thus words it quibus sors tantum contulit extra domos in pascuis ut triginta argenteorum pretium excederet who had an Estate besides Houses in Lands which might exceed the value of thirty silver pence Lin. 15. Out of a Rescript of Pope Gregory We have the whole Letter set down in Spelman which speaks in English thus GREGORY the Bishop Servant of the Servants of God to his Worshipful Brethren the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and to their Suffragans and to his beloved Sons the Abbots Priors Arch-Deacons and their Officials appointed throughout the Kingdom of England unto whom these Letters shall come Greeting and Apostolical Benediction In what manner the Pence of S. Peter which are due or owing to our Chamber are to be gathered in England and in what Bishopricks and Dioceses they are owing that there may arise no doubt on this occasion we have caused it to be set down in this present Writing according as it is contained in the Register of the Apostolick See Out of the Diocess of Canterbury seven pounds and eighteen shillings sterling Out of the Diocess of London sixteen pounds ten shillings And so of the rest Yeoven at the old City April 22. in the second year of our Popedom There is some difference though in the account of the Dioceses For after Lincoln he leaves out Coventry and puts Chichester for Chester 8 l. and then after Bath he puts in Salisbury and Coventry with a mistake 10 l. 10 s. for 5 s. and leaves York last Besides every body knows there are more Dioceses now than were then This was Gregory the Fifth that wrote this and it was our Author tells us in the time of King Edward the Second But Edward the Third in the year of the Lord 1365. and of his Reign 39. forbad these Peter-pence to be paid any more at Rome or to be gathered any longer in England CHAP. XV. Pag. 81. lin 10. Into six Provinces or Circuits As they are for number still with two Judges a piece though at first three How these differ from what they now are as to the Counties the Reader may easily satisfie himself Here are thirty seven of them as we now reckon only with this difference that Monmouth and Rutland are left out and Richmond and Copland are put in Pag. 82. lin 27. And if he perish i. e. sink let him lose one foot For that in this tryal by water was the sign and proof of guilt if the party thrown in did not swim which is quite contrary in the tryal of Witches as you will find in the next Chapter which treats of Ordeals Lin. 39. The Kings great Assise Assise is a word that hath many significations in our Law It is here in the Title taken for a Statute The Assises i. e. the Statutes and Ordinances of King Henry made at Clarendon But in this place it is used for a Jury and it is either the Great or Grand Assise which serv'd for the right of Property and was to consist of twelve Knights or the Petty Assise which served for the right of Possession only and was made up of twelve lawful men CHAP. XVI Pag. 86. lin 34. The superstitions and fopperies These you have also in Sir H. Spelman with an Incipit Missa Judicii which shews that the Church of Rome did once approve of these Customs which since she hath condemned notwithstanding her pretence of being Infallible I would to God she would deal as ingenuously in throwing off those other errors and corruptions we do so justly charge her with CHAP. XVII Pag. 87. lin 21. Hogenhine Or Agen-hyne that is ones own servant It is written also Home-hyne that is a servant of the house Lin. 33. Holding in Frank Pledge The Latin is francus tenens Wherefore amend the mistake and read holding in Frank Fee For Frank Pledg is a thing of another nature as belonging to a mans Behaviour and not to his Tenure Now Frank Fee is that which is free from all service when a man holds an Estate at the Common Law to himself and his heirs and not by such service as is required in ancient demesne Pag. 88. lin 12. The Falcidian Law So named from one Falcidius who being Tribune of the people in Augustus his time was the Maker of this Law Lin. 33. Twenty pounds worth of Land in yearly revenue So I render 20. libratae terrae For although Cowell in proportion to Quadrantata or Fardingdeal of Land which he saith is the fourth part of an Acre seems at first to gather that Obolata then must be half an Acre Denariata a whole Acre and by consequence Solidata twelve Acres and Librata twenty times twelve that is two hundred and forty Acres Yet this was but a conceit of his own For by having found the word used with reference to Rent as well as Land thus 20. libratas terrae vel reditûs he is forced to acknowledge that it must signifie so much Land as may yield twenty shillings per annum To which opinion Spelman also gives his assent But what quantity of Land this Librata terrae is cannot so easily be determined Cowell out of Skene tells us it contains four Oxgangs and every Oxgang thirteen Acres if so then it is fifty two Acres and twenty of them which make a Knights fee come to one thousand and forty Acres which somewhat exceeds the account here set down of six hundred and eighty out of the Red Book of the Exchequer But there is a great deal of more difference still as the account of the Knights fée is given by others In one Manuscript we read that A Yardland contains twenty four Acres four Yard-lands make one Hide that is ninety six Acres and five Hides make a Knights fee that is four hundred and eighty Acres the Relief whereof is a hundred Shillings Another Manuscript hath it thus Ten Acres according to ancient custom make one Fardel and four Fardels that is forty Acres make a Yardland and four Yardlands that is one hundred and sixty Acres make one Hide and four Hides that is six hundred and forty Acres make one Knights fee. A third reckons it otherwise that sixteen Yard-lands make a whole Knights fee which if we make a Yard-land to be twenty four Acres according to the first account comes to three hundred eighty four Acres but if according to the second we take it for forty Acres it amounts to six hundred and forty Acres And saith he when they are taxed at six Shillings four Pence that is every of the sixteen Yard-lands which make up the Fee at so much they make the summ of one hundred Shillings or five Pound which was the ancient Relief of a Knights fee. But this is a mistake either of the Author or the Citation it is six Shillings three Pence which makes that just summ from whence we learn also what proportion was observed by the Lord in setting and demanding of the Relief upon the next
before the first Parliament under King James has been made against those Swill-bowls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Swabbers of drunken Feasts and lusty Rowers In full brimm'd Rummers that do ply their Dars who by their carowses tipling up Nestor's years as if they were celebrating the Goddess Anna Perenna do at the same time drink others Healths and mischief and spoil their own and the Publick 39. There was no choice of Prelates these are the words of Ingulph again that was merely free and canonical but the Court conferred all Dignities as well of Bishops as of Abbots by the Kings Ring and Staff according to his good pleasure The Election or choice was in the Clergy and the Monks but they desired him whom they had chosen of the King Edmund in King Ethelred's time was after this manner made Bishop of the Holy Island on the Coast of Northumberland And King Edgar in his Patent which he signed to the Abby of Glastenbury retained to himself and his Heirs the power of bestowing the Pastoral Staff to the Brother Elect. 40. To as many as King Knute retained with him in England to wit to the Danes for by their hands also was the Scepter of this Kingdom managed it was granted that they should have a firm peace all over so that if any of the English killed any of those men whom the King had brought along with him if he could not clear himself by the Judgment of God that is by Ordeal to wit by water and burning hot iron Justice should be done upon him But if he run away and could not be taken there should be paid for him sixty six marks and they were gathered in the Village where the Party was slain and therefore because they had not the murderer forth coming and if in such Village by reason of their poverty they could not be gathered then they should be gathered in the Hundred to be paid into the Kings Treasure In this manner writes Henry Bracton who observes that hence the business of Englishshire came into fashion in the Inquests of murder 41. Hand-Writings i.e. Patents and Grants till Edward the Confessors time were confirmed by the subscriptions of faithful Persons presâ—nt a thing practised too among the Britans in King Arthur's time as John Price informs us out of a very ancient Book of the Church of Landaff Those subscriptions were accompanied with Golden Crosses and other sacred Seals or like stamps 42. King Harald made a Law that whosoever of the Welch should be found with a Weapon about him without the bound which he had set them to wit Offa's dike he should have his Right Hand cut off by the Kings Officers This dike our Chorographer tells us was cut by Offa King of the Mercians and drawn along from the mouth of the River Dee to the mouth of the River Wye for about eighty miles in length on purpose to keep the English and Welch asunder CHAP. XXV The Royal Consorts great Priviledge of Granting Felons Estates forfeited to the King Estates granted by the King with three Exceptions of Expedition Bridge and Castle The Ceremony of the Kings presenting a Turf at the Altar of that Church to which he gave Land Such a Grant of King Ethelbald comprized in old Verse THe Donations or Grants of the Royal Consort though not by the Kings Authority contrary to what the Priviledge of any other Wife is were ratified also in that Age as they were by the Roman Law Which by the Patent of Aethelswith Wife to Burghred King of the Mercians granted to Cuthwuls in the year 868. hath been long since made out by Sir Edward Coke Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Where also King Ethelred's ancient Charter proves that the Estates of Felons those I mean who concern themselves in Burglaries and Robberies are forfeited to the King Having already mentioned those Hand-writings or Grants which are from one hand and t'other conveyances of Tenure the fewel of quarrels I have a mind over and above what has been said to set down also these Remarks as being to our purpose and taken from the Saxons As for instance that those are most frequent whereby Estates are conveyed to be held with the best and fairest right yet most commonly these three things excepted to wit Expedition Repairing of Bridges and Building of Castles And that those to whom the Grants were made were very seldom acquitted upon this account These three exceptions are noted by the term of a three-knotted necessity in an old Charter wherein King Cedwalla granted to Wilfrid the first Bishop of Shelsey in Sussex the Village of Paganham in the said County For though in the Grants of King Ethelulph the Church be free says Ingulph and there be a concession of all things for the release of our Souls and pardon of our sins to serve God alone without Expedition and building of Bridge and fortifying of Castle to the intent that the Clergy might wholly attend Divine Service Yet in that publick debate of Parliament in the Reign of Henry the third concerning the ancient State Freedom and Government of the English Church and concerning the hourly exactions of the Pope and the Leeches Jugglers and Decoys of Rome that strolled up and down the Country to pick Peoples Pockets to the great prejudice of the Common-wealth they did indeed stand for the priviledge of the Church and produced as Witnesses thereof the Instruments and Grants of Kings who nevertheless were not so much inclined to countenance that liberty of the Church but that as Matthew Paris observes They always reserved to themselves for the publick advantage of the Kingdom three things to wit Expedition and the repairing or making up of Bridge or Castle that by them they might withstand the incursions of the Enemy And King Eâ—helbald hath this form I grant that all the Monasteries and Churches of my Kingdom be discharged from publick Customs or Taxes Works or Services and Burdens or Payments or Attendances unless it be the building and repairing of Castles or Bridges which cannot be released to any one I take no notice how King Ethelred the twelfth perhaps but by no means the fifteenth wherein an Historian of ours has blundred hath signed the third year of his Reign by the term of an Olympiad after the manner of the Greek computation or reckoning As likewise I pass other things of the like kind which are many times used and practised according to the fancy of the Clerks or Notaries However the last words which are the close of these Grants and Patents are not to be slighted These we may see in that of Cedwalla King of the South-Saxons made to Theadore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the year 687. thus For a further confirmation of my grant I Cedwalla have laid a Turf of the Land aforesaid upon the holy Altar of my Saviour And with my own hand being ignorant
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
in the borders of the Carnutes the middle Region of all France Some think that a Town at eight Miles distance from the Metropolis of those people commonly called Dreux was designed for that use Whilst the Saxons governed the Laws were made in the General Assembly of the States or Parliament In the front of King Ina's Laws 't is above Eight Hundred and Eighty years that he first reigned we read thus It Ine mid godes gift West-Saxna Cyning mid getbeat a mid lere Cenredes mines fader a hedde a Erconwald mine hiscops a mid eallum minum ealdor mannum tham yldestan Witan mines theode be beodeth c. which in our present English speaks thus I Ina by the Grace of God King of the West-Saxons by the advice and order of Kenred my Father and of Hedda and Erconwald my Bishops and of all my Aldermen and of the Elders and Wise Men of my people do command c. There are a great many instances of this kind in other places Moreover Witlaf and Bertulph who were Kings of the Mercians near upon Eight hundred years ago do in their instruments under their hands make mention of Synods and Councils of the Prelates and Peers convened for the affairs of the Kingdom And an ancient Book has this passage of Abendon Here was the Royal Seat hither when they were to treat of the principal and difficult points of State and affairs of the Kingdom the people were used to meet and flock together To this may be added that which Malmesbury sayes of King Edward in the year of our Lord 903. The King gathered a Synod or Assembly of the Senators of the English Nation over which did preside Pleimund Arch-Bishop of Canterbury interpreting expresly the words of the Apostolical Embassy These Assemblies were termed by the Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Meetings of the Wise Men and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Great Assemblies At length we borrowed of the French the name of Parliaments which before the time of Henry the First Polydore Virgil sayes were very rarely held An usage that not without good reason seems to have come from the ancient Germans So Tacitus sayes of them Concerning smaller matters the Princes only concerning things of greater concern they do all the whole body of them consult yet in that manner that those things also which it was in the peoples power to determine were treated of by the Princes too And I have one that hath left it in writing that when there was neither Bishop nor Earl nor Baron yet then Kings held their Parliaments and in King Arthur's Patent to the University of Cambridge for ye have my leave if you can find in your heart to give credit to it as John Key does by the counsel and assent of all and singular the Prelats and Princes of this Realm I decree There were present at Parliaments about the beginning of the Normans times as many as were invested with Thirteen Fees of Knights service and a third part of one Fee called Baron's from their large Estates for which reason perhaps John Cochleius of Mentz in his Epistle Dedicatory to our most Renowned Sir Thomas More prefixt before the Chronicle of Aurelius Cassiodorus calls him Baron of England But Henry the Third the number of them growing over big ordered by Proclamation that those only should come there whom he should think sit to summon by Writ These Assemblies do now sit in great State which with a wonderful harmony of the Three Estates the King the Lords and the Commons or Deputies of the People are joyned together to a most firm security of the publick and are by a very Learned Man in allusion to that made word in Livy Panaetolium from the Aetolians most rightly called Pananglium that is all England As in Musical Instruments and Pipes and in Singing it self and in Voices sayes Scipio in Tully's Books of the Common-wealth there is a kind of harmony to be kept out of distinct sounds which Learned and Skilful Ears cannot endure to hear changed and jarring and that consort or harmony from the tuning and ordering of Voices most unlike yet is rendred agreeing and suitable so of the highest and middlemost and lowermost States shuffled together like different sounds by fair proportion doth a City agree by the consent of persons most unlike and that which by Musicians in singing is called Harmony that in a City is Concord the straightest and surest bond of safety in every Common-wealth and such as can by no means be without Justice But let this suffice for Law-makers 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 I Do scarce meet before the Saxons times with any Guardians of the Laws different from these Law-makers In their time they were variously divided whose neither Name nor Office are as yet grown out of use The number is made up to give you only the heads by these to wit the King the Lord HighConstable the Chancellor the Treasurer the Alderman of England the Aldermen of Provinces and the Graves Those of later date and of meaner notice I pass by meaning to speak but briefly of the rest The King was alwayes one amongst the Heptarchs or seven Rulers who was accounted I have Beda to vouch it the Monarch of all England Ella King of the South-Saxons so sayes Ethelwerd was the first that was dignified with so high a Title and Empire who was Owner of as large a Jurisdiction as Ecbright the second was Ceâ—lin King of the West-Angles the third Aethelbrith King of the Kentish-men the fourth Redwald King of the Easterlings the fifth Edwin King of Northumberland the sixth Oswald the seventh Osweo Oswald's Brother after whom the eighth was Ecbright His West-Saxon Kingdom took in the rest for the greatest part The Office of Lord High Constable which disappeared in Edward Duke of Buckingham who in Henry the Eighth's time lost his Head for High-Treason was not seen till the latter end of the Saxons One Alfgar Staller is reported by Richard of Ely Monk to have been Constable to Edward the Confessor and Mr. Camden mentions a dwelling of his upon this account called Plaissy in the County of Middlesex He of Ely sets him out for a Great and Mighty Man in the Kingdom And indeed formerly that Magistrate had great power which was formidable even to Kings themselves They who deny there were any Chancellors before the coming in of the Normans are hugely mistaken Nor are they disproved only
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-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
is the Hall of the Gild or Society such as was once the Stilyard called Gildhalla Tentonicorum the Gild-hall for the Dutch Merchants from the Hanse-Towns CHAP. VII Pag. 63. lin 25. Iphis and Ianthis and Ceneus Persons mention'd by Ovid who changed their Sex from Female to Male. Iphis was a Maid of Creet who after her Metamorphosis when she turn'd to Man took Ianthe to Wife and Canis for that was her Maiden Name was a Thessalian Girl whom Neptune made a Whore of first and then at her request a Man who thenceforward went by the Name of Caeneus Lin. 34. Cheats whom they commonly call Coyners In Malmesbury's Latin Trapezitas quos vulgò Monetarios vocant Which bare citation is all the account that Spelman gives of the word Monetarius It doth properly signifie an Officer of the Mint that makes and coyns the Kings money a Monier But here by the Historian's implying that such fellows as this Law was made against were falsarii Cheats and by our Author 's terming of them adulteratores monetae Counterfeiters of Coyn we must understand them to be False Coyners Clippers Washers Imbasers of the Kings Coyn and the like And therefore I render'd trapezitas which otherwise is a word of innocent meaning for Money-Changers Bankers c. in the Historian's sense Cheats CHAP. VIII Pag. 65. lin 24. Every Hide of Land It is so called from the Saxon word hyden to cover so that thus it would be the same as Tectum in Latin a Dwelling-house And thus I question not but there are several houses called The Hide for I know one or two my self so called that is the Capital Messuage of the Estate Nor is it so consined to this sense but that it takes in all the Lands belonging to the Messuage or Manour-house which the old Saxons called hidelandes and upon some such account no doubt Hidepark had its name as a Park belonging to some great House Now as to the quantity how much a Hide of land is it is not well agreed Some reckon it an hundred Acres others thereabouts by making it contain four Yardlands every Yardland consisting of twenty four Acres The general opinion is that it was as much as could be ploughed with one Plow in a year terra unius aratri culturae sufficiens And thus it should be muchwhat the same as Carrucata terrae i. e. a Plough-land From Bede who translates it familia they gather it was so much as could maintain a family There is mention made of these Hides in the Laws of King Ina an hundred years before King Alfred who divided the Countrey into Counties or Shires And Taxes and Assessments were wont to be made according to these Hides up as high as King Ethelred's time in the year of our Lord 1008. Since the Conquest William the First had six shillings for every Hide in England Rufus four Henry the First here three for the marriage of his daughter Pag. 66. lin 8. This right is called Wreck i. e. by which the King claims shipwrack't goods cast on shoar For though by the Law of Nature such things as being nullius in bonis having no Owner every one that finds them may seem to have a right to them yet by the Law of Nations they are adjudged to the Prince as a special priviledge by reason of his dignity Now Wreck or as the French call it Varec properly signifies any thing that is cast on shoar as Amber precious Stones Fishes c. as well as shipwrack't goods from the Saxon wraet i. e. any thing that is flung away and left forlorn though use hath limited the word to the later sense CHAP. IX Pag. 68. lin 6. The Roman Laws were banisht the Realm I suppose there may be some word missing or mistaken in the Latin à regno jussae sunt leges Romanae But that which follows the forbidding of the Books obliged me to that interpretation for why should the Books of those Laws be prohibited if the Laws themselves were as the Latin reading seems to import ordered and ratified by the Realm Wherefore I suppose some mistake or omission and for à regno jussae read à regno pulsae or exulare jussae c. unless you would like to have it thus rendred commanded out of the Kingdom which I confess would be a very odd unusual construction CHAP. X. Pag. 69. lin 39. Three hundred Marks of Gold A Mark weigh'd eight ounces and as Cowell states it out of Stow it came to the value of 16 l. 13 s. 4 d. At this rate three hundred Marks of Gold come to five thousand Pound and to every Bishop five Marks supposing only ten Bishops come to 833 l. 6 s. 8 d. which is a very unlikely summ in this business 'T is true the value of it as of other Coyns and summs might vary And so we find in Spelman that an uncertain Author reckons a Mark of Gold to be worth fifty Marks of Silver But then 't is as uncertain what Marks of Silver he means For if they be such as ours are and as they were in King John's time at 13 s. 4 d. then a Mark of Gold will be of the value of 33 l. 6 s. 8 d. which is just double to the former value of 16 l. 13 s. 4 d. which being resolved into Marks of Silver makes but 25. But in ancient times a Mark of Silver was only 2 s. 6 d. so that fifty of them will make but 6 l. 5 s. Another instance we meet with where one Mark of Gold is accounted equivalent to ten Marks of Silver which taking a Mark for 13 s. 4 d. comes to 6 l. 13 s. 4 d. Another where nine Marks of Silver pass for one Mark of Gold in a payment to the King which is just six pound And these three last accounts agree pretty well together Taking the middlemost of the three viz. a Mark of Gold at ten Marks of Silver thus the above named summ of three hundred Marks of Gold that is three thousand Marks of Silver amounts to two thousand Pound and the five Marks to every Bishop supposing but ten Bishops come to 333 l. 6 s. 8 d. But if we take these Marks of Silver at 2 s. 6 d. the account will grow much less For ten such Marks are but 1 l. 5 s. so that the three hundred Marks of Gold at this rate will come but to 375 l. Sterling But that these Marks of the ancient and lower estimate are not here intended may probably enough be gathered from one passage more we find there Centum solidi dentur vel marca auri where if solidi stand for shillings for they may be taken for soulx as the French call them a Mark of Gold is made of equal value with 5 l. Sterling And thus three hundred Marks of Gold come to Fifteen hundred pound I confess after all most of these accounts of the Mark Gold or Silver may be admitted of as having possibly at
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
breeding of their Children the Marrying of their Wives the Governing of their Families burning Women that killed their Husbands and burning some Servants with the dead Master for company Together with some Remarks of their publick Government p. 16 CHAP. XII Women admitted to publick debates A large commendation of the Sex together with a vindication of their fitness to govern against the Salick Law made out by several examples of most Nations p. 18 CHAP. XIII Their putting themselves under protection by going into great mens service Their Coins of money and their weighing of it Some sorts of flesh not lawful to be eaten by them p. 21 CHAP. XIV Community of Wives among the Britans used formerly by other Nations also Chalcondylas his mistake from our Civil Custom of Saluting A rebuke of the foolish humour of Jealousie p. 22 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 p. 24 CHAP. XVI In Commodus his time King Lucy embraces the Christian Religion and desires Eleutherius then Pope to send him the Roman Laws In stead of Heathen Priests he makes three Arch-Bishops and twenty eight Bishops He endows the Churches and makes them Sanctuaries The manner of Government in Constantine's time where ends the Roman account p. 27 CHAP. XVII The Saxons are sent for in by Vortigern against the Scots and Picts who usurping the Government set up the Heptarchy The Angles Jutes Frisons all called Saxons An account of them and their Laws taken out of Adam of Bremen p. 29 CHAP. XVIII The Saxons division of their people into four ranks No person to marry out of his own rank What proportion to be observed in Marriages according to Policy Like to like the old Rule Now Matrimony is made a matter of money p. 30 CHAP. XIX The Saxons way of judging the Event of War with an Enemy Their manner of approving a proposal in Council by clattering their Arms. The Original of Hundred-Courts Their dubbing their Youth into Men. The priviledge of young Lads Nobly born The Morganheb or Wedding-dowry p. 32 CHAP. XX. Their severe punishments of Adultery by maiming some parts of the body The reason of it given by Bracton The like practised by Danes and Normans p. 33 CHAP. XXI The manner of Inheriting among them Of deadly Feuds Of Wergild or Head-money for Murder The Nature of Country-Tenures and Knights Fees p. 36 CHAP. XXII Since the return of Christianity into the Island King Ethelbert's Law against Sacriledge Thieves formerly amerced in Cattel A blot upon Theodred the Good Bishop of London for hanging Thieves The Country called Engelond by Order of King Egbert and why so called The Laws of King Ina Alfred Ethelred c. are still to be met with in Saxon. Those of Edward the Confessor and King Knute the Dane were put forth by Mr. Lambard in his Archaeonomia p. 37 CHAP. XXIII King Alfred divides England into Counties or Shires and into Hundreds and Tythings The Original of Decenna or Court-leet Friburg and Mainpast Forms of Law how People were to answer for those whom they had in Borgh or Mainpast p. 39 CHAP. XXIV King Alfred first appointed Sheriffs By Duns Scotus his advice he gave Order for the breeding up of Youth in Learning By the way what a Hide of Land is King Edgar's Law for Drinking Prelates investiture by the Kings Ring and Staff King Knute's Law against any English-man that should kill a Dane Hence Englescyre The manner of Subscribing and Sealing till Edward the Confessor's time King Harold's Law that no Welch-man should come on this side Offa's Dike with a weapon p. 41 CHAP. VXX The Royal Consorts great Priviledge of Granting Felons Estates forfeited to the King Estates granted by the King with three Exceptions of Expedition Bridge and Castle The Ceremony of the Kings presenting a Turf at the Altar of that Church to which he gave Land Such a Grant of King Ethelbald comprized in old Verse p. 43 THE CONTETNS BOOK II. CHAP. I. WIlliam the Conquerour's Title He bestows Lands upon his followers and brings Bishops and Abbots under Military service An account of the old English Laws called Merchenlage Danâ—lage and Westsaxen-lage He is prevailed upon by the Barons to govern according to King Edward's Laws and at S. Albans takes his Oath so to do Yet some new Laws were added to those old ones p. 47 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 p. 51 CHAP. III. Other wayes 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 Coverseâ— Laws against taking of Deer against Murder against Rape p. 54 CHAP. IV. Sheriffs and Juries were before this time The four Terms Judges to act without appeal Justices of Peace The Kings payments made at first in Provisions Afterwards changed 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 p. 56 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 p. 59 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 Hauberk King Edward's Law restored p. 60 CHAP. VII His order for the restraint of his Courtiers What the punishment of Theft Coyners to lose their Hands and Privy members Guelding a kind of death What Half-pence and Farthings to pass The right measure of the Eln. The Kings price set for provisions p. 63 CHAP. VIII The Regality claim'd by the Pope but within a while resumed by the King The Coverfeâ— 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 p. 65 CHAP. IX In King Stephen's Reign all was to pieces Abundance of Castles built Of the priviledge of Coining Appeals to the Court of Rome now set
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
been no people in Europe before the destruction of Troy and as if there had been no one among the Trojans themselves of ignoble birth He who made the Alphabetical Index to Jeoffry of Monmouth who was Bishop of St. Asaph too as he is printed and put forth by Ascensius propt up the Authors credit upon this account that as he sayes he makes no mention any where in his Book of the Franks by reason forsooth that all those things almost which he has written of were done and past before the Franks arrival in France This was a slip surely more than of memory Go to Jeoffry himself and in his Nineteenth Chapter of his first Book you meet with the Franks in the time of Brennus and Belinus among the Senones a people of France a gross misreckoning of I know not how many hundred years For the Franks are not known to have taken up their quarters on this side the River Rhine till some Centuries of years after Christs Incarnation For howbeit by Poetick license and Rhetorical figure Aeneas be said to have come to the Lavinian Shores which had not that name till some time after yet it were much better that both in Verse and Prose those things which appertain to History should be expressed according to that form of Ovid where at the burning of Rhemus his Funeral Pile he sayes Tunc Juvenes nondum facti flevere Quirites that is The young men then not yet Quirites made Wept as the body on the Pile they laid And at this rate Jeoffry might and ought to have made his Translation if he would have been a faithful Interpreter But as to our Brutus whence the Britans Saxo whence the Saxons Bruno whence those of Brunswick Freso whence those of Friseland and Bato whence the Batavians had their rise and name take notice what Pontus Heuterus observes as others have done before him Songs or Ballads sayes he and Rhymes made in an unlearned Age with ease obtruded falshoods for truths upon simple people or mingling falsehoods with truths imposed upon them for three or four hundred years ago there was nothing that our Ancestors heard with greater glee than that they were descended from the adulterous Trojans from Alexander of Macedonia the Overthrower of Kingdoms from that Manqueller Hercules of Greece or from some other disturber of the World And indeed that is too true which he sayes Mensuraque fictis Crescit auditis aliquid novus adjicit auctor which in plain English speaks this sence Thus Stories nothing in the telling lose The next Relater adding still to th' News But I will not inlarge To clear these points aright Antiquaries who are at see-saw about them will perhaps eternally be at loss like the Hebrews in their mysterious debates for want of some Elias to come and resolve their doubts CHAP. VII What the Trojan Laws were which Brutus brought in That concerning the Eldest Sons Inheriting the whole Estate confuted In the first times there were no Positive Laws yet mention made of them in some very ancient Authors notwithstanding a remark of some ancient Writers to the contrary WEll Suppose we grant there was such a Person ever in the World as Brutus He made Laws they say and those taken out of the Trojan Laws but what I pray were those Trojan Laws themselves There is one I know well enough they speak of concerning the Prerogative of the eldest Sons by which they inherited the whole Right and Estate of their deceased Father Herodotus writes it of Hector Son and Heir to King Priam and Jeoffry mentions it but did this Law cross the Sea with Brutus into Brittany How then came it that the Kingdom was divided betwixt the three Brothers Locrinus Camber and Albanactus betwixt the two Ferrix and Porrix betwixt Brennus and Belinus and the like of some others How came it that in a Parliament of Henry the Eighth provision was made that the Free-holds of Wales should not thence-forward pass according to that custom which they call Gavelkind And anciently if I be not mistaken most Inheritances were parted among the Children as we find in Hesiods works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. We had already parted the Estate And to the same purpose many like passages there are in old Poets and in Holy Writ But as I said what are those Trojan Laws Perhaps the same with those by which Nephelococcygia the City of the Birds in Aristophanes or as we use to say Vtopia is Governed The gravest Writers do acknowledge that those most ancient times were for the most part free from positive Laws The people so says Justin wee held by no Laws The Pleasures and Resolves of their Princes past for Laws or were instead of Laws Natural Equity like the Lesbian Rule in Aristotle being adapted applied and fitted to the variety of emergent quarrels as strifes ordered over-ruled and decided all Controversies And indeed at the beginning of the Roman State as Pomponius writes the people resolved to live without any certain Law or Right and all things were governed by the hand and power of the King For they were but at a little distance from the Golden Age when vindice nullo Sponte suâ sine lege fidem rectumque colebant That is to say when People did not grudge To be plain honest without Law or Judge That which the Heresie of the Chiliasts heretofore affirmed concerning the Sabbatick or seventh Millenary or thousand years of the World And those Shepherds or Governors of the people to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Into whose hand Jove trusts his Laws and Scepter for Command did Govern them by the guidance of vertue and of those Laws which the Platonicks call the Laws of second Venus Not out of the ambition of Rule as St. Austin hath it but out of duty of Counsel nor out of a domineering pride but out of a provident tenderness Do you think the Trojans had any other Laws Only except the worship of their Gods and those things which belong to Religion It was duty says Seneca not dignity to Reign and Govern And an Eye and a Scepter among the Aegyptians were the absolute Hieroglyphicks of Kings What that there is not so much as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Law to be met with in those old Poets Orpheus Musaeus or Homer who was about an hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Troy as Josephus against Appio Plutarch and several modern Writers have remarked I confess if one well consider it this remark of theirs is not very accurate For we very often read in Homer and Hesiod the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Laws and in both of them the Goddess Eunomia from the same Theme as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being interpreted is But they by legal methods bear the
sway I' th' City fam'd for Beauties which is a passage in Homers hymn to Mother Tellus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Law of Song which Musicians might not transgress is mentioned in his hymn to Apollo Nay great Plato one beyond all exception has left it in writing that Talus who had the management of the Cretan Common-wealth committed to him together with Rhadamauthus the Son of Jupiter by King Minos that he did thrice every year go the circuit through the whole Island which was the first Country as Polyhistor tells us that joyned the practice of laws with the study of Letters and kept Assizes giving Judgment according to Laws engraven in brass I say nothing of Phoroneus King of the Argives or of Nomio the Arcadian and in good time leave this Subject I could wish I might peruse Jupiters Register wherein he has recorded humane affairs I could wish that the censure of some breathing Library and living study which might have power over the Ancients as we read in Eunapius that Longinus had or that the memory of some Aethalides might help us sufficiently to clear and make out the truth Hence our next passage is to the Classick Writers of the Latin style and story 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 ease of Crinie 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 CAjus Julius Caesar was the first of the Romans who has committed to writing the Religious Rites the Laws and the Philosophy of the DRVIDS Their name is of a doubtful origination by no means were they so called from that Druis or Druides we meet with in Berosus But whether they were so termed from a Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies an Oak in that they performed none of their devotions without oaken leaves as Pliny and those that follow him are of opinion or from the Dutch True-wise as Goropius Becanus will have it or from Trutin a word which with the ancient Germans signified God as Paulus Merula quotes it out of the Gospel of Othfred though in the Angels salutation in the Magnificat in Zachariahs Song and elsewhere Trutin rather denotes Lord than God and see whether there does not lye somewhat of the Druid in the name of St. Truien among the people of Liege some having exploded St. Drudo whencesoever they had their name these Gownmen among the Gauls I and the Britans too were the Interpreters and Guardians of the Laws The discipline of these Druids was first found in Britany and so far as it regards the Civil Court we shall faithfully subjoyn it out of the forenamed Caesar. 1. They order matters concerning all controversie public and private So in the Laws of the twelve Tables at the same rate the knowledg of cases of precedents of interpreting was in the Colledge of Pontiffs or High Priests and such plainly our Druids were If any ill prank had been played if murder committed if there were a controversie about Inheritance about bounds of Land these were the men that determined it these amerced rewards and punishments 2. If any private person or body of men do not stand to their award they excommunicate him that is forbid him to come to sacrifice which among them is the most grievous punishment 3. Those who are thus excommunicated are accounted wicked and ungodly wretches every body goes out of their way and shuns their company and conversation for fear of getting any harm by contagion Neither have they the benefit of the Law when they desire it nor is any respect shown to them 4. The Druids have one over them who has the chiefest authority amongst them 5. When he dies if there be any one that is eminent above the rest he succeeds in place But if there be several of equal merit one is chosen by majority of Votes 6. The Druids were wont to be excused from personal attendance in War nor did they pay taxes with the rest they were freed from Military employ and had an immunity of all things The Levites among the Hebrews who were the most ancient Priests in the world injoyed the same priviledge 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 Judgment of the whole Book 7. UPon the account of that priviledge they had in their Schools which were most of them in Britany a great confluence of youth They are said to learn without Book says Caesar a great number of Verses Therefore some of them spend twenty years in the discipline Nor do they judge it meet to commit such things to writing whereas generally in all other whether publick affairs or private accompts they make use of Greek letters What Greek letters so we read Greek ones Why Marseilles a City of France which was a Greek Colony of the Phocians had made the Gauls such lovers of Greeks that as Strabo the Geographer tells us they writ their very Contracts and Covenants Bargains and Agreements in Greek The fore-mentioned Julius Caesar also writes that there were Tablets found in the Camp of the Switzers made up of Greek letters But for all that I would not have any one from hence rashly to gather that the Greek Language was in use to that Age and People or to these Philosophers and Lawyers They made use of Greek letters therefore they had the Greek Tongue too this truly were a pitiful consequence At this rate the â—argum or Chaldee Paraphrase as Paulus Merula has it and Gorepius before him would consist of the Hebrew Language because 't is Printed in Hebrew Characters And the like may be said of the New Testament in Syriack done in Hebrew letters What that those very Letters of the Greeks in Caesars time and as we now write them are rather Gallick as borrowed from the Gauls than Greek He was acquainted with those Greek letters but did not yet know the Gallick ones which learned men do think the Greeks took for their Copy after the Phoenician letters which were not altogether unlike the Hebrew were grown out of use Consult for this Wolâ—gangus Lazius his Celtae Becanus his Gallica and if thou hast a mind Annius his Archilochus Xenophons Aequivoca and what others write concerning Linus Cadmus Palamâ—des and Simonides the first Inventors of the Alphabet In the mean time take this from me that those ancient and rude Gothick Characters which Bonaventure Vulcanius of Bruges lately put forth with a little comentary of one without a
quantity of Corn or Cattel or Clothes We see here clearly enough the nature of Country Land-holders Fees or Tenures As to military or Knights Fees give me leave to set that down too Dionysius Halicarnasseus gives us a very ancient draught and model of them in the Trojans and Aborigines Florus in the Cymbrians and Lampridius in Alexander Severus Both the Northern people and the Italians do owe them to the Huns and Lombards but these later according to a more modern form Let these things suffice out of Cornelius Tacitus which belong to this Head CHAP. XXII Since the return of Christianity into the Island King Ethelbert's Law against Sacriledge Thieves formerly amerced in Cattel A blot upon Theodred the Good Bishop of London for hanging Thieves The Country called Engelond by Order of King Egbert and why so called The Laws of King Ina Alfred Ethelred c. are still to be met with in Saxon. Those of Edward the Confessor and King Knute the Dane were put forth by Mr. Lambard in his Archaeonomia BEfore that the Christian Doctrine had driven out and banished the Saxon Idolatry all these things I have hitherto been speaking of were in use Ethelbert he that was the first King not only of Kent but of all England except Northumberland having been baptized by Austin the Monk the Apostle as some call him of the English amongst other good things which by Counsel and Grant he did to his Nation 't is venerable Bede speaks these words he did also with the advice of wise men appoint for his peoples use the orders of their proceedings at Law according to the examples of the Romans Which having been written in the English tongue says he are hitherto or to this time kept and observed by them Among which orders or decrees he set down in the first place after what manner such an one should make amends who should convey away by stealth any of those things that belonged to the Church or to a Bishop or to the rest of the Orders In the Laws of some that came after him as those of King Alured who cull'd out of Ethelbert's Acts to make up his own and those of King Athelstan Thieves make satisfaction with mony accordingly as Tacitus says of the Germans That for lighter offences those that were convicted are at the rate of their penalties amerced such a number of Horses or other Cattel For as Festus hath it before Brass and Silver were coyned by ancient custom they were fined for their faults so much Cattel But those who medled with any thing sacred we read had that hand cut off with which they committed the theft Well! but am I mistaken or was Sacriledge even in the time of the Saxon Government punisht as a Capital crime There is a passage of William of Malmsbury in his Book de Gestis Pontificum that inclines me to think so Speaking of Theodred the Bishop of London when Athelstan was King he says That he had among the common people got the sirname of Theodred the Good for the eminence of his virtues Only in one thing he fell short which was rather a mistake than a crime that those Thieves which were taken at St. Edmunds whom the holy Martyr had upon their vain attempts tied with an invisible knot he means St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk which Church these Fellows having a design to rob are said by miracle to have stood still in the place as if they had been tied with Cords These Thieves Isay were by his means or sufferance given up to the severity of the Laws and condemned to the Gallows or Gibbet Let not any one think that in this middle Age this Gallows or Gibbâ—t I spoke of was any other thing than the Roman Furca upon which people hang and are strangled till they die 34. Egbert King of the West-Saxons I make use of Camdens words having gotten in four Kingdoms by conquest and devour'd the other two also in hope that what had come under the Government of one might likewise go under one name and that he might keep up the memory of his own people the Angles he gave order by Proclamation that the Heptarchy which the Saxons had possest should be called Engelond John Carnotensis writes that it was so called from the first coming in of the Angles and another some body says it was so named from Hengist a Saxon Prince There are a great many Laws of King Ina Alfred Edward Athelstan Edmund Edgar Ethelred and Knute the Dane written in the Saxon language which have lasted till these very times For King Knute gave order 't is William of Malmsbury speaks that all the Laws which had been made by former Kings and especially by his Predecessor Ethelred should under pain of his displeasure and a Fine be constantly observed For the keeping of which even now in the time of those who are called the Good people swear in the name of King Edward not that he appointed them but that he observed them The Laws of Edward who for his piety has the sirname of Confessor are in Readers hands These of the Confessor were in Latin those others of Knute were not long since put into Latin by William Lambard a learned man and one very well vers'd in Antiquity who had recovered them both and published the Saxon Original with his Translation over against it Printed by John Day at London Anno 1567. under the Title of Archaeonomia or a Book concerning the ancient Laws of the English May he have a good harvest of it as he deserves From Historians let us borrow some other helps for this service CHAP. XXIII King Alfred divides England into Countyes or Shires and into Hundreds and Tythings The Original of Decenna or Court-leet Friburg and Mainpast Forms of Law how People were to answer for those whom they had in Borgh or Mainpast 35. INgulph the Abbot of Crowland writing of King Alfred says That he was the first of all that changed the Villages or Lordships and Provinces of all England into Counties or Shires Before that it was reckoned and divided according to the number of Hides or Plough-lands by little districts or quarters He divided the Counties into Hundreds and Tythings it was long before that Honorius Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had parted the Country into Parishes to wit Anno 636. that every Native home-born lawful man might be in some Hundred and Tything I mean whosoever was full twelve years of age and if any one should be suspected of Larceny or Theft he might in his own Hundred or Ward being either condemned or giving security in some Manuscripts it is being acquitted he might either incur or avoid the deserved penalty William of Malmsbury adds to this that he that could not find security was afraid of the severity of the Laws and if any guilty person either before his giving security or after should make his escape all of that Hundred and Tything
should incur the Kings fine Here we have the Original of Decenna or a Court-leet of Friburg and perhaps of Mainpast Which things though grown out of use in the present Age yet are very often mentioned not only in the Confessors Laws but also in Bracton and in other Records of our Law What Decenna was the word it self does almost shew And Ingulph makes out that is a Dousin or Courtleet Friburg or Borgh signifies a Surety for Fri is all one as free He who passes his word for anothers good behaviour or good abearing and is become his security is said to have such a one in his Borgh Being ingaged upon this account to the Government to answer for him if he misbehave himself And hence it is that our people in the Country call those that live near them or as I may say at the next door Neighbours When yet those that would find out the reason why the people of Liege in the Low Countries are called Eburones do understand that Burgh which is the same as Borgh to stand for a Neighbour and this is plainly affirmed by Pontus Heuterus in other Originations of the like kind Manupastus is the same thing as a Family As if one would say fed by hand Just in the like sence Julius Pollux in Greek terms a Master of a Family Trophimos that is the feeder of it That the Rights of Friburg and Manupast were in use with the English some five or six Generations ago is manifest Curio a Priest is fined by Edward the third because there had been one of his Family a Murderer And the ancient Sheets concerning the Progress or Survey of Kent under Edward the second do give some light this way Ralph a Milner of Sandon and Roger a Boy of the said Ralph in Borgh of Twicham Critick whoever you are I would not have you to laugh at this home spun Dialect came by night to the Mill of Harghes and then and there murdered William the Milner and carried away his Goods and Chattels and presently fled It is not known whither they are gone and the Jury mistrusts them the said Ralph and Roger concerning the death of the aforesaid William therefore let them be driven out and out-lawed They had no Chattels but the aforesaid Ralph was in Borgh of Simon Godwin of Twâ—cham who at present has him not and therefore lies at mercy And Roger was not in Borgh but was of the Mainpast of Robert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased there being no Engleshire presented the Verdit is the murder upon the Hundred The first discoverer of it and three Neighbours are since dead and Thomas Broks one of the Neighbours comes and is not mistrusted and the Villages of Wimesbugewelle and Egestoun did not come fully to the Coroners Inquest and are therefore at mercy And about the same time Solomon Roâ— of Ickham came to the House of Alice the Daughter of Dennis Wâ—â—nes and beat her and struck her upon the Belly with a staff so that she dyed presently And the foresaid Solomon presently fled and the Jury mistrust him concerning the death aforesaid therefore let him be driven out and be outlawed He had no Chattels nor was he in Borgh because a Vagrant The Verdit the murder lies upon the Hundred c. And according to this form more such Instances But let it suffice to have hinted at these things adding out of Henry Bracton If out of Frank-pledge an Offender be received in any Village the Village shall be at mercy unless he that fled be such an one that he ought not to be in Leet and Frank-pledge as Nobles Knights and their Parents their eldest Sons it is in the yearly Records of Law in Edward the first 's time and we may take in Daughters too a Clergy-man a Freeman I fear this word has crept in and the like according to the custom of the Country and in which case he of whose Family and Mainpast they were shall be bound in some parts and shall answer for them unless the custom of the Country be otherways that he ought not to answer for his Mainpast as it is in the County of Hertford where a man does not answer for his Mainpast for any offence unless he return after Felony or he receive him after the offence committed as in the Circuit of M. de Pateshull in the County of Hertford in such a year of King Henry the fifth In sooth these usages do partly remain in our Tythings and Hundreds not at all hitherto repealed or worn out of fashion CHAP. XXIV King Alfred first appointed Sheriffs By Duns Scotus his advice he gave Order for the breeding up of Youth in Learning By the way what a Hide of Land is King Edgar's Law for Drinking Prelates investiture by the Kings Ring and Staff King Knute's Law against any English-man that should kill a Dane Hence Englescyre The manner of Subscribing and Sealing till Edward the Confessor's time King Harald's Law that no Welch-man should come on this side Offa's Dike with a weapon 36. THe Governors of Provinces who before were styled Deputy-Lieutenants we return to Ingulph and King Alfred He divided into two Offices that is into Judges whom we now call Justices and into Sheriffs who do still retain the same name Away then with Polydore Virgil who fetches the first Sheriffs from the Norman Conqueror 37. John Scot Erigena advised the King that he would have his Subjects instructed in good Letters and that to that end he would by his Edict take care of that which might be for the benefit of Learning Whereupon he gave strict order to all Freemen of the whole Kingdom who did at least possess two Hides of Land that they should hold and keep their Children till the time of fifteen years of their Age to learning and should in the mean time diligently instruct them to know God A Hide of Land that I may note it once for all and a Plough Land that is as much Land as can be well turned up and tilled with one Plough every year are read as synonymous terms of the same sence in Huntingdon Matthew Paris Thomas Walsingham and expresly in a very old Charter of Dunstan Although some take a Hide for an hundred Acres and others otherwise do thou if thou hadst rather so do fansie it to be as much ground as one can compass about with a Bull-hide cut into Thongs as Queen Dido did at Carthage There are some who are not unwilling to have it so understood 38. King Edgar like a King of good Fellows or Master of Revels made a Law for Drinking He gave order that studs or knobs of Silver or Gold so Malmsbury tells us should be fastned to the sides of their Cups or drinking Vessels that when every one knew his mark or boundary he should out of modesty not either himself covet or force another to desire more than his stint This is the only Law
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
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
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
Pledge i. e. having a free Tenure let his heirs remain in such Seisin as their Father had on the day he was alive and dyed of his fee and let them have his Chattels out of which they may make also the devise or partition of the deceased that is the sharing of his goods according to his will and afterwards may require of their Lord and do for their relief and other things which they ought to do as touching their Fee i. e. in order to their entring upon the estate 71. If the heir be under age let the Lord of the Fee take his homage and have him in custody or keeping for as long time as he ought let the other Lords if there be more of them take his homage and let him do to them that which he ought to do 72. Let the Wife of the deceased have her Dowry and that part of his Chattels which of right comes to her In former times peradventure it was a like generally practised by the English that the Wife and Children should have each their lawful Thirds of the estate each of them I say if they were in being but half to the Wife if there were no issue and as much to the Children if the Wife did not survive her Husband as it was practised by the Romans of old according to the Falcidian Law and of later time by the Novells of Justinian that they should have their Quarter part For I see that those of Normandy of Arras of Ireland people that lay round about them had the same custom Of this you are to see Glanvill Bracton the Register of Briefs or Writs and William Lindwood beside the Records or yearly Reports of our Law 73. Let the Justices take the Fealties of our Lord the King before the close of Easter and at furthest before the close of Pentecost namely of all Earls Barons Knights and Free-holders and even of Rusticks or Vassals such as have a mind to stay in the Realm and he who will not do featly let him be taken into custody as an enemy of our Lord the King 74. The Justices have also this to give in charge that all those who have not as yet done their homage and allegiance to our Lord the King do at a term of time which they shall name to them come in and do homage and allegiance to the King as to their Liege Lord. 75. Let the Justices do all acts of Justice and rights belonging to our Lord the King by a Writ of our Lord the King or of them who shall be in his place or stead as to a half-Knights fee and under a Knights ' fee in an old Book which pretends to more antiquity by far than it ought concerning the manner of holding Parliaments is said to be twenty pounds worth of Land in yearly revenue but the number prefixt before the Red Book of the Exchequer goes at the rate of Six Hundred and Eighty Acres unless the complaint be of that great concern that it cannot be determined without our Lord the King or of that nature that the Justices by reason of their own doubting refer it to him or to those who shall be in his place and stead Nevertheless let them to the utmost of their ability intend and endeavour the service and advantage of our Lord the King 76. Let the Justices provide and take care that the Castles already demolisht be utterly demolished and that those that are to be demolished be well levelled to the ground And if they shall not do this our Lord the King may please to have the judgement of his Court against them as against those who shew contempt of his Precept 77. A Thief or Robber as soon as he is taken let him be put into the Sheriffs hands to be kept in safe custody and if the Sheriff shall be out of the way let him be carried or brought to the next Constable of a Castle and let him have him in custody until he deliver him up to the Sheriff 78. Let the Justices according to the custom of the Land cause inquiry to be made of those who have departed or gone out of the Realm And if they shall refuse to return within a term of time that shall be named and to stand to right in the Kings Court i. e. to make their appearance and there to answer if any thing shall be brought in against them let them after that be outlawed and the names of the Outlaws be brought at Easter and at the Feast of St. Michael to the Exchequer and from thence be sent to our Lord the King These Laws were agreed upon at Northampton 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 79. THat henceforth a Clergy-man be not dragg'd and drawn before a Secular Judge personally for any crime or transgression unless it be for Forest or a Lay-fee out of which a Lay-service is due to the King or to some other Secular Lord. This priviledge of the Clergy the King granted to Hugh the Popes Cardinal Legate by the Title of S. Michael à Petra who arrived here on purpose to advance the Popish interest 80. Furthermore that Arch-Bishopricks Bishopricks or Abbacies be not held in the Kings hand above a year unless there be an evident cause or an urgent necessity for it 81. That the Murderers or Slayers of Clergy-men being convicted or having confest before a Justice or Judge of the Realm be punished in the presence of the Bishop 82. That Clergy-men be not obliged to make Duel i. e. not to clear themselves as others upon some occasion did by single combat 83. He ordained at Woodstock we transcribe these words out of Hoveden that whosoever should make a forfeit to him concerning his Forest or his hunting once he should be tyed to find safe Pledges or Sureties and if he should make a second forfeit in like manner safe Pledges should be taken of him but if the same person should forfeit the third time then for his third forfeit no pledges should be taken but the proper body of him who made the forfeit Moreover we meet with these Military Laws or Laws of Knights fees made for Tenants and other people of the common sort 84. He who hath one Knights fee 't is the aforesaid Hoveden speaks let him have an Habergeon or Coat of Male and a Helmet or Head piece and a Buckler or Target and a Lance and let every Knight have so many Habergeons and Helmets and Targets and Lances as he shall have Knights fees in his demeans 85.
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
Pag. 28. lin 11. Now you for your part are Gods Vicegerent in the Kingdom They are the words of Pope Eleutherius in his Letter to Lucy the first Christian King which was in the year of our Lord 183. From whence we may fairly conclude that in those early dayes the Pope of Rome according to his own acknowledgement had no such pretensions as now for several Ages since they have made upon the Rights of Princes to the great disturbance of the World and reproach of Christian Religion And indeed this is the more considerable in that such was the simplicity of devotion in those early Converts and such the deference which Princes who embraced the Christian Faith especially from the Missionaries of Rome had for that Holy See as appears by this one single instance that it had been no hard matter nor could be judged an unreasonable thing for them to lay claim to a right and assert a power which was so voluntarily offered Further I add that seeing the Donation of Constantine besides that it was alwayes look't upon as a piece of forgery was at best supposing it true but an Imperial Grant and Concession which would not be of authority enough to bear up the Popes Supremacy in all other Kingdoms of the earth and seeing Pope Boniface who was the first that with bare face own'd it his complyance with Phocas was so grosly wicked that none of their own Writers but are ashamed to make that transaction betwixt those two an argument for the Papal pretence Seeing I say it is so if the Pope be intitled as their Canonists pretend to an Universal Dominion by vertue of his Office and by Commission from Christ and his chief Apostle S. Peter how came it to pass that the Bishops of Rome all along till Boniface were so modest as not to challenge any such rights or powers nay upon occasion to declare against such pretences as Antichristian which if that be true that the Pope is by his Office and by a Divine Commission instated into a Supremacy was in effect no less than to betray the cause of Christ and his Church how came it to pass that Eleutherius should neglect such a seasonable and exemplary opportunity of maintaining and exercising his right and should rather chuse to return it in a complement back to the King his Convert VICARIVS verò DEI estis in Regno sayes he You are GOD's VICAR in your Kingdom which Title now the Pope doth with as much arrogance challenge to himself as here one of his Predecessors doth with modesty ascribe to the King Lin. 32. With the title of Spectabilis Towards the declension of the Roman Empire it was usual so to distinguish great Offices with peculiar Titles as Spectabilis Clarissimus c. so among the Italians Magnifico to a Senator of Venice Illustrissimo to any Gentleman Eminentiâ—â—â—mo to a Cardinal So with us the term of Highness is given to a Prince of the Blood Excellence to a Vice-Roy or a Lord Lieutenant and to a General of an Army Grace to an Arch-bishop and to a Duke Honour to a Lord Worship to an Esquire c. CHAP. XVII P. 29. lin 43. Fabius Quaestor Aetheâ—verd Why he calls him Fabius Quaestor is at present past my understanding Did he take upon him a Roman name Was he in any such Office as Quaestor i. e. Treasurer or Receiver General wherein he behaved himself like a Fabius or did he intitle his Book by that name I am to seek CHAP. XVIII Pag. 31. lin 19. Whatsoever there was in Pandora of Good and Fair. She was a Woman made by Jupiter's own order and designed to be the pattern of female perfection to which end all the Gods contributed to the making of her several gifts one Wisdom another Beauty a third Eloquence a fourth Musick c. CHAP. XIX P. 32. lin 27. Wapentakes Which in some of our Northern Countreys is the same as we call other-where a Hundred from the Sâ—xon word waepen i. e. arms and tac i. e. touch as one should say a touching or shaking of their Arms. For as we read it in King Edward's Laws when any one came to take upon him the Government of a Wapentake upon a day appointed all that owed suit and service to that Hundred came to meet their new Governour at the usual place of their Rendezvouz He upon his arrival lighting off his Horse set up his Lance an end a Custom used also among the Romans by the Prator at the meetings of the Centumviri and according to custom took fealty of them The Ceremony of which was that all who were present touch't the Governours Lance with their Lances in token of a confirmation whereupon that whole meeting was called a Wapentake inasmuch as by the mutual touch of one anothers Arms they had entred into a confederacy and agreement to stand by one another This fashion they say the Saxons took up from the Macedonians their Progenitors Others will have it from tac to take and give this account of it that the Lord of the Hundred at his first entrance upon the place was used to take the Tenants Arms surrendred and delivered up to him by themselves in token of subjection by way of Homage Sir Thomas Smith differs from both these for he sayes that at the Hundred meeting there was a Muster taken of their Weapons or Arms and that those who could not find sufficient Pledges for their good abearing had their Weapons taken away so that in his sense a Wapentake is properly Armilustrium and so called from taking away their Weapons or Arms who were found unfit to be trusted with them L. 40. For the Ceremony of the Gown He alludes to the Roman Custom with whom the youth when they arrived at mans estate were then allowed to wear togam virilem to put on a Gown the habit of men whereas before that they were obliged to wear a Coat peculiar to the age of Childhood called Praetexta whence Papyrius though yet a Child being admitted into the Senate house for his extraordinary secrecy and manly constancy was called Papyrius Praetextatus Pag. 33. lin 9. Morgangheb Or Morgingah from Morgin which in High Dutch signifies the Morning and gab a gift to wit that Present which a man makes to his Wife that morning he marries her CHAP. XX. Pag. 34. lin 3. Tityus his Liver A Gyant who for ravishing of Latona was adjudged to have his Liver after death prey'd upon continually by a Vulture which grew up again as fast as it was wasted The equity of which punishment lay in this that the Liver is reputed the source and seat of all lusts and unlawful desires and doth naturally as some Physicians hold receive the first taint of Venereal distempers the rewards of impure mixtures according to that of Solomon speaking of an Adulterer Till a dart strike thorough his Liver from whence they gather that that which we now call the French Pox was not unknow even in
sometime or other been true since mony both in its Coyns and Summs hath in several Ages of the World risen and fallen according to its plenty or scarcity Lin. 42. Being arighted and accused of any matter Or rather in the Law-spelling arrested in Latin rectatus that is ad rectum vocatus convened before a Magistrate and charged with a crime Thus ad rectum habere is in Bracton to have a man forth coming so as he may be charged and put upon his tryal It may be also rendred taken upon suspicion It is written sometime retatus and irretitus Pag. 70. lin 33. To give suretiship for the Remainder I confess I do not well know how to apply to this place that sense which our Common Law takes the word Remainder in for a power or hope to enjoy Lands Tenements or Rents after anothers estate or term expired when an estate doth not revert to the Lord or Granter of it but remains to be enjoyed by some third person What if we say that as Bishops could not because their estates are of Alms grant any part of their Demeans ad remanentiam for ever or to perpetuity so here Excommunicate persons were not obliged dare vadium ad remanentiam to find sureties for continuance or for perpetuity that is for their future good behaviour but only to stand to the judgement of the Church in that particular case for which they were at present sentenced CHAP. XI Pag. 72. lin 24. If a Claim or Suit shall arise In the Latin si calumnia emerserit a known and frequent word in our Law which signifies a Claim or Challenge otherwise termed clameum Lin. 37. Till it shall by Plea be deraigned or dereyned which is in French dereyné in the Latin disrationatum which as it hath several significations in Law so here it imports after a full debate and fair hearing the determination of the matter by the judgement of the Court. CHAP. XII Pag. 75. lin 2. By the name of Yumen The same say some as the Danes call yong men Others derive the word from the Saxon geman or the old Dutch Gemen that is common and so it signifies a Commoner Sir Tho. Smith calls him Yoman whom our Laws term legalem hominem a Free-man born so Camden renders it by Ingenuus who is able to spend of his own free Land in yearly Revenue to the summ of Forty Shillings such as we now I suppose call Free-holders who have a Voice at the Election of Parliament-men But here the word is taken in a larger sense so as to include servile Tenure also or Villenage CHAP. XIII Pag. 77. lin 5. Leude men From the Saxon Leod the common people It signified in Law a Subject a Liege man a Vassal a Tenant hence in High-dutch a Servant was called Leute in Old English a Lout But in common acception Lewd was formerly taken for a Lay-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the people or for any illiterate person Now it is used to denote one who is wicked or loose and debauched CHAP. XIV Pag. 79. lin 8. The States of the Kingdom the Baronage He means the whole Parliament and not only the House of Lords by the word Baronage For though by Barons now we properly understand the Peers of the Realm yet anciently all Lords of Manours those who kept Court-Baron were styled Barons Nay Spelman tells us that all Free-holders went by that name before the Free-holds were quit letted out into such small pittances as now they are while Noble-men kept their Lands in their own hands and managed them by their Vassals Cowell gives this further account of those Lords of Manours that he had heard by men very learned in our Antiquities that near after the Conquest all such came to Parliament and sate as Nobles in the Upper House But as he goes on when by experience it appeared that the Parliament was too much pestered with such multitudes it grew to a custom that none should come but such as the King for their extraordinary wisdom or quality thought good to call by Writ which Writ ran hâc vice tantùm that is only for this turn So that then it depended wholly upon the Kings pleasure And then he proceeds to shew how after that they came to be made Barons by Letters Patents and the Honour to descend to their posterity Lin. 27. By way of safe pledge That is to oblige them to give security for the parties appearance against the day assigned who in case of default were to undergo the dammage and peril of it Pag. 80. lin 7. St. Peter's pence These Peter-pence were also called in Saxon Romescot and Romefeoh that is a Tribute or Fee due to Rome and Rome-penny and Hearth-penny It was paid yearly by every Family a Penny a house at the Feast of S. Peter ad Vincula on the first day of August It was granted first sayes our Author out of Malmesbury by Ina or Inas King of the West-Saxons when he went on Pilgrimage to Rome in the year of our Lord 720. But there is a more clear account given by Spelman in the word Romascot that it was done by Offa King of the Mercians out of an Author that wrote his Life And it is this That Offa after thirty six years Reign having vowed to build a Stately Monastery to the memory of St. Alban the British Protomartyr he went on Pilgrimage to Rome Adrian the First then Pope to beg Indulgences and more than ordinary Priviledges for the intended work He was kindly received and got what he came for and the next day going to see an English School that had been set up at Rome he for the maintenance of the poor English in that School gave a Penny for every house to be paid every year throughout his Dominion which was no less than three and twenty Shires at that time only the Lands of S. Alban excepted And this to be paid at the Feast of S. Peter because he found the body of the Martyr on that day for which reason it was also called S. Peter's Penny And although at last these Peter-pence were claim'd by the Pope as his own due and an Apostolical right yet we find that beside the maintenance of a School here mentioned for which they were first given they have by other Kings been appropriated to other uses Thus we read that Athelwolf Father to King Alured who was the first Monarch of this Isle granted three hundred Marks the summ total of the Peter-pence here bating only an odd Noble to be paid yearly at Rome One hundred for the honour of S. Peter to find Lights for his Church another hundred for the honour of S. Paul on the like occasion and the third hundred for the Pope's use to enlarge his Alms. This was done in the year 858. when Leo the Fourth was Pope Lin. 9. Thirty pence of live money Possibly the worth or value of thirty pence in Goods and Chattels King Offa in his Grant
of Letters have set down and expressed the mark or sign of the Holy Cross. Concerning Withred and a Turf of Land in Kent Camden has the same thing And King Ethelulph is said to have offered his Patent or Deed of Gift on the Altar of the holy Apostle St. Peter For a conclusion I know no reason why I may not set underneath the Verses of an old Poet wherein he hath comprised the instrument or Grant of founding an Abby which Ethelbald King of the Mercians gave to Kenulph Abbot of Crowland Verses I say but such as were made without Apollo's consent or knowledge Istum Kenulphum si quis vexaverit Anglus Rex condemno mihi cuncta catella sua Inde meis Monachis de damnis omnibus ultrà Vsque satisfaciat carcere clausus erit Adsunt ante Deum testes hujus dationis Anglorum proceres Pontificesque mei Sanctus Guthlacus Confessor Anachorita Hic jacet in cujus auribus ista loquâ—r Oret pro nobis sanctissimus iste Sacerdos Ad tumbam cujus haec mea donâ— dedi Which in Rhyme dogrel will run much after this hobling rate If any English vex this Kenulph shall I King condemn to me his Chattels all Thenceforth until my Monks he satisfie For damages in Prison he shall lye Witnesses of this Gift here in Gods fight Are English Peers and Prelates of my Right Saint Guthlac Confessor and Anchoret Lies here in whose Ears these words I speak yet May he pray for us that most holy Priest At whose Tomb these my Gifts I have addrest Thus they closed their Donations or Grants thus we our Remarks of the Saxons being now to pass to the Normans THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ENGLISH JANUS From the NORMAN Conquest to the Death of King Henry II. CHAP. I. William the Conquerour's Title He bestows Lands upon his followers and brings Bishops and Abbots under Military Service An account of the old English Laws called Merchenlage Danelage and Westsaxen-lage He is prevailed upon by the Barons to govern according to King Edward's Laws and at S. Albans takes his Oath so to do Yet some new Laws were added to those old ones WILLIAM Duke of Normandy upon pretence of a double Right both that of Blood inasmuch as Emme the Mother of Edward the Confessor was Daughter to Richard the first Duke of the Normans and withal that of Adoption having in Battel worsted Harald the Son of Godwin Earl of Kent obtain'd a large Inheritance and took possession of the Royal Government over all England After his Inauguration he liberally bestowed the Lands and Estates of the English upon his fellow-soldiers that little which remained so saith Matthew Paris he put under the yoke of a perpetual servitude Upon which account some while since the coming in of the Normans there was not in England except the King himself any one who held Land by right of Free-hold as they term it since in sooth one may well call all others to a man only Lords in trust of what they had as those who by swearing fealty and doing homage did perpetually own and acknowledge a Superior Lord of whom they held and by whom they were invested into their Estates All Bishopricks and Abbacies which held Baronies and so far forth had freedom from all Secular service the fore-cited Matthew is my Author he brought them under Military service enrolling every Bishoprick and Abbacy according to his own pleasure how many Souldiers he would have each of them find him and his Successors in time of Hostility or War Having thus according to this model ordered the Agrarian Law for the division and settlement of Lands he resolved to govern his Subjects we have it from Gervase of Tilbury by Laws and Ordinances in writing to which purpose he proposed also the English Laws according to their Tripartite or threefold distinction that is to say Merchenlage Danlage and Westsaxenlage Merchenlage that is the Law of the Mercians which was in force in the Counties of Glocester Worcester Hereford Warwick Oxford Chester Salop and Stafford Danlage that is the Law of the Danes which bore sway in Yorkshire Derby Nottingham Leicester Lincoln Northampton Bedford Buckingham Hertford Essex Middlesex Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge Huntingdon Westsaxenlage that is the Law of the West-Saxons to which all the rest of the thirty two Counties which are all that Malmesbury reckons up in Ethelred's time did belong to wit Kent Sussex Surrey Berks Southampton Winton Somerset Dorset and Devon Some of these English Laws he disliked and laid aside others he approved of and added to them some from beyond Sea out of Neustria he means Normandy which they did of old term Neustria corruptly instead of Westrich as being the more Western Kingdom of the Franks and given by Charles the Simple to Rollo for his Daughter Gilla her portion such of them as seemed most effectual for the preserving of the Kingdoms peace This saith he of Tilbury Now this is no rare thing among Writers for them to devise that William the Conqueror brought in as it were a clear new face of Laws to all intents and purposes 'T is true this must be acknowledg'd that he did make some new ones part whereof you may see in Lambard's Archaeonomia and part of them here subjoyned but so however that they take their denomination from the English rather than from the Normans although one may truly say according to what Lawyers dispute that the English Empire and Government was overthrown by him That he did more especially affect the Laws of the Danes which were not much unlike to those of the Norwegians to whom William was by his Grand-father allied in blood I read in the Annals of Roger Hoveden And that he openly declared that he would rule by them at hearing of which all the great men of the Countrey who had enacted the English Laws were presently struck into dumps and did unanimously petition him That he would permit them to have their own Laws and ancient Customs in which their Fathers had lived and they themselves had been born and bred up in forasmuch as it would be very hard for them to take up Laws that they knew not and to give judgement according to them But the King appearing unwilling and uneasie to be moved they at length prosecuted their purpose beseeching him that for the Soul of King Edward who had after his death given up the Crown and Kingdom to him and whose the Laws were and not any others that were strangers he would hearken to them and grant that they might continue under their own Countrey Laws Whereupon calling a Council he did at the last yield to the request of the Barons From that day forward therefore the Laws of King Edward which had before been made and appointed by his Grand-father Adgar seeing their authority were before the rest of the Laws of the Countrey respected confirmed and observed all over England But what then Doth it follow that