Juvenal Veniet cum signatoribus Auspex and of Ovid Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait and they declared to the parties the unlucky Ides Kalends and all the dismal times and days which got the Cheats much money from the foolish people and to continue the same Trade the same was revived by Popes and Councels of Laodicea Iterda and Trent by their prohibitions of Marriage in times of Advent Septuagesima and Rogation Pope Soter made the Law prohibiting Marriage without delivery of the Woman by the Father and receiving a Benediction from the Priest Delivery by the Father and Benediction by the Priest yet Christ saith For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and though a Father may deny to give his Daughter so liberal a Portion if she marry without his consent as he would give with it yet can he not prohibit her to marry and when Rachel said to Jacob Give me children or I die and he in anger replyed Am I God he thereby shews that 't is not the Benediction of the Priest or Pilgrimages to Saints cause fertility or sterility but Children are the gift of God Marriage within the fourth degree Pope Calixtus made the Law prohibiting Marriage within the fourth degree either of Consanguinity or Affinity and others extend the same as well to Spiritual as Carnal kindred The Law prohibiting Marriage without License was first set up by the Priests of Priapus and Venus License to marry And the Priests of Diana her self could no more live without License-money for Marriage then those of Venus which made the Virgins of Greece before they presumed to marry humbly to beg the Goddess's pardon that they left her Nunnery for which they brought good Fees and Offerings to the Priests Power of the Pope translated to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Law of Dispensations Legitimations and Confirmations of Marriages and Children and the whole Papal power therein translated to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by 25 H. 8.21 was made by Papists in a time of Popery The Law of Banes was invented by Popes and revived by the late long Parliament Banes and the Laws of New England only translating the Marriage to the Magistrate instead of the Priest Marriage without a Priest or Temple The Law prohibiting marriage without a Priest and a Temple was invented by the Priests of Priapus and Venus and revived by the Pope and Council of Trent In all these Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage the two Strumpets Theodora of Justinian Strumpets and Theodora of Pope Sergius and that impudent Quean Marozia and other Strumpets of the Popes had a great hand We are like therefore to have excellent Laws in the Bishops Courts and Justice for Marriage Fillation and Succession while the Laws of such Legislators continue All Laws prohibitory of Marriage or Meats came from the Devil Lastly There needed not to those who believe the Scripture this Recital of so many wicked persons to be Authors of this mention'd Ecclesiastical Laws for it is manifest by the Scripture it self that all Laws prohibitory of Marriage or Meats they being things not indifferent but necessary for the preservation of Humane Nature in the least Ceremony or Circumstance where they are not prohibited by the Law of God came from the Devil as appears 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. Now the Spirit saith expresly That in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking lyes in Hypocrisie having their consciences seared with an hot Iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving I conclude therefore that all the fore-mentioned Ecclesiastical Laws prohibiting marriage without their Popish Ceremonies or Circumstances not appointed by God came from the Devil or many Devils The Final causes of the Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Marriage invented by Daemons and the Priests of Priapus and Venus were Lust Covetousness and Ambition of the Priests The second Reason against Ecclesiastical Laws is the wicked ends for which they were invented which were no other but only to satisfie the insatiable Lust Covetousness and Ambition of Priests As to which the Indian Histories mention That in the Kingdom of Molabar neither the King or People are allowed to have a Wife Luft Covetousness Ambition of Priests the only ends of Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage unless sanctified for him by the first nights Lodging of the holy Bramin who is their Priest which is the reason that there the King's Sons succeed not to the Kingdom but their Sister's Sons for they say they know not the Father but they know the Mother Linschot Little better is done in Catholic Kingdoms often times though not openly yet secretly by those unchristian Bramins the Cardinal Confessors and it is common in Italy for Catholics to jeer one another that their Children are Fils de Prestre The Benyan Indians give their Priests the first fruits of their Wives and think the Marriage will not be blessed without it The Southern Americans in divers parts think it a great Devotion to offer their Daughters to be first defloured by the Priest The Algier Mahometans and the people of other parts of Africa think it a meritorious work to prostitute their Wives to their Morabates or holy Saints whom they esteem their Prophets And Leo Afer who was that Countrey-man tells a story of one of these holy Prophets who came to a Town and espying a handsom Woman being a person of very good quality and great esteem in the Town yet the Prophet took her being at a Bath and lay with her openly in the concourse of a great multitude of people who applauded the Fact as a great honour to the Lady and many of them ran to congratulate her Husband how happy he was to have so holy a Man partner with him in his Wife and when some of the better sort of people whose discretion was a degree above the common superstition of their Religion went and informed the Magistrates of the Town of the foul and shameful act was committed by a Vagabond Prophet and they sent their officers to apprehend him the people rose upon them and would have knockt out the Brains both of Officers and Magistrates had they not speedily desisted Carpenter reporteth from a Monk of Doway That not long ago it was a custom in Biscay a Province in Spain that every Man having married a Wife sent her the first night to the Priest of the Parish which it seems was the Fee due to the Priest for his labour the same day of marrying her in his Temple Carp 193. So it was at the door of the Tabernacle Hophni and Phinehas Sons of the Priest lay with the Women of the congregation 1 Sam. 2.22 To the Temple of Marriage the Popish Priests have of latter times added the Chappel of Ease of Auricular Confession Auricular Confession in a more commodious
and such of them as have Propriety in Goods and Chattels Tenements and Haereditaments as Bees Ants and Squirrels leaving as they die their Hives and Honey-Hills and Corn-Holes and Nuts to their Descendents to be their Successors The Internal Readers and Witnesses in Man are the Divine faculties of the Soul Sense and Reason one doth Testifie the Fact the other the Law The Internal Judg of the Probation of both is the Conscience The Laws which they read and testifie are written in the Internal Tables of the Heart Christ expresseth the first concerning Marriage in the foresighted Text Matth. 19.5 For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and they two shall be one flesh Concerning Filiation the Law of natural affection which is writ in the heart of the Father is mention'd Psal 103.13 As the Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him And the Law of natural affection writ in the heart of the Mother is mention'd Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb As to the Law of Aliment written in the heart of the Father it is mention'd Luke 11.11 If a Son shall ask bread of any of you that is a Father will he give him a stone or if he ask a Fish will he give him a Serpent or if he shall ask an Egg will he offer him a Scorpion Lastly as to the Law of Succession written in the heart of the Father whereby all natural Sons succeeded either to the right of Primogeniture or Filial Portions the same runs through all the examples of Jews in Scripture and of Gentiles in Histories This great Law of Nature is acknowledged to be written in the Tables of the Heart by the Scripture it self Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles who have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or excusing one another So Rom. 1.26 Paul saith Women did sin against Nature Yet was there no Law of Moses nor any Law written by God or Man in Paper and Ink which particularly prohibited them but only that of Nature And that this Law of Nature can neither be changed nor abolished or dispensed with by any humane power is agreed by Philosophers Poets Divines Common and Civil Lawyers and all others except Popes who exalt themselves above God Christ and Nature and all that is called God Lex Naturae neo tolli neo abrogari potest saith Tul. de leg 205. Dionysius when his Mother being an old Woman desired of him he would get her to be married to a young Man He answer'd Kings might overthrow Civil Laws but could not the Laws of Nature Lex humana derivari debet à lege Dei sed eam perfectè persequi non Potest Aquin. Augustin In humanis Legibus nihil est justum nisi ab aeterna lege dirivatur Honesta turpia natura judicanda sunt Tul. de leg 169.6 Hobart's Reports 120. It is acknowledged that all customs and Acts of Parliament against the Laws of Nature are void for Lex naturae est lex legum the Law of Nature is the Law of God and positive Law if contrary or variant from it is the Law of Man Yelverion Justice said When a new Case comes for which there is no positive Law before we do as the Sophonisis and Civilians resort to the Law of Nature which is the reason and ground of all Laws and of that which is most beneficial for the Common-wealth make a Law quod non negatur 8 E. 4. fo 12. Claudius justly reprehends Tribonian That in compiling the Institutes of the Civil Law he omitted the Law of Nature de Ferraiis 552. But the flattering Courtier had he done so knew he must have prefixed another imperatoriam Majestatem and laid other manner of principles then placitum Principis to be the original of right he could not have then divided Title and Jurisdiction with his Master And Jupiter Proclaiming that Deus est imperator in Coelis Imperator est Deus in Terris 'T is well he claims only the Earth for now the Pope claims not only plenitudinem Terrae but Heaven too to sell to his Customers Yet the Civil Law acknowledges the Law of Nature immutable And this point of Marriage and Succession saith Lege duodecim tabularum benè humano generi prospectum est quae unam consonantiam tam in maribus quà m in foeminis Legitimis in eorum successionibus necnon in liberis observandam esse existimavit nullo discrimine in successionibus habito cum natura utrumque corpus ediderit ut maneat suis vicibus immortale alterum alterius auxilio egeat ut uno semoto alterum corrumpatur sed posteritas dum inimica utitur subtilitate non piam induxit differentiam c. Cod. lib. 6. tit 47. l. lege By the Law of the Twelve Tables it is well provided for Mankind that there should be the same rule of Successions for Males and Females and in Children and no difference to be made in their Successions seeing Nature hath brought forth the Bodies of both that they might continue in their course immortal and one need help of another and one taken away the other might be destroyed But later Ages while they use so much subtilty have made an impious difference c. Which is intended between Males and Females in Succession when Lands are Intailed to Heirs Males By which appears what opinion the Civil Law hath of Successions to such Intails to be impious because contrary to the Law of Nature The Civil Law likewise acknowledgeth that Jura Sanguinis nullo jure Civili dirimi possunt and again it follows the Law of Nature in Legitimation Si mulier quinquagenaria partum ediderit an debet hujusmodi soboles suo patri succedere haereditatem â—jus nancisci à Caesariano advocato interrogati sumus sancimus Licet mirabilis hujusmodi partus inveniatur raro contingat nihil tamen eorum quae probabiliter à natura nascuntur esse producta respui sed omne jus quod ex quacunque Lege liberis praestitum est hoc merum atque immutilatum hujusmodi filiis vel filiabus servari in omnibus succâ—ssionibus sive ex testamento sive ab intestata Et summatim non absimiles aliis fiant in quos similes natura efficit Cod. lib. 6. tit 47. si major A question is proposed us by the Advocate of Caesar if a Woman above fifty bring forth a Child whether such Issue shall be Successor to the Father in the whole inheritance And we Decree though it be an admirable Case and rarely happens yet we ought not to reject any thing known to be probably produced by Nature but all the right which by any Law is given to
committed to the next of Kin c. The Administration being thus granted to the Mother the Sister by th Father's side doth commence Suit before the Ecclesiastical Judg pretending her self to be next of kin and the Mother not to be kin at all to the party Deceased and therefore desireth the Administration formerly granted the Mother to be revoked and committed to her as next kin to the Deceased by force of the said Statute Hereupon the most Learned as well in the Laws of the Realm as in the Civil Law were consulted and both Common Lawyers and Civilians unanimously declared it to be an Article of their Faith contrary to Scripture and common sence that a Mother was not kin to her Son so Judgment was pass'd against the Mother whereby she lost her Son and her money too perhaps some that she gave him And in those days this precedent did so much prevail that many other Judgments passed accordingly against the Mothers Then in Rama was there a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not yea weeping it over again Qualis populea maerens Philomela sub umbra Amissos queritur faetus quos durus arator Observans nido implumes detraxit at illa Flet noctes ramoque sedens miserabile carmen Integrat maestis late loca questibus implet Yea our Rachel had twice more cause to weep then Philomel for Philomel wept only because her Children were not but Rachel wept both because hers were not and because she must not be kin to them neither And surely her mourning had continued for ever had not in process of time the Tears of Women and the Beauty of Truth for what is stronger then Truth and women against Popery prevailed in England but could not in Scotland because Skene put it on the Father The Child not the Child of the Mother Natural affection no consideration to raise an Use to a natural Son but good to an Adulterate Son who is not so apt to weep as the Mother that he should be no Sib or Kin to his Son But will you not wonder My Lord Coke will present you with a couple of rarer absurdities if possible then this for he saith lib. 10. in Leonard Loveis his Case fol. 83. That if a Woman have a Bastard which he intends a Child not born of a Ceremonial Marriage that this Child is not in truth but only in reputation her Child And therewith agrees Dyer M. 17. 18. Eliz. fo 345. 12 Eliz. 290. And then he in his Commentaries and the Judges in Plowden's Commentaries agree in Sharington and Pledal's Case That if a Man in consideration of natural affection covenant to stand seized of such a piece of Land to the use of his Son this natural affection is a sufficient consideration to raise an Use as they call it and to vest the Estate in the Son though he were the Son of an Adulterer and not the Son of his reputed Father if his Mother were married by a Priest in a Temple and his reputed Father within the four Seas But if the Son be his true natural Son begotten by himself then the consideration of natural affection to his true Son is no consideration to raise an Use nor to pass the Land to him but the same is void and null In the first Case where there is no ground for natural affection they talk all of nature extolling her above all considerations and cry out Naturae vis maxima and Natura bis maxima and give away the Estate from the true natural Child to the false Child of the Adulterer Then in the latter Case where there is a just and righteous cause of natural affection commanded by God to Men and instincted by him to Beasts to provide for their own There they are void of natural affection their blind Eye of the Law must see the Infernal darkness of Fictions in the Law and be shut against the Sun of Truth They pretend the Law of Nature in their words but in their works omnia naturae contraria legibus ibunt Nothus made the true Son and the true Son made Nothus They will not allow natural affection of the true Father to his true natural Child to be a consideration to raise an Use in so much as one Acre of Land where they will allow it to the true Nothus and Fictitious Child of an Adulterer against whom probatio non admittitur in contrarium sufficient to invest him in the thousands of Acres of Seigniories and Baronies 'T is strange that Men who profess Law and Justice should not be ashamed of so gross and repugnant absurdities and contrary not only to all Law and Justice but common sence and reason Reasons shewing further that Mamzer in the Old Testament and Nothus in the New are falsly translated Bastard Mamzer Alienigena 1. The word Mamzer is by the best Criticks affirmed to signifie naturally and properly Alienigena seu de alienae gentis foemina natus And that Deut. 23.2 ought to be translated Alienigena non introibit and not Spurius non introibit or in English a Bastard shall not enter but the Translation ought to be in English An Alien born shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord even to his tenth generation shall be not enter So as the Law here as the Laws of most other Nations do doth put a distinction in priviledge between Alien and Denizen born and not between unlawful and lawful born for an Alien is as lawfully born as a Denizen but hath not the same priviledge either as to Religion of entring into the Congregation or of acquiring propriety in the Land either by Purchase or Succession for if that should be permitted there would ensue the derision or corruption of all natural Religions by contrary Nations and the buying of one Nation out of their Land by another Enemy Nation who were richer in mony then they And that the intention as well as the words of the Law was only against Aliens born as appears manifestly by the next Verse in the same Chapter where it is said An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord which as the verse before spake of Aliens in general speaks next of Aliens in special Ammonites and Moabites who being of kindred to the Israelites might have been doubted whether intended to be excluded under the general word Aliens which this naming them specially clears and likewise clears that it is intended the National and not the getting or birth of Children in private Families And this is manifest by the constant practice of the whole Israelitish Nation who had no such thing as Illegitimation of the Children of any Ebrew Woman but whether the Wives were one or many the Children all Succeeded alike to their natural Parents if the Father did not for any special reason or otherwise expresly
THE Night doth vanish when the Sun appears And from all Clouds the smiling Morning clears Romish Night-Ravens flie ye filthy Fowls And all ye Ceremonial Bats and Owls And Weather-cocks whose painted Feathers strange With every Wind God's Moral Law would change His Law is light the Sun outshines the Torch Which blindly Virgins led to the Church Porch Ye Meadows deck your selves with flowry pride Hear of an Holy Marriage and a Bride Not given by Man but God so great aad wise And by him Married as in Paradise With Beauty bright as Fire but chast and cold As Snow he Crowned her and not with Gold The Issue fair who did not Prophesie Sacred Religion Justice Liberty And Property providing of the best Both Bread and Wine for every Marriage Feast The Morall Law The Ceremonial Law Marriage by the Morall Law of God Vindicated Against all Ceremonial Laws of Popes and Bishops destructive to Filiation Aliment and Succession and the Government of Familyes and Kingdomes The Lord hath been a Witness betweene thee and the Wife of thy youth Mal. 2.14 1680. Linea Recta Proefertur Transversali RELIGION IUSTICE LIBERTY PROPERTY TO THE READER THE Writers both of Nature and Policy agree That the Original of all humane Society was Marriage by which Families were first composed consisting of Men their Wives and Children and after Commonwealths composed of those Families when by the multiplication of Generation they were grown so numerous as to be no longer able to preserve their Religion Liberty Propriety and Lives against one another without some Union of all obnoxious to receive or do Injuries under such Form of Government as was by the whole or major part of the Fathers of Families in their General Conventions of themselves or Representatives Consented and Covenanted for the common Peace and Happiness of all to both which no Constitution of Laws was more necessary than those which concern'd Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession whereon not only private but publick Peace and War often depended and therefore Marriage being the Ordinance of God and not of Man it was impossible to lay any secure Foundation of the Rights of the same except on the Moral Law of God and no other was long observed either by the Jews or Gentiles than what was as Christ saith from the beginning till to break in pieces the Divine Tables of the same the Devil and the Priest conspired together to set up the Golden Calf of their Ceremonies and that Gods Ordinance should be null and void without them and no probation should be admitted of their performance but the Certificate of the Bishop or High-Priest by which as to matter of Succession to Inheritances and Kingdoms They bound their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron God was pleased to make the Contention concerning a Marriage between H. 8. and the Pope the occasion of breaking off some of the Links and of being a beginning of the Protestant Religion and Liberty and I hope he doth now offer the like or a greater occasion of propagating both to the present Age and Posterity and not only to break all the Reliques of the Chains but to file off the Collars themselves whereby the Bishop of Rome and the Provincial Bishops have long so gauled the Necks of Princes and People through all Christendom to the easing of which Burdens I should be glad if thou and so many other more fit than my self would lend your hands but seeing so many seeming to sleep in the midst of so great a danger I hope it ought not to offend if I hereby endeavour to awaken you and to be therein as I ought to be to my Power Your Servant Will. Lawrence THE CONTENTS Of the First Book BY what Law Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought not and ought to be Judged p. 1. Not to be Judged by the Law of Moses or Customes of the Jews p. 2 Not to be Judged by the Laws and Customes of Heathen Nations p. 10 Not to be Judged by the Law Civil Canon or Feudal p. 21 Not to be Judged by the Law of Mahomet p. 26 Not to be Judged by Ecclesiastical Laws p. 31 All Allegations of Coke in behalf of Ecclesiastical Laws answer'd ib. Of the mischiefs ensue from Ecclesiastical Laws p. 43 1. All Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage were invented by Daemons Pagan Priests or Popes ib. The History of the Devil appearing in the shape of Christ to Dr. d ee and tempting him and his Seer Kelly to Community of Wives p. 45 All prohibition of Marriage or Meat in any Ceremony or Circumstance not prohibited by the Moral Law of God came from the Devil p. 52 2. The Final Causes of all Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage variant from the Moral Law of God were Lust Covetousness and Ambition of the Priest p. 53 3. They pester the Three Kingdoms with an unnecessary and excessive multitude of Laws p. 57 4. They corrupt the choicest Protestant Wits in their Education with Principles of Popery and Slavery p. 59 5. They introduce divers weights and measures of Justice in the same People ib. 6. They compell the Subjects ad aliud Tribunal than Caesars Judgment Seat ad aliud Examen than per legem terrae ad aliud judicium than legale judicium Parium ib. 7. They expose the Subjects to Circuit of Action Subornation Perjury and to be ground between two Milstones of interferring Jurisdictions Spiritual and Temporal 8. Papal Laws of Marriage are inconsistent with a Protestant Priesthood ib. Not to be Judged by such Laws of England Scotland or Ireland as are Reliques of Popery and contrary to the Law of God Of the Law making Marriage a Sacrament p. 65 Of the profound Popery of the Common Lawyers of Transubstantiation of two Persons into one Person and the mischiefs thereof p. 66 A Note taken at Kings-Bench-Bar of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton betwixt a Man and his Wife p. 71 Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into the Children of the Husband if within the Four Seas and of Intails p. 72 A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke concerning the same and of Intails on Marriages depending thereon p. 73 75 Of the barbarous Law of Illegitimation or making Children incapable to succeed to the Goods of their Parents the Reformation thereof by the Emperor Anastasius and the Deformation of the same again by the Strumpet Theodora and succeeding Popes and Bishops p. 79 That unlawful Marriages of Parents ought not to Illegitimate their Children p. 80 Illegitimation of Children shews Popes and Bishops worse than Pagans Infidels Beasts Monsters Serpents p. 82 Intails Feminine cut off by Adoption or Institution by the Father of his natural Children Heirs ib. Of the Law of Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium p. 83 Of the Pagan Goddess Juno and the Popish Mother of St. Kentigern both got with Child without a Man p. 85 Of the
Lady Ann of Britain Married to the bare Leg of the Embassador of the Emperor Maximilian p. 86 Of the Lady Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperor Married to Martianus the Lady Etheldred to two Husbands the Lady Amigunda to the Emperor Henry the Second the Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor the Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eight all Married by Priests but not by their Husband ib. Of the Custom of desertion of Virgins after deslowring p. 88 Of the desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth for the Lady Jane Grey and the infelicity followed thereon to them and their Children ib. Of the like desertion by a Gentleman in Ireland after a Child born p. 89 Of the ancient Form of Marriage-Contracts Se post concubitum in vitam non deserturum now repugnantly turn'd into Verba de presenti Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation to a Minor Married to an Husband after Carnal knowledge to desert him for a Richer p. 91 An example of the same in Scotland ib. Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands by giving them more Alimony than the Interest of their Portions p. 94 Of the Law of Divorce after Procreation of a Child for Precontract or Precopulation without Preprocreation ib. Stat. 3 H. 8. cap. 38. against Precontracts p. 96 Edward the Sixth abused by Papists in his Minority to repeal his Fathers Act against Precontracts p. 98 Of the Law making private Marriage or Carnal-knowledge without publique Witnesses of a verbal Contract Fornication p. 101 Of the Law requiring Witnesses of Marriage and Filiation where both are acknowledged by the Parents and no third Party claims the Father Mother or Child p. 109 Of the Law of Sequestration of a Woman pendente placito Sued by two Corrivals and Sentencing either Man or Woman to be restored in Specie and not in Value ib. Of the Law making all prohibited Marriages Null p. 100 Of the Custom of Superalimentary Gifts in consideration of Carnal knowledge between a Man and a Woman either before or after Marriage p. 113 A Satyr against Merâ—enary Marriage p. 117 Of the Law giving Jurisdiction of the secret Causes of Divorce between Parents and secret Uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses to publick Tribunals Of the Law compelling Parties Married though mortal Enemies to Cohabitation Of the Law of Divorce a Mensa Thoro. Not to be Judged by Ceremonial Laws Of the absurd and ridiculous Ceremonies on which Priests would have Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession to depend p. 127 Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought only to be Judged by the Moral Law of God p. 130 Of the Final causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature p. 135 Errata's in Verse LIb. 1. p. 131. line 5. for Moon read Morn p. 135. l. 36. for lease r. cease p. 223. l. 28. for I see r. is with me p. 224. l. 9. for all r. such p. 225. l. 8. for thanks r. there and in the same line after for there r. and l. 39. for lightnings r. lightning p. 228. l. 5. add the word next before the word expel p. 392. l. 11. for who burn would not r. who burn would Lib. 2. p. 239. l. 31. for Mariners r. Mariner l. 36. for why r. who Lib. 3. p. 89. l. 8. for their r. them l. 16. for not babling r. no babling Errata's in Prose COntents to the First Book relating to p. 88. for in vitam r. invitam non deserturum Lib. 1. p. 88. l. 8. add invitam before deserturum p. 90. l. 42. for invitum r. invitam deserturum p. 1. l. 11. for or any Subject r. on any Subject p. 4. l. 28. for Harecloth r. Hayrcloth p. 17. l. 36. for women were divorced r. women did divorce p. 23. l. 21. for Affinity r. Consanguinity p. 43. l. 11. for Canon Law r. Common Law p. 93. l. 27. for Common Law r. Canon Law p. 106. l. 31. for pitty relieve him r. pitty to relieve him p. 110. l. 40. for invitum fore Matrimonium r. Irritum fore Matrimonium p. 132. l. 36. add and shall cleave to his wife p. 180. l. 11. for established r. abolished p. 180. l. 42. for Chancellors of State r. Councellors of State p. 210. l. 20. for Sacrament r. Sacrifice p. 215. l. 28. for Tyrant r. Pyrat p. 282 l. 23. for there were Judges r. and Judges p. 120. l. 1. leave out no l. for Secreta Fori r. Secreta Thori p. 121. l. 25. for false r. and the false p. 121. l. 43. for take off Exequenda officia Matrimonialia r. talk of Exequenda officia Matrimonialia p. 257. l. 30. for thinks r. think l. 27. for that binds r. binds p. 265. l. 17. for Obligatio libelli r. Oblatio libelli Lib. 3. Preface p. 10. l. 1. for Algine r. Algive In the Contents relating to p. 160. for Successor or Male r. Successor Male leaving out or p. 2. l. 16. for ever that be r. Over that be p. 13. l. 10. for wages r. ways p. 188. l. 25. for Basiel r. Baliel In the Index see Bail in line 36. for Canon-Law r. Common-Law OF The Laws of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession Lib. I. Of the Two Grand Questions concerning Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession IT was the saying of one Se benè dividentem velut Deum secuturum And Dichotomy though the most difficult to do is without dispute if well done the most excellent Division and Method wherein any Discourse can proceed or any Subject which made me indeavour though not passibus aequis to follow that way directed by the great Methodist of Art Aristotle or rather the greater director of Nature God himself of whom it may more truly be said In duo divisit quicquid in Orbe suit The whole Question therefore naturally depending on what shall be the Law and who shall be the Judg and all Parts of Argumentation consisting either of Premises or Conclusion all Premises being either Negative or Affirmative I have as to Premises stated the whole Controversie of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession Negatively and Affirmatively under these Two great Questions following First By what Law they ought not and by what Law they ought to be judged Secondly By what Judg they ought not and by what Judg they ought to be judged And these two Premises being proved he will be an absurd Logician who denies the Conclusions following from them CHAP. I. Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession not to be judged by the Law of Moses or Customs of the Jews Divorce DEut. 24.1 It 's said When a man hath taken a Wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his Eyes because he hath found some Vncleanness in her then let him write a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his House And when she is departed out of his House she may go and be another man's Wife
his Money by it he will neither Stone nor Poison her but give a Divorce and save both her Life and Honour The Peguians buy their Wives of their Friends and when he is weary of her he may send her home again but he must then lose the Money he gave for her But it she leave him as she may likewise do then the Money is to be paid him back which he gave for her The Customs of the Jews allowed them to make Eunuchs Eunuch as Chron. 28.1 It is said David assembled the Eunuchs and 2 Kings 9.32 It is said When Jehu call'd after Jezabel had spoke to him out of the Window that there looked out to him two or three Eunuchs and 2 Kings 24.12 It is said And Jehoiachin the King of Judah went out to the King of Babylon he and his Mother and his Servants and his Eunuchs Origen and the Sect of Valesians gelded themselves and held that it was impossible for any but Eunuchs to be saved But later Jews allowed them not And Josephus lib. 4. de Antiq. saith Eunuchs are to be detested because they deprive themselves of Manhood and Power of begetting Children neither is it lawful to geld Man or Beast and the Civil Law punisheth it with Death Cod. lib. 4. tit 42. De Eunuchis Si quis post hanc Sanctionem in orbe Romano Eunuchos fecerit Capite puniatur If any after this Law shall make Eunuchs in the Roman World let him be punished with Death I conclude though there is much of the Moral Law mix'd amongst the Laws of Moses which is immutable and ought to be inviolably observed yet not on the Authority of Moses but on the higher Authority of God himself who writ them both in the Internal Tables of the hearts of men and in the External Tables of his Works which as to such of them as are living Creatures and concern Marriage as Christ saith he made them Male and Female Then as to the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws of Moses they were all National and belong'd only to the Jews and they were generally taken by the Jews from the AEgyptians and other Idolatrous Nations And Moses being not able to reform them in such a stiff-necked people except only as to Images for indeed all long Customs are hard to be broken in any People was fain to Tolerate them for the hardness of their hearts and they were many of them full of Superstition and Injustice CHAP. II. Marriage Matrimony Legitimation or Succession not to be judged by the Laws and Customs of Heathen Nations Chinaois way of Marrying IN China the Governor and Vice-Roy in each Province appoint a certain time and place where those that are willing to Marry may and do come where Twelve Principal Men are appointed Judges before whom they present themselves Six Judges divide the Men into three parts the rich the indifferent and the poor the other six Judges in the mean while divide the Maids into the beautiful the indifferent and the unhandsome thereupon the Judges give the very beautiful to the rich and they give what the Judges appoint for them the indifferent rich to the indifferent handsome who pay nothing for them and the unhandsome to the poor with the Money the rich paid divided into equal Portions Joan Gonsales Hist de la China P. 46. The like was done antiently by the Babylonians The Indians way Indorum virgines quum esse nubiles câ—perint in Publicum à Parentibus producuntur concurrente ut assolet multitudine libera illis datur optio è Juvenum turba virum sibi seligendi quem virtute aliqua insigniter praestantem putent Caelius lib. 18. cap. 31. The Samoyeds being a people bordering on Russia use to buy their Wives and have no other Ceremony of Marriage but agreement for the Price which commonly is dear they being their cheif Cattle and the Woman brought and delivered to the man that bought her by her freind and a Feast at his Tent there provided to entertain them and at Night all departing and leaving the Man and Woman together there alone till next Morning Gourdon Anno 1614. The Jews and Romans way was likewise buying and selling The Mahumetans likewise give Money for their Wives which when paid the Contract is Registred in the Caddyes Book which serves for the Tole-Book they paying the Market Fee which is all the Formality of the Marriage Heyl. 778. Caesar lib. 4. de bell Gall. saith That amongst the Germans exchange of Wives was in use and the Indian Histories relate That in Calicut the Custom of exchange is still reteined Exchange of Wives-Lending Wives and Jerome taxes Cato Vtican that he lent his Wife Martia to his Friend Hortensius as Appian relates 2 Bell. Civ Lucan lib. 2. And Plutarch in Numa that he did it by the Constitution of Numa These are the Marriages these the Solemnities the Pontifical Laws have taught and is there any still so stupid as to prefer the Laws of men before the Laws of God At Gomera it was heretofore the only sign counted of their Hospitality to let their Friends lie with their Wives and receive theirs in Testimony of mutual kindness Heyl. 105. For which reason there as in other places of the Indies the Sister's Son was usually the Heir The Common Councel or Senate of the Canaries or Fortunate Islands who were both Magistrates and Preists had before Conquer'd by Christians the first Nights Lodging with every Bride The Inhabitants of Zant solicit such Merchants as resort thither to hire their Wives and agree of the Price At Pegu when Merchant-strangers come thither they are provided a House and withal certain Maids of the City are sent to him out of whom he takes his choice and agrees with her Friends at what rate they can which is not much to pay a certain Summ for the use of her and this Maid attends during the time agreed as a Servant and Wife after which he may take another but not during the time agreed In Cunall a part of Tartary they count it a great honour to have their Wives and Sisters at the pleasure of others whom they entertain of which being restrained by the great Cham they petition'd him at three Years end to be restored to their old Custom affirming They could never thrive since they left it on which Liberty was again restored and they still use it Heyl. 857. At Tangut they think it not fit to tempt a Woman but if she offer her self they think it a great sin to refuse her Courtesie Heyl. ib. At Colchos the Husband thinks it a Credit their Wives can please and be acceptable to others to whom they prostitute them Purchas 342. The Turks are allowed four Wives Plurality which must be also of his Religion but he is allowed Concubines Slaves and of any Religion as many as they can keep The Persians allow as many Concubines as they will paying them Salary by Week Month or
and no Certificate of Bishops hath power to take that right from them 7. Here the wantonness of Widows is forbidden who are for new Husbands as soon as the old is put in his Grave whereby who are Fathers of their Children is made uncertain 8. Here is no false Fathering of Children on those who are within four Seas 9. Here is no punishing Men twice for one offence once by the Temporal Court and then by the Spiritual Court or contrary punishments by contrary Courts one by the Contentious Court and another by the Penitential Court 10. Here is no Auricular Confession of their Wives or Daughters by Priests in Temples or Chambers and defiling thereby of their Families 11. Here is no punishing of Women for bringing forth Children nor the Murders of so many Infants caused thereby as by the Papist Laws is continually done Yet I conclude though the Law of the Turk is far better than that of the Pope and shall rise in Judgment against such as plant his Canons in their Courts in defiance of the Law of God and Nature I think neither a fit Rule to judge Marriage Legitimation or Succession by CHAP. V. Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession not to be judged by Ecclesiastical Laws THE Question is Whether Marriage Legitimation and Succession ought to be judged by Ecclesiastical Laws No English Lawyer can mention my Lord Coke without great honour but how he came so biass'd as to endeavour to set up Papal and Episcopal Laws under the name of Regal appears not Object 1 It is objected by Coke lib. 5.1 part 40. in Cawdryes Case That the Kingdom of England is an absolute Monarchy and if the King cannot Authorize by his Commission or Writ Ecclesiastical Judges to determin and judg those great and important Causes of Matrimony Divorce and general Bastardy by Certificate of the Bishop who is the Ecclesiastical Witness and Judg both of Fact and Law and by the Canon Laws which by use and custom are now our Ecclesiastical Laws Then he is disabled to be supreme Governour of this Realm in all Spiritual things or Causes as well as Temporal according to the Oath of Supremacy due to him And that he could not then cause Justice to be administred to his Subjects in these so great and important causes of Matrimony Divorce and general Bastardy on which depends the strength of mens Descents and Inheritances This I conceive though not in the same words yet in sence and substance to be the weight of my Lord Coke's Argument whereby he would make use of Marriage as one means amongst his many other to set up an Ecclesiastical Law and Judg over the Temporal Freeholds and Inheritances and other Birth-rights of the Subjects To which is answer'd First As to the words Absolute and Supream I suppose he intended no such absolute Monarchy or Supremacy as is not under the Law of God though it be not so express'd in the form of the Oath of Supremacy For though Regum timendorum in proprios greges Ecclesiastical Laws not needful to the King's Supremacy but hurtful Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis then I think he doth not intend it to be above the Law of the Land seeing the King himself by his Oath is pleased to oblige himself to his People to govern according to that Law where it is not contrary to the Law of God Then as to the pretended want of Power of doing Justice concerning causes of Free-hold and Inheritance depending on marriage except by Ecclesiastical Laws and Judges that is very strange for how was Justice done in the times of Primitive Christianity for many Hundred Years after Christ when neither Bishops or any other Ecclesiastical Judges ever pretended Jurisdiction todetermin Temporal Right or Propriety but left the same to be judged by the Imperial Laws How was Justice done in the time of Henry the Second when the Jurisdiction of all Matrimonial causes remained in the Temporal Courts Richard the First his Son being the first as Matthew Paris writes whom the Clergy got by his publick Edict to give the Jurisdiction of Power and Gifts by reason of Marriage and of all Matrimonial causes to the Bishops Courts and the same Richard likewise gave them Jurisdiction of all breach of Faith Promises and Oaths whereby if much of the Power so rashly granted had not been by him so speedily resumed they had hookt to themselves the whole Jurisdiction from the King's Courts of all Contracts and Conveyances Bonds and Obligations as well as Marriages concerning Temporal Goods and Inheritances And why cannot general as well as special Bastardy be tryed at Common Law And how likewise are all Rights depending on all Marriages made during the late Civil Wars by pretence of any Ordinance of Parliament made by 12. Car. 2. cap. 33. to be tryed by a Jury and the Common Law and not by Certificate of the Bishop or any Ecclesiastical Judg to the advancement and not prejudice of Justice and a far greater expedition and advantage to the same would it be if by the like Act the Jurisdiction of all Marriages and Legitimations as it was in the time of Henry the Second were again restored to the Common-Law-Courts So likewise anciently Bastardy alledged in an Action of Trespass was triable by Jury but now usurped by Bishops as well in personal as real Actions 4. Edw. 4.35 Object 2 Coke lib. 5.1 part in the same case of Cawdry it is further alledged Circumspectè agatis gives no Jurisdiction of Marriage to Bishops That the Statutes of Circumspectè agatis made 13. Eliz. 1. of Articuli Cleri made 9. E. 2. Anno Domini 1315. of 15. E. 3. Cap. 6. of 31. E. 3. Cap. 11. give Jurisdiction of marriage to Bishops To which is answer'd That in the Statute of Circumspectè agatis there is not a word mention'd of marriage but only by it Jurisdiction is given to the Bishops of Fornication and Adultery which is not Marriage but rather Anti-marriage for Marriage is an Ordinance of God Fornication and Adultery are Ordinances of the Devil and whereas before the Jurisdiction of Fornication and Adultery as acknowledged by Coke lib. 5.1 part 488. was in Leets under the name of Letherwit or more properly Lecherwit yet had Leets never Jurisdiction of Marriage or Divorce neither consequently could Bishops have it from them As for Articuli Cleri and the other Statutes there is not a word in them concerning Marriage nor so much as of Fornication and Adultery the Jurisdiction therefore pretended was never given by any Statute Linwood likewise expounds the words of the Statute of Circumspectè agatis which gives Bishops Jurisdiction of all deadly Sins as Fornication and Adultery and the like Non intelligas de omni peccato mortali sed de tali cujus punitio spectat merè ad forum Ecclesiasticum nam si de ratione cujuslibet peccati mortalis cognosceret Ecclesia sic periret temporalis gladii Jurisdictio
constrained to obey them or to dye for hunger Of the Barbarous Law of Illegitimation or making Children incapable of Succession to the Goods of their own Parents And of the most excellent Law of the Emperour Anastasius decreeing all natural Children to be Legitimate and the repeal of the same caused by the Strumpet Theodora and the succeeding Popes and Bishops The power of Sale of Legitimations of natural Children was first in Pagan Rome usurped there by their Pagan Bishops and Priests and hath since in imitation of them been usurped by Christian Bishops in name but indeed Anti-Christian for the same filthy lucre amongst whom the Bishop of Rome and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury have been the Primates But after the Emperours of Rome perceiving the vast Sums as it were ex lotio the Prerogative-Office and the Office of Faculties heaped together they swept them all into their own Exchequer and suffer'd no Legitimation to be granted unless they bought them of the Emperours who received great gain thereby till the Empire came into the hands of the vertuous Anastasius who seeing the great oppressions on his Subjects by taking from them that Birth-right which the Law of God and Nature gave not only to them but every Creature born into the World to be provided for by those who begot them and this to be continued only for the profit of his Exchequer he disdained such sordid and impious gain and made a most pious holy and honourable Decree That all natural Children should be Legitimate whereby all Intails to the Bodies of Women of the Husbands Estates were cut off and the mischiefs of bringing Fictitious Adulterous Supposititious and false Heirs into Families prevented But after Theodora who was a common Prostitute Theodora a common Prostitute the Author of the Ecclesiastical Laws of marriage came to be married to the Emp. Justinian and another Theodora as bad as she and her Daughter Marozia and other such Creatures came to be Strumpets to Pope Sergius and other Popes and had the chief hand in making all the Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage by which the Bishops to this day judge Do any expect that these Whores of Babylon would ever bring any good Laws out of the Stews into the Church Certainly if any judicious and indifferent person will take the pains to take a full view of the Canons he will easily find there is not one which is not either a Gin to take their Prey or a Bait to cover it and that if all the Theodoras Marozias Laisses Thaisses Phrynes and Floras were to be alive again and sit in a Conclave of Women they nor all their Chaplain Priests could not invent better Laws for the advancement of their Trade or ways to destroy Religion Justice Vertue Modesty and Chastity then the Imperial Papal and Provincial Ganons are under the name of Ecclesiastical Laws And that notwithstanding Bishops amongst Protestants should be so long tolerated to judg arbitraties or according to them not only of Patrimonies and Matrimonies Filiations and Successions of the Subjects but of Kings and Kingdoms themselves is horrible But to return now to Theodora as Bodin Fol. 17. says and appears by divers Civil Laws compared after she had got the the Mastery of Justinian the Emperor her Husband a blockish and unlearned Prince when she had made all the Laws she could for the advantage of Women against their Husbands she got him to enact That it should be death for a man to lie with any Woman but his Wife but if the Wife lay with other Men besides her Husband she should only be infamous that is to say she should have no punishment at all for what honour can Infamy take from her who by Adultery hath already lost her honour and is totally defamed I forbear for brevity to recite other of her Laws but amongst them all there being not one good except for her Trade there cannot be a more wicked then the next For she having the command of her chous'd Husband caused him to repeal the excellent Law of the Emperor Anastasius which made as before mention'd all natural Children Legitimate that is to say where their Filiation was acknowledged by the Father by Adoption or other sufficient Declaration by him of the same whereby the old Ignoramus abrogated a better Law then ever he made or was in the whole heap raked together in his name by Theodora and Tribonian and they set up again the old Pontifical Intails of Husband's Lands to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman married before a Priest in a Temple That unlawful Marriages of Parents ought not to illegitimate the Children Child not to be punish'd for the Father's sin Desertion of Virgins after deflouring caused by Illegitimation First This is contrary to the Law of God to punish the sins of the Parents on the Children Secondly This incourages Fathers to deflour Virgins and when got with Child to desert both the Mother and the Child as a far cheaper way then by carrying her first to a Priest and Temple to draw a charge on himself of her and her Child as long as he lives this incourages likewise such Fathers to get Children by Incest and Adultery and Fornication and any other way which is not lawful rather then according to the lawful Ordinance of God because he can cast off all these Women and Children by only saying they are illegitimate and take an hundred more and serve them the like and they shall thereby be defrauded of Succession to his Goods and so much as Aliment from the same whereas if according to the Law of God and the excellent Law of Anastasius derived from the same all natural Children were to be adjudged Legitimate the Children would be provided for by being by Law made Successors to their Fathers Estate as far as the same will reach and Fathers would be discouraged to get Children unlawfully when they saw they could not thereby wickedly desert and make them illegitimate or evade the Obligation laid on them by the Law of God and Nature to provide for their own A wicked Father ought not to have a greater privilege then a good A Father not to take advantage of his own wrong Thirdly 'T is very unjust That a wicked Father should have greater privilege then a good and he who doth his Child injury then he who is his Benefactor for a Father who gets a Child unlawfully doth a double injury to the Child and rather ought to make double satisfaction to him then if he got him lawfully for he dishonors the Child and it is a rule in Law None shall take advantage of his own wrong if the Child is unlawfully begot who did the wrong but the Father who is therefore if proved to be punished for the wrong and not to take advantage of it against his injured Child to illegitimate and disinherit him nor much less ought the Law to do it for no other reason but because the Father
hath done him one wrong to do him another but in justice to be the readier to make the Father who injured him to make satisfaction by adjudging him right of Aliment and Succession to his Estate for as it is inconsistent with Mercy and the highest Cruelty Afflictionem addere afflicto so is it with Justice because the Coat is taken from an innocent to take his Cloak also or to make one injury done the warrant to do another No such word as illegitimation nor no such deed in the whole Scripture Fourthly Because there is no foundation for this unnatural Cruelty of illegitimation or indeed worse then beastly exposing Children to be destroyed in the whole Scripture neither is there such a word as Bastard in the whole Original Old Testament or New Hebrew Text or Septuagint but the same is falsely Translated by Papists and Bishops to deceive the World as shall be more fully shewn when I after come to the point of false-translation of all words concerning Marriage Fifthly All the examples of Scripture of unlawful Marriages yet Legitimate and make the Children Successors to their Fathers in such unlawful Marriages as Lot begot Moab and Ammon by Incest on his own Daughters yet were Moab and Ammon Legitimate Successors to their incestuous Father Judah begot Pharez by Incest on his Daughter in Law yet was he Legitimate Successor to his incestuous Father David got Solomon on an Adulteress with whom he had committed Adultery in her Husband's life time and kill'd her Husband to obtain yet did not this illegitimate Solomon but he Succeeded to his Father And according to the Law of Anastasius and the Law of God and Nature whether the marriage were lawful or unlawful yet the Law was amongst the whole Nation of the Israelites and Jews That all natural Children were Legitimate Illegitimation of Children shews Fathers worse then Pagans Insidels wild-beasts Monsters Serpents and Succeeded to their Fathers and the same Law was amongst the Aegyptians Athenians Phoenicians Persians Turks Tartars and Mahometans who though Infidels have been better then such counterfeit Christians who make Laws to illegitimate and not provide for their own Children O ye Jews Turks Heathens Pagans Infidels O ye wild Beasts in your Dens O you Serpents in the Desarts Oh ye Monsters in the Sea arise and witness against Popes and Bishops that your Dens Desarts and raging Seas are not such Hells as the Limbus puerorum of illegitimation Did you ever illegitimate your little Ones did ye not labour to provide for your own will you not with invincible Piety hazard your own lives in defence of your young Rise up in Judgment against these Romish wild Beasts Serpents and Monsters far more Cruel Poisonous and Monstrous then your selves who for gain teach to illegitimate starve and Murther their own self-begotten Babes before they can speak deploring their miserable Fate with weeping and wailing to be the Issue of so unnatural and cruel Parents Sixthly I shall only add a word concerning the Original cause which produced this wicked effect of illegitimation of Children which the cursed invention of Intails by the Priest of the Lands of the Husband to the Heirs of the Body of whatsoever Woman he married or certified married to the man whereby as is before mention'd the Priest by Certificate and the Woman by Secrecy had power to make Successors what Adulterous Heirs they pleased and most commonly begotten by the Priest himself to the Husbands Inheritance to cut off these Adulterous Intails the most ancient whereof we read were set up by Cecrops for the Owls of Athens and King Aegeus the natural Father of the famous Theseus was the first who invented Adoption to cut them off and accordingly Adopted his natural Son Theseus who thereby became his Successor to his Kingdom of Athens whereby the Certificate of the Bishop was abolish'd and the Supremacy of the Kingdom taken from the Priest to the King and the free disposing left to Fathers of their Estates to such Children as they acknowledged according to the deserving or undeserving of the Children After this Solon who is thought though not as wise yet to have been as great a lover of women as Solomon and to have been drawn by them into as great Idolatry for Solon as a principal peice of his Government intended to be set up by his Laws as shall be after further touched Consecrated and Founded Priests and a Temple to the Goddess Venus and endowed the same with great Revenues and Privileges and Consecrated a multitude of Curtesans to exercise their Trade and pray for the prosperity of Greece in the same And did what he could to restrain the free liberty of Adoption by Husbands whereby the Ladies were prejudiced in their power of instituting Heirs to their Husbands Estates in as free a manner as their Goddess Venus gave them leave But the more Masculine Princes both of Greece and Rome vindicated their own Power of Adoption both against the Priests and the Ladies And Anastasius without any Formality of Adoption cut off at a stroke all Feminine Intails by making all natural Children as they ought to be Legitimate which continued till as before mention'd the Strumpet Theodora and her Bishops got the Law of Anastasius repealed and Adulterous Intails again set up And the like Law was in England Fathers gave what they were bound by the Law of Nature to give to their natural Children for provision for them and they Succeeded to the same 'till the Bishops for the same ends as the Pagan and Theodoran Bishops did set up Here likewise by the Statute of Westmin 2. Cap. 2. those Feminine and Adulterous Intails have been since endeavour'd to be cut off by Fines and Recoveries But the many Inconveniences of those ways make the Remedy almost as bad as the Disease No remedy but abolishing Intails and restoring the Law of Anastasius To conclude therefore there is no way to prevent the exposing and desertion of Children by Fathers the Adulteries of Mothers and the murders of so many Infants occasion'd by this Diabolical Pontifical invention of Illegitimation as the abolishing all Intails to more Bodies then one and the restoring of that most excellent Law of Anastasius That all natural Children shall be Legitimate and the Innocent Babes be no longer punished and destroyed for the sins of the Parents Of the Law of Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium Of the Pagan Goddess Juno and the Popish Mother of St. Kentigern both got with Child without a Man Of the Lady Ann of Britain married to the bare Leg of the Embassador of the Emperour Maximilian Of the Lady Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperour married to Martianus the Lady Etheldred to two Husbands the Lady Amigunda to the Emperour Henry the Second the Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor and the Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eighth all married by Priests but not by their Husbands Intention of the mind The
used to deflour the fairest Plebeian Virgins yet by their Law would allow this to be no Marriage nor suffer a Patrician to marry a Plebeian but only to abuse them till the Plebeians rose against them and beat the Patricians into better manners The like raised a Rebellion in Persia and Mutius lib. 22. Chron. Ger. relates That a Rebellion arose amongst the Suisse Vri and under Waldensians because their Nobles and Governours abused to their Lust all their handsome Virgins at pleasure and then cast them off If the greatest Peer get a Beggar with Child the Marriage is indissoluble Whereas by the unquestionable Law of God if the greatest Peer lie with a Beggar whom he may lawfully marry and get her with Child he thereby makes her his Wife and though before the birth of the Child she expressly Contract She will take hire and the same shall not be a Marriage or after she give a release yet the Marriage is indissoluble for the Act of God of giving a Child doth confirm and establish it and whom the Act of God hath joined the Act of the Parties or of all human Powers can never lawfully put asunder So as is said one cause of the late Rebellion of the Moors under Gayland was the abusing and desertion of their Virgins by their Courtiers Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation to a Minor married to an Husband after carnal knowledg to desert her Husband and take a richer In Scotland while it was my fortune to be put to sit there as one of the Commissioners for Administration of Justice it happen'd the Earl of B. deceased having left two Daughters Inheritrixes of one of the greatest Estates in that Kingdom both infra Annos nubiles and by Will left their custody and disposing to divers Guardians the Countess of B. his Relict married the Earl of W. And after they two the Earl being the Father in Law and the Countess the Mother disposed of the eldest Daughter being under the Age of Twelve in Marriage with the Son of G. S. as I remember the Sheriff of T. being about the Age of Fourteen being a Gentleman of a very good Family and of the same name of the Family of the Earl of B. deceased who was the Father of the Daughters but not of equal Estate This Marriage was Consummated by the usual publick Ceremonies and by carnal knowledg The Guardians hearing their Pupil married without their consent being very much troubled apply'd themselves to us who had then de facto all the Power Ecclesiastical and Civil both of Bishops and Judges which the Sword could put on us to null the Marriage they alledging their Pupil to be infra Annos nubiles and likewise the Marriage to be made without consent of the Guardians appointed by the Father whereupon Summons were sent to all Parties concern'd to appear and answer the matter before us in the Court at Edinburgh At the day appointed there appear'd the new married Lady all in Silver the Earl of W. the Countess and other Nobles with their Train and as near as I can remember so long since what was spoken between the Parties and the Court were to this effect Earl of W. to the President of the Court My Lord we give appearance to your Summons though I know no reason we should be troubled hither Your Power is unlimited and you do what you please but I hope you will not part Man and Wife Presi Complaint hath been made to us and we shall only examin the truth of the matter and do nothing but Justice therein as we find the same to be and as we ought to do Thereupon the Earl and Countess and all other Parties except the new Married Lady were Order'd to with-draw out of the Room and as the fashion there is on any Consultation by the Court the Doors to be close shut The young Lady seeing her Mother and all her Friends shut out of doors from her and her self detained Prisoner alone within the Bar to be examined by the Court began to be something appal'd but the President comforting and incouraging her she address'd her self to answer what should be demanded Presi Are you married to the young Gentleman mention'd by your Guardians Lady Yes Presi Is it by your free consent or were you compell'd or deceived to do it Lady It is my free consent and I was not compell'd or deceived Presi Were there any other Matches proposed to you besides this and did you see the Men Lady There were others proposed and I saw them but I liked this best Presi Why would you disparage your self to marry one so much beneath you in Degree and Estate Lady It was my Father's will he having no Son that I should marry one of the name of his Family of which name this Gentleman I have married is and I married him that I might preserve the name of my Father's Family according to his will Presi Why would you being so sickly and and weakly as you appear to be marry under the Age of Marriage it 's enough to destroy your health and endanger your life Lady I am more healthy then I was before Presi You are young and your mind may change you shall have other Noble young Persons and fit for your Marriage presented to you and you shall take your choice of them To which the vertuous young Lady deservedly incensed though under the Age of Twelve replyed pretty tartly That she should be then a Whore if she should change her Husband for another Man Thereupon the Lady was Order'd to with draw and the Court on Consultation Order'd That she should be deliver'd to the custody of a Governess in her own House at D. who should admit any other Noble Persons to present themselves unto her as likewise the Husband she had already married but no otherwise then openly in the presence and sight of the Governess and if the Lady liked to make choice before she came to the Age of Twelve of any other to be Husband she should have free liberty to do the same if not then her present choice should stand This Sentence was right if you admit the Common-Law that great Popish Idol which is worship'd through the three Kingdoms to be the Law of God but otherwise 't was an unlawful thing to put a new married Wife who had lain with her Husband and for ought the Court knew might be with Child by him to put her on the Temptation of changing her Husband to take a richer and thereby leave it to the wicked canon-Canon-Law which would have null'd her Marriage to have illegitimated her Child only for that desertion of her Husband to which that wicked Law tempted her but she was more Noble then to entertain such vile thoughts and continued constant to her Husband till her death Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands by giving more Alimony then the Interest of the Portion Another great mischeif is in the Ecclesiastical Laws
the colour and pretence of a former Contract made with another the which Contract divers times was but very slenderly proved and often but surmised by the malice of the party who desired to be dissolved from the Marriage which they liked not and to be coupled with another There was an Act made That all and every such Marriages as within the Church of England should be Contracted and Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with Bodily knowledge or fruit of Children or Child being had between the parties so married should be by Authority of the said Parliament Deémed Iudged and taken to be Lawful Good Iust and Indissolvable notwithstanding any pre-contract or pre-contracts of Matrimony not Consummate with Bodily knowledge which either of the Persons so married or both had made with any other Person or Persons before the time of Contracting of that Marriage which is Solemnized or Consummated or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as by the same Act more plainly may appear Since the time of which Act. although the same was Godly meant the unruliness of Men hath ungodlily abused the same and divers inconveniences intolerable in manner to Christian Ears and Eyes followed thereupon Women and Men breaking their own promises and faiths made by the one unto the other so set upon sensuality and pleasure that if after the Contract of Matrimony they might have whom they more favoured and desired they could be contented by lightness of their nature to over-turn all that they had done afore and not afraid in manner even from the very Church-door and Marriage Feast the Man to take another Spouse and the Spouse to take another Husband more for Bodily lust and carnal knowledge then for surety of faith truth or having God in their good remembrance contemning many times also the Commandment of the Ecclesiastical Iudge forbidding the parties having made the Contract to attempt or do any thing in prejudice of the same Be it therefore Enacted by the King's Highness The Lords Spiritual Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled That as concerning pre-contracts the said former Statute shall from the first day of May next coming cease be repealed and of no force or effect and be reduced to the estate and order of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm which immediately before the making of the said Statute in this case were used in this Realm So that from the said first day of May when any cause or contract of Marriage is pretended to have beén made it shall be lawful to the King 's Ecclesiastical Iudge of that place to hear and examine the said Cause And having the said Contract sufficiently and lawfully proved before him to give sentence for Matrimony commanding Solemnization Co-habitation Consummation and Tractation as it becometh Man and Wife to have with inflicting all such pains upon the disobedients and disturbers thereof as in times past before the said Statute the King 's Ecclesiastical Iudges by the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws ought and might have done if the said Statute had never been made Any Clause Article or Sentence in the said Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Of the Law making private Marriage or carnal knowledge between persons not prohibited by the Law of God to marry Fornication Private Marriage or carnal knowledge is of two sorts the one without publick Witness the other without any Witness at all and both by the Popish Laws because if permitted they would spoil their gains are prohibited and called clandestine Marriages The publick Witnesses are the Priest or Magistrate private Witnesses are any other Marriage without Witness nor clandestine not appointed by Law The Law of England makes all private Marriage and carnal knowledge without publick Witness Fornication The Law of Scotland in some cases relieves though there be a defect and no publick Witness of the Marriage by the Priest as appears in the before cited Author Craig Feud 269. If there appear private Witnesses of Men or Instruments but in all cases likewise where there are neither publick or private Witnesses they leave it to be Fornication That which I here affirm against both is Marriage without Witness not Fornication 1. That carnal knowledge between parties not prohibited by the Law of God to marry is not Fornication nor any other Crime though in the highest secrecy and without any Testimony of Men or Instruments whatsoever 2. That privacy of Marriage being not prohibited nor publication commanded by God all parties ought to have liberty of Conscience to use the one or the other according as suits best with their occasions As to the first there are these reasons That private Marriage without Witness is not Fornication nor any other Crime 1. There is no Law of God prohibiting private Marriage without Witness Where there is therefore no Law there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 2. It is before shewen That for any human Law to prohibit Marriage or Meat where not prohibited by the Law of God the same came from the Devil 1 Tim. cap. 4. v. 1 2 3. And that therefore the Law of the Pope and Council of Trent which nulls all Marriages except made before a Priest in a Temple and two Witnesses came from the Devil and the Priests of Priapus and Venus for filthy lucre to the Priests 3. Isa 45.7 It is said I create evil And Isa 5.20 It is said Wo unto them that call good evil and evil good That put darkness for light and light for darkness Here is therefore a curse pronounced against those who if God created not marriage without Witnesses evil of their own heads call it evil and where God created it to be in darkness and natural modesty of their own heads will have it by Torch-light and the whole Parish of Witnesses 4. All Fornication is Polyandry and Confusio seminum whereby the Child cannot know the Father nor the Father the Child but here is no such thing it is impossible therefore to be Fornication Liberty Conscience to marry with or without Witnesses As to the second Point which I am to maintain That privacy of Marriage without Witnesses being not prohibited by the Law of God nor publication commanded by the same no human power ought to presume to prohibit what Marriage God hath not prohibited but all persons ought to be left liberty of Conscience to marry publickly or privately with or without Witnesses as it suits best with their conveniences and occasions as is the use and practice in all other civil Contracts which men do with or without Witnesses as they think best and were never accused of sin if they had no Witnesses whereon to bring their Action only that Party is justly charged with sin who wilfully breaks his Contracts because there are no Witnesses but God to prove it against him Against these Positions I shall first answer the Objections and then shew further Reasons to confirm the same
causeth dishonour to each Party and if any Man address himself publickly to a Lady as a Suiter and after sight likes her not but deserts her this will disparage her the thoughts of the next that is wished are that she hath been blown on and refused the like will it be to the Man if the Lady refuse him Causeth Fornication Adultery Stews and Brothels Sixthly Denial of liberty of private Marriage and punishing the same as Fornication compells men to what is true Fornication and Adultery for if men cannot be allowed secret Marriage and secret Wives without Witnesses they will take secret Fornication and Adultery and secret Whores and Adulteresses without Witnesses which is a Thousand times worse So what St. Austin says Deme lupanaria turbabis omnia libidinibus is not true nor is Toleration of Stews the Remedy appointed by God to cure Lust but private Marriage is the Remedy appointed by God to cure the Stews for it is said by Paul To avoid Fornication let every Man have his own Woman and every Woman her own Man which if denied to such Persons with whose Conveniencies or Conscience it stands not to take a Woman or a Man publickly before Witnesses and a Priest in a Temple is to deny them to take any Man or Woman at all Whereas if liberty were given of private Marriage without Witnesses to such Persons as are not by the Law of God prohibited to marry this would destroy all Stews and Brothel-Houses for what Man or Woman who have liberty to choose whom they like best and to enjoy them privately to themselves would be so mad to hazard themselves in common Stews to be infected with those miserable and deadly Diseases to be robbed stript have their Throats cut or at least spirited to a Ship sold to Barbado's or Barbary or if they scape those greater dangers to be all their Lives persued by Constables Parators Bedels hooted at by Boys Carted Whipt Pumpt and to come to Bridewell and Beggary at last Seventhly Publick Marriages are too costly for the Poor therefore to prohibit them private Marriage Too costly for the poor is to prohibit them all Marriage except such as will undo them the Grand Seignior himself dares not venture on that is publick or the cost of it which is one reason he is never married publickly by a Priest in a Temple One Man may have reason to marry privately and another not and one to marry public and another not Eighthly There may be many reasons likewise both for Rich and Poor to marry secretly and one man may have a Reason which another hath not and it may be not only inconvenient but dangerous to one and not to another therefore it is fit every man seeing it is not prohibited by God should have liberty to marry publick or private with or without Witnesses as it suits best with his conveniencies Henry the Eighth married Ann Bulloigne the Mother of Queen Elizabeth on the 14 of Novemb. and kept the same so secret that it was not known till Easter after when she appeared great with Child And Arch-Bishop Cranmer was married and kept it so secret that it was not known till discovered by the King No doubt the King and Arch-Bishop both had very good reasons for what they did though they thought not fit to divulge them either before or after So Abraham and Isaac both endeavoured to keep their Marriages secret by telling lies they had very good reason for their Secrecy though not for their Lies From what hath been said appears therefore to be proved First That private marriage or carnal knowledg without Witnesses between Persons not prohibited by the Law of God to marry is not Fornication or any other Crime Secondly That it is a remedy provided by God to prevent Fornication and that the same if not forbidden by Papal Episcopal Pontifical or other Diabolical Laws would overthrow all Stews Brothels and common Whores and the whole Mystery of Iniquity of the Romish Anti-Christ which fills his Coffers and supports his Power by these filthy gains and far worse then those Ex lotio collected by the covetous Emperour Vespasian Thirdly That it is a great sin to forbid to marry And that those forbid to marry who forbid either publick or private marriage where not prohibited by God or take away the free liberty of either or compel to either dissentients in Conscience or differents in Convenience and thereby become accessaries to all the Fornications Adulteries and other wickedness which ensue thereby Of the Law requiring Witnesses of Marriage and Filiation where both are acknowledged by the Parents and no third party claims the Father Mother or Child This irrational Law is put in practice where a Man and Woman not prohibited to marry by the Law of God cohabit or keep private company and the pretence is That every Man should have his own Wife and every Woman her own Husband by the testimony of Witnesses which is as frivolous when the parties themselves acknowledge though as is before proved they are not bound to acknowledg it neither is it a sin and none else pretends claim to the Man or Woman as 't is to require Witnesses of every one possessed of Lands or Goods or to force him to answer to a Bill of discovery of his Title where none other claimeth or pretendeth a Title better than his possession The like is it where a Man and Woman acknowledg a Child to be theirs they ought not to be examined nor forced to produce Witnesses whose the Child is unless another as the Harlot did before Solomon claim or pretend right to the Child for where there is no Controversie or Crime proved there needs no Witness or Judge In like manner where a Child is acknowledged by Parents in their life time the Inheritance ought to be suffer'd to continue to him as left without proof of Witness or Enquiry where no other pretends to be a Child to the same Parents or a better right then Filiation for where there is no Controversie between some parties nor Crime proved nor Suspicion there needs neither Inquisition nor Witness nor Judge Of the Law when claim is made by Corrivals of one Woman of Sequestration of her pendente placito and Sentencing either Man or Woman to be restored in Specie and not in Value That where there is a Breach of promise or Contract of Marriage between a Man or Woman they ought to have liberty to repair themselves in damage is granted but that a Woman is to be Sequestred pendente placito or that either Man or Woman is to be adjudged to be restored in specie is denied Sequestration of a Woman unlawful 1. As to the Sequestration of the Woman this is contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of right to imprison a free Person before Judgment 2. None ought to be taken in Pledge Distrained or Sequestred which cannot be returned in as good Condition as when Taken
may serve other gods so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against thee and destroy thee suddenly And Nehem. 13.23 It is said In those days also I saw Jews that had married Wives of Ashdod of Ammon and of Moab and their Children spake half the speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews Language but according to the Language of each people and I contended with them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off their Hair and made them swear by God saying ye shall not give your Daughters unto their Sons nor take their Daughters unto your Sons or for your selves did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things So doth Mahomet command his followers to marry only those of his Religion whom he calls True Believers and saith It is better to marry Slaves who are True Believers than great Princesses who are Vnbelievers So do the Popish Laws and Canons forbid Papists to marry Protestants under the name of Hereticks except with the Pope's Dispensation or License which is only used where he sees a fit opportunity to put such a snare about the Neck of a Protestant as the Philistines did with their Dalilah about Sampson to betray and destroy him So it appears both Jew Pope and Turk are wiser in their generation then the Children of Light The Papists make Laws and prohibit Marriage with Protestants and illegitimate their Children to make them incapable to succeed to a Papists Inheritance The Protestant sleeps and never makes so much as one Law to prohibit Marriage with Papists or to make Papist Children incapable to succeed to a Protestant Inheritance CHAP. VII Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought not to be judged by Ceremonial Laws BY the Law of the Patriarchs or Moses there were no Ceremonies instituted of Marriage and the Marriage of Abraham to Sarah his first Wife was no more then of Adam to Eve Gen. 4.1 And Adam knew Eve his Wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a Man from the Lord. And this appears Gen. 20.2 where it is said And Abraham said of Sarah his Wife she is my Sister And Abimelech King of Gerar sent and took Sarah But God came to Abimelech in a Dream by Night and said to him as Mr. Selden de jur Nat. Gent. 573. translates the Hebrew Text Ecce tu morieris propter mulierem quam accepisti nam concubuit cum ea maritus Behold thou shalt dye for the Woman which thou hast taken for her Male hath lain with her God doth not say he hath carried her to Church and shook her by the hand before a Priest or took her per verba de praesenti or that Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium but the contrary that he had married her because he had lain with her And the very same Marriage without any Ceremony doth Abraham likewise make with his second Wife Hagar Gen. 16.3 And Sarah Abraham's Wife took Hagar her Maid the Egyptian after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the Land and gave her to her Husband Abraham to be his Wife And he went in unto Hagar and she conceived Here Hagar is made Abraham's Wife by no other Ceremony but going in unto her and her conception thereupon And besides going in unto her there is no Ceremony appointed for Marriage in the whole Law of Moses nor had the Jews any custom of carrying the Woman to Church before a Priest but the contrary When they married it was in the open Air and thought it not Lawful in any House whence they might behold the Heavens in memory of God's promise to Abraham Gen. 15.5 And he brought him forth abroad and said Look now towards Heaven and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy Seed be But admit Moses had made as many Ceremonial Laws for Marriage as he did for Sacrifices admit the Jews had superstitiously observed as many more by their Customs and Traditions yet were it to no purpose for both Ceremonial Laws and Traditions are all now abolished by Christ Col. 2.14 Blotting out the Hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross And Math. 15.1 Where the Scribes and Pharisees asked Christ Why do thy Disciples transgress the Traditions of the Elders v. 3. He answer'd and said unto them Why do you also transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition For God commandeth saying Honour thy Father and Mother but ye say Whosoever shall say to his Father and Mother It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honour not his Father and his Mother he shall be free Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your Tradition And vers 9. But in vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Here is the very same thing done by Bishops which was done by the Scribes and Pharisees for they on a Ceremonial Form of words used by Children gave them liberty not to honour their Father And the Bishops on a Ceremonial Form of words used by the reputed Father per verba de praesenti presently make the Child honour him who is not his Father nor begat him and if such Ceremonial Form of words be not used and a Certificate of the Bishop thereof then they command the Child not to honour the Father who begat him and command the true Father to illegitimate and abdicate his Child which was truly begotten And this they do either by the Ceremonial Law and Canons or Traditions of Popes But if both Ceremonial Laws and Traditions of Moses and Jews are abolished by Christ and by the Moral Law of God of honouring the Father much more are the Ceremonial Laws and Traditions of Popes and Bishops abolished by the same Moral Law I shall only mention a word more of the abolishing of the Ceremonials by the Testimony of the Popish Writers themselves who though in their works they keep alive all the Ceremonials of Moses's Law whence they can male profit yet in words and Doctrine they so far confess them abolished that they say it were a deadly sin to use them Aquinas therefore on the Question concludes Ceremonialia adeo sunt evacuata ut non solum sunt mortua sed mortifera Judicialia sunt quidem mortua quia non habent vim obligandi non tamen sunt mortifera quia siquis Princeps in regno suo ordinaret illa judicialia observari non peccaret nisi forte hoc modo observarentur vel observari mandarentur tanquam habentia vim obligandi ex veteris legis institutione talis enim intentio observandi esset mortifera The Ceremonial Laws are so utterly void that they are not only dead but deadly and the Judicials are dead but not deadly because if any Prince in his Kingdom will command those judicials to be observed he
Children the same ought to be wholly and intirely performed to such Sons and Daughters in all Successions whether to a Testament or an Intestate And in short that they ought not to be made unlike other Children in Successions whom Nature hath made like Hence it appears that the Civil Law wills the Succession of Children shall be according to the Law of Nature and not according to any Canon Law or Law made by the Priest Natura duce errare nullo modo potest Tul. 1. de leg Cum vero parentibus rediti deinde Magistris traditi sumus tum ita variis imbuimur erroribus ut vanitati veritas opinioni confirmatae natura ipsa cedit 3. Tusc Where nature is our Guide it is impossible to err but when we fall into the hands of Parents and are delivered to Shool-Masters we are then infected with so many Errors that all truth gives place to vanity and Nature it self yields to opinion accustomed To fight against Nature is like Giants to fight against God Cato major Of the Final Causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature The Final causes of Marriage which is the Ordinance of God and not of Man are not to fill Priests pockets with money or to satisfie their insatiable Covetousness and Ambition to set their Foot on the Necks of Emperours and Kings in their Legitimations and Successions and thereby to dispose of the Kingdoms of Princes and the Liberty Propriety and Goods of the Subjects at their Arbitrary will and pleasure But the Final causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature are three 1. Procreation of Children 2. That Man might have an Help-meet for him there being many necessities especially in time of sickness wherein Man cannot be without the help of a Woman 3. To make his life more pleasant and delightful Tristis sine conjuge lectus As for the first part which is the greatest and chiefest end of Marriage namely procreation of Children without which the World cannot be continued To be the shorter I shall only mention one Poet as follows Providei ille maximus mundi-Parens Cùm tam rapaces cerneret fati minas Vt damna semper sobole repararet nova Excedat agedum rebus humanis Venus Quae supplet ac restituit exhaustum genus Orbis jacebit squalido turpis situ Vacuum sine ullis classibus stabit mare Alesque Coelo deerit silvis fera Solis Aer pervius ventis erit Sen. in Hippol. Fates cruel Threats when the great Parent saw Against his Creatures by as great a Law He then Inacted all those whom it slew Sould by new Births perpetually renew Should Venus lease and should not still restore With fresh Supplies Natures exhausted store On squalid Earth no Beauty would remain No gallant Fleets would dance upon the Main No Deer in Woods no Birds would be in Skie Winds only through sad Air would sighing flie There could be neither King nor Parliament nor People nor Governours nor Governed neither could the Protestant Religion defend it self against Pope or Turk without Marriage for though it be Apocrypha it is truly said Esdras 4.15 Women have born the King and all the People that bear rule by Sea or Land The End of the First Book THE CONTENTS Of the Second Book BY what Judg Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought not and ought to be Judged Of the Five Competitors to be Judges of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession 1. The Bishop 2 The Magistrate 3. The Souldier 4 The Parents 5. The King and Parliament 137 Exceptions against Bishops being Judges in reference to the Legislative ib. Except 1. They assume to be Judges Jure Divino without a Sign of Mission from God which overthrows the Legislative Power of the King and Parliament ib. Of the Sign of Mission required by the Grand Seignior from Sabatai Sevi a counterfeit Jewish Messiah 139 2. They have falsely translated the Scripture in all words relating to Marriage 142 They have falsely translated Ish Isha Zona Kadesh Philiegesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Husband Wife Harlot Concubine c. 142 No such as word as Concubine in the whole Original Scripture ib. They have falsely translated the Seventh Commandment Lo Tinaph to be Adultery 145 They have falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Fornication ib. They have falsely translated the Tenth Commandment in the words Wife Man-Servant Maid-Servant 146 They have falsely translated Mamzer in the Old and Nothus in the New Testament Bastard Wherein are noted the Errors of Coke Skene and Grotius in following Episcopal and other Popish translations ib. Of the absurdity of Common and Ecclesiastical Lawyers who make the Child born without the Ceremonies of a Priest and Temple no Sib Kin or of Blood to the Father who begot or the Mother who bare him 154 155 Further Reasons shewn that they have falsely translated Mamzer in the Old and Nothus in the New Testament Bastard 156 No such word or thing as Bastard in the whole Original Scripture or amongst the Hebrews Greeks or Romans 3. They have corrupted the Press both as to Scripture and Acts of Parliament and interdict Protestants to Print against or answer Papists 162 A Counterfeit Act of Parliament Printed by Bishops against Protestants and the true supprest 163 Mischiefs which follow the Interdiction of the Press to Protestants 164 165 4. By pretence of giving the King the name of Supremacy they have taken the thing to themselves 167 5. By pretence of giving the King Supremacy by the Ceremonies of the Coronation they take it from him to themselves 169 David Anointed and Crowned by his Parliament and not by the Priest 173 6. They assume in all matters concerning Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession to be above Appeal to the Kings Courts 175 Of the abominable Judgement pass'd by the Common Law Judges in Kennes Case Coke lib. 7.42 whereby they gave away the Supremacy of the King's Courts to Bishops and made them in all causes Matrimonial subject to no Appeal ib. Exceptions against Bishops being Judges in reference to the Judicial Power 180 1. They are prohibited by the example of Christ to Judg Marriage Filiation Aliment or Succession ib. 2. They are totally ignorant of the Fact and were never Educated in the Laws by which they pretend to Judg Marriage 181 3. They Judg by a Chancellour and not in Person 4. They have Plurality of Offices and more than they are able to serve yet will be Judges of Marriage besides ib. 5. They are ambidextrous and amphibious Judges 182 6. They Judg Marriage by pretended Canons and Laws made by Bishops without assent of Parliament ib. 183 7. They take to themselves Fines and Penalties of their own Judgments 184 8. They Licence Dispence and Pardon all Crimes within their pretended Jurisdiction for Money 9. They cannot be known whether Protestants or Papists if Bishops 185 10. They Judg by Fictions and not by Truth 11. They Judg
his Women drew away his heart which word includes both Wives and Concubines it had been more true according to the Original and more probable according to the effect They have falsely translated the Seventh Commandment Lo Tinaph to be Adultery Lo Tinaph Latin'd Non Moechaberis doth only signifie Carnal uncleanness in general but they to make all sins equal Lo Tinaph false translated and that they might take as high Commutation-Money for the meanest as the greatest Crime have translated it Adultery which is Species famosior they say pro Toto Genere as is usual in Tropes and Figures but though if they turn Poets they may Feign if Songsters Descant if Commentators Paraphrase if Orators turn in Tropes and Figures yet if Translators of a Law of God it is wickedness for them to use any of these He who is a Translator of any Law especially of one that is Penal is chained ad idem non ad simile verbum verbo curabit reddere fidus interpres every word is to be render'd in no greater or lesser signification in the Language to which it is translated then it was in the Original for where the Legislator prohibits all uncleanness in general and expresses no special Penalty but only on pain of his displeasure here he hath Power to punish the smaller offences with few stripes and the greater with many according to Justice and Equity but if he prohibit specially Adultery and makes no other Law then he giveth liberty to all uncleanness beside what is not specially prohibited for where there is no Law there is no Transgression As Levit. 20.10 It is said The Adulterer and Adulteress shall surely be put to death which being a Penal Law of death never was nor ought to be extended to any lesser uncleanness then Adultery For it is a Rule in all Justice that no Penal Law ought to be extended by Equity the translation is therefore false which extends all uncleanness to Adultery or Adultery to all uncleanness They have falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Fornication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsly translated Fornication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Carnal uncleanness only in general but they on the same account of raising their Commutation-Money have translated it the special crime of Fornication which is for the reasons given before of Adultery falsely translated and the same mischiefs ensue thereby They have falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Tenth Commandment to be the Man Servant and Maid-Servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsely translated Exod. 20.17 They have translated the Tenth Commandment Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Man-Servant nor his Maid-Servant Whereas the Septuagint clean varies both in Words and Order and makes the Commandment thus Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Woman thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House nor his Field nor his young Man nor his young Woman the Greek words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Amos 2.7 It is said A Man and his Father will go into the samo Young Woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have falfely translated Mamzer and Nothos Bastard wherein are noted the great Errors of Coke Skene and Grotius by following the Bishops translation and other Popish Writers Having recited many of the other false translations relating to Marriage we are now come to the sowlest of them all relating not only to Marriage but all the dependencies of the same Filiation Aliment and Succession And whom have we the ill fortune first to meet by the blind leaders of the blind fallen into this common Ditch but the two famous Fathers of the Law of England and Scotland Coke and Skene who giving implicit Faith herein to Bishops Translations Certificats and other Popish Writers became so far by them deceived as to leave behind them in their writings as follows First Coke Com. Fol. 243 and 244. saith Bastardus dicitur à Graeco verbo Bassaris id est Meretrix quia procreatur à Meretrice and then he saith Aerd signifies Nature and Bastard signifies base natural Then because Reason is very scarce with him he gets an old Rhime and says Manseribus scortum notho Moechus dedit ortum Vt seges spica sic spurius est ab amica But Skene ingeniously confesseth that Bastardus is a barbarous word and that there can be no reason given for it and certainly he so far speaks most true or else was never a barbarous word if this is not which punisheth the innocent Child before it can speak for the sin of the Parents yet he after falls into the like mistake with Coke which will best appear in his own words as you may find them Skene de verb. signific tit Bastardus Where he saith Bastardus in French Bastard ane Barne unlauchfully gotten out with the band of Marriage quhilk word is barbarous and as I suppose na reason can be given quhairfore it is so called bot Gabriell Palaeotus in his buik de Nothis spuriisque filiis cap. 18. alleadgis it to come fra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quhilk signifies an Huire or common Woman be reason that Bastards are commonly got and procreat with sick Weemen In Greek he is called Nothus for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that part of the Fathers guids and geare quhilk be the Law of the Athenians leasumly micht be given be the Father to his Bastard Son extending to the Son of Mille Drachmae and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was called all that was not true or lauchful as writis Budaeus in Pandectas and swa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cummis fra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privativa particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. 1. Divinum teste Suida because he wantis that quhilk is godlie and lauchful that is ane honest or lawful Birth or Parentage and swa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur qui non sit legitimus to the quhilk there is na proper Latine word carespondent as Quintilianus testifie lib. 3. cap. 6. nevertheless he is commonly called Spurius fo in lib. 1. ff de posses contr Tabul Spurii dicuntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. e. statione vel seminatione eaque vaga promiscua ubi doctiores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legunt quasisparsim concepti like as they are called vulgo concepti in adoptivis 14. de ritu nuptiarum Likewise Spurius was the the proper name of ane man amangis the Romans as Titus or Caius was written with twa letters S.P. and likewise they quha had na certain Father was designed with the said twa letters S. P. and swa by commoun use and consuetude Spurii dicebantur sine Patre as writes Plutarchus in problematibus because their Father and Mother notcht being lauchfully married they have na certain Father quia Pater dicitur quem legitimae nuptiae demonstrant l. 5. ff de in jus vocand and 't is alike to have na Father and to have incertain
the Child as to Succession as appears Deut. 21.15 If a Man have two Wives one beloved and the other hated and they have born him Children both the beloved and the hated and the first-born Son be hers that was hated Then it shall be when he makes his Sons to inherit that which he hath that he may not make the Son of the beloved first-born before the Son of the hated who is indeed the first-born but he shall acknowledg the Son of the hated for the first-born in giving him a double Portion of all be hath for he is the beginning of his strength and the right of the first-born is his The Reasons given by Skene why Nothus should signifie a Bastard are 1. Because he saith Bastards are commonly got and procreat of Common Women who are in Greek called Bassaris As to the Etymology 't is answer'd before as to the matter of the Children of Common Women 't is deny'd that they have commonly any Children at all for either they make themselves barren by some wicked Arts of Sterility according to the Poet. Et jacet aurato jam rara puerpera lecto Tantum hujus Artes tantum Medicamina possunt According to which we do not hear of Lais Thais Phryne Flora or others who are famous or rather infamous at the Trade to have had any Children at all which was one cause that Flora made the Common-wealth her Heir And we see by experience that the Children born as they call it out of Wedlock are for the greatest part of such as have kept themselves chast to one Man yea more chast then many Wives who have been coupled to the Husbands by a Priest in a Temple or a Justice of Peace in his Hall And further in Nature the too thick sowing of the field and the too soon plowing after sowing destroyes the Harvest So in greatest probability such a Woman as hath a Child ought to be presumed she hath not been common and the Child cannot be here filius populi but his Father is better known then of the Children of a Woman married by the Priest in a Temple though the Husband hath been always within the four Seas 2. He says Nothia signifies by the Athenian Law a Portion given to a Child not born within Wedlock which was not to exceed Mille Drachmae ergo Nothos signifies a Bastard Negatur sequela For the Child which he himself makes a Bastard he says cannot be Heir or Successor to any which is he cannot be Successor Testamentory or otherwise to any filial Portion at all which the Athenian Law did suffer him to be so it exceeded not the value of Mille Drachmae And further Reg. Majest cited by him saith a Bastard can neither be Heir or succed to the Lands or Goods of the Parents nor the Parents to him A most inhuman Law and subverting the course of Nature which the Athenian was not And what was the end of this Episcopal cruelty of taking away the inheritance of the Parents from the Child and of the Child from the Parents but that they themselves might be Successors to his movables and if he bought not of them for money his Legitimation then they might forfeit all was left to the King not out of any good will they bore to the King but to force the parties Parents and Children to pay them what they pleased or quod non capit Christus capiat fiscus a kind of Anti-Christian Blasphemy against Christ and Treason against their Princes to fâ—ill their Treasuries with the spoils and curses of miserable Children and Parents under pretence of the names of God and the King to make them thought Patrons and Accessaries to their Rapines 3. He says Ismael was a Bastard and succeeded not to the inheritance but had a Portion As to Ismael's being a Bastard it is false and contrary to the Text of Scripture Gen. 16.3 which expresly saith Agar his Mother was Abraham 's Wife If his Mother therefore we Abraham's Wife he could not be Abraham's Bastard for he himself affirms before that a Bastard is got of a Common Woman 4. Abraham's giving him a filial Portion and the Sons of Keturah likewise their filial Portions is an acknowledgment and not a dis-acknowledgment of them to be his Sons Therefore though he excluded them from the inheritance he doth not intend thereby to make them Bastards for it was the Patria potestas of every Father then to dispose of his own Estate how he pleased and to those who pleased him best and might give the inheritance from the eldest if he thought fit till after restrained by the Law of Primogeniture to give him a double Portion 5. The Arabians who descended from Ismael and Turks to this day affirm Ismael to be the right Heir and not Isaac and on no other Title possess the Land of Palestine but on the Primogeniture of Ismael 'T is therefore very unadvised to call Ismael Bastard against a Succession so long derived from him by the Sword without better reasons or a better Sword to argue it against the possessors 6. Other reasons have been made likewise in behalf of the Primogeniture and Legitimation of Ismael which shew him to have been no Bastard as first That the Marriage between Abraham and Sarah being Brother and Sister was Incestuous and therefore the Marriage with Agar more Lawful then hers Next that uncertainty of Filiation was more in Isacc then in Ismael and Ismael had better probation of himself to be the Son of Abraham then Isaac had for Agar was kept in perpetual custody of her Husband from the time of his begetting to her bringing forth Ismael whereas Sarah was let loose to the custody of Abimelech and his Courtiers 7. He says for a Reason That a Child born out of Matrimony is not Sib or Kin or of Consanguinity to any nor any to him which is contrary to the express Text of Scripture Levit. 21.2 There shall none be defiled for the dead amongst the people except for his Kin that is near to him that is for his Mother and for his Father and for his Son yet here was no Father or Son made by the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple Not much unlike to this was the whimsey which lasted a while of our Episcopal Courts and Common Lawyers that a Mother was not kin to her Son as appears Swimburn 7. part 119. The Case was in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth Charles Duke of Suffolk having issue a Son by one Venter and a Daughter by another made his last Will wherein he devised Goods to his Son after whose death the Son also died intestate without Wife and without issue his Mother and his Sister by the Father's side for she was born of the former Venter being then living the Mother took the Administration of her Son's Goods by the Stat. 21 H. 8.5 whereby it is Enacted That in case any person die intestate the Administration of his Goods shall be
Eliz Stowell quatenus de factor fuerunt ad invicem matrimonio ut predicitur copulat ' ab invicem Separand ' divorciand ' fore debere pronunciamus decernimus declaramus Eosque Separamus Divorciamus eisdemque Christopher ' Eliz. licentiam Libertatem ad alia vota convolanda concedimus tribuimus impertimur per hanc Sententiam nostram definitivam sive hoc finale nostrum decretum quam sive quod ferimus promulgamus in hiis Scriptis c. And after the Divorce the said Christopher Kenne Espous'd and took to Wife Elizabeth Beckwith And after Anno 5th Eliz. before certain Commissioners Ecclesiastical the said Elizabeth Beckwith Libelled against the said Christopher Kenne That before the Marriage between them contracted he had Married with Elizabeth Stowell on which process was awarded against Elizabeth Stowell pro interesse And upon due examination of the Cause it was Sentenced That the Marriage between the said Christopher Kenne and Elizabeth Beckwith was lawful and Sentenced them ad Exequenda Conjugalta obsequia c. And that the said Christopher Kenne was never lawfully Espoused unto the said Elizabeth Stowell and after the said Elizabeth Beckwith died after whose death the said Christopher took to Wife the said Florence by whom he had Issue one Daughter and called Elizabeth and died And Anno 36th Eliz. it was found by Office in the County of Sommerset by Force of a Mandamus after the death of the said Christopher Kenne that the said Elizabeth Kenne was his Daughter and Heir who was within Age Viz. of the Age of Ten Months The Queen granted her Wardship to Sir Nicholas Stallenge and the said Florence then his Wife on which the said Martha alledged her self to be Daughter and Heir to the said Christopher Kenne and with her Husband Silvester Williams Exhibited their Bill in the Court of Wards against the said Sir Nicholas and Florence alledging That the said Martha was Daughter and Heir of the Body of the said Elizabeth Stowell his lawful Wife and that they the said Christopher and Elizabeth Stowell at the time of their Marriage in Anno 37. H. 8. were both of them above the Age of Consent and that they Cohabited together Nine or Ten Years before the said supposed Divorce during which Cohabitation the said Martha was procreate between them and therefore pray they may have License to Traverse the said Office To which Bill the said Nicholas and Florence put in their answer and the Plaintiff examined divers Witnesses and before Publication Sir Nicholas dies and thereupon the said Silvester and Martha exhibited a Bill of Reviver against the said Florence and after Martha having Issue Elizabeth the Wife of the now Pl. died after whose death the said Thomas Robertson and Elizabeth his Wife bring a new Bill of Reviver to revive the first Sute in which the Witnesses were examined and this Case was refer'd to Fleming and Coke Chief Justices and Tanfeild Chief Baron and Selverton and Williams Justices and Sing and Altham Barons of the Exchequer If it be asked for what reason was such a Sentence given my Lord Coke nor the rest will neither tie the Bishop nor themselves to shew any for he saith The lawfulness of Marriage belonging originally to be tried in the Ecclesiastical Court if the Ecclesiastical Judg that is the Bishop Sentence a Marriage Null We that is the Judges of the King's Courts ought to give Faith that is implicit Faith to their Sentence as they do to our Judgment whether true or false right or wrong reason or no reason and so he saith Where the original cause of Sute concerning Marriage belongs to the Common Law Courts the Ecclesiastical Judg is to give like Faith to them as 22. E. 4. in Corbets Case which was this Sir Robert Corbet had by Elizabeth his Wife two Sons Robert the Elder and Roger the Younger and dies Robert the Elder being under the Age of Fourteen takes to Wife one Matilda and they dwell together tâ—ll full Age Et habuerunt carnalem copulam cogniti reputati pro viro uxore palam And after the said Robert put off the said Matilda having no Issue by her and Married one Lettice in the life of the said Matilda and hath Issue by her Robert and dies Lettice Preached openly that she was the lawful Wife of Robert and her Son a mulier Roger the Son of Sir Robert Corbet sues in the Spiritual Court to Reverse these Espousals between Robert his Brother and Lettice for which Lettice sues a Prohibition In which Case it was Resolved 1. That if Robert and Matilda had had Issue and had been unjustly Divorced and after Robert had Married Lettice and had Issue and died that as long as the unjust Divorce had continued the Issue of Matilda could have had no remedy at Common Law the same gives so great Faith to the Sentence of the Bishop 2. That here Roger might sue at Common Law notwithstanding the second Marriage in regard the same was void being made while the first Wife lived On which may be noted the injustice of the Bishops being above Appeal in Judgment in these particulars 1. Here is a lawful Matirmony Consummate by the Birth of a Child and two Persons thereby indissolubly joined together by the Act and Law of God put asunder by the Bishop and his Papal Law Here is a Dispute from Generation to Generation concerning the Validity of a Marriage and Succession to an Inheritance Against the Marriage is alledged That the same was declared void by a Sentence of Divorce or rather of Nullity given by the Bishop Against it is answered by Elizabeth a Descendent of the said Marriage and the right Heir to the Inheritance that the cause of the said Sentence was false And she offer'd to prove that the said Christopher Kenne and Elizabeth Stowell were both above the Age of Consent to Marriage in Anno 37. H. 8. and were then lawfully Married and Cohabited together Nine or Ten Years and the said Martha was lawfully Procreate between them before the pretended Divorce was made Was there ever Probation more Relevant tender'd was there ever better Reason alledged by a poor Lady to defend her Inheritance On this Hoskins Bacon Dodridge and other Council Argued so long from Term to Term as was enough to spend a good Portion before it was got But alas to no purpose for had this Elizabeth been Queen Elizabeth her self these Judges will give no Relief or Hearing against a Bishops Sentence unless his Lordship will please to Revoke it himself And notwithstanding all Arguments to the contrary it was accordingly resolved by all the Justices and Barons That she must go without her Inheritance and her Mother Martha remain a Bastard till the Bishop who made her so should again unmake her which was in plain English to adjudg there should be no Appeal in any case of Marriage Filiation Aliment or Succession from the Bishops to
Priest or Magistrate but be left free where God hath not prohibited him to do as best suits with his own Conscience and Convenience without unjust Penalties laid on himself his Wife or his Children for omission of a Ceremony never instituted by God but full of great danger and mischief to many though not to all whose Consciences and Conveniences are not alike but of different States as is already before shewn P. 108. especially between Poor and Rich for the Poor need neither Writing nor Witnesses for Portions or Jointures as perhaps the Rich think themselves to need Secondly Parties that desire Witnesses may no question have better Witnesses at their own Home in Private and with less inconvenience as well for Contract of Marriage as they have for all other Civil Contracts than a Priest in a Temple or Justice of Peace in his Hall or Bishop in his Cathedral or ony other Publick Officer whatsoever and one of the Jews ways which was never question'd but lawful and convenient was to Marry by written Instruments of Contract without Priest or Temple Thirdly Though Parties that Marry have neither Witness Publick or Private yet they have Power if they can Write to give a Note in Writing one to another or if they cannot to give such secret Tokens or Pledges as without Witnesses will be sufficient to evidence their secret Congresses when their happens any necessity as Judah when he went in to Tamar his Daughter in Law Gen. 38.18 He said What Pledg shall I give thee and she said Thy Signet and thy Bracelers and thy Staff that is in thy hand and he gave it her and came in unto her and she Conceived by him and after being accused of Whoredom Verse 25. When she was brought forth she sent to her Father in Law saying by the Man whose these are am I with-with-Child and she said discern I pray thee whose these are the Signet and Bracelets and Staff and Judah acknowledged them Fourthly If the Law were made as it ought to be That Private Marriage without Witness and Procreation of a Child between two Persons not prohibited by the Law of God to Marry should be a Civil Act Sine poena aut infamia and not a Criminal as it is unjustly made in the Bishops Courts if done without their Ceremonies of a Priest in a Temple the Proceeding of a Temporal Judg would be then Legal and according to the ordinary course of Justice if a Woman came before him and first took her Oath that such a man had her Virginity and that the Child she hath is his Child to put the man to his Oath concerning the same for this is then no Oath Ex Officio nor Self-accusation of a Crime when the Fact is made no Crime and is no other than like an Oath of discovery of a Civil Contract in Chancery or Wager of Law of No Debt or Non-Summons at Common Law and only gives the Woman and her Child the Civil Benefit to be in as good a State and Condition as if she had been Married by the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple and no farther and this without Penalty to the Father who being put to his Oath if he deny not what is alledged against him nothing is more just than that he should be compell'd if he refuse to acknowledg the Woman to be his Wife and the Child his Child Fifthly when once it were known that the Magistrate had a Legal Power to perform this he would be rarely troubled concerning any secret Marriage but every man concerned in the same will be careful so much the more to perform the duty both of an Husband and Father in a Secret than a Publick Marriage by how much the more he desires to keep it secret 10. It causeth Prostitutions of Brides to Priests Lords Guests and others Examples of this in Priests are before shewn P. 53 54. of Lords P. 24 25. Sabellicus reports of the like Custom amongst the old Carthaginians the like was amongst the ancient Scots Persians Vri Swiss under-Waldensians Moors and others all which wicked Customs had been easily prevented and avoided had not the People been compell'd to Marry by the Publick Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple 11. It caused the Consecration of Incest Whores and Sodomites to attend the Service of the Priests and Temples The way of Consecration of the Persian Magi by lying with their Mothers Sisters and Daughters is before toucht P. 44. and the way Pope Alexander obtained his Holiness seems not much to differ from the Magi by the Epitaph of his Saint Hoc jacet in tumulo Lucretia nomine sed re Thais Alexandri Filia Sponsa nurus The Consecration of Whores and Sodomites whom the Priests let to hire in the Temples and Groves for their gain was so common amongst the old Pagan Nations that the Jews made Use of the word signifying a Person Consecrated to signifie a Whore and a Sodomite as the Hebrew word Kadash Jos 2.1 is translated in English Harlot and Rahab is so called and 1 Kings 14.24 the same is translated Sodomite yea at this day the Devil under the name of Holiness so much possesses the American Priests of Pegu that they keep in the Temples Consecrated Sodomites to make gains of them to the Priest who are esteemed by the People most Sacred Oh to what height of wickedness doth the Devil draw people where he makes the Priest his Instrument to counterfeit Holiness with their Ceremonious Fopperies of Consecration and bring the same into a Temple with the Name and Doctrine of being Sacred The same was done amongst the Greeks a wise Nation and by a wise Legislator of theirs even Solon himself yet did the Devil and Priest delude him under the name of Holiness for he caused by his Laws as a Fundamental of Government to begin his Magna Charta with the Privileges of the Holy Church and to that end he appoints a Temple to be Dedicated to Venus and Priests to be Consecrated and Sacrifices instituted and to be well govern'd by the Priests he stocked the Temple with a multitude of Consecrated Whores to be let to hire to increase the Priests Profit and Pleasure and this Holy Church he endowed with great Revenues and Privileges There were the like Holy Churches filled with the like Holy Sisters at Ephesus at Corinth and Abydos and so great veneration they were in amongst the People no doubt by the many pious Sermons of the Priests what Miracles these Female Angels could do that they attributed the whole overthrow of Xerxes with his almost innumerable Army to the Holy Prayers of these Consecrated Whores in their Temples or Stews to their Goddess Venus Here Whoredom for the gains of the Priests and Temples is Consecrated and believed not only by the grosser sort of People but by the chief Princes and Governour to be a Thing most Sacred And is not Adultery with us more wickedly than Fornication amongst the Heathen Consecrated by
Commutation Money he pleaseth to Demand for his Remission of this Penance and Pardon of her Sins and that he may have Power to set what Taxes he pleaseth on Gods Ordinance of Marriage and all Acts incident to the same which ought to be free and thereby set to Hire and Sale all Women Lawful and Unlawful and the Successions not only to all private Patrimonies but Kingdoms and thereby fill his Chests with Gold and Silver The Sin or Offence for which the Punishment is Imposed is Child-bearing and nothing else whatever is pretended which is proved by these Reasons 1. If he say That he punisheth the Mother for disobedience to his Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons in not Publishing her Intention to Marry to the Priest in the Temple and the Boys in the Parish and what is the bottom of the Business not paying him his Fees for Publication according to the Canons This is easily Answered by asking who made him a Legislator and Canon-Maker over a Free People and their Children This already is before proved That neither Ecclesiastical nor Temporal Law can be made nor Tax imposed on Marriage or any thing else without the Assent of the House of Commons and that was never given to any Papal or Episcopal Laws or Canons as hath been already proved And as hath likewise been proved All Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons made by any Popes or Bishops Councils or Synods from the beginning of the World to these presents in regard they never had the Assent of the House of Commons in Parliament are utterly Void and Null to bind the People or their Posterity No Law in England for standing in a White Sheet So there being not so much as a Law of Man in England Prohibiting Marriage without a Priest and Temple under the Penalty of standing in a White Sheet and there being no Law there can be no Offence Besides if there were such a Law it is already before shewn that all Laws Prohibiting Marriage Except by a Priest in a Temple are the Doctrine of Daemons and came Originally from Daemons and the Priests of Priapus and Venus and Contrary to the Moral Law of God and Nature the Bishop hath therefore no pretence to Punish the Woman for that 2. There are no other Offences in Bearing a Child which a Woman can commit but breach of Contract Incest Fornication or Adultery As to breach of Contract and Incest the Bishop punisheth Persons Free and not Prohibited by any Law of God to Marry As to Fornication and Adultery the first Offence cannot as hath already been shewn be Committed without Polyandry in the Woman and the second without Polygynecy in the Man But the Bishop punisheth her who bears a Child though the Father and Mother were no way Prohibited to Marry by any Law of God or Man and they were at the time of Begetting the Child both Virgins and neither Guilty of Polyandry or Polygynecy and so still continue Chast and Constant one to another The Bishop therefore punishing such a Woman doth punish her for Child-Bearing or for nothing 3. There is no Probation by two or more Witnesses of any Offence but Child bearing and Probation by Compulsion of the Woman to self-Accusation or by Compulsion of Canonical Purgation are unlawful The Bishop therefore punishing such a Woman if he punish her not for Child-bearing only he punisheth her for Facts whereof he hath no Lawful Probation It being therefore proved That the Bishop punisheth Lawful Child-bearing It appears further That he punisheth the Lawful more than the Unlawful for such Women as are common in Stews or Brothels seldom bear a Child as hath been shewen before and such Women as are Married to Husbands and therefore can only be Guilty of Adultery if the Husband be within the Four Seas of the time of Begeting the Children on their Wives by Adulterers it hath been shewen already That Littleton and Coke will by Fiction have it be believed that these Adulterous Children were got by the absent Husband And that Probatio non admittitur in Contrarium whereby Marriage by a Priest in a Temple is made a Sanctuary for Adulteresses and for Adulterous Child-bearing they are Exempt from punishment but the Poor Lawful Child-bearing Woman against whom there is neither Fact nor Probation of any Crime to be shewen is the Chief Subject of the Bishops punishment a Fact so Barbarous as not to be parallel'd in the Example of Turks Tartars Americans or any Ethniek Nation Except Gaeramantes who have a wicked Custom that if any Married Woman Procreate more than three Children she shall be Divorced from her Husband because a Multitude of Children caused Men to have Covetous hearts and besides the Divorce of the Mother such Supernumerary Children were to be slain before the Parents eyes But Bishops are worse than the Garamantes for they punish though but one Child-bearing whereas the other punish'd not till after Three and exercise those Inhumanities for their Gain against Child-Bearing Women which the Scripture Prohibits to be Exercised to the very Brutes Deuter. 22.6 If a Birds nest chance to be before thee in the way in any Tree or on the Ground whether they be young ones or Eggs and the Dam sitting upon the Young or upon the Eggs thou shalt not take the Dam with the Young But thou shalt in any wise let the Dam go and take the Young to thee that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days The Bird is not any wise to be punished for this Natural Piety to her Young but to be set at Liberty and let go and that they may Defile their Marriages by the Example of the Garamantes with Blood as they do by Example of Priapus and Venus with uncleanness they most Cruelly to that Misery Nature hath Imposed on the Mother in Sorrow to bring forth though of it self of pains Equal with Death and oft tiâ—â—es brings Death add their Punishment of Exposing the Mother to Publick Reproach and Shame which to the Modest is worse than Death And by how much the more Modest the Mother is by so much the more easily is she tempted by the Devil with a Praestat Emori quà m per dedecus vivere to destroy her Infant to cover her own shame and his Pope Gregory intending to Fish in a Deep Pond in Rome near a Nunnery the Water being let out found therein above Six Thousand Sculls of Infants 6000 Infants Skuls found in a Fish-pond so the punishing of Child-bearing Women and Prohibiting Marriage Except by a Priest in a Temple under this Infamous Punishment contrary to the Law of God and according to the Law of Devil who was a Murderer from the beginning caused the Destroying of these Six Thousand Infants and were all the like Instances recited which for Brevity are here to be omitted it would appear That this punishing of Child-births because the Mother went not first to a Priest in a Temple hath Murderd Millions
by breaking the Custom and being drawn by the Deceit of Roxolana to Marry her by a Priest The Reasons why the Grand Seigniors Marry not themselves by a Priest or in a Temple or by a Magistrate or with any other Publick Solemnity but only make Use of Private Natural Marriage are 1. It prevents the great Charge of a Dower or Jointure which Turkish Emperors are bound to give their Queens who are Married by a Priest for as Withers Relates amongst the Grand Seigniors Seraglio of Women Marriage made by the first birth of a Child and not by words of a Priest she is esteemed Empress who brings him the first Son and they were formerly Married before the Mufti or Arch-Priest which was only to give one another their Assent before him and he to make an Hodget or Note in Writing of it and of the Dower the Emperor was to give her which except as to the Dower was no other than as our Certificate of the Bishop touching which Selymus being Uxorious and having given in his Marriage Five Hundred Thousand Chequins a Year to his Queen made a Law no Successor if they Married should give less than he had done to their Queens whereupon the Emperors succeeding forebore and it grew out of fashion to Marry by the Priest to save their Dower and other excessive Expences incident to Publick Marriages of Princes and had thereby likewise their Queens far more obsequious than before they thereby depending wholly on the Love of their Husbands to give them what they pleased according to their merit 2. By not Marrying by a Priest he is clear from all Burden of Allyances of his Sultana Poor or Rich. 3. The Grand Seignior thereby regained into his own hands the Patria Potestas belonging to every Father of being Judg who were his own Children which had been by his Superstitious Predecessors unwarily Alien'd to his Arch-Mufti or Arch-Bishop for by giving him Power by his Hodget or Certificate to declare the Marriage there followed as incident thereto the Arch-Bishop's Legitimation of his Children and Declaration of his Heir Apparent and Successor Then further the Mahometan Law allowing Plurality if Married by the Priest they could not be Married altogether but one after another or if they were a Child of a Woman Married after might come sooner which Priority of Marriage by the Mother would have destroyed the Custom of Primogeniture of the Son first born of any Wife whether the beloved or hated or first Married or after Married so 4. he kept the Right of Primogeniture and Peace in his own Family which if he having an Elder Son by a first Wife not Married by a Priest should have a Younger Son by a Second Wife Married by a Priest this pretence might cause Murder or Civil Wars between his Elder and Younger Sons one standing on his Right of Primogeniture and the other on the Hodget or Certificate of the Arch-Bishop of Prior Marriage of the Later Mother by the Priest as happen'd in the Example of Solyman the Magnificent and Roxolana Turk Hist 758. where it appears that Solyman the Magnificent begot of his first Empress a Circassian Bond-woman not Married by a Priest Mustapha his Eldest Son who proved a Prince of great Excellency and most dearly beloved by the Army and People after Solyman according to their Custom of Plurality of Wives grows wanton and begets four Sons more of Roxolana another of his Bond-women namely Mahomet Selymus Bajazet and Tzithanger and one Daughter called Chameria Married to Rustan the Great Basha Roxolana being her self a great Beauty and having so fair an Issue and a Potent Son in Law to assist her and no obstacle but the Primogeniture of Mustapha to make her own Son the Heir apparent of the Greatest Empire in the World discover'd her self to be more adorned with Gold and Pearls than Vertue yet counterfeits Religion to bring her Designs to pass but first take the Epigram by Knolles subscribed to her Picture Fronti nulla fides nulla est fiducia formae Pectore dum savo dira venena Latent Philtra viro Miscet fallax miserumque coegit Sanguine natorum Commaculare manus No Trust there is to Face or Beauty when The Breast of Poison'd Serpents is the Den. Her wretched Husband her Love-Cups untrue Made in his own Sons blood his hands imbrue This Woman to begin her intended Tragedy under colour of Good-will and Love had procured Mustapha the Young Prince and his Mother to be sent as she pretended for their greater Honour and Estate with a Princely Train and Revenue to Caramâ—nia to Govern that Great Countrey and having thus cunningly Rid the Court of the two Competitors both of her Love and the Empire rested not so but began straight way to plot in her malicious head the Destruction of him to whom all others wished Happiness and though she had removed him far absent in his Person yet the continually encreasing Fame of his Valour Vertues and Perfections seem'd to be still before her Eyes and in her Ears the great and only disturbance of her Desires and Clouds which kept the Sun from shining on them and doubting of any sufficient Assistants or Instruments amongst the Military Forces in regard all the Soldiers were at the Devotion of the Prince and not of Rustan her Son in Law whom they hated though she had got him to be Chief Commission-Officer over them she therefore fixes the other part of her hopes on the Priest and Resolves to try what could be supplied by the Gown which was defective in the Sword and to prepare the way the better she on a sudden Counterfeits her self to be very Religious and having grown by the favour of Solyman exceeding Rich pretended as if it had been on a devout Zeal for the health of her Soul after the manner of their Turkish Superstition to build an Abby with an Hospital and a Church which so Godly a purpose she imparted to the Mufti or Chief Mahometan Priest demanding of him if such works of Charity were not acceptable to God and available to her Souls health to which the Mufti answer'd That those Works were no doubt gratious in the sight of God but nothing at all meritorious for her Souls health being a Bond-woman yet very profitable for the Soul of the Great Emperour Solyman unto whom as unto her Lord both she and all that she had appertained at which answer of the great Priest she seemed to be exceedingly troubled and thereupon became wonderful pensive and Melancholick her Chearful Countenance was Replete with Sadness and her fair Eyes flowed with Tears her Mirth was Mourning and her Joy Heaviness which thing Solyman perceiving and sorry to see his Love upon Conceit so to languish sent her word to be of good chear and to comfort her self promising in short time to take such a Course as should ease her of all her Griefs of which she had made some discovery to him which he did solemnly Manumising
Pernitiosa not to preserve Children but to destroy them and not only those of Subjects but of their Prince though not captived in War yet exiled by War No Digression to father on Bishops the Fictions and Preposterations of Common Law as well as Spiritual Judges by which it was impossible to use the Episcopal Ceremonies of Common Prayer-Books in Marriage or without danger of his Life to Marry otherwise than by the Moral Law of God And let it not seem here a Digression that I am enforced to Father on Romish Bishops not only all the pernitious Fictions and Preposterations in Judicial Proceedings of Spiritual but likewise of Temporal Courts and to make it part of the Exception against them That they are not fit Judges of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession 1. Because Romish Bishops as is already shewn were the Formers of all the Common Law Writs in the Register and Forms of Judicial Proceedings in the Book of Entries and the Compile of the Common Laws was trusted to Britton a Bishop as well as the Forms of the Citations Libells Litiscontestations Compurgations Excommunications and Provincial Laws and Canons were to other Bishops and the Bishops have been the chief Judges in the Common Law Courts of Westminster and Chancellors in the Chancery and have rid the Circuit with the Earls in the Countries and after them with the Sheriffs which Earls and other Lay-Judges in time of Popery were only Assessors or Executioners of the Sentence of the Bishop and he only the pretended infallible Oracle both of Law and Gospel to Judg how he pleased 2. Because what is a good exception against a Common Law Judg is a good exception against a Spiritual Judg and what Fiction is a good exception against Succession by the Verdict of the Jury is a good exception against Succession by the Certificate of a Bishop 3. Because by a kind of Conspiracy between the Spiritual and Common Law Courts in time of Popery their Preposterations Fictions and Formalities are so complex'd and intangled one with another that 't is impossible to divide them or carry on a perfect Discourse of one without the other or of Preposteration without Fiction and Formality the one being commonly cause of the other 4. It is necessary to prevent any Excuse the Spiritual Judg may pretend if he should say The Common Law Judg is suffer'd to Summon and Arrest before Copy to Copy before Oath of Calumny and to use Hundreds of Fictions and Falsities in his Judicial Proceedings and why should not the Spiritual Judg be allowed as well as he but where they are both censured they can neither recriminate And how guilty they both are of nursing that viperous brood of the old Serpent who have eaten through the Bowels of Justice may appear by the particulars following The Subpoena in Chancery is a Writ or Summons formed by the Bishops themselves when Chancellors wherein notwithstanding the Holy Catholick Fathers formed as many Lies as Lines 1. It begins as West hath it Proceeding in Chancery p. 183. Jacobus Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor Fictions and Falsities fomented in all Forms of Judicial Proceedings Subpana's full of Fictions c. A. C. salutem Quibusdam certis de causis coram nobis in Cancel ' nostra propositis This is not true for though here and in other Nations anciently Princes sat in their Courts of Judicature in Person 't is not so now neither are any Causes proposed coram nobis before the King in Person unless as some presume they will attribute the incomprehensible Attribute of Omnipresence to Humanity neither is it sufficient to reply that he is present there by his Delegate for a Delegate is only where the Prince is absent or will not himself receive the Complaint which is signified by the words of Absalom 2 Sam. 15.3 See thy matters are good and right for there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee Intimating if there had been a Judg Deputed he needed not fear the Kings presence to have his matters so severely weighed as if he had Judged in Person And we see to avoid the Fiction of Human Omnipresence in an Action of Debt returnable in the Common Pleas where the King sat not in Person but Judged by Delegates the Sheriff is commanded Sum ' per bonos Sum ' praedictum A quod sit coram Justitiariis nostris apud Westmonasterium and if it had been Coram Nobis it would have been a Fiction but that which makes the Certis de Causis coram nobis in Cancel ' nostra propositis not only a Fiction but a gross Falsity is that the Complainant hath taken out his Subpoena before he hath any Bill presented either to the King in Person or the Chancellor or the meanest Clerk in the Court It goes on and say Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod omnibus aliis praetermissis excusatione quacunque cessante Yet ought the Defendant to be admitted to offer a lawful cause of Excuse or Essoin Next it says In propria persona tua yet may the Defendant be admitted to appear by Attorney Next Sis coram nobis in dicta Canc ' nostra à die Paschae proxim ' futu◠' in unum Mensem Yet to appear Quarto die post the Return-day is sufficient then ubicunque tunc fuerit ad respond ' super his quae objicientur an Objection cannot be unless there is some allegation first put in by the Defendant any more than an Answer can before some Bill put in by the Plaintiff here is therefore a double Falsity and the Poor Countrey man is fool'd to ride up an Hundred Miles when he never put in a Bill himself to be objected against nor when he with much labour is got to Town weary quarto die post is there any Bill put in against him by the Complainant for him to Answer Then it is further said Et ad faciend ' ulterius recipiend ' quod Curia nostra consideraverit in hac parte yet had neither Party Plaintiff or Defendant a Bill or Answer in Court how can it then be said In hac parte where there is no Party Et hoc Sub poena Centum librarum nullatenus omittatis This is likewise a Menacing Fiction the Chancellor having no Power to impose any Fine or Forfeiture on any Subject of a Farthing Et habeas ibi hoc breve Teste meipso apud Westmonasterium when the King is a Hundred Miles off Westminster 12 die Febr. Anno Regui Domini c. George c. But if the Defendant is a Noble-man then no Subpoena is awarded but a Letter by the Lord Chancellor or Lord-Keeper thus A Note of the Fictions of the Episcopal Form of the Letter in Chancery usually sent to a Noble-man instead of a Subpoena to Answer The Superscription is which first comes to be read and is directed thus To my very good Lord I. L. D. These This
of Wine and prayes over it and offers it to the married Couple to tast but the Bridegroom dashes it against the Wall in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem so the Bridegroom in sign of sorrow puts on a black Cloak and the Bride a black Hood Mr. Addison tells of the Barbary Jews That they are married at the Bride's Chamber only by putting a Ring on the Woman's finger and pronunciation of these words by the Rabbi Thou art Married or Sanctified unto this Man with this Ring according to the Law And when married they use a foolish Ceremony if the Bride is a Virgin they give her Wine in a narrow-mouth'd Cup if a Widow in a broad mouth'd Cup and after the Bridegroom casts a raw Egg at the Bride c. And how the fopperies of such Ceremonies come by God's Law to make a marriage or no marriage or legitimate or illegitimate the Child no rational Man ever understood Plurality of Wives As to the determination of number of Wives by Nature it seems to be according to the number she her self gives As in the East and Southern climes the Feminine number naturall exceeding the Males many fold And in times of great destructions by Wars such as are foretold Isa 3.25 Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in War and her Gates shall lament and mourn and being desolate shall sit upon the ground And in that day seven Women shall take hold on one Man In the Kingdom of Benym amongst the Negro's the King hath five or six hundred Wives and his Subjects keep 20 30 40 50. 60. according to their ability and the poorest sort five or six and some a Dozen Hierotinus an Arabian King had six hundred Children by Concubines so it seems excessive multiplication may be one reason against Plurality It was a Law amongst the Garamants That when any Woman married had three Children she should be separated from her Husband because a multitude of Children cause Men to have covetous hearts and if any Woman bring forth more Children they shall be slain before their Eyes Aristotle in his Politiques thinks it profitable That Plebeians should not have too many Children and therefore allows Divorce lest the Wives should bear too many Connubia mille non illis generis nexus non pignora curae sed numero languet pietas Claud. de Bell. Gild. Amongst the Medes antiently Polygamy was so far from being esteemed a fault that it was a punishment for a common Person not to have seven Wives and for Noble Women to have less then five Husbands Heylin 814. Of the custom of the Jews to keep one barren Wife and another to breed One Barren and another Breeding Wife Selden de Jur. natur lib. 5. pag. 586. translates out of a Jewish Rabbi these words Sub diluvium hominum mos erat ut pro libitu binas sibi duceret quisque uxores alteram prolis gratia alteram in Concubitum ea autem quae prolis gratia haberetur velut vidua quamdiu superstes esset degebat sed ea quae in Concubitum adhiberetur sterilitatis exhaurire solebat Poculum ut sterilis redderetur atque juxta virum accumbere solita velut meretricio ornabatur habitu And in another place ornata etiam velut nova nupta lautiores comedebat dapes acerbius autem durius tractabatur socia lugebat vidua To which alludes Job 24.2 as 't is in the Hebrew he fed the Barren which brings not forth but did no good to the Widow Moses saith Cursed be he that lieth with his Sister Incest the Daughter of his Father or the Daughter of his Mother Deut. 27.22 Yet Abraham allowed it in his time and married Sarah And Amram took him Jochebed his Father's Sister to Wife and she bare him Aaron and Moses and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years Exod. 6.20 Aretas King of Arabia Petraea and Herod fell at strife the one with the other for this cause which ensueth Herod the Tetrarch had married Aretas his Daughter with whom he lived married a long time afterwards taking his Journey towards Rome he lodged with Herod his half Brother by the Father's side for Herod was the Son of Simon 's Daughter which Simon was the High Priest and there being surprized with the love of Herodias his Brother's Wife who was Daughter to Aristobulus their Brother and Sister to the great Agrippa he was so bold as to offer her some speech of marriage which when she had accepted Accords were made between them That he should banish his Wife Aretas far from him who complaining to her Father the Arabian King of the injury done her by her Husband Herod the same raised War between him and Herod Josep lib. 18. cap. 7. de Antiq. And Aretas overt rowing Herod's Army divers Jews were of opinion That this Judgment fell upon him because he had cut off John's head by the instigation of Herodias ibid. But as for this opinion divers believe that it hath been foisted into Josephus vid. Blâ—ndell Hist Sybill But as to the Point in question of Incest 't is very clear That John justly reproved Herod for marrying his Brother's Wife whether there was a Judgment followed on it or not But it cannot be infer'd that the cause why he reproved it or why the War followed on him was Incest but the cause thereof is more likely to be because he so wrongfully Divorced his first lawful Wife and likewise caused his Brother's Wife to be Divorced from him while his Brother was alive and Tetrarch of Galilee that he might have her from him So here was a double Divorce matter enough to reprove without minding any Incest which agreed likewise with the Doctrine of Christ and 't is manifest that was the only cause of the War and not any pretence of Incest for Aretas would have raised the War alike if the wrong had been done his Daughter by a strange Woman as if it had been by a Kinswoman Therefore no Argument can be brought that St. John's opinion was this was Incest nor that any Judgment happen'd for Incest but rather for unlawful Divorces so the marrying the Brother's Wife to raise up Seed to the Brother seems a custom tolerated for hardness of their hearts and not to be imitated by Christians Tryal of Virginity more wicked then the Bill of Divorce for this was after the Husband had lain with her Tryal of Virginity and perhaps likewise he might have got her with child Deut. 22.13 It is said If any man take a Wife and go in unto her and hate her and give occasion of speech against her and say I took this Woman and when I came to her I found her not a Maid Then shall the Father of the Damsel and her Mother take and bring forth the Tokens of the Damsel's Virginity unto the Elders of the City in the Gate and the Damsel's Father shall say
marriage yet could not they avoid being spotted by slanderous Tongues to be like the Heathen Gods lovers of Women whereas fame it self dared not belye these Heroick Ladies who defended their Honour with their Blood But to draw to an end of this Section There appear amongst the nations many good many indifferent and many most wicked Laws and Customs concerning Marriage the height of the Examples and the Authority both in good and bad being only humane The same can be neither obligatory nor satisfactory to the Conscience neither ought marriage to be judged by them Divorce by mutual assent It was by the Twelve Tables allowed That by Mutual consent the parties might Divorce themselves one from another Quia unumquodque dissolvitur eodem modo quo conflâ—tum est as may be collected from Cicero Philip. 2 l. pern ad leg Jul. de Adult li. 2. 7. de divorcio ex Apul. Ambros Epist 65. Notwithstanding which there was no Divorce followed in Rome for the space of 520 years There have been examples of the practice of this amongst Christians and Christ's words prohibiting putting away which implies force seems not to include a free or voluntary separation Of examples of this amongst Christians an express form appears in Marculfus his Formula lib. 2. cap. 30. Dum inter illum illam non charitas regnat sed discordia placuit c Seeing between him and her the Charity according to God doth not reign but Discord so that they cannot live peacably together it is agreed by the consent of both that they separate from one another and accordingly they have done as others Leg. Rom. cap. 19. and Novel Instit 117. These Canons have been made to change and likewise other Imperial Laws Divorce free for Women a well as Men. Of Women departing from their Husbands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word for it on the Woman's part Sen. de Benef. l. 3. c. 16. Numquid jam ulla repudio erubescit And Nobiles foeminae non consulum numeroâ—sed maritorum annos suos computant They departed and married again every year Apud Romanos Graecos mulier quam vir alteri potest dicere ut res suas sibi habeat quin nomina rei illius propria jure Attico prodita erant ut si vir discederet ab uxore hoc diceretur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si mulier à viro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos Scà liger Amongst the Romans and Greeks both the Woman and the Man might Divorce one another And by the Athenian Law they had proper Terms for both as if the Man left his Wife this was called a Dismission Dismission and Desertion if the Woman left her Husband this was called a Desertion So by the case put by Christ of a Woman it appears then that Women were Divorced as well as Men. The East Indians if they are but Jealous of their Wives will kill them and bring three or four witnesses to Swear That strange Men entred into their Houses by night or at unaccustomed times who had their pleasure of their Wives or in another sort as they will devise it whereby the Husband is streight discharged of the Crime of killing his Wife by the Laws both of Portugal and Spain and there are every year many Women without number dispatched by their Husbands and none think it strange nor make wonder at it because of the Custom and the Women are never the more frighted from their Adulteries but will say They can die no better death then by such a Law Linschot And may presently marry another Wife The Wives likewise frequently poison their Husbands which as some say was the original of their custom not to survive their dead Husbands but to burn them And the causes of Jealâ—uâ—e can by neither be published to the Magistrate with safety or hâ—nour either of Wife or Husband Were it not therefore far better for the Innocent party or both by assent to separate themselves privately and marry again then so live in danger of their lives one of another and more agreeable to the Law of God and Nature and the ends of marriage then for them if the Wife offends the Husband to have power to kill her while alive or if not offend to kill her by burning with him after dead or the Woman be tempted to prevent both by poisoning her Husband were it not better to be put away privately as Joseph did his Wife then the fault publish'd and Divorces would not be so frequent if left free to the parties for who would marry again a Man or Woman who had Divorced themselves from their first marriage without cause Augustus Caesar following the vicious policy of those times to strengthen himself by marriage of Women repudiates his Wife Scribonia the same day she was deliver'd of Julia and married Livia being great with Child by Tiberius Nero her Husband still living who was deliver'd of Drusus three Months after Dio. Tiberius by assent of Augustus repudiateth the Daughter of Agrippa being then with Child and marrieth Julia the Daughter of Augustus Dioclesian the Emperour married six Wives in a short space and repudiated them all great with Child Oros And having associated to him because of many Travels in the Empire Maximianus they both meet at Milan to create new Caesars to whom they may commit their Forces where they chose Constantius Chlorus and make him Governour of Britain and Galerius whom they make Caesar likewise to defend Eastern Europe These new Caesars they compel to repudiate their former Wives and Galerius married Valeria Daughter to Dioclesian And Constantius repudiated his Wife Helena by whom he had Costantine after call'd the Great and married Theodora daughter-in-Daughter-in-law to Maximian by whom he had after six Children Dioclesian assumeth Divine Honour and he and Maximian triumph yet they after resign the Empire and retire themselves to Galerius and Constantius after Constantius createth his Son Constantine Caesar and dyeth Against him was set up Maxentius Son to Maximian and Maximian giveth his Daughter Fausta to Constantine Herod Antipas repudiateth his Wife Areta who was Daughter to the King of Arabia and married Herodias Wife to his Brother Philip and Daughter to his Brother Aristobulus Joseph Anno Christi 1028. Constantine the Emperor being sick the States put Romanus Argyrus to his choice either to repudiate his Wife and marry the Emperor's Daughter or to lose his Eyes his Wife to save him from danger entereth into a Nunnery Romanus Argyrus is made Emperor and marrieth Zoe the Emperor's Daughter and banisheth Theodora her Sister Zon. Zoe falleth in love with Michael Brother to one of the cheif Eunuchs they strangle Romanus in a Bath he marrieth Zoe and was much troubled with the Dropsie and Falling-sickness Michael neglecteth the Emperess and refraineth her Bed shaveth her and banisheth her The people inforce him to recal her and put out his Eyes Cedr Zoe marrieth Constantius Monomachus who keepeth a Concubine
by her assent the Emperor is endeavour'd to be stoned by the people in hatred of his Concubine Zoe pacifieth the people Ib. Impotency and Sterility is a cause of Divorce The Law of Solon allowed Impotency in the Man or Sterility in the Woman to be a good cause of Divorce Plutarch in Solon vid. Aust contra c. because then old Folks might not Marry Such was the modesty of ancient times in Rome that from the first foundation of the City for the space of Five Hundred and Twenty Years there happened no Divorce between a Husband and Wife Val. Max. l. 2. cap. 1. And the first who began it was Spurius Carbillus who put away his Wife for Sterility which though it seem'd a tolerable cause yet wanted not reprehension from divers who thought the Conjugal Faith ought to overweigh the desire of Children Anno 631. Dagobert the great King of France repudiated his first Wife for Barrenness and Marrieth Nantildis a Nun Amandus a Bishop reproves him and he banisheth the Bishop afterwards having a Son he revoketh the Bishop to baptize him Calais Anno Christ 1263. The Queen of Bohemia being old and Barren the King intendeth a Divorce she layeth the fault on him he maketh her this offer That she should appoint him a Maid and if he got her not with Child in a Year he would be reputed faulty the Queen accepteth it and in Ten Months he hath a Son and afterwards divers Daughters She is Divorced and Marrieth Kum Grand Daughter to the Duke of Muscovia Chron. Boh. Regner King of Denmark Anno 820. marrieth Langertha a Warlike Woman of Suevia and had by her Fridlanus and two Daughters Crom. After he Repudiateth Landgertha for the inequality of the Match and Marrieth the Daughter of Hezotus King of Suevia by whom he had many Sons Crom. Anno 1354. Peter King of Spain repudiateth Blanch Daughter to the Duke of Bourbon and Marrieth Jean de Castro Histor Hispan Anno 1373. The King of Portugal refused a Match in Castile and taketh a Nobleman's Wife and banisheth him his Subjects are discontented with him Hist Hisp Anno 696. Pepin King of France repudiated his Wife and married Alpaida his Concubine by whom he had Charles Martell and he kill'd Lambert Bishop of Thuring for reproving his Marriage Am. Fris. Anno 576. The Wife of Chilperic King of France was divorced and thrust into a Monastery for being Godmother to her own Child Truon Charles the Eighth of France was Espoused to Mary the Daughter of Maximilian Maximilian marrieth Ann the Daughter and Heir of the Duke of Britain by Deputy The King of France repudiates the Daughter of Maximilian and marries the Daughter of the Duke of Britain Luis the Twelfth of France repudiates his Wife and marries Ann his Predecessor's Widow Anno 1333. The Marquess of Misnia having married Judeth the Daughter of the King of Bohemia the Emperor causeth the Marquess to repudiateher and marry his Daughter The King of Bohemia taketh divers places in Misnia and giveth Judeth to John Son of the French King Dub. The Arch-Bishop of Gnesna in Polonia forced Married Priests to be Divorced from their Wives Alsted Anno 1218. Lewis the Seventh King of France having married Elianor Daughter and Heir of William Duke of Guyen and having two Daughters by her notwithstanding divorced himself from her on pretence they were Couzins in the fourth degree She was after married to Henry the Second of England who had by her Five Sons and Three Daughters and was she who revenged her self on Rosamond though not in so high a degree injurious to her as Adela the Daughter of the King of France affianced to her Son Richard who was after King was suspected to be of whom it was commonly reported That her Husband was so far inamor'd that he having Committed Elianor to Prison resolved to be divorced from her and marry Adela Bak Hist 55.59 King John having maâ—ried Avice Daughter and Heir of Robert Duke of Gloucâ—ster having no Issue by her divorced himself from her alledging that she was his Couzin in the third degree Juan Daughter of Edward the First for her Beauty called the fair Maid of Kent was married first to William Montacute Earl of Salisbury and from him divorced but it appears not for what cause and was after married to Sir Thomas Holland in her right Earl of Kent and Father of Thomas and John Holland Duke of Surrey and Earl of Huntingdon and lastly she was Wife of Edward of Woodstock the black Prince of Wales and by him Mother of the infortunate King Richard the Second Henry the Eight married first Katharine Daughter of Ferdinando King of Spain the relict of his older Brother Arthur and was after Twenty Years marriage and the Birth of his Daughter Mary after Queen of England by her divorced from her on the opinion of some Divines that it was not lawful for him to marry his Brother's Wife and having successively married two other Wives after their death he married his fourth Wife Ann Sister to the Duke of Cleave she lived his Wife six Months and then was likewise Divorced Civilians Canonists Divines Lawyers and one Pope against another Aliment of Children and all by the Ears about Divorce and unless as we ought we wholy consult the Moral Law of God there is not a word of sence in the Laws of men but they are all for gain As Desertions and Divorces of Mothers without cause have been too frequent both amongst Gentiles Jews and Christians so likewise is the Desertion and not giving Aliment to Children Aristotle stain'd his Philosophy with the bloody Doctrine of exposing Infants The Chinoys who are poor think it Charity to strangle their Infants and save their Aliment Fornicators make it their custom to deflour Virgins and get them with Child and then illegitimate and desert both Mother and Child to save the charge of Aliment And oh horrid amongst Christians who le Parishes rise with Swords and Staves against one poor Sucking Babe to exterminate both it and the Mother naked and to be Vagabonds to beg steal or starve only to save so small an Alms as Aliment to one poor Infant not able to speak or beg for it self It is related by Travellers that some Indians use when a Child is born if it take not to suck the Dug of the Mother well they carry it out of the House and hang it naked on a Tree and leave it there returning themselves into the House after a while they go out again and bring in the Child and offer it the Teat if it take it not they carry it the second time and let it hang twice as long and fetch and offer it the Teat again if it take it not then they hang it on the Tree the third time and leave it hanging till it dies God made man righteous and writ the Moral Law in his heart but since the Devil hath seduced him to the Ceremonial he is become
worse then a Beast CHAP. III. Marriage Filiation and Succession not to be judged by the Law-Civil Canon or Feudall AS to the Author of the Civil Law or rather the Emperor in whose name and time the same was compiled he was Justinian whom though his own Parasites extoll'd for a God and his Lawyer Tribonian imployed by him or his Wife Theodora to do the work claws him with a doleful Compliment that he was in great fear least he should be rapt up into the Heavens when he little thought of it for his singular Piety to their insufferable loss Yet Procopius makes him a Devil and doubts very much whether he were not a Devil incarnate more likely when he little thought of it to be rapt to Hell Bodin indeed speaks something Fol. 17. may clear him from being a Daemon for he saith He was a blockish unlearned Prince and out-witted by his Wife Theodora when she pleased and caused by her to make Laws only for the advantage of the Women against the Men and Procopius likewise commends his Justice and saith That he used when he could catch them to take Bribes of sides and if any who had a Sute before him presented him with a Bribe he was sure to carry his Cause unless the other Party counterballanced him with another As to the Collection of Laws attributed to him it cannot be denied but there are a multitude of excellent Laws of Nature scatter'd through the great Mass of them but in such a confusion as is rather proper to a Chaos then an orderly Digest Then for the bulk 't is an Hundred times bigger then necessary and the Evil Laws which increase it to that greatness in number overwhelm and in Nature destroy or make useless the Good As to the Religion in them it is Popery and Superstition The Justice is Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government the Mercy of them is Racks and all inhuman Tortures Civil Law The Heads of the Civil Law prohibiting to marry are comprehended in the Verses following 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Aetas Conditio Numerus Mona Et Ordo 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Optio Nobilitas Sanguis Tutela Potestas 11. 12. 13.  14. Fons Sacer Affinitas Raptus Repugnat Honestas Irrita quae faciunt Connubia legibus haec sunt 1. The first cause making marriage void or voidable is Age if the Man is under 14 or the Woman under 12. 2. Condition If it be servile they were not allowed to marry Ceremonially but might lie with one another and get new Slaves 3. Number If a Man have one Wife he ought not to have another 4. If either Person be Monastick as a Monk or Nun. 5. Being within Orders as a Priest or Clerk 6. Adoption prohibits mariage between the Adopting and Adopted 7. Nobility heretofore prohibited marriage with a Plebeian and Senators and their Children per Legem Papiam Juliam with their freed Women or others of so mean Condition A wicked Law and contrary to the Law of God for they might lie with Plebeians but not marry them 8. Consanguinity in respect of which three sorts of Persons are consider'd the Ascendents Descendents and Collaterals 9. A Guardian is prohibited to marry his Pupil 10. A President of a Province is prohibited to marry one subjected to him by reason of his Jurisdiction in which two last cases the reason is that marriage might be free and not compell'd by the Awe or Power of Authority 11. Fons Sacer the Font of Baptism is by the Pope made to contract a spiritual affinity or kindred between the God-fathers and God-mothers and Child Baptized for whom or their Children to marry within the fourth degree is made without any sence as Incestuous as if within the degrees of Carnal kindred 12. Affinity in which are the same Considerations of Prohibition to marry as before in Affinity 13. Rape for by the Civil Law the Ravished was prohibited to marry the Ravishor 14. Such Matters as are thought against Honesty or are of ill report according to the Manners of the People Canon Law As to the Canon Law Aquinas Cajetan and others recite the Verses following which have left out some of these Matters relating to the Civil Law and added difference in Religion and other Matters withal to the Modern Canons in the manner following Error Conditio Votum Cognitio Crimen Cultus Disparitas Vis Ordo Ligamen Honestas Si sis affinis si forte coire nequibis Haec sociandà vetant Connubia facta retractant Which likewise may be easily understood by Exposition before made of the former But they are likewise many of them wicked and contrarg to the Law of God The Civil Law is a Cento of Rescripts of Emperors a frippery of Opinions of Doctors Planting the Sword for the Ballance Superstition for Religion Tyranny for Government Antinomies for Laws Torture for Judgment Gain for Godliness Iniquity for Justice Confusion for Method Fiction for Truth Form for Matter Manner for Merit Ceremony for Substance a Powder of Impertinents a Remedy worse than the Disease a Whirl-pool of Vertigoes a Rock for Shipwracks a Gulf to swallow Money a Sea driven with contrary winds a Bottomless Deep of Doubts a Chaos of Controversies an Abyss of Darkness a Bulk broken with it's own weight Canon Law Anno 1520. The Pope and Papists Excommunicating Luther he appealeth to a Council and burneth the Canon Law and the Popes Bull at Wittenberg Calvin tit Cynus writes of him thus Cynus jurisconsultus Pistorii natus Dyni Maxellani auditor Bononiae jus civile professus est librosque de eo non paucos ita scripsit ut semper à Pontificiis canonibus abhorret In interpretatione l. quoties C. de Jud. scribit Canonicum jurisconsultum secisse sibi jura pro libitu voluntatis suae leges civiles servare eas ad commodum suum non autem contra se propter ambitum secularis jurisdictionis usurpandae non propter aliud Cynus a Professor of the Civil Law at Bononia and one wrote many Books concerning the same yet did always very much abhor the Papal Canons and writes in interpretation l. quoties C. de Jud. that the Canonists made all their Laws according to their own Arbitrary will and observed the Civil Law only for their profit and not when it made against them out of Ambition to usurp Temporal Jurisdiction to themselves and to no other end The Canon Law is deservedly likewise censured by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln in his late learned Book against Popery fol. 35. where having recited many wicked positions in it he concludes in these words Thus much and may be too much for the Canon Law that sink of Forgeries Impiety and Disloyalty for I scarce know any Book wherein are more forged writings under good name sometimes for bad purposes and more impious Doctrines and Positions own'd and authoriz'd for Law and that by one who pretends though without and against reason to be Christ's Vicar and
no Jurisdiction but by Usurpation of so Temporal a Right as Marriage before this Statute let any who thinks he can see Nine Miles into a Milstone once more look into the Statute of Merton before recited and try whether he can screw out of it any word giving the Bishops either a Jurisdiction of Marriage or general Bastardy or that this Statute ever forged so rude a Romish Tool as the two edged Sword of general and special Bastardy to divide the living Child or tear it in peices between the Bishop and the Temporal Judg or how it was then consistent with a Legale Judicium parium to expose a Child no Alien but the King 's Native Subject to be tried for all he had by a then Foraign Ecclesiastical Law and a Judg a sworn Canonical Subject to a Foraign Pope or that the wisdom of that Parliament intended to coin a Chimera of a Distinction without a difference of general and special Bastardy which neither they themselves understood nor any Lawyers which write to this day give any sensibly Interpretation or agree amongst themselves concerning it or that they who made the Statute to oppose the Bishops Jurisdiction of Marriage should create a Notion of general Bastardy which le Scrope says was not in Esse before to give them a new Jurisdiction which was to change the Laws of England which they positively refuse in the Statute it self to change Object 4 No Similitude of fetching the Laws of Athens to Rome and bringing the Romish Laws to England It is further alledged by Coke lib. 5.1 part 9. That as the Romans fetching divers Laws from Athens yet being approved and allowed by the State there they were called Jus Civile Romanorum And as the Normans borrowing all or most of their Laws from England yet baptized them by the name of the Laws and Customs of Normandy So albeit the Kings of England derived their Ecclesiastical Laws from others yet so many as were approved and allowed hereby and with general consent are aptly and rightly called the King's Ecclesiastical Laws o. England To which is answer'd That there is no similitude between making or changing the Laws of the Athenians which were Foraign Laws to become the Laws of the Romans and the making or changing either the Foraign Papal or native Provincial Canons or Ecclesiastical Laws into the King's Ecclesiastical Laws of England For First The Athenian Laws before they were made Denizons of Rome were not admitted in cumulo but Articulated and every Article examined one by one by the Decem viri or Ten Men as our usurped Ecclesiastical Laws were appointed to have been done by the Statute of 25 Hen. 8.19 by the Two and Thirty Men and likewise in time of Edward the Sixth by others but neither succeeded before the same was received for a Roman Law Secondly Such Athenian Laws as were pickt or garbled from the rest were by the Authority of the Legislative Power of Rome both Senate and People caused to be writ in Twelve Tables and inacted to be the Laws of Rome but in England there was never by Authority any Articulation selecting or garbling of Canon Laws effected nor the same reduced into Tables Written or Printed by any Act of Parliament Ecclesiastical Laws in an unknown Language Thirdly The selected Athenian Laws were written in the Roman Language to be understood by the People before they would be received as Roman Laws but there is no such thing in the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Holy-Church concerning Marriage or any thing else but they all still remain in the Language of the Beast and can be neither call'd the Laws of the Church which by the Scripture are forbidden to be spoke in an unknown tongue as appears 1 Cor. 14.19 It is said In the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also then ten thousand words in an unknown tongue It is as utterly unlawful therefore to make that a Law of the Church or an Ecclesiastical Law of Marriage which is in the unknown Language of Latin as it had been to have made any form of Prayer taken from the Romish Church though the Pater Noster it self the form of Prayer of the Church of England while it was in Latin for the Minister would then have been a Barbarian to the English man and the English-man a Barbarian to him and it is as bad for the poor English-man for his Law-sutes in Latin for a Wife in the Court of Arches and other Ecclesiastical Courts as it would be if his Prayers were again in Latin in the Church For though he pay his Lawyers dear to plead his Cause there he cannot understand for his Money whether they call him and his Wife Rogue and Whore or honest People or whether the Judg by his Sentence will give him his Wife or take her from him but by the implicit Faith of an Interpreter as let any one look on the Sentence of Divorce in Kennes Case Coke lib. 7.42 E. he may understand or not understand the same Ecclesiastical Laws are not the Laws of the Land Fourthly The Athenian Laws were not obtruded on the Romans by Conquest of their Bodies by the Temporal Sword or their Souls by the Spiritual Sword of Excommunication but the Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage have been obtruded on England ever since the Conquest by the superstitious Terrors or actual force of Excommunication either Papal or Episcopal and never by consent in Parliament The suffering of an oppression therefore is no consent nor an abuse against Law an Use Custom or Law neither can a wicked Oppression Use Custom or Law in name only be turned into a Law of England except by consent in Parliament or other humane Power besides it is by the very before recited Statute of Merton declared That the Laws of the Church are not the Laws of England for when the Bishop quarrel'd that the Law of England as to Marriage was not according to the Law of the Church and would have had them changed into the Law of the Church the Earls and Barons with one voice answer'd We will not change the Laws of England Whereby it 's plain the Laws of England and Laws of the Church are opposite Laws and not the same and this is confessed by Coke himself in the exposition of his Statute of Merton 2 part Inst fol. 98. where he saith Here our Common Laws are aptly and properly called the Laws of England because they are appropriated to this Kingdom of England as most apt and fit for the Government thereof and have no dependence upon any Foraign Law whatsoever no not on the Civil or Canon Law other then in Cases allowed by the Laws of England and therefore he saith the Poet spake truly hereof Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos So as the Law of England is proprium quarto modo to the Kingdom of England therefore Foraign Precedents are
and subscribed by the parties on their parts it was thought necessary by them that God should make some manifestation on his part that he would accept it in that form of words it was written and to that end Dr. Dee with Edward Kelly went to the Chappel to the South Table and there Dr. Dee saith he first praying to Almighty God Creator of Heaven and Earth to encrease his Faith and open the eyes of his Heart He read over the Covenant verbatim before the Divine Majesty and his holy Angles After a quarter of an hour Madimi appeareth Madi Pepigistis Dr. d ee Pepigimus A Voice Ratum est perumpite sunt vobis omnia communia Dei non hominis estote promissa quae sunt possidete vobis distinata A ternus sum Edward Kelly declared formerly his opinion That all Spirits appearing in the shape of Women were evil Spirits and not good which is seems made him not again acquiesce in his apparition of Madimi he therefore May 20th required again the writing subscribed to expunge his name from it but having got it he cut it into two equal parts and kept that part wherein were his own and his Wives names and returned the other to Dr. d ee and his Wife But afterwards Madimi did with her finger drawn on the two papers make them whole again c. Then an apparition is made of Christ standing in a great Globe of Fire with a Purple Robe Christus Who sitteth on the Cherubims c. As I humbled my self to Death wherein the Unity between my Congregation and me was before my Father perpetually sealed c. So be you content to be the figures of the things that are to come by you that it may be a perpetual Testimony before the Heavens and before Men of your perfect and sound faith And thou even thou who hast tore in peices this Morning this Covenant which thou hast made with me behold the time shall come that thou shalt be torn in peices thy self and I will turn away my face from thee for a time c. But because thy mind was never to forsake me even so shalt thou never be forsaken of me Take heed of the Tempter thou madest a Covenant with me in paper which thou canst not by tearing the same put out for my Register is Eternal He that pawneth his Soul for me loseth it not and he that dieth for me dieth to Eternal life Behold you shall both as Lambs be brought forth before men in your later days and shall be slain and your Bodies tossed to and fro but I will revive you again Dr. d ee After which as I and Edward Kelly walked out at the new stairs into the new Orchard along the little River to view the small Fish and returning to the fore-stairs again Edward Kelly saw two as high as my Son Arthur fighting with Swords by the River-side and the one said to the other Thou hast beguiled me Then I at length said unto them Can I take up the matter between you One said Yea that you can In what is it said I Then said he I sent a thing to thy Wife by my Man and this Fellow hath taken it from him they fought sâ—re at length he that had it was wounded in the Thigh and it seem'd to bleed afterward he that was wounded did bring a yellow square thing out of his bosom then I guessed it to be my stone which was carried away as is mention'd before suddenly he seem'd to have been out of sight and to be come again he threatned the other that had wounded him and said He would be even with him he asked whether he had lain it under the right Pillow at length they both went one after the other into a little Willow-Tree-Body on the right-hand next the new Stairs into the Garden the Tree seem'd to cleave or open and they to go in Hereupon we went away and I coming to my Chamber found my Wife lying on her Bed where I lay yesternight and there I lifted up the right Pillow on which she lay and there I found my pretious stone that was before taken away by Madimi whereat Edward Kelly greatly wondred and doubted the verity of the shew but I and my Wife rejoiced thanking God Saturday May 23th Proeces ad Deum fundebam c. And then we requested That the Act of Obedience performed according to our Faith conceived of our Vocation from the Almighty and Eternal God of Heaven and Earth might be accepted which is by Apparition and Voice accepted and blessed So hence none doubts to conclude that the Spirits which here appeared and assumed the names and shape of an Arch-Angel and Christ were Devils transformed and neither good Angels nor Christ because they tempted to Adultery and Uncleanness Bishops set up Community of Women for Commutation money The like Community is set up by Ecclesiastical Laws and Bishops by pardoning for Money the deflouring and desertion of as many Virgins as you will so you marry them not before a Priest in a Temple and by the Popish Clergy who have liberty for a small rate or Taxa Camerae to lie with as many Women-Virgins or Wives as they will so they marry them not before a Priest in a Temple So the Authors of the Bishops Certificate of Filiation were the Daemons of Hamon Delphos and other Oracles Bishops Certificate of Filiation where it appears it was the Custom amongst the Heathens when any Son doubted or knew not his Father to consult the Devils Oracle as appears by the example of Alexander the Great Oedipus and others and the Devil gave them their Response by his Arch-bishop or Priest and if they went not to him in person but sent by Certificate in writing which is the same with the Certificate of the Bshop So the Law of Fictions of Marriage by intention of the Mind only without carnal knowledg of the Body Consensus non Concubitus and verba de praesenti without the Act and Consensus non Concubitus facit matrimonium came first from Cecrops an Idolatrous King of Athens and was since revived in imitation of him by Idolatrous Popes and the same Law was confirmed by the Pagan Goddess Juno and the Popish Mother of St. Kentegern both got with Child without a Man as after more at large mention'd to the intent Husbands might not be Unbelievers if their Wives were got with Child without them seeing it is sufficient if they had a good intention in their Mind and spoke Verba de praesenti and there was Consensus non Concubitus So the Law was first invented by Aruspices South-sayers and Astrologers of prohibiting Times and Seasons of Marriage for the Gâ—eeks Romans Times when Marriages go out and come in Chinoys and other Heathen Nations believed their Marriages could not be happy unless the Birds and the Stars were consulted for a lucky day and lucky hour to which purpose is that of
into the Children of the Husband if he is within the four Seas at time of their begetting and of no probation admitted to the contrary A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke concerning Transubstantiation of the Children of Parents within the four Seas A relation of a Souldier in the late Civil-Wars who at his return home found two of his Wives Children transubstantiated into his Of the Law of Intails on Marriage and the mischeifs of them Of the Barbarous Law of Illegitimation or making Children incapable to succeed to the Goods of their own Parents and the excellent Law of the Emperor Anastasius abolishing the same and the repeal of the Emperor's Law by the Strumpet Theodora and succeeding Popes and Bishops That the unlawful Marriage of Parents ought not to illegitimate the Children to succeed to their Goods A further touch on Intails Sacrament of Marriage CAlvin lib. 4. cap. 19. Speaks thus of the Popish Sacrament of Marriage At ne simpliciter Ecclesiam luderent quam longam Mendaciorum fraudum nequitiarum seriem vim errori attexuerunt Vt dicas nihil aliud quam abominationum latebram quaestisse dum è Matrimonio Sacramentum fecerunt ubi enim id semel obtinuere conjugalium causarum cognitionem ad se traxerunt quippe res Spiritualis non erat profanis judicibus attractanda Tum leges sanxerunt quibus Tyrannidem suam firmarunt sed partim in Deum manifeste impias partim in homines iniquissimas Quales sunt ut conjugia inter adolescentulos parentum injussu contracta firma rataque maneant Ne inter cognatos ad Septimum usque gradum matrimonia sint Legitima quae contracta sint dissolvantur gradus vero ipsos contra gentium omnium jura Mosis quoque politiam confingunt Ne viro qui adulteram repudiaverit alteram inducere liceat Ne spirituales cognati Matrimonio copulentur Ne à Septuagesima ad Octavas Paschae tribus Hebdomadis ante Natalem Johannis ab Adventu ad Epiphaniam nuptia Celebrentur similes innumerae quas recensere longum fueritex Eorum caeno aliquando emergendum est in quo jam diutius haesit oratio quà m animus ferebat aliquantulum tamen mihi profecisse videor quod Leoninum pellem istis asinis quadam ex parte detraxi They thought it too little to delude the Church simply but what a long chain of Deceits and Wickednesses have they knit on to this one Error that you may say they sought nothing else in their making Marriage a Sacrament Sacrament of Marriage but a lurking hole for their Abominations for as soon as they got that granted they drew to themselves the jurisdiction of all Matrimonial Causes pretending forsooth that Spiritual things were not to be handled before profane Judges Next they fell to making of Laws to confirm their Tyranny in part manifestly impious towards God and partly most injust as to Men Such as are these That Contracts of Marriage between Minors for this is to be intended of verbal Contracts only should be firm and valid without assent of Parents That Marriages contracted between Cousins to the Seventh degree should be unlawful and if any were Contracted should be dissolved and they likewise feigned Degrees contrary to the Law of Nations and Policy of Moses That it should not be lawful for a Man who Divorceth his Wife for Adultery to marry another That Spiritual Kindred should not marry That it should not be lawful to marry from Septuagesima to the Octaves of Easter and three Weeks before the Nativity of John Baptist and from Advent to Epiphany and innumerable others the like which were too long to recite for I must at length get out of their filthy mire in which my Feet have stuck longer then my mind could well-brook yet I hope to have got to my self so much good as that I have in some part pull'd the Lion's skin from these Asses The making Marriage a Sacrament came from the old Pagan Priests of Rome who persuaded the people to draw the gains of Sacrifice and Sacraments to themselves that no Marriage could be happy unless they were Contracted by the Priests with Sacrifices to the Gods and Sacramenta ignis aquae for which reason the Priest sprinkled them with his Holy Water of this Sacrament and made them touch Water and Fire provided by the Priest to that purpose and if any of these Ceremonies were omitted whereby the Preist lost his gain then were the Marriage called nuptiae innuptiae or in the Pope's Canonical Language null and void That Marriage is a Sacrament the Bishops and common Lawyers deny in Words but acknowledg and confess in their Works for the Bishops continue still to usurp the same Jurisdiction of Marriage which the Popish Bishops never pretended to but as a Sacrament and the Common Lawyers continue still the mystery of Transubstantiation which the old Popish Lawyers never did pretend to otherwise then as the effect of a Sacrament Of the profound Popery of the Common Lawyers in Transubstantiation of two persons into one person and the mischeifs thereof I shall not need to answer any place of Scripture making the Husband and the Wife but one Person Transubstantiation of two persons into one person for there is not one word in the whole Scripture which affirms a Man and his Wife to be one person or if it were it must be a figurative and not a natural person If it be objected That they are called one Body or one Flesh I say the same words are said of an Harlot 1 Cor. 6.16 Know ye not that he which is joined to an Harlot is one Body for two saith he shall be one flesh Yet was never any Divine or Lawyer I have met with so absurd as to infer from hence That the Harlot and her Mate are one person or that they are transubstantiated into one another but remain two distinct Substances as they were before much less that the Harlot hath no propriety in her Goods and that every Customer she hath may rob her Shop take all her Goods and beat her and she have no Action or Remedy against him or if she catch a Chouse in her snare that she and her Complices may rob strip sell him to the Barbado's and he shall not be allowed to sue her before the Magistrate because he and she are in Scripture call'd one flesh In like manner may be said of the foppery of Sacramental Transubstantiations of the Bread into the Body or one Body into another or making many persons in Society or Communion one person because the Scripture calls them one Body as it is said 1 Cor. 10.16 The bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread This is intended a figurative but not a natural Body and it were very ridiculous to make allusions
would not cause the poor Man to be paid for his shoulder of Mutton without all that ado but I after understood that were not the Forms mixt with so many such absurdities there would be little work for them at the Bar. Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into the Children of the Husband if he is within the four Seas at the time of their begetting and no probation admitted to the contrary And of Intails on Marriages Husband within the four Seas no probation admitted that the Children were not his Fiction and Falsity allowed against Truth That no probation is admitted to the contrary appears 18. E. 4.30 where Littleton says That if a Man marries a Woman great with Child by another Man whether he knows it or not knows it and within three days after she is delivered of the Child this Child is legitimate and the true Son of the Man that married her And this by a Fiction in Law and with this agrees Coke Com. 244. So here is a Father made not by god but by the Father of lies and a false Child made Legitimate and the true Child of a Father who never begot him and the true Child if he begot any before he was married without a Priest and Temple made illegitimate and a false yea no Child to him who begot him and all this held very good and sound Divinity If marriage of the great bellied Woman be in facie Ecclesiae a brazen facies Ecclesiae it must be where the Devil gives God the Fiction the truth the lie And Coke and Littleton hold it too for good Law I wonder whose Law they mean and so stiff they are in it that Coke Com. 244. saith No proof shall be admitted to the contrary so here 't is not stabitur praesumptione donec probetur in contrarium but it is the sin of Presumption from which the two Fathers of the Law do not pray as the Patriarch David did Psal 19.13 Keep thy Servant also from presumptuous Sins let them not have Dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression One of them at least defends the sin of Presumption so high that he saith 'T is presumption Juris de jure non admittitur probatio in contrarium and in fictione juris semper est equitas a meer repugnancy and contradiction which never came from the Law of God nor is consistent with it as appears Psal 96.13 For he cometh to judg the Earth he shall Judg the World with righteousness and the People with his truth And not with fictions and much less with lies so punctually forbidden James 3.14 Lie not against the truth and so severely threatned Revel 21.8 All liars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone And Revel 19.20 The false Prophet is to be cast in amongst them who though he seems to be the greatest lier in the World yet in none greater then in this his lie of Legitimation against which must be admitted no proof to the contrary The Law of Legitimation is further That if a Woman Elope or run from her Husband with an Adulterer and live in Adultery with him and have a Child by the Adulterer if her Husband be within the four Seas when 't was begot this Child shall be Legitimate and shall be adjudged the Husband's Child and no probation shall be admitted to the contrary as appears 43. E. 3.19.7 H. 4 9.44 E. 3.10 1. H. 6.7.19 H. 6.17 Coke Com. 244. A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke concerning the transubstantiation of Children of Parents within the four Seas And of the Law of Intails When a Common Lawyer hath for his Fees in a Deed of Jointure very formally settled Lands Messuages Houses Tenements and Hereditaments c. To have and to hold the said Messuages Houses Lands Tenements and Hereditaments with their and every their Appurtenances unto the said A. B. and C. D. and to the Heirs of their two Bodies lawfully begotten and the Priest on Banes or Licence as formally per verba de praesenti contracted the said A. B. and C. D. which he calls Marriage You shall next hear what Heirs the Priest and Lawyer confederated to do their Faeminine Client a good turn by their Fictions whereat they are both good one will expound by the Gospel and the other interpret by the Law to be lawfully begotten of the Body of this Woman aforesaid First Littleton 18. E. Fol. 30. hath said If a Man marry a Woman great with Child by another Man and within three days after she is delivered of the Child this Child he saith is a Mulier that is to say Legitimate that is to say lawfully begotten of the Body of the said Woman by the said Man that married her Yet he saith In putting the case he was begot by another man and makes a very great Fiction in the premises and contradiction in the conclusion of his Case but let it be what it will Coke Com. 244. seconds him and thinks Littleton hath spoken over conscionably or wasts time to allow three days for cannot a Woman of full and lawful Age though she sup a Virgin if she lie with the Law by her side that Night as well have a Child next Day by dinner as if she stayed three whole days he therefore takes off two of the unnnecessary days and says plainly reserving to the Case of Littleton on the Margent That if the Issue is born a Month or a Day after Marriage between Parties of full lawful Age the Child is Legitimate that is as aforesaid lawfully begot And the reason he gives is Quia filiatio non potest probari from which Premises he makes three Conclusions First Ergo probatio non admittitur in contrarium Secondly Ergo if a Man marry a Woman got with Child by another Man and he is born but one day after the Marriage this Child is lawfully begot by the married Man Thirdly Ergo if a man is on or within the four Seas that is within the Jurisdiction of the King of England and a Child in his absence is begot by another Man on the Body of his Mirmaid he left at home this was lawfully begot by the Man on the four Seas Let any Logician if he dare deny the Sequel for here are two Aristostles for the Law but he hath but one for his Logick And there is a greater Aristotle too for the Gospel the Bishop himself to second my Lord Coke Bishop's Certificate Form hath given his Certificate in his Book of Entries Fol. 181. And the foresaid Bishop by his Letters Patents and Close hath certified to the Justices here That he by virtue of the foresaid Writ to him directed Convocating before him such as of right are to be Convocated hath diligently enquired and certified the truth of the matter that in the Chappel of B. in the County of G. in the
Dioccss of L. the Sixth day of August Anno Dom. 1606 Matrimony true pure and lawful Per verba de praesenti according to the form and rites of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England between the said A. B. and C. D. was Solemnized by one Mr. A. V. Clerk in the presence of J. J. W. B. W. W. R. M. Witnesses in this part by the said Bishop examin'd and sworn and of other Witnesses then present the said Parties A. B. and C. D. his Wife being of lawful Age and from all other Matrimonial Contracts free clear and clean as the Witnesses so sworn and examined believe This is the Form of Certificate which carries the best Circumstances and Face of a Marriage which can be put on any But the Bishop will give his Certificate as full of a true pure and lawful Matrimony to Coke's Woman with the Adulterous great Belly who lays it down the next day though no Witness will compurgate from other Contracts and transubstantiate as well the Child Adulterous as lawfully begot to be Child of the Husband yet is not this Certificate neither free from fiction and falsity contrary to the Law of God for it is already shewn That it is impossible to make a verbal Contract per verba de praesenti praeterito or futuro matrimonio and that Matrimony cannot be before a Mother nor a Mother before Conception of a Child and that 't is impossible to make a Ceremonial Law of Marriage either of the Church of England or Rome to be the Moral Law of Marriage instituted by God and besides if there were a lawful Marriage there can be no Sequel or Ergo infer'd That the Adulterous Child of the Woman is lawfully begot because the Marriage was lawful or ought to be Successor to the Husband 's Goods because born of the Wife for there can be properly no Adultery nor Adulterous Issue born but within lawful Marriage But Logician beware the Bishop's Certificate and a Law of Transubstantiation alter the case if thy profane Reason will dispute Faith or Episcopal Infallibility in Marriage Filiation and Succession thou wilt be Excommunicated The good Woman hath the same advantage whether she go from her Husband's House or stay there for if the good-man leave her at home and march abroad himself a Soldiering or Merchandizing if still it be within the four Seas and his Stock increase and multiply at home the while more then abroad he must not be so ill natur'd as not to bear the charg of his better Factress then himself During the late Civil Wars A Souldier finding his Wives Children transubstantiated into his I was credibly informed of a Soldier who left his Wife at home with one Child and was for divers Years so long out in Service that before he returned home again his Wife had two more to increase his number at length he returned home to the Town where he dwelt and the Neighbours as soon as they understood it went in shew to welcome him home but withal to see how he would like the increase of his Children in his absence where after they had sat a while he appeared very kind to his Wife and very fond of his Child which he had left at home at his departure supposing the other to have been some Children of the Neighbours who were come in to play with his 'till a while after seeing those Children by his Fire-side to draw closer to his Wife then strangers use to do he asked Whose the Children were the Wife and answer'd him Thine whereat he was much amazed and demanded how that could be seeing he had not been at home so many Years The Wife replyed thou might'st have stayed at home then and got them thy self if thou would'st so there being no other Answer to be got the poor man was glad to take up this new Bag and Baggage when he thought to have rested For the fiction of Legitimation dared give the Truth of the Soldier the Lie to his face yet he knew not whom to send a Challenge or a Duel to In no better case had he been had he in the Service of his King and Country lost his life in a fight at Sea if within the four Seas what he had got with his own Blood must have gone to an Adulterous Blood at the pleasure of his Wife and the Certificate of the Bishop Of the Law of Intails on Marriage and the mischiefs insuing by them Law of Intails causeth Adulteries and disinherits true Heirs It is before shewen how mischievously the true Heirs are dis-inherited and destroyed by Intails to two Bodies and by Littleton Coke and the Bishops fictions on the same who in despight of Truth Religion Sence and Reason God and Nature will have the Adulterous issue of the Woman preferred before the true and lawful Children of the Man in Succession to the Man's inheritance I shall likewise here touch some other few but fatal mischiefs which the Chains and Fetters of Estates by Intails to two Bodies on Marriages whether these Intails are made by the Pontificial or Temporal Laws do cause for it is to be noted that the Laws of Theodora and the Popes which Enact That no Children shall be capable of Succession to the Father but where the Father and Mother were contracted by a Priest in a Temple is an Intailing of the Inheritance of the Man to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman and an excluding of the Heirs of the Man if she prove adulterous So there cannot properly be said to be any Fee-simple in England No Fee-simple in England for Fee-simple it self is by the Popish Law Intailed to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman begotten beget them who will and the Priest who would not therefore be married himself to a Wife lest she should put a cheat on him and bring forth a yâ—ung Lay-man but take a Curtezan put cunningly the Fee-simple cheat on the simple Lay-man and his Fils de prestre too by making a Law That none should be his Heirs unless begotten on the Body of such Woman as he should give him in a Temple Littleton deceived in Fee-simple So Littleton in his Chapter of Fee-simple and his Commentator on him understood not the words his Heirs for every Fee-simple where a Woman is married by a Priest in a Temple is to go to her Heirs of her Body begotten and not to his and let her have as many Heirs as she will begotten by the Adulterer the Husband's Land shall go to her Heirs but let the Husband who is perhaps turned off by the Wife get as many as he will by another Woman none of those shall be his Heirs For which reason in favour of the true and natural Children and that the Father might have power by Act executed in his Life-time to provide for his own especially where he found his Wives Adulterous as Britton fol. 122. saith That the Forms of Deeds of Feoffment
The word Assigns gave power to cut off Fee-simple Intails were afterwards made to him his Heirs and Assigns and the word Assigns added in favour of the true and natural Children which word Assigns gave the Lay-men power of cutting off the Fee-simple Intails being the cheat imposed on them by the Popish Priest and to Assign Dispose and Alien the same as well Extra familiam as Intra which it seems before without the word Assigns they could not do But it was not long after when the subtle Popish Priest who knew he could Reign not but by the Woman got a Latin Statute to be made Westminster 2 cap. 1. whereby he struck out the word Assigns and took clean away the power of Men to Assign Alien and Dispose of their own Lands and whereas the Intail of Fee-simple was only implicit he then by express words Intails it to Heirs begotten of the Body of the Woman whereby the adulterous might succeed as well as and before the Lawful if they came first which Intails likewise were after carried into Scotland for so says Craig Feud fo 70. Ab Anglis ad nos defluxisse puto And fo 59. he saith Neque enim tale Feudum ad collaterales extenditur inâ—ò quod majus est si Maevio Semproniae conjugibus concedatur Feudum baredibus inter ipsos procreandis nulli ex eo matrimonio supersint Et Maevius ex alia conjuge liberos susceperit hi in feudo non succedant Intails a Skreen to Adulteries This digression hath been made to shew that the Original of Intails to more Bodies than one on marriage came from the old Pagan Priests and now revived by Popes to be a skreen to Adulteries and Adulterous Successions and thereby their power over the Women without which no Sacerdotal Empire can subsist I shall now proceed to shew the other mischiefs insuing from Intails besides the Patronage of Adulteries Intails destroy Patriarchy and introduce Hierarchy Gynarchy Paedarchy First therefore Intails on Marriages destroy Patriarchy and introduce into Families Hierarchy Gynarchy and Paedarchy That Patriarchy was the first form of Government instituted in Families by God and Nature I think none will contend the Ancient Writers and Poets are full of it especially in their Celebrations of the Primaevous happiness of the Golden Age and old Homer begins Nec fora consiliis fervent nec judice tantum Antra colunt umbrosa altis in montibus Aedes Quisque suas regit uxorem Natosque Courts grew not hot with Judge or Lawyer then But each Man without strife In Mountain high rul'd or in shady Den His Children House and Wife Here Patriarchy was in its Throne and the Moon and Stars all bowed to the Sun till the Priests of Priapus and Venus as before touched and for the fore-mentioned ends of satisfying their own Lust Covetousness and Ambition first prohibited all Marriage except by a Priest in a Temple then Intailing all Estates to the Heirs Lawfully begotten of the Body of the Woman married by the Priest and the Priest to be Judge both of the marriage and the Lawful begetting by this the Priest introduced Hierarchy and got a greater Dominion over the Woman and the Children than the Husband or Father for he was not to be judge whether the Wife or Children were his but the Priest and now the Bishop by his Certificate and likewise hereby the Priest became Judge of the Alimony and Maintenance and gave what he pleased to the Wife and her Children in regard the Father had no power of Alienation by reason of the Pontificial Intail to the Heirs of the Woman and thereby the Hierarchy of the Priest the Gynarchy of the Wife and Paedarchy of the Sons necessarily arising from such principles turned the poor Patriarch out of Doors and took his Goods when and as they pleased Intails dâ—â—fraud civil and natural Debts 2. The Intail deprives the Father of power to provide for his younger Children but after his death the Sons are thereby left desperate and betake themselves to the High-way and the Daughters to be prostitutes to the dishonour and destruction of themselves and Families 3. Intails as they defraud the Children of the natural debts of Aliment due from their Parents so they defraud Creditors of the valuable debts due to them from their Debtors 4. They put the Subjects to infinite trouble vexations and charges for Fines Recoveries Licenses of Alienation to cut them off Bills of Discoveries and hazard and danger they being many times erroneous and the Intails secret and thereby not only all the cost and labour lost but likewise the whole Purchase-money disbursed bona fide by a Lawful Purchasor Intails cause the abuse of private Acts of Parliament 5. They are the chief occasions pretended of private Acts of Parliament whereby contrary to all justice the Lawful rights of Persons and Families are taken from them and they undone without Summons or Hearing or notice to make their claims whereas by the just and honourable practice of the Kingdom of Scotland they use to make Subsequent Acts of Salvo jure cujuslibet whereby the rights of all Persons are preserved and restored Acts of Salvo jure cujuslibet in Scotland against all private Acts precedent as appears by the Acts of Parliament Car. 1. p. 1. Act 31. p. 2. Act 70. p. 3. Act 42. Car. 2. p. 2. Act 29. 2 Sess Car. 2. p. 2. Act 52. Sess 3. Car. 2. Act 30. c. 6. To mention a word more how much the taking away of the Father's power of free disposing and Alienation of their Estates by Intails or any other irrevocable settlements on Children brings into Families the unexperienced Pride of Paedarchy whereby Children undo both their Parents and themselves by depriving of their Parents of the means of their Education in the true Religion and in Lawful Callings and Professions the Parents having no other Bridle on them to restrain them from vicious courses but to give them hopes and fears of increasing or lessening their Portions according to their demerits may appear Bodin 25. where he saith It was obtained of Constantine that the propriety of the Mother's Inheritance should be in the Children and the Father should have only the usu-fruct This was fair that the Inheritance which came by the Mother the Father should not have power to Alien from her Children But after it was obtained of Theodosius the younger That the propriety of all manner of Goods in general however they came by them should be to the Sons the use only to the Fathers so that they could not any-wise Alienate the propriety Children command Parents by Intails nor dispose thereof though for the benefit of their Children yea with us he saith not so much as the bare use of such Goods is left to the Father which hath so puffed up the hearts of Children as that they oftentimes command their Parents by necessity
Authors of this Law were the Athenian Owl and the Romish Buzzard making intention of the mind and publication of the Priest to be a Marriage and not carnal knowledge And these two pieces of Nonsence have by their Canon Enacted That Consensus non Coneubitus facit Matrimonium consent not carnal knowledge makes Matrimony if before a Priest in a Temple Owles were plenty in Athens and Cecrops was the first King there who made this Law and the Pope the King of Rome who do excellently well agree in their Laws for Cecrops was the first amongst the Greeks who invented Marriage should be made by the intention of the mind and publication of the Priest and Images should be made and Altars set up and the Sacrifice offer'd So is the Pope the first who hath made Laws amongst the Romanists That the intention of the mind and publication by the Priest should be marriage and that Images should be made and high Altars set up and the Sacrifice of the Mass offer'd Cecrops Reigned a little after Moses and the Pope Reigned a little after Christ but neither of them had their Laws of Marriage or their other Laws from Moses or Christ but from the old Pagan Egyptian Priests and as they did they made their Laws not by that Law of God which was more Ancient then the Egyptian but made their filthy Laws for filthy lucre whereby it 's easie to see in these Birds the Owl and the Buzzard as well as Men how well good Wits jump for their Gain and pretend that Gain is Godliness Verba de praesenti This kind of Matrimony Gratian makes much ado about and disputes the question pro and con whether sponsion by words de praesenti make Matrimony which question is composed of perfect Non-sence and a lye and impossibility For 1. All promises are of things future and not of present or past and 't is as impossible by their Sacrament of Marriage to transubstantiate time future into that which is present as 't is time present into that which is past 2. It is a meer lye for any Man to say to a Woman I do make you a Mother or get you with Child when he doth only promise to do the same and it is as impossible for the Priests to transubstantiate the verbal contract or words into the real contract of carnal knowledge in facie Ecclesiae unless as in the Temple of Venus he will have it actually done in his presence that he may be able the better to give his Certificate thereof on a Tryal of ne unques accouple in loyal Matrimony But I think it a mean condescension for any Philosopher to dispute with the Pedantic Sophistry of Gratian about Matrimony as 't is for a Divine to wast many Arguments against Ttransubstantiation of Mass I shall only therefore turn him off to the Women amongst whom he will not find the most simple Good-wife who will not be able to tell him that an ounce of Mother-wit is better then a pound of Clergy and that Matrimony cannot be without a Mother nor a Mother without Conception nor Conception without knowing a Man unless by Miracle And though he Preach never so impudently That consent and not carnal knowledge make Matrimony yet that is clean contrary to the Text Luke 1.31 where Mary replies to the message of the Angel Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son How shall this be seeing I know not a Man And might have been witnessed by the Angel himself of whom Christ saith They neither marry nor give in Marriage which they might do if verba de praesenti will do it But the next two stories will shew whence the Popish Canonists have this Doctrine And the next after will shew by the Testimony of great and vertuous Ladies how impossible 't is and much better they deserve to have implicit Faith given them than to the Doctors Of the Pagan Goddess Juno and the Popish Mother of Saint Kentigern both got with Child without a Man Juno the Mother of Kentigern both got with Child without a Man Juno being displeased that Jupiter should bring out Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom only by striking his head without a Woman She also consulted the Goddess Flora as good a one as her self how she might bring out a Son without a Man she meant without her Husband Flora bid her touch a Flower which was in the field of Olenius which being done she conceived and was her own Midwife too as well as Jupiter and brought forth Mars who being a Son of discontent was made the God of War and Discord In like manner the Mother of St. Kentigern being in great distress and fervent desire of a Son she earnestly prayed and begg'd of Jesus that she might imitate his Virgin-mother in conception and birth of a Child without a Man and accordingly within a little she finds her self with Child and often protested she never knew Man but by the Law of that Countrey where she lived she must because she was thought to be very light be cast head-long from the top of a high Mountain she weeps and prayes but the Executioner doth his work and on tryal found her far lighter then she was thought for she fell down and was neither kill'd bruised nor hurt but was then carried on Ship-board many Leagues into the Sea and there turned out into a small Boat of Leather destitute of all human help yet with great speed and safety she arriveth at a far distant Port and Landing she is delivered of a Son that famous Saint St. Kentigern who no doubt if his Mother had but prayed that this Son might have been born without a Mother too as he was without Father and been left on the Sea shore at the same place she brought him forth and the Sâ—epheards might find him there no doubt he had then been the second Miraculous Adam or Melchisedeck without Father or Mother in this latter Age of the World Of the Lady Ann of Britain married to the bare leg of the Embassadour of the Emperour Maximilian Ann of Britain Charles the Eighth the French King having Ann the Daughter and Heir of Francis Duke of Britain in his custody she being Inheritrix to that Dutchy to Unite Britain to France intending to marry the said Ann one obstacle amongst others alledged was That she was pre-contracted and married to Maximilian by the usual Ceremony of his Embassador putting his bare Leg into Bed to her for his Master 1. For the Contract he held it invalid because she was his Homager or Ward and her Marriage by the Tenure belonged to him 2. His Divines told him that the Ceremony of marrying by Proxy by putting the bare Leg into her Bed was only an invention of Men and was no consummation by the Law of the Church and on the same reason it might as well be said that Banes Publication and Contracting of Marriage in facie Ecclesie and Promulgation
of the same by the Priest are inventions of Men and but Ceremonies as well as the other Heyl. 196. This was a Contract but no Matrimony Of Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperour married to Martianus Of the Lady Etheldred married to two Husbands The Lady Amigunda married to the Emperour Henry the Second The Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor The Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eighth all married by the Priest but not by their Husbands Zonaras reports That the Empire being in great danger by reason of Wars with the Goths Pulcheria on consideration that there was necessary to be chosen some able person to be Emperour against them Theodâ—sius being dead without any Son and Martianus an old experienced Captain being taken to be the fittest for that purpose he was chosen Emperour by the order of Pulcheria the Sister of Theodosius and to give him the greater Authority Pulcheria assented to marry him on security given by him that they should both live Chast and he suffer her to continue in Virginity on which they were married and they both faithfully observed their agreement of Chastity This Lady made a very repugnant Vow to live a Nun yet to marry therefore I think her Vow doubly unlawful first as to her self if young open to a necessary temptation and then as to her Husband though an old Soldier to a probable one Mr. Ricaut Turk Hist p. 72. Saith Ghear Han Sultan That Ghear Han Sultan Daughter to Sultan Ibrahim hath had already five Husbands yet continues a Virgin Etheldred Etheldred was the Daughter of Anna King of the East-Angles she was married to two Husbands one after another yet continued still a Virgin and at last became a Nun and was Canonized a Saint under the name of St. Audry Amigunda Henry the Second Emperour having married Amigunda the Daughter of the Count Palatine of Rhine they lived most Chastly both of them observing voluntary Virginity without having any carnal knowledge one with the other It is reported that being accused of Adultery she purged her self by going bare-foot upon plates of fiery hot Iron and that the Emperour was Penitent for exposing her to such danger being so Chast and Vertuous a Woman she was very much beholding to him to deny to Husband her himself yet quarrel so far as to suspect her of another Edward the Confessor married Editha the beautiful and indeed vertuous Daughter of Earl Godwin Editha and because he had taken displeasure against the Father he would shew no kindness to the Daughter he made her his Wife but conversed not with her as a Wife but only at Board and not at Bed or if at Bed no otherwise than David with Abishag and yet was content to hear her accused of incontinency whereof if she were guilty he could not be innocent and he not only entertained such thoughts of his Wife but the like accusation against his own Mother Queen Emma of unchast familiarity with Alwin Bishop of Winchester and suffer'd her to be put to her purgation of fire Ordeal by passing over Nine red hot Plow-shares bare-foot which she all escaped to the astonishment of the beholders and thereupon was adjudged Innocent though there might be much jugling in those Tryals but whether there were so or not it became not a Son to divulge the shame of his Mother It seems he was Chast but without discretion and not without injury to his Wife and impiety to his Mother Bak. Hist 18. Ann of Cleve The same dealing had the Lady Ann of Cleve who was married to Henry the Eighth who lay by her six Months yet left her a Virgin And when her Ladies who attended her said they looked now every day to hear of her being with Child to whom she reply'd They might look long enough unless saying How dost thou sweet-heart Good-morrow sweet-heart and such like words could make a great belly for said she more then this never passed between the King and me Bak. Hist 288. I hope therefore none of our Protestant Ladies will believe this wicked Doctrine of Pope or Turk That Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium if they do we shall have no young Souldiers to fight against either Of the Custom of desertion of Virgins after deflouring Of the desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth for the Lady Elizabeth Grey and the infelicity followed thereon to them and their Children Of the like desertion by a Gentleman in Ireland after the birth of a Child Of the ancient Form of Marriage-Contracts Se post concubitum non deserturum now repugnantly turned into verba de praesenti Of Seditions and Civil Wars raised for the said Crime of Desertion Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation of a Minor married to an Husband of desertion of her Husband after carnal knowledg and to take a richer A relation of the same practised in Scotland Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands by giving more Alimony then the Portion Desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth There being a Marriage in Treaty between Edward the Fourth King of England and the Lady Bona Sister to Carlot the French Queen the King happen'd to fall in love with the Lady Elizabeth Grey the Widow of John Grey who in the Civil War between the House of Lancaster and York was his Enemy and died in Battel at St. Albans against him the old Dutchess of York his Mother was very eager for the French Match but however desired if that did not please him and he would needs marry one of his own Subjects he should rather marry the Lady Elizabeth Lucy whom he had a little before inticed to his Bed which was a Marriage before God and better then the Lady Elizabeth Grey who was the relict of another Man and his Enemy too and thereupon she instigated the Lady Elizabeth Lucy to claim a Praecontract of him which Lady though set on by the King's Mother and others yet when she was solemnly sworn to speak the truth she confess'd to this effect That he never in direct express words made any Promise or Contract to her of Marriage but he spake so loving words unto her that she verily hoped he would have married her and that if it had not been for such kind words she would never have assented he should have lain with her on which pretence the flattering Bishops as though all Impediments were removed by the not proving any express or formal words of Contract though the real Contract of lying with her was apparant to please the King gave him their allowance That he should please his second Fancy and not to be tied to his first And he accordingly married Elizabeth Grey according to the Ecclesiastical Law Consensus non Concubitus facit matrimonium Which Repudiation of the Lady Lucy was certainly as much against the Law of God as the Bill of Divorce by the Law of Moses was against
and those Laws which follow them they will on Divorce under the name of Alimony give the Woman more then the Interest of her Portion amounts to which incourages all Women to seek Divorces whereas the form of Divorce amongst the Romans was Res tuas tibi habeto and she was not to have more then she brought with her and the same is the Law of the Jews and all other Nations except such as live under Popish Ecclesiastical Laws And the injustice of our Ecclesiastical Laws to the contrary is not one of the least causes why Divorce and Separations are of late grown so frequent because Women know they shall gain by the Divorce and rob their Husbands of more then ever they brought them Of the Law of Divorcing after Procreation of a Child for precontract or pre copulation without pre procreation Of the Law prohibiting liberty of private Marriage without publick Witnesses Of the Law giving the Jurisdiction of the secret causes of Divorce between Parents and secret uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses to publick Tribunals Of the Law compelling persons married though mortal Enemies to Co-habitation Of the Law of Divorce à Mensa Thoro. Of the Canon compelling the parties on Divorce for Adultery to give Bonds and Sureties not to marry again during each others life Of the custom of Protestants marrying with Papists Edward the Fourth was as is alledged first verbally contracted to Eleanor Daughter to john Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury married after to Sir Thomas Butler Baron of Sudley after this verbal contract he married Elizabeth the Widow of Sir John Gray she lived his Wife Eighteen Years and Eleven Months and he had issue by her Three Sons and Seven Daughters Elizabeth his eldest Daughter was first promised in marriage to Charles Dauphin of France but married after to King Henry the Seventh Edward the Fourth being dead leaving his two Sons young in the custody of his Brother Richard the Third they were after murdered by him to make his own way to the Crown but first in preparation thereto Dr. Shaw in a Sermon by him Preached at Paul's-Cross took for his Text Spuria vitulamina non agent altas radices And to make short work they were after by Act of Parliament Proclaimed Bastards and not inheritable to the Crown on no other Allegation made but the pre-contracts before mention'd with Eleanor Butler as is recorded in the Parliament Roll. Husband divorces the Wife for cause of precopulation committed by himself Buchanan rerum Scoticarum lib. 11.652 relates That Earl Bothwel aspiring to obtain the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots compelled his Wife to accuse him of pre-copulation with another Woman before he married his Wife Gordonia Bothuelii uxor cogitur in duplici foro litem de Divortio intendere apud judices Regios accusat uxor maritum adulterii quae una justa apud eos erat divortii causa apud judices Papanos lege vetitos tamen ab Archiepiscopo fani Andreae ad hanc litem cognoscendam litem dare accusatur idem ante Matrimonium cùm propinqua uxoris stupri consuetudinem habuisse nulla in Divortio faciendo nec in testibus nec in judicibus fit mora intra enim decimum diem lis suscepta disceptata dijudicata est After he saith one thing thought necessary was ut consuetae servarentur Ceremoniae ut videlicet publice in conventu civium tribus diebus Dominicis nuptiae futurae inter Jacobum Heburnum Mariam Stuartam denuntiarentur ut si quis quid vitii ant impedimenti sciret quo minus legitimè coirent rem ad Ecclesiam deferrent And after he saith Cùm de nuptiis in Ecclesia denunciandis ageretur lector cujus id munus erat constanter recusare collecti Diaconi seniores cùm reluctari non auderent jubent Ecclesiastem nuptias futuras de more edicere is quidem hactenus paruit ut se vitium quidem scire profiteretur ac paratum seu Reginae seu Bothuelio cum vellent judicare is cum in arcem accersitus venisset Regina eum ad Bothuelium remisit qui quanquam nec blanditiis nec minis Ecclesiastem de proposito deduceret nec rem disputationi committere auderet tamen nuptias apparat unus Orcadum Episcopus est inventus qui gratiam aulicam veritati praeferret caeteris reclamantibus causasque proferentibus cur Legitimae non essent nuptiae cum eo qui duas uxores ad huc vivas haberet tertiam ipse suum nuper fassus adulterium demisisset ita indignantibus omnibus bonis vulgo etiam execrante propinquis per literas improbantibus inchoatus publicis Ceremoniis simulatis etiam factas detestantibus tamen Matrimonium celebratur Which fore-mention'd pre-contract alledged against Edward the Fourth was no more just cause to Illegitimate his Children then it was to Murder them nor was his pre-copulation with another Woman confess'd by Earl Bothwel any more just cause to Divorce his Wife then it was to aspire to the Kingdom 32 H. 8. cap. 38. takes notice of the great mischiefs insuing by dissolving by pre-contract Marriage consummate by bodily knowledge and fruit of Children or Child which Statute follows in these words WHereas heretofore the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome 32 H. 8. cap. 38. Of precontract hath always entangled and troubled the meér Iurisdiction and regal power of this Realm of England and also unquieted much the Subjects of the same by his usurped power in them as by making that unlawful which by God's Word is Lawful both in Marriage and other things as hereafter shall appear more at length and till now of late in our Soveraign Lord's time which is otherwise by learning taught than his predecessors in time past long time have beén hath so continued the same whereof yet some sparks be left which hereafter might kindle a greater fire and so remaining his power not to seem utterly extinct Therefore it is thought most convenient to the King's Highness his Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons of this Realm assembled in this present Parliament that two things especially for this time be with diligence provided for whereby many inconvemences have ensued and many more mought ensue and follow As where heretofore divers and many Persons after long continuance together in Matrimony without any allegation of either of the parties or any other at their Marriage why the same Matrimony should not be good just and lawful and after the same Matrimony Solemuized and Consummate by carnal knowledge and also sometimes fruit of Children ensued of the same Marriage upon pretence of former Contract made and not Consummate by carnal Copulation for proof whereof two Witnesses by that Law were only required beén divorced and separate contrary to God's Law and so the true Matrimony both so Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with bodily knowledge and confirmed also with fruit of Children had betweén
them cleérly frustrate and dissolved Further also by reason of other Prohibitions then God's Law admitteth for their lucre by that Court invented the dispensation whereof they always reserved to themselves as in kindred or affinity betweén Cousin-germans and so to the fourth degreé carnal knowledge of any of the same kin or affinity before in such outward degreés which else were lawful and be not prohibited by God's-Law and because they would get money by it keep a reputation of their usurped Iurisdiction whereby not only much discord between lawful married persons hath contrary to God's ordinance arisen much debate and suits at Law with wrongful vexation and great damage of the Innocent party hath been procured and many just Marriages brought in doubt and danger of undoing and also many times undone and lawful Heirs disherited whereof there had never else but for his vain-glorious usurpation beén moved any such question since freédom in them was given us by God's Law which ought to be most sure and certain But that notwithstanding marriages have been brought into such an uncertainty thereby that no marriage could be surely knit and bounden but it should lye in either of the parties power and arbiter casting away the fear of God by means and compasses to prove a pre-contract a kindred and alliance or a carnal knowledge to defeat the same and so under the pretence of these allegations afore rehearsed to live all the days of their lives in detestable adultery to the utter destruction of their own Souls and provocation of the terrible wrath of God upon the places where such abominations were used and suffer'd Be it therefore Enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That from the first day of the Month July next coming in the year of our Lord God 1540. All and every such Marriages as within this Church of England shall be Contracted betweén lawful Persons as by this Act we declare all Persons to be lawful that be not prohibited by God's Law to marry such Marriages being Contract and Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with Bodily knowledge or fruit of Children or Child being had therein betweén the parties so married shall be by Authority of this present Parliament aforesaid Deémed Iudged and taken to be Lawful Good Iust and Indissolvable notwithstanding any pre-contract or pre-contracts of Matrimony not Consummate with Bodily knowledge which either of the parties so married or both shall have made with any other person or persons before the time of Contracting that Marriage which is Solemnized and Consummate or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as afore and notwithstanding any Dispensation Prescription Law or other thing granted or confirmed by Act or otherwise And that no reservation or prohibition God's Law except shall trouble or impeach any Marriage without the Levitical degrees And that no person of what estate degreé or condition soever he or she be shall after the first day of the Month of July aforesaid be admitted to any of the Spiritual Courts within this the King's Realm or any his Graces other Lands and Dominions to any Process or Plea or Allegation contrary to this aforesaid Act. 1. Here it appears what a necessary stroke this Act gave against the usurped power of Ecclesiastical Laws and Jurisdiction in this and other points of Marriage forbidding any Spiritual Courts within this Realm or any his other Lands and Dominions to admit any Process Plea or Allegation contrary to this Act. And although hereby one of the heads of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was as is said of the Beasts Rev. 13.3 as it were wounded to death yet so great was the subtilty of the Serpent that the Ecclesiastics soon after by abusing the minority of that most pious though young King Edward the Sixth got all what the wisdom and courage of his Father had Enacted against them repealed by the Son 2 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23. Edward the Sixth abused by Papists in his Minority to repeal his Father's Act of Precontracts And thinking themselves therein not sufficiently secure they again procured the same to be repealed by 1 Eliz. 1. In which repeals I can see nothing but a Papist Plot against them both to revive those Ecclesiastical Laws by their own Authority against themselves which might have yielded most dangerous pretences against their own Legitimations and Marriages and Issue if they had happen'd to have had any For certainly no Marriage or Issue can be secure or certain if any fraudulent person may secretly pre-contract or pre-copulate with any vile person and take Bonds of him or her to release the same upon request and then marry another person Ignorant and Innocent and have Children procreate between them and then cause the party who had the pre-contract or pre-copulation to sue and obtain a Divorce against the Innocent person to be Divorced and Children Bastardized and Disinherited and then to give a release to the party conspiring in the fraud How is it possible to avoid this wickedness if pre-contract or pre-copulation should be allowed a sufficient cause to dissolve Marriage Consummate by the Birth of a Child And how is it possible propriety to be if a distinction be not kept between it and contract and between obligation and possession according to the old Rule of Law Rem Domino vel non Domino vendente duobus in jure est potior traditione prior And the Rule of the Civil Law and fundamental of all Nations who have propriety Obligatio non impedit translationem Dominii sed translatio Dominii praecedens impedit obligationem l. si quidem 1. C. de donat inter virum Notwithstanding all which Reasons preceding and likewise those in the mention'd Act of H. 8. The Ecclesiastics though straining their Wits and Eloquence to the highest in the Act of repeal by Ed. 6. yet cannot alledge the least reason except only this That if pre-contract should not dissolve Marriage the parties might part from one another at the Church door and then the Wedding Dinner would be spoiled which surely may be sufficiently and over satisfied by recompence in value were it a Half-Crown Ordinary But a lost Virginity to an Innocent Woman who was married bona fide and knew nothing of this pre-contract and her Child can never be repaired if the Marriage be dissolved Nulla reparabilis Arte Laesa pudicitia est deperit illa semel Propert. The Act of Repeal of the said most excellent Law of Henry the Eighth against pre-contracts follows 2 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23. 2 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23. WHereas in the 32 year of the Reign of the late King of famous memory King Henry the Eighth Because that many inconveniences had chanced in this Realm by breaking and dissolving of good and lawful Marriages yea whereupon also sometimes Issue and Children had followed under
Object 1 First It is Objected That without the publick Testimony of the Marriage by the Priest and Bishop the Woman is in danger of desertion by the Man after he hath devirginated and got her with Child whereas she having the said publick Testimony of the Bishop if the Man take another Woman to Church and marry her by the Law he shall be hanged Answer To which is Answer'd That this Law or Penalty doth no way prevent the desertion for though the Law which Theodora got her Husband Justinian to make That it should be death for the Husband to lie with any other Woman but his Wife might perhaps have something restrained the Man yet this Law that the Husband shall marry no other Woman in Church signifies nothing of restraining him from lying with an hundred elsewhere Object 2 In like manner it is Objected That the Wife if there were no publick Witnesses might desert her Husband for another Man whereas now if she go to Church with another man and is married to him while her Husband is alive she shall be hanged Answer To which is Answer'd That though the Law of Moses Levit. 20.10 which makes Adultery in a Wife Death might perhaps something have restrained the Woman the present Law restrains her no more then it doth the man Object 3 The Third Objection is If Banes and Marriage were not in the presence of publick Witnesses none who had right to a Woman could know when or how to make his claim Answer To which is Answer'd First This preserves not the Claymant's right nor prevents the other man's lying with the Woman if she hath a mind to another Which it appears she hath otherwise she would not have band her self openly with him Secondly If he hath a pre-promise or pre-contract he ought not to recover the Woman in Specie against her will but only damage for breach of promise as to which the Banes make it neither better nor worse Thirdly Admit the man who is the Claymant of the Woman hath not only had pre-promise pre-contract but pre-copulation of the Woman before the other man who is publickly band with her yet to what purpose is a claim made of a Woman who is now became an Adulteress by banning her self with another man and ought not by the Law of God to be claimed by the first man for by retaking an Adulteress the Husband becomes a Pandor to the Wife a destroyer of the Adultererous Child by depriving him of the natural Father and a destroyer of his own Children by bringing in Adulterous Heirs amongst them which is so far abhor'd by the Scripture that in case of Divorce though the Woman is innocent yet it is said Deut. 24.1 2 3 4. according to the Original When a man hath taken a Woman and been a Man unto her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his House And when she is departed out of his House she may go and be another man's Woman And if the latter man hate her and write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and sendeth her out of his House or if the latter man die which took her to be his Woman her former man which sent her away may not take her again to be his Woman after she is defiled for that is abomination before the Lord and thou shalt not cause the Land to sin which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance If therefore a Woman innocent put away is not to be received again much less is a Woman guilty of running away with another man to be claimed again in Specie but there is a more just remedy if the Party is thereby damaged to Sue the Woman for breach of her Contract and the Adulterer for taking her away for Damages Object 4 Another Objection is made That without Witnesses of the Marriage if the right of Successions to Goods or Lands come in question the Bishop can make no Certificate of Filiation of the Child who is to Succeed nor can the common-Common-Law Judges or Juries judg of the matter Answer To which is Answer'd First That lawful Marriage is impossible to be without carnal knowledg and so is likewise Filiation both which are impossible to be witnessed by any but the Parents Marriage what As to carnal knowledg that which makes Marriage the same may be defined to be a Seminal Conjunction of Man and Woman in the natural Act of Generation mention'd Levit. 15.18 Cum vir concubuerit cum ea Semine concubitus which if between Persons prohibited is an unlawful if not prohibited is a lawful Marriage The Jews had three sorts of Conjunctions between Man and Woman which they called Marriages 1. Coemptione 2. Copulatione 3. Instrumentis That which was Copulatione was by their filthy Custom to be done before two Witnesses Witnesses of Marriage any impossible but the parties but the Witnesses here in question are not of the Copulation but of matters impertinent and evidence which tends not to the issue and they are only to Testifie that A. and B. went to Church together and there said words de praesenti and the Priest pronounced them Man and Wife as though the Child was straight begot by the Tongues of the Parties and the Priest in the Sacrament of Marriage as it is in that of the transubstantiation and thereon the Bishop gives his Non sequitur Sentence that here was a Marriage which includes carnal knowledg though 't is not so much Testified nor known by the Witnesses or Bishop whether the Parties were a Man and a Woman or two Women they never having been eye-witnesses of the same nor any Ventre inspiciendo appointed for that purpose Secondly Admit there had been a couple of beastly Jewish Witnesses who would see 't was a Man and a Woman lay together yet it being an undeniable exception against all Witnesses of any matter of Fact that unless they show Causam Scientiae to be one or more of their five Senses their Testimony is worth nothing and such Witnesses having no Sence but their Sight to Testifie Copulation it is impossible though their eyes saw the external Copulation that they should see the internal to be Semine Concubitus without which the external Testimony signifies nothing to make a Marriage Thirdly Admit it were possible these Witnesses saw the man lie with the Woman yet it is impossible and Perjury for them to swear that they saw the man get the Child or that it was not got by another man before or after It was an usual saying of Cato that he wondred how one Aruspex could forbear laughing when he met another they both knowing how each gull'd the people If he were now alive he would much more wonder how one Bishop who is a Father finder could hold his
it doth dot null a Protestant's which is not made according to that Form That it doth not null a Papist's Marriage appears by the Act 3 Jac. 5. where a Papist is prohibited to be Married otherwise then in some open Church or Chappel by a Minister Lawfully authorized upon pain that the Man shall lose to be Tenant by the curtesie and the Woman her Dower Widows estate and Frank Bank or if the Woman hath no Land whereof the Man may be Tenant by the curtesie then the Man is to lose a hundred pounds So in case of a Papist nothing ought to be exacted for Non-conformity in Marriage but the express penalties nor can the Marriage of a Papist though not according to the Act be made null or the Children thereby illegitimate why then should a Protestant's 2. Because the Council of Trent which made the Canon That all Marriages should be null and void except contracted before two Witnesses and a Priest in a Temple is a Forein Jurisdiction and the Canon was made after the abolishing all Forein Jurisdiction the same ought not therefore be admitted to null any Marriage in England or illegitimate any Child 3. This is confessed by a Learned Civilian and Canonist of our own belonging to the Ecclesiastaical Court Swimburn Swimburn of Wills and Test 1 part 34. Who there saith That an unsolemn Marriage or not having Canonical Ceremonies is not therefore no Marriage because it is unsolemn the Banes perhaps not being asked or the Marriage not Celebrated in the face of the Church but privately in a Chamber or some other Rite or Ceremony omitted but is nevertheless a true Marriage And in the Margent he adds to this effect Insolemnitas autem est defectus juris civilis non juris naturae nam illa requisita de quibus in C. cumin hibitio de Cland. despon sext non esse deforma substantia matrimonii Legitimationis prolis sed de solennitate tantùm ipsius decore introducta Post Theolog. Canonistas prodidit Granis Consul Civil 168. hanc op communi calculo receptam dicit Jo. Lub Mascard de probat verb. filius conclu 798. n. 8. licet hodie per Concil Tridentin hujusmodi matrimonia fiunt irrita Nos tamen sequimur antiquum jus commune tanquam non mutatum Insolemnity is a defect in the Civil Law and not of the Law of Nature for those requisites of 1 C. inhibitio de clan despon Granis Concil Civil 168. hath delivered after many Divines and Canonists the same not to be of the substance of Matrimony and Legitimation of Children but only introduced for their greater Ornament And Jo. Lub and Mascard de Probat verb. Filius 798. say likewise The same opinion to be received by general approbation and though of late the Council of Trent hath made such Marriages void yet they follow the ancient Common Law as not changed Whereby it appears that the Canon of the Council of Trent to make Marriages not according to the Romish Ceremonies is rejected in many other places and much more in England where all Forein Jurisdiction is abolished and there is no other Law of England if that of the Council of Trent is excluded which makes any Marriage of Protestant or Papist void or illegitimates the Children If the Marriage is not therefore void it is valid and hath all the rights of a valid Marriage and the Children all the rights of Legitimate Children 4. It is already in part and will hereafter be further shewen That carnal knowledge and not Ceremonies are Marriage and that the same and the birth of a Child and not Ceremonies make Matrimony and that both Marriage and Filiation are impossible to be proved by any Witnesses except the Parents admit Therefore if the Canon of Trent were confirmed by Act of Parliament or a thousand Acts of Parliament yet can they not make that Matrimony and Filiation by a Ceremonial Law of Man void which is established by the Moral Law of God as will be further shewen under the Title of Ceremonial Law and Law of God Of the Custom of Super-alimentary gifts in consideration of carnal knowledge between a Man and Woman both before and after Marriage Portions of Daughters Nuptial love is like the gift of God impossible to be bought for mony Cant. 8.7 If a Man would give all the substance of his House for Love it would utterly be contemned Solon the Athenian Law giver ordained That Wives should not bring their Husbands above three Gowns and some other movables of small value Lycurgus instituted That Virgins should be married without Portions 1. That none might remain unmarried for their poverty 2. That none should be taken for their riches but their vertues Plut. In Poland Fathers give no more with their Daughters then their Wedding Clothes And the truth is as to Fahers it comes all to one whether they give Portions with Daughters or none if there were such a Law for if A. and B. have each of them three Sons and three Daughters and A give Portions with his Daughters to the Sons of B and B give back again those Portions with his Daughters to the Sons of A there is nothing got on either side but the trouble and hazard of tumbiing in and out the money and the vexation of Lawyers with their foul Fines and crabbed Concords to do and undo all again like Juglers knots The Venetians had a Law none should give above fifteen hundred Crowns others say sixteen hundred Duckats with a Daughter yet are they very rich Bodin cries out against high Portions and saith That by the Antient custom of Marseilles it was not lawful to give above an hundred Crowns with a Daughter and five Crowns in Apparel And a Law was made by Charles the Ninth forbidding to give a Daughter above a thousand pounds sterling And yet the Ordinance of Charles the fifth doth give no more unto the Daughters of the House of France and though Elizabeth of France Daughter to Philip the Fair was married to the King of England yet had she but Twelve hundred pounds sterling to her Dowry Some will say it was very much considering the scarcity of Gold and Silver in those days but the difference is likewise very great betwixt a thousand pounds and four hundred thousand Crowns It is true she was the goodliest Princess of her Age and of the greatest House that was at that day Henry the Eighth gave for Portions to his Daughters Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth but Ten thousand pounds a piece And if we will seek higher we shall find that in the Law of God the Marriage of a Daughter was taxed but a fifty Skekells which makes at most but four pounds sterling of our money Gifts by Men to Women Amongst the Jews there appeared almost no other distinction in the Scripture between a Wife and a Whore but one took hire and the other none and indeed if there were no
intent that one Family might not by Marriage Gifts rob another always married in the same Family and Brothers and Sisters married making that Religion to marry in the Family which others made Incest and that Incest to marry out of the Family which others made Religion Portions and Jointures both to be limited This indeed secured all within the Family but there are many more Lawful ways before mention'd and amongst the rest the making all such Gifts forasmuch as is Super-alimentary void or at least to limit them by a Law That all Portions and Tenancies by Courtesie above the value of 0000 shall be void and all Jointures Dowers and Thirds above the value of 0000 shall be void A Satyr against Mercenary Marriage CVrsed the Female was or Male Who first did Beauty set to Sale For Love did then loose both his Eyes When Gifts and Gold did blind the wise And Venus which did shine on high From Heaven fell into a Stie Priapus then the God unclean Thereon his Temple built obscene And set the Steeple up and Spire That he might share both Whores and Hire And Sextons set to keep the Keys That none might enter without Fees And Cryer next to Curse and Ban Vnless well paid Woman and Man And Paritor about to ride With Bag for Money by his side All Women unto Court to bring Who did not Wed with a Gold-Ring Then Fathers left their Babes forlorn Who had no Licence to be born And Mothers fled Oh heavy Doom Because they were not called home Then Priests to make them greater Whores Fetter'd Fifteens to Fourscores And married dead to those alive Mâ—zentius Torment to revive Mouths bound to Mouths were Eyes to Eyes With Breasts to Breasts and Thighs to Thighs When Pralats in fine Linnen jetting Of Reverend Fathers own begetting Their Babes of Grace oh pretty things Made often Heirs to Peers and Kings This Palls and Miters first made shine And Missions to be Divine Thus Love and Hate together Yoak't The Hangman Priest together choak't And for the Murders clayms a Fee To his unholy holy See The Ambidextrous Lawyer enters And takes a share with his Indentures Lawyer nor Priest nor Book nor Bell Would have did they not Women Sell. If Money her or me must buy Loves Pedlars I you all defy Money did Solomon beguile 1 King 11.5 His first black Wife to setch from Nile And her because he lov'd not best With Thousand Wives to be opprest This was beginning of the Trick The wise turn'd after Lunatick The Goddess Astaroth to please Astaroth was the Moon Milcom was Priapus Who Ruled the Sidonian Seas And Milcom he the foul delight Adored of the Ammonite This Protestants made Papists Wed And fight and scratch in the same Bed Faith and Religion both Divine Lie Victims at Pecunia 's Shrine Of the Law giving Jurisdiction of the secret Causes of Divorce between Parents and secret Vncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses to publick Tribunals contrary to the Law of God It will be Objected How should those Sins of Carnal Uncleanness be punished if not brought before a publick Judge 'T is Answer'd Far better than by him First It not denied but publick Fornication and Adultery where there are Witnesses belong to publick Justice to punish as where Diogenes lay with a Woman in midst of the Market or as Leo Afer mentions where a Mahumetan Prophet lay with another man's Wife at a publick Bath in sight of a multitude of By-standers It is not denied likewise but Bawds Panders Stews Brothel-Houses where are Witnesses are and ought to be severely punished by the publick Magistrate But the Question is of such Fornication and Adultery which are generally so secret as none but the Parties themselves can witness against themselves these appear expresly by the Scripture it self that they belong neither to Priest nor Magistrate to judg or punish but only to God for it is said Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our Children And Heb. 13.4 Marriage is honourable in all and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God shall judg It is not said man shall judg of secret sins but God And Deut. 17.6 It is said At the mouth of two Witnesses or three Witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death but at the mouth of one Witness he shall not be put to death And 19.15 One Witness shall not rise up against a man for any Iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two Witnesses or at the mouth of three Witnesses shall the matter be established And 1 Tim. 5.19 Against an Elder receive not an Accusation but before two or three Witnesses And there is very great reason that man should not presume to usurp on the Jurisdiction of God in things secret especially in these and other offences of uncleanness For First This many times indangers the lives of innocent Parties how many Joseph's how many Athanasiusse's how many Susanna's have been falsly accused How far from the Law of God or Justice Justices of Peace ought not to receive accusations of Fornication on the single Testimony of a leud Woman is therefore the proceedings of Ecclesiastical Courts and many Justices of Peace who without any other Witness then so incompetent a one as a leud Woman who is the Party and gains by it charge and punish men for Bastardy and Fornication and contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and all the Fundamental Laws of the Land made for preservation of the Liberty and Propriety of the People the one by causing Excommunicatos Capiendo's the other by Warrants send whom they will to Goal and Imprison them at their pleasure And how far again from the Law of God or Justice is the compelling men for these Crimes to self-accusation when they can get no Witnesses as they ought to have Secondly Publick Inquisitions and Punishments of these Crimes of uncleanness do more corrupt then reform both Judg and People For the Judg example may be taken from Auricular Confessors who under pretence of injoining Penance to others learn to be above all others the most debauch'd themselves and as to the People it is either a licencing or incouragement to all such as are rich who for a little Commutation-Money buy the Pope's Pardon or what is equivalent the Bishops or the Kirks or if they will not suffer them to Commute the People when they see the Nobles in the Stools of Repentance will think it an honour to follow them and besides for People to hear or see the publick Examinations and Stories of uncleanness in publick Courts they oftentimes do but learn more wickedness then ever they knew or thought of before and are less corrupted at a Play-House then such a Scene of Justice All this is far better punished in every private Family between the Parents if there be
just cause by Divorce one of another without publishing the cause and if there be no cause amongst the Children by taking away as much of their Portions as the offence deserves and giving the same to the innocent Children and by good instruction reproofs and virtuous example of the Parents which will prevent more offences in Children then Tribunals can ever reform though they have Witnesses So Lycurgus by commanding in his Laws That all Captains of Armies and Priests of Temples should marry and that Husbands themselves should come to their Wives Furtim verecunde and the Children be modestly Educated left Sparta so clean from unchast demeanour that when Geradas an old Spartan was asked by a stranger What was the Punishment of Adultery in Sparta for he could find no Law made by Lycurgus concerning that Crime Oh Friend says he There is no Adulterer with us When he reply'd But what if there should be any Geradas told him He should pay a Bull so big as should be able to stretch his Neck over Taygetus and Drink of Eurotas when the other laughing said There is not such a Bull to be found Neither quoth Geradas Is an Adulterer to be found in Sparta where Riches Luxury and wantoness of Apparel are counted a disgrace and Modesty and Obedience to Magistrates an Honour Where the Seminaries of Vices are not permitted how can Vices grow First Therefore as to Man and Wife as Bodin lib. 1. cap. 3. says Nothing seems more pernicious then to compel the cause of Divorce to be shewn before a Judg for in so doing the honour of one or both Parties is hazarded which would not be if neither of them were compel'd to prove the same before a Judg as Plutarch in Alcib relates That when the Wife of Alcibiades went to complain of him before the Judg he came after her into the Court and took her by force and carried her away home on his Shoulders Ne Secreta Fori Panderet whereat the Judg only smiled The Hebrews likewise used to make their Bills of Divorce without a cause neither is it prohibited by Christ if there were a true cause to put her away by private Bill without publick Tribunal or Judg for such were all the Bills of Moses and no publick Judg required to judg of the Cause but only the Conscience of the Party And Joseph having a just cause of suspicion against Mary his Wife did not bring her before a Judg and is commended for so doing to be a just man as Matth. 1.19 is said Then Joseph her Husband being a just man and not willing to make her a publick Example was minded to put her away privily So doth Plutarch in Aemil. relate of Paulus Aemilius Who according to the Custom of the Romans shewed no cause of putting away his Wife but affirmed her very honest wife and nobly descended and by whom he had also many fair Children but when he was press'd by her Friends to shew the cause why he would then Divorce he shewed them his Shoo which was very handsomely and well made and yet says he None of you know but my self feeleth where it wrings my Foot By which doing the Woman is not dishonour'd but may marry with another suitable to her quality and the same liberty had the Wives to divorce themselves from their Husbands without proving or shewing any cause before a publick Judg. This likewise preserves the repute of the Children who though innocent will likewise perpetually bear the reproach if the dishonour either of their Father or Mother be publish'd before a Judg. And further as to drawing the secret offences of uncleanness of Children especially of Daughters before a Judg who are under the Family Jurisdiction either of Father or Mother or Husband the same is an undoing to those who offend for though they never so much repent and amend yet there can be no repairing of their shame or name when publish'd and the innocent who are the Father and Mother and Husband and the other Children the dishonour can never be taken again from them Seneca therefore who in all other things was a great honourer of the virtue of Augustus yet blames as a great oversight in that wise Emperour that he punished the Adulteries of his Daughter Julia publickly by Banishment Quae potius saith he Principi tacenda quà m vindicanda sunt Secondly It makes every petty difference between Man and Wife irreconcilable and heightens Contention from a small spark by blowing it abroad to so great a flame that it is at last unquenchable for the publishing of many things neither criminous nor sinful may affect some modest Natures with as deep a sence of disgrace as those that are false as much as those that are true and when once published cannot by repentance be again revoked but may cause such hatred between the Parties as will never again admit them to live together Thirdly Where offences are not published they oft times may with honour be forgiven and the Parties reconciled which if publish'd cannot So Antonius Pius forgave the Adultery of Faustina and would not draw it to publick Judgment to prevent his own shame And Ael Spart writes That the Emperour Adrian did the like to his Empress who though he suspected yet put not away but only removed such Courtiers from his Court as he suspected Of the Law compelling Persons Married though mortal Enemies to Cohabitation Another great mischeif is in the Ecclesiastical Laws they compel Cohabitation of Men and Women when they are mortal Enemies and take off Exequenda Matrimonialia Officia and due benevolence when one insidiates for the life of the other of which take Bodin further Fol. 19. but says he If the Cause seem not sufficient to the Judg which he intends the Cause alledged of Divorce to an Ecclesiastical Judg or be not well proved it is therefore meet to inforce the Parties to live together in that Society which is of all other the straightest Test having always the one and the other the object of their grief still before their Eyes Truly says he I am not of that opinion for seeing themselves brought into extream servitude fear and perpetual discord hereof ensue Adulteries and oftentimes Murthers and Poisonings for the most part to men unknown And for this cause free Divorce to both Parties and non-Cohabitation was permitted by the Roman Laws not out of wantonness but out of the greatest necessity and Piety for preservation of those ends for which Marriage was instituted with the least danger and dishonour that might be to either Party wherein they must of necessity suffer if either free Divorce be tolerated or the examination of the causes of the same drawn to publick Tribunals One cause Cato the Censor complains of for which the freedom of Divorce and non-Cohabitation ought to be permitted was because he used to say That all Adulteresses were Poisoners and this likewise appears by Valer. Max. lib. 2. p. 8. where it is thus
Children if within the four Seas neither doth he give more reason why he would have a Child call'd a Base-natural or his Fictions in Law beleived above the truth of the Fact then he doth why a Man-child ought to be called Mulier Fifthly As little reason doth Grotius give why a Giant should be translated Bastard according to a certain Latin Translation of the Bible of which there are a multitude all variant one from another 1 Sam. 17.4 which is thus Et egressus est quidem spurius è Castris Pelischthoeorum Goliah nomine Giant falsely translated Bastard Gatho oriundus cujus altitudo erat sex Cubitorum cum spithama which is in English And there went out of the Tents of the Philistins a certain Bastard by name Goliah whose height was six Cubits and a span so because he was a Giant this Latin Translation hath translated him a Bastard And Grotius though he were as great a Giant of learning as Goliah was of Body indeavours to give a reason which is not so tall as a Dwarf for he saith The Hebrews called Giants Bastards because they lived without Matrimony which he intends to be the Ceremony of coupling Male and Female together used by a Priest in a Temple Which cannot be for of all Nations in the World the Hebrews were most free from having so vile a word or a thing as Bastard amongst them and for Marriage in a Temple they never had any at all but always contracted in the open Air and not under any Roof And both they and all other Nations have had so honourable opinions of Giants and esteemed their descent to be so far from being ignoble as they derived them from their gods themselves So Hercules they would have begot by Jupiter And Ajax boasts of himself Sic à Jove tertius Ajax And both Jews and Christians affirm them to be begotten by the Sons of God As Gen. 6.4 it is said There were Giants in the Earth in those days and also after that when the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men and they bare Children unto them the same became mighty Men which were of old Men of renown Angels beget not Giants Some expound these Sons of God to be Angels but that is contrary to Christ who says Angels neither marry nor are given in Marriage But though Giants and such Hero's were not begotten by Angels they all agree to father them on more honourable Titles of the Sons of God and therefore never intendâ—d they should be translated or called Bastards or base Naturals As low a reason doth Grotius likewise give why he should be called Nothus and not be inheritable whose Mother at her Marriage had not a Torch carried before her Ac nec nupta quidem Taedaque accepta jugali Cur nisi ne caperes regna paterna Nothus Grot. de jur Bel. Pac. p. 168. 1. This authority of Ovid which he cites That the not vouchsafing to have a Torch or other Ceremonies Nuptial at the Marriage ought to make the Child a Nothus or Illegitimate as to Succession proves against him and that it ought not but is an injury and injustice if it should For this is written by Phaedra a later Wife of Theseus to Hippolitus his Son by Hippolita the Amazon a former Wife deceased with whom she being his Step-mother fell in love and to tempt him to her and not to forbear out of reverence to his Father's bed who had been so injurious to him as not to marry his Mother with due Rites and Ceremonies that he might have a pretence to dis-inherit and put him by the Succession of the Kingdom She to make her argument the stronger and the more inciting joyns her self with him to be as highly injured as himself that he might the more assuredly trust to find her ready to join with him in revenge as well as love for so she saith having first repeated her own wrongs she had suffer'd Sola nec haec nobis injuria venit ab illo In magnis laesi rebus uterque sumus And after she saith of the Marriage of his Mother Ac nec nupta quidem taedaque accepta jugali Cur nisi ne caperes regna paterna Nothus And then she saith I nunc I meriti lectum reverere parentis Quem fugit factis abdicat ille suis But the most vertuous and valiant Hippolitus remaining invincible in Chastity as to his Step-mother and in Loyalty as to his Father she as Potiphar's Wife did Joseph to her Husband falsly accused him of attempting to force her which he over-credulous to believe sought to kill his Son And he flying his Father's jealousie and causless anger had by his frighted Horses his Chariot overthrown and himself torn to pieces amongst the Rocks So infortunate was innocence in all things except his Fame which hath lasted through so many Ages His Father on Phaedra's confession understanding the Innocence of his Son and falseness of her calumny she first killing her self after the just Funeral Rites performed and Lamentation answerable made is swallowed up with grief for the loss of a Son so dearly by him beloved Here therefore appears That had it not been for the false calumnies of his Step-mother Hippolitus had succeeded to his Father Theseus's Kingdom notwithstanding his Mother Hippolita had not a Torch carried before her nor was ever married by the Ceremonies of a Priest in a Temple wherein though Grotius need no other answer to his Ceremonial Marriage then what in this example he thought to vouch for them and his principal Goliah-argument being fallen there need no trouble of encountring the petty accessary Reasons Yet I shall likewise persue them in their flight at least to discover what they are His first reason is he saith Where the Father doth not vouchsafe the Woman the Lawful Ceremonies of Marriage he makes the Child contemptible to be his Successor To which is answer'd That we need look no further then his own example whether Hippolitus was a person contemptible or not meriting in all respects to succeed to his Father's Kingdom after his Death 2. It is further answer'd That these Ceremonies whereon he founds his Doctrin of Ceremonial Marriage and the compulsion to the same are before shewen to come from the Devil and the Priests of Priapus and Venus and in imitation of them from Popery Therefore in such Kingdoms as are Protestant and not Pagan or Popish though there may be a toleration given to such as desire to marry with a Torch or any other public Ceremonies suiting with their Conscience and Convenience yet ought not there to be compulsion of Dissentients either in Conscience or Convenience nor so impious a punishment as Illegitimation laid on the innocent Child for such Toys as Ceremonies neglected or dissented to by the Parents 3. There is greater authority in point then either Latin or Greek Poets That the Father though he contemn yea hate the Mother ought not to illegitimate
dispose of his Estate which was a Patria potestas without which propriety of Fathers in their own Goods could not consist nor Adulteries of Wives and Rebellions of Children be prevented And to the potestas Patria Intails to Children of Adulterers and not of the Husband and potestas Dominii potestas instituendi haeredis as to Children and alienandi as to strangers was amongst all Nations incident till the Tyranny of Pontifical Imperial and Feudal Laws set up Intails made the Priests Judges who should be Lawful married and who should be Lawful begotten Heirs of their Bodies to be their Successors whether they would or no and whether the Children were the Children of Adulterers or the Husband 's Nothus a counterfeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Hesychius and other Authors of approved skill in the Greek-Tongue affirmed to signifie Fictus which is what is feigned or counterfeit and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the plural Number is put in the Text Heb. 12.8 signifies Filius genitus natus or naturalis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Filiatio in the true and natural sense but in the fictitious sence which is made ad placitum imponentis it is made to signifie Adoption which is a feigned or counterfeit Filiation Many ways of counterfeiting Sons have been used 1. When the Wife being Barren to please her Husband feigns a great Belly and a Delivery and presents him with a suppositious Child instead of her own so is it related of Algive the Wife of Canutus that she brought him such a Child whom he called Sweyne and afterward made him King of Norway and many other examples have been of the like 2. When the Person who would make himself Son deceives the Father so Isaac being blind Jacob putting on Kids-skin-Gloves the hair left on deceived the old man to beleive him his true eldest Son who was but a counterfeit And I my self knew a Woman in time of the Wars who having two Sons the Elder was Twenty Years before sent beyond Sea and died there whereby the younger had the Land of his Father settled upon him but at length the Soldiers in their marches passing the Country one amongst them of the like Age and Feature as was the Eldest Son of the Woman who Twenty Years before died beyond Sea Quarter'd in the Parish where the Woman lived and being informed by some of the House where he Quarter'd how like he was to that Person and thereupon enquiring out as many particular passages as he could which had passed between the Woman and her Son and others and what particular marks the Eldest Son had the Soldier went to the Woman's House enquiring for his Father and Mother whose blessing he asked and they being thereat much surprized he told them he was their Eldest Son and what Fortunes Providence had carried him thorough to bring him home again at which the doubtful Parents examin'd him and askt him many questions to try whether he were their very Son Esau or not and took more time and the Woman likewise examin'd him in private by her self but he at last so persuaded the Woman that she beleived and affectionately received him for her Eldest Son who had been thought so long dead till at length the younger Brother who feared to be again disinherited of what was settled on him with much ado discover'd the counterfeit 3. When the Mother is Deliver'd of a true Son and a changling is brought home by the Nurse or other Artifice instead of the true 4. When the Father having no natural Son adopts a Son begotten by another Father so did Claudius adopt Nero and many other of the Roman Emperors and many Persons of private Families having no Son of their own convey and settle their Names Titles Arms and Lands to the Son of a stranger now these Adopted Sons are all Counterfeit Sons and neither Emperor nor Pope nor Bishop nor Act of Parliament nor Legitimation nor Dispensation can make these true or natural or lawful begotten Sons whom God hath not made so 5. When Sons who are not natural are testified to be natural Sons by false Witnesses which is often practised in the Biships Courts such are counterfeit Sons 6. When such as are not natural Sons are testified Sons by the Bishops Certificate such are false and counterfeit Sons and this way of Filiation Aliment and Succession by the Bishops Certificate is of all other the most wicked and abominable Quia Probatio non admittitur in contrarium Whence it is concluded That neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeing they have both a true and natural signification ought not to be translated to words of a counterfeit signification The said Text of Scripture therefore Heb. 12. 8. Ye are Bastards and not Sons are falsely translated and ought to have been translated Ye are Counterfeits and not natural Sons for as to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is manifest to signifie a Counterfeit and therefore ought to be so translated and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is manifest it signifies not a Son in general for that comprehends both true and counterfeit Sons but a natural Son in special which only signifies a true Son as 't is opposite to a counterfeit where therefore the Genus is translated for the Species or the Species for the Genus this is grossly false Translation Genus translated for the Species Species translated for the Genus as hath been shewn likewise before Secondly A word of general signification ought not to be translated into a word of special signification and this shews the Latine Translation which is Supposititit estis non filii is false translated though not so wickedly as the English because a Supposititious Son is but a Species of Nothus the Genus as Virgil says Suppositos de matre nothos furata creavit A certain word into an ambiguous Thirdly A word that is certain ought to be translated into a word of incertain ambiguous significations Now the word Nothus in the time it was writ by Paul which was before Justinian's and Pope's Heads were hot with their Civil or Canon-Laws the word therefore ought to be translated in the certain significat wherein Paul writ it which is a counterfeit and not in the signification of what it is made since of a new invented Vocabulum Artis by the Civil Canon or Common-Law for then it must have been understood all the writers time by way of Prophecy how Tribonian Gratian Coke Skene and Grotius would expound it and how the Bishops would translate it to be a Bastard and him a Bastard whose Mother would not give them Money for their Licence to Marry which was a thing impossible for the Christians of those times to understand or how to reconcile the variant and contradictory expositions would in the later days be for gain made
devour her Child as soon as it is born The People who are Terrae Filii to be the Earth helping the Woman Prelacy being wroth and going to make War with Dissentient Protestants to be the Dragons being wroth with the Woman and going to make War with the Remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God Old Teslament false translated by Bishops in 848 places and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ And that these are not the only false translations which Bishops make of the Scripture appears by the great Linguist Broughton who in his Advertisements of Corruptions affirms to the then Bishops of England That their publick translations of Scriptures is such as that it perverts the Text of the Old Testament in no less then Eight Hundred Forty Eight places and causeth Millions to reject the New Testament and to run into Eternal Flames Sixthly To shew that Coke needs no other to confute him in the signification of Nothus not to be a Child born out of Wedlock but a plece of his own Rhime I shall recite it which is by him set down Manseribus scortum notho Moechus dedit ortum and is a false Verse for No in Notho is short which might happen by some Error of his Scribe but the true Verse is in Calv. Lex whence I suppose he might have it Sed Moecha Nothis dedit ortum which Moecha signifies an Adulteress which she cannot be unless she is a Married Woman therefore it is plain the Rhime it self confutes him that Nothus is not a Child born out of Wedlock but in Wedlock which is unanswerable as to him because ex ore suo though not as to others who are on better reasons unanswerably answer'd before They corrupt the Press both as to Scripture and Law and interdict Protestants to write against Papists or answer them Act of Parliament against Lollards counterfeit by Bishops Coke 3. part 40. saith There was a Statute supposed to be made 5. R. 2. That Commissions should be by the Lord Chancellor made and directed to Sheriffs and others to Arrest such as should be Certified into the Chancery by the Bishops and Prelates Masters of Divinity to be Preachers of Heresies and notorious Errors their Fautors Maintainers and Abetters and to hold them in strong Prison until they will justifie themselves to the Law of the Holy Church By colour of this supposed Act certain Persons that held Images were not to be worship'd c. were holden in strong Prison until they to redeem their vexation miserably yielded before these Masters of Divinity to take an Oath and did swear to worship Images which was against the Moral and Eternal Law of Almighty God We have said by colour of the supposed Statute c. not only in respect of the said Opinion but in respect also that the said supposed Act was in truth never any Act of Parliament though it was Entred in the Rolls of Parliament for that the Commons never gave their consent thereunto And therefore in the next Parliament the Commons prefer'd a Bill reciting the said supposed Act and constantly affirmed that they never assented thereto and therefore desired that the supposed Statute might be aniented and declared void For they protested that it was never their intent to be justified and to bind themselves and their Successors to Prelates more then their Ancestors had done in times past And hereunto the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Ypleist au Roy. And mark well the manner of the penning the Act for seeing the Commons did not assent thereunto the words of the Act are It is Ordained and Assented in this present Parliament That c. And so it was being but by the King and the Lords It is to be known that of ancient time when any Acts of Parliament were made to the end the same might be published and understood especially before the use of Printing came into England the Acts of Parliament were ingrossed into Parchment and bundled up together with a Writ in the King's name under the great Seal to the Sheriff of every County sometime in Latine and sometime in French to command the Sheriff to proclaim the said Statutes within his Bailwick as well within Liberties as without And this was the course of Parliamentary Proceedings before Printing came in use in England and yet it continued after we had the Print till the Reign of H. 7. Now at the Parliament holden in 5. R. 2. John Braibrook Bishop of London being Lord Chancellor of England caused the said Ordinance of the King and Lords to be inserted into the Parliamentary Writ of Proclamation to be proclaimed amongst the Acts of Parliament which Writ I have seen the purclose of which Writ after the recital of the Acts directed to the Sheriff of N. in these words Nos volentes dictas concordias sive ordinationes in omnibus singulis suis Articulis inviolabiter observari tibi praecipimus quod praedictas concordias sive ordinationes in locis infra Balivam tuam ubi melius expedire volueris tam infra libertates quam extra Publice Proclamari teneri facias juxta formam Praenotatam Teste Rege apud Westm 26. Maij. Anno Regni Regis R. 2.5 But in the Parliamentary Proclamation of the Acts passed in Anno 6. R. 2. the said Act of the 6. R. 2. whereby the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was declared to be void is omitted and afterwards the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was continually Printed and the said Act of 6. R. 2. hath been by the Prelates ever from time to time kept from the Print A Counterfeit Act Printed by Bishops against Protestants What English Protestant can read this without horror what doth he not observe it why 't is that Counterfeit Act of Parliament 5. R. 2.1382 whereby Bishops usurp to be Judges of the Souls and Consciences of Protestants and to put them in strong Prison till they conform and submit to the will of the Bishop 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they usurp to be Judges of Heresie and to make Protestants Hereticks when they please 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they have compell'd the Subjects to swear to worship their Idols 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they have dragged so many Pious Martyrs to the Stake and burnt them filling the whole Land with fiery Furnaces 't is that Counterfeit Act by which the Bishops have usurped Power to destroy Religion Liberty Propriety and Lives of all Protestant Subjects at their pleasure 't is that Counterfeit Act which was never assented to but disclaimed detested abrogated and declared null and void by the House of Commons 6. R. 2. Anno 1383. and hath been yet most presumptuously caused to be printed as a valid Act by the Bishops being Masters of the Press and the true Act of Abrogation 6. R. 2. Whereon all the Subject hath depends most wickedly suppress'd and never Printed Coke 2.
the Kings Courts 2. He rests not there but says Iisdem licentiam ad alia vota convolanda concedimus So that here not only Licence may be had for Money to Marry but for the same to leave the old and make a new choice as often as they please And my Lord Coke will have the Common Law to give such Faith that they ought not to question these doings true or false right or wrong which sets all Women and Men to Sale for Money and gave the occasion to Cornelius Agrippa to call all Ecclesiasticks Panders General for their Profit 3. The Common Law Judges give the Bishop the same Supremacy of Power in Matrimonial Causes since the Protestant Religion hath made Marriage no Sacrament as they had in the time of highest Popery and made it a Sacrament though Sublata causa tollitur effectus The same ceasing to be a Sacrament and becoming a mear Temporal Contract the old superstitious Faith of a Sacrament ought not to be given those who are no Judges of Temporal matters 4. It is worth a smile in this Case were it not so wicked to see how hot the Common Lawyers were a while in the scuffle for Supremacy of Marriage But no sooner had the Bishops turn'd the muzzles of the Romish Canons against them and discharged their piece of Conjuring in a strange Language instead of a Sentence but our Worthies of the Law fell flat on their faces and yielded the Royal Fort of the Prerogative and all the Protestant Subjects Laws and Liberties eya Magna Charta it self to the Mercy of the Enemy by so abominable a Judgment that no Appeal lay to the Kings Courts against the Sentence of a Bishop touching Marriage Filiation or Succession true or false right or wrong with cause or without cause a Resolve deserving to be mark'd with a Note of perpetual Infamy and Razed out of all Records On which and other Reasons though in most parts of Christendom the Clergy generally composed one Estate of the Country yet since the Reformation they were excluded from being any part of the Estates and of Holland neither were they allowed any Vote in their Assembly and far less Reason have they in England seeing they have equal Privilege here with the Gentry and all other Lay-free-holders in Election of Knights of the Shire to assume any other Power in the Legislative Temporal or Spiritual either in Person or by any other Representative The like Practice is likewise in Venice though they are Catholicks where before the Council sits the Cryer with a loud Voice commands all Priests out of Doors lest they should discover the State secrets to the Pope and likewise assume the Supremacy of Judgment from the Temporalty to the Spiritualty to produce which effects they are a dangerous ingredient to be mixt in how small a quantity soever in any Supream Council and a little Leven of so active a Fermentation Leveneth the whole Lump A Reason is given by Aeneas Silvius why it was held by more That the Pope was above a Council than a Council above a Pope because Popes gave Bishopricks and Arch-Bishopricks but Councils gave none Which doth not only hold in meer Spiritual Councils but in such Spiritual Councils as are mixt with the Temporalty in which the Spiritualty are always Bribed and Pension'd by the gift of their Offices And this is apparent and needs no further proof And if any of the Temporalty receive the like Bribes and Pensions upon lawful proof thereof made it cannot be denied that neither of them are equal or fit Legislators and much less Judges of the Holy Laws of God of Marriage Filiation and Succession of Subjects and least of all of Kings Exceptions against Bishops being Judges in reference to the Judicial Power 1. They are prohibited by the example of Christ to Judg Marriage Filiation Aliment or Succession We Read Christ was at a Marriage-Feast but it was so poor a one they wanted Wine and 't is likely he would have helped them to none had the man been rich for he might have bought enough for his Money without Miracle But Christ shewed his Bounty to the Poor and the Rich he sent empty away We read likewise he taught the Doctrine of Marriage but it was according to the Moral Law of God and all Ceremonial Laws he Established neither did he or his Apostles ever join any hands by the Ceremonies of a Priest or Temple nor ever spake of any other joining Man and Woman together but by God only as it was from the beginning And as to the point of being a Judg of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession he utterly refused it though he knew the Fact and the Right far above any Bishop as appears Luke 12.14 And one of the company said unto him Master Speak to my Brother that he divide the Inheritance with me And he said unto him Man Who made me a Judg or a Divider over you To give Judgment in this Case according to Episcopal Doctrine Christ must first have enquired with what Ceremonies the Father and Mother were Married whereby the Marriage must have been first Judged Then Whether these two Brothers were begot before the Ceremonies or after and whether there were Witnesses at the begetting which concerns Filiation Then Whether the Inheritance which according to the Romish Law then Imperial in Judaea included both Lands and moveable Goods were left by a Testate or an Intestate which would have concerned the Aliment and Succession but Christ in a word refused to Judg any of these And those who alledg themselves his Successors ought to follow his Example who if he sent them sent them to teach and not to Judg. For he saith Go teach all Nations but there is not a word of Judging any Nation 2. They are totally ignorant in the Fact and were never Educated in the Laws by which they pretend to Judg Marriage That 't is impossible for them to know the Facts of Marriage or Filiation or to receive any Testimony of the same is already shewn and proved P. 104 105. and indeed the Cook with his white Sleeves who dress'd the Wedding-Dinner and the Tailor who made the Wedding-Cloaths and the Midwife and Gossips who eat the Pie and drunk the Bowl if any Certificate or Judgment were at all necessary as to the Fact of Marriage and Filiation besides that of the Parents were far more credible and fit than the Bishop's who was an Hundred Miles off at the time of getting the Child and of all these doings besides And as to the Law 't is known they were never Educated either in the Civil Canon Common or Statute Laws the knowledg of all which they themselves cannot but acknowledg are necessary to make up an Ecclesiastical Lawyer by which is manifest they are as ignorant of the Law of Marriage and Filiation as they are before proved to be of the Fact With what Face or Conscience can they undertake to be Judges of what they
Year after his being wounded or beaten punisheth only the Event of an unlawful Act of wounding or beating not of lawful which Event is subsequent and not preceding to the Act. So likewise the Scripture useth the word Event for what follows and not for what precedes as Eccles 2.14 One Event happeneth to them all And Eccles 9.2 There is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked And Verse 11. Ireturned and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor Riches to men of Vnderstanding nor yet Favour to men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to them all Man purposeth but God disposeth Events are only in the Power of God Ceremonies and Circumstances in this agree 1. That they are both accessary and not the Principal Acts. 2. That when single they may be neither good nor evil but when join'd with another Act they may become either good or evil 3. They may be in some junctures each the Principal and in other the accessary Act. 4. In some junctures each may be good in other evil and in a third neither good nor evil that is neither be Ceremonies nor Circumstances 5. In this Ceremonies and Circumstances agree that they have been used and abused in all Affairs and Acts both Civil Military and Religious but I shall here only insist on such Ceremonies as have been abused and compel'd by Pagan and Episcopal Canons in relation to Marriage Ceremonies and Circumstances in this differ 1. Ceremonies and Circumstances differ That Marriage and other Acts are impossible to be done without Circumstances but the same is possible to be done without Ceremonies 2. Ceremonies are always Acts external and made the objects of the external Senses of Witnesses and are of no Use in Marriage but the gains of the Priest where Witnesses are unlawful as in Carnal knowledg or impossible as in Filiation as is already proved P. 104 105. But Circumstances of Marriage may be both external or internal and invisible External as Youth Age Sexes Health Sickness Plurality Unity Internal and Invisible as Religion Conscience Vertue Vice Love Hatred and the like Ceremonies make Acts gawdy which they call decent or deformed before men but Circumstances only make them so before God 3. All Ceremonials are Artificial and not Natural but Circumstances may be both Artificial and Natural 4. No Ceremonies in Marriage are Commanded or Prohibited in the Moral Law of God but many Circumstances are Commanded and many Prohibited in the same Moral Law 5. God is the Author of all Natural and Moral Circumstances which make Marriage lawful or unlawful but the Devil is the Author of Ceremonies where is no Miracle or sign of Mission from God And it hath been before shewn the compulsion to Ceremonies of Marriage came from Daemons and Priests of Priapus and Venus and such as judg Marriage by such Ceremonies come not from God 6. Ceremony is a matter of Formality in Judgment but Circumstance if any is the matter of Substance To conclude it is a thing so absurd to judg by Ceremonies above Circumstances and by Formalities above Substance that never any Lawyer was so shameless to maintain in writing or lay any such Principle in judicial Proceâ—dings to be equal though by the Corruption of Practice not only in Marriage but in all things else The Truth and Substance of Religion and Justice hath been utterly lost and destroyed in an heap of Ceremonies and Formalities invented only for the gains of such Judges as would for that end with such Empty-nothings pretend to wâ—igh Right and Wrong For the Law of man can not make any Ceremony or other matter to be Substance which the Law of God and Nature hath made an Accident or make that Moral which God hath made to be only Ceremonial or make that Act Good or Evil in it self or to affect anoâ—her Act with Good or Evil for to make Moral Good or Evil or a Law for it belongs only to Supream Power Isa 45 7. I form the Light and create Darkness I make Peace and create Evil. Otherwise he were not Legislator of the World Of the manifold Mischiefs which insue by Compulsion to Marry by the particular Ceremonies of a Priest or a Temple It is not here affirmed That 't is unlawful to Marry by a Priest or in a Temple but it is only affirmed That 't is unlawful to compel any so to do by Penalties and especially by so unjust Penalties as is done by the Popish and Eplsâ—opal Canons of making Marriages Null or illegitimating the Children and that 't is unlawful for Bishops to judg Marriages Null or make Certificates of Ne unques accouple in Loyal Matrimony concerning the Parents or of illegitimation of the Child for no other cause than the omission or defect of so frivolous a Ceremony as a Priest or a Temple and that such affirmance is not without cause may appear from the manifold mischiefs which follow Compulsion of the same 1. It compels to enter into an indissoluble Obligation before the Parties can know each other whether they are fit for Marriage or no. Mischiefs of Verbal Espousals before Real Knowledg Proh Deum aâ—que hominum fidem quae haec contumelia est uxorem decrevit sese darâ— mihi hodie nonne oporâ—et prascisse me ante nonne Communicatam oportuiâ— Ter. And. 1. Act. Scen. 5. Oh the Faith of Gods and Men what a scorn is this He hath Decreed to put a Wife upon me to Day should I not first know her should I not first talk with her This Custom of Verbal Precontracts was in ancient time much used amongst the Jews and Marriage delayed a long time after as Jacob's was with Rachel for Seven Years But the later Rabbles finding many great inconveniences in the same injoined if it were at all the same should be a very little while before the Marriage In like manner the Armenians who are of the Greek Church Contract and Espouse together their Children at two or three Years old yea often times the Mothers agree a Marriage between their Children if one happen to be a Male and the other a Female while they are in their Bellies Tavernier Woman deluded This Custom of Precontracts and Espousals is likewise used though not between Children so young as with the Armenians by the Canon Law and most wickedly allowed to be a sufficient Cause of Nulling a Marriage Consummate by Carnal knowledg and Birth of a Child and illegitimation of the same Child of an innocent Person altogether ignorant of such Precontracts Vid. plus of Precontract before P. 88 94 95 c. 1. The inconveniences of Precontracts and Espousals is that when Contracted the one especially the Man delays and deludes the other so long that one chief end of Marriage which is prevention of Fornication is defeated and many times Women are kept along with Promises all their life time and the Man in
secret finds other Company and never takes himself the Woman Contracted at the last nor will suffer others to take her by pretences of Precontracts and if he release them at last others will often refrain those so blown on supposing them repudiated for some secret fault Impotent diseased Persons Contracted 2. By Precontracts published by the Priest in facie Ecclesiae which they call Marriage before the real and true Marriage which is Carnal knowledg Parties are joined together who are impotent diseased unpleasant or otherwise uncapable of answering the great ends of Marriage of Procreation of Children and prevention of Fornication and then by the Canon Law they are bound to Fast and Pray Three Years together before by the Spiritual Court they can be untouched again with such obscene or at least disgraceful Trials and Publications as the Repudiations of either is a Dishonour to both yea many Examples there have been of modest and vertuous Ladies who expecting to be Mothers by Marriage have continued Virgins to their great inward grief all their Husbands life time rather than they would make any outward complaint as long as they lived then though no impotence or unfitness in Body yet in Mind and Affection which is as bad the Man is Frigidus and he Woman is Calida as appears in the forementioned Example especially of H. 8. and the Lady Ann of Cleve A young Woman in mans apparel Married to an old Robs her 3. In Contracts before Carnal knowledg Parties cannot know of what Sex each other is or whether they are both Men or both Women Concerning which I have been credibly informed That a certain old Woman being left very Rich in Money by her Husband which was dead a young lusty Wench plotting how to get her Money from her apparel'd her self like a Man and wooed the old Chrone and easily got her good Will to Marry her and the Marriage was solemnly Celebrated by the Priest in the Temple and the Female young Husband brought to Bed to the old Wife and so ordered the business that she stole her Bags of Money from her and was therefore Criminally pursued and Executed Woman with-Child Contracted unknown 4. The Husband often times finds the Woman with-Child before-hand when 't is insipientis dicere non Putaram too late to repent of his Match and the Priest hath fetter'd them together for better for worse and no Probation to be admitted to the contrary that 't is not his Child of which there are too many Examples not fit to be publickly related Whereas if no Verbal Contract or Espousal Private in the House or Publick in the Church were allowed to be obligatory before the real Contract of Carnal knowledg Consummate privately between the Parties no Woman could hope to impose such a Deceit or would dare to expose her self to such a Dishonourable Repudiation at the Will of the Man The ancient and true Form of Espousal was only on the Mans part to the Woman Se post concubitum invitam non deserturum and the Duth-man is still so wary that he giveth not his Woman her Morgengabica which is a kind of Dower or Munus Nuptiale until the next morning when he hath had the first Nights trial of her which from the Dutch Word Morgengab is called the Morning Gift Skene de verb. Sig. tit Dos It is likewise known that the Jew if he found not his Woman a Virgin might Divorce her So may the Turk the Persian the Tartar the Ethiopian and all Nations not blinded with Popery do openly or put her away secretly as Joseph did Notice of the Wedding day prostitutes the Bride 5. In Precontracts when the same are known and the Wedding-day agreed and appointed then the Woman gives away on a sudden to another what she should have reserved a Week longer for her Husband There were certain Oxford Scholars who might have been better imployed in their Studies got some Market-Maids to the Tavern where having made them merry with Wine they taught them what belonged to Venus as well as Bacchus and one of the Scholars was so good natur'd as to tell his Mistiess he had singled after he had performed his Service to her That if she proved to be with-Child and would send him notice he would take care to provide for it Oh Sir said she never trouble your self for that for I am appointed to be Married within these three days Makes Marriage when made Mercenary 6. This makes Marriage often times turn from Conjugal Love to be only a Smith-field Bargain for a Woman to buy a Stallion or a Man to hire a Whore There was a certain Rich Widow who Married a Young Man having first to secure her Money bound him in great Bonds to her Trustees not to meddle with any thing of hers without their Assent In writing under their hands The Marriage being solemnized and both a deductio in Templum in Thalamum performed she found notwithstanding her Bed-fellow to lie more quietly than she would have had him for divers Nights together till at last being deceived in her expectation she began to chide him for his sleepiness To whom he replyed Do you think I will undo my self and forfeit my Bonds with medling with what is yours without Assent of your Trustees in writing under their hands Whereupon the Widow arose and fetching the Bonds to him they were forthwith Cancel'd and cast into Fire The like is more often done by the Woman who like another Lais will not sell her self but at an high Rate and dearer to her Husband by how much the better he loves her and when she hath him under an indissoluble Obligation then any else will give for her Which was the Reason that both Civil and Canon Law made Donationes inter virum uxorem void ne nimio amore spolientur I st they should rob one another with too much fondness and void they ought still to be and would be were not the deceitful ways of Trustees too much tolerated in frandem legis to set up again the old Mercenary Trade of hiring Whores under the name of Marriage 7. These Inconveniences produced the shameless Sect of Adamites Adamites and the almost as bad remedy proposed by Sir Thomas More in his Vtopia and what is mention'd by Sir Francis Bacon in his new Atlantis of Adam and Eves Pool where he would have those who inted to Marry Adam and Eves Pool first to have a naked interview And that of Sforza Sforza is refused to have a Lady seen naked before Marriage who when he would have Espoused Dorothy the Daughter of Lodowick Duke of Mantua to his Son he demanded that certain Physicians whom he should appoint might first see his Daughter naked which Duke Lodowick refused as appears Tiracq lib. 4. de Connub. Contr. Philip. dec Francis Aret. Consil 142. who held That the demand of Sforza was just and the denyal of Lodowick injurious a
fit opinion for Aretine but for no modest Lawyer or Physician Surely God never commanded these Precontracts nor these Adamite Interviews Marriage to be private and unknown except to the Parties themselves Con-Thalamation before Con-Templation for after Adam and Eve were Married as soon as they understood themselves they got Fig-leaves to cover their Nakedness and Nox amor Night-shades and secret places by Nature joined them rather than the sight of the Sun It is more warrantable therefore as to Precontracts to follow God who never commanded them but Popes and Priests who keep them up for their filthy Lucre and far more modest is it to make Marriage-Contracts in Thalamo than in Templo Conscius omnis abest nutu signisque Loquuntur and the same Poet gives as good further Councel to either Si piget in primo limine siste pedem the Woman may rise up illaesa Virginitate and illaeso pudore and as Boaz bid Ruth Cap. 3.14 Let it not be known that a Woman came into the floor But Si in hoc Convenimus ambo and they agree so well that Conception follows and a Child is born were there neither Priest nor Temple within an Hundred Miles yet it appears God was there who gave Birth to the Child therefore as they will answer it before him this Marriage is indissoluble by Pope or Caesar or any humane Power I conclude therefore Marriage ought by the Law of God to be Private and not Publick and Conthalamation ought to be before Contemplation if the Parties have any Contemplation at all 2. It gives the Bishop the Monopoly of all Women and their Goods For he claiming to be Judg of Marriage and Divorce above Appeal the greatest part of the Year and fittest for Marriage they cannot Marry without his License for which they must pay Money and when Married they lie at his Mercy whether he will part them again or no for what he doth there is thence no Appeal if he do admit them to live together and death part them yet no Jointure no Divorce no Thirds no Aliment unless he will vouchsafe his Certificate for which they must pay Money and this they get if they obey his Canons and are Married by a Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple if they come not to yoak themselves by his Ceremonies then he calls them Whores and exacts from them Money by Penance seeing they would give none for Fees and sets what Rates and Taxes by Fees or Penance as he pleaseth so by his Power of Compulsion to this Ceremony he Levieth his Rents on Obedients and Disobedients and sheers both his Sheep and his Goats by having the Power of Compulsion of them to this Fold of his Temple and without it the same could not be done 3. It gives him the Monopoly of Successions both in Private Families and Kingdoms For he claiming to be Judg of Children as well as Parents above Appeal they all lie at the mercy of his Judgment no Right of Primogeniture no Filial Portion no Rationali parte no Hotch-pot no Collatio bonorum no Aliment can be had although they starve unless he vouchsafe his Certificate of what he knows no more than the man in the Moon Yet could he not exercise this Power over the Children had he not Power to compel the Parents to this Ceremony of their Marriages of a Priest in a Temple 4. It gives him Power to Judg of Marriage Filiation and Successions by Fictions How great and how wicked the Power of Judging by Fictions is hath been before mention'd and the Primary Fictions enumerated 1. That intention of mind and not Conjunctions of Bodies makes Marriage P. 83. 2. That Sponsa before a Priest in a Temple is Vxor ib. 86. 3. That Verba de praesenti are Facta de Praeterito Futuro P. 84. The Secondary Fictions and damnable Mischiefs which ensue out of these Primary for as uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur So uno Falso dato mille sequuntur have been likewise before mentioned and shewn at large 1. That if a Man deflower a Virgin with whom he may lawfully Marry and get her with Child or hath many Children by her that he may notwithstanding desert her and Marry another by a Priest in a Temple deflower'd or begot with Child by another Man and the latter and not the first is his Wife and Child P. 88 89. 2. That a Child is not Sib or Kin or of Consanguinity or the Child of the Father who begot or the Mother who bare him or they of him P. 154 155. 3. That by the pronunciation of the words by the Priest that the Man and Woman are Man and Wife the Man is transubstantiated into the Woman and the Woman into the Man and two Persons into one Person and the multitude of mischiefs incident to this Fiction of Transubstantiation are shewn at large before P. 66 67 c. But 't is Compulsion to the Ceremony of Marriage by a Priest and in a Temple is the Causa sine qua non neither the said Primary or Secundary Fictions could be made nor could any of those manifold mischiefs before mention'd ensue from them and if dissentients in Conscience and differents in Convenience had but that liberty permitted which by the Moral and immutable Law of God they ought to have to Marry without the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple the Bishop could not inslave themselves and their Posterity their Religion Liberty and Propriety to his worse than Arbitrary Judgment to a False Judgment a Lying Judgment a Judgment by Fictions had he not the Power to compel them to this Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple So that were there nothing else to be said against this Compulsion but that it causeth so great a mischief as Judgments by Fictions it were enough to make it abhor'd by God and all good men For grant but one Fiction in Religion it will Spawn a Thousand Heresies and grant but one Fiction in Judicial Proceeding it will Spawn a Thousand Oppressions and let the old Serpent but get in his Head he will draw in his whole Body à Vero non declinabit Justus Justice comes from the God of Truth and not from the Devil who is the Father of Lies 5. It causeth in the Rich Excess and Vanity of Apparel Tilting Turneaments Masking Gluttony Ryot and Drunkenness When there is a Marriage intended by a Priest in a Temple the Bride is drest like a Bartholomew-Baby or one of the Popish Saints to be the Idol of the Place then no Text shall be Preached on but her Clothing is of wrought Gold though far better Doctrine and more proper for such an occasion doth offer it self Isa 3.16 And 1 Pet. 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the Hair and of wearing of Gold or of putting on of Apparel The Turk in his Frugality may rise in Judgment against Christians for one Christians Wife costs him more than
is manifest that the Canon of the Council of Trent which nulls all Marriages except before a Priest in a Temple and the Certificates of Bishops and Penance gives a general License for Money either the Taxa Camerae of the Pope or the Commutation Money of the Bishops to have all Women common for by decreeing no Marriages shall be of Validity except with a Woman brought before a Priest and a Temple they null and dissolve all Marriages made by the Moral Law of God and the Obligations of them whereby if any man lie with an Hundred Women and get them with Child if he hath been so cunning as not to lead any of them to a Priest in a Temple there is no obligation on him to own any of these for Wife or Child in regard the Moral Law of God is abolish'd by the Papal and Episcopal Canons and made of no effect by their Traditions and wicked Customs and the Party is left free to lie with as many more and to have common amongst them Sans nombre if he will but give them Money for their Hire and the Bishop Commutation Money and what is this but to have Women common to the Rich and to exclude the Poor who have not Money from having any But this would be prevented if the Bishops would as they ought to do compel the man who gets a Virgin with-with-Child to marry her according to the Moral Law of God and the express Precept of Scripture Exod. 22.16 If a man entice a Maid who is not betrothed he shall surely endow her to be his Wife Which enticement is as well intended by Money as Wantonness and the Law the same as well in case of Force or Rape as enticement but more Penal Deut. 22.28 If a man find a Damsel that is a Virgin which is not betrothed and lay hold on her and lie with her and they be found then the man that lay with her shall give the Virgins Father Fifty Sheckels of Silver and she shall be his Wife because he hath humbled her he may not put her away all his days This is the clear Moral Law of God and the clear Texts of Scripture and there is by them laid an indissoluble obligation on the man according to the old Form of Espousal Se post Concubitum invitam non deserturum and if there is a Child born by reason of the further Obligation of Parents laid on them by the manifest Act of God it is not in the Power of these Virgins who are now become Mothers will they nill they nor of any human Power to dissolve that which the Divine Power by giving birth to a Child hath once established But Popes and Bishops are so far from compelling these deflowrers of Virgins to Marry then and these begetters of Children to acknowledg them according to this most clear and just Law of God and according to the Obligations both Ex Contractu Reali which are the lying with them and getting them with-with-Child and Ex Malesicio Reali which are the same that they like the Giants who would storm Heaven Oh Hellish presumption Level all the Canons they have against the Divine Laws of God himself and with them tear in pieces all Obligations laid by them of Husbands to Wives and Fathers to Children that Women may be in common and Children in common Nullius Filii Populi Filii confounding Heaven and Earth and all Divine and Human Rights and subverting the course of Nature as far as they are able to obtain to themselves the inexhaustible Treasure and invincible Power over Princes and People over Emperors and Kings incident to the Jurisdiction of Marriage Filiation and Succession But how easily are these Giants quell'd and all the mischiefs ensue by their letting the World loose to Community of Women and Community of Children 1. 'T is but to give liberty to those who Marry to Marry according to the Moral Law of God and to free them from compulsion to the Ceremonial Law of a Priest in a Temple 2. 'T is but to give Power to the Temporal Judges and Magistrates to compel such as have had Children by Virgins and desert them to acknowledg those Virgins according to the clear Texts of Scripture to be their Wives and not to leave them and their Children in common which ought to be their inclosed Propriety Whence would ensue that if any man saw that whatsoever Virgin he did first touch he should be compell'd to take he would follow the Poets Counsel Multis è millibus unam Elige cui dicas tu mihi sola places Ovid. He would certainly choose unless corrupted by Money one whom he liked above all others and having so fair a Garden inclosed of his own choice he would be the more unlikely to run to graze in a Common or if be should he might find his expectation much deceiv'd for the same Justice having been done by the Magistrate on all others as well as himself he would find no Common to run in but every Quillet inclosed nor should a single Woman be let would she take him where another had Right to claim him As to Fornication Adultery Stews Brothels how great a cause the compulsion of Publick Appearance in Marriage before a Priest in a Temple by prohibition of Private Marriage is the same is shewn already before P. 107 and as to the dissemination by Fornication Adultery Stews and Brothels not only of that miserabile scortorum flagellum the Lues Venerea the inseparable concomitant of those Vices and Places but likewise of all other Epidemical contagious and deadly Diseases amongst the People the same is notorious but Episcopal Courts get as much by the Dead as the Living and more by the Vicious than Vertuous It is their Interest therefore to continue it so long as they can It will be objected against the giving Power to Temporal Magistrates to compel every Man who hath a Child or Children by a Virgin to acknowledg her for his Wife and her Children his on Probation made of the Fact that 't is impossible if Marriages are tolerated without a Priest in a Temple or a Justice of Peace in his Hall or Banns at the Church or Market-Cross to have Witnesses or any other Testimony or Evidence of the Fact unless the Magistrate should give Sentence as the Bishop doth without Probation To which is answer'd First That Toleration of Private Marriage without Publick Witness of Priest or Magistrate is no denial of liberty to those who desire Publick Witness of their Contracts of Marriage no more than the Toleration of passing Lands by Livery and Seisin in Pays is a denial to pass them by Fines and Recoveries or other matter of Record which is publick Testimony but Parties may use one or the other or both as they desire and think suits best with their Conveniences but that which is here press'd is that no Mans Christian Liberty be infringed nor he be compell'd to make publick Witnesses either of
of Babes and is the true Popish Limbus Puerorum Translated into the Romish Church from Hell according to the Poet Continuo auditae voces vagitus Ingens Infantumque animae flentes in Limine primo Quos Dulcis vitae Exortes ab ubere raptos Abstulit atra dies funere mersit acerbo Virg. Aen.l. 6. And these Papal and Episcopal Destroyers make the Child-bearing Woman justly take up the complaint of her Described Jer. 4.31 I have heard a voice of a Woman in travel and the anguish as of her who bringeth forth her first Child that bewaileth her self that spreadeth her hands saying wo is me now for my Soul is wearyed because of Murderers Surely these Bloody Legislatours must have a Dreadful account who make Laws for their gains to destroy the most Innocent of all Creatures little Children Luk. 17.1.2 Then said be unto his Disciples it is impossible but offences will come but wo unto him through whom they come It were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the Sea than that he should offend one of these little ones O how far in this is the Practice of such as call themselves Christians different from the Doctrine of Christ Matth. 18.2 And Jesus called a little Child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said verily I say unto you except ye be Converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And vers 6. Whoso receiveth one such little Child in my Name receiveth me But alas how doth this corrupted age receive such a little one They receive him indeed as He Himself was received Matth. 26.55 In that same hour said Jesus to the multitude Are you come out as against a Theif with swords and with staves for to take me But this was not the Receiving he intended of a little one though now amongst those who profess his name no sooner doth God send a Child to be born in a Parish unless the Mother bought a Licence of the Bishop to bear him and bought which none but God can give more than the Child the Benediction of a Priest in the Temple but the whole Multitude presently rise with swords and staves and are all in Arms against a poor naked Infant weeping and wailing as the first tast of his misery to be born into so wicked a World and against the more miserable Mother like the Dam sitting on her Young whom they throw into some Dung-Cart or other filthy Carriage to draw her and her Child out of their bounds and unless she is Rich enough to hire a House of Ten Pounds per annum value they will not suffer her to come into it Oh Prodigious Oppression Oh Antichristian Cruelty What benefit now have the Poor who have not Ten Pounds per annum of the Gospels the whole Land is in Hostility against them they will neither suffer them to enter into their Parishes nor their Churches what benefit have these hundreds of thousands who have not ten Pounds per annum of Magna Charta What of the Petition of Right The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the Air have nests but the Woman with Child like her pursuâ—d with the Dragon Rev. 12.2 Cryed travailing in birth and pained to be delivered Quis talia fando temperet à Lachrymis hath not where to lay her Young her Child unborn by reason of Papal and Episcopal Laws which are the flood of Waters cast out of the mouth of the true Romish Dragon heu miserande puer damnatus antequam natus Hospitals to prevent the Murder of Children not born under Popish Matrimony There are Hospitals in Italy and Spain and many other places of large Revenues to which Mothers who have Children without the Popish Ceremonial Marriage of a Priest in a Temple may by night secretly bring or send their Babes who shall be their Received Alimented and Educated without knowledg or enquiry by Bishops Citations or Justice of Peace's Warrants and there is now one in Paris by the name of l' Hostle pur les Enfantes troves or the Hospital of Infant Fondlings wherein there are now no less than four Thousand But in Great Britain there is not the least Relique of any such Charity but on the Contrary most cruel Laws made to punish Mothers for bringing forth Children the most part of them lawfully joined to men according to the Moral Law of God only on pretence of prohibition by Papal and Episcopal Laws and their Doctrine of Devils contrary to the Law of God whereby they may get Money the wicked Price of Blood and of the Blood of those who are of all other the most Innocent the blood of Infants and are so far from providing Hospitals for Babes when they are born that they will not in England suffer their Mothers to bring them as is already said to an House of their own if not of the Value of above Ten Pounds per Annum and so far from being Fathers to the Fatherless that by their inhuman prosecution of the Punishments of those Cruel Laws against Babes born of Parents not licensed by the Bishop and benedicted by a Priest in a Temple they make thâ— Child for whom God had provided Parents by compelling them to flie from him for fear of their own punishment both Fatherless and Motherless or what is more horrible to be Murder'd by them who would have otherwise as affectionately preserved him as all other Natural Parents and Creatures both Human and Brutish do their Young Oh is it not a sufficient misery for an Infant to be born unless he is likewise pursued to be destroyed by the Cruelty of Ecclesiastical Monsters and hurried from the Womb to the Tomb of their Coemeterial Aceldamas before he knows any thing of Life but Misery if Bishops pity him not let Lucretius do it to their shame though an Atheist Tum porro Puer ut Saevis projectus ab undis Navita Nudus humi jacet Infans indigus omni Vitali Auxilio cum primum in Luminis oras Nixibus ex alveo Matris Natura profundit Vagituque locum Lugubri complet ut aequum est Cui tantum in Vita restat transire malorum Like Shipwrackt Mariners the Child at Birth Cast from Rough Seas lies Naked on the Earth Wanting all Vital help when first from throws Of Mothers Womb Nature doth him disclose He Weeps and Wails not without cause alas Why so much Evil in this Life must pass All Mariages lawful not prohibited by the Moral Law of God All these Murders of Children would cease better than by a Thousand Hospitals if only this wicked Ceremonial Law invented by him who was a Murderer from the beginning forbidding to Marry without a Priest in a Temple were abolished and all Marriage Publick or Private not prohibited by the Moral Law of God and Consummate by the birth of a Child Established to be Sine poena
Moral Law of God of Truth and Equity neither if these Writs were Formed according to the Truth and Equity of the Moral Law of God is it possible a sufficient number should be Formed for Writs are finite and Cases of Equity infinite and not to be put in Writs or written except by God in the Fleshly Tables of the Heart and in the Spiritual Tables of the Soul it self and Conscience It will be asked How could they subsist before H. 6. without a Sub paena and Equity from a Chancellour seeing the Common Law Writs could not supply it and what expedient is there now how Equity may be supplied To which I answer That Equity was then supplied by the Writ of Right and Justicies the Titles of both which Writs signifie Equity and likewise other Writs and the General Issues Formed on them of the Meer Right Not Guilty Null Tort Null dissersint Nihil debet guided the Jury to find according to Right and Equity by the Moral Law of God and not the Ceremonial Law of Man till the Judges to wrest the Power belonging to Jurors into their own hands brought in the Tender of the Demy mark to turn the Issue of meer Right into a Possessary Issue and instead of Truth brought in the Pictions of Colours destroyed the Justicies by Writs of Remover gave way to false Laying of Counties in Transitory Actions changed Venues granted new Trials abated Declarations for Variance from the Bond and not Sueing for what was paid as well as for what was not granting Arrests of Judgment after Verdict and not permitting to demur first to the Law and after to plead to the Fact before Verdict prohibited on the Issue Not Guilty matters of Justification to be given in Evidence admitted Demurs to Evidence admitted special Verdicts caused Juries to be of an even and not of an odd number and the Verdict not to be according to the Plurality of Votes and many other ways they had to weary Juries from giving a Verdict according to Conscience and Equity or when they had so given it to same I conclude therefore to compell men to Commence Suites by Writs in the present Age is to condemn them without Hearing of the Equity and Merits of their Cause and to compell them to revive again those Ancient Writs and trie Equity by Juries hath many great inconveniences before mention'd to be incident to all Writs especially such as are Antiquated and not understood but all these mischiefs are salved by Commencing Suites by a Copy of the Declaration Sworn in stead of a Writ which cannot be Sworn and a Judg Commissionated with Jurisdiction of Fact Law and Equity under Appeal which single Judg in a Court by himself sitting without Vacation as a Chancellour hath Power to do will no doubt be able to dispatch more Causes without troubling any Writs Juries or Councel at the Bar and more justly and under Account in one Year then 't is possible for any Chancellour with Plurality of Offices or Court with Plurality of Judges Juries and Councel at the Bar to do in Seven 6. Men are condemned before Hearing on the Capias Vtlagatum and Excommunicato Capiendo A Satyr on a Papist and a Protestant Imprison'd one on an Outlawry the other on an Excommunicato Capiendo against Imprisonment before Hearing A Papist and a Protestant Who used when they met to Rant About the Altar and the Rail Were both together Clapt in Gaol The first was catch'd by an Outlawry The last whose Conscience did vary From Bishops and their Common Prayer As Felon or a false Betrayer Was therefore Excommunicate And put to beg within a Grate Pap. Brother then quoth the Papist sad Are Protestants too grown so mad To have an Inquisition here Who thus can though no cause appear Forfeit our Goods and Selves at will In Prisons cold to starve and kill Before they Hear us doest not know Amongst our selves it is not so Who by Experience wiser grown Will Inquisition now have none Witness the Rich Venetian And wary Dutch who late began For Liberty against such Lords And Swisse with their two handed Swords For this Proud Aragon Rebell d And Naples Silk-men hardly quell'd And many more abhor'd such Tricks Yet are they all good Catholicks So Holland justly now prevents Imprisonment of Innocents And makes to help the Poor opprest Before a Judgment no Arrest Is this the Charta and of Right Petition for which you fight That every ' Torney and his Clerk Who use to live upon the shark Forge all the Outlawries they please Remedies worse than the Disease And that Poor men may be betray'd First Forge the County where 't is laid They Forge and Antedate the Writs Of Parchment cut in little Bits Then next they Forge the Sheriffs name And Forge Returns upon the same They Proclamations Forge and Feign And Exigends next without pain And all this Knavery you may spie Page Sixth of the Academy Which is their Mother and their Nurse Teachers to Forge and Steal of course Such Clerks deserve hanged to be As Nicholas Clerks upon a Tree And thus though made them to prevent They fool all Acts of Parliament For no Averment must deny The Shrieve or Clerk although they lie Is this the Liberty so proud You use to cry it up aloud And Property you so much Vant That every Papist it doth want What Purgatory can you tell Is worse than this on Earth your Hell Or what Hell is there more worth fearing Than Your Damnation without Hearing He neither shews me Time or Place Nor Witnesses brought Face to Face My Goods are all Confiscated My very Wives and Children's Bed The Bailies Seised without account Of Price to what they did amount Or Witness Writings Boxes Chest And Money too on a Suggest And Lies and Fictions in worse case I am than Felons in this Place Their Goods although the Law is strict Not Forfeit are until Convict But left to feed them Oh the blest Justice is shewn to men distrest By Protestants who only you Say have the Religion true But Christ says Know them by their Works Which shews you worse than Jews or Turks I have not left a Bit of Bread Witness these unfeign'd Tears I shed The Plaintiff asks of me a Sum As at the Dreadful Day of Doom I answer shall and God doth know I do not him a Farthing ow Yet can I not although I try Be brought to answer or deny His Forged Stuff or see the Face Of Judg or Jury on the Place But here to perish am designed And to this Dungeon confined Unless I give what e're he 'l ask This is my miserable Task I think you now turn Witches too The Rogues the mischief who did do To bring me here sure had a Spell What Language 't was I cannot tell 'T was written in a little scrow Half-words and dash't that none might know Or ratâ—er scratch'd it was in Soot With Devils Claw or Cloven Foot Prot.
John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on whom the King likewise laid the blame of his Wants writes a proud Letter to the King and desired him and his Council without delay to deliver the said Prisoners otherwise he plainly writes That according to his Pastoral Charge he must proceed to the Execution of the Sentence of Excommunication concluding how notwithstanding it was not his Intention to include the King Queen or their Children so far as by Law they might be Excused It was well for the King he was in the head of a brave Army in France for if he had been single as his Father was they who durst Menace him amongst all his Forces in the Field if he had lost the Day as his Father did were as likely to bring him for a French Pension to as miserable a destruction as they brought his Father but by Gods Providence he proved afterward Victorious but first Replied by another Letter to the Arch-Bishop That Relying on his Council he was first put on the Action of the French and that he had promised and assured him he should not want Treasure to perform the work and that notwithstanding by the negligence and malice of the said Arch-Bishop and his Officials those Provisions Granted him by his Subjects in Parliament were in so slender proportion Levyed and with such delays sent over as he was pressed of necessity to his great Grief and Shame to Condescend to the late Truce with the French though extreme Wants charged with mighty Debts forced him to throw himself into the Gulf of the Usurers in such sort as he began to look into the Dealing of his Officers some of which upon apparant notice of their ill Administration of Justice their Corruptions and Oppressions of his Subjects he removed from their Places and others of mean Degree he Committed to Prison and there detained them to the end he might find out by their Examinations the truth of their Proceedings Then he charges the Arch-Bishop with his own Corruption and declares how himself being under Age had through his ill Council made so many Prodigal Donatives prohibited Alienations and excessive Grants and Gifts that thereby his Treasury was utterly Exhausted and his Revenues diminished and how the Arch-Bishop corrupted with Bribes Remitted without reasonable cause great Sums which were due unto him applying to his own Use or Persons ill deserving many Commodities and Revenues which should have been preserved for his necessary Provisions and concluded Unless he desisted from his Rebellious obstinacy he intended in due time and place more openly to proceed against him and the King before the Arch-Bishop Submitted caused a Letter to be sent to the Pope from the Parliament not to make any more Collations of Benefices in England and prohibited them on pain of Death on any that should present or admit them which Resolute slighting of Excommunication both from Arch-Bishop and Pope though in the very time of War with France made the Pride of the Arch-Bishop stoop and with much ado got himself Reconciled to the Kings favour for which the King was bound to thank God and not the Pope or Bishop who gave him that Victory and Success against the French as neither Pope or Arch-Bishop dared to Excommunicate him Against Richard the Second one of the Articles brought against him to have him deposed was That whereas the Realm is immediately holden of God after he had obtained divers Acts for his own particular Ends he obtained Bulls heavy Censures from Rome to observe and perform them contrary to the Honour and ancient Privilege of this Kingdom whereby appears That even in a time of Popery the Assistance of the Pope and Bishops which were included in it was so far from being a Protection to the King that it was Destructive to him much more is the Assistance of Bishops likely to be Destructive rather than a Safety in a time of Protestancy The Bishop likewise Concurr'd with the rest and accused him That he had taken Money Jewels and Plate from them at his going into Ireland Bishops accuse R. 2. for Trifles to Depose him so far were they from seeking to preserve the Kings Life with those Superfluities of theirs where they could keep them and their Bishopricks together that they shewed their Fidelity to their Native King by endeavouring to destroy him For such Trifles divers other Articles were laid against him in behalf of the Bishops by whose doing only the King was utterly undone Truss 46. And not one of all the Bishops in England or Ireland spoke so much as one word to preserve their Native Sovereigns Life but only one namely Thomas Mercks Bishop of Carlisle Dilemma of danger from Excommunication As to the Dilemma a Prince falls under in expecting safety of Government from the Power of Excommunication of Popes or Bishops either the greater part of his Subjects will be Religious or Superstitious if Religious they will so easily see through the Superstition of Consecration and Excommunication as it will rather Irritate and Provoke them as it did in the late unhappy Civil Wars but if Superstitious will the Pope or Bishop make Use of the great Interest and Strength they gain thereby in the People to advance their pretended Spiritual Sword above the Temporal and their own Supremacy above Temporal Kings and Princes which if Resisted by the Princes of such Subjects hazards their being Deposed and losing Kingdoms and Lives together as appears by the Examples before Recited In the same danger is a Prince who Trusts a Temporal Officer whether Treasurer or other with too much Power of Money as Theocritus Anno 518. caused Amantius an Eunuch to give Justin Amantius the General of the Army a great Sum of Money to give the Soldiers to choose Theocritus Emperour but Justin distributed it for himself and so obtained himself the Empire The Western Emperours first raised the Popes to that height as to Excommunicate the Eastern Emperours the succeeding Popes to return their Advancers due thanks Excommunicated after the Western Emperour The French Kings assisted and after raised the Popes to such height that they Excommunicated Deposed and Poisoned the Western Emperour after by the same Power the French King gave them in thanks they Excommunicated and Assassinated the French Kings The Princes of Sicily and Naples had been mighty defendors of the Papacy but when they had made it mightier than themselves the Succeeding Popes took from them their Sovereignty to themselves As to the Impossibility of Safety of Princes amongst Subjects Educated in fear of Excommunication Subjects Educated in fear of Excommunication dangerous to Princes It is to be Noted as well from the Testimony of approved Authors as from the Scripture it self that amongst the Primitive Christians those who are now called Bishops but in the Original word signifie only Overseers were Parochial Bishops or Overseers and not Provincial and that they were the same with Presbyters and differ'd not in