unjustly oppressed I do henceforward take away which evil usages I do here in part set down 18. If any one of my Barons Counts or others that hold of me shall dye his Heir shall not redeem his Land
the Rapines Thefts and Rogueries of the Courtiers ordering that those who were caught in such pranks should have their Eyes with their Stones pulled out This Malmesbury supplies us with But Florentius of Worcester and Roger Hoveden give the account that he punished Thieves with Death and Hanging otherwise than that pleasant and curious man Thomas Moor in his Vtopia would have his people to be dealt with Yet I am inclined rather to believe Malmesbury not only upon the authority of the man in comparison of whose Rose-beds if you well weigh the Learning of that Age the other pack of Writers are but sorry low shrubs but also upon the account of a nameless Monk who in his Book of the Miracles of S. Thomas of Canterbury tells us a story of one Eilward a poor mean fellow of Kingsweston in Berkshire who being in the Reign of King Henry the Second condemned of Theft he had it seems stoln a pair of Countrey Gloves and a Whetstone was punished by losing his Eyes and Privities who coming with devotion to S. Thomas his Tomb got an intire restitution of his disappearing Members and Faculties and was as good a man as ever he was Perchance in this he is no witness of infallible credit Let the story of Iphis and Ianthis and that of Ceneus try Masteries with this for the Wherstone to our purpose the Writer is trusty enough But in the first times of the Normans I perceive that the Halter was the ill consequence of Theft Let it be lawful for the Abbot of that Church if he chance to come in in the God speed to acquit an High-way-man or Thief from the Gallows They are the words of the Patent with which William the Conquerour to expiate the slaughter of Harald consecrated a Monastery to S. Martin near Hastings on the Sea-coast of Sussex and priviledged it with choice and singular rights 31. Against Cheats whom they commonly call Coyners 't is Malmesbury speaks again he shewed his particular diligence permitting no cheating fellow to escape scot-free without losing his Fist or Hand who had been understood to have put tricks upon silly people with the traffick of their falshood For all that he who hath tackt a supplement to Florentius of Worcester and William Gemeticensis give out that the Counterfeiters and Imbasers of Coin had over and above those parts cut off which Galen accounts to be the principal instruments for propagating of the kind To whom Hoveden agrees who writes in the Life of Henry the First That Coyners by the Kings order being taken had their right Hands and their Privy-members cut off Upon this account sure that he that was guilty of such a wicked crime should have no hope left him of posterity nor the Common-wealth be in any further fear of those who draw villainous principles from the loins of those that beget them Now at this very time and in former Ages too this piece of Treason was punished with Halter and Gallows and that also of Theft not only in England but almost in all Countreys especially Robbery upon the High-way which is committed by those who lay wait to surprize Passengers as they travel along upon one or other side of them whence not only in the Latin but in the holy Language also a High-way-man hath his name And truly among the Ancients guelding was lookt upon as a kind of death The Apostles Canons give him the character and censure of a Manslayer who cuts off his own Privities who lives all his life a Batchelor say the Talmudists and he who cuts off another mans is in danger of the Cornelian Law concerning Murderers and Cut-throats and so was it heretofore among the English 32. He ordered they are Hoveden's words that no half-penny which also he commanded should be made round or farthing also if it were intire should be refused 33. He corrected the Merchants false Eln so sayes the Monk of Malmesbury applying the measure of his Arm and proposing that to all people over England 34. He gave order to the Courtiers in whatsoever Cities or Villages he were how much they were to take of the Countrey people gratis and at what price to buy things punishing offendors herein either with a great Fine of money or with loss of life CHAP. VIII The Regality claimed by the Pope but within a while resumed by the King The Coverfeu dispensed with A Subsidy for marrying the Kings Daughter The Courtesie of England Concerning Shipwrack A Tax levied to raise and carry on a War 35. ANselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury labours earnestly with the Pope and his party and at length obtains it with much ado that from that time forward you have it in Florilegus after other Writers never any one should be invested with a Pastoral Staff or a Ring into a Bishoprick or Abbacy by the King or any Lay-person whatsoever in England added out of Malmesbury retaining however the priviledge of Election and Regality There was a sharp bickering about this business betwixt the King and Anselm and so between the Popes Paschalis and Calixtus and Henry about that time Emperour Both of them at least pretendedly quit their right our King humouring the Scene according to the present occasion For after Anselm's death he did invest Rodulphus that came in his room by a Ring and a Pastoral Staff 36. He restored the Night-Torches or Lights which William the First had forbidden forasmuch as he now had less reason to apprehend any danger from them the Kingdom being in a better and firmer posture 37. To make up a portion for Mawd the Kings Daughter married to Henry the Emperour every Hide of Land paid a Tribute of Three Shillings Here Polydore makes his descant Afterward sayes he The rest of the Kings followed that course of raising Portions for the bestowal of their Daughters so tenacious hath posterity alway been of their own advantages It is scarce to be doubted that the right of raising money for the marrying of the Lords Daughters by way of Aid or Subsidy upon the Tenants or Dependants is of a more ancient original Neither would I fetch it from the mutual engagement of Romulus his Patrons and Clients or Landlords and Tenants or from Suetonius his Caligula rather from the old Customs of the Normans more ancient than King Henry where that threefold Tribute is explained by the name of Aid which the Patent granted by King John in favour of publick liberty mentions in these words I will impose no Escuage or Aid in our Realm but by the common advice of our Realm unless it be to ransom our Body and to make our first-born Son a Soldier or Knight and to marry our eldest Daughter once 38. Some ascribe that Law to Henry which Lawyers call the Courtesie of England whereby a man having had a Child by his Wife when she dyes enjoyes her Estate for his life 39. He made a Law that poor shipwrackt persons should have their Goods
the Advowson and Presentation of Churches Estates not to be given to Monasteries without the Kings leave Clergymen to answer in the Kings Court A Clergyman convict out of the Churches Protection None to go out of the Realm without the Kings leave This Repealed by King John Excommunicate Persons to find Surety Laymen how to be impleaded in the Ecclesiastical Court A Lay-Jury to swear there in what case No Homager or Officer of the Kings to be Excommunicated till He or his Justice be acquainted AT length though late first Henry the Son of Jeoffry Plantagenet Count of Anger 's by the Empress Mawd came to his Grandfatherrs Inheritance Having demolished and levelled to the ground the Castles which had in King Stephen's time been built to the number of eleven hundred and fifteen and having retrieved the right of Majesty into its due bounds he confirmed the Laws of his Grandfather Moreover at Clarendon in Wiltshire near Salisbury John of Oxford being President by the Kings own Mandate there being also present the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and Peers of the Realm other Laws are recognized and passed whilst at first those who were for the King on one side those who were for the Pope on the other with might and main stickle to have it go their way these latter pleading that the secular Court of Justice did not at all suit with them upon pretence that they had a priviledge of Immunity But this would not serve their turn for such kind of Constitutions as we are now setting down had the Vogue 44. If any Controversie concerning the Advowson and Presentation of Churches arise betwixt Laymen or betwixt Laymen and Clergymen or betwixt Clergymen among themselves let it be handled and determined in the Court of the Lord our King 45. The Churches which are in the Kings Fee cannot be given to perpetuity without his assent and concession Even in the Saxons times it seems it was not lawful without the Kings favour first obtained to give away Estates to Monasteries for so the old Book of Abington says A Servant of King Ethelred's called Vlfric Spot built the Abby of Burton in Staffordshire and gave to it all his Paternal Estate appraised at seven hundred pounds and that this donation might be good in Law he gave King Ethelred three hundred Marks of Gold for his confirmation of it and to every Bishop five Marks and over and above to Alfric Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Village of Dumbleton 46. Clergymen being arighted and accused of any matter whatsoever having been summoned by the Kings Justice let them come into his Court there to make answer to that of which it shall be thought fit that there answer ought to be made So that the Kings Justice send into the Court of Holy Church to see after what manner the business there shall be handled 47. If a Clergyman shall be convicted or shall confess the Fact the Church ought not from thenceforth to give him protection 48. It is not lawful for Arch-Bishops Bishops and Persons of the Kingdom to go out of the Realm without leave of our Lord the King And if they do go out if the King please they shall give him security that neither in going nor in returning or in making stay they seek or devise any mischief or damage against our Lord the King Whether you refer that Writ we meet with in the Register or Record NE EXEAS REGNVM for Subjects not to depart the Kingdom to this time or instance or with Polydore Virgil to William Rufus or to later times is no very great matter Nor will it be worth our while curiously to handle that question For who in things of such uncertainty is able to fetch out the truth Nor will I abuse my leasure or spend time about things unapproachable An sit hic dubito sed hic tamen auguror esse Says the Poet in another case And so say I. Whether it be here or no Is a Question I confess And yet for all that I trow Here it is too as I guess Out of King John's great Charter as they call it you may also compare or make up this Repeal of that Law in part Let it be lawful henceforward for any one to go out of our Realm and to return safely and securely by Land and by Water upon our Royal word unless in time of War for some short time for the common advantage of the Kingdom excepting those that are imprisoned and out-lawed according to the Law of the Kingdom and any People or Nation that are in actual War against us And Merchants concerning whom let such Order be taken as is afore directed I return to King Henry 49. Excommunicate Persons ought not to give suretiship for the Remainder nor to take an Oath but only to find Surety and Pledge to stand to the Judgment of the Church that they may be absolved 50. Persons of the Laity ought not to be accused or impleaded but by certain and legal Accusers and Witnesses in the presence of the Arch-Bishop or Bishop so that the Arch-Deacon may not lose his right nor any thing which he ought to have therefrom 51. If they be such Persons who are in fault as no one will or dare to accuse let the Sheriff being thereunto required by him cause twelve legal men of the Voisinage or of the Village to swear before the Bishop that they will manifest or make known the truth of the matter according to their Conscience 52. Let no one who holds of the King in capite nor any one of the Kings Officers or Servants of his Domain be excommunicated nor the Lands of any of them be put under an Interdict or prohibition unless first our Lord the King if he be in the Land be spoke with or his Justice if he be out of the Land that they may do right by him And so that what shall appertain to the Kings Court may be determined there and as to what shall belong to the Ecclesiastical Court it may be sent thither and there treated of CHAP. XI Other Laws of Church affairs Concerning Appeals A Suit betwixt a Clergyman and a Layman where to be Tryed In what case one who relates to the King may be put under an Interdict The difference betwixt that and Excommunication Bishops to be present at Tryals of Criminals until Sentence of Death c. pass Profits of vacant Bishopricks c. belong to the King The next Bishop to be Chosen in the Kings Chappel and to do Homage before Consecration Deforcements to the Bishop to be righted by the King And on the contrary Chattels forfeit to the King not to be detained by the Church Pleas of debts whatsoever in the Kings Court Yeomens Sons not to go into Orders without the Lords leave 53. COncerning Appeals if at any time there shall be occasion for them they are to proceed from the Arch-Deacon to the Bishop and from the Bishop to
the Arch-Bishop and if the Arch-Bishop shall be wanting in doing of Justice they must come in the last place to our Lord the King that by his precept or order the Controversie may be determined in the Arch-Bishops Court so as that it ought not to proceed any further without the Kings assent This Law long since the famous Sir Edward Coke made use of to assert and maintain the Kings Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as a thing not of late taken up by him but anciently to him belonging 54. If a Claim or Suit shall arise betwixt a Clergyman and a Lay-man or betwixt a Layman and a Clergyman concerning any Tenement which the Clergyman would draw to the Church and the Lay-man to a Lay-fee it shall by the recognizance of twelve legal men upon the consideration and advisement of the Lord Chief Justice be determined whether the Tenement do appertain to Alms i. e. to the Church or to Lay-Estate before the Kings own Justice And if it shall be recognized or adjudged to appertain to Alms it shall be a Plea in the Ecclesiastical Court But if to a Lay-fee unless they both avow or avouch the Tenement from the same Bishop or Baron it shall be a Plea in the Kings Court But if each of them shall for that fee avouch the same Bishop or â—aron it shall be a Plea in that Bishops or Barons Court so that he who was formerly seised shall not by reason of the Recognizance made lose the Seisin till it shall by Plea be deraigned 55. He who shall be of a City or a Castle or a Burrough or a Manner of the Kings Domain if he shall be cited by an Arch-Deacon or a Bishop upon any misdemeanour upon which he ought to make answer to him and refuse to satisfie upon their summons or citations they may well and lawfully put him under an Interdict or Prohibition but he ought not to be Excommunicated By the way seasonably remark out of the Pontificial Law that that Excommunication they call the greater removes a man and turns him out from the very Communion and Fellowship of the Faithful and that an Interdict as the lesser Excommunication separates a man and lays him aside only forbidding him to be present at Divine Offices and the use of the Sacraments I say he ought not to be Excommunicated before that the Kings Chief Justice of that Village or City be spoken with that he may order him to come to satisfaction And if the Kings Justice fail therein he shall be at the Kings mercy and thereupon or after that the Bishop may punish him upon his impleadment with the Justice of the Church 56. Arch-Bishops Bishops and all Persons whatsoever of the Kingdom who hold of the King in capite and have their possessions from our Lord the King in nature of a Barony and thereupon make answer to the Kings Justices and Officers and perform all Rights and Customs due to the King as other Barons do they ought to be present at the Tryals of the Court of our Lord the King with his Barons until the losing of Limbs or death be adjudged to the party tried 57. When an Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick or Abbacy or Priory of the Kings Domain shall be void it ought to be in his hand and thereof shall he receive all the profits and issues as belonging to his Domain And when the Church is to be provided for our Lord the King is to order some choice persons of the Church and the Election is to be made in the Kings own Chappel by the assent of our Lord the King and by the advice of those persons of the Kingdom whom he shall call for that purpose and there shall the Person Elect saving his order before he be Consecrated do Homage and Fealty to our Lord the King as to his Liege Lord for his life and limbs and for his Earthly Honour 58. If any one of the Nobles or Peers do deforce to do Justice to an Arch-Bishop Bishop or Arch-Deacon for themselves or those that belong to them the King in this case is to do justice 59. If peradventure any one shall deforce to the Lord the King his Right the Arch-Bishop Bishop and Arch-Deacon ought then in that case to do justice or to take a course with him that he may give the King satisfaction 60. The Chattels of those who are in the Kings forfeit let not the Church or Church-yard detain or keep back against the justice of the King because they are the Kings own whether they shall be found in Churches or without 61. Pleas of debts which are owing either with security given or without giving security let them be in the Kings Court. 62. The Sons of Yeomen or Country people ought not to be ordained or go into holy Orders without the assent of the Lord of whose Land they are known to have been born CHAP. XII The Statutes of Clarendon mis-reported in Matthew Paris amended in Quadrilegus These Laws occasioned a Quarrel between the King and Thomas a Becket Witness Robert of Glocester whom he calls Yumen The same as Rusticks i. e. Villains Why a Bishop of Dublin called Scorch-Uillein Villanage before the Normans time I Confess there is a great difference between these Laws and the Statutes of Clarendon put forth in the larger History of Matthew Paris I mean those mangled ones and in some places what through great gaps of sence disjointings of Sentences and misplacings of words much depraved ones whose misfortune I ascribe to the carelesness of Transcribers But the latter end of a Manuscript Book commonly called Quadrilegus wherein the Life of Thomas Arch Bishop of Canterbury is out of four Writers to wit Hubert of Boseham John of Salisbury William of Canterbury and Alan Abbot of Tewksbury digested into one Volume hath holp us to them amended as you may see here and set to rights It is none of our business to touch upon those quarrels which arose upon the account of these Laws betwixt the King and Thomas of Canterbury Our Historians do sufficiently declare them In the mean time may our Poet of Glocester have leave to return upon the Stage and may his Verses written in ancient Dialect comprising the matter which we have in hand be favourably entertained No man ne might thenche the love that there was Bitwene the K. H. and the good man S. Thomas The diuel had enui therto and sed bitwen them feu Alas alas thulke stond vor all to well it greu Uor there had ere ibe kings of Luther dede As W. Bastard and his son W. the rede That Luther Laws made inou and held in al the lond The K. nold not beleue the lawes that he fond Ne that his elderne hulde ne the godeman S. Thomas Thought that thing age right neuer law nas Ne sothnes and custom mid strength up iâ—old And he wist that vre dere Lourd in the Gospel told That he himselfe was sothnes and custum nought Theruore Luther custumes
that age of the World L. 26. Prema and Mutinus This latter a Title given to Priapus much-what such a God as Baal Peor was the other a Goddess forsooth much to the same purpose For the old Romans had Gods and Goddesses as the present Romans have Saints for every thing for every action of life But their Offices were such as the modest Reader will easily excuse the want of explaining them Lin. 38. Sayes Progne to her Sister Philomel Tereus King of Thrace having married Progne Daughter of Pandion King of Athens when he went to fetch her Sister Philomel ravished her by the way on Ship-board which occasioned a bloody revenge in the murder of his Son Itys At last they were turned all four into so many several sorts of Birds Progne into a Swallow Philomel into a Nightingale Tereus into a Lapwing and Itys into a Pheasant CHAP. XXI Pag. 36. lin 20. With head-money called Wergild A word compounded of the Saxon wert the price or value or worth of a man and geld or gild a payment That is he that had killed another was to buy off his life by paying the full value of the person slain The prizes or rates are set down in Ethelstan's Laws by Thrimsa's a kind of Coyn or piece of money of the value of three shillings saith Mr. Lambard which being reduced to our Sterling stand thus A Peasant 40 l. 1 s. A Thane or one in Orders 300 l. A General or Chieftain 600 l. A Bishop or Alderman 1200 l. An Arch Bishop or Peer 2250 l. And a King 4500 l. Half of which last summ was to go to the Kindred and the other half to the publick And these Rates are set he sayes by the Common Law of the English The reason of this pecuniary compensation was their tenderness of life that two men might not dye upon the account of the same mischance according to that saying in an ancient Law Nulla sit culpa tam gravis ut vita non concedatur propter timorem Dei But yet withal in some cases of premeditated or clandestine murder they were not excused from making satisfaction with their life or in case one were not able to pay the were or Fine he was punished with death I called this Head-money because in Latine it is termed capitis aestimatio the value or price of a mans head not in that sense as either Chevage or Poll-money is so called CHAP. XXII Pag. 37. lin 42. In the Margin Caxton is quoted a Book it seems rare of which he saith That Book that goes up and down by this name Mr. Warin Townsend of Lincolns-Inn a Gentleman Noble by his Descent and Learning both very friendly lent me for my use in a very fair Manuscript which courtesie of his I cannot but think it a foul shame for me not to own and acknowledge with all thankfulness Pag. 38. lin 17 18. Even now in the time of those that are called the Good 'T is William of Malmesbury whom he quotes etiam nunc tempore Bonorum Whether he mean Good Princes who would have those Laws observed or Honest Subjects who would observe them or whether there were any sort of men in his time that went by that Character of Boni good men is more than I have to say There was at one time a sort of Religious persons that went by the name of Bon Hommes but that can have nothing to do in this business CHAP. XXIII Pag. 39. lin 14. Every Native home-born lawful man In the Latin it is Indigena legalis in the Saxon Law-term it is Inlaughe or Inlaugh that is one that is under the Law Inlagatus who is in Frank pledge or belongs to some Court Leet as all Males from twelve years old and upwards were obliged to be So Bracton tells us Lin. 27. Decenna The same as Decuria which is generally rendred a Tithing i. e. a Company of ten men with their families all of them bound to the King to answer for one anothers good and peaceable behaviour From the Latin word it is called a Dozein and the people that belong to it are called Deciners or Dozeniers that is Decennarii The chief of them is termed Decurio or Decanus Friburgi the Tithingman or Headborough And all Males of twelve years age and upwards except Nobles and Religious persons were obliged to be of some Dozein or other But now there are no other Dozeins but Leets and no other security there given for the Kings Peace but the persons own Oath Lin. 29. Friborgh From the Saxon sreo free and borgh a surety or security or as some write it Fridburgh from frid peace and burgh a surety If it be taken for the person it is the same that a Deciner we now spoke of if for the action it is their being sureties for one another if for the company of these mutual ingagers 't is the same as Decuria a Tything in Saxon tienmannatale i. e. the number of ten men The Normans retained the same custom but altered the name calling it Frankpledg from the French Frank i. e. free and pledg i. e. surety And the compass or circuit of this Frankpledg the same as that of Friburg to wit the Decenna or Dozein i. e. ten housholds Lin. 40. Manupastus Of this Bracton sets down a Rule for Law that every person whether free-man or servant either is or ought to be in frank-pledge or of some bodies mainpast Now he is of ones Mainpast saith he who is allowed Victuals and Clothes or Victuals only and Wages And this was the reason why great men were not obliged to be of any ordinary Dozein because Bishops Earls and Barons as the same Bracton informs us ought to have their menial servants in their own Friborgh and to answer to the King for their behaviour and to pay what forseits they should make if they had not the persons themselves forth-coming And this sayes he is the case of all those who are of any ones Mainpast CHAP. XXIV P. 41. lin 16. John Scot Erigena A School-man famous for his subtilty called in Latin Johannes Duns Scotus Whether Duns were the Name of his Family as it might be Johannes de Dunis which in English would be John Downs or whether it were a Nickname given him for his slovenliness and seeming blockishness from the word Dunce which in Barbarous Latin is Dunsa For so in Camden's Remains we find the Emperour Charles as I take it putting that question to him as he sate at Table over against him Quid interest inter Scotum Sotum What difference between a Scot and a Sot to which he as freely replyed Mensa the Table Sir I shall not determine But Scotus or Scot is the name of his Countrey he being a Scotch-man and for that reason called also Erigena that is Irish born to wit a Highlander for those people were originally Irish and came out of that Island over into the North parts of Scotland Now Ireland is by