much honor of all men and maintained out of the Publique Treasury In Rome and most other places they carryed as Ensignes of their Office 〈◊〉 Rods in imitation of the Poeticall fiction of Mercury who is styled the Herald of the Gods those of Rome wreathed with two Serpents and the ancient Druides of wreaths of Vervine imitating the same In France where a long time this office hath been in much honor not only 〈◊〉 St. Dennis the principal King of Arms but the other Heralds and Pursevants are to be of noble 〈◊〉 and Mountjoy to be of three descents as well of his Fathers as of his Mothers side of Noble linage and Coat-Armor Their Office or Colledge is in the Church of St. Anthony the lesse in Paris And they are allowed the priviledge of entrance into any Prince's Court and an injury offered to them is a publique injury in all parts of the world But I do not finde they were in this 〈◊〉 and establishment till the time of Philip de Valloys The revenues of them in France was very great as to Mountjoy in particular 2000. l. Lands in free tenure and 1000 pound per annum stipend as Favin relates And the others 1000 pound per annum stipend besides other profits and they are many besides their priviledges are very great which in the same Author are at large set down in which Author I cannot but observe the ridiculousnesse of their humor in the christening of their Pursevants for they call it christening and the Ceremony is performed with the powring a pot of Wine on their heads they name them at their own pleasure and some they call Plain-way Jolly-heart No-lyar Tell-troth Chearfulnesse Fair-seeming Loftyfoot and the like But to come neerer to our own concernment I think to proceed with the same Office in our own Nation where they are now in lesse esteem I confesse then they have been in former ages yet have ever been honored with messages between Potentates for matter of Honor and Arms. Ceremoniarum Ministri as in the Coronation of Kings and Queens enstalment of Princes and creation of Noble dignities of honor in Triumphs Justs Combats Marriages Christenings Interments and to attend all solemn Assemblies of State and honor and by some of them ought the proclamations of all great matters of State to be promulged causes of Chivalry and Gentility are referred to their care as in the right of bearing of Arms in Shields Scutcheons Targets Banners Penons Coats and such like correcting of Arms in visitations and observing descents and pedigrees of Noblemen and Gentlemen They are the Protonotaries Griffiers and Registers of all acts and proceedings in the Court of the High 〈◊〉 and Lord Marshall of Engiand or of such as have their authority and in their books and Records they are to preserve to perpetuall memory all facts and memorable designments of honor and Arms. They have been long establisht in England but I find not that they were incorporated into a Collegiate Society till Richard the third's time when they were incorporated by Charter and placed at Coleharbor from whence they often removed untill they became setled where now at this time they are placed by the honorable endeavour of that Illustrious family of the Howards formerly Dukes of Norfolk and Earls Marshals of England the house being before called Darby house Which was established to them in the time of King Philip and Queen Mary and in these tearms incorporated by the names of Garter King of Arms of England Clarenceux King of Arms of the South parts and the Heralds and Pursevants for ever and to have and use a common Seal to purchase Lands to sue and be sued by Edward the sixth in his third year granted them many priviledges viz. In these words Forasmuch as sundry records and testimonies of great antiquity and of no lesse credit have now lately reduced to our perfect knowledge the Kings of Armes Heralds and 〈◊〉 of Arms elected as persons vertuous and for their good qualites knowledge and experience to serve in the affairs of the Common-wealth have been alwayes heretofore by Emperors Kings and Princes of Christian Realms upon most worthy and just considerations not only maintained and supported as well with yearly stipends and pensions as daily profits advantages and commodities sufficient to the necessity of the decent and convenient living of them and theirs in honest state Which daily profits advantages and commodities are now lately much decayed to their hindrance especially in this our Realm but also have been by the said Emperors Kings and Princes enriched and adorned time out of mans memory with divers kinds of priviledges liberties and franchises as among others that they and every of them be free exempt quite and discharged not only from subsidies dismes fifths tenths reliefs contributions taxes profits grants benevolences and generally from all other manner of charges as well in time of War as Peace in all such Realms and Dominions wherein they made their demour but also in all Market Towns and all other places from Tolls Fines Customes Impositions and Demands and aswell from Watch and Ward in all Cities Towns and Castles Borroughs and Villages and from the election or appointment to any Office of Mayor Sheriff Bayliffe Constable Scavenger Church-warden or any other publick Office in Citties Towns Castles 〈◊〉 and Villages whatsoever And forasmuch also as we understand all Kings of Arms Heralds c. have alwayes heretofore from the beginning of the Office of Arms enjoyed and do presently enjoy all and singular the priviledges liberties and franchises aforesaid with many other in all Christian Realms without any disturbance 〈◊〉 or molestation We therefore considering the same and earnestly minding as well the advancement of the said Office of Arms as the quiet and honest supportance of our Servants and Ministers thereof do of our speciall Grace certain knowledge and meer motion by the advice and consent of our most dearly beloved Uncle Edward Duke of Somerset and our Protector of our Realms and Dominions and Subjects and of the rest of our Councel by these 〈◊〉 not only confesse and generally approve give grant and confirm to the said Kings Heralds c. and to every of them and their successors for ever for us and our Successors all and singular the premises before recited although here not recited as have been of honorable antiquity upon just 〈◊〉 to them granted by Emperors Kings and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right famous memory heretofore But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially by these presents pardon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utterly for us and our heires release the said Kings of Arms Heralds c. aswell all 〈◊〉 sums of money and demands whatsoever 〈◊〉 assessed c. The Officers are thus distinguished Kings of Arms Garter General indefinite Of the south p. of Eng. Beyond Trent northw 〈◊〉 Norroy Heralds York sometimes styled Dukes of Arms. 〈◊〉 Windsor Lancaste Richmond Chester Pursevants Portcullis  Blewmantle  Raugh dragon  〈◊〉 croixe Â
only but in Church preferments also and by this means is it that so much corruption and abuse is the daily leprosie both of the Civill and Ecclesiasticall State The Romans were so carefull of the preservation of Honor that they had a custom by which the children of noble Persons unprovided for should be maintained out of the common treasury which custom though all ages have most infinitely applauded our Nation hath so absolutely exploded that the Gentry are in all cases hindred as much as may be of all preferments that should give it them without burthen to the Common-wealth But it is to be hoped succeeding times will produce better manners Of the Esquire THe division of these Dignities of Honour was antiently but into twelve parts but the addition of Knight Baronet hath made them thirteen The six first only Noble as the Gentleman Esquire Knight Bacheler Knight Banneret Knight Baronet and Baron The other seven Princely and are allowed Crowns and Coronets as the Viscount Earl Marquesse Duke Prince King and Emperour Sir John Ferne placeth the Viscount in the first division but I think improperly in regard of his Coronet Of the lowest of these enough is said the next is the Esquire according to my intended method The Esquire or Escuyer is called in Latine Armiger but more antiently Scutiger from the office of bearing a Shield as an attendant upon a Knight and were militaris ordinis candidati in the field because they served not as Knights Bachelers nor Bachelers which was then a distinction The etymology of the word will something signifie as much being from Scutum in Latin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek which is a Shield from the antient way of making it in leather Armiger nuncupatus est qui Domini sui 〈◊〉 bajulat ipsisque 〈◊〉 cingit saith Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossarium p. 50. Neither came this title in honorary amongst us till the reign of Richard the second though the Title as to office was much antienter amongst us yet the antientest mention of it is in Order Vitalis speaking of William Fitz-Osberne Earl of Hereford and Odo Earl of Kent in the time of the Conqueror Nam Armigeros suos immodicas praedas c. facientes Dr. Argentre President of the Parliament of Rhemes speaks thus of them Esquires are Qui scutums Ducibus aut Patronis praeferebant posteriùs et Strateres qui Dominos in equos tolleren equos regerent Is qui primus inter coeteros gradus Nobilitatis And Verstegen tells us the Teutonick word was Scyld-knapae which is a Shield-serviture but some have since gotten another distinction for the title which is that they are Gentlemen bearing Arms and Armories in testimony of Nobility or race from whence they are come Sir Edward Cook in his Exposition upon the Statute of 1 Hen. 3. chap. 5. of Additions saith that the word Esquire Armiger or Scutiger in legal understanding is derived ab armis quae clypeis gentilitiis honoris insignia gestant In which sense as a name of estate and degree it was used in divers Acts of Parliament before the making of that Statute and after also But by this the Honour of the title is lost and every Gentleman of Coat-Armor shall have as great a share in it as themselves which in truth hath not been since the dividing the Gentility into these two divisions when this title of Esquire was made a legall and appropriated addition Of these there are four sorts By Creation by Birth by Dignity and by Office Esquires by Creation are sometimes made by Patent as one Jo. de Kingston was by King Richard as I mentioned before being received into the state of a Gentleman and made an Esquire and sometimes by the giving of a collar of SS by the King as an ensigne of the title Eúmve saith Sir Henry Spelman argentatis calcaribus donaverit Which silver Spurs were given by the King as the Gold was to the Knight to difference the Honor from whence they are called White-spurs There is commonly given to him also an addition to his paternall Coat or a new Coat if he owned none before which is due to the descendents onely of his body not related to any of his line besides and the eldest son of that Coat-Armor is ever an Esquire Esquires by birth are the eldest sons of Knights and their eldest sons successively Sir John Ferne and Sir Henry Spelman call all Esquires that being the sons of Lords are not allowed the title of Lords but Sir Henry Spelman again Propriè natalitio jure Armigeri dicuntur Equitum auratorum filii primogeniti ex ipsis haeredes inperpetuum masculi Those by Office are such as bearing high Offices in the Commonwealth or Kings Palace have not the augmentation of Knighthood or Lordship Such are the Sergeants at Law Sheriffs Escheators the Sergeant of every Office in the Court But these are only the possessors of that dignity it dying with them And not only so but if he lose his Office that is a Gentleman by Office he lo seth his Gentility also And this ennobling by Office was also among the Saxons and hath so continued among them saith Mr. Lambert If a Churle so thrived that he had fully five Hides of Land of his own a Church and a Kitchen a Bell-house and a Gate a Seat a severall Office in the Kings Hall then was he the Theynes right worthy Amongst which sort of Esq those four of the Kings body are the principall which he saith are to be esteemed above the elder sons of Knights And indeed in all processions of State they go before the Master of the Jewell-house all Judges or Sergeants at the Law Of Knighthood in generall and of the Knight Bacheler OF the distinctions by Knighthood there are many in other parts of the World but in England only these Knights Batchelers Knights of the Bath Knights Bannerets and Knights Baronets and Knights of the Garter The word Knight as Mr. Selden saith coming from the Saxon 〈◊〉 which signified puer or servus as Dienaknecht is yet among the Dutch for a man-servant So Tenants by Knights service were called Milites or Chivalers because their service was military Knights saith Mr. Cambden who of our English Lawyers are termed also in Latin Milites and in all Nations almost besides took their name of Horses The Italians call them Cavalari the French Chevaliers the Germans Kutters and our Britans in Wales Margagh all of Riding Englishmen only term them Knights by a word that in old English-language as also of the German signifieth indifferently a Servitour or Minister and a lusty young man Hereupon it cometh that in the old written Gospels translated into the Saxon we read for Christs disciples Christs leorning knights And elsewhere for Client or Vassal 〈◊〉 And Bracton our ancient civill Lawyer maketh mention of Rad Cnyhts that is
Serving-men who had their Lands with this condition that they should serve their Lords on Horseback and so by cuting off a piece of the name as our delight is to speak short this name of Knight remained with us But whence it came that our Country-men should in penning the Laws and all Writings since the Norman Conquest 's time term those Knights in Latin Milites that is Souldiers was transferred unto those that conversing near about the Princes person bare any of the great Offices in the Prince's Court or Train But with us I conceive those were first so called who held any Lands or Inheritances in Fee by this Tenure To serve in the War for those Lands were tearmed Knights Fees and those that elsewhere they named Feuditary that is Tenants in Fee were hete called Milites that is Knights as for example Milites Regis Milites Archiepiscopi Cantuar. Milites Comitis Rogerii Comitis Hugonis c. for that they received those Lands or Mannors of them with this condition to serve them in the Wars and to yield them fealty and homage whereas others who served for pay were simply called Solidarii from whence the word Soldier and Servientes This Title comming to be a reward or degree of Honor is thought to be in imitation of the Equestris Order in Rome to which men were onely advanced for extraordinary virtue and notable merit who onely were admitted to beautifie the Caparizons of their Horses their Armor with Gold from whence they were called Equites aurati In which time all sorts of men were distinguished in their degrees by some garb or habit as some by their clothes some by cutting their hair c. The Roman Knights also were allowed to wear a Chain of Gold and therefore called Torquati from Manlius Torquatus who wore the first obtained by him in a victory in France which is by us yet imitated in the collar of S S. by which it is easily collected that the true institution of it was a reward of Honor and Valour not Sloath and Riches And therefore all men thus ennobled ought either to be deserving by action before or by endeavour and good service after and to be else esteemed unlawfull possessors of that Honor at what rate soever purchased The first account of Ceremonies that we have at the creating a Knight is in the example of King Alfred Knighting his grandson Athelstan and after the continuance of them it seems grew more precise and customary by Feasts giving of Robes Arms Spurs and sometimes Horse and Arms untill our later times produced the new yet usuall Ceremony of a stroak over the shoulder with a Sword with these words Sois Chivaler au nom de Dieu by the King or some by his Commission though the Spur hath lately been observed also Another manner of Creation there hath been also among the Saxons before the Conquest which was by sacred Ceremonies shew'd by one Ingulphus that lived in the time of the Conquest by a solemn Confession a Vigil in the Church receiving of the Sacrament after an offering of the Sword on the Altar and redemption of it then the Bishop Abbot or Priest putting it on him made him a Knight with many prayers called Benedictiones Ensis To this Order or degree of Honor an Infant may be admitted though he be a Ward and then till a late Act of Parliament ordained otherwise his Wardship was free both of person and estate but now their lands are not And there were feudall Laws for and at the making the eldest son of a Lord a Knight as there was also for the marrying of the eldest daughter as in the Charter of King John which was mony raised on the Tenant But any man in the order of Priesthood is debarred the Honor of Knighthood of the Sword Cùm eorum militia sit 〈◊〉 mundum carnem diabolum So Sir John Fern. Though I find that antiently they have been allowed it but not without first laying aside their Spirituall Cures and applying themselves to a Secular life So Matthew Paris Dei natalis Johannem de Gatesden Clericum multis ditatum 〈◊〉 sed omnibus ante expectatum resignatis quia sic oportuit Baltheo cinxit militari And then the persons that gave this Honor were sometimes subjects without any superior authority granted to them as well as Soveraignes though long since it hath been an appropriated priviledge of the Crown Landfrank Archbishop of Canterbury made William the second a Knight in his Fathers life-time But the name of Bacheler added to it seems not to have been till the 33 of 〈◊〉 the third Sir John Fern also tells of Ensignes that anciently were marks of Knighthood as a Ring on the thumb a Chain of Gold and gilt Spurrs All which tokens of his Honor he was as carefully to preserve as a Captain his Banner which according to the rules of Arms then if he once lost basely in the field he was 〈◊〉 of flying any more again till he had regained the same or another from the Enemy To which end it was carefully to be provided that such men as were endowed with this Honor should have these Accomplishments He ought to be faithfull and religious just in his engagements valiant in his enterprises obedient to his Superiors expert in Military affairs watchfull and temperate charitable to the poor free from debauchery not a boaster with his tongue ready to help and defend Ladies especially Widows and Orphans and he ought to be ever in a readinesse with Horse and Arms and to attend the command of his Soveraign in all Wars both Civill and Forrain the neglect where of is a crime as great as to fight against him and merits at the least a shamefull degrading And formerly when the King hath been to make a Knight he sate gloriously in his State arrayed in cloth of Gold of the most precious and costly bodkin-work and crowned with his Crown of Gold and to every Knight he allowed or gave a hundred shillings for his Harnessements c. And Knights in this manner dubbed made this esteem thereof that in it consisted the guerdon of their Virtue and Valour the praise of their House and Family the memoriall of their Stock and Linage and lastly the glory of their Name There are many priviledges belonging to that Dignity and Mr. Selden speaks of a Law that a man was to be punished with the losse of a hand that should strike a Knight yet he sayes he remembers no example of the practise of it which I think is the greater honor to the Dignity as being a shame that any such Law should be the guard of a man so honored with Arms and appropriated to the Sword Against a Knight in the War runneth no prescription The Office of a Coroner in former times being honorable none were capable of it but a Knight By antient Custom none were admitted to the House of
a condition above him For example whereof a case is cited of one Ralph Hayward Esquire and the Lady Anne Powes widow of the Lord Powes But I am of opinion that being onely an acception in Court by the Adversary of the Party this is not to be understood but in case the person such a Noble woman shall marry be no Gentleman and that she hath received the Honor she enjoyed before from the right of a former husband and not by descent of Ancestors for the words of Judge Coke run thus Si mulier nobilis nupserit ignobili desinit esse nobilis eodem modo quo quidem constituitur dissolvitur That is If a Noble-woman shall marry an ignoble husband she ceases to be Noble and in the same manner her honor was constituted it is dissolved So as by the Laws of the Nation an Adulteresse forfeiteth her Dower so also her honor of Nobility if she commit adultery either as a wife or widow or else having received honor from her deceased husband and shall so put him out of her mind as to subject her self to another by which act she wipeth both the name and memory of the former from her she hath the sentence of forfeiture against her So Sir John Fern in his Glory of Generosity fol. 62. Yet the Law is thus curious in preserving the memory of Vertue in the honor of its reward that if a woman of noble blood do marry a Churl or Clown and have issue by him she being an heir that issue shall have liberty of bearing her Coat-Armor But Sir John Fern says onely for life and that on a Lozenge Shield which is the feminine bearing with the difference of a Cinque-foile One note more I think proper in this place which is If a French Spanish or German woman be married to any Peer of this Realm or other Gentleman and be not denizoned by the Laws of the Nation she cannot claim the priviledges or titles of her husband nor have Dower or Joynter from him And thus much I think sufficient in this place as to the honor of Women and if I have said too little I wish I could have said more if too much I beg their pardons but refer my self to the Law In the next place I should proceed to the display of Armory by which the infinite number of persons are distinguisht by an innumerable variety of different Ensignes that do illustrate and appropriate their dignity and honor But by the way I have stumbled on another Theam which though it be not so much concerned in honor yet the Kingdom is much concerned in it as a Power and though I need not say much yet I cannot passe by it and say nothing Of a Parliament SOme not altogether knowing of that true constitution of a Parliament may be apt to think that its Authority is onely Supream in this Nation But let such understand that from this Argument if there were none other it is disproved That nothing can be made greater or more excellent than the thing that makes it Propter quod unumquodque tale est illud majus tale And such creatures as shall aim at a Superiority to their Creator are to be esteemed like those Angels that by the same spirit attempting the same pride precipitated themselves from everlasting liberty to eternall chains This great Council did arise from the antient custom of not onely the Saxons but all Nations in the world almost who have had examples of their King 's summoning the chief Peers and Nobles to consult in weighty affairs Which Councel among the Saxons was called 〈◊〉 which was a meeting of the chief Prelates and Peers to deliberate about and to consent to what laws the King should enact and advising in matters of State giving Judgement upon suits or Complaints in the same Court as is understood of the time of King Ine of West sexe about 711. years after Christ. And again of King Ethelbert his ordaining Decreta Judiciorum juxta exempla Romanorum cum consilio sapientum And when Edwin King of Northumberland was perswaded to be a Christian he consulted cum Principibus Consulariis suis. He called to Councell his Princes or Ealdermen and Counsellors And again King Eldred An. 948. In festo Nativitatis Beatae Mariae all the Nobility of the Kingdome were summoned by an Edict from the King as well Arch-bishops Bishops and Abbots as all of the rest of the Lords and Chief Counsellors Thanes and Ealdormen to come to London to a 〈◊〉 or great Councel to consult about affairs of the whole Kingdome As Ingulphus his words are And again in the time of Edward the Confessor the Parliament sate at London Rex omnes 〈◊〉 Magnates In which Parliament the King attaches Earl Godwin for that he had kil'd his Brother Alfred and upon his pleading and submission the King refers him to the Judgement of the Court who a long while debating it to no purpose at last Leofricus Consul Cestriae probus homo quoad Deum Seculum saith the Author spake thus Earl Godwin is a gallant Person and a man next the King of the best birth in the Land and it cannot be denied but by his Counsell or Design Alfred was slain therefore my opinion is that he with his son and all we twelve Earls that are his friends and kindred do present our selves humbly before the King loaden with as much Gold and Silver as every man can carry betwixt his arms to offer it up with supplication for an expiation of the crime Which being consented unto and done the King considering the reference he had made to the Court ratified their act and his pardon By which we see their meetings was at the Kings summons their power only deliberative in giving legall force by consenting to what he should think fit to make a Law and to advise de arduis Reipub not that this force given by them is to be understood otherwise than that because it was enacted by their consent it was the more binding over them their consent otherwise being no whit binding over the Soveraign's will in the enaction for it was his Volumus that made it and let their Consultations rise to never so powerfull votes and results be the thing what it would his Nolumus buried it in oblivion which custom 〈◊〉 ever continued as a true Prerogative of the Crown Nay avisera le Roy which is but The King will consider of it was enough to throw a Bill out of the House Nothing enacted by them though by a generall consent of both Houses of Lords Commons being of any force and that not only before but after the Commons were brought in which I find to be about the time of Edw. 1. his third year of Inauguration an Dom. 1273. Who in the 23. year of his reign confirmed the Magna Charta made by Henry the third though Mr. Selden is of opinion The first
summoning of the Commons was in the 49. year of Henry the third The style of the Statutes running after this manner The King hath Ordained and Established these Acts underwritten c. First The King willeth and commandeth that c. Signifying the power of enacting to force and penalty was derived from the Volumus of the King not the Vote of the Lords and Commons their consent only making it of more vigour against themselves If it were an Act of Indulgence or relief to the Common-wealth it run thus Our Lord the King of his speciall Grace and for the affection that he bears unto his Prelates Earls and Barons and others of his Realm hath granted that c. And sometimes Our Soveraign Lord the King hath granted and commanded at the Instance of the Nobles of this Realm c. No mention at all being made of the consent of the Lords and Commons Then afterwards thus they run Our Lord the King by the Counsel of his Prelats Earls Barons other great men Nobles of his Kingdom in his Parliament hath Ordained 〈◊〉 c. An. 33. Edward the first 1307. and so along in other Statutes the Commons not at all mentioned in the enacting any Statute but as thus in the beginning of Edward the third At the request of the Commons of this Realm by their Petition made before him and his Councel in the Parliament by the assent of the Prelates Earls and Barons c. Untill the 23. of this Kings reign in a Statute of Labourers I find the Commons not mentioned and then the power of Ordination given to the Statute still by the King as thus It is ordered by our Lord the King by the assent of the Prelates Farls Barons and other great men and all the Commons of the Realm summoned to this Parliament c. And in one Act of the same King the style runs thus The King of his own will without motion of the Great men or Commons hath granted and Ordained in ease of his people c. And then to signifie the Constitution of the Commons in Parliament See the 37. of Edward the third where the Statute runs thus The King at his Parliament c. at the request of the Commons and by the assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls and Barons and other Great men there assembled hath Ordained c. and at the prayer of the Commons c. In which style most of the Statutes run untill Henry the eight And for provision of the choyce of the Commons in a Statute of the 23. of Hen. 6. is set down the form of Writ by which they are summoned where it is also enacted That the Knights of the Shires for Parliament hereafter to be chosen shall be naturall Knights or otherwise such naturall Esquires or Gentlemen of the same County as shall be 〈◊〉 to be Knights And every Knight that is elected ought to be a resident of the place for which he is elected and every man that is an Elector ought to have forty shillings of free-hold within the said County and for the security of it the Sheriffe hath power to put them to an Oath upon the Evangelist and the Election ought to be betwixt the hours of eight and nine in the Forenoon and so of Burgesses The form of the Writ is this Rex Vic' c. Salutem Quia nostri 〈◊〉 pro quibusdam arduis ur gentibus negotiis nos statum defensionem regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernent ' quoddam Parliamentum nostrum Westm. 12. die Novemb. proxim ' futur ' teneri Ordinavimus ibidem 〈◊〉 Magnatibus Proceribus domus regni nostri colloquium habere tractare Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod facta Proclamatione in proximo tuo post receptionem hujus literis nostris tenend ' die loco predicto duos milites gladiis cinctis magis idoneos discret ' Com' praedict ' c. electionem illam in distincte apertè sigillo tuo sub sigillis eorum qui electioni illi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bis in Cancellaria nostra locum certisices 〈◊〉 And still before they came up to the House they signed Indentures to be true and faithfull to their King and Country and the service thereof upon a penalty even to the last long Parliament of eternall infamy And in the third of Queen Elizabeth it was enacted in full Parliament for the safety of the Queen's Majesty her Heirs and Successors and the dignity of the Imperiall Crown of England for the avoiding both of such hurts perills dishonor and inconveniencies as have before time befallen that not only all persons should take the Oath of Supremacy upon divers penalties in that Act specified But also every Knight Citizen and Burgesse of the Parliament should take the said Oath before he entred into the said House or had any voyce there else he should be deemed no Knight Citizen or Burgesse for that Parliament nor have any voyce but shall be to all intents constructions and purposes as if he had never been Returned nor Elected for that Parliament and shall suffer all pains and penalties as if he had presumed to sit in the same without Election Return or Authority And by King James the Oath of Allegiance was added Yet notwithstanding all this limitation upon the Commonalty Parliaments in England were ever esteemed since Magna Charta the greatest liberty of the Subject none else indeed being dreamt of And as it is as great a flower of the Crown to summon Parliaments as foedera bellum indicere to make War and Leagues which is so absolute that it is resolved by all the Judges of the Land that the King may before he is Crowned if by descent the Crown be his right summon a Parliament or within age as was seen in King Henry the sixth who summoned divers Parliaments in his 1 2 3 4 5 6. years of his reign yet was not Crowned till the eighth He being then essentially King without any Ceremony or Act ex post facto and Coronation but a Royall Ornament So the priviledges of Parliament and of the Common-wealth by Parliament are as great for though we thus see the great Prerogative of a King yet many things there are which a King in his own Kingdome cannot do without a Parliament by the Laws by which he hath bound himself as the making any man hereditable or the altering the Common Law or Customs of the Realm though by his absolute authority he may commit any man to Prison during his pleasure Therefore every Parliament-man during the time of the Parliament is priviledged from all disturbance of arrest for debt or the like and the servants of any Parliament man as much as the Kings are And to this Parliament for the further security of the good of the Common-wealth were ever admitted certain Judges of the Land though
they had no Vote which sate on Woolsacks that as the Clergy in Spiritualties so the Judges of the Law in things of the Law were to advise and determine when any difficulty did arise That what Laws should be Enacted might be answerable to the Will of God and not repugnable to the Customs of the Land And in our latter times all Acts of Parliament though made by the King have this style By the consent of Lords and Commons notwithstanding the Civill Law saith Quod Principi placuit Legis habet vigorem The will of the King is the power of the Law The End of Honor. The Analysis of Armory I Have with as much brevity as so copious a Theam would admit run through all the distinctions of Honor. In the next place I shall with as great a contraction lay down the emblems of those distinctions and atchievements due to Nobility and the reward of virtue in the methodicall rules of Armory Bearing of Arms at this time being the only externall distinction of degrees and qualities amongst all civill Societies and Common-wealths From whence we received this custom is uncertain if especially we look to the producing of it into rule and form As it is from imitation Sir John Fern is of opinion that we did borrow it from the Egyptians meaning from their Hieroglyphicks Others will have that the first institution of these honorable differences was amongst the Israelites but however it is not much material to this discourse to be too inquisitive of the originall in that kind since succession of time hath converted it into another custom which may be for ought I know in imitation of the Romans who were accustomed upon triumphs or festivalls to produce the Statues of their Ancestors as the pedigree of their Generous race Which Statues were not as some may imagine erected from the voluntary phansie of the parties represented as is the leaving our Pictures behind us when we dye to our progeny so might every phlegmatick mechanick do but they were such as were for some Heroick act allowed as a publick reward of virtue which was customary amongst them And truly although every good Subject ought to be alwayes prepared alike to offer his body and mind unto the service of the Common-wealth without hope or expectation of mercenary reward honor or glory yet is honor a necessary perquisite to a Crown and Common-wealth being in it self a true spur to generosity Out of which respect the Romans joyned the two Temples of Honor and Virtue in such a manner that no man could enter into that of Honor without first passing through the other of Virtue Sir John Ferns opinion is that the first that imployed these Ensignes in this nature was Alexander the Great so to distinguish those that had done any memorable Acts that they might urge an emulation in their fellow Souldiers It is said of Epaminondas and Othraydes that being ready to dye they wrote their glorious exployts upon their shields themselves to give 〈◊〉 to others to follow their 〈◊〉 when they were dead 〈◊〉 believes that Charls the Great was the first that put them into this methodicall order which doubtlesse could not be if as Sir John Fern saith also that Julius Caesar constituted an office of Feciales But I find it in another Author to be instituted by Numa when he made warre upon the Fidenates a people of Latium However it is a generall opinion amongst our most judicious Heralds that the bearing of Arms as a badge of honor amongst us was not till about the time of Henry the third although many coats have been 〈◊〉 in some Writers of much longer standing as that of Hugh Lupus Earl of Chester in the time of the Conqueror a Woolfs head errased of Gilbert de Gaunt Earl of Kime long before Barry of 6. Or Az. over all a bend Gule Which are 〈◊〉 of by Sir John Fern But how authentick his Authority might have been to him to cause his insertion or his to others I know not but I shall be bold to insert one which may chance carry some weight with it which I shall raise from a Noble Family in the North the family of the Hiltons whose antiquity not only by an ancient pedegree which I have seen taken out of the Office but by the Records of the Tower doth produce the noblest descent that I know any Family in England the pedegree is too large to be inserted in this place else I would do it however shall extract some notes from it that may signifie as much The first that I find recorded of the Family was Sir William Hilton Knight who marrying the daughter of Sir John Grisly Knight a Family long since I think extinct had issue Adam Hilton Which Adam living in the time of King Athelstan gave to the Monastery of Hartlepool a Pix or Crucifix which was in weight twenty five ounces of Silver and caused his Armes to be engraven on it Arg. two barres Azure which are yet seen upon the Gate of Hilton Castle in the Bishopr of Dur. where they lived with a Moses head for Creast the Gate and the Chappel which is very stately for its structure and bignesse are the only parts remaining of the ancient building He gave unto the same Monastery a Cope Vestment with the Stole and the like gift unto the two Monasteries of Whitby and Gisbrough with fifty seven ounces of silver to make Censors They were five descents before the Conquest and hath now the nine and twentieth descent surviving In which line were twenty four Knights eighteen whereof were in a continued succession But I leave this nicety to more criticall judgments to determine the thing having for authority custom sufficient to make it a law within it self without the derivation of any originall institution Former ages having esteemed the Laws of Heraldry with as great a veneration as any in the Nation as indeed it ought still to be and more especially in these and all such times as ours the Court of Heraldry being not onely the Law-giver to Honor but the best record of Families and Inheritances though the Gentry of this Land are too dull to know it since Coat-Armor hath been hereditary as it hath ever since the time of Lewis Le-grosse according to the account of Sir John Fern and Guillim As by one instance I shall declare If a man being an Orphan and by such times as ours have been the Records of what Estate did rightly belong to him and from his Ancestors may be burnt plundered or otherwise embeselled and by such spirits as such times do plentifully afford have been obtruded from his right and hath nothing to plead for it this Office being the just Record of his Pedigree would produce an Evidence sufficient though from many generations his misfortunes have descended More particularly of the Office in another place As for the progresse of Armory I have pitcht upon the most methodicall course I could disposing it into
said the Inner Temple hath lately assumed to themselves a Pegasus whereof in particular I spare to relate any more for the same is vulgarly known to all To the Inner House was also appropriated divers learned Legists from time to time which in number continuance and gifts of Nature did exceed every other of the said Innes of Court And therefore was anciently tearmed Inner Temple Boun Pleader Which continueth to this very day and it is withall much esteemed of beautified and graced with a special Garden plot famous for its situation neatnesse and nearnesse of the River The Ensign is Azure a Pegasus Argent Lincolns Inne This House owning a right to the Arms as well as name of the Lacyes Earls of Lincolne have set up over the Gate the Lyon Rampant purpure committing a great mistake in that if Sir John Fern's account of that Familie of the Lacyes be true which hath passed for authentick for he tels us that Or a Lyon Rampant purpure was his right but it was only a quartering and not the paternall Coat for his first and principall bearing was party per Crosse Gules 〈◊〉 a bend Sables over all a file or three Labels Arg. and this was the proper Coat of those Lacyes the other was the Coat of the Lord Nigeld or Neal Baron of Halton This Society of Lincolnes Inne the next for antiquity and ancient Ally to the Middle Tenple is situate in a Street or Lane known formerly by the name of New-street and now Chancery lane being once the Mansion-house of a Gentleman called William de Havershall Treasurer to King Henry the third who for disloyalty to his Soveraign was by the said King attainted of Treason so that thereby his house and lands became annext to the Crown And thereupon the King gave this house to Ralph de Nova villa vulgo Nevill Chancellor of England as appeareth by an ancient Record Who also was Bishop of Chichester and kept his habitation or place of abode in that place This House came afterwards to the hands of Henry Lacy Earl of Lincoln by reason whereof it was called Lincolns Inne and keepeth the style to this day This Earl Henry deceased in that house about the year of our Lord 1310. Neverthelesse this house did afterwards continue to the Bishops of Chichester untill the 〈◊〉 of King Henry the eighth and the interest thereof came by conveyance to Justice Gullyard and other Feoffees who during his life and after him his posterity held it untill the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth and then Sir Edw. Gullyard Knight to whom the same did successively descend by Inheritance sold the same with the Inheritance thereof to the Benchers and Society thereof There is no memory of any florishing Estates of the Students and professors of the Common Lawes resident in this Colledge until the reign of King Henry the sixth when it appeareth by the Rolls and remembrances of that house that the same became somewhat to be famous But now of late time this house hath been much enlarged and beautified with ranks of goodly Edifices and also with a fair and goodly Chappel The first of the chiefest buildings thereof was begun at the cost of Sir Thomas Lovell Knight then or before a fellow of that Society who erected that fair Gate-house into Chancery lane of brick and free stone whereupon is engraven the Arms of Lacy Earl of Lincoln together with his own The said Chancery lane is so called for that King Edward the third in the fifteenth year of his reign annexed the house of Covents by Patent to the Office of Chancery now called the Rolls Grays Inne Beareth Sables a Griffin Rampant Or. This house was sometimes the abiding Mansion of the Noble Family of Gray from whence the name of the house is deduced It is situate within the Mannor Poorpoole a Prebendary antiently belonging to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul London In the reign of King Edward the third the Gentlemen Students of that Society as is confidently affirmed took a Grant of this house from the said Baron Gray who lived in those dayes And it is held probable that the Grayes Armes have been anciently by this fellowship maintained and are still taken up and kept as the proper and peculiar Ensigne of that Colledge or house and thus the same is found portraited Barry of six Arg. Azure a bordure quarterly Or and of the second But now of late yeares this honorable Society have assumed for their proper Coat Armor or Ensign of honor A Griffin Or in a field Sables Thavies Inne Beareth Azure two Garbes Or on a bend Gules On a Chief Sable a letter T. Arg. Hereafter ensue the inferior Hostels ordained for Students that professe the practice of the Common Law of this Realm to the end they may the better obtain unto themselves the understanding of the Principles grounds of the same Laws and be thereby the better prepared for to manage the causes of the Subjects in the severall Courts of Justice within the Dominions whether at Westminster or elsewhere and also by their labour and Industry to become graduates and be the better enabled to be entred into the Innes of Court These inferior Courts being Nurseries and are entituled Inns of Chancery And first for this Thavies Inne It is probable that the house by all conjecture is the most ancient of all others of that nature and it doth in that regard challenge the precedency in this rank This house was in the raigne of King Edward the third as is by 〈◊〉 to be found the dwelling and mansion house of one John Thavye Citizen and Armourer of London and was by the then Apprentices of the Law held of him at a certain Rent annual as by a Record yet to be seen in the Husting Courts of London doth appeare and may be verified for antiquity But since that time the House hath been purchased by the Benchers or the Antients of Lincolns Inne which about the raign of King Henry the seventh to the end that there might be entertained in that place a Society of Students practisers and Professors of the Common Laws of this Realm And this house still retaineth the name of the said Thavies who was the first owner of it as is before mentioned Furnivals Inne Beareth Arg. a bend betwixt six Martlets within a bordure Azure This house was sometime the Mansion of Sir William Furnivall in the raign of King Richard the second as by Record appeareth He was afterwards Lord Furnival his heir general married to Sir John Talbot created Earl of Shrewsbury by King Henry the sixth by reason whereof this Mansion house came to the family of the 〈◊〉 Earls of Salop and afterwards of later years in the raign of Queen Elizabeth the same house was by the Benchers or the Ancients of Lincolns Inne purchased for the serting into the same a Society of Students of the Common Lawes from George Lord Talbot Earl of Salop as by sundry